Looking into a new desktop.. Dell XPS?

[Kevman]

Hey, I'm looking into new computers for the summer, after I get my car done, and have some money.. Anyway, We stopped at Best Buy and I ran into this Dell XPS, 6 gigs of ram, 460 Gb hard drive, top of the line GeForce vid card and a 22" monitor for 1500 out the door.

Now I know what some will say 'don't buy Dell they suck..' But my last run in with Dell on my dad's Dell XPS laptop was actually fantastic, after losing the windows disk, and all the firmware to run the laptop, they sent new cd's to us via Puralator, and we recieved them the next day.., What do you think?

[KrokE]

I've had good luck with out of the box Dell systems. However, others, not so much. Even the XPS. My buddy just bought one with dual 9800s in it and my single 8800 GTX was faster on fps in Counterstrike. WEIRD!

He spent a lot of money on the machine and ended up putting countless hours into it on why it would bluescreen constantly on him. FINALLy got a tech to his house to replace the mobo. Of course, that means reformat and start from scratch wich also added another day of installing everything. Could have been a fluke machine, who knows.

Another thing for instance is I was going to put a spare 8800 in my g/f cpu that is a dell. No go, card phsically will not fit. So I had to give her my spare dell and that one DID fit the card. *boggle*

She mentioned just tonight she wants to get another dell but I'm not going to allow her to do so because then her 8800GTX may or may not fit in the new one. I'm just not willing to take that chance. Plus, they suck for overclocking as well.

My .02$

[mike71]

Might want to check some acers. Also with any prebuilt you run into size issues since they mostly all use mid towers now :( so its a crap shoot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103190 Quad core

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103189 Dual core

so toss in a monitor and a better vid card probably still under a thousand.

I do agree that dell has come along way from locking their bios so you could not add any cards haha and if your willing to spend the money its a good deal

[Kevman]

I've looked at the Acers and wasn't sure.. It's a name I'm not all too familiar with, I myself have used a Compaq (same one) since 2004, mind you, I've upgraded to a Geforce 8800, a gig of ram, and a 1000 watt power supply that makes some horrible grinding noises when cold.. I just think that after having this computer for as long as I have, it's just getting worn out.

I was looking into building one myself (I'm an electrician by trade, and it's pretty simple) but for how much a videocard, soundcard, mobo, and harddrive ALONE cost, I think I'll just get one made from Dell, and like I said, my last dealing with their customer support were very good, and from that point on, I've decided to go with them. I'll have to save my money, maybe something new will come out mid summer that will blow the XPS away..

[ForcedInduction]

I have had 2 acer laptops and they both performed admirably. Also yea, you could "just buy one" BUT, building one is a big part of the fun to most people. Plus, you can't buy one like you can build...without lots of money(AKA, building one nets you more PC for the money in some cases, otherwize you're going for componant choice). Sence of accomplishment...etc. I have the beginnings of a great PC if I ever finish buying all the parts:

NZXT Tempest case, Cooler Master 1000 watt PSU 80+ and SLI certified/2 8pin 4 4pin PCI-E connectors

...and that's it so far. I have my genaric HP PC in that case being powered by that PSU right now:

Basic intel mobo NO AGP, 2.7GHz Celeron, 256MB DDR, Geforce FX5500 PCI, Sound Blaster PCI(no onboard sound, thank ye), a 40GB and a 250GB HDD, CDRW drive and DVD rom drive(don't have an all in one yet).

Now, for those still reading~ XD the dream system:

Nvidia SLI mobo of some type/likley 780, Intel Core 2 Duo/2 3GHz cores, 2 of 2Gig DDR2 800, to start 1 Geforce 9800 Ultra PCI-E/possible SLI, Sound blaster X-FI PCI-E x1, Wester Digital Velociraptor x 2 in Raid 0(BLAZINFAST), some large size drive for storage or 2 in raid/ 1 to 2Tb, Combo CD/DVD-RW SATA.

I'm not building to save, I'm building for componant choice...fun...acomplishment...etc. That is, whenever I get more parts.

[Wraith]

Expect that with Dell (especially at Best Buy) you will be paying a premium. It's almost always a good deal cheaper building it yourself (Best Buy used to charge in the area of 200% what you could do buying parts online).

