A look at Dell's XPS The 'Ultimate Gaming PC'

Dom · Jun 6, 2003, 09:48 AM

Although most of us here at DriverHeaven build our own PCs, however, a vast number of people don’t. That is why I decided to do a little write up on Dell’s new PC, The ’Ultimate Gaming PC’.

I will take you through the basic features of their first gaming rig.

No AMD?!
You have the choice of choosing either an Intel® Pentium® 4 3.0Ghz (3,000Mhz) or a 2.8Ghz (2,800Mhz) CPU (CentralProcessingUntil), both of which include an 800Mhz (4x200, QuadPumped bus) FSB (FrontSideBus) and support HyperThreading.

256 not enough
512, 1024 or 2048Mb of DDR RAM (DoubleDataRate RandomAccessMemory) are your options for RAM here, and since the motherboard chipset is an i875P® you can enable DualChannel DDR.

Dell® usually uses Samsung® RAM.

Motherboard features include; onboard 10/100 Ethernet connection (optional Gigabit LAN), two IEEE 1394 (Firewire), 1 front/1 back, and of course USB 2.0, 2 front/6 back. The motherboard only has 4 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot, the AGP slot, however supports AGP8X, which brings me to the video card...

No nVidia, no how!
Well, this wouldn't be much of an ‘Ultimate Gaming PC’ with out an ATi® Radeon™ 9800. Of course, you have the option of upgrading that to a Radeon 9800Pro, a review of which you can see here.

Only the best
Of course, if you are a gamer, you will need a pretty good sound card, right? Well, how about the best? A SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 2 is the perfect mate for the Radeon 9800, supporting Dolby® Digital 6.1 (6 speakers and a subwoofer) surround sound, digital audio outs and DVD Audio support, there is no doubt you will have the best gaming experience possible.

The XPS comes with standard Harman/Kardon® HK-206 speakers which are 6 total watts and of course don't support surround sound. Moving up the ladder you can opt for the Harman/Kardon HK-395 2.1 surround sound speakers or Altec Lansing® ADA-745 4.1 surround sound speakers. And if you have the money you can get the crème de la cream, Altec Lansing's THX Certified ADA-995 speakers, which are a total 200watts and support 5.1 surround sound.

Tech buffs
You'll find no CD-ROMs (ReadOnlyMemory) here, the XPS only ships with a 16x DVD-ROM standard.
For those of you whom want the capability to write your own CDs and DVDs, Dell® won't let you down. You have two options when it comes to CD-RW drives, you can get a 24x10x24x or 48x24x48x CD-RW drive, for those of you who want an all-in-one drive, these are your options; 24x10x24x8x or a 48x24x48x16x CD-RW/DVD combo drive.
Now for everyone’s favorite; the DVD burner! Dell also has two options for you when it comes to DVD burners; 2x2x8x and 4x2.4x12x are your choices. All drives ship with Roxios Easy CD Creator®.
As a side note Dell usually uses NEC®, Samsung and Plextor® CD/CD-RW/DVD-RW drives, respectively.

Room for everything
Dell supplies a standard ATA100, 120Gb hard drive 2Mb cache @ 7200RPM (RotationsPerMinute), you can also get this in a SATA version with 8Mb of cache. For those of you whom need more storage space Dell is also offering an ATA100, 200Gb hard drive with 8Mb cache. Also offered is RAID (RedundentArray of IndependentDisks) options; 2x120Gb SATA hard drive with 8Mb cache on RAID 0 (striping) or 1 (mirroring).

Not too pricey for something spicy
Dell offers a 19" M992 monitor or a 21" P1130 FD Trinitron® monitor standard. However, you can also get a Dell 15, 17, 18, 19, or 20" digital flat panel display. No telling how great the flat panels are but, Dell uses Sony®, NEC/Mitsubishi® and Viewsonic® tubes for their CRTs.

