zeebo40

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Jul 2, 2010
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Hi,

Im thinking of purchasing a Dell Studio XPS 8100 desktop (Primarily for gaming) for about 2300.00 New Zealand dollars(a bit of customisation). That's about 1620.00 American dollars. Also, I'm fairly new to desktops and gaming and am wondering if this desktop would be upgradeable in the future? Here are the specs;

Intel® Core™ i7-860 Processor (2.80GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 8MB Cache)

Operating System
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit Edition (English)

Memory
6GB (2x2GB/2x1GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz Memory

Hard Drive
1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing

Video Card
1792MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260

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

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions would be very much appreciated,
Many thanks.
 
Hello zeebo40;
That's a lot of money - but you also get a pretty good computer.
It does have limited upgrade potential. No 2nd video card PCI-e x16 slot for example. And the included 350W power supply isn't quite as powerful as you'd like to see for a high power video card upgrade (think GTX 470 for example). With a more powerful PSU and a more powerful future video card you could get a system that will be good for gaming for the next 4 to 5 years

If you were to take that same US$1620 you could build yourself a custom system like this one @ TechReport
Add a copy of Windows, keyboard and mouse and you'd come close to $1600. But you'd end up with higher quality parts (plus Blu-Ray drive and sound card) and much better upgrade options, a 2nd video card option (like another HD 5850 Crossfire mode) with a 650W PSU that could handle a 2nd video card or a GTX 470 class future upgrade grade,
If you're not into building your own you could probably find a local PC shop that would order the parts you want and assemble it for a modest fee.

-> Also check out www.ascent.co.nz PC Builder
 

touchdowntexas13

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Apr 13, 2009
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I hate throwing this suggestion out there because it might not be something you would even consider, but do you think you could build your own system?

If you are asking about purchasing a Dell, you probably have already made up your mind about not building your own. It's a good system, no doubt, but its expensive, not very upgradeable, and probably not overclockable.

For instance I just spent $1130 US on pc parts and as a gaming machine, it will be way faster than that Dell. This is because I was able to put a GTX 470 into that budget.

Anyways if this doesn't apply to you then just disregard my comment. But if you want the convenience of buying a computer and don't mind spending the extra money, then I would suggest going with a gaming pc brand. I would look at Puget Systems and Falcon. They are expensive, but you get better quality parts.
 

touchdowntexas13

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Apr 13, 2009
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I just looked at Falcon's lineup as well as Puget. Check out the Falcon Northwest Talon. It starts at $1500, but its specs are already really good. It doesn't come with an i7, but an i5-750 is more than capable of dishing out all of the gaming performance you could need.

It comes with a GTS 250, but the upgrade options are there such as the GTX 470. It also has a 750W power supply, which is much better than the one coming from Dell. On top of that, when you feel comfortable with your computer, you can overclock the i5-750 and have an even better processor that comes with that Dell.

I'm rambling, but those are my thoughts.