It doesn't work like that, a 300W PSU won't use all of that unless it needs to. Same with a 500W/750W/1000W PSU. The amount they use is dependent on their efficiency not the maximum rating. An efficient 1000W PSU will use less power than an inefficient 300W. They are generally more efficient at around about 50% of their rating, although that isn't always the same.

If you want an alternative, you can pick up a 6th gen i5 HP desktop on eBuyer for £275.99 with trade-up here:

http://www.ebuyer.com/732116-hp-prodesk-400-g3-mt-desktop-p5k00et-abu

You will need an old XP desktop or laptop PC, you can pick these up for very cheap on eBay for the trade-up refund.

I've done plenty of them and never had a problem with payment.

Nice price, heat applied.
Check out this HUKD thread which highlights typical questions and answers
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-vostro-3900-desktop-i5-4460-3-2ghz-win7pro-win8-1pro-w10-4gb-500gb-hd-286-50-2421267#comments

One thing to consider, I ordered one of these late Feb and they said 2 day delivery, after continuously pushing back delivery date I gave up after 4 weeks and ordered from Dabs. They were having manufacturing issues back then.... and even though my delivery date kept slipping on the sales page it showed item instock. Hopefully they've now resolved these delays although I see it says Estimated Ship date: 25/04/2016 - I'd be prepared for delays.

Ex vat and shipping :smiley:

My new SSD drive arrived,installed without a problem.:smile:

Yes, and overclocks to 1400 MHz processor and 7GHz memory with no stability issues. That's with an additional 4gb RAM installed and mechanical drive replaced with 480gb SSD. That's with two Xbox controllers charging and a Bluetooth and mouse dongle installed as well. Loads of room for the card.

Good to know.... does it fit ok into the case ?

Here is my deal for the gtx 950 75w I now have installed in my Vostro 3900. Thought you guys would be interested to know that it installs fine.

When the new one arrives l will be more patient and report back.
Thanks spannerzone

Yeah, it got me twice in a row that one..... when I came back and found it was back at the start asking what option I wanted to install Win10, either upgrade or load from new that's when I pulled out the memory stick and rebooted and it was fine.

I read that on the internet l tried pulling out the USB a couple of times maybe l didn't get the timing right.
When l get another one l will try again.

Thanks for the help and replying.

Ah I know what that is! - it happened to me twice! - you MUST remove the USB stick when Win10 restarts otherwise it goes back and tries to install all over again. I wondered off and left the PC loading Windows, didn't notice it had finished (was very fast) and the PC rebooted, detected the USB boot disc and went into the install routine.

If you'd simply unplugged the memory stick when it tried to reload Win10 and rebooted it would have worked, even though it looked like it was starting the install procedure all over again - rebooting should have allowed the SSD to bootup correctly into Windows.

So next time, keep an eye on the install and when it reboots, remove the USB stick. Remember, a USB boot disc is detected first and will always stop the hard drive / SSD from booting up.

Thanks for the reply spannerzone.

I think it was a faulty SSD drive in any case l've returned it to Amazon.

What would happen was l'd install Windows 10 via the an usb after disconnecting the 500GB hard drive,the installation process would proceed till the PC need to restart,after the restart Windows 10 would try and start
the installation process again(booting off the usb) instead of booting via the SSD.

Hmm should be fairly simple, have you disconnected the 500GB hard drive and just had the SSD installed and then tried?
Does the PC actually boot from the USB stick? - ie can you see any sort of Windows installation appearing onscreen?

Did you follow the install guide from MS? LINK Perform a clean installation using USB or DVD"

If so. does it start to install or what exactly happens?

It could be a faulty SSD drive I guess (If you can get it swapped out under warranty do it)

This guide is helpful too
http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

Anybody having else having the problem of Windows not installing on to the SSD ?
I bought the 'Kingston Technology 240 GB Solid State Drive 2.5 inch V300 SATA 3' but l can't get windows to install on it.I pretty much copied 'spannerzone' way of doing it.I have tried loading Win 10 via USB,tried Win 7 with the disc,no good.Could it be the SSD ? Any ideas ?

