Dell Buying Advice

[Jeep Stone]

I'm after a new Dell for work. I do largely web dev work, with use of Photoshop/Illustrator for slicing/dicing. I do very occaisional video encoding but that's *very* occaisional.

I've looked at a Precision 690, although I did have a Precision 490 at my last place. Any recommendations?

[Mr Anderson]

You don't say whether you prefer a laptop or desktop. For a laptop, I ordered a Latitude D531 a few days ago, the spec seemed to cover everything I needed which isn't too dissimilar to what you've said you need. It also has an XP option if you don't want Vista.

[Jeep Stone]

Sorry, desktop unit. From the looks of it, the 690 is just a bigger (more expandable) 490.

[Matt]

I would offer advice on Dell, but I can never get through to speak to our regional account managers to actually bloody find out what they are like. Everyday they are engaged.

[Jeep Stone]

So what sort of advice would you offer?

[Matt]

PCs we use Novatech - they phone back when they say, have fantastic build quality, good prices, branded parts (mostly) in their builds and all UK Produced

Mick is our guy 02392 322707

[Jeep Stone]

Thanks.

[Jeep Stone]

I've spec'ed up the following:

Base: Two Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5320 (1.86GHz,1066 MHz,2x4MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 667 Quad Channel FBD Memory (4x1GB)
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp™ 2007WFP 20" Wide Black LCD Monitor (w/ Height Adjustable Stand) UK/Irish
Video Card: 128MB nVidia Quadro FX550 Graphics Card
WinXP

Seem reasonable? There is the option to upgrade the processor for a Single Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X5355 (2.66GHz,1333 MHz, 2x4MB Cache). Would this be a marked improvement?