Studio XPS vs XPS 625?

[kg988]

Hey,

I am interested in getting a Dell desktop. I am curious which of the two systems is better in terms of gaming, future upgradability, being able to play games 2 years from now(future-proof), rendering, internet surfing and general usage? Also, which one has an overall better processor? Also, hard-drive size is irrelevant to me. There is only a $40 difference so that is again negligible. As well, for an extra $50 on the second system is CrossFireX Dual ATI Radeon HD4670 512MB a better choice than one 4850 512mb?

Any suggestions, help and links would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.




1) The first is a Dell Studio XPS with the following specs for $1373 + tax:


PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7-920 Processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz) edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit edit

OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 edit

HARDWARE SERVICES 1 Yr Limited Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service and 1 Yr Tech Support edit

MONITOR No Monitor edit

MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs edit

HARD DRIVE 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit

GRAPHICS CARD ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB edit

OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit

FLOPPY DRIVE & MEDIA READER Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth edit

Essentials

KEYBOARD Dell USB Keyboard edit

MOUSE Dell Optical USB Mouse edit

ONLINE DATA STORAGE Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit

SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit

INSTALLATION No Installation edit

Accessories

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM

SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Studio XPS Studio XPS featuring Core i7 processors
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
MODEM AND WIRELESS No Modem Option





2) The next is a Dell XPS 625 $1418:


SYSTEM COLOR Black Bezel Chassis edit

PROCESSOR AMD Phenom™ X3 8750+ Black Edition (2.4GHz/95W) edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64-bit (English) edit

OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 edit

HARDWARE SERVICES 1 Yr Limited Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service and 1 Yr Tech Support edit

MONITOR No Monitor edit

MEMORY 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs edit

HARD DRIVE 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 2 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit

GRAPHICS CARD ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB edit

OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit

WIRELESS CARD Dell 1505 WLAN PCIe card with11n mini-Card & external antenna edit

SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

FLOPPY DRIVE & MEDIA READER Dell 19-in-1 Media Card Reader with Bluetooth 2.0 edit

Essentials

KEYBOARD Dell USB Keyboard edit

MOUSE Dell Optical USB Mouse edit

SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit

ONLINE DATA STORAGE Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit

XPS COOLING XPS Standard System Cooling edit

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM

XPS 625 XPS 625 featuring AMD Black Edition processors
Network Card Integrated Gigabit NIC Only
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
LABELS Windows Vista™ Premium

 

[theholylancer]

wtf how can an X3 be more expensive than an i7 with same gfx??

and why 8 gb, and using up 6 slots? wtf config they got here 6*1.3 gb sticks???

normally i would go for i7, but that's because I7 has better CF/QF/sli/QuadSLi support, but if the mobo or the PSU is junk, that is not exactly upgradeable.

also, usually i7 is more expensive, and the X3 cheaper, wtf is intel fixing prices again? not to mention DDR3 vs DDR2!

 

[aelyan]

I would take the I7. Because of "future proofing" and because its a better processor and configuration for less (what the ***?). In any case you will need to up the PSU if you ever try to upgrade these guys in the future. I have been contemplating the same thing as you and realized, if I wanted a 4890 in there instead of a 4850... i would need to get a bigger PSU than what they were giving. I can imagine this only getting worse in the future with cards drawing more power(the high end ones).

So yeah, i7 but keep in mind which ever you choose you will need to up the PSU. Just something to keep note of for later when you stick a new card in.

 

[kg988]

Yes, Ive noticed there is something wierd about their XPS 625 lineup. It is the Canadian site, I know the American one has better prices/options.

Anyways, you mentioned the PSU is not good in the Studio XPS. I think its like 450-500W. Is the PSU something that is easy to upgrade?

 

[theholylancer]

well, all depends, if they use standard format and good case (usually not since ppl don't check for these usually, or want better if they are never upgrading) then you can easily drop 250-300 CAD on a HX1000 and upgrade that sucker

now if it was a "slim" psu or a shitty case with only standard length PSU, then the big boys like the Hx1000 will not fit, and if its silm then it is basically non-upgradeable.

 

[kg988]

well, all depends, if they use standard format and good case (usually not since ppl don't check for these usually, or want better if they are never upgrading) then you can easily drop 250-300 CAD on a HX1000 and upgrade that sucker

now if it was a "slim" psu or a shitty case with only standard length PSU, then the big boys like the Hx1000 will not fit, and if its silm then it is basically non-upgradeable.

