Not sure where to ask this but I am after a new PC to replace my trusty and still going strong, dinosauric Dell XPS8300, which I've had for around 12 years and still running Win7 64-Bit (always hated the blandness of Win10, so went back to Win7), but new versions of software I use are no longer supported on Win7 and cannot upgrade PC to Win11.
Ideally, I would like another XPS system (the current on is used for image and video editing) with the ability to run two monitors (three would be a bonus) and capable of handling multiple windows and a several programs running at the same time for up to 18 hours a day.
Seen one I fancy, but with being seasoned HUKDer, always looking to get it cheaper and wonder if anyone knows of any way discount codes to bring the price down a bit?
Also, does anyone on here have any first hand experience of Win11 Pro/Home and care to share whether the difference in price is worth it?
I did try building one via PartPicker with similar components, but it was close to the price of the Dell XPS system I was looking at.
Cheers
Ideally, I would like another XPS system (the current on is used for image and video editing) with the ability to run two monitors (three would be a bonus) and capable of handling multiple windows and a several programs running at the same time for up to 18 hours a day.
Seen one I fancy, but with being seasoned HUKDer, always looking to get it cheaper and wonder if anyone knows of any way discount codes to bring the price down a bit?
Also, does anyone on here have any first hand experience of Win11 Pro/Home and care to share whether the difference in price is worth it?
I did try building one via PartPicker with similar components, but it was close to the price of the Dell XPS system I was looking at.
Cheers
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sorted byI asked them to get a new one, but they reluctant...
What is your budget? (edited)
Just a clean up now and again with The Cleaner, SAS, Malwarebytes, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, ATF Cleaner etc.
I must admit though, my add in Creative SoundBlaster did pack in about 3 years ago, so reverted to the onboard sound and to be fair it's good enough.
The PC has always been on the floor under my desk, switched on for 18 hours a day normally and has been a dust magnet from day one.
Had to strip it occasionally and blow out the case and also the old Radeon GPU now and again, but once back together, good to go.
As for budget, I've just ordered a new, but not sure if it's a good deal or not:
DELL XPS
It was genuinely £1702.80 when I looked last night but when I looked again this morning, was surprised to see it had dropped by £194.00 to £1508.80 which I was relieved about.
In true HUKD tradition, I tried loads of codes to reduce it further without success due to them not being valid in conjunction with the offer price until I found a measly 4% off one.
Though I'd check whether my employer has a perks program and contacted Dell Advantage Team who said my employer was not affiliated with Dell, but did give me a one use 8% off code, bringing the total down to £1388.10, which I was happy with and pulled the trigger.
Also went through TopCashback for an potential 5.7% but as with most onsite offers, cashback normally gets declined, but worth an extra £70 off if successful..
I did attempt to build a virtual PC on the PartPicker website and the price was pretty clost to the original Dell price.
Hopefully it arrives tomorrow as advertised.
Generally Microsoft have given up on trying to upsell windows versions to home users (many people still massively undervalue software compare to hardware) so the 'Pro' version is generally only of interest to a business environment.
IIRC the main highlights are active directory, remote desktop, some VM stuff and the usual support for extreme hardware (multi-CPU systems, hundreds of gigabytes of memory).
You'd have been much better off spending the money on a 2-3TB SSD rather than a slower hard drive. There's not a lot of reason to go for the small saving the latter offer on a machine that expensive.
Once there's a bunch of the same two-colour icons on the desktop, be it blue/white, green/white etc, they just become a samey mess that slows down all productivity.
If you like the blandness of modern UIs fair play, but it's just lazy programming IMHO and I personally think the Win7 icon set was the pinnacle.
But everyone is different I guess.
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 10
Windows 11
Windows 12
dell.com/en-…let
Dell say these are returned PCs or some with scratch and dent but I have bought some laptops and Pcs from there and most seem brand new (I think they use Dell Outlet to sell old stock or items that are just not selling well but are brand new.
As you can see on the Dell Outlet web site, they have a whole range of desktops and laptops, and have a Home section and Work section. Note the Home section shows prices WITH VAT included, the Work section show price excluding VAT.