Yesterday, Dell released their new Studio desktops and I heard shipping starts beginning of October together with a 64bit version of Vista at last. Could not find any reviews yet but based on their specs what do you think (with trading as its main purpose)? http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktop-studio?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs I'm thinking of getting one. What in your opinion are the lowest specs one should have to smoothly run apps on it? Admittedly I have never bought a PC before (Mac user) and am new to this field. Depicted from the German website, these are the specs of the cheapest configuration (Slim version): - Intel® Core⢠2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz, 8MB cache, 1066MHz FSB) - Original Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - Deutsch - 256MB ATI® Radeon⢠HD 3450 graphics card - 2048MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] - 500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive - DVD+/-RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Listen, you don't buy a shoe that is too big because it looks good. You buy a shoe that fits. Choose the apps you are going to use and determine their specs. Then go out and buy a PC with the specs that meet the needs of your selected apps. Nothing worse than paying too much for technology that you will never use. Just, My2cents
The Studio series is really for play. It has a similar mobo as have all of Dell's budget lines, minus one PCI slot. Suggest you look into the Precision T-3400. You can still get it with XP. If you get one with XP, you won't have any compatibility issues... and XP is to be supported until at least 2014. By then Vista should be just a distant, foul memory. Should Vista get better enough, you can always install Vista on your T-3400 computer... that's because it's available now with either operating system. Many new computers will not have an XP option because there are not XP drivers for the onboard devices.