Aside from that, I personally have no interest in OEM PCs, but for the end user who may not know how to build a PC or not be willing to engage in it, it's probably the best bet. Why? Mostly for having customer support and replacement procedures. If you build it yourself, you'll have to diagnose, fix, and, if needed, RMA it yourself.

[ForcedInduction]

Yea, very well put. That's another thing I whole heartedly enjoy...the matenance and repair...xD. I really do love being DIY.

[Kevman]

If only they made them with Windows XP now, instead of Vista.. Not looking forward to the switch, but what can ya do..

Anyway, when it comes to computer parts, like, to build one? What is a good website that also ships to Canada? Thanks, KP.

[ForcedInduction]

Another reason for building yer own. Sure, you could wipe and put XP on a PC you buy, but starting fresh is the best way. If I were going to buy one allready built, Dell isn't a bad way to go. As far as shipping to CA...not sure. You could just use ebay. Alot of sellers are selling new items with warrenty if that's the issue, but alot of things you could get away with getting used. I got that 300+ dollar PSU for about 150 bukks...HALF PRICE. Guy had hardly used it. Just check into the feedbacks, and be carefull of who you buy from...oh, and make sure they ship international if they're outside of Canada, heh.

[Kevman]

Ebay is a good idea, I use it for car parts, but I'm really not sure what to put in as far as MoBo's, I would like to stick with PCI, it's what I have in my Compaq, and I can reuse stuff like the sound card, and Vid card, but I'd like something top of the line..


I found a site, Tigerdirect.ca, it's all in Canadian prices and what-not. Anyway.. I could build a top of the line computer, in an Alienware case for less than $1200, thats Nvidia everything, with a 1000Watt power supply, and LG Dvd RW and ROM. Not bad, eh?

[Wraith]

You don't need a 1kw PSU, though. Why by nvidia for video card? The 4870 is the best price/performance. Also, if you're building intel, then you don't want an nvidia mobo -- the intel chipsets are much better. If you are buying i7, then you're stuck with ddr3; if you are buying yorkfield or kentsfield, don't throw money away on a ddr3 mobo. DDR3 offers no performance increase in virtually all applications (ddr2 vs cheap ddr2, ddr2 vs ddr1 -- all the same: next to no performance increase except in one or two applications which show maybe 5% max).

I buy the best price/performance ratio parts. If something costs twice as much as something else, but only improves performance by 25 percent, then it's not cost effective to me.

If you are thinking about buying from TigerDirect and building it yourself, then just post your budget and what you want out of it, and I'll give you advice on parts.

[roadweasel]

I've never been disappointed in anything I've bought at tigerdirect and I've shopped with them for at least 10 years. Their kits are easy to put together (done it my girly self) and stuff always works.

[ForcedInduction]

I've allways been a fan of Nvidia, but ATI and them go back and forth as to what's best. I'm not entirely sure of price/performance because I'm just dead set it what I'm wanting to build. I want to use Nvidia, and I want SLI capability. For you, the Intel mobo advice is probably best though. One video card is still all you really need nowadays, since by the time a new card drops in cost to make a cheap upgrade to SLI you'd be better off selling it for some cash and getting one REALLY fast one.

I guess I'm not really being helpfull, but this guy sounds like he can :pcguru: .

[Kevman]

You don't need a 1kw PSU, though. Why by nvidia for video card? The 4870 is the best price/performance. Also, if you're building intel, then you don't want an nvidia mobo -- the intel chipsets are much better. If you are buying i7, then you're stuck with ddr3; if you are buying yorkfield or kentsfield, don't throw money away on a ddr3 mobo. DDR3 offers no performance increase in virtually all applications (ddr2 vs cheap ddr2, ddr2 vs ddr1 -- all the same: next to no performance increase except in one or two applications which show maybe 5% max).

I buy the best price/performance ratio parts. If something costs twice as much as something else, but only improves performance by 25 percent, then it's not cost effective to me.

If you are thinking about buying from TigerDirect and building it yourself, then just post your budget and what you want out of it, and I'll give you advice on parts.

When the time comes, I'm thinking around early June, I am willing to put forth $1200.

[Wraith]

lol, well that's a long way away in the world of computers, so not much to say now. We'll wait and see what the state of things is at that point. When the time comes, remind me with a PM or just post in this thread again.

