Dell XPS Generation 4

[300MDemon]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: 300MDemon
Thats a damned good price considering what you got with it...boss and I were gonna order two for ourselves at work but just couldn't justify it. I wish they had this coupon a few weeks ago but we did get nice 8400's.

How do you like the 8400s? They were my second choice for a tower, but I figure with 40% off, I had to have the best, since it was really basically a 'trade-in'. (My old laptop + DVDs for this new XPS)

Are they pretty quiet? Do you have a loud graphics card? How do you like it?

The custom machines I use to make were so dang loud. The GPU was always the loudest component. The last videocard I used in a home-built rig was a Radeon 9700 Pro AIW and it was quite loud. Though, the tower does sit ON the desk, next to the monitor, so that probably attributed to the amount of sound I heard.

Yeah we love the 8400s but if we had those coupons we would have definitely gotten the XPS. We got them with 3.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, Dual drives: DVD ROM, 16x DVD burner, 160GB HD, firewire, dual x300 radeon cards, etc..Mine seems pretty quiet since my tower is on the floor and I don't game with mine but my boss's tower is on his desk and he plays World of Warcraft on his...

 

[jamesbond007]

Dullard,

I thought you built the machines by hand for that price! Yeah, with a Dell, the price-point of $600 is very obtainable. You're so very right, too, in regards of 'the machine does what you need it to do'. However, how could the Intel integrated graphics plays today's games? Above, I thought you said that with $600, you get a machine that can play today's games?

I also am not a fan of AF/AA. I guess I never really see the importance. I always vouch for playability over IQ.

300MDemonWhen you set yours on the floor, do you put any kind of board or wood beneath it? I heard it helps a lot with cooling and reduces dust collection.

 

[FlyLice]

Wronf forum?

 

[toekramp]

Originally posted by: FlyLice
Wronf forum?

diaf?

 

[jamesbond007]

What's diaf?

Anyways, I don't think this is the wrong forum. I'm just here to chat and gather opinions. No problems or anything...

 

[welst10]

I am turning into a dell hater now. My dell 8300 malfunctioned twice in less than a year. First time, video card was replaced. Tomorrow they're coming to replace mobo. My friend's 600D laptop also got serviced twice in one year (lcd and battery problems).

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: welst10
I am turning into a dell hater now. My dell 8300 malfunctioned twice in less than a year. First time, video card was replaced. Tomorrow they're coming to replace mobo. My friend's 600D laptop also got serviced twice in one year (lcd and battery problems).

Yeah, with laptops, it's tough to fix and replace yourself. After owning a 600m, I'd rather plunk the extra money down and go with an IBM. The sturdiness and ruggedness just isn't there. Feels like the the casing is made of paper meche...sp? (Mah-shay)

What happened to the 8300? If your videocard died, that's probably not Dell's fault, considering we've seen many people on the forums here have their videocards die out on them. I guess it's just luck of the draw. However, regarding the motherboard, that is really strange. I guess you can be happy you are under a warranty through Dell and not through a foreign RMA service.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I thought you built the machines by hand for that price! Yeah, with a Dell, the price-point of $600 is very obtainable. You're so very right, too, in regards of 'the machine does what you need it to do'. However, how could the Intel integrated graphics plays today's games? Above, I thought you said that with $600, you get a machine that can play today's games?

I don't really have the time to build my own. Plus with hot deals, you can get the parts cheaper if it is prebuilt. Like I said above, that last computer wasn't for gaming, you'd have to wait for a deal without a 17" LCD but with more memory or cheaper base price so you can spend the savings on a video card. For the good deals, you have to sit and wait. Here is what I'd buy for a basic gaming machine if I was forced to buy today without waiting for a good deal. Keep everything to the cheapest selection, except go for 512 MB memory and basic speakers and you are at $569. You are short a video card. ~$130 would get you a playable video card (certainly not the best, but ok). So thats $700. Not quite the best deal possible, you'd have to sit back and wait to find a better deal to reach the $600 range.

