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[Minsc]

The random acces is over the whole disc, right? Did you read the text or just scan through the results? The realworld tests are what is relevant with this one IMHO.

I mostly use the above mentioned applications on my notebook which could easily fit into the 4GB after some time. So I think those are more relevant:



AND it is significant cheaper than a SSD.

Well, it seems to me like a half-solution. It's $180 right? That's not "much cheaper" that's like $20 cheaper than a 80GB Intel SSD which will do the job better, and not for just 6 apps.

There's this too:

"The launch of Seagate's Momentus XT hard drive was discussed here last week, and for good reason. While not the first hybrid hard drive on the market, the XT is the only one that sheds the Windows ReadyDrive scheme for an OS-independent approach Seagate calls Adaptive Memory. While early coverage of the XT was largely positive, more detailed analysis reveals a number of performance issues, including poor sequential read throughput and an apparent problem with command queuing. In a number of tests, the XT is actually slower than Seagate's year-old Momentus 7200.4, a drive that costs $40 less."

I think the drive is interesting and had potential, I read a bunch of stuff about it, but my advice personally is pass on it for a real SSD. If you could only have one HDD and not two, perhaps it becomes more appealing, so there may be a specific case where it could be useful, but the tech could use some tweaking, and probably will improve significantly as other companies try their take at this.

Edit: Not to mention it still has all the faults of a standard HDD, heat, failure, noise etc, where a SSD wouldn't have failure/heat/noise issues.

 

[Caesar III]

Well, it seems to me like a half-solution. It's $180 right? That's not "much cheaper" that's like $20 cheaper than a 80GB Intel SSD which will do the job better, and not for just 6 apps.

it's 130€ in some shops right now. The Intel SSD is 190€ and is not thaaaat fast isn't it?

If you could only have one HDD and not two, perhaps it becomes more appealing

That's the case with my notebook. I only have one SATA slot and the 80GB aren't that much. I need to swap files every now and then. And I use it to download huge chunks of stuff from the net in University cause we only have a 300k connection at home. So all my Steam games are loading on this disc, every MSDNAA Software, etc. After this I transfer it to my Desktop PC.

Edit: Not to mention it still has all the faults of a standard HDD, heat, failure, noise etc, where a SSD wouldn't have failure/heat/noise issues.

Like I said I have a standard harddisc right now and buying a new one is set for like forever. I just want some improvements so I waited so far. Since this is only 30bucks more than a regular HDD it sounds nice to me.

Thx for your opinion so far. I still don't know what to do though Will read the slashdot article when I'm heading back in a few hours.

 

[half a moon]

Holy fucking shit, this is awesome. My only problem is the price, $150 for a mid size case seems really steep I would have liked it to be around $100. Still will probably buy to replace my Antec 300, that case has zero room for cable management.

I've been undecided on a case. My budget is $100-$150. I was looking at the other Corsair cases for around $250. Too steep for me. Needless to say, I was very very excited to see this case today. A lot of the same features carried over.

Haven't looked much at the cons/reviews yet. The original post was a knee jerk omg so sexy. :lol

Not sure if I want a XL-ATX mobo or not, and they don't fit.

 

[Minsc]

it's 130€ in some shops right now. The Intel SSD is 190€ and is not thaaaat fast isn't it?

That's the case with my notebook. I only have one SATA slot and the 80GB aren't that much. I need to swap files every now and then. And I use it to download huge chunks of stuff from the net in University cause we only have a 300k connection at home. So all my Steam games are loading on this disc, every MSDNAA Software, etc. After this I transfer it to my Desktop PC.

Like I said I have a standard harddisc right now and buying a new one is set for like forever. I just want some improvements so I waited so far. Since this is only 30bucks more than a regular HDD it sounds nice to me.

Thx for your opinion so far. I still don't know what to do though Will read the slashdot article when I'm heading back in a few hours.

For your specific needs (notebook, only 1 HDD), it could be nice. I'd just read up on those two potential issues, chances are they are a little exaggerated since it's slashdot, and they're almost as bad as kotaku sometimes.

I think i was just a little disappointed it didn't do better since it sounds so neat. Combining like a 40GB intel SSD with a 1TB WD Black drive with a 5 year warranty in a 2.5 inch form factor, well, that'd be too much to hope for, but that's sorta what I judged it against, heh.

