New computer ordered... whoo!

[Kratz]

Okay, it's a Dell... but the deal was too good to pass up...

# Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
# Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Digital Cable Support
# 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
# 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
# 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
# Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
# Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

My final price (I didn't do their credit card): $975

It's going to be the closest thing I've ever owned to a current generation system.  Yay tax return!

[gellar]

I'm jealous, sir.  Well done.

gellar

[dmd]

Just curious....would you be able to play blu ray movies over a digital connection to an hdtv, or would drm or hdmi protocols prevent it?

[WalkingFumble]

Just curious....would you be able to play blu ray movies over a digital connection to an hdtv, or would drm or hdmi protocols prevent it?

If the TV has a DVI input, he could connect the video card right to TV using that, or a DVI to HDMI connector.

[DamageInc]

Wow, nice good luck with the new rig!

I am starting to consider building a new box, but I am having too much fun with console gaming

[Calvin]

Very nice.

[CeeKay]

dude, you're getting a DELL!  enjoy! 

[wonderpug]

That deal was very very tempting, congrats!

[Kratz]

I'm so out of the loop I'm not even sure how good it is, only that the #gg nerds told me it was good.

So how good is it?  Like mid-range, high mid-range, low high-range?

Gellar says I can play Crysis on it.

[CeeKay]

I'm so out of the loop I'm not even sure how good it is, only that the #gg nerds told me it was good.

So how good is it?  Like mid-range, high mid-range, low high-range?

Gellar says I can play Crysis on it.

I'd say at least high mid-range if not low high range-  it's been a year since I've paid attention to what's what though.  you should be able to run Crysis on it quite nicely.  I have a less powerful rig than that and I was able to get 20-30 FPS with AA turned off.

[Calvin]

I'm so out of the loop I'm not even sure how good it is, only that the #gg nerds told me it was good.

So how good is it?  Like mid-range, high mid-range, low high-range?

Gellar says I can play Crysis on it.

Listening to gellar about PC hardware cannot possibly in your mind be a good idea. But yeah, you can play Crysis.

[Kratz]

I specifically ignored anything gellar said.

[Kratz]

Other than that.

[gellar]

I'm not sure I said anything other than that.

gellar

[Kratz]

I'd be the wrong person to ask if you did.

[Destructor]

Now that is a good price. Especially since it comes with a Blu-Ray drive in it.

*looks at the price and internals again*

No, that's actually one hell of a steal. Based off a quick check at Newegg, you're getting that PC for the same price, if not cheaper, than what building your own would be.

Nicely done!

[Kratz]

I started specing it at newegg and this was cheaper.

[unbreakable]

You can get really good deals at Dell... but unless they offer it really cheap, some upgrades (hard drive, memory, video card) you are way better off doing yourself once you get the machine.

I may never build another computer, despite having always done so (it's not fun anymore, now it just annoys me and feels like being at work).  I'll probably just get close to what I want on sale from Dell, and do some light upgrading.

[SpicyJ]

I ordered that same machine also, it shipped today. I'm excited about playing stuff newer than Doom II on my computer

[Ridah]

For under a grand that's an incredible deal...

[Kratz]

They said mine would ship on Feb. 7th and get here on the 14th or so...

It shipped Saturday and will get here tomorrow!

I'm excited.  I bet i can max the shit out of silent hunter IV.  That'll give me a reason to pick that back up after a long, long hiatus.

I think I'm going to pick Crysis up tomorrow as well, just so I have something with a big 'wow!' factor to play on it.

Am I going to want install XP on this, or is Vista ok?

[gellar]

XP would be ideal, but check to make sure you have the proper drivers.  You'll get about a 10% increase in performance in XP over Vista and less compatibility issues.

That being said, the PC is beefy enough to where that extra 10% is negligible and at some point, Vista will be required for some games, so it may not be terrible just to keep it.

gellar

[Purge]

... If you were going to ignore Gellars advice, now would not be the time to do it. He speaks wisely. And XP is ... dated.

Since you're getting all new hardware you should be fine.

[Kratz]

Word.

The only problem I see now is that I like to have two partitions on my drive - one for installations and things that i keep (e.g. my backup 'drive'), and one for windows... so I suppose I'll be setting Vista up again unless there is some way to partition the drive without reinstalling.

Is there? I'm a programmer... I don't know shit about hardware and windows admin shit anymore.

[gellar]

There are lots of programs that let you partition without reformatting.  I've never done it so I can't tell you which actually work well, but I know there are a lot of them.

gellar

[unbreakable]

There was one interesting program I heard about for Vista: vLite.  It uninstalls parts of the OS you won't use (which you can kinda do through add/remove programs already, but whatevs).

