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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:01 pm 
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Luddite Wannabe

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So I ordered a new computer system last week from Dell and received it a couple of days ago. For under $1100 delivered, I got the following:
Dell XPS 400
Pentium D 820 (Dual Core 2.8GHz, 800FSB)
WinXP Media Center Edition
1GB RAM
250GB SATA HD
256MB ATI Radeo X700 Pro
16X DVD
48X CD-RW (I plan on swapping this with a Dual Layer DVD +/- RW drive I already own)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS (Dolby Digital 5.1, IEEE 1394 [FireWire])
Dell 2005FPW Widescreen 20-inch UltraSharp Digital Flat Panel LCD
Dell AS501 Flat Panel attached speakers for UltraSharp monitors.
Standard Dell USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse (which I'll replace with my MS Wireless Desktop Elite combo)

All in all, not a bad deal... I was kind of waiting for this drop under $1000 with a 160GB drive, but when a recent employee purchase promo came up that included free shipping and handling ($160), it seemed like the right time to jump.

I've only had the system for a couple of days. And I haven't really had a lot time in those two days to really do much with the system, but I thought I'd post my initial impressions here.

The system is very attractive! Silver and black front panel with high-gloss white side panels. The 20" Widescreen monitor seems huge, but looks great sitting next to the PC. Since the monitor includes four USB ports and power for the flat panel speakers, the number of cables running from the PC to the desktop is greatly reduced. The only things plugged into the back of the system (at this time) are 1 USB Cable (to the monitor), 1 DVI-D Cable (to the monitor), and 1 power cable.

After everything was plugged in I fired up the system... the system POSTs and boots very fast. After the initial boot (in which you go through a quick setup process -- less than five mintues), subsequent reboots and cold-starts get me to a sign-on screen in about 15 seconds. And quiet! I cannot hear the cooling fan or the hard drive at all... it's completely silent sitting on the desktop.

This 20" monitor is GREAT!!! With a resolution of 1680x1050, I end up with 400 more horizontal pixels to work with. And yes, like Dell's other UltraSharp monitors, it can be rotated to a "portrait" position giving you a 1050x1680 desktop.

I wasn't expecting much from the Dell AS501 "speaker bar" for the flat panel monitor, and it pretty much delivered what I expected. The "speaker bar" integrates nicely with the monitor and would be fine for most desktop users. It sounds fine for "desktop noise", but if you like to listen to your music occasionally cranked to "11", you'd be disappointed - distortion kicks in at about mid-way. Since I plan on hooking this system up to my aging Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 system (unless I find something else I've "got to have"), it's not an issue for me.

The Dell systems come pre-loaded with a lot of, uh, what's the proper term for this...? Crap! That's what it is. After nearly two hours of unloading all of the trial-ware and Dell Support crap (and associated pop-ups), I had a system configured pretty much the way I'd want it from any manufacturer: base OS, with a few "essential accessories" - Google Toolbar (which they load in addition to Google Desktop, which I decided to try), Acrobat reader, etc. A couple hours later and I had all of my "necessary applications" installed - MS Office suite (with Visio, Publisher, FrontPage, and MapPoint), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Audition, etc., plus Microsoft Defender (anti-Spyware), McAfee Anti-Virus (I used to use the free AVG scanner, but I can now load McAfee for free thanks to an licensing agreement with my current employer), and assorted Microsoft Power Toys (TweakUI, etc.).

I now have my "base" system ready for use. Over the next week I'll break the system in as my 'secondary' system. Once I'm satisified with everything, I'll move it to it's regular home and place my current system in the secondary position, eventually to be turned into the fileserver for the home.


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IMWAN Mod
 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:12 pm 
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Your Dell purchase has directly helped my family keep our house for another month via my wife's paycheck.

Thank you.

Please buy more. Soon.

Everyone.

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:00 pm 
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King of Goth

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Sounds pretty.

One thing about having an older (well, 2000-era) computer is I don't feel like an idiot when I draw spiderwebs all over it.

How does the LCD screen work with Photoshop? I've heard some crappy things about them, making me happy to still be staring down the barrel of the two electron guns on my computer desk. So far, anyway... :)

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:31 pm 
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Luddite Wannabe

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I wouldn't think you'd have any complaints with a modern LCD, Ian. I was reluctant to switch to LCDs a few years ago, but have been *very* happy with the Dell UltraSharp monitors. One thing I noticed right away with the widescreen monitor in Photoshop is that I can push all the control boxes to the far right of the screen and have a huge image window. When I get home I'll grab a screen cap and post it here...


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:38 pm 
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Luddite Wannabe

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Judge WAN wrote:
Your Dell purchase has directly helped my family keep our house for another month via my wife's paycheck.

Thank you.

Please buy more. Soon.

Everyone.


Happy to oblige, Matthew. I stopped building systems myself about three years ago and started refering all of my friends and family to Dell. I no longer have to spend a lot of time replacing a flakey video card or power supply. Instead, in the rare occassion that there *is* a hardware problem, I have them call Dell Support and somebody usually shows up at their door the next day ready to replace the part. Now I spend all my time cleaning up Spyware.


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:02 pm 
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Good Penguin Gone Bad

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I hate all the crap Dell pre-loads!! Good way to turn a decent computer into a dog!

(I do like Dell however.)


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:13 pm 
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You can call me 'Leo'

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I've been switching friends and family to Dell for about 4 years. They've all worked out well, for the most part. One machine has had some hard drive problems over the years, but it finally failed so that I could get Dell to replace it under warranty! Definitely an instance where having them get the 4-year warranty came in handy since the PC is 3.5 years old.


