What should I ask - old Dell XPS 630i

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
Well, rather than keeping around a second, large, gaming-oriented rig, I figure I should probably keep my primary gamer, as I now have something compact and low-power for my office/vpn-ing/work-from-home-ing uses.

So, what should I ask/expect for Big Red? And is it better as parts, or a whole system?

Plus, I suppose, with vs without the Windows 10 Pro license...

All of this is factory original stuff, and all working - I've gamed with it a bit at 1080p, but, honestly, I was predominantly using it to VPN in to work, as my Haswell system has a more compact case, better video card, and better performance overall.


  • ■ Dell XPS 630i full tower with red bezel trim (https://www.evertek.com/imageshare/R/300x300/RED-XPS-630I-1B-unit.jpg) - note that the clear plastic film has never been pulled off the aluminum panels, so, if you do, it'll look brand spanking new)
    ■ nVidia nForce 650i chipset, with two PCIe x16 slots, supports dual video cards
    ■ Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU
    ■ ATI Radeon HD 4870 GPU 1GB (150W TDP)
    ■ 4x1GB DDR2-800 RAM (I clocked it down to 667 and decreased the latency, so that the memory clock syncs up exactly with the FSB, though I'm not sure if I gained anything by it)
    ■ Dual 250GB SATA HDDs. Motherboard/BIOS allows for setting up as RAID, though I have opted to keep them as drive C: and drive D:
    ■ 850W power supply

This is what the case looks like. It's a big boy, and quite spacious inside. There's also a quick-release handle on top that pops the side panel open.

https://www.evertek.com/imageshare/R/300x300/RED-XPS-630I-1B-unit.jpg

The case has LEDs as well, though I think the software to change the colors, etc., was only available in the Vista/Win7 days. I never bothered trying to download it to see if it runs on Windows 10.

Thoughts?