I haven't tried it out, since I don't have Vista, but I'll check it out on the next Vista machine I work on.

[WalkingFumble]

Word.

The only problem I see now is that I like to have two partitions on my drive - one for installations and things that i keep (e.g. my backup 'drive'), and one for windows... so I suppose I'll be setting Vista up again unless there is some way to partition the drive without reinstalling.

Is there? I'm a programmer... I don't know shit about hardware and windows admin shit anymore.

i dont have a vista pc in front of me so i cant verify this till i get home, but here we go:

open windows explorer, right click my computer, go to manage.
click disk management
right click on your drive, click shrink volume, and make it the size you want
right click the new volume, and make it a new simple partition.  give it a drive letter then format it

[Kratz]

Badass.  Thanks, WalkingFumble.

[Kratz]

Sweet. They delivered it a day early, apparently.  FedEx just called me to tell me they have a package from Dell.

If anyone knows where I live and can beat me home in the next five minutes, there is a free computer on my porch.

[WalkingFumble]

Sweet. They delivered it a day early, apparently.  FedEx just called me to tell me they have a package from Dell.

If anyone knows where I live and can beat me home in the next five minutes, there is a free computer on my porch.

they left it there without a signature?

[ROTC1983]

Sweet. They delivered it a day early, apparently.  FedEx just called me to tell me they have a package from Dell.

If anyone knows where I live and can beat me home in the next five minutes, there is a free computer on my porch.

*purchases ticket to Kratz's house*

[Kratz]

It's in my house now.

Snooze, you lose.

Yeah, WF... I told the guy to leave it, said I'd be home in 5 minutes.

My first impression is that the part of the case I can see from opening the box and looking in is sweet.  That's all I had time for.

[ROTC1983]

It's in my house now.

Snooze, you lose.

Yeah, WF... I told the guy to leave it, said I'd be home in 5 minutes.

My first impression is that the part of the case I can see from opening the box and looking in is sweet.  That's all I had time for.

New hardware always cheers me up...then I remember that work or my lacking social life get in the way

[SkyLander]

If you want you can get Vista 32bit to see all 4 gigs of RAM. A trick to add 12 more bits to the address space.

http://www.thegeeksweek.com/blog/enabling-pae-on-32-bit-windows-vista.html

If you want to get that 4th stick and do dual channel. Basically just a memory address expansion that lets you see all 4 gigs of RAM with Vista.

[SpicyJ]

I just got mine on Wednesday, have it at home finally now. Installing NWN2 at the moment. Already installed Oblivion...it looked quite sexy. Nice change from my old rig. So many games I can try out now...I'm so far behind on the PC gaming scene.

[mikeg]

I just got mine on Wednesday, have it at home finally now. Installing NWN2 at the moment. Already installed Oblivion...it looked quite sexy. Nice change from my old rig. So many games I can try out now...I'm so far behind on the PC gaming scene.

Me too.  The last game I got was Max Payne 2, that's how old my pc is.  Oh, and I did get Company of Heroes, but can't run it but at low. 

I hope to join you new pc owners someday.   Not a days goes buy I don't drool over the systems you all discuss.  Damn priorities!  I am just too responsible.  So long as I have debt of any kind, house or car or any kind of loan of any kind out there, I just can't spend that kind of money on a pc.  My conscience won't let me.  I only got consoles because I got them 1/2 price. 

When I finally do get a new pc I have to add in the cost of the last 3 years of games I want to play into it.  Thus prolonging ever getting a pc even further.  Gag!!!!!!!!!!

[Crawley]

I got two of these from this deal and got them on Friday. Had the weekend to play with them and am generally pretty happy with it for a inexpensive upgrade over my aging rig.

I love how quiet this computer is. I didn't think my old rig was that loud, but wow, what a change.

It also delivers the performance boost I was hoping for with my games. Even was happy with Crysis running on Very high at 1024 x 768 with no major performance issues (1280 x 1024 things got less playable).

The only downsides I've found are uninstalling all the software applications Dell installs (thankfully a one time uninstall process) and Vista. Vista is taking some getting used to the layout and how things works. It's alright but I perfer XP. Vista does seem to perform slower than XP on my previous rig, particularly when loading Vista applications. I don't know if its Vista or the hard drive it comes with the XPS 420.

A minor inconvenience though since games seem to load fine which is what I'll be mainly using it for.

Overall though, for the price, this was a great purchase.