No problem, glad to have helped

ok cheers, I've since established that (as many probably already knew), the SATA power connectors are all the same and are wired to deliver 3.3V, 5V & 12V, and its the connected device's job to draw the correct power, appropriate for itself.

@Spannerzone, thanks for your overall help in this & the other thread in relation to the upgrades, it was really useful.

Cheers.

Yes it's fine, I've done it, others have done it and this spare power connector is suitable for SSD, mechanical or optical drives. Just plug it in and stop worrying about it :smile:

To be honest I would of thought an SSD would use less power than the second optical drive that cable is meant for, Wouldn't worry too much.

OK but Im not talking about using the SATA P3/P5 power connectors over by the existing hard drive, because, as you say, it cant reach over to the free optical drive bay. Im talking about using the free, P8 power connector linked to the optical drive power connector (which appears to be a SATA power connector), and whether it is ok to use this for the SSD, despite the fact it's over near the optical drive drive bay which would infer that it typically wouldn't normally be used to power a HDD or SSD. So is it ok to use for my SSD?

Well I'm not sure how you could put an SSD in the optical bay, as described here, using a SATA power connector, because it simply won't reach. IDE and SATA power connectors always have the same voltages on them.

Nah, don't think that's true actually, as I've read this thread, and others linking to it in great detail, and nowhere have I seen my specific question discussed regarding the use of the P8 power connector, and whether the P3,P5,P8 &P9 power connectors are identical in terms of voltage etc.

If you are talking about the different mounting/bracket options etc for siting the SSD, then yes, I've read those and am fully clear on it, but I'm verifying the power connector question because its only been inferred that the power connector attached to the DVD drive power connector can be used, rather than specifically confirmed.

Can someone please confirm that (as I expect) it's ok to use, before I use it.

Thanks.

It has been discussed in this thread and the others linking to it, in great detail, with different solutions offered.

Hi, I've bought this plus the memory plus the SSD and have it sussed I think apart from one pretty basic thing I can't get clear. The easiest place to put the SSD to me looks like next to the DVD drive due to the previously discussed short power connectors from the existing HDD power feed. So ill velcro it to the free bracket. My Question is can I safely use the spare power connector which is connected to the optical drive power connector for the SSD power?

Ie are all of the power connectors P4 P5 P8 P9 identical with same voltage etc? I'm assuming I can but just haven't seen it discussed or mentioned anywhere.

Thanks all, for your help.

Cheers buddy. Many thanks!!

yes - I've done both.
For memory go to:
http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en
You can put in your system (or scan automatically) and it'll tell you what compatible memory you can get.
You have 4gb already - add another 4 and you can get 8.
I wanted a bit more so added 8gb - at some point I'll probably replace the 4 with an 8 to get 16.

For the SSD I did as other suggested and did a fresh install of Windows 10 on it. Very easy an now runs super smooth.I got a 240GB but a 120 would be fine too and still have room to install additional software on it.

I'm very happy with it.

Does anyone know if I can upgrade this machine to 8gb of Ram and also get a SSD card added to it somehow? Might seem silly question to many of you but I don't understand much about computers! Many thanks!

Mine still hasn't tracked :neutral_face:

Oh great, will keep an eye on this, thanks!

There are new low power, no 6-pin plug versions of the GTX 950 being released in the next couple of weeks in the UK. They use a maximum of 75w, only draw power from the PCI bus and will cost about £130. They should cope better with new and future games, 4K and perform about 50% better than the 750ti

I'm waiting for them.

You can find the details here.

Looks like 8.4% Cashback from TopCashBack

Got mine delivered yesterday, cracking service from Dell! Thanks again OP!

So 750ti it is then. Any recommendations to which version would be best? Thanks.

I mean hotukdeals.

Back on Ballicom for £270 for i5 processor. Cheaper than i3 deal with same supplier. Hope it's been worth reading all the positive reviews on hotmail. Just ordered. :smile:

I found the 950 had trouble on my old dell with a 300W PSU, so you're probably best off with the 750 unless you order a larger power supply with the 950.