Odds and ends
Dell equips their PCs with your standard Quietkey™ keyboard or a multimedia keyboard, which is optional.
Mice offered are a 2-button scroll mouse, Logitech® optical USB mouse, or no mouse at all.
Of course you'll get a standard 3.5" floppy drive, or you can get a 16/64Mb memory key with a floppy drive for extra. And you may also get an all but obsolete 56k data/fax or Telephony modem, if you want.
Dell includes some demo software of; Picture Studio Image Expert™ standard, Musicmatch Jukebox™, and RealOne™ player. Freebies include; WordPerfect™ productivity pack, which is upgradeable to Microsoft® Office™ 2003, and 6 months free of either AOL® or EarthLink® internet service (56k).

The XPS only uses Microsoft Windows® XP.

All of the before mentioned is powered by a 460watt Dell PSU (PowerSupplyUnit), which is uniquely integrated into the button of the case…

As you can see at the very button of the case, the PSU is very nicely integrated into the case, and has dual fans, one intake/one exhaust, I would imagine. However, this feature, although nice is very bad as to upgradeability.

The over all look of the case it fantastic.

Notice the unique positioning of the floppy drive over the CD/DVD-ROM drives, also note the front ports for headphones, USB and Firewire.

Tool less case
Here you can see that this is truly a gamer’s rig, look at all the fans! Dell has added a much needed hard drive bay fan and a fan blowing on the PCI slots. Also note the two exhaust fans, which is great, although, one would hope there is a heat sink fan on the CPU instead of Dell’s usual passive heat sink.

Starting prices for the Dell XPS are $2,000USD and up.

Thus concludes my look at the Dell XPS, Dell’s first gaming rig.

Comments are welcomed.

ryanraab · Jun 6, 2003, 10:07 AM

Is there an option to use a nvidia card instead of ati with the dell rig.

Dom · Jun 6, 2003, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ryanraab
Is there an option to use a nvidia card instead of ati with the dell rig.

Dell only alows you to buy this with an ATi Radeon 9800/9800Pro. Of course you could always buy the rig and replace the card with a nVidia.

amuro · Jun 6, 2003, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Dell only alows you to buy this with an ATi Radeon 9800/9800Pro. Of course you could always buy the rig and replace the card with a nVidia.

Yeah, just make sure you send ===>ME<=== the ATI Radeon 9800/9800Pro that you don't like or need.

a0n-C · Jun 6, 2003, 12:45 PM

2048mb of ram?

why would you ever need that much ram? ok i take that back....

why would you need that much ram at this point in time?

tparker · Jun 6, 2003, 02:00 PM

Dell and Gaming go together like rubbing a cat's fur the wrong way yes it looks decent and has some options what worries me is the Windows disc i know they aren't going to give you one all the drivers will be on a partition which most of the Drivers will be outdated by the time you get the machine.A person would have to strip the Harddrive and buy a full version of XP pro to get rid of all the resource hogs and to be able to run a Repair if the registry gets in bad shape can't do that with a recovery disc.Let's face it 3,000 dollars is what the one that i put together on their site if a person isn't comfortable putting together a Pc there is usually a Computer store in town that will build a Pc with the parts you want and if they won't run for the door.I don't care for their Motherboard choice either their is no real tweaking to optimize the ram and cpu and other tweaks that add up to better performance.A person can buy a Alienware pc if they don't want to build or a Falcon both are excellent Gaming Pc's you pay a premium for paint jobs though and prices are around 800 dollars more than the one you can build yourself.So the pet peeves i have with the buy from Dell or others is you don't get a full Windows Cd and they use up a lot of drive space putting the drivers and recovery Operating system on and Motherboard's are usually spartan i want one that has Serial ATA none that i have seen offer it .A lot of Pc Companies are now using third World Countries for tech Support these days so when you have a problem and think you are calling Seattle or whereever you are being routed to India yes that is no typo i have had to endure this for a friend and it was not a pleasant expierence.You can tell by now i am no fan of these high priced gaming systems for office and workstation they work great but gaming is another story.This is just my personal opinion only .I enjoy building my own and saving the money for future upgrades aka: FX 5900 and DoomIII

LowLevelOwl · Jun 6, 2003, 02:14 PM

I would buy it if I wanted to spend 2000 on a P.C.

I mean, I can probably build it for much less but I've always loved the ease of use that comes when working on Dell machines because of the "clam" case and the ease of removing drives.

I may have to give it a test drive and see how it handles.

