Dells new Gaming Rig - XPS

-ADREN-

Does it do what they say it does... for the price.

Specs

P4 3.20 1mb Cache 800Mhz Fbs
512mb Dual Channel DDR2 RAM
160gb Serial ATA (7200Rpm)
128mb Pci Radeon x300se
16x DvD-rom


For €1749 inc Vat.

Anyone see one of these in action... Has 5 fans apparently and a seperate under case for a 460Watt PSU.

Probly not worth it, what ye think ?

Pacifico

Doesnt look great tbh. And really expensive.



Why is the PSU at the bottom?

silverside

The spec is typical Dell - give you the basics and charge you sky-high prices if you want to upgrade. Looks ugly - what's with all the wires inside?

havent heard much about the x300se but apparently it is the bottom of the new Radeon range.

It only has a DVD-ROM - I would expect a DVD burner for that price.

You could build a lovely PC yourself for that price. And it would only take a few hours to build.

and why do you need 5 fans? My PC works fine with only 2 (and one on the graphics card).

BloodBath

It's muck for the money. That graphics card is about the same as a 9800pro so I say you could build the same rig for 400-500 cheaper.


BloodBath

The Clown Man

I don't think you could go wrong with this:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122436&cks=PRL

I think dell should stick to selling computers to people who don't know any better. Gamers are 99% of the time going to know what is good value and what is not.

BloodBath

That doesn't even look great. You could build a better machine for the same money.

If it had a monitor it would be fair but nearly a grand for that is a rip off in my opinion. Not even a 9800pro.

I'd say you could build the same rig for 700 euro without windows. Home is crap anyway.


BloodBath

Shrimp

That pc is good but my brother got one for 2k, he custom built it. It is a

P4 3.60
1024mb RAM
160gb
256mb Graphic card
Cd/DvD/DvD-Rw
19" Flat Screen TFT Monitor

Loads of other great spec., but I forget them, still it's better value than that one from Dell.

Kazu

only Dell
V.90 Data Fax Modem Ire/Spn as standard for this system

i am a dell ower and i have a v.92 modem which came as standard two years ago

MisterAnarchy

The Komplett pc is way overpriced.
I built a better spec model than that last week with a 17 inch tft,5.1 speakers for 100 euro more.

Shrimp

Yeah, My brother bought a customized pc from komplette. It is quiet a package for what he payed.

Dr. Dre

What a ridiculous price. Not surprising really, considering who it's made by.

The Real B-man

Originally posted by Kazu
only Dell
V.90 Data Fax Modem Ire/Spn as standard for this system

i am a dell ower and i have a v.92 modem which came as standard two years ago

Same i have a dell also with a v.92 modem as standard i could build a system of that spec for 550

The Clown Man

Originally posted by BloodBath
That doesn't even look great. You could build a better machine for the same money.

If it had a monitor it would be fair but nearly a grand for that is a rip off in my opinion. Not even a 9800pro.

I'd say you could build the same rig for 700 euro without windows. Home is crap anyway.


BloodBath

Granted.

But consider that a perfectly legit PC with windows no matter how you build it is not going to be much cheaper than that without a lot of shopping around. I would go with this one because you always have someone to blame if anything goes wrong. I reckon the €100 odd that you may save is well spent on having a return service. And it is a very good setup for someone who is looking for a good gaming PC.

You can build better but the price is what attracts me. Personally I am soon going to be spending a lot more on a very high spec PC custom built (because i have a good bit of experience with this sort of thing) but I can't argue with that offer. New buyers will be hard pushed to find a better PC.

And I don't have any affiliation with komplett; I just think that if you are buying a PC without wanting to search the world for a good one, that is the one to buy.

BloodBath

Well for anyone that knows anything about pc's will think it's a rip off.

It's not even that good of a gaming rig. If it had a 9800 pro and a gig of RAM it would be worth the price but as it stands it's a rip off.

Not to mention the dodgey case and crap psu.



BloodBath

jesus_thats_gre

I thought I would spend a little time and build a machine that I would want....


