Is the new Dell XPS 8500 good value?

Attlee

A few days ago Dell launched a new model of XPS and I was just wondering what you guys thought of it as a gaming PC. There are a few variants of it on the Dell website but I am particularly interested in the €1,479.00 model which comes with an SSD. I tried building something similar on Hardwareversand and came out with a fairly comparable price but maybe I selected the wrong components. The machine specs are as follows:

2nd gen Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)
Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
16384MB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 2GB DDR5 Graphics Card
256GB SSD + 2TB (7,200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
16x DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
http://www.dell.com/ie/p/xps-8500/pd.aspx

I don't mind paying slightly more than I would on HWV but I was just wondering if I got the above for €1,479 would be good value or are any weak components in it. I don't expect to play BF3 with maxed out settings at 60FPS but as a general gaming and work PC would it be okay? Can anyone come up with the same build via HWV at significantly less?

ShadowHearth

its horrible. for 1.5k you can buy a monster PC for gaming.

like all dells, this one is very inbalanced machine with almost zero to none upgrade path.

if you are looking for gaming PC, then you dont need 2600k, you can drop ssd to 128gb, and ofc 7770 in 1.5k machine looks just silly. In 1.5k build you can easily put in gtx 680, which is fastest Single GPU on the market ( sort of fastest in a cheeky way )

deconduo

The problem with that XPS is that its very unbalanced for gaming. Something like this would blow it out of the water gaming wise:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€188.78
Thermalright True Spirit 120|€22.58
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€82.61
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€33.60
Sapphire HD 7870 OC 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express|€309.54
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€132.29
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€85.96
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.59
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.08
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA|€16.68
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€77.61


Comes to €1,055.32 + €18.99 shipping.

The i5-2500k gives the same gaming performance as the i7-2600k. The XPS only has an i7-2600 which can't be overclocked, so the i5-2500k beats it by a lot.

No game benefits from 16GB of RAM over 8GB as far as I know.

The 7870 destroys the 7770 in gaming, and that particular model overclocks really nicely.

The 256GB SSD is not needed unless you have a massive amount of games that you play regularly. 128GB is plenty for most people.

The case is just a generic one, but you can go for a nicer or more expensive one if you want. For example if you wanted a silent build or something.

Skylinehead

Jesus, a 7770 in a 1500 build, you should be looking 7870 at an absolute minimum there.

BillyCom

Makes me wonder how much money I wasted buying an XPS gen4 back in 2005 :eek:

Inscrutable

There's a 10% off coupon code here which will reduce it to €1,335:

http://buy-ireland.com/dell-discount-coupons.php

smileyj1987

For that sort of money i would be wanting a 7950 , 7970 or a GTX 680 for the price .

EmilAndresen

I bought the 8500 which you're describing (the top model in the 8500 range, that is) and would have to say that it's lightning fast. I'm not a hard-core gamer but I've been playing Portal 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops at high settings and it has been fine.

Here's something objective you might find useful, the Windows Experience Index:

Overall: a very respectable 7.5 (out of a maximum possible score of 7.9)

Processor: 7.6
RAM: 7.6
Graphics: 7.5
Gaming graphics: 7.5
Primary hard disk: 7.9

I've always found there to be a lot of anti-Dell comments which make their way onto forums and I've come to suspect this is largely about prejudice against Dell. Bear this in mind when you hear people saying it's a 'horrible' system.

You might find this site useful too: http://www.weishare.net/ - I just used it to compare the i5 processor recommended in another response to the i7 in the Dell (guess what, the i7 is significantly better).

uberpixie

EmilAndresen wrote: »

I bought the 8500 which you're describing (the top model in the 8500 range, that is) and would have to say that it's lightning fast. I'm not a hard-core gamer but I've been playing Portal 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops at high settings and it has been fine.

Neither game is very graphically intensive by PC gaming standards.
ARMA 2 or BF3 or the Witcher 2 are better bets when testing a gaming pc as they are much more intensive.

EmilAndresen wrote: »

I've always found there to be a lot of anti-Dell comments which make their way onto forums and I've come to suspect this is largely about prejudice against Dell. Bear this in mind when you hear people saying it's a 'horrible' system.

