What about the Dell 2350?

[shermank]

Dell is hyping a new computer which it says is ideal for gamers...at a cost of $1800...however,their entry level computer is the 2350 which goes for around $500. Has anyone had an experience with this model...I believe it uses a P4 2.2gh chip? Might this be a good upgrade from my 1Gig Tyan 1854?Thanks...Sherm

[Guest Delta_747]

Yes the 2350 is cheaper but it doesn't come with AGP graphics.The 4550 would be your best choice for a cheap Dell gaming system with AGP.And don't even bother with their new XPS model. It's overpriced and you can get the same system with better parts at Alienware.

[Guest John_Cillis]

I'm posting fast before the post gets moved to the H/W support forum. :) My suggestion--if you expect to upgrade, stay away from Dell or any vendor that used proprietary h/w. Dell has shown great quality, but my experience is that adding peripherals to these machines is not what the maker has in mind. It can be done, but it's a challenge.My suggestion is you either build or purchase a system that is ATX compatible across the board. ATX is fairly much standard these days, and you can swap out a MB, power supply, etc with little fuss. Also, stay away from systems with integrated sound or video. I know some have luck with these, but again--at upgrade time--you can have some headaches introduced. Also, when failures happen, it is a heck of a lot easier to swap out a sound card or a video card, vs. boxing up a tower and sending it back to the mfr.Some balk at the thought of building their own system. But if you can install an add-on card, you can build an entire system. Took me fifteen minutes to build my system....but a heck of a lot longer to unbox it all :) On a budget of $500, I went from a HP 233MHZ system to a P3/800, back when that was tops and comparable systems were running around 2 grand. I did that by taking parts from my old HP system (HD, Sound Card, Modem, Floppy) and moving them to the new system. If you don't want the fuss, most cities have local PC makers which can throw together a similar, upgradeable system for you. You may have to pay $100-200 over the Dell, but you'll save on headaches later.Last suggestion, and to keep the thread on topic. If you plan on running FS2004, wait before upgrading to anything. See what people say about it--see what the issues and bottlenecks are, if any. I've been sliding by with a P3/800 for a while now, and get good 2k2 performance by scaling back the options that slow the sim. I may very well try FS2004 on the P3, based on feedback, before determining what my upgrade path will be.-John

[shermank]

thanks, John and to everyone else...and sorry if I have misposted this in the wrong forum. I frankly, forgot all about the HW forum becauee I rarely check it..anyway, I have always used a specialty computer shope, going back to my first PC...a mighty 286...which was a big step up from my Commodore 64...:-)I was concerned about Dell having a closed architecture, and your comments tend to confirm this. So, I will go back to my computer guru (his name is Ram...how appropriate), and get his advice. I'll probably pay lots more...but, I'll have great support and backup for any problems that may come up. And, yes, it was my intention to wait until FSCOF or whatever the name of that thing is...before I do anything. It's just that my birthday was last week, and my wife is still waiting for her to tell me what I want. I guess she'll just wait a little longer...:-)Sherm

[Guest]

I agree fully with John even though my last two purchases were Dells. I attemted to upgrady my 4100 to a Radeon 9700Pro and after much grief, simply bought a new Dell with that card already installed. Next time I'll maybe build my own from the ground up but what John said about upgrading them is accurate.

[Guest B1900 Mech]

Can you disable the onboard graphics and upgrade to a better vidio card on the 2350?

[Guest Bill Kunert]

Sherm;The only computer I would consider buying prebuilt is a notebook. The satisfaction you get from building your own is worth experiencing. I've built all my computers for the past ten years and I've noticed one thing. I never have had serious problems with any software I've used except I couldn't get my current system to load ME so I had to send it back and wait for XP. All gaming software has worked great.Bill

[Guest Delta_747]

It would be a PCI only card I belive. Something like the Radeon 9000 or the GeForce FX5200.

[Guest cw1011]

Well, for the record, I've had two dell computers and have sucessfully upgraded in each of them:1. RAM - both old fashioned dimms and rambus2. AGP video cards - my current one is a Ti 4200, upgraded from an old GEForce TnT 2 Ultra that I upgraded the initial card from.3. CPUs - 400 ghz to 900 on my first machine; 1.4 to 2.0 on my second machine. 4. Extra drives: I am running two extra hard drives off a PCI Ultra controller that installed easilly5. Sound Card: I upgraded from the OEM in my second machine to a Santa Cruz card - again, no probs. No quality issues with either of the machines ever.Also, the XPS is the gaming machine, not the 2350, and if you read the specs, its built with upgrading in mind - hefty power supply, canterbury chipset, S-ATA drive connections, many extra drive bays. It is still hundreds less than a comperably equiped Alienware machine - and that represents a CPU upgrade down the road. So, just to be fair here, I have had no problem upgrading my Dell computers.

[Guest ccgr]

go custom built for upgradability!

[Guest cw1011]

They still are not offering the P4 3gig with the 800 mhz FSB mated with a canterbury chip set mother board.