04-08-2003, 04:48 PM
If you're a gamer, you're gonna wanna upgrade that video card - if not, it should be more than enough. I would also double that RAM, but before you get it through Dell, see how much Crucial wants for it - if it's cheaper, get it through them. You'll want 512 megs for XP. And speaking of XP, I would either upgrade from Home to Pro, or get your hands on a copy of it - home blows.
Depending on how much you plan on fucking with the machine, the warranty is a judgment call. I would go with the 3 or 4 year deal, only because I upgrade constantly and I had the 3 year on my current Dell, which turned out to pay for itself - my motherboard/cd drive.speakers all died within a few months of each other and they sent the parts and a techie (for the drive and mobo) out to take care of it. If you're gonna leave it as is the 1 year might be enough but sometimes parts can fuck-up without much more than a power surge or you bumping into the case. The way I see it, if you're gonna invest at least $1500 to $2000 into a piece of equipment, a few hundred dollars more to protect it is a worthy investment.
Depending on how much you plan on fucking with the machine, the warranty is a judgment call. I would go with the 3 or 4 year deal, only because I upgrade constantly and I had the 3 year on my current Dell, which turned out to pay for itself - my motherboard/cd drive.speakers all died within a few months of each other and they sent the parts and a techie (for the drive and mobo) out to take care of it. If you're gonna leave it as is the 1 year might be enough but sometimes parts can fuck-up without much more than a power surge or you bumping into the case. The way I see it, if you're gonna invest at least $1500 to $2000 into a piece of equipment, a few hundred dollars more to protect it is a worthy investment.