Dell XPS 410 vs. Building my own

[integra2316]

Well I have always built my own gaming rigs, right now I am running a 2.8 P4 with 2 gigs of ram and a600gt (broken). I have a choice now to eaither build another one or buy one. I have priced out what I want and it comes very close to the XPS but my build doesnt include a 19inch LCD. Here are the XPS specs

XPS 410 Intel ® Core?2 Duo Processor E6400 (2.13GHz, 1066 FSB)

Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD

Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs

Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard

Monitor 19 inch Ultrasharp? 1907FP Digital Flat Panel

Video Card 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro

Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache?

Floppy Drive and Media Reader 13 in 1 Media Card Reader

Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse

CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable

Sound Cards Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy? HD Software Edition

Speakers Dell AS501 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for UltraSharp? Flat Panels

Security Software PC-cillin Internet Security with AntiVirus and Spyware removal 15-months

Warranty and Service 1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service


This comes out to 1359 with free shipping. Does anyone think I should build one or just buy and XPS? Can anyone help me build a good system for gaming (I mean find good prices and crap) Thanks guys.

Chris

 

[Ayah]

Build your own. An x1300 Pro, IMO will barely run games from 2000 let alone the new games. For that price, you should be able to get a mid range card at minimum. Dell overcharges a sh!tton.
That Integrated Soundblaster is worthless, it's just software emulation.

 

[tersome]

IMHO, you're better off getting like a 3200, an ultra d, and a gigabyte of value ram and upgrading the graphics card to an x1900xt.

 

[Noema]

Build your own. The XPS is not bad, but nothing beats the experience of hand-picking your own parts, putting it together yourself and then watching it boot for the first time. It's wonderful.

 

[pkme2]

Yep, I agree. Build your own.

 

[JBT]

Arn't XPS' for gaming???? that thing comes with a peice of garbage for gaming.... X1300's are horrible...

 

[mshan]

One thing to note about these new Dells is that they don't have any IDE connectors (i.e. you have to use SATA optical drives).

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: JBT
Arn't XPS' for gaming???? that thing comes with a peice of garbage for gaming.... X1300's are horrible...

Apparently they have some lower end model as well now, and not only bleeding edge as it used to be.

 

[integra2316]

Well that was the responces I was expecting lol. Here is what I just built on newegg.com.

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel


DFI NF4 INFINITY Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800CUBOX - Retail

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM

SONY 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DWQ120AB2 - OEM

Hanns·G JC-199DPB Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail



All this for $766.93

I already have 2 gigs of the memory I need, a good powersupply, an ok sound card, and all the cables I need. So how does this look to everyone?

Please let me know if you would cahnge anything, I am not lookinf for the best just something I can play with.

Thanks
Chris

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd get a 20" 1600x1200 LCD (4:3 aspect ratio) since it will scale other 4:3 resolutions like 1024x768, 800x600 (old games) better than a 5:4 monitor (1280x1024). I think Samsung has a decent one cheap but I haven't looked recently.

I have an Asus A8N-E and am happy with it but the DFI is popular too.

NEC 3550A is recommended much more often than Sony here, either way check versions / look at the pictures at Newegg since you can get one with Nero Express CDROM for an extra $7-10.

The DVD-ROM is a good idea since there is some game copy protection out there that doesn't like to install or run from a burner.

Also be careful buying, you listed a socket 939 motherboard and socket AM2 processor, they don't work together. Last week the X2 4200+ was also very close to the price of the 3800+.

 

[integra2316]

Damn, thanks man.

I will most likely go with intel anyway, I have never used an athlon.

 

[zainali]

definately go with a intel core 2 duo combo.

also look in the fs/ft forum. there might be some better deals on some items.

dont forget to add the price of windows . about $100-150 depending on what u get