Computer purchase waffling

[valis2]

So. Many of you know that I am unnaturally attached to my beautiful amazing giant Dell XPS computer. It is huge and noisy and I absolutely adore it.

Sadly, I purchased it in October 2003, and I am finally beginning to have issues with keeping up with things. Don't get me wrong, I am still spoiled by it. I can play WMP, edit up to 50 photos at a time in PS Elements, have 40 tabs open in Firefox, be working on a 200 page Word document, chat using Trillian, work on eBay listings using TurboLister, and have a scan running, all at the same time. However, if I try to edit more than 50 pics, PSE crashes, and with Firefox's recent memory hogging ridiculousness, it's getting to be a bit of a pain.

See, I got super lucky when I bought this system. I bought it as Windows XP was coming out, and therefore it has had a stable OS for a very long time. Now that 7 seems stable, I am wanting to get a new system now and enjoy another long stretch of stable OS happiness with a new computer. Even though my XPS is adequate (and sometimes more than adequate), it's starting to show its age. Still, seven years is a great run for a computer. I've added RAM and put in a new vid card, but other than that it's still as I bought it.

So here is my waffling issue. I can purchase one of two computers. One is the last gasp of the Dell XPS 9000; I believe this is the last weekend it's available, and it's discounted. The other is the new model, the XPS 9100.

Here are the stats for the 9100 I'm interested in:

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-960 processor(8MB L2 Cache, 3.20GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 12GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 6 DIMMs
MONITOR 24.0" Dell ST2410 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
HARD DRIVE 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drive:Blu-ray 6X Combo Drive and 16X DVD+/-RW w/double layer write capability
WIRELESS Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card
SOUND CARD THX® TruStudio PC™
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Basic Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Business 2010

9000:

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™ i7-960 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 3.2GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3
MONITOR 24.0" Dell ST2410 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (BD-ROM; DVD/CD Burner) and DVD+/-RW
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
WIRELESS Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Basic Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Business 2010

The differences that I can see immediately? The 9100 has higher speed RAM, a better Blu-ray player, and a slightly better vid card. The price is about $300 more for the 9100. So do I try to save money, or will that limit my computer's years of usefulness? I'm slightly more concerned with how long I'll be able to use the computer over price.

Any opinions would be awesome.

Comments

[cantabile.livejournal.com]

I have to hold my hands up to not knowing much about computers, other than that I like to use them, however ... if $300 isn't a big percentage of the total price of either I'd tend to spend it. Faster is better, isn't it?!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I just waffle about it because I really had a "ceiling" for the price and that would definitely go over it. *nodnod*

[florahart]

For point of comparison, the computer I'm using has a 20GB HD, 512MB RAM, no functioning optical drive, a Celeron 1.4GHz processor, I have no idea what for sound or video cards, and a 15-inch not-flatscreen definitely not-HD monitor. Won't run XP at all; is currently running Lubuntu with OO3 and Chrome.

So, either of these sounds like not at all the same beast (possibly not the same kingdom) to me. :D

The other difference I see, though, is in the sound card; does integrated mean it's sharing the RAM? It does with a video card, I think, and that makes the slightly slower speed more slower, yes? *shrug* Oh, and does the blu-ray dual-layer write capability mean you could burn to blu-ray?

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Wow, dude, you are hardcore. That reminds me of my Amiga 1000. lol! Though it didn't have a hard drive at all, actually.

That's a good point about the sound cards. Still, I don't play almost anything through the card except for chat pings and an occasional MP3, so I'm not sure it'll make much of a difference.

And I think that the dual-layer write capability is for the DVD drive. I tried to pick a Blu-ray player without burning capabilities. I've had this computer for 7 years and never once have I used the DVD burn feature, so I think I might as well save a little $ on that feature. (There are only two options for the DVD drive on the dual disc drives, and they both feature DVD burning.)

Thanks for the help!! :)

[ook.livejournal.com]

Did you check the Dell Outlet online store? You can buy older (and newer) models there at a discounted price. Go for the ones that are "scratch 'n' dent" rather than refurbished. Refurbs might possibly have problems that were never fixed. A scratch 'n' dent is usually just old stock or something with a cosmetic defect. Many of the computers were special orders that were cancelled by the buyers (for a restocking fee) so many of them have more RAM or extras not included on the basic configurations.

Be warned that on specific colors, you might get a different color (I was supposed to get a black Dell desktop but the color turned out to be brushed aluminum, which I actually liked better).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oooh, this is interesting. Am checking it out right now.

Wow, those are some incredible deals. Truly. I'm trying to find a 9000 right now and will continue searching the site.

Thanks for the link!! You rock.

[ook.livejournal.com]

Keep poking around the site. The search function is a bit odd. You have to know the kind of coprocessor you want (or something to that effect). They have lots of older models on there too! Also, you can pay extra for an extended warranty.

Just remember to go for "scratch 'n' dent" model.

[ishie]

This is nothing to do with the computer purchase (I used to know such things!) but you can limit Firefox's RAM usage with a pretty simple fix: http://www.lifespy.com/2007/firefox-quick-tip-limit-ram-usage/

Had to do it on my own 7 year old Dell a few months ago and it's amazing what a difference it made.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I have seen that tip before and thought about it. It's pretty crazy about how much RAM it can take up once it's been running all day with 40 tabs open, seriously. Thank you!!

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

Go for as much as you can afford. If you don't you'll kick yourself in the ass later. My new MacBook Pro has exactly what I wanted even though I did spend more than I wanted. But I learned over the years if you go for saving money now you'll regret it later on...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to really lean toward the 9100; apparently the power supply is more robust, and if I want to change vid cards or any other cards in the future, it would be good to have the extra power.

The first time around, I spent quite a bit, and I was hoping to spend slightly less, but I think I might just bite the bullet. Ah well. :(

[innerslytherin]

I say spend the extra money now. I did that when I bought my last Dell laptop, and I never ever regretted spending that money, even though I made the ultimate decision to go back to using a desktop (I can build a desktop from the ground up, but I'm not much good at working on laptop hardware, aside from adding RAM).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm leaning toward it; it's my usual philosophy with computers. It was just that I was wondering if the difference was even anything to write home about.

The biggest thing that's steering me is that apparently the 9000's power supply isn't really up to the snuff, and the 9100 has a more robust power supply, so I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and go for the 9100.

Thanks for the help!!