Miss the old dell deals that Mike used to post up. Wonder why they don't have many anymore

I expect this to not be a popular deal as it's a business desktop really, but it has a decent i5 4460 processor and the PC has 'some' upgrade capabilities. I just got one of these and added 4GB more ram from Crucial for £15 and bunged in a £30 Sandisk SSD and the thing flies as you'd expect. Comes with Windows 7 Pro installed (for business users), comes with Windows 8.1 Pro licence and install DVD and of course is Windows 10 Pro upgradeable for free. I unpacked, inserted a new SSD drive and loaded Windows 10 Pro straight from a W10 download tool that comes from MS so no Dell junk gets installed and it boots in 10 seconds and is a perfect home/office PC.

It eats through taskes and plays HD videos using just a few CPU % - while it's no gamer PC it's a great all rounder.

Yes no doubt someone can build it cheaper but I bet they can't inlcude the genuine MS Windows licence in their build costs (Reddit licences don't count!)

Internals:
2 DIMM slots
PCIe x1: 2 Slots
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slot
PCI: 1 Slot

Note the 300w power supply has a spare HD plug and a spare optical plug but that's it, no connectors for graphics cards. I installed my SSD drive under the optical drive using a small bracket.

6620 cpu benchmark is pretty good!

I bought a Vostro a few years ago. A trusty machine. If anyone is thinking of the gaming possibilities with the 300w power supply, I went for a NVidia 750Ti which draws little power and requires no dedicated power adapter, but can still play games on high settings.

I expect this to not be a popular deal as it's a business desktop really, but it has a decent i5 4460 processor and the PC has 'some' upgrade capabilities. I just got one of these and added 4GB more ram from Crucial for £15 and bunged in a £30 Sandisk SSD and the thing flies as you'd expect. Comes with Windows 7 Pro installed (for business users), comes with Windows 8.1 Pro licence and install DVD and of course is Windows 10 Pro upgradeable for free. I unpacked, inserted a new SSD drive and loaded Windows 10 Pro straight from a W10 download tool that comes from MS so no Dell junk gets installed and it boots in 10 seconds and is a perfect home/office PC.

It eats through taskes and plays HD videos using just a few CPU % - while it's no gamer PC it's a great all rounder.

Yes no doubt someone can build it cheaper but I bet they can't inlcude the genuine MS Windows licence in their build costs (Reddit licences don't count!)

Internals:
2 DIMM slots
PCIe x1: 2 Slots
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slot
PCI: 1 Slot

Note the 300w power supply has a spare HD plug and a spare optical plug but that's it, no connectors for graphics cards. I installed my SSD drive under the optical drive using a small bracket.

4GB Crucial memory upgrade CT7324509 currently £15.59 incl delivery - not sure if you really need more ram for an home/office PC but at this price it's almost pointless not to, plus a second stick should mean it runs in dual channel mode so slight performance increase as well as the ram increase.. An SSD drive for £30 like the Sandisks that are often on HUKD are the best instant boost upgrade to add.

decent for the price. i have this CPU in my gaming PC (self built) and it cost me about £140 on its own, so RAM, HDD, case + PSU, motherboard and windows license for £140 is pretty good value

anyone know if the PSU is ATX or Dell's own size to fit the case?

6620 cpu benchmark is pretty good!

A fairly poorly written review on TechRadar where they state it has the card reader but their pictures show it doesn't.

Owners Manual (some pictures in that manual are for another model so take note!)

Yep

Dell PC's are brilliant.

Personally own third Optiplex.
Second hand cost me F** all.

This time it's Optiplex 7010 with Core i5-3470 - pretty fast CPU for it's age.
Added some RAM and SSD. So It's lighting fast.

PC runs 24/7 - in 18 months time never restarted, or never frozen.
Business class PC are much more reliable (and power efficient) than domestic ones.

Dell PCs are fantastic. Picked up a XPS 8700 last year for £699. Came with a i7-4790, GTX 745 and 16GB DDR3 RAM.
Upgraded it a few months later with a GTX 970 and a 600W EVGA power supply (originally had 460W). Can run Witcher 3 on ultra 1080p at 45-60 FPS :smiley:

They don't sell this PC any more as the 8900 model is out now.

