Hi:
I was looking at the Dells trying to figure out how to use TG's 20% coupon. I was wondering, the Dimensions 2400 and the Dimensions 4600 seem to be very similar. All the 4600 seems to have stuff that is usually FAR from Officemax is you wait long enough-CDRW's, RAM and a bigger hard drive.
Am I missing something?? Does it pay to buy a 2400 and just soup it up to the level of a 4600??

comparison link

Also I heard Dell's customer service is horrible-is that true??
thanks
Shmuel

I just noticed that the 4600 is a p4 and the 2400 is a celeron-exactly how are they different and is it such a big difference?

Well, at the price that the 4600s can go down to (~$300 in a recent deal), then I personally do not believe it's worth it to build your own (comparable) system. If you have special needs, then by all means build away. But if you're just going to put in FAR stuff and whatever you can find cheap, you'll save time and get a better system going with a cheap Dell.

I'm not a fan of the 2400 - integrated graphics is really not very good, although it's acceptable for some purposes. There is no AGP slot on the 2400, so you can't upgrade to a good video card. There are only two DIMM slots ont he 2400, 4 on the 4600. More room to upgrade, and you don't have to toss the modules that come with the system.
I don't think you'll find much of a difference between a P4 and celeron at the same clock speed. A small difference, but nothing too big.

As for customer service, everyone has their stories, but I've had no problems with Dell and I've bought quite a few computers from them.

Although I think building a computer is a good experience and you can learn a lot about them, I'm not a fan of doing it regularly. Some people like to do it, but I find I don't enjoy it. So if you don't want to do it just for the fun or learning, and you're not the kind of person who wants to specify every component, then just buy a cheap Dell.

the coupon is for S&P, you will not be able to apply it on systems