Ordered one. Thanks OP!

So I'm having a look at the 750ti and 950 and can't tell which ones are compatible, could someone please be kind enough to link me to the compatible ones. Thanks.

Chers OP, ordered. :smiley:

Well, if it did go OOS it's back again at the same price.

Can anyone recommend a PC that will run light room 6 smoothly with a pretty decent ssd & hdd & something with a decent graphics card for both lightroom & to play games online, any links will be much appreciated to. Thanks in advance

Not in a rush, but my current pc is on it's last legs. Will keep checking between them to see, thanks for the help!

If you're not in a hurry it might pay to wait, this desktop has gone from £380 to £280 and back again several times in the last 6 weeks and could go down again although I suspect Dell have now stopped selling it as it's an older generation CPU. However othe suppliers like Balicom, BT, Ebuyer etc may continue to fight amongst themselves with the prices.

Can't see the need to backup Windows 8 as Dell (should) supply a re-install DVD, might make sense to backup/image the existing W7 installation but I personally didn't bother, I just installed a new SSD and went straight to install a fresh W10 on it.

There is no requirement to 'upgrade' to Windows 10, you can just install it fresh.

I can't really see the need to install W8 ever, if you like it, go one better and install W10. if you hate 8 then stick with 7. W8 makes little sense now when 10 is arguably better in most respects.

Now, I think officially when you upgrade from 7 or 8 to 10 you have 30 days to roll back or stick with 10 forever. after that time the backup that W10 created when it upgraded is then deleted or no longer usable (rollback-able) ....however it seems that the licence key can be used to reinstall 7 or 8 after 30 days if you do a fresh install / use a backup image. It might mean you're technically using an unlicenced product as the licence was upgraded to 10.

First thing to do is extract the embedded Windows licence key / Product Key from the BIOS using ShowKeyPlus:
https://itsolutionsblog.net/3-ways-to-extract-the-windows-8-product-key/

Then create an image backup of the W7 Pro that came with the PC as Dell don't supply a reinstall DVD for W7.

Ah, that would explain it. Anybody have any other recommendations with similar specs, or same model somewhere else?

It's gone, out of stock it would seem.

Oh dear - seems to have disappeared. OOS?

Ok, I'm incredibly blind, can some kind soul direct me to the i5 option, please.
I can only get the i3, even after clicking the customise option. Thanks!

Great, thanks.

Need a new PC for everyday browing plus some photo editing - Is this PC still a good deal if I dont want to game on it? Ie, if I can get a 4th gen i5,4Gb SFF desktop with same lics, memory etc for cheaper, but dont have the ability to add a better graphics card then am I better just going for a cheaper SFF?

Trying to work out if this only really represents a good deal for the gamers who want the ability to upgrade..

Cheers

Got mine today too.
What I was planning to do was back up Windows 7, install Windows 8, Back up Windows 8 and Install Windows 10. The question here is: Can I go back to a previous version of Windows after I've been using Windows 10 for a while if I've kept a backup image of the previous Windows version ?

Hi, where can i find the product key for the windows 8 download disc? Does this computer already have a licence?

Delivered today and a new ssd installed using spannerzone guide (although ssd is just loose and I'll need to tape/Velcro it down). I haven't installed any of the Intel drivers yet but everything is running fine. Will I see any noticeable improvement from adding the Intel drivers?

This bracket link otherwise install it under the DVD drive and hold in place with Velcro and use a 12" sata cable.

Obviously I scanned past the 'answered to death' posts mentioning it. Luckily there are actually helpful posters on another board who offered a more acceptable solution.

This has been answered to death already - please read the thread.

Hi

Was after some help.....

I bought one of these on the Ballicom deal and thought I'd go the whole hog with the SSD upgrade etc twining it with a spare 2TB HDD I've got.

Got round to doing it today and slight problemo.... The length of power cable between the two connectors (P3 nd P5) for the drives isn't sufficient. It looks to be dead spherical objects accurate for two standard 3.5" HDD but with the caddy I have the SSD sits plumb square in the middle of the caddy both front to back and side to side.

