Need Help Customizing Conroe Dell

[UltimaBoB]

Long-story short: I'm in Korea teaching, don't speak the language, suck at computers IOW I am not going to assemble no matter how much better you many feel it is. I simply can't / won't. But I need a high-end game system.

I have up to $3,500 to spend and want to get a Dell XPS 700 w/ Conroe.

I have alot of space at home an dwant to watch movies with friends on my PC as well as Game. I am partial to getting a 21" CRT over an LCD for that and buying it here. Can I omit the Dell monitor and get one of my own? Is LCD >>> CRT though?

Also, the game I am waiting to play in OCtorber is Neverwinternights 2. The game series has a history of being really CPU intensive I am told so CPU matters a lot. I was thinking of the E6800 - but whenever I add one to the XPS it brings the total to like 4K + wtf???

Here is the Dell link: http://www.dell.com/content/products/fe...px/cto_xpsdt_700?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

How would you customize the XPS to get withn my budget but optimize performance?

 

[DaveSimmons]

E6700 is fine. the Extreme Editions always offer a tiny jump in performance for a huge jump in price. Look at the benchmarks, E6700 is more than fast enough for NWN2.

RAID doesn't add much besides data loss, so dropping down to a single 320 GB drive is one good way to save money.

CRT vs. LCD is up to you. I love my Dell 2001fp 20" LCD, but CRT has a bit better viewing angle so for movie night it might be better.

 

[Fishbone Walker]

Did you happen to notice the ship date of that XPS?

 

[UltimaBoB]

Gah!!!

I thought Dell was a FAST way to get the Conroe. WTF

I Can wait an extra month if I have to I guess.

 

[Fishbone Walker]

Originally posted by: UltimaBoB
Gah!!!

I thought Dell was a FAST way to get the Conroe. WTF

I Can wait an extra month if I have to I guess.

http://gateway.com/products/GConfig/proddetails.asp?system_id=fx510xg&seg=hm

 

[UltimaBoB]

Can I custon a gateway to be as good as a Dell XPS at gaming?

 

[Fishbone Walker]

Its pretty much all the same parts. The XPS stuff is just marketing.

 

[UltimaBoB]

the XPS reviews seem a lot better than the gateway ones though

 

[ProfJohn]

At the rate Dell is going with the XPS 700 you may be able to order it with a Core Duo 3.

Same with the XPS 410 with Conroe, shipping date of 9-1.

 

[UltimaBoB]

Maybe I can find a computer shop to order the parts from USA to Korea and assemble it for me.

My friend assures me that the BEST thing I can do, since I dont NEED my new computer until Oct. 20th, is to forget about it entirely until Sept. 10th and THEN look at things again. He said trying to race first out of the gate for Conroes is just gonna cost me massive cash and incur massive frustrtation as I try to either get the parts and compatible motherboards myself, deal with possible recalls or bugs and fixes - or alternatively with huge shipping times from guys like Dell compounded by unexpected delays even on top of the 50 day original times.

He is a computer specialist at home and strongly urged me to just CHILL until mid-September, said if I start looking then I'll still be hooked up by Oct 20th with more cash in my pocket, a better system, and way less headaches - any truth to this or is he full of it?

As I said - I know jack about computers.

 

[UltimaBoB]

He also said finding a way to assemble it mysef or paying some Korean boutique $200 to order and assemble could still save me $1000 off of a $4000 Dell.

He said especially when talking about cutting edge stuff assembling it oneself (or paying a guy to do it) isn't SMALL savings, it is like MASSIVE - this true too?