DUDE IT'S A DELL

[Shrek]

Perhaps still on topic; is it really cheaper to build ones own rather than get a prebuilt?

 

[Atomic77]

How do you know that card isn’t good? I seen YouTube videos with that card playing a lot of good games.

 

[Shrek]

On the AIO (all in one) topic, which seems to be the theme here:

I was a Mac person till they started gluing the all in one iMacs shut; now I use decade old abandoned PCs as I can easily replace parts, be it a CPU upgrade, new Wi-Fi, more RAM or a power supply repair. By staying away from the cutting edge I got a top of the line Core 2 Quad CPU for $25 with postage. An Nvidia GT 1030 (the DDR5 version) seems plenty powerful enough for a lot of games. Keeping things separate (not all in one) also allowed me to pick up a high resolution monitor along the way.

But it's admittedly not for everyone as it can be a lot of work. I purchase RAM and hard drives second hand and then test them extensively to be sure they will work trouble free and tend to recap old power supplies and oil the fan to avoid trouble down the line.

I've been known to recap mother boards (from the capacitor plague era) but that is a real pain and I'd not recommend going that far unless one is desperate (I was).

Recapping goes a long way, and many failed monitors just need new capacitors in the power supply section.

 

[Atomic77]

One of my main reasons for the change is the size of my space and the fact that the old desktop seems to always get knocked off the WiFi . And it’s really slowing down quite a bit.

 

[Shrek]

I'm not saying your choice is not right for you, it probably is; but you opened this thread with 'I have purchased the following...' without any question, so this invited a discussion of the pros and cons of an All In One solution.

Concerning the Wi-Fi; the advantage of your desktop is that you can install a new Wi-Fi card; but if you have the same issue with an all in one, this is not an option. In my case I started with a $10 2.4GHz Wi-Fi card to just get going and then later upgraded to a 2.4/5GHz card.

You might want to look at updating the firmware in your base station and moving to 5GHz if you are not already using that.

 

[Tom Sunday]

I am getting new DELL PC soon my Dad and Stepmom ordered it for me from costco....

Congrats....I have a Dell as well and yours seems to be a system what they "call all in one!" Very nice. Costco always has good prices and extra warranty coverages besides great hot dogs. I have a Dell myself which was given to me during better times in 2008 and it's a Dell XPS 730x. Have overall been very happy but needed to replace (3-times over) my power supply, motherboard, liquid cooling system, hard drives and memory. Essentially having to replacing all of the essential hardware in my 13-year old system. Doing so every 4-5 years however was not so $$$ painful and a learning experience.

FYI: Dell builds all of their PC's in a propiatery fashion forcing you to always purchase any replacement parts from Dell or ebay directly at much higher prices. I kept my Dell for only one reason during all these years, because I loved the case design and it originally came with a see-through plastic window, RGB lighting, liquid cooling, NVIDIA graphics and weighing 65 pounds. WOW...you having a Intel 11th generation i7 CPU and lots of memory, you can now play 'Metro Exodus' and meet Anna, Miller, Duke and Artyom at the Novosibirsk railroad station. I wonder now when my own upgrading time will come around, as my Mom does not care about computers and rarely comes down to see me languishing in my basement command center among the rubble. Besides cash now is always super tight but 'wolfing-down' a Costco hot dog here and there will surely keep me going.

 

[Secret Rival]

Good luck, hope it serves you long and well.

Maybe you should look into buying a case you like, then putting in decent, upgradable parts,
There's not many units to buy, and not more than a screwdriver needed. A nice board, RAM, chip/CPU,PSU
Then find a decent GPU for a decent price, but I'm sure you will be happy with the Dell.

 

[Shrek]

...Dell builds all of their PC's in a propiatery fashion forcing you to always purchase any parts from Dell or ebay directly at much higher prices.

Not sure that is true for all their PCs

 

[qubit]

Ok to answer the questions. The only games I’ve been playing lately are Starcraft 2, overwatch, Warcraft 3 reforged, Diablo 3 and sims 4. So no I don’t really play real demanding games. The system is ordered so I guess I will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Those are demanding enough to suffer on that card. As you say, it's ordered now and you'll find out when you try it. Again, Costco have a great return policy if it doesn't work out. Let us know how it goes for gaming.

 

[Toothless]

How do you know that card isn’t good? I seen YouTube videos with that card playing a lot of good games.

Every MX chip has been suited for extremely light gaming and media. You're not running anything high end with it like Witcher 3 or CP2077. Minecraft and Counterstrike would work.