I really need the SSD to be as close to the front as possible and as far to the right.

Any ideas or do I need to get my tape measure out and start drilling holes in my caddy to re-align the SSD?

Is my nVidia GeForce GTS250(PCI Express x16 Gen2) going to work in this machine?

Thanks for the info mate!

It's from around 2009/2010 era but that doesn't mean it can't be pepped up if you want to try. The memory is DDR2 and not compatible with this Vostro desktop. I'm doubtful the card reader would connect up either, the Blu Ray should be an easy swap and potentially the graphics card might be usable although the built in i5 graphics capabilities isn't bad unless you're a gamer. In fact the i5 graphics may be better at blu ray HD playback as it's a much newer generation that (probably) has better/improved HD video capability.

So you could backup all your files and reload Windows 7 and see if that cures the issues, you could then consider fitting an SSD for £35 to get a definite performance boost and use alongside your existing HD.

Alternatively start again with this Vostro but I'd still really recommend fitting an SSD because without one you'll find bootup is still slow(ish) at a couple minutes while the HD settles down compared to the under 15 seconds you'd get with an SSD.

Thanks for the reply/information - its a 546 and has an AMD Phenom 9750 processor, 4 GB RAM, running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Processor gets a 7.0 subscore, RAM 7.2, Graphics 3.7, Gaming Graphics 5.8, Primary Hard Disk 5.9 with an overall score of 3.7. I have the power plan set to High Performance, rather than balanced.

Can't recall how old it is now, but it is getting on a bit. Has an HDMI connection to the screen and bluray though so can't be "that" old?!

My answers in Bold
I have an older DELL Desktop which seems to constantly (or nearly always) have the fans running - I fitted a new Corsair PSU to it a year or so ago as that packed up. It slows right down once the fans are running. I have checked inside and its not dusty/overheating due to that. Could be the heatsink and cpu not attached correctly causing the CPU to overheat or could be software causing the CPU to max out, what does Task manager show CPU usage wise?

My one has a bluray player/CDRW and a card reader so I assume I could just whip these out and install them into this one, replacing the existing CDRW it has. Yes should be a simple swap of DVD to Blu Ray but not likely to work for the card reader unless by good luck the inside connector is available on this new PC

Also, I could put the memory from mine in the new one too, to top up the 4GB RAM Possibly if your ram is DDR3 1600 (DDR3 PC3-12800) and 4GB on 1 stick and install my existing HDD as the main C drive, or use it as a back-up drive. I'd use it as a backup drive, better to buy an SSD for £30 and use for the OS and use your old drive for backup - performance increase doing this is BIG

Mine is the Inspiron so was that a higher up the range model than this? Vostro's are the business version, usually very similar/identical internally to Insprion range Seems a shame to be basically binning it, but one of these seems like a cheaper way than trying to fix the issue with mine? You could probably solve your problem by reinstalling Windows from scratch, or better still, install an SSD and reload Windows from scratch and get a 'new' machine. Of course your inspiron could be 10 years old for all I know so this i5 will be faster in that case. What model insprion is yours?

Anyone wanting to fit an SSD into the spare HDD slot will struggle without drilling or messing around, However, this adaptor should make the job very simple as it will correct the ofset SSD sockets and allow the short cables to reach correctly.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/General-Drive-HDD-Adapter-CADDY/dp/B00F3QFKNS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
I've not tried one but it looks like it'll work for this PC.
Or velcro the SSD into the spare DVD slot and use a 12" Sata cable like most of us did :smile:

I'm guessing that Dell have changed the CPU in this from an i5 to an i3 and no option to upgrade now...

Price is down to £232.80 though!

I have an older DELL Desktop which seems to constantly (or nearly always) have the fans running - I fitted a new Corsair PSU to it a year or so ago as that packed up. It slows right down once the fans are running. I have checked inside and its not dusty/overheating due to that.