Oh and Dell doesn't use a "recovery disc". It sends you a Dell-ified version of XP meaning it will only install on a Dell, no Dell "resource hog apps" installed and a seperate disc with drivers for all your peripherals. Well that's been the case with all the OptiPlex's and Latitude's we've been buying over the past year.

tparker · Jun 6, 2003, 03:46 PM

I went to Dell site to see what the 1,999 Dollar system consisted of this is without tax and shipping which will add some serious Dollars to this system.This is a good gaming system i admit that but you are going to be in for 3,000 real quick and that is the area Alienware and Falcon Northwest is also so they are competitive with these Companies to be fair.I found out that it doesn't come with speakers you have to buy theirs or purchase you own .it comes with a paltry 2 Button scroll mouse a optical one is 30 bucks .It has XP Home i would go for the pro version you get more for the money and if someone that is buying this Pc isn't technical savvy they can have someone do a fix by taking over their Pc from another Location and Pro has two more years of support than home version cost 60 Dollars to go pro.Here is the biggie the system comes with a 9800 ATI not a pro version that will cost you a extra 180 Dollars so this 2,000 Gaming pc becomes a 3,000 Dollar gamer real quick and if you want serial ATA you guessed it 40 more Dollars.I like the option of choosing AMD or Intel offering. I can build a state of the art gaming pc for 1,600 Dollars and have the best of everything and if i want to make it a DVD System a Sony DVD Burner would put you at 2,000 dollars with all the bells and whistles that would make any gamer's trigger finger twitch.

dogin · Jun 6, 2003, 03:47 PM

Dell's solution to raid was a SATA raid card. No hot swaps of raid with this system.

scobywhru · Jun 6, 2003, 10:32 PM

I really like the fold out case, like the G4 mac towers, always wanted one of those cases

maybe I'll look for one that someone's getting rid of

Mac Daddy · Jun 7, 2003, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scobywhru
I really like the fold out case, like the G4 mac towers, always wanted one of those cases maybe I'll look for one that someone's getting rid of

Soon Perhaps

Then again maybe not .......... I like the case

JavaFox · Jun 7, 2003, 06:40 AM

Well, hey, on a slightly related note... I am at work right now, stress-testing somebody's Dell Dimension. I gotta say, I'd never buy a Dell (I am a DIY'er and an AMD loyalist), but this system has got a 3.06GHz and a 9700 Pro and it is pretty sweet. This is the first time I've seen Hyperthreading in front of my face. When I fired up Toast and, I couldn't figure out why it was only running at 50% CPU utilization.

And these cases... well, when you're trying to get them open for the first time they are a hassle, but once you get them open, you can't help but think that they're kinda cool, hehe.

Mac Daddy · Jun 7, 2003, 04:11 PM

Well you know what Java I'm an AMD man myself ..
But a year and a half ago after breaking up with my EX I was in need of a Puter at a low cost.

I picked a Dimension 4300 on a REPO buyout for 800 bucks Canadian. 17 inch monitor and all.
Know what it works pretty good for what it is.

I'll be building a "Real System" later in the summer ... Funds permitting

(And after asking for Wyre's advise on every component

)

But for now ... Turn it on and it works too easy ... There support is outstanding ... 5 BIOS revisions so far ...

For the common person probably all they need .. For me I like to tinker hee hee. 1.7G is the highest the MOBO will support

Zardon · Jun 7, 2003, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JavaFox
Well, hey, on a slightly related note... I am at work right now, stress-testing somebody's Dell Dimension. I gotta say, I'd never buy a Dell (I am a DIY'er and an AMD loyalist), but this system has got a 3.06GHz and a 9700 Pro and it is pretty sweet. This is the first time I've seen Hyperthreading in front of my face. When I fired up Toast and, I couldn't figure out why it was only running at 50% CPU utilization.

And these cases... well, when you're trying to get them open for the first time they are a hassle, but once you get them open, you can't help but think that they're kinda cool, hehe.

I personally have nothing against Dell at all. I think they build pretty effective systems at reasonable prices (generally).

JavaFox · Jun 8, 2003, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
I personally have nothing against Dell at all. I think they build pretty effective systems at reasonable prices (generally).

