Is there anything bad about buying a computer from Dell?

[digitalwanderer]

Well the guy wants to run games and last I heard there weren't any games for Linux.

Some people just pirate windows then and rationalize it as they've only basically been upgrading it since 98 anyways.

I'm not saying it is right nor endorsing it, just doing a quick reality check.

That memory price you've mentioned isn't going to make the PC that much cheaper. You'll save $40...on the whole PC wow.

Actually I see it as a $118 savings since you really need 512MB to run XP decently, and I'd recomend anyone building/buying a PC right now to get a Gig.

If the rest of your pricing is reflective of your memory pricing I see a HUGE difference in final costs!

CPU-<$100
Memory-$185 (1Gb, 'member?)
Mobo-$100-$120
Soundcard-$65
Power supply-$65
Case-$30

Viddy card would be the big ticket item along with hard-drive depending on what you wanted to do, but you can pick up HD pretty damned cheap too. Put that at another $100 bill.

Come to think of it, I do tend to think of putting a new computer together in terms of putting $100 bills together...

 

[Sxotty]

Well lets see I bought windows XP profeshional edition legally for $5 man that was a big chunk out of my budget

No one is forcing people to buy the os for a ridiculous price.

 

[Diplo]

I got WinXP Pro legally for £1 ($1.75)

 

[Killer-Kris]

Not to brag or anything, but I got WinXP, and VS.NET all for free... though I suppose I'm probably not supposed to continue to use them after I graduate but oh well.

Student associates and discounts are great!

Though of course since my schooling costs a pretty penny and the college is paying for the liscenses I suppose I am in reality paying for it.

On the issue of buying versus building from what I've seen lately, and from what a few people have said here, there really is not a whole lot of difference between the two.

Dells (or insert most OEMs) are cheaper than you could possibly build it yourself especially when taking into account the cost of the OS when bought through regular channels. But if you build you have the distinct upside of having a very nicely tailor made system that in theory should be perfect for your needs.