can you overclock dells now?

[yours truly]

hi, im thinking about getting a new dell and wanted to know if you can overclock the processors with them now?

im guessing th XPS range are overclockable, but what about the Dimension/Inspiron series?

if i was to get a Dimension with Q6600, could i overclock that badboy to 3ghz+?

thanks

 

[AllWhacked]

I don't know about the q6600, but I have read that some people have overclocked their e4x00 chips via the pad mod.

In theory, if you got a Dell that supports 1333 FSB, I suppose you can overclock the q6600 to 3Ghz.

As for having built in motherboard settings, it's been my experience that no, you cannot overclock via the bios on the standard Dell Dimension/Inspiron/Vostro systems.

 

[yours truly]

thanks for the response AllWhacked

so the XPS range is overclockable?

im not experienced enough to build my own sytem yet, so im gonna have to go with dell or something...

what about Alienware, are they overclockable and/or worth the money?

cheers

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Want to overclock CPUs? Build your own PC. All DELL boards are locked, so you can only overclock using pin-mod and E4xx0...change FSB from 200 to 266MHz.

 

[AllWhacked]

Well Dell sells factory overclocked units but of course they go for a price premium. Same with AlienWare. And given that AlienWare is now owned by Dell, I don't see much difference in buying from one or the other except that the Dell XPS cases look less disgusting.

But in all seriousness, if you don't have the skills to build the unit for yourself then you're stuck either buying from an OEM or if you like the idea of overclocking, you can contact a local shop and see if they can custom build you a system.

Depending on your budget, it might be cheaper with a local shop since Dell/AlienWare make a killing on the upgrades--charging more than if you had bought it yourself.

As for whether they are worth the money, that depends. On the high end, the premium you pay for having the best will devalue in half in about 6-8 months. So if you buy a $4K computer, in 6-8 months I could have bought the same thing for around half as much. So it all depends on your budget and of course you needs.

What are you looking to spend?

 

[yours truly]

thanks for your replies =)

around £1000 which is about $2000 (without monitor). thats alot i know, but everything in the UK is so overpriced

i just want a system until that new Nehalem chip comes out. seems everyone is excited about it...

thank you

 

[AllWhacked]

Before I help, what are you using this computer for? Gaming, Work? Media Encoding?

 

[yours truly]

gaming mostly. i want to play crysis, hellgate etc when they come out. just a quality, reliable and fast multimedia pc

cheers

 

[AllWhacked]

Well, given that you're in the UK and don't have the means to build it yourself, I guess you're only left with Dell.

I did a quick look around at the Dell & Alienware UK website.

It seems like in the US, the Small Business Section charges less for the same thing. And the same goes for the Alienware site, where a similarly configured Dell is about 200-300 less than from Alienware.

Anyway, if you're a gamer get this and configure based on your needs.

My advise is to get it configured as follows:

Q6600
2GB RAM
320GB (2x160GB) RAID-0
16x DVD+/-RW
Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB

Worthwhile Upgrades:
16X DVD-ROM so you have two drives
Creative X-FI Sound Card if you don't want to use the onboard

Anyway, the base price is 949 and the upgardes will push it over 1000.

AS for why only 2GB, well RAM is easy to upgrade so if it proves insufficient when Crysis comes out then you can upgrade and usually do so for less money than from Dell. With the Video Card, it's one of the best out there with the exception of the 8800 Ultra. If it proves insufficent, I believe this board is SLI ready so you can stick a second one in there for more performance or you can see what's out there a year from now and upgrade to a different card alltogether.

I would also get a second hard drive for storage. Dell apparently only allows you to configure this system with RAID. So it's either two 320GB Raid 1 for extra money or two 160GB for the above quoted price. It's up to you which to use. For speed, Raid 0 is faster, but should one drive fail you're screwed since your data is striped across two drives and thus if 1 is broken, you only have the other half which is unreadable without the other half.

Anyway, as for the processor, I figure that if it proves insufficent you can always upgrade the processor later for again less money. If you want to overclock, then I'm sorry you're kinda screwed in that department unless you can either build it yourself, find someone to build it for you, or pay extra money from Dell/Alienware to get an overclocked system which defeats the purpose of overclocking to save money.

Oh and as a final note: to give some comparison, a similarly built computer is around $1350 US.

 

[yours truly]

AllWhacked, thanks for giving up some of your time on a sunday to give me some pointers. i genuinely appreciate it

you know, i think i'll take your advice. im using my old dell 8100 and its been pretty reliable, so far, but mega slow. i'll go with XPS! nice one on the small business section. i never knew that...

you're a star

have a good week

cheers

 

[CurseTheSky]

By not having the skills to buy your own, what do you mean? Have you never cracked a computer open before, do you not have the time to toy around, or are you just unsure of yourself?

Building them is actually pretty simple. I'd go as far as to say if you've upgraded your own RAM, added a video or sound card, changed your own oil, or replaced spark plugs in your car, you already have a decent understanding of how it'll go. If you're really unsure or just horrible at it, then yeah, go with a prebuild. If you can do any of those things without much trouble, there are TONS of people here that would be more than willing to give pointers for a new builder.

Good luck either way though.

 

[AllWhacked]

Well I'm glad I could be of help.

 

[aken909]

I am in the build your own camp. Its pretty simple ever played with lego's? hehe its pretty much the same thing. =) And if you don't want to do the actual plugging plenty of on-line shops will assemble what ever parts you want to buy for you. And most just have a list where you can pick from a variety of parts that will all work with each other. If you wanted you could go to dell.com and look at all the parts and just buy the same cpu from someplace else with out the dell bios.

 

[bryanW1995]

I have a brisbane x2 4000 + at work that I have oc'd to 2443 using clockgen. I could probably get it much higher but heat starts to become an issue. It is whisper quiet so I suspect that the hsf is a little weak. I have cbid and have tried using it to change the htt from 5 to 4, but the computer doesn't like it too much and freezes after I run it.