Oh, no, don't get me wrong. I am not a Dell hater either... I guess my post sort of came off that way. I am a strict AMD loyalist and a person that insists on building his own PC, as I know you are. Those are the only reasons I wouldn't buy a Dell. They make solid, stable systems, and use high quality parts. I don't have anything against them either.

Mac Daddy · Jun 8, 2003, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JavaFox
Oh, no, don't get me wrong. I am not a Dell hater either... I guess my post sort of came off that way.

Actually Java I don't think your post came off that way at all

Orlando · Jun 8, 2003, 05:23 AM

very cool look

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jun 14, 2003, 12:56 PM

be cooler if it was AMD based

Mac Daddy · Jun 18, 2003, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Neon_Cowboy
be cooler if it was AMD based

Yes ... Yes indeed ....

Looking at Zardon's stats

Wyre is getting the same CPU .... lets see what happens when it goes overclocker CRAZY

Jun 6, 2003, 09:48 AM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	A look at Dell's XPS The 'Ultimate Gaming PC' Although most of us here at DriverHeaven build our own PCs, however, a vast number of people don’t. That is why I decided to do a little write up on Dell’s new PC, The ’Ultimate Gaming PC’. I will take you through the basic features of their first gaming rig. No AMD?! You have the choice of choosing either an Intel® Pentium® 4 3.0Ghz (3,000Mhz) or a 2.8Ghz (2,800Mhz) CPU (CentralProcessingUntil), both of which include an 800Mhz (4x200, QuadPumped bus) FSB (FrontSideBus) and support HyperThreading. 256 not enough 512, 1024 or 2048Mb of DDR RAM (DoubleDataRate RandomAccessMemory) are your options for RAM here, and since the motherboard chipset is an i875P® you can enable DualChannel DDR. Dell® usually uses Samsung® RAM. Motherboard features include; onboard 10/100 Ethernet connection (optional Gigabit LAN), two IEEE 1394 (Firewire), 1 front/1 back, and of course USB 2.0, 2 front/6 back. The motherboard only has 4 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot, the AGP slot, however supports AGP8X, which brings me to the video card... No nVidia, no how! Well, this wouldn't be much of an ‘Ultimate Gaming PC’ with out an ATi® Radeon™ 9800. Of course, you have the option of upgrading that to a Radeon 9800Pro, a review of which you can see here. Only the best Of course, if you are a gamer, you will need a pretty good sound card, right? Well, how about the best? A SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 2 is the perfect mate for the Radeon 9800, supporting Dolby® Digital 6.1 (6 speakers and a subwoofer) surround sound, digital audio outs and DVD Audio support, there is no doubt you will have the best gaming experience possible. The XPS comes with standard Harman/Kardon® HK-206 speakers which are 6 total watts and of course don't support surround sound. Moving up the ladder you can opt for the Harman/Kardon HK-395 2.1 surround sound speakers or Altec Lansing® ADA-745 4.1 surround sound speakers. And if you have the money you can get the crème de la cream, Altec Lansing's THX Certified ADA-995 speakers, which are a total 200watts and support 5.1 surround sound. Tech buffs You'll find no CD-ROMs (ReadOnlyMemory) here, the XPS only ships with a 16x DVD-ROM standard. For those of you whom want the capability to write your own CDs and DVDs, Dell® won't let you down. You have two options when it comes to CD-RW drives, you can get a 24x10x24x or 48x24x48x CD-RW drive, for those of you who want an all-in-one drive, these are your options; 24x10x24x8x or a 48x24x48x16x CD-RW/DVD combo drive. Now for everyone’s favorite; the DVD burner! Dell also has two options for you when it comes to DVD burners; 2x2x8x and 4x2.4x12x are your choices. All drives ship with Roxios Easy CD Creator®. As a side note Dell usually uses NEC®, Samsung and Plextor® CD/CD-RW/DVD-RW drives, respectively. Room for everything Dell supplies a standard ATA100, 120Gb hard drive 2Mb cache @ 7200RPM (RotationsPerMinute), you can also get this in a SATA version with 8Mb of cache. For those of you whom need more storage space Dell is also offering an ATA100, 200Gb hard drive with 8Mb cache. Also offered is RAID (RedundentArray of IndependentDisks) options; 2x120Gb SATA hard drive with 8Mb cache on RAID 0 (striping) or 1 (mirroring). Not too pricey for something spicy Dell offers a 19" M992 monitor or a 21" P1130 FD Trinitron® monitor standard. However, you can also get a Dell 15, 17, 18, 19, or 20" digital flat panel display. No telling how great the flat panels are but, Dell uses Sony®, NEC/Mitsubishi® and Viewsonic® tubes for their CRTs. Odds and ends Dell equips their PCs with your standard Quietkey™ keyboard or a multimedia keyboard, which is optional. Mice offered are a 2-button scroll mouse, Logitech® optical USB mouse, or no mouse at all. Of course you'll get a standard 3.5" floppy drive, or you can get a 16/64Mb memory key with a floppy drive for extra. And you may also get an all but obsolete 56k data/fax or Telephony modem, if you want. Dell includes some demo software of; Picture Studio Image Expert™ standard, Musicmatch Jukebox™, and RealOne™ player. Freebies include; WordPerfect™ productivity pack, which is upgradeable to Microsoft® Office™ 2003, and 6 months free of either AOL® or EarthLink® internet service (56k). The XPS only uses Microsoft Windows® XP. All of the before mentioned is powered by a 460watt Dell PSU (PowerSupplyUnit), which is uniquely integrated into the button of the case… As you can see at the very button of the case, the PSU is very nicely integrated into the case, and has dual fans, one intake/one exhaust, I would imagine. However, this feature, although nice is very bad as to upgradeability. The over all look of the case it fantastic. Notice the unique positioning of the floppy drive over the CD/DVD-ROM drives, also note the front ports for headphones, USB and Firewire. Tool less case Here you can see that this is truly a gamer’s rig, look at all the fans! Dell has added a much needed hard drive bay fan and a fan blowing on the PCI slots. Also note the two exhaust fans, which is great, although, one would hope there is a heat sink fan on the CPU instead of Dell’s usual passive heat sink. Starting prices for the Dell XPS are $2,000USD and up. Thus concludes my look at the Dell XPS, Dell’s first gaming rig. Comments are welcomed. Last edited by Dom; Jun 7, 2003 at 01:25 AM.

