Right well since this all happened 16 months ago what was the outcome, Chris?
The worst that happened recently was a long delivery time for a mate when he ordered one of their Inspiron 1525 series (pre offering the stupid rainbow lid colour nonsense, and selling through retail again) - because the physical chassis is so good and comfortable for typing, there must have been massive demand.
My extended family are the Dell family, they've all got one and my brother's Mum-in-law has gone through two desktops and a laptop.
Re your PCI-Express graphics card plug issues, when I bought my first one it came with a converter back to a Molex plug - yours should have had one too, let us know which one you bought.
Right well since this all happened 16 months ago what was the outcome, Chris?
The worst that happened recently was a long delivery time for a mate when he ordered one of their Inspiron 1525 series (pre offering the stupid rainbow lid colour nonsense, and selling through retail again) - because the physical chassis is so good and comfortable for typing, there must have been massive demand.
My extended family are the Dell family, they've all got one and my brother's Mum-in-law has gone through two desktops and a laptop.
Re your PCI-Express graphics card plug issues, when I bought my first one it came with a converter back to a Molex plug - yours should have had one too, let us know which one you bought.
PC did arrive on the last promised date, and was offered £75 back which I took. Not too shabby when that meant that I (had) a decent gaming PC plus huge monitor for around £200. I did continue to complain, but was continuously fobbed off. Safe to say that Dell are on my shit list!
Definetly going for my own build next, hopefully at the start of next year. This PC is starting to struggle with the top games, particularly as the size of the monitor means that I'm always plumping for an obscene resolution. It's decent, but not quite right at the tip top that a tech obsessed type like me desires!
As for the power supply, I went for a CoolerMaster 500W. Cost just over £50, but it'll certainly be more than enough for my new build too.
Yeah fair enough, even last year £75 would have bought your replacement RAM with change to spare, if it was downgraded.
I know that Custom PC magazine runs an annual Dell vs DIY feature just because they know loads of people will look at Dell and probably attempt to bring those up to gaming spec, rather than building from scratch.
In my view it's pathetic that you didn't even get the full 18 months out of the Dell before it started struggling with games, especially since there have been few really demanding games out there since you bought your machine - Crysis (with the mini-expansion released yesterday), STALKER (with the add-on released a week ago), and maybe Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and for the RTS gamers, the Supreme Commander series. Looking on the bright side, you have the TFT that you can keep using over and over with every new PC.
Let's try and find the link for you...
Custom PC Website and get registered and signed up to it and see what people are buying from the forum thread discussions. Click the features tab and go backwards to view either of the last two Dell v Self Build features.
In my view it's pathetic that you didn't even get the full 18 months out of the Dell before it started struggling with games, especially since there have been few really demanding games out there since you bought your machine - Crysis (with the mini-expansion released yesterday), STALKER (with the add-on released a week ago), and maybe Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and for the RTS gamers, the Supreme Commander series. Looking on the bright side, you have the TFT that you can keep using over and over with every new PC.
I'm probably being a little harsh on the machine to be honest. Vista awards it a 4.8 rating, which has been enough for all titles up to now with Crysis Warhead "recommending" a 5.0 system. It's only really the graphics card - X1950pro - that's dragging it down. I can play Crysis with most settings on 'high' with little slowdown at a decent resolution. I just want to be right at the peak like the old days when I had much more disposable cash!
mines only 3.3, but that is because I have inbuilt graphics card (don't play games). And it uses the lowest individual setting as the index. Do they have this rating on products yet? or is there a way of calculating what it would be with a new graphics card?
mines only 3.3, but that is because I have inbuilt graphics card (don't play games). And it uses the lowest individual setting as the index. Do they have this rating on products yet? or is there a way of calculating what it would be with a new graphics card?
What score do you get for each component? Even a cheap £50 graphics card should nudge your score up a considerable amount.
here be the score. It is the graphics card that lets it down, don't really play games much but might consider spending the £50 and see how I get on, get out some of my older games.
Think my old pc had the 256mb version of this. Which did ok, I don't need to play the latest games. But just tried to install swat4 and was told this build in graphics card would be unstable and not recommended.
I've got DVI- single link on my monitor and I assume a PCI-e slot free. (dell insprion 530).
How much do you have spend to get a good graphics card these days?
