Dell XPS 9000 build

[tl9015]

I was building a XPS 9000 and came across the sound card options. The standard was the integrated one with the option to upgrade to X-FI titanium for $99 (this was the best available). Is it worth the $99 premium? Will there be a noticeable difference in sound? I am probably going to get a 2.1 or 5.1 system.

Thanks

 

[obsidian86]

hold on the sound card most new boards come with good onboard sound if you not happy just buy the sound card later. but hope you not spending too much

 

[jitpublisher]

No, generally it is not worth the extra unless you are a real audiophile. If you are though, there are much better cards than that Creative crap you are looking at.
Now, I am not sure about exactly how good Dell onboard is either. I kinda have the same opinion about the whole system you are "building". For the money you can do a lot better than that Dell crap you are looking at.
But what ever you do, I would simply go with onboard, and if it does not suit your needs, which it likely will, you can always add a soundcard later, and you will have a much better selection to choose from than what is available to you on the Dell site.

 

[tl9015]

No, generally it is not worth the extra unless you are a real audiophile. If you are though, there are much better cards than that Creative crap you are looking at.
Now, I am not sure about exactly how good Dell onboard is either. I kinda have the same opinion about the whole system you are "building". For the money you can do a lot better than that Dell crap you are looking at.
But what ever you do, I would simply go with onboard, and if it does not suit your needs, which it likely will, you can always add a soundcard later, and you will have a much better selection to choose from than what is available to you on the Dell site.

Could you suggest me something else? If Dell and Alienware is not the way to go?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Could you suggest me something else? If Dell and Alienware is not the way to go?

Most people here build their own

You get much higher quality parts that way.....and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

 

[tl9015]

Higher quality parts for less price? The only problem I have is that it won't come with any sort of warranty and I don't have any experience building one. So if I took the custom built path, I would probably choose the parts at a custom PC store and ask them to build it. But even doing this won't come with any sort of warranty right?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Higher quality parts for less price? The only problem I have is that it won't come with any sort of warranty and I don't have any experience building one. So if I took the custom built path, I would probably choose the parts at a custom PC store and ask them to build it. But even doing this won't come with any sort of warranty right?

You would save no money over a Dell or other mass market retailer buying through a custom store and having them build it.

As far as warranty goes all the individual parts will have a manufacturers warranty and most online e-tailers have a very good return policy if you happen to get a bad part. Todays solid state parts actually have a very low failure rate. There are bad lots/bins that come out on occasion of course but the tech savvy community here can help you avoid parts with known issues. For instance the Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drives had known issues.

If you can read and follow directions you can build a computer. Yes it can be a little intimidating to build your first one but there are excellent online tutorials that give you a step by step guide. The forums here are generally excellent with people willing to help. Also you can go to youtube and actually watch if thats easier for you.

Edit: E-tailers such as newegg.com sell high quality parts for less because they have no costs associated with operating retail stores such as Best Buy.

 

[tl9015]

I have built something that I want on one of the websites and here is what I came up with...

1 x Intel Core i7 920 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.66GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S
1 x Please Use The Heatsink Included with My CPU -NOT Available with OEM Processors
1 x ASUS P6T X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 GBLAN Motherboard
1 x Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C9 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
1 x Radeon HD 5870 850MHZ 1GB GDDR5 4.8GHZ PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI Display Port
This video card is available only as part of a pre-build NCIX PC system.
1 x Antec P183 ATX Tower Case Black 11 Drive Bay 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB & Sound
1 x Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan
1 x Microsoft Office Ready 2007 SP1 60 Day Trial - Free with New NCIX or Nx Fusion PC Purchase
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA2 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB Hard Drive OEM *3YR MFR Warranty*
1 x Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22X DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer Black OEM
1 x Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade Optical Mouse 1600DPI USB SILVER-BLACK
1 x Please Use The Onboard Sound Card Integrated On My Motherboard
1 x Please Use The Onboard Network Ethernet Card Integrated On My Motherboard

How does this setup look compared to the Dell xps 9000?? The prices are pretty similar but with the Dell I would get a s2409w monitor and 9gigs of ram vs. 6gigs but the graphic card would be a gtx260. How is it comparable?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

That looks like a good computer but I would change a few parts.

The i7 920 is great.

I would add an after market heatsink/cooler. Xigmatek or Noctua are the best performers I believe.

Asus P6t is a great motherboard.

I wouldnt use that memory. I dont have DDR3 and im not sure what your best bang for the buck would be there but that has a very high cas latency ( CL ) for DDR3-1333. I love Corsair but you can do better there. Hopefully someone else can chime in with a better kit?

The 5870 is a beast of a GFX card. There are shortages right now but I would wait for it. Sapphire is a great ATI brand.

I would change the case to an Antec 900. Much better cooling. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Corsair 750TX PSU is great. I have it myself.

I would go with a Western Digital Black series hard drive myself. Or the new Samsung Spinpoint F3. Or a WD Velociraptor for max speed but more money. Newer and fastest of all solid state drives ( SSDs ) will also be fine. You are only limited by budget here.

DVD,mouse,sound and ethernet are all good. Add some thermal compound like Arctic Silver.

The GTX 260 is dominated by the 5870.

This machine would easily be able to reach ~4ghz overclock even with you being a newbie

Dell does not give you much if any room to overclock or even update parts. They want you to buy a new Dell. Not to mention all the crap they put on your hard drive....trial software and the like that you will not need or can do better than......free in most cases.

This would be upgradeable to the new 6 core Gulftown chips out early next year if you feel the need. And you could add a second 5870 in the future in Crossfire if necessary.