If you're courageous try building your own with an old workstation. I picked up a z400 off of ebay for £80. Had a w3650 xeon with similar performance to this cpu. Put in a gtx 960 i picked up for £120 from Amazon deal. Put in extra memory. Flys through all latest games and stacks of upgradibility for £210.

I think there is enough room to replace the powersupply with another without clashing with the DVD but it's a good point to consider. I thought ATX PSU's were all the sam size but maybe not?

Something to note when I fitted my SSD - this Dell (like many Dell desktops) has a dual side by side hard drive arrangement, this one uses metal rails that you screw onto the hard drive and slot in, note that an SSD drive needs to be inside a caddy to slot into this space BUT annoyingly the power cable plugs seperation isn't enough for an SSD in a caddy as it's neatly and tightly designed for 2 regular 3.5" drives and a slim centre mounted SSD is too far a stretch for the power plug. I mounted mine under the optical drive which does have more play in the power plug.

There's also space under the optical drives, assuming this PC doesn't come with the card reader (it says it does but mine did not and has the same Dell order number)

What would be required to network this through wifi?

hot deal but what is required to ise the desktop through wifi?

Miss the old dell deals that Mike used to post up. Wonder why they don't have many anymore

Good price for the spec, thank for all the info

Tempted...

I'd be wanting Win7 Pro just because I can get my head around it. Out of interest, did you install W10 just to remove any Dell stuff or do you get on OK with the new Windows variant anyway?
Thanks for posting by the way, I'm certainly tempted by this, my old Dell XPS 420 is starting to show its age. :P That was a Dell Outlet purchase by the way.

People were slagging off the recent PC offered here a few days ago because it only had a
500 W power supply , this one only has 300W.

Firstly it was for my wife who is very PC literate, secondly it seems inevitable MS will continue to make lives harder for Win7 and Win8 users with more forcible upgrade reminders and them stopping support of features. Even now Win7 users find Windows updates can take days to update if you've reloaded W7 from scratch and have 200+ updates to install...... there is a fix but MS seem to do this to make life harder for older O/S users. And thirdly I didn't want the Dell preinstalled stuff, of which there isn't much to be honest other than a McAfee which must be removed at all costs in my opinion, plus a few Dell update and support programs that I never use or need.

Anyway, I originally dislike W10 on the preview builds, I used Classic Shell and that makes it look and behave like W7 so that's one solution. The other solution is to learn W10 and make it how you want it.... it is possible to make the start button more or less similar to W7, it's easy to put the icons on the desktop that you want (My computer, network, etc) and it's possible to make W10 more or less behave and feel like a slightly newer version rather than the horrible tablet interface that Win8 is associated with.

Win10 is actually ok with the current build and if you're thinking of installing an SSD drive I really would suggest giving it a try and then go to W7 if you really don't or can't use it. The install of W10 onto an SSD is fast, very fast, load the OS onto a USB drive, install took maybe 30 mins and rebooted and because I forgot to remove the USB it tried to start from scratch and reload W10 again (my fault, pay attention!) - after a few dozen W10 updates and installing chipset driver, intel storage and graphics driver, I was up and running. So maybe 1.5hours to get it from nothing to fully up to date.

For fun, I firstly booted up W7 out the box, it took a while to load up and want to do updates.... as it's a traditional hard drive everything felt slow as I'm used to SSD's on all my computers....well after 10 mins of testing the desktop worked I then installed the SSD, installed W10 and the performance improvement with the SSD is massive as you'd expect and W10 is as fast as W7 as far as I can tell.

Thank you spannerzone.

Any USB 3.0 ports at the front (or rear)?

*edit* more info here http://www.uk.insight.com/en-gb/productinfo/desktop-pcs/0005005759 2 at the rear then.

2 x USB3 on the back, plus 2 x USB2 on the back and 2 x USB2 on the front (it's a bit light on USB ports) - there's an internal USB header socket on the motherboard so maybe a possible expansion option.

