need advise on customizing my Dell Dimension 8300

was approved for a $1500 credit line over at Dell and looking at the 8300. a few questions:

1) video card: would it be wise to spend the $133 to upgrade the stock GeForce FX 5200 128mb to the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb. keep in mind gaming is not a lot of what i do. are both cards equally compatible with the major linux distros?

2) the 19" monitor is only $144, is it a good one? it appears to be a flat crt.

3) is that damn remote worth the $19 for the "True Dell Media Experience"?

4) and should i bother with all the warranty crap?


thanks for any help!

Dell Dimension 8300 Series: Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3GHz w/800MHz FSB SP308K [221-2452] 1
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional WPXP [313-7222] [412-0409] [420-1922] 11
FREE TurboTax Basic: FREE TurboTax® Basic for Tax Year 2003 TAX [420-4125] 106
Memory: FREE UPGRADE! 1024MB DDR SDRAM at 400MHz 1GB4P [462-0749] 3
Hard Drive: 120GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) 120S [340-9600] 8
Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices: 3.5 in Floppy Drive FD [340-8628] 10
CD orDVD Drive: Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + FREE UPGRADE! 8x DVD+RW Drive DVD8DVP [313-2559] [430-0594] [462-7704] [462-7813] 16
Keyboard: Dell ® Quietkey ® Keyboard QK [310-1582] 4
Mouse: Dell® 2-button scroll mouse SM [310-1871] 12
Monitors: Video Ready w/o Monitor N [320-3000] 5
Video Card: New 128MB DDR ATI RADEON™ 9800 Pro Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI 128PRO [320-2871] 6
Sound Card: Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio IS [313-2758] 17
Speakers: No Speaker Option N [313-2198] 18
Dell Media Experience: Dell Media Experience™ DMX [412-0519] 115
Remote for Dell Media Experience: Remote Control for Dell Media Experience™ RMTX [650-0008] 190
Multi-Media Players: RealOne™ Player, with 14 day SuperPass trial REALBAS [412-0380] 40
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH MMBASE [412-0516] 27
Digital Photography: Dell Picture Studio, Paint Shop Pro Trial, Photo Album Starter Edition DPS [412-0521] 28
Productivity Software: Productivity Pack including WordPerfect® and Money® COREL [412-0395] [412-0551] [412-0555] 22
Security Software: I chose the promotional security package with service NOSEC [462-3905] 25
Surge Protectors - Protect Your Investment: Belkin Surgemaster Gold Power BELGOLD [A0004763] 78
Modem: 56K PCI Data/Fax Modem DFAX [313-1313] 14
Network Interface: Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet IN [430-0412] 13
Dial-Up Internet Access: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included AOLPUB [412-0592] [412-0625] [420-3224] 37
Special Offer: $100 OFF SPECIAL OFFER 100OFF [460-9055] 120
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service S111OS [412-0360] [950-1260] [950-3337] [950-9797] 29
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service: No Warranty Complete Care NWCCADP [970-1017] 33
Digital Camcorders: Panasonic PV-DV53 Digital Video Camcorder PVDV53 [A0107524] 184

all this for under $1100

couple more issues:

1)doesnt dell sell barebones systems like servers for $400 or so? i remember seing these a while back, but all the barebones units(servers) i now find are $1500 without OS.

2)i'm $270 over my credit limit...added a much needed panasonic dv camcorder for $399. dell's not allowing me to split payment with cash, i'd like to downgrade the proc to 2.8, but that's not allowed it seems.

3)shipping is $96 5 day. wtf. apple charges $35 for 2 day. gateway charges nothing. again i say, what the....does dell ever offer free shipping promos? hell by that time the free dvd burner upgrade or quadrouple your ram upgrade probably won't be offered.

thanks for all the help!

just ordered it.

P4 HT 3GHz w/800MHz FSB, 1gb ram, 120gb sata, geforce 128mb, 8x DVDRW
Unit Price: 962.00

added the beautiful, FA Porsche designed, Lacie 250gb external firewire drive

and a Wacom tablet...have always wanted one of me own!

i'm sure that within 3 months i'll be writing this on my newly outdated 3 month old dimension 8300...

woohoo! the wanker just shipped...5 days ahead of schedule!

what continues to eat my shorts is the $96 shipping, 3-5 day, for the system. no monitor.

8300 received, one hour after receiving the tracking number via email. on top of that, it even beat the external drive and wacom tablet that i placed with the order.

now to wipe the hdd and reinstall winblow xp pro.

some observations: the case is gigantic, much larger than expected. and ugly, and very fragile plastic accents between the mouths of the optical drives. PS2 mouse and keyboard????wtf! PS2 is so 1992. how can this be standard fare on their next to top machine? no performance/game benchmarks yet, i'll repost once i've reinstalled everything.

dood. they gave me 7...SEVEN...usb 2.0. methinks i can cope with only 5 remaining.

case quality aside, the machine is unreal fast. i have never wiped the disk, set partitions, install xp pro, all updates, my progs...from scratch...in 30 flat on any machine. although only 200mhz faster than my 2.8 8887, it feels 30% quicker. i guess HT isnt all bullocks after all....

i'm smitten like a little nigerian dwarf goat!.....and for only $960!