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4/4/2009 8:34:20 PM

OK, i've got my flamesuit on, I got the dell. I do appreciate the good advice though, I guess i'm a sucker for the 2 year warranty... anywho, here are the specs:

Intel CoreTM i7-920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Shared Cache)
Intel® X58 Chipset
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium x64 Edition
6GB DDR3 1066MHz (3 x 2GB3 DIMMs)
Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
500GB4 - SATA-II, 3GB/S, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache
nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB3
Sound Blaster X-Fi from my current PC

I hope this holds me over for a bit, i'll post honest opinions once they ship it over.

4/5/2009 4:04:33 PM

i would've recommended you build one but it really only matters if YOU are happy. Some people are content with the pre-built systems and the peace of mind of a warrenty. So congrats on a new compy!

4/5/2009 5:00:14 PM

That video card is sub par. I think ATI's newest line of 48xx is about 250$ but a sheer monster.

You'll also want to shoot for 8gb of ram if you've got a x64 system.

4/5/2009 5:40:07 PM

Sup dude, I called dell about the video card. I don't know why they don't have an option to upgrade to a single GTX. I just figured i'd install a GTX 295 myself after a few months if it became an issue and put the 9800 in the soon to be old pc.

I'm pretty sure the board has four ram sockets so i can throw another 2GB in if i need to. I've got a feeling i'll need to do both if i'm going to be running games at 1920x1200.

4/5/2009 6:07:20 PM

That and you'll absolutely be in love with being able to alt-tab with relative stability in windows 7.

4/5/2009 7:46:08 PM

hooray for my new OS already being obsolete.

4/5/2009 9:35:29 PM

Quote :

"I've got a feeling i'll need to do both if i'm going to be running games at 1920x1200."

Your system ram has nothing to do with gaming resolution capability.

4/5/2009 11:02:17 PM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure the board has four ram sockets so i can throw another 2GB in if i need to."

You got the XPS 730 right?

Quote :

"Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM system Memory8 Three (3) user-accessible DIMM slots"

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-xps-730x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs

4/6/2009 3:47:16 AM

yeah, maybe he shouldn't be building his own computer...

4/6/2009 12:17:50 PM

heh, agreed

4/6/2009 8:01:07 PM

$1700 and they throw in a video card that is almost a year old? I would try to upgrade to an ATI 4870 1gb card if you can afford to drop another $175. It also sucks that i7 will never see its speed potential on that locked Dell board

4/6/2009 8:14:19 PM