My one has a bluray player/CDRW and a card reader so I assume I could just whip these out and install them into this one, replacing the existing CDRW it has. Also, I could put the memory from mine in the new one too, to top up the 4GB RAM and install my existing HDD as the main C drive, or use it as a back-up drive.

Mine is the Inspiron so was that a higher up the range model than this? Seems a shame to be basically binning it, but one of these seems like a cheaper way than trying to fix the issue with mine?

Yes I did thanks, it was that, and all the posts you made that made me go for it.
Over that week I did loads of reading and the product key is in the boot and when installing windows 10 microsoft will look at that and the system info to check you are ok to install it.Because they could see I had windows 7 pro installed earlier.
I'm sure I read UEFI is for hard drives of 2GB or more. But I'm not sure as it was all just to much to remember. :laughing:

Thanks OP, ordered.

Thanks OP.

8.08% TCB.

You mean pubic wigs can order online now?

Firstly well done for persisting and getting it sorted (sorry, it took me about 1.5 hours to get mine onto W10 and update! but i have done loads of these over the years) did you read through my setup info on links I gave earlier? I think I covered most of this back then but didn't think about any issues using XP to download W10 :smile:

Link to old deal which has some hopefully useful info

I just took a look and see I left mine as Legacy rather than UEFI mode, seems to work fine on W10 and it didn't grumble when installing or require me to enter the product key.

a year ago i got a 4460, 4gb ram + 500gb HDD from ebay new@ 190...

was that incredibly lucky?

Great purchase for my mom, put an ssd in.

Bought this when the last deal was up. Arrived a day later. Only installed with windows 7 - with disk to upgrade to windows 8. Had an issue with the product key (could not find it in the box) so had to go through bios. Bit of a problem, but pc works very well indeed. Upgrading the RAM at the moment. Their customer service isn't the most responsive, but really friendly. Heat added.

You can get a 950 which doesn't need an extra power connector:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10250/gigabyte-adds-geforce-gtx-950-with-75w-power-consumption-to-lineup

I think there may be a couple of others.

edit: there are others, in addition to the gigabyte one. From the Anandtech article linked above:
"
ASUS, EVGA and MSI quietly introduced their GeForce GTX 950-based products with 75 W power consumption that do not require auxiliary six-pin PCIe power connectors
"

My solution: Velcro. SSDs are so light and small they can be placed almost anywhere non-heat-generating.

I got this PC the other week from Ballicom and it arrived very quickly, and the extra memory arrived before it. I had a 250GB SSD and set about doing the upgrades. What a pain to get it all done, but its up and running.

Problems I had were, I could not download windows 10 pro onto my XP pc. So after updating the windows 7 pro on this one I got it downloaded from microsoft.com and transferred to USB. This way it sees you have a valid windows 7 pro already installed.
Managed to fit the SSD drive under the installed hard drive, "Krypton factor". I had a spare cable but you need one with a 90 degree angle at one end or the case wont close.
I formatted the ssd drive ntfs, error, I should of just initialised it only, so the boot would see it as windows 10 likes GPT format.
I unplugged the Hard Drive, and then went into the bios and selected UEFI.
Then put the windows 10 USB in and fired it up. Don't forget to click on the "custom settings" small letters bottom right after 1st or 2nd install window, and deselecting all the stuff that monitors you.
First boot after install, 10 seconds, after updating windows 10 about 13 seconds.
I shall remove the windows 7 hard drive and keep as a back up, and fit a 1TB drive in its place, which should last me a long long time.
Took me a week to do all this, with loads of reading up on stuff I din't understand. :laughing:

Overall, well pleased with it. Thanks. :smile:

It seems to me that the HP is quite a bit better, but of course you have to jump through a few hoops to get it, spend a little (shipping cost of the trade-in machine as well as its initial cost), and looking at the T&Cs you're technically breaking the rules because the scheme is for "businesses" and "organisations" rather than for private individuals.

Could you please post replies at the bottom? Otherwise it gets very confusing!

