Which Dell: An XPS Gen4 or a 8400

staxx

Hi guys,

Wondering which one of these two PC's represents the better machine:


XPS €1479

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 540 with HT technology (3.2GHz, 800MHz
fsb, 1MB cache)
Microoft® Windows® XP Home Edition SP2 - English
1 Year Onsite Service with Next Business Day Response
Save €100 inc VAT Special Offer
1024MB PC-4200 Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Special Offer
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
3.5in 1.44MB Floppy Drive
NO MONITOR
256MB Nvidia Ge Force 6800
16x DVD-ROM
Sound Blaster® Audigy™ 2 (Dell), PCI w/Dolby Digital 5.1 and
IEEE1394
Dell 5650 5.1 Surround Speaker System
Dell Enhanced Multimedia keyboard


============================================================================


8400 €1369

Dimension 8400 Pentium 4 processor 540 with HT technology (3.20GHz,
800fsb, 1MB cache)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition SP2 - English
1 Year European Collect and Return Service
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 400MHz [2x512] Special Offer
250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
No Floppy Drive Required
256MB Nvidia Ge Force 6800
FP / MG 17in (E173FP) TCO99 Value Midnight Grey Flat Panel
16x max. DVD+/-RW and 16x DVD
Dell 5650 5.1 Surround Speaker System
Dell QuietKey Keyboard
Dell PS/2 Scroll Mouse
Dell v92 Data/Fax modem


The XPS supports faster memory and has an option to install a P4EE edition, which might lead one to think that the motherboard is superior.

The 8400 has the obvious advantage of having a monitor, larger HDD, DVD burner, pretty near the same spec elsewhere and is still cheaper.

So is the XPS more than a shiny case and an SLA with their "technical support for gamers by gamers."(tm) :rolleyes:

Any help or comments?

MR DAZ

Staxx,

A friend of mine works for a company which suplplies both motherboards to Dell...and he reckons the 8400 and XPS motherboard are the same apart from a tweaked bios on the XPS.... Also the 8400 can be flashed to the XPS bios... but I wouldnt try it!!

The only difference beween these systems is the shiny case!

chump

The XPS is a ripoff... go for the other one

Chalk

there the same pc
your buying a "badass" case for the extra

RicardoSmith

Compare it with the outlet store first. :eek:

Dimension 8400, Pentium 4 (3.2GHz) Mini Tower
English - Win XP SP2 Home

Operating System: English - Win XP SP2 Home (Backup Media)
English - Win XP SP2 Home
Memory: 512MB (2 X 256, NON-ECC400MHZ DDRII)
Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 250GB SATA Hard Drive
Video: 256MB nVidia Ge Force 6800
Modem: V.92 Data Fax Modem Ire/Spn
Sound Card: Creative Labs SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 2 Sound Card
CD Read-Write Drive: 16 X DVD +/- RW
Software: Microsoft® Works® 7.0
Paint Shop Photo Album Standard Eng
English - Adobe Reader 6.0
MISC: Dell Standard PS2 Keyboard
Dell 2 Button PS/2 Scroll Mouse
Norton Internet Securities 90 day English
DMX Dell Media Experience 2.
IEEE 1394 Adapter


Price incl. VAT excl. del: EUR 821.59
Price excl. VAT & del: EUR 679.00

Woden

we got this months dell leaflet in work the other day and i was looking at the outlined 8400 and xps systems. i looked at the specs of both and went WTF, the xps has no dvd/rw, a smaller hdd, no monitor and was more expensive and the only thing in its favour was the soundcard

i shook my head in disbelief and muttered something along the lines of bloody dell and throw the leaflet across the table

that is all

get the 8400

staxx

Thanks guys for all the responses, as a result the XPS is out of the picture and just narrowing down some of the options on the 8400 (both outlet and custom built).... Thx

calis

i have a dell m8 and i wud not buy another ... dont get me wrong they great machines well made and good customer support ... but they use dell specific parts like memory ... i have dell rdram which costs 3 times as much as normal rdram. same goes for sound card (soundblaster live) i cant buy a replacement card in a shop have to get a dell one and so on. which costs alot more. so dont buy dell if u wana upgrade period.