 

[slightofhand]

@Atomic77... congrats on the new computer! Enjoy!

 

[Bill_Bright]

How do you know that card isn’t good? I seen YouTube videos with that card playing a lot of good games.

Its a good card. Don't pay attention to any one who says otherwise. Is it the best card available? Of course not. It didn't cost $1000+ either.

It is critical to understand game makers know that most gamers don't have bottomless pockets. So they code their games to still provide good "game play" on lessor systems. You may sacrifice some background detail, or have fewer animated objects or a smaller field of play. That does not mean you cannot be totally engrossed in the game and thoroughly entertained.

 

[tabascosauz]

How do you know that card isn’t good? I seen YouTube videos with that card playing a lot of good games.

Its a good card. Don't pay attention to any one who says otherwise. Is it the best card available? Of course not. It didn't cost $1000+ either.

It is critical to understand game makers know that most gamers don't have bottomless pockets. So they code their games to still provide good "game play" on lessor systems. You may sacrifice some background detail, or have fewer animated objects or a smaller field of play. That does not mean you cannot be totally engrossed in the game and thoroughly entertained.

The issue is less that the MX330 is "not good" - every product has a time and place. It's more that your Dell already comes with what I'm assuming is a i7-1165G7, a (for practical purposes, since 1185G7 is vaporware) Tiger Lake flagship part that makes the MX330 a little redundant. The integrated Gen12 graphics on the CPU is pretty damn beefy and might give the discrete card a run for its money, which begs the question as to why the MX330 is in there adding to the cost and complexity in the first place.

That aside, enjoy the PC. 11th gen mobile Intel is a strong choice for daily use and light gaming. Good call on your dad and stepmums part on getting the top end config, when it comes to soldered down mobile parts and difficult to upgrade AIOs you want the best you can get right out of the gate.

 

[RandallFlagg]

Well just to dispell a few incorrect statements about this AIO -

The Inspiron 5400 has M.2 wireless card, just like my desktop, so it is replaceable.
It has an internal M.2 SSD port, for 2230 size m.2 SSDs.
It has an internal 2.5" drive bay.
The RAM can be expanded via internal SODIMMS, just like a laptop.
It also has external type C USB gen 2 (10mbps).
And it has external HDMI connectors. One is for output, but really interestingly, one is for input.
This means OP could use his 2nd monitor if desired.

Negatives.

The screen is only 60Hz 1080p with a 25ms response time and 700:1 contrast. This is pretty poor.
On limited expansion systems like this here in 2021, Thunderbolt 3/4 would've been nice. You can use these to add a higher end GPU, not to mention extremely fast network and external storage. I would look for this on any laptop or AIO that I intended to keep for more than a year or two, and it's missing here.

Ref: https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/inspiron-24-5400-aio_setup-guide_en-us.pdf

 

[Shrek]

Thank you for the correction

 

[RandallFlagg]

The issue is less that the MX330 is "not good" - every product has a time and place. It's more that your Dell already comes with what I'm assuming is a i7-1165G7, a (for practical purposes, since 1185G7 is vaporware) Tiger Lake flagship part that makes the MX330 a little redundant. The integrated Gen12 graphics on the CPU is pretty damn beefy and might give the discrete card a run for its money, which begs the question as to why the MX330 is in there adding to the cost and complexity in the first place.

That aside, enjoy the PC. 11th gen mobile Intel is a strong choice for daily use and light gaming. Good call on your dad and stepmums part on getting the top end config, when it comes to soldered down mobile parts and difficult to upgrade AIOs you want the best you can get right out of the gate.

It has 2666Mhz DDR4, which will nerf the Xe iGPU. Hence, the MX330.

 

[Shrek]

I suspect the original poster will be way happy with this machine.

He doesn't like to build his own, no crime in that.

 

[Atomic77]

If you wanna know I have tried to upgrade myself once. I once replaced a video card in a old HP Pavilion tower I had several years ago and the whole computer quit working. Thats another reason why I tend to avoid messing with the inside of a pc. also the reason for me having a laptop now was that I was going to school for computer classes and now this DELL Im getting is going to be my main home pc as my almost 6 year old desktop is not doing what I want anymore.

 

[qubit]

If you wanna know I have tried to upgrade myself once. I once replaced a video card in a old HP Pavilion tower I had several years ago and the whole computer quit working. Thats another reason why I tend to avoid messing with the inside of a pc. also the reason for me having a laptop now was that I was going to school for computer classes and now this DELL Im getting is going to be my main home pc as my almost 6 year old desktop is not doing what I want anymore.

