When
we went through Dell's website, we looked at both the E510
and the XPS400. The E510 is their mini-tower whereas the
XPS 400 is closer to a full tower design with a lot more
ports. To our slight surprise, we actually found that the
E510 was actually about $25 more than the XPS 400 when comparably
configured, plus it had a weaker audio card and couldn't
support both a modem and a firewire port. As such, we just
looked at the XPS 400, as it was cheaper and more upgradeable.
Without any of the daily Dell specials that are constantly
abounding around the holidays at Dell, we found that we
could tweak the XPS 400 tower as follows:
Designation:
Dell XPS 400
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 540
w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
RAM: 1 GB Dual Chanel DDR2 SDRAM 533Mhz - 2 x 512MB
(4 Gig max)
Hard Drive: 250 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
w/ DataBurst Cache
Video Card: 128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out)
ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (D) Card w/
Dolby 5.1 and IEEE 1394
Optical Drives: Dual: 16X DVD-ROM + 16X DVD+/-RW
Double Layer drive
Media Card Reader: 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Modem: 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Network: 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Warranty: 3 Year Warranty, At Home Service
Speakers: Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with
Subwoofer
Monitor: None (because Dell is always running monitor
deals, we didn't factor this in)
Cost: $1349 (plus shipping)
Alienware
was a bit more of a minefield, as they have so many different
options that many people get completely confused. (To my
knowledge, they're the only manufacturer out there that
gives you 5 different options for cooling your system!)
As such, even with the amount of experience we have wading
through computer configuration sites, we created a completely
useless system before finding out there was a superior system
for less money! Alienware's Bot line ends up being like
Dell's E510 series. Once you get it configured you find
out that it has nowhere as good options as it's bigger brother
and it's actually more expensive.
As such,
we ended up looking at Alienware's Area-51 line. Their 3500
model offers a nice expandable full-tower case, but doesn't
have options to add a media card reader, which could be
problematic in some circumstances. With that in mind, we
were tempted to include one of their 5500 models, which
includes both a media card reader and a little more powerful
video card. However, considering there's a $280 price difference,
we figured you could probably live with the slightly less
tweaked video card and just plug in a $40 USB 2.0 media
card reader if you really needed to read media cards.
Designation:
Alienware Area-51 3500
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 640
w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache
RAM: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x
512MB (4 Gig max)
Hard Drive: 250GB Serial ATA II 3Gb 7,200 RPM w/8MB
Cache
Video Card: 128MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA® GeForce™
6200TC
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy®
2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE® 1394)
Optical Drive: 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Media Card Reader: No card reader available
Modem: 56K V.92 PCI Modem
Network: 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support
with Onsite Service
Speakers: Creative Inspire® T3000 2.1 29-Watt
Speakers
Monitor: None
Cost: $1641
So there
you go. Two very nice, upgradeable editing computers, both
for under $2,000. Of course, you'll still need to add a
monitor and your software, but a savvy shopper can find
deals on both, either from the manufacturers or from places
like Amazon, Ebay, and Egghead.
One
thing to make sure that you do not forget: buy yourself
an external hard drive for backup purposes! If you can afford
a snazzy raid 5 array, great. But if not, makes sure that
you get an external hard drive that is at least equal to
that of your primary storage hard drive. You definitely
don't want to be editing your masterpiece and, just before
you finish it, have your only copy die on your only hard
drive! You can pick up a Lacie 250 Gb Firewire hard drive
or a Western Digital USB 2.0 Hard drive for as little as
$140.
Well,
happy holidays to all you microfilmmakers out there! Hopefully
this article gives you some ideas for things for your Chistmas
list!
God
Bless,
Jeremy Hanke
Editor
Microfilmmaker Magazine
