posted
So I'm looking to upgrade my comp, and I've been shopping around Dell. I basically want a comp that will allow me to play mmo's lag free, and be good for a bunch of years to come.
the specs of the one I'm interested are:
XPS 400 Pentium® D Processor 840 with Dual Core Technology (3.20GHz, 800FSB) Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4DIMMs Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard Monitors SAVE $100!! 20 inch UltraSharp™ 2005FPW Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Video Cards 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800 Hard Drives 500GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 250GB SATA HDDs) Floppy Drive and Media Reader 13 in 1 Media Card Reader and 3.5 in Floppy Drive Mouse Dell® 2-button USB mouse Network Interface Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0 CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability Sound Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1 Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) Office Software (not included in Windows XP) No Productivity Suite - Corel WordPerfect® word processor only Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee SecurityCenter with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-months Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support Home PC Installation No Installation Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included Financial Software (Preinstalled) No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trial Operating System Backup & Recovery PC Restore recovery system by Symantec Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack - Basic digital Music, Photo and Game experience
Anyone who knows anything about computers, could you please tell me if that's a good buy and worth the 2,500 that it's being offered for?
Posts: 340 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
That'll definitely accomplish lag-free MMO playing - unless you're playing EQ2 and want to run it at the highest possible settings.
You could put it together yourself for cheaper, but if you don't know enough about computers to do that (and do your own maintenance), that's a fair price.
My one suggestion would be to take the monitor out and order one from somewhere else.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's a pretty nice computer. I'm a bit of a AMD loyalist, chip-wise, but that should be able to play most everything that's on the market now, and for some time to come. The 2 GB of RAM is particularly nice.
I'm not clear on one thing: does it have a single GeForce 6800, or two running in sync? (It does say "video cards")- the former is perfectly decent, but the latter is outstanding, especially for that price.
I would also suggest checking with Dell, if possible, about to what extent the motherboard will accept faster chips. Not to say the one it comes with isn't plenty fast, but of all the options you listed, that's the one you're most likely going to want to consider upgrading some time in the future (if you want to save some money by going the upgrade route, rather than buying a whole new machine.)
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
You are aware that RAID0 basically doubles your chances of data loss, right. Faster reads are great, but you have to make sure you backup with a set up like that.
Posts: 1458 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wasn't aware of that luthe. I'm ordering mine right now (over the next 2 weeks) with 2 Western Digital 250 GB SATA 3.0Gb Hard drives and planning on RAID0-ing them. I was going to get the WD Raptors (10,000 RPM) but at only 74 GB storage and almost 50% more cost I decided on RAID0. Anything I can do to cut my chances of data loss?
Gecko--2 Gigs or RAM is nice, but maybe for maximum expansion it would be nicer if it was 2 GB (2x1GB) instead of (4x512MB). I don't know if you can configure it that way though. Also if you're way into gaming, you should check out the Logitech G5 or G7 mouse--they're laser mice so they have awesome tracking, and they have 5 buttons I think. Like Sterling, I'm an AMD guy myself so I'm partial to them-and check them out on toms hardware guide gaming benchmarks, their performance is awesome.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gecko! Thats an awesome computer. I just bought one almost exactly the same. Mine has two SLI vid cards and only one gig of RAM, but its pretty darn close.
Mine runs awesome. Runs WOW lag free, same with counterstrike Source.
However, when you speak of lag, do you mean your computer runs slow or your connection to the internet? Cause if you are speaking of a high ping, and slow response time to the servers you are playing on that has little to do with your own computer. You could be using a super computer mainframe 5,000 double XXT mega ultra super duper computer, but if its got a 14.4 modem, youre gonna be laggy.
Posts: 375 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gecko...I hope you don't mind me posting my computer here too, rather than starting a new thread. If it bothers you, just let me know and I'll delete it.
Here's one I'm building and will be ordering over the next 2 weeks. Any feedback would be good...I haven't seriously looked at the technology for about 4 years so I may be missing some things. I already purchased the case and display, so they're kind of a moot point. Any other suggestions/feedback would be helpful (note: I am not planning on running SLI). Also if anyone knows any good price sites, I'd appreciate it. I currently use pr*cewa*ch but finding things is just terrible. I have usually ordered from n*egg, but if anyone else has any trusted suppliers that don't charge an arm and a leg for shipping, please let me know.
