Opinions on a *gasp* Dell XPS8300 with aftermarket video upgrade.

[zanemoseley]

So my current rig is at least 6 years old and was quite respectable when I built it. In high school (10 years ago) I worked at a computer shop so am comfortable building but have mostly been out of the loop with a lot of the new stuff and haven't actually gotten my hands on a lot of it.

I used to game quite a bit but now just use my PC for internet and other general tasks. I would like to get back into gaming lightly, mainly Diablo 3 and some shooter games I've missed on my gaming hiatus.

I don't have a budget really but am not looking to spend any more than I need to. I would like an entire system as I'm going to put my old one in the basement to use as a music machine. I would like a legit copy of Win7.

I've seen a couple people mention getting a refurbished or scratch and dent 8300 from Dell Outlet and adding a new video card. I think I could get at least a 15% coupon so I could get a S&D model for $409 after tax.

That would get me:
I5 2300
1TB HDD
460W PSU (I believe but can confirm)
Windows 7
6GB Ram

Then I could throw in a $150 6870 and a $200 24" monitor for a grand total of $759.

Just adding up rough numbers it looks like I could spend $1300 in a hurry to get a I5 2500K system set up with a $250 video card, $150 HDD, $200 monitor and $100 OS. What kind of performance gains will I see in the two systems. I'm not one anymore to chase a 25% performance gain for almost 2X the money.

I would like the system to be decent for several years and I'm not the type to do many upgrades between builds. I realize after a couple years gaming will become more difficult. I'm curious what the overall quality level is on the Dell.

 

[Zap]

Many people do what you are considering, basically buying a pre-built and adding the graphics card. No big deal. It is pure preference - save money for lower performance. Spend more money for higher performance. You pick.

 

[fastamdman]

Just make sure whatever setup you are buying has a decent power supply. The 2500k is the best price to performance system and you can build one cheaper then 1300 dollars 🙂

 

[zanemoseley]

Just make sure whatever setup you are buying has a decent power supply. The 2500k is the best price to performance system and you can build one cheaper then 1300 dollars 🙂

Ok, humor me. Where have I grossly over budgeted.

Video $250 (no need to build a upper mid level system with a bargain card)
CPU I5 2500 w/ aftermarket cooler $250
Ram $40
M/B $100
PSU $65
Case $50
HDD $150 (could wait till prices come down a bit to save $50)
DVD $25
OS $100
Keyboard $20
Mouse $20
Monitor $200

Total - $1270

I can price shop a bit and perhaps drop off another $100 to $1170.

 

[Wuzup101]

Ok, humor me. Where have I grossly over budgeted.

Video $250 (no need to build a upper mid level system with a bargain card)
CPU I5 2500 w/ aftermarket cooler $250
Ram $40
M/B $100
PSU $65
Case $50
HDD $150 (could wait till prices come down a bit to save $50)
DVD $25
OS $100
Keyboard $20
Mouse $20
Monitor $200

Total - $1270

I can price shop a bit and perhaps drop off another $100 to $1170.

Your figures are pretty much correct. You might be able to save a few $$$ here and there, but that is pretty much what you should expect to pay. Note that many people around here, myself included, are not used to putting the price of things like a monitor / KB / Mouse / etc... into builds so that is why your price seems a bit high. In all reality, $100 for a decent motherboard is a bit low (it can definitely be done). Assuming you want something with modest OC features, I would plan more on $120-150 for the motherboard (assuming you don't have a microcenter close buy to get a 2500k + mobo package deal).

I personally re-use so much stuff from system to system (or try at least) that I often think things are cheaper than they are. When you don't have to buy a new PSU / case / peripherals all the time it does help (along with HDDs / optical drives).

I don't really see any issue buying the Dell - I'm of the opinion that dell quality has went up over the years. I have one of their latitude laptops and I like it very much. The only downside is that it locks you into a dell controlled motherboard and PSU. An overclocked 2500k is on a totally different level than the stock 2300 in the dell. That being said... obviously you pointed out that there is a large price difference too.

 

[mfenn]

Ok, humor me. Where have I grossly over budgeted.

Video $250 (no need to build a upper mid level system with a bargain card)
CPU I5 2500 w/ aftermarket cooler $250
Ram $40
M/B $100
PSU $65
Case $50
HDD $150 (could wait till prices come down a bit to save $50)
DVD $25
OS $100
Keyboard $20
Mouse $20
Monitor $200

Total - $1270

I can price shop a bit and perhaps drop off another $100 to $1170.

The places that I can see you saving money are the DVD (save $5), HDD (500GB, save $60), monitor (save $30), and RAM (save $10). That's about the same $1170 that you came up with.

I agree with Wuzup that around here, people think of a "$1000 rig" as including only the cost of the core components, so your $1170 machine is what we would normally consider to be an $860 machine. That's probably where fastamdman was coming from.

That's not to say that I think that the Dell is a bad price. You're just not quite comparing apples to apples when on one hand you have an i5 2500K + 6950 2GB and on the other hand you have an i5 2300 + 6870.

 

[mnewsham]

I got it down to $1,078.90 after rebates. 21 inch 1080p monitor, windows 7, i5-2500k, HSF, 8GB RAM, 2GB 6950, 750w PSU. Etc. Now the dell for only $759 however is what I would probably take in the end. While i love a good build I dont feel i would be getting my money for the extra 350 bucks.

