avid gamer is Noobie on pc spec can u help rate this system plz ;)

R

raven evo

Guest
Ok hear is the spec of the pc im considering...i know it will play the latest games,but will it play em full spec? i have a 360 so would i get a better gaming experiance from that...its a Dell xps 420 which iv added some extras too.
Also i noticed when customizing a Dell xps 740 or what ever they are called that the same spec was more expencive,does that come down to mobo's on the 2 systems? or something else. thanx to any one who reads this and helps me out i would be most gratefull> :)


Premium Chassis - Intel® 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB cache)

Memory
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x1024]

Keyboard
Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Monitor
Dell™ SP2008WFP 20-inch LCD FlatPanel Monitor TrueLife™ technology - Silver - UK/Irish

Video Card
SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card

Hard Drive
1TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x500GB - 7200rpm)

Floppy Drives
19-in-1 Bluetooth Media Card Reader

Microsoft Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate - English

Mouse
Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse

Modem
No Modem

CD/DVD Drives
4x Blu-Ray Disc Drive & DVD Drive with software

Sound Cards
Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI Soundcard

Speakers
Dell™ A525 Speakers with Subwoofer

Wireless Networking
Internal 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card

Shipping Documents
XPS 420 English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord

Gedis Bundle Reference
D01X406

Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

Standard Warranty
Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)

Hardware Support
Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)

AntiVirus & Security Software
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English

Order Information
XPS Desktop Order - UK

Dell System Media Kit
XPS 420 Resource DVD

Accidental Damage Support
2 Year Consumer Accidental Damage Support - Theme Package

TV Tuner and Remote Control
TV Tuner and AVIO / Accellerator

Adobe Reader
Adobe Elements Studio Software (incl Photoshop, Premiere and Soundbooth)
 
Ok hear is the spec of the pc im considering...i know it will play the latest games,but will it play em full spec? i have a 360 so would i get a better gaming experiance from that...its a Dell xps 420 which iv added some extras too.
Also i noticed when customizing a Dell xps 740 or what ever they are called that the same spec was more expencive,does that come down to mobo's on the 2 systems? or something else. thanx to any one who reads this and helps me out i would be most gratefull> :)


Premium Chassis - Intel® 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB cache)

Memory
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x1024]

Keyboard
Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Monitor
Dell™ SP2008WFP 20-inch LCD FlatPanel Monitor TrueLife™ technology - Silver - UK/Irish

Video Card
SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card

Hard Drive
1TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x500GB - 7200rpm)

Floppy Drives
19-in-1 Bluetooth Media Card Reader

Microsoft Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate - English

Mouse
Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse

Modem
No Modem

CD/DVD Drives
4x Blu-Ray Disc Drive & DVD Drive with software

Sound Cards
Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI Soundcard

Speakers
Dell™ A525 Speakers with Subwoofer

Wireless Networking
Internal 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card

Shipping Documents
XPS 420 English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord

Gedis Bundle Reference
D01X406

Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

Standard Warranty
Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)

Hardware Support
Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)

AntiVirus & Security Software
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English

Order Information
XPS Desktop Order - UK

Dell System Media Kit
XPS 420 Resource DVD

Accidental Damage Support
2 Year Consumer Accidental Damage Support - Theme Package

TV Tuner and Remote Control
TV Tuner and AVIO / Accellerator

Adobe Reader
Adobe Elements Studio Software (incl Photoshop, Premiere and Soundbooth)

Seems like a very nice PC and it has a top card to.
 
The specs seem great but I suppose it all depends on how much you are spending? Also, I'm sure whether Dell's XPS range is overclockable?
 
The XPS 720 I have is overclocked via Ntune software, my Dual Core and memory oc'ed without a problem, unfortunately the BIOS settings themselves can't be changed, Ntune works through Windows itself, but the profile is set up with a custom rule so that every time Windows loads it overclocks the processor and memory to the saved settings.
 
Is that monitor widescreen, should deffo get one of those makes the whole experience more fun.
 
Get someone to build it, would never buy a dell, as for the 4 x BD Writer i'm sure that puts the price up alot, DELL make their money on the upgrades which can be bought from elsewhere cheaper, do you really need a blu ray writer?, ditch it and get a standard dvd wrtier, you can always get a BD/HD-DVD Reader from LG for £150 at a later stage..

As for the Hard Drives, get 1 more for windows, i.e 320GB and use the RAID array for the games...

Rest seems fine, ditch the Dell speakers and get a set of Logitech Z-2300 for gaming... or Z-5500 if you can afford it...

Anyway I wouldn't buy a Dell, but go for it with the changes I suggested if you have no other options...
 
The XPS 720 I have is overclocked via Ntune software, my Dual Core and memory oc'ed without a problem, unfortunately the BIOS settings themselves can't be changed, Ntune works through Windows itself, but the profile is set up with a custom rule so that every time Windows loads it overclocks the processor and memory to the saved settings.
I thought the XPS line was overclockable, my standard Dell isn't! While Dell's are great value for money, there's little flexibility for it to be a long-term machine. The main problems is the mobo is locked down, there's very little room in the chassis and some parts are proprietary.
 
I would get a 8800 GTS 512mb over the GTX - its a touch slower at very high res on some games but its much cheaper. If money is no object then stick with the GTX.
 
I guarantee that system could be built for far less than Dell will be charging you for that, and the 8800 GTX is obsolete now really, 1 8800GT will almost be as good, and 2 in SLI would beat it to a pulp, but if you're only using a 20" monitor then SLI is pointless.

Building PCs isn't as hard as you might think and the extra control and money savings it offers you are major plus points. Most of the time you can have the PC in pieces to Windows in 2-3 hours, if not faster (I'm hardly a pro, and I like to take my time... :D)

Check out Scan.co.uk and OverclockersUK for componant ideas, and plenty of help can be had from forums such as this for building.
 
Building PCs isn't as hard as you might think and the extra control and money savings it offers you are major plus points. Most of the time you can have the PC in pieces to Windows in 2-3 hours, if not faster (I'm hardly a pro, and I like to take my time... :D)

What I normally find is that building one is the easy part, installing the OS, sorting out driver conflicts etc normally takes the longest time.
 
What I normally find is that building one is the easy part, installing the OS, sorting out driver conflicts etc normally takes the longest time.

Agreed!, although I'm much more comfortable once i know the PC boots and works correctly. Most of the time minimal drivers are needed anyway, especially with Vista, recgonised my LAN port, and pretty much everything apart from x-fi card and graphics card. Final stages may take longer, but its much less stressful imo!
 
True, as long as the system posts it's a big relief. Looking forward to doing a new build soon as it's been a while since I've done one from scratch!
 

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