Expert: Bobbert - 10/28/2007

Question
QUESTION: Bobbert,

I need a new computer for my business, and the options are overwhelming.  I'm looking forward to some advice, and thank you in advance for reading this book.

I have had Dell computers for a long time and have always had a good experience, so I'd like to upgrade to a new Dell.  I'd like to stay with XP.  I work out of a home office, and the computer is critical.  If the computer doesn't work, I don't eat.

Here's what I need the computer to do:  I am usually switching back and forth between a variety of applications like: Word, Excel, Outlook Express, several Internet browser windows, 2 graphic programs (Xara Xtreme and Adobe Elements), a contact manager, a website builder (Fusion), Quickbooks, and maybe a couple miscellaneous things like SnagIt, Adobe reader, and so forth.  It would be great if I could keep all of these things open at the same time, which is something I can't do now.

I currently have an 80MG drive, and it's 55% full.  I have an external hard drive that I use for backup each night.

I looked at the Vostro and Precision series.  The Vostro 400 had a Intel E6550 but to upgrade the Precision to the same level is a lot more expensive for some reason.  I'm thinking 2MG of RAM would work, especially running XP, but I'd be interested in your feedback.

I don't know much about RAID, but I'm wondering if some configuration of that would give me more protection from a system failure - it's available on the Precision series.  I've been lucky not to have had a crash, so I'm not sure if the RAID is worth it, or what it takes to manage it.

I don't know which graphics card would be best - I don't do 3D, and the heavy lifting is done by my graphics partner, but I do create some graphics myself, along with simple cropping, editing and sizing photos.

The Vostro comes with a 20" analog widescreen monitor, and the Precision with a 17" digital.  I have to layout websites at 1024x768 resolution which is easy since the 15" monitor I have now uses that resolution.  I'm not sure if you can reasonably set one of the larger monitors to 1024x768.  I don't know what the purpose of a widescreen is, or whether I should opt for a digital version because of the graphics, or if the analog would be fine.

I hope you can make some sense out of all this information.  As you can tell, I'm about ready to put photos of all these things on a wall and throw a dart.  Any insight you can give me to make a more informed choice would be very much appreciated.

ANSWER: I can see where you're getting overwhelmed, so lets take this one step at a time, from easiest to hardest:

2GB of RAM is an excellent choice for Windows XP or Windows Vista, and I agree with your decision to stick to Windows XP, Dell will readily ship a system with XP Professional.

an 80GB hard-drive is quite dated, however drives in excess of 1000GB are available today, and I'd suggest going with something in the 250GB - 750GB range, more on this later (when we discuss RAID)

The resolution thing:
There isn't much of a difference between "analog" and "digital", both devices are digital internally, what that refers to is the interface, which ultimately doesn't matter (after ~20 years of building monitors using an analog interface, it got the point where even after digital interfaces were released, they didn't make a huge splash because analog is just as good) so that difference doesn't really matter

Widescreen: it means the monitor is in a 16:10 aspect ratio, vs a 4:3 or 5:4 aspect ratio, it doesn't strech pixels, it just gives you more room side to side, its great for movies, gaming, most everything, because of the added width (and finding very large 4:3 monitors is becoming hard)

I understand that you need to design with 1024x768, however you would be better served to get a large monitor and constrain your document size to 1024x768 (I know Adobe software allows this, not sure about other software, fairly sure its plausible though), the widescreen is capable of drawing 1024x768, it just wont fill the entire screen (that 20" widescreen is likely 1680x1050, which means you could have almost 2 full 1024x768 windows open at the same time).

Beyond that, theres RAID, RAID will provide more data protection, but it isn't invincible, I'd suggest RAID 1 for your needs, that way if a single hard-drive breaks, all of your data is saved on another hard-drive with an identical copy of the data. I'd still suggest regular back-ups, but RAID1 will add an extra layer of security to your data (and yes, you'll need to buy another hard-drive in your system configuration for this).

Now to Vostro vs Precision, I'd go with Precision, Vostro is designed as a "business class PC", something that libraries and similar organizations buy to set out for users, or for kiosk use, etc, while Precision is designed as a workstation, which is why it costs more. I'd suggest the Precision, as its designed to be used as a workstation, its going to offer more expandability, its warranty is excellent, and its a quality, top-shelf product.

I'd suggest a 20" non-widescreen or a 24" widescreen (yes, both are somewhat pricey, but both are worth it), and generally one of the cheapest graphics card offerings.

I'd be happy to answer future questions on this design as well, feel free to ask again.

-bob


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bob,

Thanks so much for the quick reply.  I'm feeling better already!  I went back to the Dell site with your recommendations in hand, and I do have a couple other questions about a Precision configuration.

--The processor that fits my budget best is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 (1.86GHz/1066MHz/4MB L2/Dual-core).  Do you think that processor will have enough power for a while?  The Vostro has an Inel Core 2 Duo E6550 (2.33GHz, 4MB L2Cache, 1333FSB).  Do you know if the Precision version is faster, even though it's got a slower speed?

--The RAID has 2 versions:  All SATA or All SAS.  I'm clueless, although I noticed that if you choose SAS, it looks like you need a SAS controller?  Which would you choose?

--A 22" widescreen is a special offer upgrade.  Would that be close enough to the 24" you recommended?  :-)

--I need to selecct a File System: either None, NTFS or FAT32.  I'm not quite sure what you get if you choose none - they evidently don't realize how confusing all these choices are!

--It also asked if I wanted an additional network card.  I'm assuming it would come with a regular Ethernet and I think that's all I'd need.  Does that seem reasonable to you?  I can always check with Dell on what's included - it's not listed in the system specs.

--There's an option for migration, too.  It's a Laplink PCmover that includes a transfer cable.  If you have any opinions on whether that works, I'd be interested to know.

I set the system up with (2) 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ and 8MB Databurst cache drives.  That fits my budget best, and I think it will still give me plenty of room, even though the larger drive might be more ideal.

Again, thank you so much for your help!

Kathleen

Answer
The E6320 will be slightly slower, however it should be easily more than enough for the tasks you've described.

Go with all SATA, SAS will cost much more and you don't need the extra performance for your needs (SAS is useful if you were running a high demand server or were working with massive video/3D rendering projects (like special effects for movies))

The 22" widescreen will be great, it isn't quite as high resolution as the 24" (1680x1050 for the 22, vs 1920x1200 for the 24) but it sounds like the price will be much lower with the 22, and its still a quality product.

NTFS is the file system of choice, so I'd go with that.

I'd go with the hard-drive setup you have chosen, you can add hard-drives later (one downside with Dell that I've seen recently is how much they seem to be marking up hard-drives, so you can upgrade that later without much problem, although for now the 2x160GB configuration sounds like it will work).

Yes, you are correct in assuming the system ships with an ethernet adapter already installed, so a secondary isn't required.

Honestly, I don't believe in migration "utilities", just connect the two systems over a network and send the files you want to keep from A to B, another option is to just take the entire hard-drive from your old system, put it into the new system, take what you want off of it, and then reformat it to gain its capacity as more storage.

-bob