Buy or build hummmmm?

Dingatron

Ok it's been a while since my last upgrade and was thinking of building a new quad core system. Put a few bits together and it came to around the 1.2k mark. Then I had a quick look on Dells site and around 1k would get me a nice enough Dimension XPS 420 system.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 8MB, 1066MHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)
MEMORY3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024/2x512]
HARD DRIVE640GB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x320GB - 7200rpm)
GRAPHICS CARDSINGLE 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT card
OPTICAL DRIVE16x DVD +/- RW Drive
KEYBOARDDell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
MOUSE Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse


It would be used for gaming (COD4), video encoding etc. So what's the best way to go? I know with the Dell I'd be limited for over clocking but with a quad it should be future proofed to some degree. Also how would the 8800GT compare to my current 7950 GX2 sli card. It will be running a 22' lcd?

Decisions decisions......

Sqaull20

Dell is a fine gaming system at a very good price...

Unfortunately you cant overclock any of the Dell systems other than the XPS 7xx series because the Bios is locked...

Cost to build Dell system yourself

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 €220
Vista® Home Premium - English €110
667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024/2x512] €50
Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x320GB - 7200rpm) €130
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT card €260
DVD +/- RW Drive €30
Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) €10
Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse €10
Case €60
Power Supply €40
Motherboard €55

Comes to just under €1000

Cost off Dell

€815.12

on www.dell.ie/epp

Apply 10% Coupon

343?NMX7LX37D3

To bring it from €906 to €815.12

Sqaull20

The 8800GT is more powerful than the 7950GX2 by a decent margin,uses less power and generates less heat. It also supports DX10 and SM4.0 which the 7950GX2 does not which will probably impact greatly on next generation games....

KamiKazi

Do not buy a gaming system from dell, you will live to regret it.

If you have the knowledge build it yourself.

Dingatron

KamiKazi wrote: »

Do not buy a gaming system from dell, you will live to regret it.

If you have the knowledge build it yourself.

Why so? I can build one but not as cheaply.

TheThreeDegrees

KamiKazi wrote: »

Do not
If you have the knowledge build it yourself.

If you have the time build it yourself.
otherwise your gonna get to know your postman and FEDEX lads fairly well:D

KamiKazi

the time you spend building it yourself will be nothing compared to the time you will spend on the phone to india each time the dell breaks.

Shiny

Dingatron wrote: »

Why so? I can build one but not as cheaply.

I have built 3 gaming PC's so far and then there last year I bought a second
hand XPS from adverts and I have to say I am quite surprised with it.

Very stable, fast and deadly looking.
Only bad thing is that it can only hold 4 hardrives and it is BTX and cant really
be upgraded.
But as far as I know the new XPS machines are ATX and the cases are bigger
than my XPS Gen5.

My next PC will most likely be another XPS. The value is too good to ignore.:)

Dingatron

Shiny wrote: »

My next PC will most likely be another XPS. The value is too good to ignore.:)

Yeah I need to look a bit more at the case and mb. I don't think I've bought a pc in the last 10 years as I've always built them with good savings. This time round the Dell is coming up tops. Room for 4 hard drives is plenty these days as I think 1TB of storage should be plenty going forward.

As said little room for upgrading, overclocking and support are the only downfalls. I work in IT anyway and know my way around so I'd hope not to need support unless I needed an RMA. Still none the wiser........

PogMoThoin

The Dell is value for money, but I would prefer to spend an extra 300e
1: just to know more about my rig & build it myself to my own specs.
2: with the Dell you get 1yr warranty, build yourself & each component will have much longer, intel chip 3yrs, hd's 5-10yrs, some parts like ram & gpu lifetime.
3: build yourself & rig will end up fully upgradable, not like the Dell.
4: overclockable, add a good cooler, pick a good case & get 40% more performance out of the rig for free.


Just my 2cents, worth thinkin bout

duridian

I'd agree, Dell is good value for the user who just wants a reasonably up to date pc, but isn't really into tweaking and upgrading it theirself.
For somebody who does plan to work under the bonnet the self build is usually more satisfying even if it costs a bit more initially.

Deliverance XXV

PogMoThoin wrote: »

3: build yourself & rig will end up fully upgradable, not like the Dell.

Yup, that would be my argument in favour of building your own PC.

Dingatron

Ok looks like I've the building bug again so lol. Need to do a bit of research though. Whats a good main board and memory for overclocking the quads?

RoyalMarine

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kcp.aspx?sku=341381&sku=342074&sku=340951&sku=339839&sku=340391

excellent boards. all ddr2. dont even think about ddr3.

as for memory, 4gb for 103 euro.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974

im pretty sure all those boards will take the new 45nm processors.

Sqaull20

x38 is the way to go alright...not sure about komplett though,much cheaper places to buy with just as bad customer care

Stunning board below,almost €70 cheaper than Komplett :eek:

Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/8V9H8USCHUba9q/1/articledetail.jsp?aid=18296&agid=659 €192

4096MB DDR2 Corsair Twin2X

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/8V9H8USCHUba9q/1/articledetail.jsp?aid=10028&agid=599 €95

Delivery €30 per order

TheThreeDegrees

You see now is where the pain starts!
Your gonna get different opinions on every component and by the end you wont know where to buy or which component to buy.

You sure you dont want that Dell:)

SeanW

Once you go home-build, you never go back. Because not only can you get the best components for a decent price, but you can also tailor the final package to your own preferences down the minutest detail.

For example, if you want to overclock a processor for performance, you need a good overclockers board and processor with a high grade of RAM. If you want a system that looks nice, you can invest in a good looking case, UV reactive cables, cold cathodes and whatnot. The mainboard is an important choice because each board will allow you to add certain expansions and extras over time - whether you want to add a second graphics card in SLi or Crossfire configuration, how many PCI devices you want to add, whether there will be any internal 4-pin USB devices like an internal card reader (Dell's don't allow you to add these because the connections do not exist).

When you self build you can add just about anything you like and tweak the bejesus of out the rig until it's the perfect machine for you. Not so with any bought system, especially Dell.

jonny72

www.ankermann-pc.com have a system with quadcore chip and 8800 GT for about 750..

I think you can chat to them via email and get them to upgrade some parts, such as higher quality ram and better motherboard..

Dingatron

Thanks for the replies and I'm now researching various options for a new build. Probably go with buying from Dabs as they seem cheaper than Komplett these days. Hardwareversand.de have good prices but not into their policy on only accepting bank transfers.

SwampThing

The Maximus Formula is a cracker board - plenty of room for everything you need, even a monster cooler like the Tuniq. I have yet to attempt to overclock it but I don't think that'll be an issue. It's a bit pricey, but I think it's worth the spend.