Ravenwood - 04/28/03 11:03 AM
Is it just me, or does this make anyone else feel all warm and tingly inside?
While I started using a laptop as my primary PC, I've always kept a desktop for gaming purposes. I haven't purchased a desktop since 1992, when I started building my own 'Ravenwood' brand of PC out of over the counter parts. With the price of PCs lately, it doesn't make much sense to build your own anymore.Dell has introduced its most powerful consumer desktop, the Dimension XPS. Based on Intel's 800MHz frontside bus Pentium 4 running at 3GHz and Intel's i875P chipset, and with a 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card and Creative Audigy 2 sound card, the box is aimed squarely at gamers.
More consumer-friendly features include two 1394 ports and eight USB 2.0 ports. 10/100Mbps Ethernet is built in. The system can be ordered with up to 200GB of Ultra ATA-100 storage, and you can have Serial ATA and RAID support via an optional controller card. Optical drives options include: 16x DVD, 48x/24x/48x CD-RW, and 48x CD-RW/DVD, DVD+RW/ +R combo drives.
All of this is backed by a 460W power supply, fitted into the bottom of the mini-tower case rather than the top. The result, claims Dell, is a quieter system and one whose internal workings are more easily accessed - a boon for the upgrade-crazy hardcore gamer.
Although I've never used a Dell desktop, I loved my Dell laptop. It was fast, reliable, and easy to use. Although I purchased an HP laptop in December, I'd gladly trade it in for a Dell, if I didn't know I was going to take a huge financial hit in the process. The HP just hasn't been a good machine to me.
As for the Dell XPS, you can customize your own, here.
Category: Toys for Grownups
Comments (9) top link me
The 8 USB ports alone made me drool. The rest, well...I need a moment to myself.
Posted by: michele at April 28, 2003 1:59 PMwhy the heck would you need 8 usb ports? thats such a waste. that its the biggest waste of a machine.
Posted by: John Mays at April 28, 2003 3:27 PMI've been dissatisfied with Dell in the past. I have a Dell laptop with a wicked cursor jump problem (the touchpad is too sensitive and I've no idea how to fix it). When I ordered a Dell desktop model, it arrived with all of the pre-installed software FUBAR. I stayed on tech support for seven hours before they finally just instructed me to format the hard drive and reload every single program.
I think Dell is kind of 'hit and miss' like that. So 'buyer beware' as they say...
Posted by: Owen Courrèges at April 28, 2003 5:19 PMI have two sony Vaios and I love them, so I'm not buying a Dell anytime soon.
But we do need the USB ports. We have so much crap hooked up to this computer, we have to unplug something to get another thing hooked up.
Posted by: michele at April 28, 2003 5:26 PMOwen,
Any good tech rep should have had you reinstall everything up front. If the software was FUBAR out of the box, what is the point of troubleshooting? I had that with my HP. (DVD no worky) Once I ran the reinstall CDs everything was fine.
As for your touchpad problem, there should be some touchpad tools (from Synaptics) that let you adjust the sensativity of the mouse. Check your mouse properties in the control panel, or try clicking on the Synaptics icon in the lower right corner if there is one.
Posted by: Ravenwood at April 28, 2003 6:08 PMOooohh....
Aaaaahh....
I do love my Dell laptop, but I'm with Michele; I think I'm gonna need a moment to compose myself here.... ;0)
Posted by: Jack Cluth at April 28, 2003 6:51 PMEIGHT frikking ports? Mouse, keyboard, PDA, printer, and ??? Camera, maybe? Wow. I've got six on my hand-built mainframe here, and four sit unused except when I need to Thumbdrive something (which is rare with a network). I thought I was a power user, but I guess not.
Posted by: Scott Chaffin at April 28, 2003 9:20 PMNow that IS a machine to drool over.
I support around 100 Dell desktops and a few of their laptops. I think they are the best bang for the buck in general. We've tried all of the major brands and my own experience is that the Dell's have consistently performed better over the long haul. I used to build my own too, but you're right, it's just not worth it anymore.
Some of those desktop machine could use 8 USB ports too. They're using USB hubs as it is.
Oh, and we've been very happy with Sony VAIO laptops too.
Posted by: MarcL at April 28, 2003 10:36 PMI've got one. It is fast. Abusively fast. My "other" desktop is a dual xeon 2.53 machine with ultra320 SCSI hard drives, and with the exception of sustained hard drive work, the XPS is faster. Admittedly, the 9800pro is faster than the base 9700 I have in the other machine but still, a 3Dmark of over 17,000 without even bothering to kill the other half-dozen apps running in background is pretty impressive.
One thing I'd mention is that, while the machine is very quiet during normal use - browsing the web, editing a document, etc. - when you fire up a game, the fans all spool up, and the machine gets a bit louder. But it's a nice kind of loud, I'll admit.
Other caveat: If you use a UPS, make sure you account for the power this thing can eat. With both hard drives chugging away, and the ATI card howling, it will really pull 400+ watts, just as advertised.
As for all those USB ports... Keyboard, mouse, digital camera, printer, zip drive... That's five right there, leaving one empty in the back, and both the front ports available.
I used to build my own machines, but I just don't have the time anymore, and I can't afford to stop working for a couple days until I get some part that blows out.
Posted by: dave at July 8, 2003 12:09 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
