I have received a quote from a friend who builts computers. eventhough it is a top notch computer and only costs me about $850, yet the amd64 doesnt support matrox and its a built computer and not necessarily tested to performance.

I was looking at a dimension 9100 and its a decent deal w/ a 2.8 duocore and a gig of ram and - gforce 6800 graphix card 256mb

I get customer support and a tested PC.
what do u guys think am i on a right trak?

has anyone bought this pc and used it?

Dell support for home users is more or less India-based. You get to talk to people who don't have North American accents and who will follow a troubleshooting script to try to narrow your problem down.

If you buy the 9100 through small business, I'm not sure what support you get. Dell's large customers (hundreds of computers) do get better North American support, although I believe they also still run you through scripts.

Now if you go with your friend... if he has previous experience giving support to friends/family, he may be hesistant since they may be using up lots of his time asking computer questions and troubleshooting minor issues (which Dell probably wouldn't touch, or would charge you for).
But if you get support from him it's probably better than Dell's. You/he can install remote software like Remote desktop in winXP Pro (not home) or UltraVNC (free) so he can give you support remotely.

2- That being said, I believe it's cheaper to get a deal on a Dimension 9100 and install your own upgrades (most of Dell upgrades are very overpriced, because otherwise they're not going to make a profit on the base system).

It may make the most sense to get the Dell. If you need better support, get it from your friend.
If you need help installing your own upgrades, get your friend to do it if need be. If you can program a VCR, you could probably do the upgrades yourself (read the manual).

I bought my 8300 through small bus and got gold support on it. i get n.american suppot however they are still not the best.

i'm not sure how much building a duocore will cost me!!

he quoted me for the following systems
AMD64 Sandiego 3.2
DDR2 400 1 gig
asus Geforce 6200 128 ram
case
motherboard
550/600w power
I provided 2 300 gig sata drives to have them set as raid


$850


now the 9100+ a 24" dell screen
dual core 2.8
1 gig ram
gforce 6800 256mb
3 years of service
160 gb HD sata and i have another 600 to ad to it...
$1750
and i can sell the 24" for at least $750



the guy has been working for 6 years but he is on the east coast and i'm on the west coast!!

i really dont know which to choose

now the 9100+ a 24" dell screen
dual core 2.8
1 gig ram
gforce 6800 256mb
3 years of service
160 gb HD sata and i have another 600 to ad to it...
$1750
and i can sell the 24" for at least $750
It may be cheaper if you get your friend to buy the Dell and to throw in the upgrades, or find a local computer tech to do it. Or do it yourself, if you can understand computer manuals.

For the system above, it may be about the same price from your friend (with better support) if you intend on selling off the LCD (presumably at a loss, although people may be interested in it if they're editing HDV with Vegas).

Watch out for shipping and taxes (between states; I don't think you'd have to pay, but double-check).


2- If you really do want to use the RTX100, it may be very picky about the hardware its on. The motherboard your friend uses may not be compatible... I'd double-check with the Matrox website.

http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx100xtremepro/rec/mb/home.cfm

Unfortunately they don't list motherboards with dual core-supporting chipsets there.

3- That base system from Dell is a really good deal if you want a 24" LCD... the monitor itself costs over a thousand dollars.
$1429-$100 rebate ($1329) for the 24" LCD and the computer. ($100 for dual core upgrade.)

I don't think the warranty is worth it because it doesn't cover the LCD (as far as I know?) and computer hardware simply doesn't break down that often where it'd make sense to spend $130 on a ~$600 computer.