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Carcharoth, like you, I used to build my own PC's. (But not in DOS days -- my DOS era PCs were factory built, first an original IBM, then a couple of ASTs.) In the 90s I got tired of building and started buying ready made. Since then I've owned four Dells all together, or maybe five, including two that are on my desk now.
Last year I built a PC for myself for the first time in about a decade. The reason I started building again was that I compared what I could get from Newegg in the form of parts with what I could get from Dell, and the difference in quality at the price was so big, I decided to build. I'm not trying to talk you into doing something you don't want to do, but I should mention that building was much easier than I remembered from years ago. It took maybe two hours total or even less with zero problems.
But as for your Dell -- unlike a lot of folks here, I think Dells are pretty good. As I said I've owned a bunch of them and they all stll run, including an eight or nine-year-old one which ran almost continuously 24/7 until a few months ago when I unplugged it. That whole time the only thing I replaced in it was the CD drive. If you define "excellent engineering" as "delivering a machine that peforms as described and is unlikely to break," then Dell's engineering is excellent.
The problem is that a lot of people (including many people who have posted here in various threads) define excellent engineering in a different way. They define it as "I should be able to upgrade the machine later and make it do more than it was designed to do when it was built." If that's your definition of excellent engineering, then Dells can be disappointing. They are often hard to upgrade, either because they use non-standard parts or because some system components aren't beefy enough to handle additions.
In short, Dells are good if you don't plan to upgrade, but if you do plan to upgrade, you better look over the spec's really carefully before you buy.
I don't know anything about the XPS 720 you're considering but I just read its spec's on the "Dell XPS 720 Product Details" page. The thing that jumps out at me is that it uses a BTX motherboard. As you know, the main industry standard is ATX, not BTX. If you need to replace that motherboard you're not going to have a lot of choices. It's almost certainly a proprietary Dell design, and that may make it incompatible with something you want to add down the road.
On the good side, the power supply and cooling seem to be adequate for additions, which isn't always the case with Dells.
Whatever you decide, good luck and enjoy.
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Thanks for the info re: video cards!
Also, Freddie, thanks a bunch for your input. I think you make some very good distinctions in your post. Especially helpful was you pointing out the motherboard difference, as i'd have never have figured that one out. I'll admit that does give me a little pause, but I generally use my computers for 2-5 years before even thinking of upgrading them, so i'm still considering my options.
Thank you all for your input! I can see, just in the few days i've been reading these boards, that i've joined an incredibly helpful community!
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Some decent boutique shops that are > Dell:
digitalstormonline.com
ibuypower.com
cyberpowerpc.com
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Unplugged my liquid cooled, SLI, extremely upgradeable cyberpowerpc after a year and went back to Dell. Noisy mutha that was. A coolant hose prevented adding ram without (quoting from tech support) "forcing it in".
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That's what you get for using liquid cooling :p More trouble than it's worth lol
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OPTIONS! Now that's a ton of help, too! Thanks, d0z3rr!
Now I have some other options to look at, especially the ones that will install the OS and drivers and all that stuff themselves. Very cool stuff, and I'm off to look over them right now. :thumbup:
I'm not too concerned with how loud the machine is, but I do know that liquid-cooled is generally louder than i'd like *and* it's way beyond what I need to do performance-wise. :)
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You must be sure and tell us what you end up with so we can properly chastise or praise your decision. ;) You should prolly expect both.
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Yea, even though you have said a few times you wouldn't want to build it - I also have to throw in my word on it. Building PC's today is muchhhh more user-friendly then it was back in windows 95. 2-4 hours max, and just looking at the dell i can tell the price difference is huge - Could probably build that same PC for nearly half the price.
I've paid 800 or so for my new PC:
New Case
8800 GT
Core 2 Duo 2.66
150 gig raptor HD
600 watt PSU
mobo
Zalman cooler
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Well, much to the dismay of many of you I'm sure, I now have a Dell heading to my home. :P The Digital Storm folks impressed the *heck* out of me, but my wife overruled me (even though the Dell was a bit more expensive). But you know what they say, "Happy wife, happy life." :thumbup: I sincerely thank all of you that gave input here, and if I fall flat on my face with this purchase, feel free to laugh at my expense. :D
That said, now all I've gotta do is get my 3 new accounts and patiently (yeah right, lol) wait for my new computer to arrive.
THEN, the fun begins. :)
