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To Dell or not to Dell

G

Gladestrider

Junior Member
I'm currently using a Dell 8200 2.4, 1G, Radeon 9700 Pro, and use it almost exclusively for gaming. I was thinking about upgrading to 2G of RAM and priced a matched pair of samsung PC800 512's at about $460, but realized that my 4 slots are filled with 256's, meaning that 2G would now cost me over $900.... Obviously a foolish investment. So, I looked up the latest Dell system- the XPS Gen 4, and for around $2300 can get a 3.4G 800FSB w/ HT, 2G RAM, and a Radeon X800, XP Pro, and a 17" Flat .

I really don't want to spend over $2K for another Dell. The 8200 is a decent machine but I'm hoping I can build one for less, and end up with a much better gaming machine. I'm fairly competent when it comes to tinkering inside the box, and have fixed nearly all the PCs here at the office at one time or another. I've even built a sort of frankenstein's word processor/web browser out of spare parts laying around. The problem is, I don't have any idea what (specifically)to buy, and what's a good price to pay for said components. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, places to start, etc, I'd be very grateful if you had time to post them. If suggesting specific parts that you would recommend, I'm trying to keep the total cost for the machine itself to around $1500 to $2k

Thanks in advance,

Jeff
 
I was in your same situation Glades back in Oct 2004 and had a Dell 8250 2.53 w/pc1066 rdram 512MB and sev diff gfx cards (9700pro-9600xt-9800xt) running agp 4x (850 chipset). I built my present sys (AMD64 3500+/ asus a8v / 1GB CorasirXL / 6800GT) and my new sys bashes the old Dell. Still like the Dell, but for gaming AMD64 is the champ. Building your own is so rewarding and just takes some patience. I say build your own for 1500$ and it will beat an XPS in all gaming apps hands down. Read threads here on Anand to learn about what to get and where you can save $$. G-Luck.
 
Also, if you plan on overclocking, I'd say build your own. I had a Dell before this current system and was stuck at stock 1.8ghz. WIth the amd64 3200+, I OC'd it from the stock 2ghz to 2.6ghz.
 
If you're using it for gaming, I wouldn't go with an XPS. The Athlon 64 is a much better gaming processor.
 
Altho the Athlon's are better I'm sure, Dell's aren't that bad either. I got a Dell 8400 w/ 3.4ghz, 1gb DDR2, X800XT, 160gb w/ NCQ, 20"LCD for $1600 shipped using promo's and coupons. Altho it's not blazingly fast, it ain't a turtle either. If you don't have the time to build your own, Dell is a viable, if not the best, option.
 
Originally posted by: DJFury
Altho the Athlon's are better I'm sure, Dell's aren't that bad either. I got a Dell 8400 w/ 3.4ghz, 1gb DDR2, X800XT, 160gb w/ NCQ, 20"LCD for $1600 shipped using promo's and coupons. Altho it's not blazingly fast, it ain't a turtle either. If you don't have the time to build your own, Dell is a viable, if not the best, option.
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Your right. Dell does make some very nice computers. But the price is terrible. Build your own A64 machine.

 
If you can build your own system why would you buy a Dell? Dell is for those people who just want something that works with minimum hassle and minimum thought. Although I have to admit for the a starting price of $399 for their Dimension 3000 it's hard to resist Dell. When you start upgrading and adding parts you can actually get a better system with better parts for less money than a Dell.
 
Unless you have specific needs, 1gb of ram is plenty and will be for a while. The only specific gaming needs for more would be certain mmorpgs, and only when a lot of characters are on the screen, such as during a raid. I'd suggest avoiding Dell for a number of reasons, but in the interest of not rubbing the fanboys the wrong way, I'll leave it at the fact that the Athlon 64 is appreciably faster in games than and less expensive than its p4 equivalent.
 
Yeah, but with a Dell, you get complimentary phone s.. chat with some dude with foreign accent, for a whole year. Upgradeable to 3 years. Very entertaining when you're bored.
 
Originally posted by: Baked
Yeah, but with a Dell, you get complimentary phone s.. chat with some dude with foreign accent, for a whole year. Upgradeable to 3 years. Very entertaining when you're bored.
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lol
 
to Gladestrider:

I had to do a doubletake when you said $900 for 2GB. Looks like getting locked into Rambus RDRAM was a bad move.

Anyway, here may be an alternative:

For that $900, you might be able to swap out that Dell RDRAM motherboard and put in another P4 board, and get 2GB of DDR, AND still have enough left over for that X800XT. IIRC your 8200 takes a standard ATX board, and you can pick up something like an Abit IC7 which will still work with all of your existing components (except the RDRAM).

Problem solved. 😀
 
DON'T BUY DELL.. unless you have to many money or you want it for office work... buy AMD's 64 instead.. as you said you mostly use your machine for gaming.. and to me it's common knowlegde that AMD works better with graphics... INTEL have HT(hyper-threading) so it can do multi-tasking and have many windows open.. and just like CalvinHobbes said.. 1500-2000$ you can get a much better comp. than if you give 200$ just for the name!!

Philip..
 
Nothing wrong with either option, I bought a Dell 3.4ghz, 9800pro 512mb... for under $1k 8 months ago and I haven't had any problems but I wouldn't buy a Dell @ full retail.





Tom
 
depends on how much time you have...

if you have time to build the thing (only a couple hours on a weekend), possibly troubleshooting problems (could be zero to a lot of time), then build it yourself. otherwise, buy a dell and have them do all the building and possible troubleshooting for you. AMD is much better when it comes to gaming. If you wanted an amd without building yourself, you could go Compaq. They have some pretty good components for a pretty low price... albeit not as low as dell.
 
I would not buy a Dell, rather build my own. Here's a quick estimate for a nice system minus the monitor of your choice:

A64 3400+ $200
DFI LanPartyUT mobo $100
2 gigs of ram $360
6800GT agp $400
Audigy2 ZS $81
Nec3500a dvd-rw $70
Case LX6A-19 $37
power supply $100
XP pro sp2 oem $170
74g raptor $175
Total $1693 plus shipping , add monitor & keyboard & mouse.

Regards,
Jose
 
Originally posted by: fishmonger12
depends on how much time you have...

if you have time to build the thing (only a couple hours on a weekend), possibly troubleshooting problems (could be zero to a lot of time), then build it yourself. otherwise, buy a dell and have them do all the building and possible troubleshooting for you. AMD is much better when it comes to gaming. If you wanted an amd without building yourself, you could go Compaq. They have some pretty good components for a pretty low price... albeit not as low as dell.
Click to expand...

A family friend has a Dell, I've ended up fixing / cleaning it for them twice in the past 6 months since Dell CS has basically told them to F off.

HP/Compaq installs adware in their systems, real nice huh? The Nov '04 issue of PC World had an article on it.

If you must have a prebuilt go ABS or Monarch.
 
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