Many people have been burnt by Dell: Dell (like most major OEMs) have a bad habit of making PCs with non standard connections on the motherboard/power supply and give you the bear minimum required power supply. This becomes an issue when you decide to upgrade your graphics card down the line, realise the power supply is too weak, then go to replace the power supply and then realise the new psu you did get won't fit the case or Dell decided to use non standard power connections on the motherboard and you then need to get a "dell" power supply form somewhere.

OEM PCs are never designed with to be upgradable: they ship the bear minimum required to get the sale as most of their market will NEVER touch the insides of their PC with a screw driver. Any extra money spent adding an upgradeable feature to an OEM PC is money wasted by DELL.... So usually they don't bother and you then find you have purchased a dead end pc and end up building any way

EmilAndresen wrote: »

the i7 in the Dell (guess what, the i7 is significantly better).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

"CPUs priced over $230 offer rapidly diminishing returns when it comes to game performance. As such, we have a hard time recommending anything more expensive than the Core i5-2550K, especially since this multiplier-unlocked processor can be overclocked to great effect if more performance is desired. Even at stock clocks, it meets or beats the $1000 Core i7-990X Extreme Edition when it comes to gaming."

i5 2500K is more than enough for gaming, in fact it is current sweet spot between cost and performance. An i7 in a games machine is a total waste if all you intend to do is game...... Better to pump the extra money saved into a much better graphics card which will have an actual impact on your gaming performance, unless of course you wish to inflate your e-penis and get better benchmark scores......:D


TL/DR: the Dell PC is ****e value for money and is very badly balanced for gaming paring a weak gfx card with an i7 CPU ( an i5 2500K will perform the same in games and is cheaper).
Chances are Dell will have also fcuked you on the powersupply which will make fitting a new gfx card in the future very difficult.

ShadowHearth

As above. Dells are very unbalanced, overpriced, and have unique connections which make then unupgradeable.

We don't hate dell as company, a lot of us use dell monitors which are great value for money, dells laptops can be a not bad value to with good sales, but we hate rubbish desktops, which are marked as high power gaming machines and in the end those machines are only good for office work, because the imbalance is horrible.

Newer ever buy Alienware and dell desktops.

Tea_Bag

EmilAndresen wrote: »

I bought the 8500 which you're describing (the top model in the 8500 range, that is) and would have to say that it's lightning fast. I'm not a hard-core gamer but I've been playing Portal 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops at high settings and it has been fine.

Here's something objective you might find useful, the Windows Experience Index:

Overall: a very respectable 7.5 (out of a maximum possible score of 7.9)

Processor: 7.6
RAM: 7.6
Graphics: 7.5
Gaming graphics: 7.5
Primary hard disk: 7.9

I've always found there to be a lot of anti-Dell comments which make their way onto forums and I've come to suspect this is largely about prejudice against Dell. Bear this in mind when you hear people saying it's a 'horrible' system.

You might find this site useful too: http://www.weishare.net/ - I just used it to compare the i5 processor recommended in another response to the i7 in the Dell (guess what, the i7 is significantly better).

You're new to boards so I'm trying not to be mean, cause it would be great if you do stick around.

most of what I wanted to reply is covered already, but I'm curious to ask how much you spent, and the exact components of the rig. Maybe its because I'm on my mobile, but I cant see what GPU, SSD, HDDs, psu etc you have.

with a specific list of components, I could find a genuine argument for why or why not to buy Dell, instead of cheap jabs.

uncle_sam_ie

EmilAndresen wrote: »

I've always found there to be a lot of anti-Dell comments which make their way onto forums and I've come to suspect this is largely about prejudice against Dell. Bear this in mind when you hear people saying it's a 'horrible' system.

.

Yeah, you'll wont get any Dell love here. We're under no illusions.

ShadowHearth

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Yeah, you'll wont get any Dell love here. We're under no illusions.

not true, i have love for dell. for their awesome monitors

uncle_sam_ie

ShadowHearth wrote: »

not true, i have love for dell. for their awesome monitors

Indeed, they do make great monitors. But, their pre-builds aren't great.