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:07 pm 
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King of Goth

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Dan wrote:
One thing I noticed right away with the widescreen monitor in Photoshop is that I can push all the control boxes to the far right of the screen and have a huge image window.


That's why I just have two monitors :)

It was stuff about low screen refresh rates, that sorta stuff, that can cause problems with LCD screens and Photoshop (plus just not displaying all the colours in a gradient, but getting a banding effect instead). I'm glad to hear that it doesn't seem as bad as all that, though.

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:07 pm 
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He Keeps WAN with his BANgiver

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Crouton Jim wrote:
I hate all the crap Dell pre-loads!! Good way to turn a decent computer into a dog!

(I do like Dell however.)


When we got our two boxes about 2 or 3 years ago (yes, just about everyone in our family has their own computer - 5 people, 4 computers) I loaded XP right over the HD right away. The pre installed stuff is a drag. And we got a big, are you ready for this? A BIG, whopping 10% off for being a Dell employee!!! That just about covered the shipping...

But I DID get my WACOM Intuos 3 about $75 to $90 cheaper than anywhere else I could get it.

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:08 pm 
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Ian Sokoliwski wrote:
That's why I just have two monitors :)


How do you set that up?

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:23 pm 
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Good Penguin Gone Bad

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Your video card has to support it. It’s pretty nice. I have an older Precision 530 with 2-20” LCDs. Very good for productivity (and coding) type apps. (I don’t know for games.)


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:35 pm 
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I'm guessing you need two ports in your video card - one for each monitor?

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:38 pm 
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Good Penguin Gone Bad

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Mine's got a Y-adapter. Came with the computer.


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:44 pm 
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That reminds me: I need to get some Y-adapters. I have several unadapted Y's layin' around and it's driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:06 pm 
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The Kilted Wonder.

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
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Judge WAN wrote:
Your Dell purchase has directly helped my family keep our house for another month via my wife's paycheck.

Thank you.

Please buy more. Soon.

Everyone.


You'll be happy to know Matthew that Holly & I are still paying for our Dell that was purchased last year. I still know at least one person that works there(assuming he wasn't caught in a downsizing recently like I was 2 years ago).

Robert K. Live from Austin :D

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:25 am 
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He Keeps WAN with his BANgiver

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Yes. Please keep making payments. Even after you've paid it off.

Also, everyone, go to the Dell Support website at least once a day and leave feedback in the questioner to the effect of:

Cari Carpenter has done a fantastic job on the Dell support website!

Without Cari Carpenter's input on the Dell support website I would not have been able to find my answer to my problem.

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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:35 am 
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Dan wrote:
... I had a system configured pretty much the way I'd want it from any manufacturer: base OS, with a few "essential accessories" - Google Toolbar (which they load in addition to Google Desktop, which I decided to try), Acrobat reader, etc. A couple hours later and I had all of my "necessary applications" installed - MS Office suite (with Visio, Publisher, FrontPage, and MapPoint), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Audition, etc., plus Microsoft Defender (anti-Spyware), McAfee Anti-Virus (I used to use the free AVG scanner, but I can now load McAfee for free thanks to an licensing agreement with my current employer), and assorted Microsoft Power Toys (TweakUI, etc.).

Eep! No compilers? NASM? Cygwin? Ultra-Edit? ;-)


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:54 am 
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Joined: 28 Sep 2005
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Location: central Nebraska
Since I'm the local "computer guy" everybody asks me what to buy, and I've been telling them to go with a new Dell for quite a while. Two of my three 'puters are Dells (although they're now far from new.)

That said, I agree completely with Dan--it's so much nicer when all the crap is cleared out!!


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:58 am 
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Ian Sokoliwski wrote:
That's why I just have two monitors :)


My favorite use for two monitors is when roleplaying: One to face me and one to face the players. (I do a lot of stuff like creating maps in Heretic to show my D&D group a 3D view of the dungeons they're slogging through. Yes, waaaay too much time on my hands... :wink: )


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:25 am 
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Luddite Wannabe

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I thought about doing a scratch and load, Michael - that's what I did with my previous Dells. I specifically ordered this one with XP Media Center Edition, though, just to see what features it has vs. Pro and Home. I may even lug this thing upstairs and hook it up to the HDTV Plasma in the living room and play around with it sometime.

UltraEdit! I knew I was forgetting something! Thanks for reminding, Jim... now where did I put that registration code? Don't fret, before long ol' Visual Studio will likely be loaded. As will Perl. And Cygwin. NASM? Nah... I haven't done any Assembly in a *long* time... I don't plan to, either. It's filed away in brain right next to Pascal and Cobol.

As far as two monitors go - yeah, it *is* great. I use two monitors at work - the secondary monitor is almost always sitting on email. Unless I'm debugging in Visual Studio - I can single step on the secondary monitor and watch the progress on the primary monitor. I'd have kept two monitors in this situation here at home, but I have to hand down my current 17" LCD to my wife.


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:34 am 
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Luddite Wannabe

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I went the UltraEdit site to download the latest version and found out I was two major releases behind. Another $20 for the upgrade... but well worth it!


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 Post subject: New Computer....
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:54 am 
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King of Goth

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Jeff Layton wrote:
My favorite use for two monitors is when roleplaying: One to face me and one to face the players. (I do a lot of stuff like creating maps in Heretic to show my D&D group a 3D view of the dungeons they're slogging through. Yes, waaaay too much time on my hands... :wink: )


Dude, I bow down to your superior geekitude 8)

As to the earlier question by Matthew - yeah, I've got a video card configured to run two monitors. Oddly enough, it has three monitor plugs (Analog, Digital, and S-video). I had to pick up a Digital-to-Analog converter to hook up my two Analog monitors to it.

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