Pulled the trigger on this one.
I know you gave a link somewhere earlier to the Ram, could you point toward an SSD? Not sure I'd install one as yet but might be tempted given the low price of the unit.
Thank you again spannerzone.

How good is the internal graphics chip?

Awesome rig if you are on a budget and really need a decent PC for work. Save some money up later and buy a new case, psu, gpu and mobo when you can!

Does it have the win 7 or win 8 install disc included in the box

If i remove the 500gb drive and replace with an SSD do i need a new cable to connect to the port marked 17 in blue on the pdf page 23.Do i need to change any bios settings ?.

https://www.ballicom.co.uk//docs//01/34/0134fc45-3ec6-4cec-8e4f-0e1b7cb08970.pdf

Also i have a dell u2412m monitor.It has a dvd-i or display port can i just get hdmi to dvd-i cable or display port to hdmi from ebay ?

Mine came with a Windows 8.1 Dell branded re-install DVD and a dell utilities DVD. There was no W7 install disc included. There is no physical sticker with any Windows product key (COA) - that info is in the BIOS itself as I understand it.

You could disconnect the hard drive and use the same SATA cable, yes. Doing this shouldn't need any BIOS change but you might want to enter the BIOS, double check it can see the changed drive (from a mecanical drive to the SSD)

Yes you can get an HDMI to Displayport lead or HDMI to DVI-D, either should work the same. DisplayPort to HDMI might also pass audio to the onboard speakers (if there are any) as I believe displayport can pass audio like HDMI whereas DVI-D doesn' (usually)

Mine came with a slightly out of date BIOS so I updated mine, remember doing this can very occasionally brick the motherboard so if possible do on a UPS so no mains interruption can cause an issue. Not sure what the latest BIOS added but I thought I'd do it so if I bricked the thing I'd send back as received faulty, straight out the box :smile:

Aye Indeed, got 2 Dimension 8400's thanks to Mike. Is he still around ?

I use firefox and open many tabs and use to run out of memory quite quickly when I only had 4gb; adding 4GB of Ram is really a no brainer...

thanks OP for following up the deal with useful info, etc in both the initial & subsequent posts.

In the op you say it cost 150 on its own? Is that without the ram and hdd?

Links?

Firefox has a memory leak that grows over time until you restart it. Since I put an SSD in my laptop I haven't installed Firefox back on it.

​How easy is all the above to do? if its to long winded i may just buy the parts and hand over to my IT department.

Is there anything else for similar price that can compare?

If you can find a Lenovo ts140 server on offer with cash back bringing price down to £240 it It would be even better than this if you want a workstation where CPU performance matters the most.

good, but not a massive bargain as Amazon price is £307

No idea. I got myself 1 laptop & 2 PCs via his links. Good days

Looking for something like this or intel nuc/brix setup? Any recommendations??

I bought a Vostro a few years ago. A trusty machine. If anyone is thinking of the gaming possibilities with the 300w power supply, I went for a NVidia 750Ti which draws little power and requires no dedicated power adapter, but can still play games on high settings.

How does this processor compare with i5 3470? Thanks

Would this suit for photo editing (light room & photoshop) massive iTunes library and vinyl conversion via Ion turntable and general home use without doing anything? I could probably change the ram, but I've never changed anything else and to be honest it frightens the **** out of me.

better or the same?
Lx

i5 vs i3 I would have said definitely the i5 because it has more cores (and I'd always choose it if it were the same price) but the comparison does say the i3 is better on power usage.

I recently upgraded to an i5-4460 with an SSD and it is a pleasure to use, boots up in a bit over ten seconds and I never see any lag. Though I don't do any gaming.

The one you linked has a weaker processor..
But both would handle your massive iTunes library and your turntable without a hitch (providing you have enough hard drive space). As for Photoshop, it would depend on the image file sizes you tend to work with and how often you make use of different filters / adjustment layers which require rendering.

Just selling same spec Lenovo thinkcentre e73 on ebay for £150. I bought it there last year for £200. Geed everyday computer.

Really tempted by this deal.