ShadowHearth

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Indeed, they do make great monitors. But, their pre-builds aren't great.

not great? wrong word , bud. fecking horrible

EmilAndresen

So I've run PCMark and 3DMark on the XPS 8500 machine. What do you reckon it got?

luyolo

EmilAndresen wrote: »

So I've run PCMark and 3DMark on the XPS 8500 machine. What do you reckon it got?

What you got is you wasted €1500+ on an overpriced POS. Therefore no one needs to guess as all you're doing is trying to justify that price to yourself.

Tony

deconduo wrote: »

The case is just a generic one, but you can go for a nicer or more expensive one if you want. For example if you wanted a silent build or something.

Don't mean to hijack the thread but what would you recommend case wise for a silent build (for my next project) Thanks to you and the guys here I've got a great office pc set up now.

uncle_sam_ie

Tony wrote: »

Don't mean to hijack the thread but what would you recommend case wise for a silent build (for my next project) Thanks to you and the guys here I've got a great office pc set up now.

http://www.quietpc.com/products/pc-cases/fd-definer3

deconduo

Tony wrote: »

Don't mean to hijack the thread but what would you recommend case wise for a silent build (for my next project) Thanks to you and the guys here I've got a great office pc set up now.

Any of the Fractal Design Define range (Mini, R3, XL) depending on how big a case you want.

ShadowHearth

EmilAndresen wrote: »

So I've run PCMark and 3DMark on the XPS 8500 machine. What do you reckon it got?

Go for it. Just for shots and giggles. We will see how good it will stack up.

My current rig after upgrade would be same value. 1.5k ish.

aN.Droid

EmilAndresen wrote: »

So I've run PCMark and 3DMark on the XPS 8500 machine. What do you reckon it got?

Doesn't matter as we already know you probably paid 30% or 40% more than you should have to get those scores.

Tea_Bag

well, I just went to go configure the xps 8500 on dell's website to get accurate specs, and well, dell has stopped selling it. already. seriously?

anyway, im fairly sure the €1500 option had an i7 2600, and while i couldnt find a GPU spec, cause dell has pulled all the tech spec, i found that the highest configuration option, which cost far more than 1.5K, has a 7870. so i went with that.


going by 3D mark scores, the highest is P7200, but im going to guess you get closer to P6500, maybe even as low as P6000. Am I wrong?

aN.Droid

Tea_Bag wrote: »

well, I just went to go configure the xps 8500 on dell's website to get accurate specs, and well, dell has stopped selling it. already. seriously?

I did the same so went hunting for specs, gave up after finding out it cost $1999 when it came out.

Tea_Bag

Limericks wrote: »

I did the same so went hunting for specs, gave up after finding out it cost $1999 when it came out.

yea. maybe they're catching fire?

maybe EmilAndresen isnt replying cause its crashed already? oh the possibilities.

EmilAndresen

luyolo wrote: »

What you got is you wasted €1500+ on an overpriced POS. Therefore no one needs to guess as all you're doing is trying to justify that price to yourself.

Whoa. Why the anger? Calm down fella. Are you 12?

Tea_Bag

im dying of anticipation here on those results btw...

Bloodwing

Tea_Bag wrote: »

im dying of anticipation here on those results btw...

Aren't we all??

luyolo

EmilAndresen wrote: »

Whoa. Why the anger? Calm down fella. Are you 12?

Not angry, I just don't want you promoting that overpriced dead end XPS.

And you still haven't posted your results.
You saw on the first page of this thread that people were saying this is overpriced and you still went ahead and bought it.

Jaafa

Not op technically but the point still stands.

EmilAndresen

It got a 4889 for PCMark and P3229 for 3DMark. Gutted. I guess you live and learn, and that this lessons sunk £1070 of my hard-earned. Just wish I'd seen the forum before I'd bought.

I don't tend to upgrade anyhow so I'll wait 3 years and go to Mesh or someone. Such is life.

All the best,
E

ShadowHearth

EmilAndresen wrote: »

It got a 4889 for PCMark and P3229 for 3DMark. Gutted. I guess you live and learn, and that this lessons sunk £1070 of my hard-earned. Just wish I'd seen the forum before I'd bought.

