[memphis57]

Thanks, useful info here, but not exactly what I meant.

How about if I say it like this: Could a couple of you really computer saavy folks go to the dell web site, configure a system ideally suited to play 8 tables, run PT and either gametime or player view or the like, and play music in the background while playing poker. Then cut and paste the resulting system, with any comments you deem appropriate about the choices you made. If one or two people so this, then any other experts who don't want to go through the whole exercise, could you comment about the set-ups others give?

I kind of doubt this will work, because to those with the required knowledge its probably boring and time-consuming, but if anybody feels like doing it, I feel pretty sure it would be a big help to several others besides myself.

Maybe as a starter, here's the way I'm leaning now:

Dell 3000 series Pentium chip (comment - rumors of incompatibility of Celeron chips with some programming, small price difference)

Upgrade processor to Pentium 3.0 GHz (comment - 3.0 plenty of power, not cost effective to go with models that allow upgrades to 3.4 or 3.6)

upgrade to 1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz (comment - RAM more important than processor for having 8 tables + PT open all at once)

upgrade to 160GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive (comment - max size drive for big PT databases and music)

downgrade to no monitor; buy two FP2001s separately for better price, $912 total

video card - no options presented by dell for this system - take whatever comes and replace with aftermarket card that can run two monitors


Base price = $639 plus $912 monitors plus $100 video card = $1651