My brother wants a new system and he currently has a dell that he has outgrown for gaming.

Pricing out an XPS 700 comes clost to about 3k+ for a decked out system. Is it better to go with dell or a home cooked system? I like the 3 year warranty option on the dell.

If not the dell, can anyone make suggestions on a build your own system - parts, pieces and the like.


Would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

general rule of thumb. If you want a pc... build it. If you want a laptop, get a dell.

I dunno, dell desktops are very nice.

Personal reccomondations are simple, Big Monitor, BIg Video Card, LOTS OF Ram, everything else I feel is irrelevant or so it seems. Going from a 2.53ghz p4 to 3ghz p4 dual core, No difference noticed,

Going from 7200 to 10k h/d , no difference noticed,

Going from 1gb memory to 2gb memory, HUGE difference noticed,

Going from TI 4600 to 6800, HUge difference noticed,

Going from 17 inch to 24 inch, Obviously Huge difference noticed.


Just my opinion, I know others think all this processor stuff makes much a difference but i've never seen it.

tell him to build it, you'll save alot of money. Also, it isn't that hard to build a computer. There are aton of magazines that give you step by step instructions.

also if you go to Newegg (on the bottom of the page) click on wish lists and go to the public wish lists ppl. have all types of systems speced out and some have comments and ratings..it is a real good place to get ideas for what kind of sytem you want and also give you an idea of how much it will cost to build.

Take this with a grain of salt. My Custom built desktop PC died on me last Friday night...power supply to be exact. A $130 Hiper Type R modular power supply that's supposed to be an EXTREMELY high quality power supply and gets stellar reviews all over the place. Unfortunately, Hiper is based in the UK and they don't have a branch office here in the USA.....the place I bought it from can't/won't help me. I leave for QuakeCon next Wednesday morning and don't have a machine to take with me. I'm actually starting to worry weather or not I can get my rig back up and running by then. (I don't have a spare PSU that'll run my machine, and I really don't want to have to buy a replacement.). Were my machine a Dell I would have had a new Power Supply already.

3K is a lot....I think you can get it down to 2500-2600 if you cut some of the extras off. The maxed out XPS 700 is very high end, and as others have noted it doesnt make a big difference to have raptors or an EE processor...my XPS was maxed, but I bet an XPS $1000 cheaper would have produced similar results for me.

Build your own, dude. That is the only way to go.

If you want to be his personal tech when things go wrong and it needs fixing, build it yourself.


If you want someone else to be his personal tech when things go wrong so you can get back to living your life because you shouldn't have to be his personal tech, get him a Dell with a warranty.

Because as cool as it is that you can build him a nice computer, do you really want to spend your time fixing it for him? I sure as hell wouldn't.

I understand your concerns, but really a desktop system can be built by a five year old once the parts are in front of you in less than an hour...

Understand the support issues for people that don't know much about computers, nor know how to use a screwdriver.

I've built many systems... and have had to provide very little tech support on the hardware level.

I haven't priced out the parts, but I'd imagine you could buy the parts for a heck of allot cheaper that Dell is charging. If it's a case that the price is close, and those parts are industry standard parts... I'd say do for the DELL.


PS: TIP, Rule #1 if you don't want to be like Mr Evil above... don't buy parts from a firm that doesn't have an office, or more importantly a stocking warehouse in the same country you live in.

Rule #2 is to use industry standard parts. To be able to swap in any motherboard, any powersupply,etc and not be at the mercy of an OEM vendor who wants $400 for a $60 powersupply for example, or is using a special motherboard, Or connectors that lock you into buying only from them.

Heck one laptop mfg is charging $29.00 for a CR2032 battery that backs up the RTC. A battery that can bought anywhere for about 3 dollars.

Another plus in using a non-OEM motherboard is the mfg's are more responsive, seem to stay on top of the latest developments.... What I mean is the OEM's make the bios for that machine as shipped... Only updating the bios to the point of the last offical video card /cpu that was sold on that system.... If they didn't sell it, then you get no bios update to support that part.

Buy an non-oem motherboard and you get bios updates whenever a new card, or cpu comes out... OEM's being of the mindset that you should just buy a whole new system if you want the latest and greatest.


Of course what do I know.... I remember when the new 286's were considered fast. (which it was compared to a 8088)

I guess I also should have mentioned the 3 weeks it took me to get the northbridge fan on my $175 (when I bought it) ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard replaced. I had to play phone tag for 1 week, then they add insult to injury by shipping the replacement fan in a padded envelope and taking their sweet time in doing it. All the while I was unable to use my system.

ASUS makes good boards, no doubt about it. Just expect a struggle if the damn thing quits.

I understand what you're saying, dealing with one vendor is sometimes easier.... But when you fiqure in everything else, unless you get a system for really cheap from an OEM it's better to build your own. http://www.notebookforums.com/post2329144-10.html

Priced a motherboard , etc thru DELL if you had to buy one?
Do they update the bios so you can use a cpu that was never shipped in that model?
Unit use industry standard parts?
etc, etc, etc...

My experiences with my Motherboard and PSU still have not discouraged me from building my own systems in any manner. What I'm saying is, unless you have 4 spare computers or plenty of spare parts sitting around like me and/or can afford to live without your computer for a week or two. You're really better off going with a Dell. I've been slowly migrating all my critical apps and documents over to my Laptop just because of that. Dell can have me any component I need for my D820 on my doorstep the next business day (it'd be strange for Dell to send a tech out to work on another Dell tech's Laptop)

Build your own...why overspend like that.