UPDATE My DELL comes Today!!!!

[Rainband]

Ok so Tony and I were talking, and we couldn't figure out what I want for Christmas. I decided to get a new DELL. So I am debating on whether or not to go with a 32bit or a 64 bit Setup. I really like the xps 420. I have a duo core AMD athlon right now insiron 530. I am going to give that to Tony. I think I am going to get the 420 quad core. should I go with AMD or intel. 32bit or 64. Thanks??

[coriolis]

Reminds me of Tim Allen on "Home Improvement"
MORE POWER !!!!!!
RRROOOOAAAARRRR.


No doubt 64 bit is the wave of the future. I can't imagine that you wouldn't regret not getting it eventually. We've made that transition at work. Of course we're doing 3D Cadd applications, but there definitely is a trickle down effect to home computing.

[P.K.]

I've been looking at this myself (The XPS 430 as the XPS 420 has been withdrawn here and the Studio XPS doesn't have any PCI slots). Annoyingly you get a lot more options to chose from over there. 64 bit is the way of the future (eg. being able to use more than 4GB RAM) but I'm worried various things I own won't work on it. I can't see any point in buying a 32 bit OS at this point though myself when it would soon be out of date.

[Squarethecircle]

I'm not sure if you can get AMD processors with the 420 from Dell's site, but it does come standard with an Intel quad core processor. And yes, you should go with 64-bit.

[Rainband]

xps 420 or the xps studio??

[Rainband]

this is my build Thoughts???

XPS 420
Intel® Core™2 Q9400 Quad-Core (6MB L2 cache,2.66GHz,1333FSB), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
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Catalog Number: 29 DXDWQJ6
Module Description Description Product Code & SKU Product Code & SKU
XPS 420 Intel® Core™2 Q9400 Quad-Core (6MB L2 cache,2.66GHz,1333FSB) S3Q940H [224-1614]
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit VHP61E [313-5656][420-5769][420-6436][420-8873][420-8874][420-9132]
Memory 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs 6GB84 [311-9761]
KEYBOARD Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard MMK [310-7964]
Monitors Dell S2409W 24" Full HD Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor S2409W [320-7036]
Video Cards ATI RADEON HD 4670 512MB AT4670 [320-7769]
Hard Drive 750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache 750S [341-5390]
Floppy Drive and Media Reader Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package NMEDCRD [341-5593]
MOUSE Dell Premium Optical USB Mouse POM [310-8647]
Modem No Modem Requested N [313-3607]
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language AAREAD [410-1867]
Optical Drive Internal 16X DVD+/-RW Drive + External Qflix-enabled DVD Burner QXDVDRW [313-5829][313-7111][420-8153]
Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio IS [313-2758]
Speakers Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System BOSE21 [313-5699]
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Works 9.0 XWRK9 [420-8103]
Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter 15-months VMCAF1Y [410-1184]
Warranty & Service 2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis S222OS [412-0360][902-0931][950-3338][960-8700][970-1001][983-9470][988-2217][988-2218]
Optional Support Services XPS Specialized Support XPSSUPP [960-2697]
Datasafe Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year DOB2GB [420-9518][988-0099][988-7707]
Internet Access Service No ISP requested NISP [412-0148]
Miscellaneous 420 Mini Offer 420MF1 [467-6166]
Dell Digital Entertainment No Entertainment software pre-installed NODE [464-9572]
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium VPD [310-8626]
Dell Remote Access Dell Remote Access, free basic service DRAFB [420-9800][993-1919]
Bluetooth and Media Reader Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth BTMCR19 [341-5701]
Collapse Configuration Details

[RL3AO]

Thats an impressive looking machine. Of course the same machine will cost 1200 in eight months or so, but thats another story.

[coriolis]

but I'm worried various things I own won't work on it.

That's Easy. Keep the old computer running to run the old stuff, and network them.

[Rainband]

argh They stopped amking the xps 420??? wtf. I went to my cart to purchase and it was gone, I called they said sorry we don't make that anymore!!!!!! Guess i am going to get the new inspirion 518 only comes with a 256mb card but for what i do thats ok.

[coriolis]

Hey Jon, are you sure that you'll settle for MS Works? It's such a watered-down version of Office that it's not that useful. At least the earlier versions of works were like that.

Just think: If you ever want to do any study of the weather, you'll end up wishing you had Excel. Wordpad is a poor substitute for Word. We get a bunch of emails from family members with the usual dippy emotional and inspirational powerpoints. We couldn't watch them without Office.

JMO - I'm spoiled because I was able to get office 2007 inexpensively through the Home Use Program, which is essentially an extension of the license we use at work.

[Rainband]

what should I get ed??

[RL3AO]

If you don't want to drop the money for MS Office, you can always use OpenOffice. Thats what I use. Best of all, its free since its open source.

http://www.openoffice.org/

[gtalum]

OpenOffice does rock. It's essentially identical to Office 2003 and it's absolutely free.

[coriolis]

Sounds like a good suggestion. I think that full blown Office is like $150

[JonathanBelles]

For Students there is an amazing offer from Microsoft, $60 for every service Office has...word, excel, PPT...yada yada....

[mf_dolphin]

Office 2007 Small Business is like 250.00 (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint)
Office 2007 Professional is 399.99 (ablove plus Access)

[JonathanBelles]

Here is that link from Office for Students. Again its Office Ultimate 2008 for $59.95. Ultimate has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Groove, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, and Accounting Express.

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discou ... fault.aspx

[Squarethecircle]

OpenOffice does rock. It's essentially identical to Office 2003 and it's absolutely free.

I have a question (since this sounds like something I might get when the time to get a new PC rolls around); does OpenOffice use Windows Office-compatible files?

[gtalum]

Yes, OpenOffice is completely compatible with Office 2003, and "mostly" compatible with Office 2007.

[mf_dolphin]

The one thing that OpenOffice doesn't have is an MS Access compatible program. If you don't need that then it's a great choice.