Jun 6, 2003, 12:45 PM	#5
a0n-C DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Anchorage AK Posts: 32 Rep Power: 0	2048mb of ram? why would you ever need that much ram? ok i take that back.... why would you need that much ram at this point in time? __________________ A7N8X2.0_2700+_9700PRO_2x256&1x512CORSAIRTWINX3200 LLPT [SYNC.11x220.633*2] 3dmark01

Jun 6, 2003, 02:00 PM	#6
tparker DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Winston Salem N.C. Posts: 42 Rep Power: 0	Dell Gaming Dell and Gaming go together like rubbing a cat's fur the wrong way yes it looks decent and has some options what worries me is the Windows disc i know they aren't going to give you one all the drivers will be on a partition which most of the Drivers will be outdated by the time you get the machine.A person would have to strip the Harddrive and buy a full version of XP pro to get rid of all the resource hogs and to be able to run a Repair if the registry gets in bad shape can't do that with a recovery disc.Let's face it 3,000 dollars is what the one that i put together on their site if a person isn't comfortable putting together a Pc there is usually a Computer store in town that will build a Pc with the parts you want and if they won't run for the door.I don't care for their Motherboard choice either their is no real tweaking to optimize the ram and cpu and other tweaks that add up to better performance.A person can buy a Alienware pc if they don't want to build or a Falcon both are excellent Gaming Pc's you pay a premium for paint jobs though and prices are around 800 dollars more than the one you can build yourself.So the pet peeves i have with the buy from Dell or others is you don't get a full Windows Cd and they use up a lot of drive space putting the drivers and recovery Operating system on and Motherboard's are usually spartan i want one that has Serial ATA none that i have seen offer it .A lot of Pc Companies are now using third World Countries for tech Support these days so when you have a problem and think you are calling Seattle or whereever you are being routed to India yes that is no typo i have had to endure this for a friend and it was not a pleasant expierence.You can tell by now i am no fan of these high priced gaming systems for office and workstation they work great but gaming is another story.This is just my personal opinion only .I enjoy building my own and saving the money for future upgrades aka: FX 5900 and DoomIII