Anyone know how noisy this is in day to day use?

out of curiosity did you get the extra 4gb ram and ssd fitted by them or buy separate and fir yourself?

and is there enough room for 2 hdd i.e. this one plus ssd?

thanks

shame on me not reading this !:confused:

is this better than this ? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-pavilion-550-151na-desktop-pc-10138661-pdt.html

Interesting; I find with 8gb ram Firefox seems fairly stable with 50-60 tabs open.

This is the best price I've seen on an i5 desktop since my deal for £157.01 which got all of 40 heat.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-280-g1-mt-intel-i5-desktop-pc-for-350-40-less-175-trade-for-business-customers-2307063

A £15 wi-fi card,google TP Link wi-fi card.

Changing storage options in BIOS to AHCI mode if not already done could be something to consider if adding an SSD.

can anyone recommend a "small form" computer ...need a wee one for my wee office ...just basic web browsing , light games for the kids and storing family photos on . someone posted a few days ago a company that sells refurbished dell optiplex machines and I think you kinda pick and choose online what you want and I can't for the life of me find the company name now ! don't need a big beast prefer the look of the small form computer then I will look at getting a monitor , just fed up with a small screen on my laptop ! thanks

It is a well known problem even after closing tabs it can suck memory especially if you use flash videos such as those on YouTube and other sites. I've been a Firefox user for over 10 years and every update appears to bring less stability.

Not sure whether to go for this or a Dell Optiplex 3010 with below spec:

OPTIPLEX 3010 SFF
Intel Core i5-3470 (3.2GHz), 6Mb Cache
4GB RAM DDR3 1600MHz (1x4Gb)
500GB SATA 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32Mb Cache
DVD+/-RW
Windows 10 Business

Can get the above with 21.5" screen for £246.

Can anyone advise?

Ah I block flash under Firefox and use Chrome instead just for flash. I find the bookmark handling in Firefox far better than the other browsers which is why I use it.

AHCI should enable or help TRIM so that would mean the SSD will live longer as well as perform faster.

Just got one many thanks for the post .
was thinking of building a unit but with so much to do and so little time , I had to give in to such a tempting offer :smiley:

What're people's opinions of this Zoostorm Tempest Gaming Desktop PC

As far as I can make out price would be very much the same as this one once both are equipped with 8Gb RAM and a 120Gb SSD.

The Zoostorm has an AMD A10-7850K Processor APU which is better for graphical applications and is unlocked. Has anyone had a Zoostorm before as while they're definitely well specced for the price I've heard that the PSUs can be noisy and unreliable?

Will I be able to drive two monitors with the on-board graphics? I am guessing that I can use the analog port, as well as the digital port at the same time? Note that this is only for bingo websites for my mother and so there is nothing intense from the graphics perspective. I will be grateful if someone can confirm this for me. Thanks in anticipation of your help.

Does anyone know what possible upgrades you can make to this? If I can install an ssd, extra ram, gpu and a more powerful psu, I'll definitely pick myself up one of these, thanks in advance

Did you miss the bit where he said: PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slot

The most obvious difference I can see at a glance is no operating system is installed on that PC should that be a concern to you, if it is then W8 Pro OEM is another £120 (yes you can get it from Play Asia for under £20 at the moment if you want to chance it) CPU wise, the AMD has much better graphics capabilities it would seem according to CPU Boss, the intel i5 has some CPU improvements on some benchmarks.... I can't say what's better, someone else may be able to.

Thanks Blasphemous. Was more wondering about space in the case as some comments have pointed out case sizing as a possible issue, what do you think? Room for a gpu and beefier psu?

It's not a massive case and a larger GPU might not fit easily and there's no extra power socket for a power hungry graphics card so you might need to replace the power supply, which is a standard ATX size and someone earlier said theyd had troubles but I thought all ATX power supplies were the same size but I'm probably out of touch!

Thanks. I already have a retail version of Win 7 so I would decommission it on my current PC and install on the new one anyway and yes, the i5 appears to score better in the single core benchmarks.

Really looking for experience of Zoostorm ownership now. Anybody? :neutral_face:

Thanks spannerzone, have ordered it. Might be brave and try the SSD.

