About Lauren Bennett Expertise I am a computer science major and my dad is an Electric Engineering, so my life has revolved around computers. For as long as I can remember, I have been buying and selling computers. I tend to travel a lot, so I have always had a laptop. I have bought 5 of them for myself, and bought around 30-40 for friends and family. I have dealt with the good and the bad of various version and brand names. If you are in need of buying a laptop, feel free to contact me and I'm sure I will be able to guide you into purchasing the laptop that will be the best fit for you. I will custom build you computers for you to choose from so you can get an exact idea of what to go and buy when you do it yourself and so that you have an exact price. However, I am in the USA and am only knowledgeable about computers here in the US. I do not know about foreign currency or the quality of computer brand names outside the US.
Experience B.S. in Computer Science. Buying and selling for years. Assisting friends/family.
Question QUESTION: Hi Lauren Bennett,
i spoke to you once about a laptop i wanted to purchase and i went to the Dell site and i stumbled upon dell xps 420. Now this is a desktop and it will be used for programs such as photoshop, maya, indesign etc. Here is the site where if fell upon this www.dell.com/maximmag, since i'm not that good in choosing computers i was wondering if you can take a look at the offer and tell me if that computer is good. I was really looking for a laptop, but i was told that it wouldn't be worth it, is there any truth too that. For now i am willing to spend less than 2,000. Please help me out.
ANSWER: Why not go custom build? You can get 100% exactly what you want and generally cheaper. I built a top of the line desktop through a guy for $2,400 and the same configuration costs over $5,000 from all the major computer brand names :).
I just have recently become a fan of custom built desktops over company built ones. The biggest reason is that you are sorta stuck with the original configuration. Since companies like Dell, HP, etc buy skeleton parts from manufacturers and then "edit" them, you can't upgrade/change parts yourself. You have to entirely rely on the company. Which means you are stuck if you want to upgrade or your warranty wears out. Additionally, if you modify things, it voids your warranty.
However, the computer looks pretty good. However, keep in mind that you can get a very similar build with the Inspirons and you can get it much cheaper as the Inspirons are cheaper and there are a ton of coupons available for them.
If you don't need the portability of a laptop, a desktop is always a better route. No matter how you look at it, a desktop is cheaper and faster.
Do you need a monitor too? Do you want a warranty? Are you interested in a custom built?
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QUESTION: yes i will need a monitor and warranty. Now i'm not too sure about custom built. How exactly does it work. About a laptop will it also be the same as a desktop if i were too buy a modem apart with more memory. Or is not worth the trouble.
Answer Basically you e-mail the guy with what you are looking for.. you can leave it open and have him figure out a customization or tell him exactly what you want. He sends you a detailed price breakdown. You can go back and forth and negotiate hardware and price. He then builds the computer you picked, fully tests it, and ships it to you. He offers a 1 year warranty on parts (and the manufactures often offer 3+ year warranties) and lifetime support. http://www.kc-computers.com
If you go with Dell, I wouldn't buy a monitor. I would buy the computer and then use the gift card / Dell dollars you receive to then go and get a monitor for virtually free :).
My Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850 (4MB L2 Cache,3.0GHz,1333 FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate edit
MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable edit
MONITORS No Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS edit
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
BLUETOOTH AND MEDIA READER Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth edit
KEYBOARD Dell USB Keyboard edit
MOUSE Dell Optical USB Mouse edit
WI-FI AND MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem edit
My Software & Accessories
SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
ADOBE ELEMENTS STUDIO Adobe Elements Studio for XPS™ 420 edit
ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months edit
Dell Recommends
Help Protect Your New PC!
PC-cillin™ Security Software, 24 months!
Help Me Choose
Upgrade to Trend Micro Internet Security 24-months [add $19]
PRODUCTIVITY Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD edit
Dell Recommends
Upgrade your software!
Upgrade to Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 [add $149 or $4/month1]
My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE Get $50 Dell Gift Card with 4Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor edit
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Free 10GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Year edit
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS No ISP requested
That is the Dell configuration I would go with, if you go with the XPS 420.
You get a $200 gift card to Dell (in 6-8 weeks) and $50 in Dell dollars that you can use one or both towards a new monitor.
Total is $1,868.00 + tax.
The same configuration on a Dell Inspiron notebook (with a slower processor but still plenty fast enough) is $1,349.00 + tax.
