its worth it to upgrade to the 500GB for $15.

no choice to upgrade to 64 bit - too bad!

win7 license isn't tied to 32/64 architecture, so you just need to get 64bit media elsewhere.

Quote from ckc : win7 license isn't tied to 32/64 architecture, so you just need to get 64bit media elsewhere.

In this case, this computer will run 64bit Windows, as there are drivers from Dell
http://support.dell.com/support/d...=VOS_D_430

But this is not always the case, but now, with newer CPU supporting 64bit, it is mostly true.

What no Star Trek?

We use Vostro's at work. Seem better made than their desktop line, good prices too. Nice find!

which one is faster? Core i3 Dual-Core or Dual Core 2 processor?

i3 is faster, due to better bus speeds on a better bus, better caching, better architecture for the cores with something called bus/core ratio, more threads handled at once:

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx...6472,36503,

so is the speed of intel procesors rated as follow? (from slowest to fastest)

dual core - core 2 dual - i3 - i5 - i7

Some of the recent processors have been labeled Dual Core, even though they are the equivalent of Core 2 Duo processors, but that is the progression of the names.

The processor speed, as in speeds such as 2.93ghz, are relative to other things such as the speed at which RAM can get data to the processor and how fast the processor had handle it internally.

With the new i3, i5, and i7 processors, the bus has changed so that it is not only faster, but it is more direct so the RAM gets data there more quickly, the processor can handle more threads and the cache that holds data internally for the processor is larger and quicker also.

Sorry for my ignorance. I've been away from the PC world for awhile. I have a 5 year old dell 4600, its a pentium 4 3ghz with 2 gigs of ram, and a 22" monitor. I use it to surf the web, use office 2007, visio, word, etc. Here's my question. Will this buy me any speed as far as surfing goes, or bringing up word, etc. or am I tossing money down the toilet.? I'd like to have a dual boot windows/Linux setup but then I guess vmware is involved?, and would this machine support it? - TIA. -

Quote from igt123 : Sorry for my ignorance. I've been away from the PC world for awhile. I have a 5 year old dell 4600, its a pentium 4 3ghz with 2 gigs of ram, and a 22" monitor. I use it to surf the web, use office 2007, visio, word, etc. Here's my question. Will this buy me any speed as far as surfing goes, or bringing up word, etc. or am I tossing money down the toilet.? I'd like to have a dual boot windows/Linux setup but then I guess vmware is involved?, and would this machine support it? - TIA. -

I have a similar system as yours (Dell 4700). I'm pretty sure this new Dell desktop won't help you much on surfing, word, excel, etc. But it will definately help you streaming or watching HD videos. I learned this the hard way with my current computer, which I upgraded the video card to GeForce 9500 GT (capable of playing HD videos), but only to find out the processor (P4 2.8Ghz) is still too slow to handle HD.

Any BING? I could not get Bing to work with this special link for this offer. I also could not save it to the cart for later access.

Quote from bestco : I have a similar system as yours (Dell 4700). I'm pretty sure this new Dell desktop won't help you much on surfing, word, excel, etc. But it will definately help you streaming or watching HD videos. I learned this the hard way with my current computer, which I upgraded the video card to GeForce 9500 GT (capable of playing HD videos), but only to find out the processor (P4 2.8Ghz) is still too slow to handle HD.

Thx. I have this 4600 for 6 years now. I'm looking for a reason to upgrade/replace...Used to be you'd replace them every 6 months and they were a few grand.. times have changed..