Thanks in advance.
1 Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX - Retail $99.99 1 ABIT KN8 Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $99.99 1 ASUS EN7800GTX/2DHTV/256 Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $479.99 1 AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail $234.00 1 CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model $173.00 1 MITSUMI Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal 8 in 1 Floppy Drive - OEM $21.99 2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 300 MB/s Hard Drive - OEM $230.00 1 Logitech Internet Pro 967450-0403 Black PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - OEM $9.98 1 ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19" 2ms LCD Monitor - Retail $395.99 1 Logitech G5 Laser 931376-0403 2-Tone 6 Buttons 1x Wheel USB Laser Mouse - Retail $53.65 1 ASUS Black IDE DVD Burner 2X DVD-RAM Read Model DRW-1608P2 BK - Retail $48.99 1 ASUS Black ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model E616A - OEM $22.99 1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail $119.99 1 D-Link DWL-G520 32bit PCI2.2 Wireless Adapter - Retail $46.99 1 Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker - Retail $86.00 1 OPTI-UPS Value Series VS575C 575VA 345W UPS - Retail $47.49 Total: $2,175.03
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Go to newegg or mwave (I'm partial to mwave), and start with a barebones system (Box, motherboard, RAM, CPU, floppy/optical drives optional), and go from there. Their prices can't be beat... I looked. After that, get your components from wherever you like.
I recently, for a sight more than 900 bucks, put together the following from mwave and newegg:
Antec SLK3800B w/ 400 Watt PSU ePox 9NPA+ Ultra nForce4 939 motherboard 2 1GB PC3200 generic RAM (You only need Corsairs for overclocking) 250GB Seagate Barraacuda SATA drive (7200.8, I believe) Generic DVR+/-RW Connect3d ATI X800GTO (with bios patch to unlock all 16 pipes) ---
I saved my network card, and am using internal sound, since I only have a 2 speaker + sub sound system. I kept my MX700, my Microsoft natural keyboard (I HATE all the extra function buttons these days!), and, of course [WARNING! Geek boasting ahead!!!], my Dell 2405FPW.
posted
My Dell computer has just packed up for the fourth time in two years. I spent the whole of Thursday sitting at home waiting for them to come and collect it to fix it. They never even bothered to turn up. So, since I can't take another day off school just now, I have a dead computer on my hands for the forseeable future.
Not that I'm bitter. I just hate, loathe and detest Dell a little bit right now.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BaoQingTian: I wasn't aware of that luthe. I'm ordering mine right now (over the next 2 weeks) with 2 Western Digital 250 GB SATA 3.0Gb Hard drives and planning on RAID0-ing them. I was going to get the WD Raptors (10,000 RPM) but at only 74 GB storage and almost 50% more cost I decided on RAID0. Anything I can do to cut my chances of data loss?
My comment about twice the chance of data loss, is in reference to the fact that if one of your drives dies everything is gone. Where as if you don't have a raid setup (or are using raid 1) one of the drives can die and then you have only lost half of your data (or none at all with raid 1) See The Skinny on RAIDPosts: 1458 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
mwave is Satan. Their parts are made of paper.
Bao, with two opticals, two hard drives and all the other high end components in that system, you're going to want more than a 345 watt PSU.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The PSU is 450 W, the UPS is only 325 W. So I guess my question is whether the UPS has to supply the power to the computer and monitor and peripherals during everyday, power working mode (in which case it is WAY too small) or if its fine for all that and its only difficult if the power spikes. Because to be honest, I don't care that much about a power outage when I'm working or whatever...I save very regularly. I'm getting the UPS more for its power conditioning. Back in Idaho under Utah Power Company, I lost 3 motherboards due to brownouts and/or voltage spikes. So if I'm getting the wrong tool for the job of supplying stable, conditioned power, please let me know.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
That's the cheapest line-conditioning UPS I've ever seen, so buyer beware.
Note that if all you need is a line conditioner, you can usually buy those for around a hundred bucks. They don't have an internal battery, of course.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