I don't tend to upgrade anyhow so I'll wait 3 years and go to Mesh or someone. Such is life.

All the best,
E

well i expected way more then that m8. for example now, my 1.5k ish pc * which was build mainly in november and some parts are way cheaper now ), got a score of 9500 3dmark.

thanks for coming back with result, at least you know, we are not hating dell, just because its fun to do, we just really hate how dell can bend over people and run away with their money by giving such horrible systems.

next time you building a pc, just come back here and we will give you a hand with it. you will get best pc for your money.

Tea_Bag

EmilAndresen wrote: »

It got a 4889 for PCMark and P3229 for 3DMark. Gutted. I guess you live and learn, and that this lessons sunk £1070 of my hard-earned. Just wish I'd seen the forum before I'd bought.

I don't tend to upgrade anyhow so I'll wait 3 years and go to Mesh or someone. Such is life.

All the best,
E

its a hollow victory tbh. its never nice to see people getting ripped off. The angry responses weren't particularly aggregated towards you, just towards any defence of DELL, when anyone that hangs around here usually knows their ****, or at least enough to know dell is robbing you blind.

for the record, you could build a P10000 rig for the about the same price, but allot more upgradelable.

uberpixie

EmilAndresen wrote: »

It got a 4889 for PCMark and P3229 for 3DMark. Gutted. I guess you live and learn, and that this lessons sunk £1070 of my hard-earned. Just wish I'd seen the forum before I'd bought.

I don't tend to upgrade anyhow so I'll wait 3 years and go to Mesh or someone. Such is life.

All the best,
E

If you find a game you cannot play at the settings you want: hop in a better graphics card. You just need to check how much room to play you have with the cpu....

You have already over paid, may as well make the most of what you bought.

Also don't worry too much about benchmark scores: all that matters is that you can play the games you want at the settings you want smoothly.....

john.martin

Specs have changed on the 8500 over the last month - better processor, graphics card ect - also last day for 10% off - total now €1424

What is the feeling on this build - is it any better value as unless you are prepared to build the pc yourself, this seems like the best value out there - can anyone correct me?

Thanks...


NEW XPS 8500
Date & Time: Tuesday 22 May 2012 1:59 PM




SYSTEM COMPONENTS
NEW XPS 8500 Qty 1

XPS 8500 Standard Base, English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) Unit Price € 1,549.01



Includes Adobe Photoshop and Premier Elements Upgrade Valid until 23/05/2012
Expires 24 May 2012




Includes McAfee Security Centre system 23/05/2012
Expires 24 May 2012




10% off XPS desktop over €999
Expires 23 May 2012
- € 154.90



Catalog Number: 5102 D00X8515
________________________________________
Module Description Show Details

Base XPS 8500 Standard Base
Processor:
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)
Operating System English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory 12288MB (2x4GB, 2x2GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Keyboard UK/Irish (QWERTY) Dell KM632 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Monitor Display Not Included
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 2GB DDR5 Graphics Card
Driver Dell 1703 Wireless Label
Hard Drive 256GB mSATA SSD + 2TB (7,200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Mouse Mouse Included in Wireless Keyboard and Mouse option
Optical Devices 8x Blu-Ray ROM Combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write)
Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Speakers No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Wireless Networking Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE
Cables 2 Meter Power Cord - UK
Shipping Documents EMEA3 MUI Docs - West/Swiss/MEA (Eng, Ger, Fre, Dut, Ita, Ara, Tur)
Gedis Bundle Reference D05X8515
Enhanced Service Packs 1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware & Software Phone Support
Placemat Placemats (Eng, Swe, Fin, Dan, Nor)
Digital Photography Adobe® Photoshop® Elements + Premiere® Elements Bundle
Order Information XPS 8500 Order
Processor 3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)
Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Support
Online Backup DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence
Optical Software Blu Ray PowerDVD Software
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Additional Software XPS 8500 Resource DVD
Protect your new PC McAfee® Security Center 15 month subscription
Operating System Recovery Options OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included

ShadowHearth

At 1.5k mark you are looking at a power plant which will make green peace cry.

