Ben's Bargains Serving Fresh Deals 24/7

Got one of these awhile ago. Price was a little better and I optioned it out, BUT it's got a lot of bang for the buck. Quiet fan, unlike a lot of reviews. Limited expansion, but you should know that going in, believe it has a 250w power supply, too. I'm happy and it runs CS4 like a banshee (see's 8 cores).

Got it refurbished with a better video card for $620 from Dell Outlet (came in MINT condition). Not much expandability, but huge bang for the buck. Fast on single threaded apps, blazing fast on multiple threads.

Fantastic specs but it's still overprice, IMO.

Several refurbished studio i7's with 512MB Radeon 4850 for $719.

@4: That was the config I paid $620 for over a month ago

#5, #4, I'd like to know the secret about how you get this for 620. you check every day? Similar systems go for over 1000 at the Dell refurbished site at the moment.
links would be helpful as well. thanks

Any idea what motherboard Dell is using ?

#6, yes, you need to watch the outlet for the sales, especially the 20% off with no shipping sales. As soon as the sale is posted, you need to get on the outlet website and choose your system. Know what setup you want ahead of time so you're not looking at all the choices while others are buying them. You can put a couple in your shopping cart for up to 15 minutes if you aren't sure which one to buy. Once in your cart, they disappear from the view of others.

Normally within a few hours of a sale starting, all the really good deals are gone.

When I was PC shopping, I snagged (into my cart) a system with an e7300 CPU, 4GB RAM, 640 GB hard drive, with Vista Premium for $302 shipped. I also got an e8400 system $399, with similar specs. That was in December, when the normal (non-outlet) prices of those systems were close to double that price.

If you're interested, sign up for the Dell outlet emails. That's how you find out about the sales immediately. By the time the sales are posted here, it's usually too late.

In the end, I decided I wanted to experiment with overclocking and bought separate parts instead of a Dell. I spent a bit more money than the price of those Dells, and I had to deal with mail-in rebates, and I spent a LOT of time (overclocking is extremely time intensive if done right), but now have a ridiculously fast, very quiet system. If you don't want to deal with all that, the Dell outlet sales are definitely fantastic deals.

Thanks #8.

#8, thank you so much for the info. very helpful! found the system, now waiting for a 20% deal...

#1, i also have one of these. the fan isnt particularly loud but it changes speed/pitch so the noise varies. thats what makes it more noticeable.

Yes #6/#10, #8 did describe a very good process on how to get a deal. And to actually find the systems, just be very careful on how you select your filtering above (e make sure it's a 512MB Video Memory option, etc.) and you will find the cheapest systems when sorting by price. To confirm what it is, just click it and read the specs (i7-920's are listed as 2666MHz). Good luck.