Maximum PC

Here's a Dell XPS 9000 desktop I configured. Purpose: photo and video editing, casual gaming.

Core i7-920 processor
12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz
24.0" Dell ST2410 Full HD Monitor
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200 RPM (single HD)
Dual Drives: DVD+/-RW with BD Combo (Blue ray reader, not writer)
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit.

Dell wants $150 for a second 500GB HD, so I got one drive for now.

The case has room for more drives, has firewire & eSATA ports, card reader, etc.

The monitor by itself is $299.

The total with monitor is $1792 (that's without tax and shipping)

So is this a decent rig for the price?

mmm... that's decent-ish... you could build for much cheaper.

That is exactly what I just told a friend. Then I noticed the $458 instant rebate on it. When it wears off, it will be even less expensive comparing them to build, but my version will have a Nvidia GPU in it





Ted

Well, this may help with the pricing dispute:


Anyone note what's missing here? motherboard and case, not to mention KB, mouse and speakers. I do believe that would take up a yet decent chunk of that remaining cost. However, there's still room for a few improvements, such as a better CPU cooler, more fans if need-be, etc. I also only threw in just a single one of the optical drives, just to note.

A little bit of notice: if you're doing mostly photo and video editing, get an Nvidia GPU card, especially if you're using any Adobe apps. Cuda-based acceleration of software is being found more and more, and is especially apparent in Adobe's.

With the rebate I believe the difference between the XPS and a home brew is about 300 bucks. Note I said about since it's hard to do a price comparison between some of Dell's components and what's on the market, given that I don't know the quality of Dell's parts. That alone makes a home brew pc compelling.

But I don't have the time to self-educate myself on pc building (that will be my next pc). I need something up-n-running right away. Guess time will tell if I made the right choice

Dell is known for using no-name brand psu's that are known to be horrible quality





Ted

Aaaaaaand how!!! (not a question, just using that old-timey phrase that basically means I agree wholeheartedly )