Jun 6, 2003, 02:14 PM	#7
LowLevelOwl DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: chicago.il.usa Posts: 64 Rep Power: 0	I would buy it if I wanted to spend 2000 on a P.C. I mean, I can probably build it for much less but I've always loved the ease of use that comes when working on Dell machines because of the "clam" case and the ease of removing drives. I may have to give it a test drive and see how it handles. Oh and Dell doesn't use a "recovery disc". It sends you a Dell-ified version of XP meaning it will only install on a Dell, no Dell "resource hog apps" installed and a seperate disc with drivers for all your peripherals. Well that's been the case with all the OptiPlex's and Latitude's we've been buying over the past year. __________________ Shoot 'em up! Shoot 'em up!! Pow! Pow!

Jun 6, 2003, 03:46 PM	#8
tparker DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Winston Salem N.C. Posts: 42 Rep Power: 0	Dell Gaming I went to Dell site to see what the 1,999 Dollar system consisted of this is without tax and shipping which will add some serious Dollars to this system.This is a good gaming system i admit that but you are going to be in for 3,000 real quick and that is the area Alienware and Falcon Northwest is also so they are competitive with these Companies to be fair.I found out that it doesn't come with speakers you have to buy theirs or purchase you own .it comes with a paltry 2 Button scroll mouse a optical one is 30 bucks .It has XP Home i would go for the pro version you get more for the money and if someone that is buying this Pc isn't technical savvy they can have someone do a fix by taking over their Pc from another Location and Pro has two more years of support than home version cost 60 Dollars to go pro.Here is the biggie the system comes with a 9800 ATI not a pro version that will cost you a extra 180 Dollars so this 2,000 Gaming pc becomes a 3,000 Dollar gamer real quick and if you want serial ATA you guessed it 40 more Dollars.I like the option of choosing AMD or Intel offering. I can build a state of the art gaming pc for 1,600 Dollars and have the best of everything and if i want to make it a DVD System a Sony DVD Burner would put you at 2,000 dollars with all the bells and whistles that would make any gamer's trigger finger twitch.

Jun 6, 2003, 10:07 AM	#2
ryanraab DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 194 Rep Power: 0	Is there an option to use a nvidia card instead of ati with the dell rig.

Jun 6, 2003, 03:47 PM	#9
dogin DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: dark side Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Dell's solution to raid was a SATA raid card. No hot swaps of raid with this system.

Jun 6, 2003, 10:32 PM	#10
scobywhru DriverHeaven Senile Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Penthouse Basement Posts: 619 Rep Power: 0	I really like the fold out case, like the G4 mac towers, always wanted one of those cases maybe I'll look for one that someone's getting rid of __________________

Jun 7, 2003, 06:40 AM	#12
JavaFox E Pluribus Unum Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,203 Rep Power: 0	Well, hey, on a slightly related note... I am at work right now, stress-testing somebody's Dell Dimension. I gotta say, I'd never buy a Dell (I am a DIY'er and an AMD loyalist), but this system has got a 3.06GHz and a 9700 Pro and it is pretty sweet. This is the first time I've seen Hyperthreading in front of my face. When I fired up Toast and, I couldn't figure out why it was only running at 50% CPU utilization. And these cases... well, when you're trying to get them open for the first time they are a hassle, but once you get them open, you can't help but think that they're kinda cool, hehe.

Jun 7, 2003, 04:11 PM	#13
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 78 System Specs	Well you know what Java I'm an AMD man myself .. But a year and a half ago after breaking up with my EX I was in need of a Puter at a low cost. I picked a Dimension 4300 on a REPO buyout for 800 bucks Canadian. 17 inch monitor and all. Know what it works pretty good for what it is. I'll be building a "Real System" later in the summer ... Funds permitting (And after asking for Wyre's advise on every component ) But for now ... Turn it on and it works too easy ... There support is outstanding ... 5 BIOS revisions so far ... For the common person probably all they need .. For me I like to tinker hee hee. 1.7G is the highest the MOBO will support __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Jun 8, 2003, 05:23 AM	#17
Orlando DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 22 Rep Power: 0	very cool look

Jun 14, 2003, 12:56 PM	#18
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 90 System Specs	be cooler if it was AMD based __________________