As a few posters have mentioned above, Dell offers a very good price if you go for one of their "deals". However, if you go for any extras like larger RAM or different graphics card, the price quickly rises through the roof. Some of these are still a very good deal for users who are happy to perform required upgrades themselves. If anyone is interested in "Dell hater" comments regarding serious quality issues that existed in not so distant past, check out this thread http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=203092&highlight=Dell
Dell usually has a very good price on their "base" configurations.... but they charge too much for upgrades. (I suspect they do business that way because noobs will see the good deal on the base model and presume the upgrade model is also a good deal... usually NOT the case.) If you look over Dell's "options", you'll find the top of the line CPU upgrade to be $600+ more than the base unit. If you check Newegg.com, you'll likely find their price differential on those same CPUs to be $200... same with RAM and video cards. Paying attention to the price of hardware, I can say I've never gotten a bad deal on a Dell.. and I've grabbed a few HELLACIOUS deals over the years. The best one, about 18 months ago... from Dell's outlet site... a T3400 (x38 mobo), with Q9300 CPU, 4G RAM, 2x 250G HDDS, 2 optic drives, card reader, and Nvidia Quadro FX 580 video card.. $569.
nice grab...would love to find a deal like that... how bout the t3500 with the ati firemv card? bout 10$ more than the one you mentioned...card has passive coolin so quiet but how does it compare to the nvidia295? also know of any coupons floatin around? i would love to get something for less than 600... thanks
Looks like the FireMV 2260 and NVS 295 are equivalent. The Passmark CPU score for Xeon W3530 = 4795. For Xeon W3505 = 1927. That same T3500 w/W3530 Outlet has now for $759 has at other times been $950-ish. They also had one earlier for $579. If you keep watching, you might get a shot at another one for that price. Sometimes I get the idea Dell Outlet doesn't know what they should charge. They vary a lot on equivalent machines. Currently they seem to be running on the high price side. Their lowest priced T3500 has W3505 CPU, 2G RAM, no OS = $689. Or, one with W3530, 4G RAM, W7 = $759. That's a "no brainer". The lowest priced x58 configuration at CyberpowerPC.com is $888 + $65 shipping (has 6GB RAM instead of Dell's 4GB, however.)
Say what? Wish I knew all of this computer jargon! None the less, you hardware experts have helped me a bunch. I'm saving a bunch too! I just call, and read off what was in my thread, and the guy on the other line says, "good choice." If I called without the help of the experts here, I'd be buying what I don't need, and paying too much.
You can get a quality machine (new) to run 2 dualhead video cards for trading setup for around $750 w/P55 mobo. No need to spend more unless you want to. (Not bad, considering I once bought a Commodore 64(?) for $5,000... however, that included a printer.)
Did that price include the keyboard and a mouse? Or they were sold at $200 each? Oh wait... in those days there was no such thing as a "mouse". And the keyboard is built in to the chassis...
What couldn't you understand??? FireMV 2260 is a video card model made by ATI FireMV is the series' name and 2260 the model number NVS 295 is also a video card model made by NVidia NVidia is the company, the make Quadro is the chip name NVS is that series 295 is that particular model (am I right?) Passmark is a company that ranks CPU performances and give each CPU a "score". The higher the score the faster. Xeon is a CPU chip family made by Intel W3530 is the Xeon chip's model number W3505 is also another Xeon chip's model number T3500 is a Dell computer model number CPU = Central Processing Unit, the "brain" of the computer RAM = memory, Random Access Memory OS = Operating System, the software 4G = 4 Gigabyte... that's how much memory you have. W7 = Windows 7, the Microsoft's operating system (latest) Not too complicated, is it? LOL
Ok, knothead! now my head is swimming! I may know (a little ) about trading, but when it comes to computers, I AM that preverbial deer in the headlights. If it weren't for you guys, I would be paying way too much for this stuff! Guess if there's a trader's meet, I'll owe you guys a few drinks, and a steak dinner!
No mouse, no windows graphics...just DOS command line. My next computer was an IBM 8086... 2 floppies, only $3,000. The one after that was my first real-time data and graphics... an XT class, 2x 720K floppies and a satellite dish & receiver... $10,000. My first hard drive... 40MB, lots of bad sectors... $400. I thought it was a ROCKET! (I sold a used 250GB HDD today... zero bad sectors, $25. LOL) So... I think a modern quad core computer to run 6 monitors for $1,000 is almost miraculous.