Anyone here who can beat Dell?

[Raster]

pci express slot is faster than agp.

Awesome. Then I think I have the perfect system for my money...

Except for the damn 56k modem, AOL subscription, and the bs softwares I'd never use...

 

[Bobo]

Awesome. Then I think I have the perfect system for my money...

No, you don't

Except for the d*** 56k modem, AOL subscription, and the bs softwares I'd never use...

That's WHY you build your own.....

 

[Praetor]

So I wouldn't be able to configure CPU clock speeds and such in Dell BIOS, right?

Correct

Does AGP really make a difference as far as graphic card performance? And could I use both the integrated graphcs card that is in there now and another graphics card at the same time to boost performance? I'm guessing not.

Since you're not into gaming at all, dont bother with anything more than onboard video really.

And the PSU only goes up to 250 watts... What does this mean as far as upgrades go?

Not a whole lot.

Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem DFAX [313-2279] 14 can't get rid of this...

Cuz its not a "feature" -- it comes with the mobo whether you want it or not

pci express slot is faster than agp.

Too bad its not horribly useful right now. All that "speed" is going absolutely nowhere since theres no gaming going on

 

[Cromewell]

pci express slot is faster than agp.

not always, a PCIe 1x slot isn't faster than AGP. I know you mean a PCIe 16x graphics port but you weren't specific . And even so, the PCIe 16x is faster but the extra bnadwidth is wasted, AGP4x is enough is most cases

 

[Travo925]

Definetly upgrade the video card if you are doing graphics...I have the dimension 2400 (which was the previous version of the 3000) which had integrated graphics, and it was really slow in 3d studio max, I dont think that the 3000 has a AGP slot, but it definatly has pci slots, i'd say go with a xfx card...cheap off newegg..

 

[Praetor]

Definetly upgrade the video card if you are doing graphics...I have the dimension 2400 (which was the previous version of the 3000) which had integrated graphics, and it was really slow in 3d studio max

Uhhhh.... unless you plan on setting up a render farm (and dealing with videocards in the ~$1000 range), 3DSmax is not a GPU intensive task -- its CPU bound (hell even with a renderfarm its not GPU bound)

 

[Raster]

Hmmm... I think I'll stick with Dimension 3000 then...

Should I upgrade memory to 1GB instead of 512MB for $160?

Should I upgrade the HD space to 160GB from 80GB for $40?

 

[Raster]

Uhhhh.... unless you plan on setting up a render farm (and dealing with videocards in the ~$1000 range), 3DSmax is not a GPU intensive task -- its CPU bound (hell even with a renderfarm its not GPU bound)

ASUS P5GD1-VM Intel 915G w/ 8-Ch Audio, Video, PCI-E 95
KingMax 512MB PC-4300 DDR II 533MHz 240-pin 85
KingMax 512MB PC-4300 DDR II 533MHz 240-pin 85

The motherboard says it supports up to 400mhz for ram... Is there a special reason to get 533mhz?