To Dell, or not to Dell, that is the question

[smurkin]

I've reached the turning point in my life where I'm too bone idle to build a new machine myself. My 3-4 year old athlon 3200 & GF8600 dont really cut the mustard with etqw, and I'm transocding alot of video, sloooowly. Moreover, I'm toying with idea of an HD camcorder with HDD - my old pc is too weak and feeble to play the newer formats and do a decent job at editing. To the chase.

I have a good quote from Dell:

Dell XPS 420 (brand new line) encompassing

Premium Chassis - Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB)
Intel X38 Express chipset
4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4x1024]
SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card
0.5 Gb 7200 rpm in twin RAID 0
& some little things, DVD drive, physics accelerator, wee lcd on front of the case to work with vist (pointless for something that lives under a desk, imho), TV tuner, vista
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

COST £ 1,089 (special discount plus no monitor) vat/del inc

Now I tried to source similar parts from OCUK, and including vista I came in at approx £1,250 (ok, not really enough information in the dell spec to accurately generate a price from ocuk)

Dell seems like a bargain...but my concerns

1) mobo doesnt support xfire (or whatever nvidia call it) and I wanted this for an upgradability option, but then the psu prolly wouldnt handle 2x graphics cards, anyway

But...difficult one this, would one be better to add a second GFX card or install a much faster GPU card...and by the time I get round to any such upgrade (say 2-3 years time), will the current pcie graphics slot in there be outdated?

2) I'm a little uneasy about RAID 0 - but I guess if I want fast data transfer for HD avc playback, I'll need it ?!?

3) Not much info about the mobo - I guess it wont overclock ?!?!

4) I cant see if its got wireless onboard...suppose I'll need to install a wireless card

Any advice greatly appreciated, chaps. Thanks.

 

[GReaper]

1) mobo doesnt support xfire (or whatever nvidia call it) and I wanted this for an upgradability option, but then the psu prolly wouldnt handle 2x graphics cards, anyway

Might be easier to just replace it instead.

2) I'm a little uneasy about RAID 0 - but I guess if I want fast data transfer for HD avc playback, I'll need it ?!?

I'd feel uneasy too, I doubt you need it.

 

[Ch3tan]

You would get better performance by simply buying a new gfx card when it is time to update.

I have had a bad experience with dell and would not buy from them. They are fine till you have an issue.

I am sure you could source a better PC by building it yourself, on OCUK did you go for the better mobo and memory?

 

[smurkin]

You would get better performance by simply buying a new gfx card when it is time to update.

I have had a bad experience with dell and would not buy from them. They are fine till you have an issue.

Interesting. I've found their machines at work very reliable, so I've never had a need for any repairs. But this xps is a brand new machine for them...there is a risk of teething problems...were they difficult with you about arranging repairs?

I am sure you could source a better PC by building it yourself, on OCUK did you go for the better mobo and memory?

I went for the same memory DDR 667MHz, but the OC mobo was a premium option at about £120 - bells & whistles, dual gpu - the sort of thing I would choose myself rather than be lumped with.

I cant find any info on the mobo the dell uses. It concerns me slightly that it might have unique fitment and psu connections, so that an upgrade in future is not possible

 

[Yaka]

Might be easier to just replace it instead.



I'd feel uneasy too, I doubt you need it.

dont dell use diff mobos? regular mobos will not fit in a dell case.

 

[GReaper]

dont dell use diff mobos? regular mobos will not fit in a dell case.

I meant the graphics card in 1-2 years time.

 

[smurkin]

dont dell use diff mobos? regular mobos will not fit in a dell case.

claims to be a btx...dya recon this looks like a standard mobo format (I'm a bit out of touch)?

 

[Kryten]

Dell boards are nearly entirely proprietary in all cases. The XPS range isn't new and nor do the specs change a great deal other than the "latest fads"

Reliability wise you've not got too much to worry about - although Dell's history with power supplies is NOT at all good.

