DELL XPS 600 renegade

[C0CKFACE]

Im currently doing a lot of shopping and research,about buying my next desktop. Im not very partial, i just want THE BEST. my last computer was put together as a very high end machine about 3-4 years ago and it has been just wonderful..it was a P4. Ive been reading SOO many magazines and talking to people,it seems that the AMD vs Pentium crowds are ultra partisan, just like camaro vs mustang guys...i find the people that say one is better than the other "just BECAUSE" are very rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish,and i like to base my opinion on fact...

I have been looking at this new Dell XPS 600 renegade.they are boasting it is the 70th most powerful pc factory made in the world.I am almost set on buying it,but i came into these forums and seen some guys flaming the renegade.saying "too bad it wasnt an AMD"
And "that thing SUCKS for the money". are these guys just fanboys or do they know what they are talking about? is this a waste of money? im looking at it as i can buy this baddass computer and be good for 3 more years...hell it said it plays doom 3 at like 2000 something by something resolution and got like over 200 frames per second....to ME that sounds sweet...even if i have a local computer shop build something CLOSE to this,i wouldent get a warranty or anything...

Im NOT a pentium fanboy,but my last pentium was just great...i started playing medal of honor and avp 2 and its STILL playing BF2 real good...i cant run quake 4 too good,but doom 3 runs great...so by my previous experience pentium is good....but most things i read say that if im running just ONE app...say a game..AMD is the way to go...but i cant get an AMD with the QUAD graphics cards and the DDR2 package...

any1 have any thoughts?
thanks..
C0CKFACE....dave

[project187]

yer that sucks for the cash.but then again i always build my own or at least all the bits.
im no fanboy lol but i have had only amd and they seem to always do me prud for performance and value unless u want an fx.
right basically you have what 2 grand or 1500 to spend?? and if it is for that money the same cost as the dell u aint gunna get the best of everything as its impossible.

so if u really want the best performance for cash buy the bits and build em yourself other wise take a trip to the scan webby and ceck out the chamelion coz that is one rapid pc!!

[kempez]

Yeah I would say go talk to SCAN or Alienware and get an SLi 7800GTX rig - the Dell pricing is pretty OTT and I woiuld want an AMD chip for gaming

BUT having said that Alienware's desktop is pretty dear too

I would personally get an FX-60 based Alienware if I had that sort of cash

EDIT: Actually I'd build my own FX-60 based PC with this lot:

AMD FX-60
DFI Expert SLi
2 x 1gb Crucial ballistix PC400
2 x XFX XXX edition 7800GTX 512mb
X-Fi Platinum Edition
1 x 150gb WD Raptor for OS, 2 x 160gb Hitachi Deskstars in RAID 0 for storage/other stuff
Plextor Slot-loading DVD-RW Drive
Dell 2405FPW (or 3007FPW)
Razor Copperhead Gaming Mouse
Logitech G15 or Saitek Eclipse Keyboard (whatever I fancied )

Cooling + Case: Extreme Prometia Lian Li/Mach II conversion with PCP&C 850 SLi
Full Custome DD Waterloop for the 7800GTX's

Umm yeah thats about it

NB: You may want to wait for ATI and Nvidia's nezxt gen to get the fastest graphics card out

[nvening]

The Pentium vs AMD story.

Basically, people wrongly like to slate P4s off because they are an annoying marketing campain (now scrapped, along with the pentium name) and beacuse they are the market leader and so many people think they are not "l33t" enough.

People slate P4 off correctly because the new ones are very unefficient (take in alot of power and make ALOT of heat, but to end up with not alot of processing power compared to the efficiency of an AMD64). And because they are not as good as AMD for gaming. Also they are worse than AMD on a "bang per buck" ratio.

However Intel P4 (and D whcih is just two P4s) are better at video encoding.

Therefore unless you are going to be doing alot of video editing (and you sound like you re gaming) then AMD is the better option.

Also Dual core is basically a must now, all games will soon use it (to great effect) and so will more and more software.

BUILD IT YOURSELF - Its not at all hard. You get what you want for a good price (including a lovely case) and if you are concerned about warrentys then many componants come with long or even life warrentys!

[C0CKFACE]

All your guys input was great,and has really changed my opinion on that model,for the money. My buddy is going to help me build a rig,and i think ill try out the AMD.
i thought i was going to get flamed for asking the questions about that machine,but all you guys were very helpful in helping me make up my mind.

so far im thinking fx 60
with the dual nvidia 7800s..
mabye 2 gigs of ram...
and a good harddrive...

its really only for gaming...i have a few other 2 gig machines i use for burning and media.
with all the cash im going to save i might be able to buy a nice monitor now too..

thanks guys for the advice!

[ed^chigliak]

3-4 years is a long time between PC builds with interesting stuff coming to market all the time. Your rebuild/upgrade cycle should be 12-18 months with a £600-800 budget for the base unit at each build. That way you'll be up-to-date more of the time for about the same total cost of ownership. I would urge you to buy the 'best bang' system more often and ignore THE BEST because paying the premium doesn't make any sense in a market of rapidly falling prices.

[project187]

lol mate my 90 quid cpu is running the same as the fx 57 which is over 500???

[derthballs]

The pentium vs AMD thing dosent really stack up anymore when using high end graphics cards. In DX9, theres little difference between a 3ghz p4 and a 2.4ghz A64 if your using a X1800 or 7800.