 

[Stark]

sounds like a nice system. a similar top of the line system would have cost you $3k a few years ago.
the entire computer industry is based on milking power users for all they can because we're suckers and will pay it.

if only i could be happy with a system designed with my grandma in mind, i'd be a much richer man.

Enjoy!

 

[KoolDrew]

I would much rather build my own...

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007 I'm assuming you don't game? Once you go with RAID0, it's very hard to look back.

not to nit pick, but raid 0 is 100% completely pointless. any performance improvement you think you see is completely in your head.

Originally posted by: His Lord Uberdude
Plus they don't even tell what kind of ram they're putting in there, so you could be paying $200 for a gig of generic.

why does that matter? you're not overclocking a dell system any time soon. and it is probably very stable (like pretty much every OEM computer) from the factory. and, just so you know, dell pretty much only uses crucial or samsung original. not exactly no name ram.

 

[KoolDrew]

not to nit pick, but raid 0 is 100% completely pointless. any performance improvement you think you see is completely in your head.

Ya there is a nice review in the storage section..

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

not to nit pick, but raid 0 is 100% completely pointless. any performance improvement you think you see is completely in your head.

Ya there is a nice review in the storage section..

Anandtech's RAID 0 tests. I've posted this in several threads since people always like to say the Anandtech's review said that RAID 0 did nothing. Nothing? Lets look at this article in more detail and see!

Benchmark / RAID 0 36 GB Raptors / single 36 GB Raptor / Speed boost using RAID 0
UT2004 level loading / 29.4 / 34.1 / 13.8% faster with RAID 0
Far Cry level loading / 40.6 / 41.1 / 1.2% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall / 211 / 204 / 3.4% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall internet / 235 / 230 / 2.2% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall office / 189 / 180 / 5.0% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark communciation office / 196 / 171 / 14.7% faster with RAID 0

I got tired typing, but you can see the pattern. RAID 0 with two 36 GB drives is faster in every case than the single 36 GB drive. Thus for a high end gaming system where reliability is not important, money is not important, but speed is critical then Anandtech is correct in recommending RAID 0. Performance gains need to be 10%+ to be noticed. But in 2 out of the first 6 tests, performance gain was more than that noticiblity threshhold.

 

[ElFenix]

storagereview's take

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: jamesbond007 I'm assuming you don't game? Once you go with RAID0, it's very hard to look back.

not to nit pick, but raid 0 is 100% completely pointless. any performance improvement you think you see is completely in your head.

I feel that I really do notice a big difference when doing videos. Also, game loading times do seem to be faster, despite Anand's review here. I guess when I get the tower I can always remove the array and do RAID1. Hm, doesn't the new Intel boards support Matrix RAID?

I think a better solution might be to use just a single 160GB drive as my main disk and then do RAID1 with the other two, since they are my storage drives. I like to backup my photos, music, updates, and other important documents/programs. I dunno, I swear the RAID0 loads and does things much faster, but that could be my head, like you said, or just the belief of synthetic benchmarks.

Yeah, I agree on Dell/OEM RAM. Dell used Samsung, IIRC, in my 600m that I had.

What do you guys think I should do with 3 HDDs? Can the board do RAID5? Perhaps the 2x160GB in RAID1 for storage and use a single 160GB drive for the OS would be the best solution? LMK!!! I have a week to decide. lol (That's when the tower gets here)

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: dullard

Benchmark / RAID 0 36 GB Raptors / single 36 GB Raptor / Speed boost using RAID 0
UT2004 level loading / 29.4 / 34.1 / 13.8% faster with RAID 0
Far Cry level loading / 40.6 / 41.1 / 1.2% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall / 211 / 204 / 3.4% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall internet / 235 / 230 / 2.2% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark overall office / 189 / 180 / 5.0% faster with RAID 0
Sysmark communciation office / 196 / 171 / 14.7% faster with RAID 0

wow you really misread those numbers. the raided drives are raptor IIs, not raptor Is. you're using raptor I numbers and comparing it to the raptor II.

lets use numbers using the same generation of drives, shall we?