Dimension XPS Pentium 4 processor 540 with HT technology (3.20GHz, 800fsb, 1MB cache)

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home

1Y NBD (Next Business Day)

512MB PC-4200 Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x256]

160GB 1st SATA (7200rpm) Hard Drive

256MB PCI Express™ x16 ATI Radeon™ X800 XT with DVI/VGA - TV out via S-video port

Dell 1703FP 17" UltraSharp™ Flat Panel Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand

8x/4x DVD+R/+RW

SoundBlaster Audigy 2 XPS

Dell 5650 5.1 Surround Speaker System

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX Keyboard + Rechargeable Mouse

No Modem

Microsoft® Works 7.0

IEEE 1394 Adapter



€ 3182


Now, I am sorry but that is a terrible price... There is nothing over the top there either, except maybe the graphics cards. But then again, it is a gaming rig...


Now lets try building one. It took me about 5 minutes to select these components from overclockers.co.uk.

Intel Pentium 4 "Northwood" 3.2GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-030-IN) 1
£159.95 £159.95
LiteOn SOHW-832S Dual Layer 8x DVD±RW ReWriter - Retail (CD-026-LO) 1
£57.20 £57.20
OCZ 512MB (2x256MB) PC4400 Dual Channel Gold Series Limited Edition EL-DDR CAS3.0 (MY-030-OC) 1
£145.00 £145.00
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-012-WD) 1
£66.95 £66.95
Club3D ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI - Retail (GX-001-C3) 1
£309.95 £309.95
ThermalRight SP-94 (Socket 478) Cooler (HS-011-TR) 1
£32.00 £32.00
Viewsonic VP171S Pro Series 17" TFT Monitor - Silver (MO-001-VS) 1
£302.00 £302.00
Antec SX1040BII Black SOHO File Server Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-007-AN) 1
£65.00 £65.00
YS-Tech FD9325 92mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-009-YS) 2
£5.50 £11.00
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) 1
£5.75 £5.75
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition - OEM (OS-001-MS) 1
£53.00 £53.00
Logitech Z-680 THX® Certified 5.1 Speakers - 450 Watts (SP-006-LG) 1
£208.00 £208.00
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy ZS Platinum Pro 7.1 - Retail (SC-018-CL) 1
£132.50 £132.50
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX - Retail (KB-007-LG) 1
£62.95 £62.95
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe "Canterwood" (Socket 478) Motherboard (MB-029-AS) 1
£111.95 £111.95

Subtotal £1,723.20
VAT £301.56
Total £2,024.76

OR

3,038.52
+
48 for shipping


3,086.52


If you spent a bit of time the savings would be more than this. Not only this, the components selected are in nearly every case vastly superior than the bog standard ones provided by Dell... You would save even more by over clocking a slower CPU.

Matt Simis

Well, the major components are the same on both PCs, and they are priced very similar. Thats not bad going at all on Dells behalf. The Dell XPS isnt aimed at people who could or would build their own PCs anyhow, its aimed at better off familes with a need for an "entertainment PC". I think the case looks quite nice as well (closed, from the front).

On the Dell spec, did you remember to drop the warranty down to 1 year, which is about the same as the (component) warranty on your custom PC? The difference between the standard 3year and 1year warranty is usually around EUR200...



Matt

CyberGhost

If you can get Dell wo VAT, then it would be a good value!

Axel, yes it is in separate compartment

CyberGhost

Steveire

Remember the medion tianium 8083? I bought one from aldi parnell st. today. It's really good value.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

3625 euro when you get 500mb raid, 2gb ram and a x800xt 256mb...good system but about 1500e overpriced...that with no monitor. I agree it looks nice and is not aimed at the hardcare gamer but as said in the previous post people with little knowlegde and too much money to buy little jonney a present for getting all D's in pass leving cert subects from blackrock college

Earthhorse

Hmmm, not too sure what to do now! I was gonna post about this myself as I desparately need to replace my aging PC. I don't mind paying a bit more for it if I don't have to put the thing together myself.

Two questions:

1) Is buying a 32 bit CPU a waste of time if the world's gonna be moving over to 64 bit in the near future? As in, will this purchase go to waste very quickly?

2) What size RAM would you recommend to run the latest releases over the next two or so years?

Thanks to anyone who can answer this!

CombatCow

Go with an A64/P4....the xp's are not worth buying now if your building a brand new rig.

A gig o' ram will be enough for the foreseeable future...


CombatCow

CyberGhost

Originally posted by Earthhorse
Hmmm, not too sure what to do now! I was gonna post about this myself as I desparately need to replace my aging PC. I don't mind paying a bit more for it if I don't have to put the thing together myself.

