So I'm kind of a noob and just a few days ago ordered this (yet to arrive):

Dell Inspiron 530 ($573 incl. tax/shipping)

- Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHZ
- Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1
- 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
- 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
- Intel G33 motherboard
- 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
- Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
- Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
- Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
- 350w PSU

After a few days of going thru the forums, I'm slightly more intrigued of self-building and am having second thoughts about what I ordered. (You guys here do a great job BTW!) Building. it seems, no longer appears to be as intimidating.

I've realized that the Dell-built GPU and PSU is pretty inadequate. If I got a replacement 4850 and 500+w PSU for the system, it would increase my total costs by ~$275(?) to a total of ~$850(?). I may just return the entire unopened box back to Dell.

If I went towards building (for the first-time), is it possible to still have a Q6600, 4850, and Vista while keeping my costs under $600? I already have a Lite-On DVD writer and SB Audigy SE card. I read the "Sub- $500 gaming rig" article but it's a bit dated I think.

I would greatly appreciate your input!

are you planning on strictly gaming?

It's too bad you didn't have this revelation before you ordered the Dell.

It can be done.

daihannya...I just want to have something in the VERY LIKELY case now that I do get into some gaming.

Zorg...It's kind of a d-bag thing to do but I can refuse delivery from DHL next week. Dell will either refund entirely or I can just eat $30 in shipping. No biggie. What can you suggest? Thanks!

Q6600 --$210
4850 --$170 after mail-in rebates
Vista SP1 --$110 for Home Prem. 32-bit, I didn't look too hard for other versions

So that brings the total so far to 490. Leaving you with just over $100 for a case, motherboard, and PSU. Well, if you're budget were just around $700, I'd say go for an Antec Sonata III (case + 500W PSU, $125) and you can find a good single-GPU motherboard for under a hundred.

I can do $700.

well i think a 600 dollar system can be done but you may have to sacrifice on some things to do it i would think. the q6600, vista and the 4850 is like 480 or so on newegg from what i saw. what amount of ram are you lookin to put in?

Do this. Call Dell and tell them you found the same system on ebay for 400 dollars. They will refund you around $100 or so then you can use it towards your 4850 and psu. I'm not sure what deal you got when you got the system from dell but shipping should have been free. I got the same system for $540 after tax, got $100 refund so $440 total. Bought a antec earthwatts 500 psu for $55 bucks. Now I'm gonna probably get the 4850 too.

I've done it for my laptop and desktop they will rather give you some money back instead of losing the sale. Usually around 15% of your purchase price.

Probably like 4GB. This is gonna go above $600 but I'm flexible.

Yeah if you can do $700 here's my best try:
Q6600 --$210
4850 --$170
Vista OEM --$110
Antec Sonata III + 500W PSU --$125
MSI P45 Motherboard --$90 on Newegg after MIR
4GB of OCZ Platinum Ram DDR2 1066 --$85
Total: $790

Sorry, it's really closer to $800, if you look around on Newegg and on these forums I'm sure you could do closer to $700 if you're really trying to stick to around that price. I usually don't count OS costs though, so that's what kind of threw me off in thinking $700 would be enough. If you've got an XP CD lying around you'll be back to that price range though.

nc3780...Wow...well Dell no longer offers free shipping on the system. Won't they say that the Ebay one is refurbished or something?

I hope you at least consider keeping the 530. Save time and money.

I am. I really don't know much about building and it seems to be a pretty good value. If something failed on the self-built, I wouldn't know where to start.

gawd MSI yeah i dont think so

dell makes a tough unit at times, but don't bet on the board having a PCIe 16x slot...

i dont think it would be beneficial to use xp with 4gb of ram... in my build im going with 4gb, but i am getting vista 64 bit oem edition because it will use all 4 gb of ram no problems. anyways in most of todays games, 2gb of ram is more than enough to run em

andyc...Thanks for looking that up! Problem is I really want Vista. I do have an XP cd.