Lx

I may holler for help :wink:

Lx

Is that new or refurbished? am assuming it's a refurb at that price. Performance wise it'll be a little bit slower but not a huge or particularly noticable amount I suspect. Add an SSD and it'll fly for day to day tasks.

Points to consider: it's small form factor so adding / upgrading is limited.... powersupply probably is a bespoke small non standard item, graphics card upgrade may be limited to low profile and low(ish) power consumption.

However, it's not a bad price for what you're getting, assuming you need the monitor... if not, I'd get the new Dell Vostro.

Please could you tell me if the extra Crucial RAM module you ordered makes a matching pair with the already fitted module - I can't find any detail in the spec that states the specifics of the RAM. Thanks

Taken the plunge and ordered.

What about this SSD for it £23.74 @ My memory with code RanChen

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SSD-Drives/Integral/Integral-120GB-P-Series-4-SATA-III-2.5INCH-SSD-Drive

Ordered on Bank Holiday Monday with standard delivery and received this morning. Faster than expected so I'm now waiting on SSD from Amazon before getting to play with it!

Is it straight forward switching windows to a new SSD? Is it a simple case of wiping existing install and doing a fresh install on SSD? Any advice to avoid any unnecessary wasted hours would be much appreciated...

Yes it matches the existing pair and runs in dual channel mode. Ram supplied is:

Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Hyundai Electronics
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number HMT451U6BFR8A-PB
Week/year 13 / 15

Any my Crucial Ram is:
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Crucial Technology
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number CT51264BA160BJ.C8F

Thanks. In case it helps anyone I asked and had a reply re RAM from Crucial:

Q - "Hello. I'm considering another 4Gb RAM module for a Dell Vostro 3900 desktop (i5 4460). Please could you tell me the difference between item CT7324512 and CT7324509. Thanks"

A - "Hi. Although the specifications are exactly the same, the differences is that one is high density and the other is low density, meaning they are manufactured differently. A low density part (CT7324512) will have 16 DRAM chips on the module, while a high density part (CT7324509) has just 8 DRAM chips. Both provide the same level of performance and most systems can support both types - however they cannot be mixed within the same system. If you are adding another 4GB part, just count the number of chips on yours and match it up."

I think they're wrong, both those parts on Crucial's site are quoted as 512x64 which means a 4GB stick comprised on 512mb chips, which means 8 chips are required. Regardless, mine works which is part no: CT7324509 (or in typically confusing Crucial style, part no: CT51264BA160BJ.C8F when you read the label on the stick or via Speccy)

Quick question on the clean install onto a ssd
What licence key would you put in? The win 7 pro?

Mine arrived today. Just booted it, nice enough. Case is a bit 'flexible', more than I'm used to on my old XPS420 and the XPS420 is a LOT heavier than this unit. Booted into Win7 fine. Will get more RAM and possibly an SSD. Considering upgrading to Win10 but want to be able to move back so will take your advice spannerzone and install to an SSD and leave Win7 on the HDD in case I want to go back over.

Couldn't believe how light it was! :smile: No, no Card Reader mate.

Didn't check inside the case earlier and it's boxed back up now. Do you mean a SATA Data and power cable spannerzone? Is there a spare SATA port? And can you point to a link for the cables you used please? Just wondering about length more than anything.

Just a SATA cable required, 2 power plugs are available inside. Length depends where you mount it, but I'd suggest something like a 12" length like THIS which is what I used (pretty sure 12" was the length) and mount under the DVD drive using either a small cage (I listed one in a previous post) or just use sticky tape or doubleside velco to keep the drive in place.

Spannerzone thank you for the OP and all the advice given. I've ordered one for my son along with some extra RAM and an SSD. I'm looking to add a dedicated graphics card so he can run his Steam games without moaning - nothing too powerful or pricey as I'm a firm believer in consoles for games - would never try to put together a gaming PC, it just jars against my beliefs lol. Anyway I was wondering if you have any tips? I was looking at a GeForce GT 610, but I'm concerned about space inside the case, the power supply, and whether or not all PCI Express standards are the same. (I was recently blown away to find my DVI cables did not fit my new DVI monitor lol.) So you see I'm not being lazy, I'm just not that clued up! Any guidance would be most gratefully received :smiley:

correction, this has HD4600 graphics built in which might just do for basic gaming....might be worth trying it before buying a graphics card.

