Gaming base unit for £650

[MrP]

am i going to find anything better than this for £650??

its mainly for playing wow on a 19" widescreen (so 1280x1024)

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

its seems pretty nice to me, thought being dell once the board/socket is out of date its going to be impossible to upgrade, but is that worth worrying about?

[staffsMike]

Thats exactly what I was going to recommend when I saw the title. I would buy it now it's a frickin steal at that price, as cheap if not cheaper than you could build it yourself.

[phoenix198]

And (with thanks to HotUKDeals) use this coupon 9DGRQPZDFXQGBP to reduce price to £584.10

At that price I reckon its a very good deal and I'd be sorely tempted myself if I hadn't already home-built a very similar spec

Also, buy via Quidco gets you a further 5% reduction (£29.21)

[staffsMike]

Dear lord!! It gets cheaper

Bite their arm off, seriously.

[MrP]

ok, couple of dumb questions.

will the board take the new penryn chips?

can the board be upgraded (or do dell still use non standard boards, PSU's etc)

can you overclock with these (seems a shame to leave a q6600 at 2.4ghz when it should do 3ghz with ease

[staffsMike]

1. Don't Know

2. They usually use BTX cases/motherboards as opposed to ATX so motherboards are hard to upgrade with anything you would actually want to use.

3. No you can't unless someone figures out a way to do it the old fashioned way, breaking pins etc.. this is ill advised of course.

But, I doubt you would see the difference between 2.4GHz and 3.0GHz.

[Zathras]

This is rather tempting. Can anyone spec up a similar PC from components for home-build at anywhere near the same cost? I can't.

[staffsMike]

You can be you have to compromise on case, psu and motherboard..

I love the xps case with the little screen it awesome lol

EDIT:
Q6600 - £150
4GB RAM - £60
2 x 320GB HDD - £85 (WD AAKS)
Motherboard - £45 (gigabyte P31 or 630i) or IP-35 for £72
Case + PSU £70 (antec sonata + 500 earthwatts which isn't too bad actually)
8800GT - £116 (on amazon if you can wait a few weeks) or £138 from scan
dvd writer - £20

Just under £550 (maybe + £20 for gfx and + £30 for IP-35)

hmmm thats only £600 or just under.. not bad

Second thoughts.. maybe build your own

Suppose most people will have to buy an OS though.. I don't so never factor it in lol

[MrP]

well my mates bought one of these with a couple of addon's, which with the discount voucher gave him a very nice spec PC for buttons in my view.

thanks

[davidcrofter]

I thought the Dell XPS Range could be overclocked, though not via Bios so you might not get 3ghz, also worth noting I heard the LCD Display on the case is not included for this model.
Personally I would still build my own OK it might cost £100 extra but if you plan to keep it for a few years it will be worth it as you can upgrade as you go along which isn't so easy to do with a Dell.

[staffsMike]

I wasn't aware that you could. Thats quite good

[Zathras]

I went ahead and bought one, yet am in two minds about whether to keep it when it arrives.

The screen is included in every XPS 420 model. However bios overclocking isn't possible: only the 700 range can be overclocked. I may have a go with CPUFSB or other software FSB modifiers but I doubt I'll get far without access to voltage settings. Same goes for pin-modding the Q6600 to 1333mhz FSB.

Another thing that's slightly annoyed me is that it's a BTX board/case. Ok, so it'll be quiet, but bang goes upgrading it easily. I can't find a single other recent/decent BTX motherboard on the market. At least the board is an X38 so should support the next couple of revisions of Intel chips, and PCI-E isn't going to go away soon. I'm going to miss the looks of my current case, a Coolermaster CM210, but not the awful cooling performance!

Still, I'm hoping that it'll work out of the box. I don't really have time to tweak settings so my soundcard doesn't crackle or mess up my IDE bus or check RAM compatability or similar that I've ended up doing one way or another with previous builds.

[phoenix198]

I went ahead and bought one, yet am in two minds about whether to keep it when it arrives.

The screen is included in every XPS 420 model. However bios overclocking isn't possible: only the 700 range can be overclocked. I may have a go with CPUFSB or other software FSB modifiers but I doubt I'll get far without access to voltage settings. Same goes for pin-modding the Q6600 to 1333mhz FSB.