Two questions:

1) Is buying a 32 bit CPU a waste of time if the world's gonna be moving over to 64 bit in the near future? As in, will this purchase go to waste very quickly?

2) What size RAM would you recommend to run the latest releases over the next two or so years?

Thanks to anyone who can answer this!

1. that will the couple of years, before everyone will move to 64bit acrch.... by that time your pc will be old anyway!

2. 1GB

jesus_thats_gre

The Athlon 64 is the best for games, the P4 is better in general Windows use...

512 is sufficient tp be honest.. Depends how much cash u have!

Mutant_Fruit

The Athlon 64 is the best for games, the P4 is better in general Windows use...

A64 is much better for gaming and XviD encoding (as fa as i know), the P4 is better for DivX encoding.
They are both equal for general performance.

512 is sufficient tp be honest

512 is enough for Current games, but next year they'll be pushing 1 gig for optimal performance, you could always buy 512 now, and get another 512 in a few months.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre

512 is sufficient tp be honest.. Depends how much cash u have!

Farcry and BF:V (and 1942) are a lot nicer to play with 1GB ram.



Matt

CyberGhost

it's DDR2! it costs a lot! it's better to get 1 gig from Dell it will come out cheaper

Kazu

they seem alot cheaper than Dell http://www.demonite.com/

AreThoseMyFeet

Never ever buy a DELL, EVER. I know too many people who have had extremely bad experiences with DELL machines. They have non-existant tech support and will try to flat out deny that there is a problem with their faulty machines.

Dave.

-ADREN-

That Demonite crowd look alot like Alienware, might be them penatrating the european market?

Matt Simis

Originally posted by -ADREN-
That Demonite crowd look alot like Alienware, might be them penatrating the european market?

They seem like cheap knockoffs really...

CombatCow

If anyone is intrested in the case itself ''samurai midi-tower'' it can be bought from these guys.

http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/default.php?cPath=29_446


CombatCow

Earthhorse

Thanks for all those replies guys! I think I will aim to get an AMD 64 and a gig of RAM (money to burn!).

If I have to settle for a P4 it doesn't like much of a compromise.

Thanks again.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Combatcow
If anyone is intrested in the case itself ''samurai midi-tower'' it can be bought from these guys.

http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/default.php?cPath=29_446


CombatCow

Handy. I want the Dell case though (I like the silver plate on the front!).


Matt

leeroybrown

To my mind those Dell XPS machines are aimed at people who would end up buying a Dell anyway. It just makes it a bit easier for them to part with their money.

I'll be building my next PC myself as it allows you to get what you want for the price you want. It does take a bit more research to get the optimum parts but ultimately it's very worthwhile. You get to buy a good case, pick the best motherboard and match up the correct set of components to that. While all the bits of Dell PC's work well together, ultimately they're cheaper OEM parts tested for Dell systems only.

As for warranty's, unless someone buys an extended warranty for their Dell then they're in a similar situation to someone who builds their own. I've RMA'ed faulty components previously from various different PC's (Monitor, HDD, Motherboard, RAM) and so long as you buy from a vendor with decent customer support all you'll lose is a few quid for return shipping and some downtime without a component. Actually, having dealt with Dell customer service, while they can be fine, I prefer to just test the components, send off a mail detailing the problem and post off my RMA item.

While the Athlon64 is an excellent CPU, 64-bit computing won't be replacing 32-bit for quite a while yet. Anyone who buys a 32-bit system now is highly unlikely to find themsleves needing an upgrade for 64-bit support until after their next upgrade. Buy the Athlon64 on it's merits as a very fast CPU (with the 64-bit bonus).

When it comes to buying RAM, buy 1Gb (2 x 512Mb) if you can. Quite a few of the latest games perform better with >512Mb. I built with 768Mb back in 2001 on the basis that my PC would _never_ swap and occasionally of late that is being challanged.

Dempsey

I see nothing wrong with it considering that your paying someone else to make sure that components are compatible and assemble it and have legit software. Majority of people cant build pc's and thats the market they are aiming at.