Google GT610 vs HD4600

Yeah I thought that's what you meant. Cheers buddy.

Ive crumbled, brought this with integral 120gb ssd and 4gb ram. Thanks OP

​yeah quite possibly, just check whether it needs a separate power plug (this Dell doesn't have a graphics card power connector plug)

Is anyone trying to get a legit copy of win 7 from dell to do a fresh install on new SSD as does not ship with any discs for win 7.
I found this on dells support site

Request Backup & Recovery Discs for your system (US, Canada and UK only)

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/media

Does this come with keyboard and mouse?

Price has gone up now to £358.50inc VAT

£299 including vat and 3 day delivery, plus get 4.54% topcaskback from misco

Thanks, I didn't check their postage charge. So around the same price as original deal when cashback taken into account, if it tracks.

Thanks for all of your advice, much appreciated.

I want to give W10 a go on the new SSD and have now downloaded to flash drive from MS and used the RW tool to extract the existing W7 pro product key.

Will this product key now work on a fresh install of W10 if I keep W7 untouched on the original hard drive? Only the link you gave for a clean install of W10 advises that you need to update from W7/8 first. In which case, how do you retain W7 on the original hard drive? By cloning to SSD?

I guess what I am asking in a long winded way is did you keep W7 on original and install fresh W10 on SSD, or did you update to W10 on both!?

Thanks in advance

I would like to know also as i have downloaded Win 10 to usb.
I think if all else fails you can install win 10 then install it again over its self and then it will all work fine.Thats what i found on the web.
Now i just need my ssd to arrive.

OK so physically disconnect the W7 hard drive and put it somewhere else!. Connect the SSD. Power up the PC with the USB stick inserted that has W10 software on it and it should boot into the USB stick and offer to install / update to W10. You do not have to perform any upgrade option, none whatsoever. Win10 will install as a fresh clean 'new' installation using the media creation tool. Follow the prompts for the new install and NOT any upgrade or repair option. No Windows7 or 8 key is converted as such, Win10 installer reads the BIOS to get the product key and should allow it to install as it'll recognise it as a genuine W7/ W8 key.

From memory you have option to upgrade existing or clean install, select Clean install. It will NOT require you to enter the product key that you have extracted (I just told you to do that for reference just in case, or in case W7 was to be reloaded which might need it)

Win10 reads the product licence key out of the BIOS and even if it asks you to enter it, click the 'enter it later' option.

Don't panic about Windows and all the upgrade requirements, it's not necessary for this PC, it will pretty much just install without much trouble. The reason I said disconnect W7 hard drive is so you cannot mess up the original config and if the SSD install goes boobs up then you have easy rollback.

Have a second PC handy to read the install guides/troubleshooting/downloading the drivers I listed. Once W10 is installed, I would install the 3 drivers I mentioned then do a Windows update and let it sort itself out.

Read this guide (section "Doing a clean installation of Windows 10") - this pretty much covers what I had to do exactly.

Just been informed my order has been cancelled by Misco due to a pricing error, anyone else had the same?

Placed the order on the 1st and it said the order had been accepted, got a mail this morning asking me to confirm the delivery address (I was getting it delivered to work) so that the order could be released. After confirmation I was then told the order was cancelled and they could offer an alternative which I've been told will be within 24hrs, and no doubt be inferior. Anyone got any suggestions for an alternative as I've already ordered my memory upgrade and SSD drive to go in this :-(

I'm hoping to find something similar I can just use the memory and SSD in, hopefully you get your order

Anyone think this would be a comparable replacement? http://www.misco.co.uk/product/2570009/HP-Prodesk-400-G3-Microtower-Intel-Core-i5-6500-4GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-SuperMulti-DVD-Windows-10-Pro-DG-Windows-7-Professional-Desktop-PC?selectedTabIndex=2&tabBarViewName=ProductTechnicalSpecifications&page=1tabs

Anyone think this would be a comparable replacement? http://www.misco.co.uk/product/2570009/HP-Prodesk-400-G3-Microtower-Intel-Core-i5-6500-4GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-SuperMulti-DVD-Windows-10-Pro-DG-Windows-7-Professional-Desktop-PC?selectedTabIndex=2&tabBarViewName=ProductTechnicalSpecifications&page=1tabs

Sorry to hear that Phooey. Hope you manage to find a suitable alternative, that HP you've linked to looks much the same and may be even cheaper with the cash back.

