I see at cnet the optiplex sx270 got the editors choice.

Other computers I would like are the dimension 2600C and the optiplex gx270.

What is the main difference between these? Are they all hyper threading compatable? What are you recomendations? What other non cnet sites give good reviews for these? Anyone have any experience with these? They woul;d be ordered for VA Techs Equine Medical Center.

look them up on some web sites

if you can't build yourself a nice system find somebody who can do that. nothing can beat a customised computer and you will be happier with it, sometimes it is even cheaper.

i will not forgive myself if i ever buy or use DELL or anything like that.

Ive got a customised Dell Demension 8300.
Just what the doctor ordered. Great PC

i have had 2 dell computers in the past, each cost around £2000.00 and i have said i will never buy one again. the prices are stupid, you could build one yourself for lett that half the price!

:.Story.:
I once tried ordering a Dell 8300 online and nearly went mad trying to match the parts while keeping the cost below a budget. I just gave up in the end and went off to computer accessories store and bought all the parts i wanted .


Moral:
Try to buy customized comps with no brands. Branded ones like Dell normally are more expensive( u shud know why), and the quality is not as good either.

My wife uses an older Dell Dimension , 700 Mhz, and was satisfied, untill a friend gave her a hard drive to add where she could store more music. When I opened it up to add the hard drive, there was no additional bay, there was no additional plug on the cable for access...I never ran across that in any other computer brand before...lol...Dell did not want that model to be adapted in any form. I will have to buy her an external hard drive case and attach it via usb for her to use her additional HD...unless I want to modify her drive cage, and change out cables too. Her system functions ok for her.But I like to be able to modify at a whim...Dell certainly is not the system for that.

I have had these computers for over 10 yrs. I have owned 8 of them myself not including what has been built for my family. The computer is a PREMIO.

You can look them up at:

http://www.premiopc.com

EXCELENT puters. And you can add and delete hardware ANYTIME you want, unlike DELL, GATEWAY, ETC ETC.

All I can say about what to buy. SPEND it up front. If you don't it will cost you more in long run. You will be paying twice. Get 1 gig of RAM. min. of 80 gig 7200 rpm hard drive. And buy the biggest monitor you can afford.

About all the advice I can give without going to techical on ya.

the first dell that i had only had 1 additional bay but the one i have now, (home built) has 7 HD bays, only problem is i can find a big enough IDE cable lol

I am currently running a dell optiplex GX 270, i bunged in 2gig of ram and a 120 gb HDD, its only a P4 2.8GHz but it is sound as a pound, really quiet too, only prob is i had to get a dvd writer for it and i cant burn on the fly cos it only has space for one drive :-( I was thinking of spapping it out to a bigger case that i have lying around but the mobo dont fit cos its PCI slots swing the other way so you have to use the dell case.

Got a nice 17" tft screen too and all usb periferals and it was quite cheap (UK). They are doing some great summer deals at the mo.

My advise go for the dell dimension, you get a bigger case and room for expansion, but I do think (even tho i build PCs for ppl) Dell are good sturdy PCs and well worth the money when on sale!

Regards,
Am :D