Well done! I couldn't be faffed to do that so I took the easier route. It is annoying that there's so little wiggle room with the cables...they've really done a great job of keeping cables to absolute minimum length :smile:

What is the general consensus in what would be the overall better machine?

It would appear that the HP also lacks wifi and memory card slots but looks excellent value as does of course the Dell

Just noticed that Dell is accepting paypal now.
and paypal is offering a no interest credit for 4 months.
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-virtual-credit

​I managee to mount my SSD in the second hard drive slot, although it was a complete pain in the ****. Had to re-drill the 2.5in to 3.5in adaptor and swap the original harddrive to the second bay and put the SSD in the first bay. Now boots up in 10seconds very happy with this computer.

That Freshtec doesn't come with and O/S so you need to factor that in.... This Dell could support a mid range graphics card - I'm no gamer but sure a midrange graphics card (that doesn't require an additional power connection) should work ok in this without a PSU upgrade.

Thanks for all the info folks

For a gaming pc for my son would I be better getting this and replace psu and put a gtx 9600 into it or would I be better off spending more and get http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/intel-core-i5-4460-1tb-8gb-1600mhz-gtx-970-4gb-core-computer-gaming-pc-573-freshtech-2280822?
He wants to play the more demanding games on higher settings (not maxed) and ideally 60fps.

Could try self build but not sure I have the time right now.

ok, just bear in mind that the second slot for the hard drive is actually tricky to fit an SSD, I know it sounds illogical! but Dell make the power connector plug very short and there's little wiggle room unless you're happy to have the SSD floating around, I could not fit an SSD in a tray into the spare hard drive slot and get the second drive's power connector to reach, try it and you'll see (it's very annoying and something I've had on other Dell's) so I mounted the SSD under the DVD drive.

No I'd be using two hard drives so I'd use the spare IDE power connector (on the optical drive power lead) - see above.

Cheap enough to try, only comment is that it needs a molex power cable (I assume) and there isn't a spare on the Dell unless you get a SATA power to MOLEX cable and use the second hard drive / DVD cable for power?

It'll either not work at all or work better in Linux! To be fair, that listing gives a lot more information about it than most similar stuff from China on eBay.

In the past I had issues with cheapo USB2 cards that had nasty chipset driver software, usually via chips if I recall... no idea how things have progressed but that would be my concern with a cheapo no name card.

Yes, you can get them with SATA or IDE power inputs, neither of which is usable without extending the cables. The need for them being, of course, that USB3 can provide far more power than USB2 can.

Cards from China are a lot cheaper: this one is less than £7. Wonder if it's ok? Front panels from the UK are £6.57 or cheaper from China. Extend power with this.

Yes this is typical of cost cutting, the board could have those components fitted but they don't and like you say quite likely the BIOS won't recognise it anyway.

USB via a PCI card (use up that old skool PCI slot!) and find a front panel usb module to fit into the card reader blank....

A quick google brings up a Startec PCI-E card that connects to the 3.5" USB3 panel but at about £60 it's not a cheap fix!
EDit: hmmm they may need SATA power cables which complicates things as the Dell isn't overflowing with lots of spares.

Thanks, but unfortunately no, it wouldn't, because USB3 has extra pins on it. I've found out that USB3 headers have 19 pins, and there's a position for one on the motherboard, marked USBF2. But not only is the header not there, it's also missing adjacent components, and by some miracle should you be able to fit all those there's a good chance the BIOS won't support it. I think the route to go down is a PCIe USB3 card. These are cheap but I'd like to find one with headers on it so I can wire internally to it.

Not very impressed by the manual's claim that the USB2 speed is only 80Mbits/sec!

Mine's arrived - as epected no card reader. Now to get spannerzone's RAM recommendation, look around for an SSD and see if there's a way of getting USB3 on the front. It will, of course, be dual booting Ubuntu...

checking description it states : Add storage space as needed, thanks to an expandable design that supports up to two 2TB hard drives and 16GB memory. I have a 240gb ssd so can i add this to the current 500hd to expand as i am not tech savvy and it all seems very confusing. mine is on it's way---i was going to cancel it last night but they weren't open and at 9am this morning when they did open it was in production and i was unable to cancel. stupidly i though it was a gaming pc and as stated before i am looking for the graphics card and just discovered no built in wifi so i take it i will need something for that too. but anyway...as beofre question related to just adding the ssd-is this possible?