ut2k4 level loading / 29.4 / 29.4 / tied
far cry level loading / 40.6 / 39.7 / 2.2% slower with raid 0
sysmark overall / 211 / 209 / 1% faster with raid 0
sysmark overall internet / 235 / 233 / <1% faster with raid 0
sysmark overall office / 189 / 187 / 1% faster with raid 0
sysmark communication office / 196 / 190 / 3% faster with raid 0

so much for noticeably faster. anything you see is a placebo effect.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

What do you guys think I should do with 3 HDDs? Can the board do RAID5? Perhaps the 2x160GB in RAID1 for storage and use a single 160GB drive for the OS would be the best solution? LMK!!! I have a week to decide. lol (That's when the tower gets here)

just have 3 drives. i do. it's nice. one for mp3s, one for games and movies, and one split between the OS and a *slush* partition.

raid 0 provides immediate backup, but if you accidentally delete a file (or if your house burns down), it doesn't help. just back up to DVD, the things are dirt cheap. then you can put it somewhere else.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

What do you guys think I should do with 3 HDDs? Can the board do RAID5? Perhaps the 2x160GB in RAID1 for storage and use a single 160GB drive for the OS would be the best solution? LMK!!! I have a week to decide. lol (That's when the tower gets here)

just have 3 drives. i do. it's nice. one for mp3s, one for games and movies, and one split between the OS and a *slush* partition.

Cool beans! Sounds good. I plan to format and reinstall from scratch anyways. (OEM software and junk sucks)

I really am not sure what to do with all the space, however. I figured I wanted all 3 HDD bays to be full, since I had a 40% off coupon on the entire system. I use to have a server with 2TB of space. I am still thinking about a RAID1 array though, just for my storage stuff. I have consolidated down from 2TB file server to just a 160GB external drive that has 90GB of freespace on it. I cleaned out my MP3s and moved all of my movies/anime to my Xbox. (It's modded and is my HTPC)

My preference is to have one drive/partition dedicated as a disposable drive. Meaning, I save nothing important on there and if it was to be lost, then oh well. I like to make a backup of the install with PartitionMagic, so restoration is easy via DVD backup/restore. The other HDD/partitions are for saving and archiving and long-term storage.

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
What's diaf?

lol you don't spend much time on OT do you?

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
What's diaf?

lol you don't spend much time on OT do you?

Hehe, newp! I am usually busy with school, work, and my girlfriend. However, lately school has taken up next to no time at all. I don't know if the classes are getting easier or I might be getting smarter! :Q

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
wow you really misread those numbers. the raided drives are raptor IIs, not raptor Is. you're using raptor I numbers and comparing it to the raptor II.

lets use numbers using the same generation of drives, shall we?

Crap. They must have updated that article. When it was first posted and I first made that list it clearly had Raptor II (74 GB) vs Raptor I (36 GB) vs Raid 0 Raptor I (2x36 GB). Maybe it was an error on their part that they corrected.

Read the first post here about that article by n7: "I'm quite glad i decided to get a 74 GB Raptor for my about-to-be-built setup rather than two 36 GBs." Even n7 discusses how the article used to say RAID 0 36 GB Raptors (only available in version I) vs Raptor II.

If the new graphics are the true graphics, then I stand corrected on my post in this thread above.

I do want you to know that I too claim that virutally any form of RAID is useless (See my post here). However, in some cases there is a small effect (could be beneficial or harmful). If you happen to operate in the rare case that you can get a small noticible boost from some form RAID, then do it.

 

[Stark]

raid 0 is fine for anything you don't mind losing if a drive crashes. Video editing is a good example. I run Raid1 on my system volume which houses all my music and photos.

 

[mobobuff]

Nice computer, nice name. :thumbsup:

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Stark
raid 0 is fine for anything you don't mind losing if a drive crashes. Video editing is a good example. I run Raid1 on my system volume which houses all my music and photos.

Hm, I am seeing RAID1 for storage a more viable solution for the setup.

mobobuff, thank you for the kind comments! :thumbsup:

 

[jamesbond007]

Wow, so no one around here owns one of these sexy beasts?