PC -- Tear it apart

[kfcSmitty]

First off, I would much rather build my own PC, but through Dell I:

#1 Get a discount (shown below)
and
#3 Get to make interest free payments spread over a period I choose

So that aside, what do you guys think of the specs? I could save 400 bucks if I chose a 8800 GTX instead of the Ultimate, or I could even pay the same amount to SLi two 8800 GTX cards, but I'm not sure the supplied PSU could handle that (both power and connection wise).

Anywhos, I'm just looking for feedback. What I should replace/why, personal opinions, etc.

*edit* Also, I am not concerned about the OS or the software as work will give me whatever I want for it.

[kfcSmitty]

I hope they're decent specs...in a moment of weakness I bought it 5 minutes ago

[wes4dbt]

Nice processor and RAM. What about a modem, network or wireless card. Is this machine not going to be connected to the internet? I hope there are expansion slots. How exspensive was the "1 Year Next Business Day On Site / In Home Service And Tech Support"? Sounds sweet. I'll trade you my 4 1/2yr old machine with 512M ram and a P4 processor.

[Atheist]

Those are really good specs. I have that CPU and Im very happy with it. The RAM speed is good...but if my currency converter is speaking the truth then i think that price is a bit..too high.

[Greyskull]

The price seems reasonable if I convert it to £. (I live in UK).
I personnally don't like dell since theyr desktop parts are cheapest cheapest possible out there. I dnt knw whether they've changed since I bought one from them 5 yrs ago. Hence me rather building my own one as I'll be more satisfied knowing what parts are inside of my pc and where they;ve come from...

[Lord Orwell]

the latest nvidia cards are surprisingly easy on power consumption. I am running dual-core, 2mb ram, two hard drives, a dvd burner, and an 8600 video card with a 420 watt psu.

[DNA7433]

The 8600 is not a power hog, but from what I've read (and I tried to do a lot of research on this before buying my own Christmas upgrades) the 8800 Ultras need a lot of juice. I planned for my system to SLI two 8800 GTS and I went for a 600W Rosewill PS at $65 on Newegg.com. The rest of my system is very similar to Lord Orwells, except I went for a whopping 2gb of ram instead of a measly 2mb .

[Greyskull]

8800 ultra certainly need a lot of power. Im currently running mine on 800W plainly because I can get it cheap here but only 1. What kind of mobo you planning to get DNA7433? I was going to do an SLI but the thought of no games can fully test its graphics out there atm kinda made me stick to just one.

[Lord Orwell]

oops. Anyway, i don't have any issues playing any games at max res, except maybe neverwinter nights 2, and that game has coding issues. I got it at max res too but i had to disable a "ati workaround" in their ini file that kills performance on nvidia cards.

[I_Love_My_Vans]

Beware of Dell power supplies, yes they may do the job properly, however they (at least in the UK) use slightly larger PSUs and therefore a spare PSU will not fit correctly, this means outside of warentee getting hold of one might not be a simple case of going down to your local computer store, instead having to order another from Dell themselves.

ILMPSU

[Lord Orwell]

not only that, but dells now use a proprietary pin-out on the power supply and hooking an aftermarket one up without an adapter can fry the motherboard.

[DNA7433]

What kind of mobo you planning to get DNA7433?

I wanted a Gigabyte, but I needed an Intel with 1333Mhz FSB, SLI, and at least 3 PCI slots (two TV tuners and a wireless card). The best one I could find was the MSI P6N Platinum. I realize some day I'll need to switch one of those cards to PCI-E if I order a second 8800GTS.

The part that really bugs me is hardware reviewers seem to hate the 8800gts now that the 8800gt has arrived. It's lighter, costs less, has more stream processors, and the frequencies are higher. Only problem is it seems impossible to find a decent 8800gt for purchasing - at least on newegg. Not sure if I should just be happy I went for an 8800 (w/ Crysis included) over an 8600, or if I should be kicking myself for not looking harder for a gt.

[Greyskull]

I wanted a Gigabyte, but I needed an Intel with 1333Mhz FSB, SLI, and at least 3 PCI slots (two TV tuners and a wireless card). The best one I could find was the MSI P6N Platinum. I realize some day I'll need to switch one of those cards to PCI-E if I order a second 8800GTS.

The part that really bugs me is hardware reviewers seem to hate the 8800gts now that the 8800gt has arrived. It's lighter, costs less, has more stream processors, and the frequencies are higher. Only problem is it seems impossible to find a decent 8800gt for purchasing - at least on newegg. Not sure if I should just be happy I went for an 8800 (w/ Crysis included) over an 8600, or if I should be kicking myself for not looking harder for a gt.

Well Im not sure which GT version you wanted (GT, GTX, GTS, Ultra) but you can try this site out

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

Only if your in the European area i think though, im not sure. That's where I get my parts from.

[Greyskull]

Btw Crysis is Excellent imo, both online and offline