Edit: I could do better with a budget. Also what are you using it for?

 

[tl9015]

Originally I was going to get a Macbook Pro but I already have a laptop and want something future proof and a big screen to work on. It's mainly for university (studying), lots of Lightroom/Photoshop (wanting big and fast rendering). I am not a hardcore gamer but will play a little bit (don't need anything like crossfire). I am hoping that intense gpu is going to help LR/PS rendering and less time for images to get out of blur when previewing.

By the way, that setup came out to $1729 CDN.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

That build should be screaming fast with image processing. I do believe photoshop is much more cpu dependent than gpu though. i7 920 works great either way. Maybe save a few bucks with a 5850 depending on monitor resolution.

 

[tl9015]

I will be getting at least a 24 inch. I was just wondering whether this build will be overkill for my needs. I don't want to have a system and not even use 70% of its performance potential. Also you do suggest this is the better way to go than the Dell xps 9000? Even with similar specs, are the components in this build higher quality?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I will be getting at least a 24 inch. I was just wondering whether this build will be overkill for my needs. I don't want to have a system and not even use 70% of its performance potential. Also you do suggest this is the better way to go than the Dell xps 9000? Even with similar specs, are the components in this build higher quality?

5850 should work fine for 24in.
Ok as to overkill....no I dont think so at all. If you wanted to use a $1000 i7 Extreme 965 I would say yes. But the 920 is a great overclocker that with the smallest effort will give you even better performance than the 965 !
This machine will still be "fast" for some time and is about as "futureproof" as you can build today without spending alot more money.
Yes this is better quality than Dell. Even if Dell were to use a similar setup as I stated above they really limit how much you can do things like overclock and upgrade because they want you to buy a new Dell.

 

[tl9015]

One other reason I really didn't feel comfortable going with Dell xps 9000 is due to its 400 or something power supply and it tends to get really loud according to reviews.

What kind of noise level can I expect with that setup? I really want the quietest possible.

 

[tl9015]

That looks like a good computer but I would change a few parts.

The i7 920 is great.

I would add an after market heatsink/cooler. Xigmatek or Noctua are the best performers I believe.

Asus P6t is a great motherboard.

I wouldnt use that memory. I dont have DDR3 and im not sure what your best bang for the buck would be there but that has a very high cas latency ( CL ) for DDR3-1333. I love Corsair but you can do better there. Hopefully someone else can chime in with a better kit?

The 5870 is a beast of a GFX card. There are shortages right now but I would wait for it. Sapphire is a great ATI brand.

I would change the case to an Antec 900. Much better cooling. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Corsair 750TX PSU is great. I have it myself.

I would go with a Western Digital Black series hard drive myself. Or the new Samsung Spinpoint F3. Or a WD Velociraptor for max speed but more money. Newer and fastest of all solid state drives ( SSDs ) will also be fine. You are only limited by budget here.

DVD,mouse,sound and ethernet are all good. Add some thermal compound like Arctic Silver.


The GTX 260 is dominated by the 5870.

This machine would easily be able to reach ~4ghz overclock even with you being a newbie

Dell does not give you much if any room to overclock or even update parts. They want you to buy a new Dell. Not to mention all the crap they put on your hard drive....trial software and the like that you will not need or can do better than......free in most cases.

This would be upgradeable to the new 6 core Gulftown chips out early next year if you feel the need. And you could add a second 5870 in the future in Crossfire if necessary.

Edit: I could do better with a budget. Also what are you using it for?

As for the ram, what am I looking for? What do you mean by high latency?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

If you do decide to build your own start a new thread in the New System Build section and repost the basic parts you want.
I am pretty sure a fellow canuck or two will help you find the parts you want for the cheapest price. I dont order from Canadian retailers so I dont know where is cheap.

I hope I helped and good luck !

 

[Deleted member 217926]

As for the ram, what am I looking for? What do you mean by high latency?

I think DDR3 1600 should have cas 7-7-7-24 maybe? The lower the cas numbers the faster the RAM. Its opposite of the frequency...DDR3 1600 is faster than DDR3 1333. So high frequency and low cas is what you want.
Example: I have DDR2-800 cas 4-4-4-12. Stock DDR2-800 is timed 5-5-5-15. Mine is slightly faster.
I am not sure about "bang for your buck" brands for DDR3 sorry. Hopefully someone else can help there.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

One other reason I really didn't feel comfortable going with Dell xps 9000 is due to its 400 or something power supply and it tends to get really loud according to reviews.

What kind of noise level can I expect with that setup? I really want the quietest possible.

It should be fairly quiet. Not silent but not a hurricane either.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Ah I forgot to mention I would use Windows 7 64bit on it.

 

[tl9015]

I am probably going to have this system build by my local custom store but the stupid part is they don't come with it and i have to buy it myself for the DVD and they will install it. Doesn't come with the computer..

Also, as for that heat sink cool you are talking about, is that necessary? Is that to keep my temps lower and quieter?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I am probably going to have this system build by my local custom store but the stupid part is they don't come with it and i have to buy it myself for the DVD and they will install it. Doesn't come with the computer..

Also, as for that heat sink cool you are talking about, is that necessary? Is that to keep my temps lower and quieter?

If you want to overclock ( and you do even if you dont know it ) then yes get an aftermarket cooler.

I am not going to tell you not to pay someone else to build it. I dont build computers full time but I have done around 100 builds or so for myself/friends/family ect. and have made a few bucks along the way usually putting anything I make building them back into my own computer. So I really hate to take away potential money from any techies. But I do have to say again if you can follow directions you can do it yourself and save a few $$$.
Either way im sure you will get a great PC.
Good luck!