looking at a new pc- any suggestions?

[cp52]

Am interested in a new Dell 4500 with the following:
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 2.26 GHz with 533MHz system bus.
Intel®  845E chipset with DDR memory support.
Memory- 256MB of 266MHz DDR SDRAM DIMMs.
Video card- 64 MB DDR Nvidia® GeForce4 Ti 4200 graphics card with DVI and TV out.
Has to have Windows XP.
Any feedback or suggestions?  Thanks.

[DouglasA]

Looks good CPA. If I was using sdram I would at least double it to 512. You can get it cheaper at a computer store than you can through dell.
Also the gf4 card is avalible in 128 meg version.
I have a dell 8200 and love it . Had it a year and never a problem :-)

[DAVENRINO]

I agree with DouglasA.  Before I turned off 18 unecessary services that loaded by default with XP Pro, my puter showed 233 MB RAM used after reboot. I have 512 on one box and 1 gig on the other.  XP manages RAM pretty well but also likes to use it.
DJ229

[cp52]

I'll check them out.

[DAVENRINO]

CPA,
Some have said that the RAM on the 64 meg 4200 is faster than the 128.  You might ask in another thread if this is true and you may get an answer from someone who knows a lot more bout this than I.
DJ229

[bigUC]

if you only play AH your best bet is the 64 mb version, since ah has no huge textures.  These cards usually have faster ram than the 128Mb versions.  I overclocked my 64mb card and now run ah in 1600x1200 + antialiasing just fine...  128 mb is better if u plan to buy next generation games and can't afford to upgrade your GFX card in a year or two... (2 cents etc etc)

[FOGOLD]

If you want a good games machine I would avoid box shifters like Dell and try and find a nice local or specialist firm to build you a nice lean clan machine. That way you'll get exactly what you want with no bundled crap. It may cost more, but you'll have a better machine and hopefully better support.

Otherwise look on the web for a firm which specialises in building games PC's. You could do it yourself, but if you're  like me you haven't really got time or inclination.

Good luck:cool:

[qts]

It looks to be a good system, but make sure you get XP Pro and not XP Home. Also make sure you get the best monitor you can afford. If you go to a local box-shifter, do compare the amount of software they supply. Dell typically supply Word, Excel, Autoroute, and one or two other useful things.

[Maverick]

Go to  a local store that builds systems and ask them to put a system up for you. Better yet make it  yourself. It's a lot easier than you would think and you can set it up the way YOU want not the way some twink thinks will work with a bundle of software they want to throw in.