I've always done a fresh install onto all my SSD's, I thought WIndows 7 onwards optimised itself for SSD use during install but could be wrong. You're supposed to do some things to make a cloned O/S work better on an SSD drive.

W10 Pro took about 1.5 hours to install from scratch onto my SSD in my Dell Vostro desktop.... about 30 mins for the actual install and an hour for updates and software. It was pretty painless

Ok folks, you are tech wizards and I haven't got a clue what you are talking about but please help me. I need a computer to write documents on and mark students work on. Also just to go on Facebook and play a few of their games. My old Dell is on life support and I want to replace it. Is this a good buy? Would I be able to do the things I said on it? Thank you all so much for your help. :-)

That's true but anyone on a budget considering GTX 950 would probably rather spend a few quid on a molex to 6 pin in order to run it.

I personally would upgrade the PSU if using with a dedicated graphics card or at the very least when the warranty is about to expire. It's bound to be rather poor considering the price.

Oh really?

Never knew that, i build my own but it was for my mom, so needed to be quick and easy.

Will stay away from them!

If you want an alternative, you can pick up a 6th gen i5 HP desktop on eBuyer for £275.99 with trade-up here:

http://www.ebuyer.com/732116-hp-prodesk-400-g3-mt-desktop-p5k00et-abu

You will need an old XP desktop or laptop PC, you can pick these up for very cheap on eBay for the trade-up refund.

I've done plenty of them and never had a problem with payment.

Do you get the full benefit of ssd when cloning? Are installs not optimised when installing clean?

Yes - they might contain the same CPU but as for things like power supplies...

That's why... ZooStorm... poor brand. I work in IT and we avoid this like the plague, regularly fail.

Dell upgrades are usually stupidly highly priced, there are almost certainly much cheaper and better graphics options out there as already mentioned.

Thanks...dell support said I could contact them when I received card and they would talk me through how to fit it. Offering noida gtx745 4gb for £165 but will check Amazon for 750ti instead, thanks

The 750 TI would run fine on the 300W in this dell, no new PSU needed, I've had them running on 280W PC's in the past.

Almost certainly not, mine didn't and none of the others who ordered got a card reader either despite some suppliers showing it as supplied. Assume that it doesn't come with that.

Same system. different supplier

You'd still need to upgrade the PSU presumably?

Oh joy - my life is complete. :wink:

The question is, will it come with the card reader panel? I'm guessing not.

So are the two systems the same? I'm confused. Presumably better off getting direct from dell?

I think you will find that the standard mouse and keyboard are included.:
UK (QWERTY) Dell KB212-B QuietKey USB Keyboard Black [Included in Price]
Dell Optical (Not Wireless), Scroll USB (3 buttons scroll) Black Mouse [Included in Price]

p.s. Note that for the deal posted originally by Spannerzone
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-vostro-3900-desktop-i5-4460-3-2ghz-win7pro-win8-1pro-w10-4gb-500gb-hd-286-50-2421267#comments
the price is now down to £281.81inc VAT

For gaming card I contacted dell support who recommended either Radeon r5240 1gb or speedier nvidia gforce gtx745 4gb

​yes, you can use an OEM on another hard drive/SSD but Not on another motherboard.

no Licence sticker, product Licence key in the BIOS. I detailed how to get this info on the previous deal (link above)

What motherboard comes with the computer?

​see the other deal link I posted above, lots of info on installing an SSD drive etc.

If you stick a SSD drive in can you transfer the windows license? i was under the impression that if its OEM Windows you might not be able to do that?

However, don't 'Merkins nearly always pay a separate tax on things so the price isn't real?

According to the order, this doesn't even come with a mouse and a keyboard, which is fine really - who hasn't got those lying around? Would have been even happier if it hadn't come with a power supply, optical drive and case, as I could have used my old ones...