It's still bad value OP. it's a bad value in current performance/money value and it is even worse when you look in to upgradability in a lOng run.

Dinarius

I'm coming to this thread a bit late, but I'd be grateful for some feedback.

I'm considering changing my desktop. I've had 3 Dells (I know, sacrilege here round these parts! ) and never had a problem with them. But, my desktop just can't keep up now.

I'm a photographer and need to be able to use Photoshop CS6 quickly and easily as well as moving around tiffs up to 1Gb in size without pause for breath.

So, a Dell like this would fit the bill.....

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&fb=1&l=en&model_id=xps-8500&oc=d00x8515&s=dhs&vw=icon

Fast graphics card (vital for Hasselblad Phocus software I use - as well as Photoshop, of course) and lots of RAM.

I get the VAT back, so the cost to me is €1194.

If I didn't go the DELL route, where else can I go for a similar spec?

Thanks.

D.

ps. Ideally, I'd like the HD in the above spec split into 2 x 1Tb, but that's another story. I've had HDs added to my existing DELL without a problem. It's biggest problem is the graphics card. Quadro FX 1700 with only 512Mb RAM. But, it's three years old.

Pps. What annoys me about DELL is that they've dropped FireWire (which I need) and they haven't adopted Thunderbolt, which I could possibly use a FireWire to Thunderbolt adaptor to run. For this reason, I'm considering switching to Apple for me next laptop. (I capture images to a laptop and process them on a desktop) The Macbook Pro comes with both, as well as USB 2/3. Connectivity-wise, DELL are crap, Apple are superb, albeit at a price!

theteal

Possibly better off starting your own thread, Dinarius. Copy and paste the questions from this post, add your answers and you'll more than likely be offered a number of different views that will ultimately leave you looking at a much better and more cost effective machine than any Dell

bartno12001

Hi Guys. I know you dont like dell but just wondering what you guys think of this one.

XPS 8500

3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3770 processor 3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz

16GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

XPS 8500, White Chassis w/19:1 media card reader

Blu-ray Disc BD-RE (Writes BD at 8x)

Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4

AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB DDR5

No Monitor (i already have a 24 inch)

Dell USB 6-Button Laser Mouse

Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard, US-English

2TB SATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM + 32GB SSD SRT enhancement

McAfee 11, 15 Month

Power DVD 9.6, 3D

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, English, No Media

Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE

MPP XBOX Student Offer (i got a xbox 360 by paying $90 more-this is not included in the 1299 price)

I have already bought this computer for $1299 (this excludes the xbox 360) and now I just bought corsair GS800 power supply for $89.99 from memoryexpress. so around 1390.

would appreciate anyone's opinion.

Solitaire

Still terrible value

Dinarius

To be fair, if you can build a computer yourself, and you don't place a value on the time it takes to research, source and assemble the various components, (DELL's guarantee aside) then the DELL may represent a bad deal.

But, most people put a price on their time and this should be taken into account when deciding what is and isn't "terrible value".

D.

ShadowHearth

Dinarius wrote: »

To be fair, if you can build a computer yourself, and you don't place a value on the time it takes to research, source and assemble the various components, (DELL's guarantee aside) then the DELL may represent a bad deal.

But, most people put a price on their time and this should be taken into account when deciding what is and isn't "terrible value".

D.

took me 3 hours to build my very first PC, so 3x10eu lets say... 30eu +Awesome upgradable, faster, cheaper, better quality or dell..... hmmm....

Dinarius

ShadowHearth wrote: »

took me 3 hours to build my very first PC, so 3x10eu lets say... 30eu +Awesome upgradable, faster, cheaper, better quality or dell..... hmmm....

€10 an hour!? And no allowance made for research and sourcing?

D.

ShadowHearth

Dinarius wrote: »

€10 an hour!? And no allowance made for research and sourcing?

D.

its a hobby and a pleasure, i wouldnt be here so? research did not took that long too, even if you will buy a dell machine you will still need to do research too, because you need to know what you buying. So i dont know how you can charge for your time on research when you build it yourself, and when you buy it from dell.

if you buy PC, with no research or at least basic knowladge, then you are an idiot and you deserve to get your money taken of you. ( not aimed at you OP )

MikeMichael

I did my first build in years and it was a lot of hassle to be honest. Between delivery issues and making a few mistakes I lost a fair bit of time.
I will list all of my mistakes.

