Dude! Neal's getting a Dell!

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by goldorak

Don't buy into the hype for the i7 processors.
These are workstation oriented processors, very fast in multithreaded applications BUT for gaming they are a marginal increase at best and in some cases they even go slower over the fastest Core 2 Quads. If all you do is rendering all day long then yes an i7 is your choice, but for gaming no. You'll just throw $$$$ for no benefit at all.
Take a Core 2 Quad at 3 GHz with 12 MB L2 cache + 4/8 GB of ddr2 ram and you'll have a computer that smokes pretty much everything out there.

Thanks, that's sort of the conclusion I came to. That, plus I didn't want to re-learn processors all over again.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

TELL ME YOU DIDN'T BUY A DELL!!!!! Ugghhh!

I also have a POS Dell arriving tomorrow for work that I am so not looking forward too, regardless that its decked out with Nvidia GPU, etc.

They skimp on everything. Looks nice on paper BS....

-S

Just what are you trying to say I use a Dell at work. It runs well and does the job. Neal is getting a Dell dude! A lot of folks told me not to get Emachine (now Gateway). Many said it was a POS. I have had two of them over the years and both have been great. My daughters are still using the second one! It just keeps cranking along and as many times as I have grounded out the MB on the chassis, it is a wonder it still does. I think the Dell Neal purchased will be cool groovy.

[longam]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Just what are you trying to say I use a Dell at work. It runs well and does the job. Neal is getting a Dell dude! A lot of folks told me not to get Emachine (now Gateway). Many said it was a POS. I have had two of them over the years and both have been great. My daughters are still using the second one! It just keeps cranking along and as many times as I have grounded out the MB on the chassis, it is a wonder it still does. I think the Dell Neal purchased will be cool groovy.

They don't put much crap on them anymore, the last couple of ones I setup at work were good to go out of the box. Yes they still have the Dell service thing, but that's easy to dump.

[Onkel Neal]

Yeah, I have to go with Dell, being from Texas and all I think they give a fair value for the dollar, and since I'm only spending $950, this should be a good value.

The computer is supposed to come with WinXP, and free Vista upgrade. With Windows 7 coming, I may skip Vista. Hopefully Win7 will not be such a system and resource hog.

[Onkel Neal]

The order page and tracking says tomorrow...will be sitting in a lawn chair in the front yard sipping tea and reading Das Boot watching for the FedEx truck...

[AVGWarhawk]

Wonderful. I think you will be amazed at the speed. Once again, gaming becomes incredibly fun with all the bells and whistles pushed to the max

[longam]

Don't forget to pop the top to do a check.

Removing the plastic film from the stainless will take the longest! oh the excitement!

[Wolfehunter]

One think to remember about dell and other named brands. You have 30 days to make sure your rig is running perfectly. If dell messed up there rig they sold you because a component doesn't work just right there not responsible for it after 30 day unless its a manufacture defect.

I learn that one with an X-fi PCI Extreme Music card added to and nForce 790i motherboard package. It never work properly I had the clicking sound issues like reported in many forums. But the killer was the BSOD from a month and a half after playing certain games with X-Fi attached to the nforce mobo board. Onced removed all is good and perfect.

If you don't believe me Dell customer service told me this.

I had a similar issue for my wifes sony viao with a burnt DVD burner that crapped out after 3months. But thats a different story.

[Onkel Neal]

Thanks for the advice, Wolf, I'll be sure to check all the systems thoroughly on Day 1.

Then on Day 2...

[AVGWarhawk]

Nothing like the smell of new hardware warming up. I do not know if you got Vista or not and it might pertain to XP now. Remember to register you OS with MS. I had to with Vista. You have 30 days to register you OS if you need to do it.

[Sea Demon]

Originally Posted by Bill Nichols

Go with the Dell. I've had four and was happy with every one. Their XPS service & support can't be beat.
Also, up the RAM as AVGWarhawk suggests, RAM is cheap and is the best bang-for-the-buck to improve performance.

Neal, I think you made a right decision in purchasing the Dell machine. I agree with the subguru here. I currently have an XPS 400. I got it in 2005 and only had trouble once. I had to replace the hard drive 2 weeks ago. No problems with their service and the replacement and support was easy. In regards to memory, yes, Dell Memory right now is very cheap. I just purchased 2GB more of memory to bring my specs up to a total of 4GB. Each 1GB memory module purchased was only $12.59 plus tax and shipping.While I would like to have a new system, my Dell XPS is still running perfectly. I'm sure you'll be happy with your new purchase.

[XLjedi]

Enjoy the new PC.

Personally... I'd never go back to one of those proprietary innard pre-builts.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Nothing like the smell of new hardware warming up. I do not know if you got Vista or not and it might pertain to XP now. Remember to register you OS with MS. I had to with Vista. You have 30 days to register you OS if you need to do it.

The computer comes with WinXP, and free Vista upgrade. When the I need the PC to do something that it will not do on XP, I'll consider using the Vista upgrade. With Windows 7 coming, I may skip Vista. I can get MS software for cheap as a student at the college.






.

[AVGWarhawk]

7 is not far off. Good plan of action. Hope the new rig arrives today. I guess we will not see you for a few days, eh?

[Wolfehunter]

Wait for windows 7. I like it more than vista. But its still beta and not the real finished product... Hard to say... your call dude.