Another thing that's slightly annoyed me is that it's a BTX board/case. Ok, so it'll be quiet, but bang goes upgrading it easily. I can't find a single other recent/decent BTX motherboard on the market. At least the board is an X38 so should support the next couple of revisions of Intel chips, and PCI-E isn't going to go away soon. I'm going to miss the looks of my current case, a Coolermaster CM210, but not the awful cooling performance!

Still, I'm hoping that it'll work out of the box. I don't really have time to tweak settings so my soundcard doesn't crackle or mess up my IDE bus or check RAM compatability or similar that I've ended up doing one way or another with previous builds.

What did you think of it when it arrived? Have you kept it?

[Zathras]

Yeah, I've kept it: it's a lot of hassle to send it back! I've not used it much and haven't tried gaming on it yet. Unfortunately it's running Vista and I can't really compare the experience with my old PC as that was running XP, but I have to say Vista sucks big-time. Even with the raid 0 hdd setup it takes ages to copy local files and I'm not a fan of the new aero theme. There seems to be a dearth of decent replacement aero themes around at the moment, but I've found a Leopard-lookalike with icon pack that is a keeper.

Fortunately Dell haven't filled the machine with crapola, and it didn't take long to clean the install up. The mouse drivers had to go as they didn't support proper back/forward button operation in Firefox; they were worse than no drivers at all! All the support options appear to be geared up for US users and you're directed to a US-centric site for questions/answers which doesn't recognise the service tag on the PC. I haven't tried the XPS hotline yet as nothing major is wrong and I prefer fixing things myself.

The machine itself is quiet, very quiet. The sideshow display is a complete gimmick and there's hardly any available applications/gadgets for it yet. The internal of the case seems very cramped and the expansion is a bit limited - only one free 5" bay and one free 3.5" bay. The board lacks all legacy connectors (PATA/PS2/Serial/Parallel) and has an eSATA port. I like the suspend-to-ram sleep function and the fact that it turns off all the fans (PSU included), something I could never get working with my previous install/XP, so the machine is effectively instant-on but doesn't make any noise. The only unfortunate thing is the blue power LED which is very bright and flashes in suspend with no way of turning it off. I may have to find a way of dulling the LED somehow.

While it's not the best-looking case in the world (my Coolermaster 210 seriously puts it to shame) it's not awful and is finished in a nice piano black with silver side panels. The case has tool-free access and it's easy to install new components despite the relative lack of space. There's a 120mm (or possibly larger) intake fan but bizarrely no outtake fan either on the case or PSU and no fixtures for one either despite the back of the case being all grille to allow good airflow. I may have to get my drill out and fix up something should temperatures prove an issue. I haven't installed any monitoring tools yet so can't say how cool/hot it runs in practise.

I think the motherboard is produced by ECS but I can't find an equivalent board made by any manufacturer (X38, BTX) so drivers will have to come from Dell. There's no overclocking or voltage options in the bios at all, which is a disappointment to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised by the included keyboard/mouse. The keyboard has two usb slots, a rotating volume knob and a handful of media-player style keys yet remains understated looks-wise. The mouse is on the small side for me (thinner than my Intellimouse Explorer and old Logitech MX518) but has the tilt-functionality on the wheel. They're both much better than peripherals I've used on other pre-builds.

So, if I could go back, would I have chosen to build my own? I'm not sure. I think I'd have more of an affinity for a PC I built myself and obviously I could have overclocked a Q6600 substantially on a decent board getting better performance, but I don't really have the free time to fiddle should brand X of ram not quite be compatible with brand Y build Z of motherboard and make A of soundcard (yes, I got bitten by the KT133/Soundblaster Live screwup and lost data. I'm still bitter). If you're after a ready-built hassle-free system it's absolutely superb and a huge step-up from similar pre-builds from box-shifters I've seen in the past and the price I paid was a steal. If you like to tweak and tinker and squeeze every ounce from your machine and upgrade components every six months then it's not for you.

Any other questions, please ask. I can happily provide photos or run benchmarks if people like.

[phoenix198]

Thanks for taking the time to do that Zathras. I've been looking at the Dell deals at what seem like very good prices on HotUKDeals for some time and it was good to read an honest appraisal.

Obviously too late for me to take advantage of this one, but I think I'll be keeping a close eye on future offerings.