RicardoSmith

calis wrote:

i have a dell m8 and i wud not buy another ... dont get me wrong they great machines well made and good customer support ... but they use dell specific parts like memory ... i have dell rdram which costs 3 times as much as normal rdram. same goes for sound card (soundblaster live) i cant buy a replacement card in a shop have to get a dell one and so on. which costs alot more. so dont buy dell if u wana upgrade period.

I doubt it. Exactly whats so specific about your ram and sound card?

calis

u have to buy dell rd ram and the sound card is for dell computers only. normal rdram will not work nor will another creative labs sound card.

u can doubt brother thomas but its true.

joePC

Go for this it would out preform those Dells any day.

causal

calis wrote:

i have a dell m8 and i wud not buy another ... dont get me wrong they great machines well made and good customer support ... but they use dell specific parts like memory ... i have dell rdram which costs 3 times as much as normal rdram. same goes for sound card (soundblaster live) i cant buy a replacement card in a shop have to get a dell one and so on. which costs alot more. so dont buy dell if u wana upgrade period.

Are you sure the components you mentioned are Dell specific?

RDRAM is made by Rambus and is used by other manufacturers on some of their machines, such as Gateway, Compaq, IBM, and HP.
As you say RDRAM is much more expensive but afaik it is high-end RAM - 800MHz, 1600MHz, compared to say PC100 which is 100MHz

As for the soundcard - why can't you buy any PCI soundcard you like and install it?

I've upgraded my Dell (Dimension 8100, June 2001) with a new hard-drive, more RAM, two new optical drives, WinTV card, and a new video card. No problemo.
And Dells are soooo easy to work with

The only snag I had was with the DVD/CDRW combo drive - it stopped reading CDs - but I put this down to CloneCD - or specifically the 'virtual clonedrive' :mad: It still reads DVDs though so I put it in my old(er) PC.

So unless I decide to make up my own pc (which I prob won't) I'd give Dell my business again.

causAl

Woden

calis wrote:

u have to buy dell rd ram and the sound card is for dell computers only. normal rdram will not work nor will another creative labs sound card.

u can doubt brother thomas but its true.

i would doubt it as well, the parts you mentioned are the parts you typically can change on a dell, what you can't really go near is the m/b, psu iirc

RicardoSmith

calis wrote:

u have to buy dell rd ram and the sound card is for dell computers only. normal rdram will not work nor will another creative labs sound card.

u can doubt brother thomas but its true.

Very easy to find out. Give us the model number of your machine. End all doubt.

Doodee

Tbh Dells can be a pain, i recently had to service one that wasn't picking up a hardrive or any ATAPI drives. The Bios is bog standard and is more of an information tool than a System set up. The customer support is great, however, if your gonna lash out the price your quoting for either of those systems i'd just look at other companys or even a custom build.
If the system is for gaming theres a company that have a Comercial interaction forum on boards.ie who recently enough beat the XPS rig by almost double in a benchmark and was marginally beaten by Alienware, yet had the cheapest of all 3 systems.

Have a gander around at benchmarks before you buy, you'll always end up finding something that could down the road cause you grief with the systems.
Here are just 3 fairly decent review sites for ya.
www.anandtech.com
www.tomshardware.com
www.xbitlabs.com

Best of luck with your new system anyways.

RicardoSmith

Doodee wrote:

Tbh Dells can be a pain, i recently had to service one that wasn't picking up a hardrive or any ATAPI drives. The Bios is bog standard and is more of an information tool than a System set up. The customer support is great, ...

Thats a bit misleading TBH.

HD detection is hardly a Dell specific problem, its a common problem with any computer. The bios is designed to stop people screwing it up. Its designed that way. Its not meant to be an overlclocking or enthuast's system. Its get the job done, no more no less. Support is not what it used to be IMO.

uberpixie

calis wrote:

u have to buy dell rd ram and the sound card is for dell computers only. normal rdram will not work nor will another creative labs sound card.

u can doubt brother thomas but its true.

Thats just plain wrong.

