Brandstar UK Limited

For years I have built PC’s for myself or for customers from scratch, choosing the components carefully based on specification, experience and reviews. However over the last 18 months I have found it far better and cheaper to build a Dell system specification online and order it from there!

After ordering a number of machines for clients I decided it was time to upgrade my Desktop PC here in the office and so I looked to see what Dell were offering. Recently Dell have bought in a new small business entry level machine called a Vostro. Being new on the market they are selling currently with very nice discounts on them so i decided it was a good time to take advantage of this!

I ended up buying a machine with the following specification:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz
• 4GB DDR Memory
• 300GB Hard Drive
• DVD RW
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business
• Slimline Tower
• 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Graphics Card
• No Monitor (I have a 19″ TFT which I am quite happy with :))
• Card Reader

As you might imagine I use the machine very heavily and reliability is essential. I am regularly running Microsoft Outlook, Firefox (with many tabs), Our Accounts Package, Dreamweaver, FileZilla, Word, Excel, Access along with the usual AVG Antivirus & Windows Mobile Device Centre sitting there in the background.

My old machine would begin to struggle as these programs were used more and more but with this machine I have been very very impressed. It has been 100% reliable since I pulled it out of the box and plugged it in, it is very quiet, simple but professional styling and a nice matt finish on the front of the slimline case with a blue led for the power light to finish!

There is not huge room for expansion because i chose to go for a slimline case but with that specification what more could be required

A lot of people say (including so called “techies”) “ooo, I wouldn’t go near Windows Vista until service pack 1″. Which in the days of Windows XP would be sound advice. But many are just assuming Microsoft Vista is going to match XP by falling to pieces in the first few weeks of release but actually Vista went through many more stages of Beta testing than XP did and therefore upon its release it was virtually already at the “XP SP1″ stage.

General advice that I am giving clients is that when buying a new machine go for Vista - just make sure your software and hardware (printers, scanners etc) are compatible. If you are hoping to install Vista on an older machine then run the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor first and see what the outcome is

That was a bit off topic. So back to Dell Vostro’s, Brandstar UK have recently become official resellers for Dell and we wouldn’t buy machines for ourselves let alone our clients if we didn’t think they were reliable and good value for money. Since getting this nice new Dell Vostro for the office we have recommended and sold a large number to clients who are all very happy with their new machines!