Ya wont see me buying em though:)

5 fans and a prescott, im not that surprised. I wonder what temps that cooling setup gets

CyberGhost

they don't have temp sensors as I know

they have pressies on 8400 series too! and it uses only 1 fan! huge b**t*rd though

BloodBath

I see nothing wrong with it considering that your paying someone else to make sure that components are compatible and assemble it and have legit software. Majority of people cant build pc's and thats the market they are aiming at.

True but there are better options than Dell for buying ready made gaming pc's.

they don't have temp sensors as I know

Of course they do. The mobo would have all the temp sensors so you can see them in the BIOS or with a program like mbm5.


BloodBath

CyberGhost

I have dimension 8250 , and not mbm5 or any other program could read the temp! they simply don't have sensors! asked that on Dell's forum, and the mod confirmed it!

-ADREN-

True but there are better options than Dell for buying ready made gaming pc's.

like whom, might be intrested in buying a made one rather than building.

CyberGhost

I don't think there is!

Alienware is very good but really expensive!

Compaq - sucks
fujitsu - sucks
sony - sucks


Dell = the best in ready made pcs with normal prices

BloodBath

like whom, might be intrested in buying a made one rather than building.

There is one computer on Jes that is a bargain and belive it or not it is a Fujitsu.


Bargain


That's a pretty meaty system for 900 euro and it comes with software.



BloodBath

Dempsey

Originally posted by BloodBath
True but there are better options than Dell for buying ready made gaming pc's.

Of course they do. The mobo would have all the temp sensors so you can see them in the BIOS or with a program like mbm5.


BloodBath

I agree but Dell dont build ready made gaming machines you have to customise one of theirs to have the high gear in it. I'd agree with Cyberghost, they are the best ready made pc's that you can buy their are other custom builder's but they charge more than dell do.

Dell motherboards are custom jobs, no temp sensors. You obviously never owned a Dell...:rolleyes:

BloodBath

Dell motherboards are custom jobs, no temp sensors. You obviously never owned a Dell...

obviously not :rolleyes:

That just reinforces my opinion that they are ****.

I agree but Dell dont build ready made gaming machines

That's what that machine is supposed to be and fair enough it's a good system but not for that money. The usual Dell cutting corners crap sticking the worst x800 into it.

Anyone building a high end machine (1500-2000 euro) is always better off building it. Dell are ok for getting a very basic system for some office work but for gaming they suck teh proverbial balls.


I never noticed that Jes offer before. It really is a bargain. Also has a 2 year service warranty from fujitsu. You really can't go wrong for 900 euro.



BloodBath

CyberGhost

well every company cuts corners, only the companies that specialize in gaming pcs only don't, like Alienware, or Voodoo

of course custom built pcs are much better, and you put the stuff that is really good! but some people really don't want to do that here's why

1. Gamers(I'm talking about normal people who just like to play a lot not about hardcore gaming maniacs) - are mostly interested in gaming and not hardware

2. time! researching the parts you need, finding the right shop, ordering the parts, tracking all of them, praying that they arrive well and not damaged!

3. building it, if you can't then you have to it to somebody to build - additional cost/risk

4, if something goes wrong, again you have to take apart your pc yourself - or pay somebody to do that and rma the item - with Dell for example, you just call them, they come take your pc, fix it and bring it back - easy!


and they aren't really that slow IMO - if you don't know how to build your own system, you prolly won't even notice the speed difference

personally I prefer to build my own, but about 80% don't that's why Dell are millionaires

-ADREN-

Yea that jes one is nice, but it has a Fx5900Xt i know that it marks up against the Radeon 9800pro nicely but, for some reason Id prefer to have a radeon 9800pro in the case instead.

unless some one states that it really makes absalutly no difference at all.

bizmark

I had the 5900xt and now have the 9800pro i would suggest anyone trying to chouse between them to buy the 9800pro its the better card by quite a bit

-ADREN-

hey biz m8, ok thanks for that assurance.

BloodBath

Yeah the card is a bit of a disappointment. They perform about the same as a 9600xt or 9700pro.

It's still a decent card though and will play most games on full detail and a decent res. They are decent overclockers as well.


BloodBath

Col_Loki

The 5900 isint a bad card at all, its roughly the same as a 9800 (or 9700pro as bloodbath said) . It generally overclocks very well and shouldnt be thought of as a bad choice IMO.

With a little overclocking it should atleast go to 9800pro performance levels, most lightly even further.