System Builder Marathon (Overclocking) Day 1

im going to reserve judgement until the others come through
although i did like the conclusion that you reached.

HA!, I just read where Dell is no longer offering the 3.7Ghz XPS because of the unavailability of Bin+3 processors and will only be offering 3.2Ghz factory overclocks. Had they invested in a high quality multiphase mobo with CPU voltage steppings they could have reached 3.6Ghz default OC and capable of 4.0Ghz as they lead everyone to believe. Instead they walked away with their profits.

Dell didnt cheap out at all some prossessors can only overclock so far.

I think you'll find almost every part in that system of theirs is the top spec one or next to top.


I think that kind of performance can be reached by using overclocked lower parts though, just about.

what model of mobo did they use? what chipset? what specs?


...do you even know?


If you do not know what they have in there beyond an "it just sucks" statement like what you are giving then calm down and have a seat.

Just b/c options are not available in bios does not make it junk, just not configurable. B/c Dell makes their own mobos (using Nvidia and other chipsets) they have the ability to write their own bios for whatever they want enabled regardless of components. They are not the only company to do it either.

well then, I apologize for insinuating that you did not have one...

...however, I still only hear "it sucks" w/o anything backing that up. I am ok if you have experience on how badly the mobo horks up on you, I would just like to know what that experience is. "cheap flimsy plastic" cases do not (always) equal a crashing mobo or anything.

I guess I am asking what is wrong with the mobo beyond the obvious locking down of tweak options or proprietary connections?

slightly incorrect, a REAL enthusiust would have got our some wire, some solder a bunch fo 50K ohm resistors and a pencil and done VMODS. lol, aside from that, yeah, that kinda sucks that the voltages were locked, i think if you gave the memory more juice it would probably run 5-3-3-5 or less at that speed.

With no option to set the voltage it's not an enthusiasts machine. To me Dell have simply squeezed a bit more out of their kit, made out it's a bit special and slapped a huge price tag on it.

They have probably identified a market where costs are higher and therefore a chance for bigger margins.. i.e. the high end machines.

I am sure they will sell a few to people who want the kudos of having an OC'ed machine with out the hassle of OC'ing themselves. But where is the fun in not destroying your new rig?!?!

Im 100% with warezme on this like the ferrari comparison spot on and as for proof that dell mobos are rubbish well lets see we have 7 of them in my department at work and 2 of them have had 2 new boards in the last year and another 2 have had 1 new board so yea they are rubish on that evidence.
Sojrner its all well and good wanting someone to back up a statement but on the flip side do you have any proof he was wrong if so do as you would do and post it if not as you put it take a chair.
Mactronix

he must be reading sharikaboob

Wow that is pretty poor for a EE6800 (3.663@1.55V) with a tec. I can do that with my E6600 @1.45V and a tuniq 120.

You guys cannot be serious. How in the world can you screw up an opportunity to overclock and get high scores WITHOUT pushing the GPU?

Meeting article deadlines is one thing, but if you fail to address an item that is paramount to what your article is focused on, then somebody over there needs a good kick up his rear.

Its my photo taken from my crappy cell phone camera awhile back ago. I can take another one if you are still doubtful? I have used it before in a forum thread again to hush doubting thomases who inisist dell computers are the dawgs bawls. I would hope THG articles would have their own photography at a much higher quality than a cell phone.

To Shelton, who apparently exhausted himself with attempts to OC' the dell rig (4 days!)...., I don't get it, the OC options are so limited on that rig, it should have taken him no more than half a day to realize...., thats it, thats all she's gonna give me and gone to bed.

Warezme, I concede that I cannot remember were I saw the photo before, it very well may be from the original review discussion, posted by yourself.

I also agree with your arguements against this dell being a enthusiast PC. More like a newb (,and a rich newb at that) that wants to compete among enthusiast PC owners.

Why is it taking so long for the third article. Me wants it NOW!!

Instant gratification generation and all.

the system builder intentionnally built a system to be below dell's specification picking both overpriced component, insufficient cooling and adding hardware most ppl won't really need.

why add an X-fi to the asus striker board...

System Builder Marathon High-End PC Component Cost
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 $975
CPU Cooler Ultra ChillTec $130
Motherboard Asus Striker Extreme $320
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1000 PC2-8000 - 2GB $220
Graphics 2x XFX GeForce 8800GTX PN: PVT80FSHF9 $1090
Hard Drive 2x Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000YS $320
Sound Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS $170
Case LIAN LI PC-60A PLUSII $130
Power PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad $200
DVD-RW Sony NEC Optiarc 7170 SATA $35
Total Price $3,590

here's my pick
E6850 $300
coolIT Freezone CPU cooler 350$

Asus P5K Deluxe $240 ( remove the stock heatsink and watercool northbridge, southbridge AND transistors through )
Swiftech H20-220 Apex ULTRA+ ( cooling for geforce + chipset instead of CPU) $350
Crucial ballistix PC2-8500 $159
Graphics 1x EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 Ultra Black Pearl $1000
a P182 Casefor 150$ with a 200$ PSU

+ HDD + dvd burner...
no X-FI ... anyway, i wouldn't buy 300$ speakers for my comp