The biggest plus side is having a full system warranty where the whole thing gets replaced if you get any issues, but then you've got to fight Dell's moronic services and their even more moronic engineers.
In a system built by yourself, you've only got your own expertise coupled with advise and other peoples experiences on T'Internet, however warranties aren't just a year - you'll have 5 years on a power supply, 5 on a hard drive, lifetime on processors and motherboards in some cases, and so on.

Lack of overclocking - frankly at that level, why bother?
I'd personally rather chew my own left testicle than buy from Dell, and I have to deal with the fucking idiots on a daily basis.

But its up to you - really it's not a bad price.

 

[Jupitus]

Yup, good prices but issues for some. I recently bought laptops off them as I won't be poking around inside them, so no worries. Previously, though, I had a full tower system from them. Lovely design for case and extras but a couple of years later when I wanted to upgrade some bits I couldn't. The mobo looked like a standard mobo with ATX power, but it wasn't... 2 of the connectors in the 'ATX' power plug are swapped, as far as I understood.

I won't buy any system that I ever may want to upgrade in the future from Dell now.

 

[Mabs]

i was recommended these guys recently. i PERSONALLY HAVENT used them,went with custom build with OCer bits, but had people suggest them .

was very tempted, seems quite good .

 

[xane]

I've had experience of Dells over the years, particularly when people have asked me to upgrade HDDs, DVDs, Card Readers, USB, etc. Although the proprietary build is a bit annoying, I have to say they are well built with innovative cooling systems, lots of ducts and fans, and they are generally reliable.

I have personally recommended Dell laptops to members of my family and they have been very good quality with no problems, at nice prices, however, this is all low end stuff, not performance models.

I'd recommend Dell, but another brand I'd consider is Gateway, these are available at very competitive prices through outlets like Tescos.

P.S. Don't get a wireless card, use a wireless bridge.

 

[throdgrain]

Dell boards are nearly entirely proprietary in all cases. The XPS range isn't new and nor do the specs change a great deal other than the "latest fads"

Reliability wise you've not got too much to worry about - although Dell's history with power supplies is NOT at all good.

The biggest plus side is having a full system warranty where the whole thing gets replaced if you get any issues, but then you've got to fight Dell's moronic services and their even more moronic engineers.
In a system built by yourself, you've only got your own expertise coupled with advise and other peoples experiences on T'Internet, however warranties aren't just a year - you'll have 5 years on a power supply, 5 on a hard drive, lifetime on processors and motherboards in some cases, and so on.

Lack of overclocking - frankly at that level, why bother?
I'd personally rather chew my own left testicle than buy from Dell, and I have to deal with the fucking idiots on a daily basis.

But its up to you - really it's not a bad price.

*chortle*

 

[Ch3tan]

I can only conclude that Kryten is a PSU fetishisht. He and Trem probably have a secret PSU internet ring.

 

[Kryten]

Fuck, rumbled.



























On an entirely unrelated topic however, does anyone know how to remove a 24pin ATX power connection from a sphincter without any muscle damage? :|

 

[smurkin]

Can't really comment, have a mouth full of bollock [nnmnggg...salty]

P.S. Don't get a wireless card, use a wireless bridge.

This I dont get. I was going to slide a wireless pci card in myself (Dell wanted to sell me a usb adaptor uke: )....what is this wireless bridge of which you speak?

 

[xane]

A Wireless Bridge is similar to a Wireless Access Point, some WAPs can operate in "bridge mode", it is the opposite of a WAP, it transfers a wireless connection to a wired one.

Instead of using a Wireless NIC or Adapter directly on the PC or Games machine, the Wireless Bridge is connected via the usual wired ethernet port, it then connects to the WAP or Wireless Router in the network.

The advantages are that no wireless networking software is needed on the machine, this is an area I've had the most problems with, lots of software is proprietary and takes over from the Windows Wireless Networking, also the Wireless Bridge can serve several machines if connected to a Hub/Switch, and the Wireless Bridge is always on and constantly connected, so no more worrying about signals, IP addresses, etc, it can placed a lot further away for signal strength than a normal antenna.

A Wireless Bridge will pass through the IP and MAC addresses of the connected machines, so firewalls and such will work as normal.

They are not expensive either, not as cheap as a NIC though.