To Build or not to Build(PC) ?

There will come a point in time when you can no longer economically upgrade your Dell. Don't put anymore money into it. My understanding is that Dell uses proprietary components such as power supply units, memory and motherboards. Wrong or not, that's what I have heard. Not that its bad, just that your stuck buying your upgrades from Dell at rather high prices.

If you are close to needing a new computer build yourself a new one. You can build a high end computer for allot less than what you will pay in retail and taxes. As well you will have a system that is upgradeable using off the shelf parts in the future. Pick and choose your components get what you can afford. I suggest to go bigger / faster than what you think you need, that way you can grow into your new system.

Building your own system will give you a great sense of accomplishment. You will also know precisely what may be wrong with your system when it does crap out on you.(notice I said when it does)

So, I suggest building your own system and give your Dell to a family member that can use a "new computer"

I've built several custom PC's, and I currently own three Dell's (A GX270,GX280, and a GX520). The Dell is never going to be a serious gaming machine, it just doesn't have the features on it's motherboard to do it, regardless of what you add on. I would put it back into it's original configuration and sell it. Keep the memory and the graphics card, and use them in your next build.

As for the PS unit, 550w is the bare minimum I would even consider for a basic PC today. I try to get at least a 600w or better for a gaming system. Get a motherboard that has dual video card capability (SLI or CrossFire), supports SATA II (300Gb/sec hdd transfer speed), and can handle either an Intel Quad Core, or AMD 64

Pay close attention to cooling, a system that can accomodate liquid cooling for the processor, hard drives, and ram is better than a single fan. And quieter too. I currently have one that is totally fanless, even the ps unit is water cooled, you cannot even tell it's on except for the green led power indicator. As for the amount of memory, I would use two 1Gb sticks for a total of 2Gb ram to get you started. You can always upgrade to more later. Get a hdd that spins at 10,000rpm and pay attention to the specs of the hdd. In particular the seek, and read/write speeds. There can be differences and currently Western Digital tops the list as the fastest.

I'd sell the Dell and build a new computer but only if you got the cash for all the parts and you're willing to risk going through some stress (sometimes but rarely you could get a bad Hard Drive or RAM or any other component). I built my own a few months ago and it was easy as pie. The only difficulty was installing the CPU cooler and figuring out which cables went where on the motherboard. Build it yourself, you won't regret it and you will definitely be gratified with the fact that you know how to build a computer.

2.8 GHz should be fast enough to handle any online games (WoW, etc.). At that point, your internet connection becomes the bottleneck.

The 300 W PSU isn't enough? Ok, if you say so. I'd just swap out the graphics card and PSU and keep the rest.

The next most obvious upgrade is more memory. I'd increase that up to 2 GB if you have the cash.

If you're playing games locally, whether you need a new machine depends on WHICH games you're playing.

I can tell you from experience that companies like dell do not use the highest quality products in their PCs most of the time i see a major part fail on them in a year or less. So i would suggest you build your own computer and that way you will know every part and every screw and can be confident in it. Just make sure you do your research on all the parts before you buy them make sure that they all work with eachother. Another thing to be aware of is airflow make sure you tie up all cables in the pc so it promotes good airflow And be aware that a new built pc rarely works the first time you push the power button there will always most likely be something you overlooked. It can definately be a rewarding experience. Good luck. Newegg is your friend.

if you know what you are doing, go ahead and build your own machine, definately get a new comp tho whether u build it or someone else does. i'd highly suggest a dell XPS computer, they are high-end gaming machines, i personally have an XPS 600 (basically the XPS 700 with a different look, it was just replaced by the 700 last july) and its great. theres a whole line of desktops and laptops and the XPS' are designed to be easily upgradable with a tool-less entry access, and plenty of extra room to add in anything you want.

to upgrade ussally cost more then to built a new one, plus dell hardware are really out of day and normally incompatible with gaming.

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