I know the case is a bit small(complaint in a review i read), its not slim tho. Is it possible to just transfer the insides of the XPS to a new large case when I decide to upgrade? Thanks for your help btw

 

[theholylancer]

umm, yes you can if the mobo is good.

but are you prepared with doing so? if you messed up and say created short in the system, there will be magic blue smoke of death.

esp if you didn't build systems before, this would be a large transplant.

also, what is the mobo, call them and see, if it does not support sli AND crossfire then the system loses some major points...

but the Ph I on the other hand is ***, its worse than C2D/Q systems when AMD was really taking a beating....


and np lol glad to help

 

[obsidian86]

for those prices you could actually build a better system an it wouldn be harder then a transplant

 

[aelyan]

True if you are starting to think about transplanting to a bigger case, I would just get the parts myself and build it ground up(this also guarantees the quality of the parts) since the only thing left between a transplant and a full self construction is the putting the CPU and CPU fan in and that is pretty easy.


But I am under the impression that you are buying because you do not want to build your own computer, if that is the case then I do know that Dell offers pretty large cases like the 435T(or whatever that big red and white case is called). It might be worth thinking of that, I know that microcenter has those cases and the parts you are looking for in those cases for pretty good prices.

 

[kg988]

True if you are starting to think about transplanting to a bigger case, I would just get the parts myself and build it ground up(this also guarantees the quality of the parts) since the only thing left between a transplant and a full self construction is the putting the CPU and CPU fan in and that is pretty easy.


But I am under the impression that you are buying because you do not want to build your own computer, if that is the case then I do know that Dell offers pretty large cases like the 435T(or whatever that big red and white case is called). It might be worth thinking of that, I know that microcenter has those cases and the parts you are looking for in those cases for pretty good prices.

Well, I am not opposed to building one myself. A big reason I am going with Dell is the warranty, support and reliabilty issue.

I have never build a machine, but I know I could with enough research.
How is the warranty and support with home built systems? I know there are warranties on the individual parts you buy, correct?


Is it worth it for to build a computer? What is the risk of blowing my parts during install? Does anyone reccomend any configurations? I would be looking at spending around $1200-1300 CAD
plus tax(13%!! :S:S).

 

[aelyan]

firstly 13%... .. I am sorry for your plight.

And as for blowing parts, unless it comes DOA or if you are less than careful then yeah, there is a chance of frying a piece of hardware(but honestly you can just say it came DOA and get a replacement from the company, they cannot really pin it on you). But actually frying something is surprising hard. As long as you remember to touch the case now and then and not assemble it on a shag rug or very static prone area you should be fine.

What is your main concerns with the new build you want? Gaming, multitasking etc? Because dependent on that the costs vary widely. From the looks of things I suspect gaming(not cutting edge games on very high) and normal usage. I think for that an AMD processor with an AM3 board will do you well. You didn't mention any heavy duty work like encoding or MATLAB type stuff.

So I would go
AMD PII x4 955(newegg still has the black edition and its 200 now)
an AM3 socket motherboard, you may need to do some research for which is a good price/functionality sweet spot for you(I would highly recommend putting the 955 in an AM3 socket rather than a AM2+ since you can later upgrade the processor without changing motherboards)
OCZ DDR3 RAM probably 4GBs should do nicely for gaming.
WD 1TB cav drive, its like 95 dollars, a good deal.
for case really just go to newegg -> cases -> see all cases -> order by most reviews and choose one that you like the look of and costs less than 100 dollars.

I think that is the important bits. If you want I can link you the stuff but all this should be easily found on newegg or similar website(does newegg delivery to canada? I know they do US and not overseas but canada is always a grey area).

 

[obsidian86]

well the dell warratees aint that great 2 yrs i think where individual parts you buy come with 3 yrs on most parts an life time warrantee on good ram

 

[obsidian86]

there is a newegg in canada

 

[theholylancer]

new egg in canada = a HUGE shipping and handling fee, they do not have a warehouse in canada, and for some reason they use out of date conversion rate, so in the end, unless something you want just isn't in canada, usually NCIX (not in Vancouver to skip PST) or canada computers (not in ontario to skip PST) are far cheaper even if you have to ship cross country (talk with them on the phone, they may give you free shipping on larger orders)