The 299.00 Dell computer that is being advertised....Anyone have it?

[Chris2597]

I am thinking about buying the Dell desktop that is being advertised for 299 for my son for Christmas. He will be starting jr college in the spring and needs a pc to mainly use as a word processor, surf the web, email, IM. I have a friend that bought it and his wife uses it mainly for email and web surfing and says it is great....Anyone have this computer?

 

[golfgal]

Sort of-we have a Dimension 3000 (if that is the same one they are advertising that I saw a week or so ago). It doesn't have the same things loaded on the computer that we got. We got Microsoft Word, 1 1/2 year of virus, etc. protection, a DVD/CD burner, and a 3 year on-site warranty. The one they offer has very little preloaded on it. I was thinking about getting one for a second computer and then getting the student version of Microsoft Office to load onto it. It comes with the WordPerfect word processor only. I think we have more memory and a faster processor too.

 

[tiggerlover]

We bought one with the free printer offer they had for DS (9) for Christmas. We had a couple of extra things loaded on it and paid a little extra. It is still in boxes so I really can't comment any further until after DS gets it for Christmas. He is going to be so excited (he hasn't asked for a new one in a while) but he is using our old Gateway from 1995 and I know he wants new software to play some of the games that are out there today.

 

[aprilgail2]

My 5 year old got that for Christmas last year and it is fine for web surfing and playing games!

 

[golfgal]

I just looked at their site again and it looks like you now have to get a 2 year on site warranty which isn't a big deal. It still doesn't have any preloaded software, though. I priced out another computer and got free shipping, a free printer and a 19" flat panel monitor for only $150 more.

 

[DarkSideMoon]

My 5 year old got that for Christmas last year and it is fine for web surfing and playing games!

What kind of games? With this don't expect to play anything besides some older, basic, childrens games. for email and word processing? go for it! Personally, I am going to get this computer for gaming http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7438739&type=product&id=1124431830507.

 

[jfulcer]

What kind of games? With this don't expect to play anything besides some older, basic, childrens games. for email and word processing? go for it! Personally, I am going to get this computer for gaming http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7438739&type=product&id=1124431830507.

Ok, well that is very much overkill. Any NEW PC should place almost any NEW game just fine. There may be a small few that it may not handle, but you can always look at the minimum requirements to check.

 

[bicker]

Actually, it's simply no longer the case. They're now selling such a wide array of new personal computers that many of the lower-end models don't work with many of the higher-end games. This is a reflection of the fact that cutting-edge software technology is far easier/cheaper to obtain than cutting-edge hardware technology.

 

[Meriweather]

We were going to....but there is no kiosk around here and they wanted $99 shipping
So we went to Fry's and got DD one for $279. So far, so good.

 

[DarkSideMoon]

Ok, well that is very much overkill. Any NEW PC should place almost any NEW game just fine. There may be a small few that it may not handle, but you can always look at the minimum requirements to check.

as bicker said, you NEED a computer around 500$ to handle the minimum requirements for any new game. I.E. Battlefield 2 the minimum requirements are 512 megs of RAM, a solid radeon or Nvidia graphics card, and you just can't get that in a computer under $500.

 

[jfulcer]

as bicker said, you NEED a computer around 500$ to handle the minimum requirements for any new game. I.E. Battlefield 2 the minimum requirements are 512 megs of RAM, a solid radeon or Nvidia graphics card, and you just can't get that in a computer under $500.

But that's not what she said it was going to be used for. So why spend double the money for something that had a small chance of being used? Yes, if the OP's son is a gamer then it would make sense to spend the extra money. That's not the case here. If he was a gamer you could be certain he'd be telling his mom what to buy so he can play the games he wanted to.

 

[DarkSideMoon]

But that's not what she said it was going to be used for. So why spend double the money for something that had a small chance of being used? Yes, if the OP's son is a gamer then it would make sense to spend the extra money. That's not the case here. If he was a gamer you could be certain he'd be telling his mom what to buy so he can play the games he wanted to.

I know, I was just saying to expect not to be able to play much on it.

 

[bicker]

Yes: Purchasing a low-end computer could be considered a means of ensuring that your child doesn't play games on it as much. Makes sense to me.

 

[Sir Real]

True, and with the PC in question it is not upgradeable to allow them to play any of the newer graphics intensive games. If all it will ever be used for is word processing, web surfing and email, then it's probably fine. If you ever want to upgrade (ie the video card) you are very limited in what you can do.