Installed the SSD and 4GB Ram into mine this evening and carried out a Windows 10 install via media creation tool as per spannerzone's posts above. Windows 10 fresh install onto the SSD went without out a hitch and I was NOT prompted for the key at any point. I had purchased a bracket for the SSD but when mounted, the drive sat too low for the secondary power cable to reach so I had to unscrew it from the bracket and reattach it to the bracket by means of double sided tape (it works fine though). Just to state, as spannerzone suggested, I simple detached the HDD SATA cable and plugged it into the SSD with the 2nd power cable (left the power connect to the HDD). Booted via the USB and installed Windows 10 no problem. The machine shuts down and starts up in under 10 seconds now. I need to pick up an additional SATA cable to reattach the HDD but it will go into port 2. The machine is reboxed now as we're in the process of decorating the study. Once that's done, I'll be throwing the Dell in with my two new monitors from this thread. The machine outputs to both VGA and HDMI simultaneously by the way.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I installed Classic Shell, so we can have best of both worlds i.e. Windows 10 Metro desktop if you want, classic windows 7 type start menu when you just want it like you want it. :sunglasses:

Just hoping there isn't some sort of glitch that stops me getting the cashback which would be about how my luck feels at the moment lol

Price gone down to £300.17 now

Great news, yes I mentioned (or tried to explain) that it's hard to mount the SSD drive underneath the original hard drive as the plug spacing is too tight.... that's why I mounted mine under the DVD drive (using a 12" SATA cable) - good to hear it went as I desribed as I was going from memory.

Very pleased with mine, well the wife is! - I ran some basic comparisons the other day vs my older Dell XPS8500 that has an i5 3450 and an AMD 7570 graphics card, this Dell Vostro was fairly comparable in many aspects and even the onboard graphics seem capable of some gaming. Most impressed.

From the specs of that machine:

Slots
3 (total) / 3 (free) x PCIe 2.0 x1 - full-height
1 (total) / 1 (free) x PCIe 3.0 x16 - full-height
2 (total) / 1 (free) x DIMM 288-pin

whats the best resolution this can do?

looks like im in the same boat as Phooey, i ordered mine on the 31st of March and the unit has not been dispatched yet. i have emailed ballicom and had no reply and also tried to phone them but no answer. All the other stuff i ordered a day after to upgrade the computer has already turned up.

I ended up going for the HP one on the Misco site - if you own a business you can do the HP trade up option and get money back that way as well as from the cashback sites.

Is there any way you can get the trade back option without owning a business or does it ask for all the business details?

It asks for a business name - and some details (don't know if they check up on it - I used my personal email as I use it for both) perhaps they check companies house? Check your trade in pc meets the criteria first as well. If you know someone who owns a business perhaps they could help out :-)

Good news after hours of waiting for them to call me back to confirm what had happened to my order. They confirmed that there was an error there end and they have now dispatched it for delivery tomorrow.

Just installed my Epson V300 Scanner on to this, works like a dream... couldn't get it working properly with Windows 7 previously, under Windows 10, install the package (scanner NOT connected), once installed, connect scanner, open up Epson Scan application, job done. Windows 10 is REALLY impressing me (I still want it as windows 7 layout though so Classic Shell ftw still).

Oh and just to address those who have purchased but not gone down the SSD installation route... Machine start up and application launch times really are something to be seen, absolutely incredible. You simply MUST install one! All my 'old stuff' from my old Dell XPS has been copied over to the new Dell onto what 'was' the C: drive but is now E: leaving the SSD free for application installs for fast access/launch times.