-Bought a pci wireless card but thought I needed pcie as I was a bit tired and my video card blocked the pci slot. Ended up buying one again for a few quid!
-Installed 32 bit windows and had to re do all driver installs when I realised my mistake.
- ssd lacked a sata cable and I didnt have enough so had to buy one.
-system wouldnt boot and I thought it was because of my hdmi cable, had to source a rgb cable and test it but it was my video card . I would set the system up minuse the video card and do that after.

Tea_Bag

thats why you ask here first

bartno12001

hi. I know a decent bit about computers and I also go to different websites such as nvidia, Radeon to figure out what the video card is like. I still think its a reasonable price. I dont know how to build my own computer but I was thinking of getting it build through memory express. Was costing me $200 more for the parts itself (extra $40 for assembly). Yeah I would got a better case, better motherboard (sli options), better fan but I dont even think its that necessary. I keep my case open so its perfect for ventilation and cooling and I dont even think I would have ever used sli or dual video cards. Overall the intel chip is decent, RAM are more than enough for me, i checked the fps of devil may cry 4 running radeon 6870 and far stronger than my nvidia 560 in my old computer. playing arkham city right now and its runing perfectly fine. Blue ray writer, good hard drive, yeah sound card is missing (but again really not necessary in my case), decent power supply. All of this for $1400. I am in Alberta Canada so if you can find me better parts and a better deal than this I would be surprised.

also i got a xbox 360 for $90 so overall i saved $100 there.

uncle_sam_ie

bartno12001 wrote: »

hi. I know a decent bit about computers and I also go to different websites such as nvidia, Radeon to figure out what the video card is like. I still think its a reasonable price. I dont know how to build my own computer but I was thinking of getting it build through memory express. Was costing me $200 more for the parts itself (extra $40 for assembly). Yeah I would got a better case, better motherboard (sli options), better fan but I dont even think its that necessary. I keep my case open so its perfect for ventilation and cooling and I dont even think I would have ever used sli or dual video cards. Overall the intel chip is decent, RAM are more than enough for me, i checked the fps of devil may cry 4 running radeon 6870 and far stronger than my nvidia 560 in my old computer. playing arkham city right now and its runing perfectly fine. Blue ray writer, good hard drive, yeah sound card is missing (but again really not necessary in my case), decent power supply. All of this for $1400. I am in Alberta Canada so if you can find me better parts and a better deal than this I would be surprised.

also i got a xbox 360 for $90 so overall i saved $100 there.

Keeping your case open is not a good idea. PC cases are designed around air flowing through the case. Keeping it open creates stagnant air pockets and poor cooling. PLus, you will get a lot more dust on everything.

bartno12001

ahh these sales. with christmas coming close computers are going on sale again. have a look at this one. i just built it on memory express. oh well. this would be better than my computer for sure and $70 more only.

Velocity Aurora FTC Gaming Case, Black

× 1

$79.99



Intel Core™ i7-3770 Processor, 3.40GHz w/ 8MB Cache

× 1

$304.99



Corsair Air Series A70 CPU Cooler

× 1

$34.99



Asus P8Z68-V / Gen 3 w/ DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX / SLI

× 1

$129.99



Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Quad Channel Kit (4 x 4GB), Black

× 1

$94.99



WD 3TB Caviar Green 5400rpm SATA III w/ 64MB Cache

× 1

$149.99



LG 14x Internal Blu-Ray Writer

× 1

$79.99



LG SuperMulti 24x DVD Writer, SATA, Black, OEM

× 1

$19.99



eVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD SuperClocked 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort

× 1

$229.99



Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Sound Card

× 1

$49.99



Corsair Gaming Series GS800 Power Supply

× 1

$89.99



Memory Express Assemble Hardware

× 1

$40.00



Logitech Desktop MK120, Retail (keyboard and mouse)

× 1

$19.99



Belkin 10/100/1000 Network PCI Card

× 1

$22.99



Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) SP1 DVD - OEM

× 1

$119.99