 

[Fis]

I've bought several Dell XPSs this way. Watched the outlet, used a 15% coupon, got another X% cash back from Discover or Fatwallet, etc., upgraded the vid card & RAM myself.

FWIW Dell's included 1-year support is very good. If any component is bad, it's likely to show in the first year. I bought an XPS 8100 scratch & dent not too long ago and it performed great, diagnostics were all great, but the CPU fan seemed to cycle on and off an awful lot. It performed great, but after many months, before the year was up, I decided what the heck -- I'll use the service and call Dell. They sent a tech to my house the next day who checked everything out and guessed that there might be too much adhesive around the CPU fan, somehow making it think it was hotter than it actually was (thereby spinning more than needed). Rather than replace or reinstall it, he just went back to his car and replaced the whole motherboard. He then asked if I was having any other issues, updated my sound card drivers, and was on his way. I don't know what that's worth, but that's worth something.

 

[zanemoseley]

Thats the kind of experience I was looking to have out of the Dell. As much as I used to like building if you ever get a hard to diagnose problem where you're not sure of which component to RMA or replace it can get frustrating quick.

What did the "scratch and dent" damage look like on yours. Its $30 cheaper than a refurb. I know one guy that got a notebook on S&D and couldn't even see any damage.

Did the Dell repair guy give you crap about using a non-stock video card?

 

[zanemoseley]

Another question I have is with the Dell i5 2300 & 6870 video, hypothetically how long would I be able to play shooter games on medium settings at 1920 x 1080 resolution? The dell won't really be worth upgrading much so it will be the kind of thing I'll either just have to stop gaming at some point or get a new system.

On the other hand if I decide to build and get decent stuff it would be potentially cheaper down the road to rebuild by using the HDD, PSU, case, DVD again. But that really only saves about $250 and assumes no major advancements in spin HDDs that would warrant replacing it.

Why can new PC's be free lol.

 

[mfenn]

Another question I have is with the Dell i5 2300 & 6870 video, hypothetically how long would I be able to play shooter games on medium settings at 1920 x 1080 resolution? The dell won't really be worth upgrading much so it will be the kind of thing I'll either just have to stop gaming at some point or get a new system.

Its hard to say. You should be able to play games decently well for 2-3 years. You'll just have to keep turning the settings down as time goes on.

On the other hand if I decide to build and get decent stuff it would be potentially cheaper down the road to rebuild by using the HDD, PSU, case, DVD again. But that really only saves about $250 and assumes no major advancements in spin HDDs that would warrant replacing it.

The XPSs are fairly standard PCs internally. You could carry over the optical drive, DVD, HDD and graphics card for sure into a new build. That leaves you having to purchase a CPU/mobo/RAM and case/PSU for a new build. The CPU/mobo/RAM would have to be bought anyway if you were upgrading a self-built PC, so you're really only talking about a $100 difference due to having to buy a new case and PSU.

 

[BoomerD]

Just make sure whatever setup you are buying has a decent power supply. The 2500k is the best price to performance system and you can build one cheaper then 1300 dollars 🙂

Also make sure the motherboard will support a video card. Lots of the Dells that come with on-board graphics don't have the necessary Pci-E slot for a graphics card.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I'd be for building your own I5-2500K system just for the fact that you can overclock it and get better performance. You seem to keep PC's a long time, so the extra cash stretched over the next 4-5 years comes to almost nothing.

 

[zanemoseley]

So the XPS 8300 on Dell's web site lists both the Radeon 6870 and the GTS560ti as options. So I would need to confirm all the 8300's at least have the same M/B and PSU. If so then I should have no problem adding the card.

I need to do some thinking. I don't think either way will be fatal. If I get the Dell then there's a chance I would regret not building. And if I build and don't utilize all the performance with games then I may be reminded of all the $$$ I could have saved going with the Dell.

Thanks for all the advice. Keep it coming if anyone has any additional input.

 

[ElFenix]

So the XPS 8300 on Dell's web site lists both the Radeon 6870 and the GTS560ti as options. So I would need to confirm all the 8300's at least have the same M/B and PSU. If so then I should have no problem adding the card.

I need to do some thinking. I don't think either way will be fatal. If I get the Dell then there's a chance I would regret not building. And if I build and don't utilize all the performance with games then I may be reminded of all the $$$ I could have saved going with the Dell.

Thanks for all the advice. Keep it coming if anyone has any additional input.

from a part perspective it wouldn't make sense to put multiple part numbers into the machine like that. probably confuse the line and this stuff isn't built JIT like it was back in dell's hey-day.

then again, japanese cars use a different connector for the middle seat belt. never have been able to figure that one out.

The XPSs are fairly standard PCs internally. You could carry over the optical drive, DVD, HDD and graphics card for sure into a new build. That leaves you having to purchase a CPU/mobo/RAM and case/PSU for a new build. The CPU/mobo/RAM would have to be bought anyway if you were upgrading a self-built PC, so you're really only talking about a $100 difference due to having to buy a new case and PSU.

case is probably a standard uatx case. gone are the days that dell computers had rather nicely thought out cases (hinged model was really neat). might not be the easiest to work in though.

the optiplexes still might have interesting cases, dunno.

 

[mfenn]

from a part perspective it wouldn't make sense to put multiple part numbers into the machine like that. probably confuse the line and this stuff isn't built JIT like it was back in dell's hey-day.

Well, a refurb is obviously not going to be JIT, but I'm pretty sure that all the new systems ordered from the website except for the "ships fast" ones are still done that way.