HUGE Dell Discounts Options

[JohnWPB]

Dell is blowing out some of their older systems before the new line up is released. For example: The Dell DimensionTM 5150 thats normally $1079.00 is almost half price at $579.00. Its a 2.8Ghz with 1 gig of ram and a 19" flat panel monitor included. Heck, the Ram, Monitor and XP home is worth that alone.

I am nota fan of Dell (Mainly their, shal I say, overseas call cener), but it would make a decent server or something...

The have a 2.5Ghz version, with a gig of memory and a 17" flat panel with a DVD Burner for $349.

Check out all the systems AT THIS LINK

[bfisher]

Would these make decent base systems for HTPC? Are they expandable/upgradable?

My next big project was to build a good HTPC - but hard to pass up these prices... Just need a couple tuner cards and I'm good to go! I'm not worried about fan noise or case looks - this will be installed in my automation closet.

[IVB]

The only issue i have with dell's for HTPCs is the # of HD's they can typically hold. They're either 2/3/4 max. As I have 500GB allocated to TV and a boot disk, that's 3 already.

For you, if all you're looking to do is TV and music, this is fine. If you're looking to back your DVDs up onto the HD and play from there, you'll need a PC that can physically store the HDs. Doesn't have to be your HTPC.

BTW, if I had to do it all over again, i'd get a megachanger rather than rip DVDs. I have 2.5TB, and i'm sick of the heat issues. The 2 big limitations of changers are:
1) Can only watch 1 DVD at a time [ie you & wife/kids can't watch different DVDs]
2) No ability to use FFDShow to improve PQ.

I'm happy to accept both constraints as my eyes aren't good enough to tell the difference, and we would rarely need to watch 2 DVDs in different rooms concurrently.

[bfisher]

Good feedback, thanks IVB

[JohnWPB]

The only issue i have with dell's for HTPCs is the # of HD's they can typically hold. They're either 2/3/4 max.

That counts for about 90% of the motherboards by other manufacturers as well as physical space for the drives in the case. The way I get around this is external USB hard drives. I currently have 3 external drives in THESE ENCLOSURES. This works well for me, as the enclosures have built in cooling fans to keep the drives cool, and does not heat up the inside of the computer case to boiling temperatures theoretically, this way you could have enough hard drives as you have letters available via USB.

This post has been edited by JohnWPB: Apr 30 2006, 12:40 PM

[bfisher]

Ahhh, very nice. Hadn't thought of those. thanks