You're my hero. Thank you.

Amazing, something actually cheaper here in the UK than the USA. Here's the same offering from Dell.com @$529.99 / 1/42 = £373. TCB.com do have 5.5% cashback and codes though, for those who have a USA account.
http://deals.dell.com/productdetail/fdcwrp206hw7p

ahh just seen the wireless is added on it though

It has a spare power connector but you will need another sata data cable :smiley:

Ok perfect, thank you. Seems cloning is the way to go.

One last question, do you know whether this computer will have a spare SATA cable and spare power supply to connect up the SSD? Or you have to buy these separately?

Does installing an SSD in this invalidate the warranty? Also does anyone have a guide that they have followed to install an SSD on this (or similar tower)?

Bought mine thanks to spannerzone <3 Just unboxed it today and upgraded the RAM. Once I feel a little more confident I'll have a go at SSD too. Updated W7 tonight and am really happy with it.
Lx

Thank you - I was having a fight with Misco over this, after they arbitrarily cancelled my order after confirmation "because the price had come up" - against their own T&Cs. They agreed to honour the original price if I re-ordered but then I'd lose 4.75% from TopCashBack as that had run out. Quidco then started doing 4.5% but Misco said I'd have to ask them if they would honour it on an order they would have to tinker with. Far too complicated, and more expensive than this even with cashback.

It was this deal which i missed and found one on ebay the same day!

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/zoostorm-i5-4460-4gb-ram-500gb-hdd-201-83-misco-brand-new-never-used-open-box-2265514

for those games you need a graphics card. i git a small form factor i5 business pc and stuck a low powered gtx 750ti card for just under 100 quid and run batman arkham city 1080p at 60fps on high. not tried gta v. but batman looks amazing

500GB Hdd , will definately need replacing me thinks for something a little quicker on boot ups.

Nice price, heat applied.
Check out this HUKD thread which highlights typical questions and answers
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-vostro-3900-desktop-i5-4460-3-2ghz-win7pro-win8-1pro-w10-4gb-500gb-hd-286-50-2421267#comments

One thing to consider, I ordered one of these late Feb and they said 2 day delivery, after continuously pushing back delivery date I gave up after 4 weeks and ordered from Dabs. They were having manufacturing issues back then.... and even though my delivery date kept slipping on the sales page it showed item instock. Hopefully they've now resolved these delays although I see it says Estimated Ship date: 25/04/2016 - I'd be prepared for delays.

Would this run Rust?

will this automatically play games or do you need a graphics card---sims 4, gta v? thanks

looks decent, what about this as an alternative
http://www.ebuyer.com/719684-zoostorm-tempest-gaming-media-desktop-pc-7260-5100

Anyone know if you can use 2 monitors with this PC or if you can fit an additional graphics card?

It doesn't work like that, a 300W PSU won't use all of that unless it needs to. Same with a 500W/750W/1000W PSU. The amount they use is dependent on their efficiency not the maximum rating. An efficient 1000W PSU will use less power than an inefficient 300W. They are generally more efficient at around about 50% of their rating, although that isn't always the same.

Just grabbed one, delivered for end of month. My Dell Vostro 430(I5) has just died, the SATA ports on the way out, so this looks similar, might be able to use memory from my Vostro. Stick the graphics card in from the Vostro and does everything I want and my lad can play a few games on it as well.

Saves a bit on the Electric then .

Couldn't tell if this has DVI output?

300W is more than I expected. This could easily run GTX 750Ti or maybe even GTX 950 (would cut it close though) without an upgrade to PSU.

Yes just noticed ex vat and shipping. Still hot price and for me it comes to 280.80 including vat and shipping.

Nice find OP

Same here, insane price for this. Anyone know knows what PSU it comes with as 8 can't find the info?

great price for a decent desktop, heaty!

No problem, I was about to say the same before I noticed :smile:

True, good deal still. Thanks.

When I click on the link I get an automatic discount of £55 so price shows as £234. Amazing price!!