I don't know the specifics here, but it's quite likely that the power draw of the graphics card was too much for the PSU if it was midrange or better. They tend to put in the smallest PSU power rating possible to make them go, so adding anything more than an SSD, HDD, or very low end graphics card could trip them into shutting down, or becoming unstable.

It's also possible to physically damage the motherboard or card while attempting to fit the card and that will give you a blank screen too.
I hope your new computer meets your needs and you're happy with it.

 

[SL2]

Its a good card. Don't pay attention to any one who says otherwise. Is it the best card available? Of course not. It didn't cost $1000+ either.

At first glance it may look like forum members are giving the OP a hard time because of the specs, which isn't true for the most part.

The main issue here is that it's expensive for what he gets, and that's a whole different thing. You know, the opposite of bang for buck.

The OP is free do do as he pleases, but it's hard not to give advice even though he's asking us not to, and that's what makes some of us frustrated when we can't help him save some money.

"Here's what I'm about to buy, now DON'T give me any advice" - That's difficult to accept.

Edit: Yeah, I saw the other thread before. Again, this is not about mocking a low budget purchase. $1000 isn't low budget. I wonder why this is so hard to see for some (no not you personally).

 

[Atomic77]

Never did I say not to give me advice but I have all ready made the purchase and now comes just waiting for it to arrive. according to the site My Printer could be delivered Wednesday March 31, 2021 and the computer as soon as April 2, 2021. When I got my laptop last year it arrived a few days earlier than the expected date.

 

[SL2]

Never did I say not to give me advice but I have all ready made the purchase and now comes just waiting for it to arrive. according to the site My Printer could be delivered Wednesday March 31, 2021 and the computer as soon as April 2, 2021. When I got my laptop last year it arrived a few days earlier than the expected date.

Sounds good, I bet you'll like it a lot!

I just have to repeat one thing regarding your laptop. If you ever think that it feels older than it is, especially after comparing with your new computer, it's possibly because it has a HDD.

Installing an SSD is something you apparently don't feel like doing, but in case someone can do it for you, it's certainly a much better option than buying another laptop.
SSD's are cheap (<$40), and it seems like it's possible to add one (M.2 2280 type SSD) without removing the HDD. You can always ask us here if you need help picking one.

Just in case, here's HP's own instructions for how to open the laptop and replace components.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05985614.pdf

 

[Mussels]

I came to check out this thread after reports of grumping
I'm 36, partially disabled and heading to a wheelchair myself... but as long as my eyes and hands keep working i'll be splashing what cash i have into my gaming rig, so i have something to do with my time... so yeah, i get why you've picked something suited to YOUR requirements

All in one systems make me sad because they're so damned hard to repair when something goes wrong, as they're really just a laptop in a weird form factor

if you're a non-gamer this would be fine for office and media work, its gunna struggle for DX11/DX12 titles

Actually I would say many, many need more than 8GB. And, a lot of power users who think 16GB is enough could benefit from 32GB if they really multi-task or use demanding applications a lot.

Idle - 1 tab browser is all that's open - 6.5GB used :
View attachment 194154

And now, I've opened up a small spreadsheet single page, no formulae or anything complex at all, a PowerPoint from work - 63 pages with some images and charts, but nothing really fancy, no video or audio nor any animations or effects. I also have a couple of windows explorer windows open (file browsing) snipping tool, and WinRar for looking inside zip files :

View attachment 194161

At this point, 8GB will be swapping. If anything, what I'm doing is a light load for an office worker. For a more advanced business user, well it's not unusual to see them with a dozen spreadsheets and half a dozen PowerPoint or word docs of significant size open, along with java laden productivity web sites. Sometimes 16GB isn't enough.




That's Tiger Lake on the desktop. I really like AIOs and now that GPUs cost too much to be practical for most people, a setup like that is about the best deal going.

16GB will absolutely prevent swapping - and thats going to keep the SSD alive longer

OP mentioned starcraft II, that game is purely single thread CPU limited - this system will handle it as well as any other
(even my friggen system slows to 30FPS in big MP/coop matches, games got issues)

 

[Atomic77]

according to my UPS tracking for this order it is estimated to arrive on March 31. the order started way over on the east coast and now is getting very close to my town.

 

[Atomic77]

Im so freaking happy right now. I just got the new computer today and it is so awesome. I just got it and my new printer up and running and so far no issues. I am using my NORTON 360 on it in place of the Mcaffee.