[DevilMan]

http://www.buyxg.com

Thats where I buy my PCs at, and have had a few friends use them as well. Never a problem one, and just a hair more then you would pay to build your own with the same parts.

[Kevman]

I found a place locally that actually has pretty good deals.. I'm going to buy the case first, then slowly pick the stuff up, Do they still make AGP Video card compatible Mobo's?

[ForcedInduction]

Neh, AGP is a long since gone standard. PCI-E is the way to go. Wraith can help with selection more than me perhaps. Depends on final goals and and the like, but you are generally better off spending more money on the mobo. Money with mobos buys features and upgradability. You can allways slap another CPU or better video card in, as long as the mobo has the headroom. It is the core of what makes the PC...heh.

[Kevman]

Ahh, makes sense. Well, when the time comes I shall repost here.. Can't wait!

[Wraith]

I'd advise against the slowly-pick-things-up method. It's actually more common than you might think. It's better to, instead of buying the parts, dump the money you were about to spend into a bank account or just a 'piggy' bank (sock drawer, loose floorboard, a jar on top of the fridge -- wherever). If you buy parts as you go, you will only have the finished product at the end. So if you buy over a period of several months, you'll end up paying more than you would if you bought it all at the end (prices go down, new parts come out).

So that's my standard advice when someone says "i'll pick up a part here and there". It really is better to just set the money you were about to spend aside until you're ready to buy the whole thing.

[gcountach]

So that's my standard advice when someone says "i'll pick up a part here and there". It really is better to just set the money you were about to spend aside until you're ready to buy the whole thing.

Agreed. Depending on your speed, the parts you get may not even be that fast by the time your done by comparision to what's out there. You can pay 400 bucks for a video card now and not be able to get the full use out of it for another 2 years, or wait 2 years and get EVERYTHING along with the newest video card that runs way better than the one 2 years ago.

All the parts need to mesh up well together. Example, no reason to skimp on the CPU and get an awesome GPU (or visa versa), no reason to get 4+gigs of RAM and then buy a 32-bit OS, etc. Best have everything you need already picked out and bought within say a week of each other.

I myself use Newegg.com (don't know if they ship to CA or not, sorry) and when I built my last computer I bought just about everything there, excluding I think the case. Within a week, I had everything and built it within a few hours... then comes the fun of the software install...

[Nazz]

I have a Quad core Dell XPS system, I run XP pro on it and it's been running fine for almost 3 years now no problems.

[Tomh]

Speaking of 4 gigs of ram, and a 32 bit OS, I got hosed on that. Supposedly, if you purchase Vista at retail, you can download the 64 bit version for free. I got the 32 bit version of Vista Ultimate, and paid full retail thinking I would upgrade to 64 bit for free, then when it came time to do the upgrade, for what ever reason, my software isn't eligible for the free upgrade. If I'd have know that ahead of time, I wouldn't have paid full retail for the darned thing.

It is true though, if it is going to take you a significant amount of time to get the money together to buy everything, then you will be better off just saving until you can afford it, and buying everything at once. If you'll have the money over the course of a couple of months, then it probably won't hurt to buy the parts as you go, but I would wait until the end to buy the mainboard, memory, video card, and CPU all together. Those parts really need to to be well matched, and prices change frequently, so there is little use in buying them over any period of time.

[cobra96]

Hey, I'm looking into new computers for the summer, after I get my car done, and have some money.. Anyway, We stopped at Best Buy and I ran into this Dell XPS, 6 gigs of ram, 460 Gb hard drive, top of the line GeForce vid card and a 22" monitor for 1500 out the door.

Now I know what some will say 'don't buy Dell they suck..' But my last run in with Dell on my dad's Dell XPS laptop was actually fantastic, after losing the windows disk, and all the firmware to run the laptop, they sent new cd's to us via Puralator, and we recieved them the next day.., What do you think?

before i was going to get my laptop i wanted a desktop...but i was gonna build my own and hook it up to my 37'' Flatscreen...the mobo, GPU, CPU, PS, optical drive, HDD, case, and everything was less than a grand....and i had an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 with 4 gigs of Patriot RAM, a 4850 series ATI GPU, MSI Intel P45 mobo, and 750W PS...the only thing that throws the computer over a 1000 is the monitor which i didnt need