My friend bought rdram from shop4memory.com to work in his old family dell p4 1.7 dimension 8100. It was a hell of a lot cheper to buy from them than dell. €223 vs €400 for the same ram from dell.....

Another friend who got a dell as a 21st bday present added a creative soundcard, a sb live 5.1 brown box from pc world, with no problems.

Seemingly any problems with creative souncards can be fixed for some models with a bios update.

uberpixie

Anyway what the hell is happening to this board?

Why hasn't staxx been called a noob and preached at to build a box.

Where is the flame war over dells being rubbish and evil.

Honestly what is happening to people :-)

The Real B-man

have a dell 8300 & 4600 never again parts are not standard stock very hard to get replacements ****ty psu's and no good for gamers who wish to upgrade thats why im building a new machine on saturday very good for the average home user i have to say.

staxx

Honestly, you say thanks and ten new posts get added

Well this machine ain't for me, it's for a friend, yes you could build a better machine yourself for around the same price, but some people just want something that works out of the box and has 3 yrs support with it (I mean you work in IT all day you might not want to come home and have to tech support your own PC at night).


Personally I bought two Dells over five years ago, they're both still seeing service and have had their bits swopped and changed umpteen times, so no problems with their upgradability (okay the PSU, MB holders and Case may be non standard but a PCI/AGP/PCI-E slot is PCI/AGP/PCI-E slot), I did get stung by buying one of the first gen RAMBUS machines however but hey.

I also managed to get one of the Dell Poweredge 1600 SCs for 150 euro, which is nice .

My current machine is a new build and all my machines in the future will be, but that's just me, I don't mind tinkering, I'm sad that way.


Anyway the deal is done, the die is cast, the rubicon is crossed... okay HE BOUGHT THE PC ALREADY (Dell Outlet store, upgraded to 3Yr warranty, 19inch LCD yahdeyah).


Cheers guys

astrofool

if you worked in IT day and night, there probably couldn't be anything worse than coming home to a dell....

uberpixie

astrofool wrote:

if you worked in IT day and night, there probably couldn't be anything worse than coming home to a dell....

A compaq?

RicardoSmith

The Real B-man wrote:

have a dell 8300 & 4600 never again parts are not standard stock very hard to get replacements ****ty psu's and no good for gamers who wish to upgrade thats why im building a new machine on saturday very good for the average home user i have to say.

I have a 4600 and theres nothing wrong with it. Grand little machine. Whats not standard about it?

astrofool wrote:

if you worked in IT day and night, there probably couldn't be anything worse than coming home to a dell....

I've a dual Xeon Dell at work, great machine, and a 4600 at home neat little box. Personally from working on PC's at work, the last thing I want is to come to a DIY job. One of the reason I bought a laptop was so I wouldn't be able to take it apart. Having a cupboard full of parts just doesn't interest me anymore at all.

Gone West

my opinion is that you want a high spec gaming machine. its not terribly difficult to build one yourself. order parts from komplett.ie or somesuch place, you will get a better machine for cheaper money. But it will be customised, ive been building my own machines since I was about 10 or 11 (no ****ting-first box was a pentium 100mhz with 16 megs ram!) and I've never looked back.

RicardoSmith

You can beat the DIY price with the outlet machines (warranty and OS) if you keep an eye on them. Bargains pop up from time to time.

DirtyHarry

why do people buy dells? iv studied it for 4 years now and my conclusion is still unfounded.

I rest my case...the bitter end of the bottle.

din0saur

staxx wrote:

Dell Outlet store, upgraded to 3Yr warranty

Why go for the 3 year warranty, doesn't that cost €130? Surely if anything is going to go wrong it'll be in the first year and that money can go towards your next PC purchase in a few years time?

Megatron

The Real B-man wrote:

have a dell 8300 & 4600 never again parts are not standard stock very hard to get replacements ****ty psu's and no good for gamers who wish to upgrade thats why im building a new machine on saturday very good for the average home user i have to say.

I've got myself a 8300 ( march 2004) and i was at a LAN with some mates, all of whom are gamers . Now admitily i had the lowest spec going there , however If you know what drivers to install and how to config your OS you can get the machine to perform just as well. I think when all the benchs going my machine was no where the bottom of the pile.