Eladiun wrote on Aug 1
st, 2012 at 12:09pm:
Wrong.
If you are set on Dell scrounge the Dell Outlet, where they resell returns. The machines are in perfect repaired condition and carry a full warrentee. You get a nice discount because the machine was shipped once and had to be returned so it can't be sold as new again.
Good idea, forgot about the Dell Outlet. The only problem/s, is that you need to check the outlet site often to get the PC with the configuration you want, not great if you're on a deadline, and do they do financing on the machines from there? I think that was a consideration for the OP.
Lol.. just had a look through the US outlet site.. all those overpriced Alienware boxes being returned.
IMO it basically comes down to this: the A10 will be behind on processing power in the future even if you add in a discrete GPU, the intel i5 scales better with improvements to your GPU but is more expensive overall, either one will play DDO decently, most likely on a decently high setting, just not on max. Pay less now and upgrade again in a shorter timeframe, or pay more now and not upgrade for a bit longer.
the A10 might be able to keep pace with upgrades in the future, i don't know, and it's probable years of shitbox integrated graphics are biasing me. But till i see a direct comparison of A10 IGP vs discrete, i'll always steer clear of IGP, especially since generally IGP doesn't have it's own dedicated RAM.