 

[TouchMyBox]

So I bought a Q9550 to replace the E8400 in one of my rigs, I'm running everything at stock and on a fresh install of windows 7. During some TF2 playing, the temps go up to around 59-60 degrees and then after about 30 minutes of play, the thing locks up. RMA time, or do any of you have any other suggestions?

 

[Caesar III]

Combining like a 40GB intel SSD with a 1TB WD Black drive with a 5 year warranty in a 2.5 inch form factor, well, that'd be too much to hope for, but that's sorta what I judged it against, heh.

one can dream, i'll give you that!

I would like to get such a harddisk as well but it would be too expensive. But you are right I wouldn't want such a disk in my desktop

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Woot, my new job has been steady. Gonna be building the shit out of something soon.

My current specs are:
Anthlon 64 3500+
1Gb RAM
7600GT
150GB
:lol

5 years old. Been out of the PC gaming loop for a while.

 

[TouchMyBox]

So i ran prime95 until my q9550 gave up after ~55 minutes. Here's a cap of my hwmonitor.

 

[Red]

My LLC was on auto, just switched it to enabled. Gonna leave my PC running while I'm at work and hopefully it'll still be responsive when I get home. Thanks for the heads up.

Eh, PC still freezing with LLC enabled. Windows brings me to the system recovery screen on rebooting, but my BIOS says nothing about my overclock failing (which it has done in the past after unstable performance). I'm going to try pushing my voltage up a couple notches, hopefully I get some better results.

 

[GullyJuice]

sup gaf

i was lead to believe that building a pc would be cheaper than buying pre-built. parts for my Intel i7-920 build add to ~$2000 while a similar Dell XPS would be slightly cheaper. am i doin it wrong

 

[bridegur]

sup gaf

i was lead to believe that building a pc would be cheaper than buying pre-built. parts for my Intel i7-920 build add to ~$2000 while a similar Dell XPS would be slightly cheaper. am i doin it wrong

I'm in a similar situation. I was under the impression that a PC would be significantly cheaper than an iMac, but I can't seem to find pre-built PCs with 27" monitors that are that much, if any, cheaper than an Apple.

 

[MoFuzz]

sup gaf

i was lead to believe that building a pc would be cheaper than buying pre-built. parts for my Intel i7-920 build add to ~$2000 while a similar Dell XPS would be slightly cheaper. am i doin it wrong

This is almost always the case, in addition to getting better quality components in every way, but to be sure:

What country are you in?
What retailer did you use?
Will you be assembling yourself?
What parts are you eyeing?

 

[flsh]

I'm sorry if this was already asked before, but how is the Intel 80GB X25-M sdsa2mh080g2c1?
I plan on using it for the system and a few applications. I read SSD isn't very good for gaming so I reckon 80GB will be enough for me. My problem is that I couldn't find a review for this specific model and I have no idea how old it is, and maybe I should wait for a new one. Any other model that I should look into? From what I remember reading a while ago Intel was the way to go.

 

[Wallach]

Eh, PC still freezing with LLC enabled. Windows brings me to the system recovery screen on rebooting, but my BIOS says nothing about my overclock failing (which it has done in the past after unstable performance). I'm going to try pushing my voltage up a couple notches, hopefully I get some better results.

My concern is that your CPU has some sort of VDrop problem and your idle voltage variation is crashing it somehow. Does this happen at stock clocks/voltages?

 

[nitric0]

I just upgraded from

AMD 64 3200+
X800XL
1GB RAM

to

AMD II X4 635
9800GT
2GB RAM (getting 2 more GB RAM next week)

 

[Minsc]

I'm in a similar situation. I was under the impression that a PC would be significantly cheaper than an iMac, but I can't seem to find pre-built PCs with 27" monitors that are that much, if any, cheaper than an Apple.

Considering Dell's 27" display starts at $1,100, you probably won't.

Just buy a PC with no monitor and order one off newegg for like $400 if you want. Probably not as good as the Apple or Dell ones, but it will let you build a PC that can run modern games.

I'm sorry if this was already asked before, but how is the Intel 80GB X25-M sdsa2mh080g2c1?
I plan on using it for the system and a few applications. I read SSD isn't very good for gaming so I reckon 80GB will be enough for me. My problem is that I couldn't find a review for this specific model and I have no idea how old it is, and maybe I should wait for a new one. Any other model that I should look into? From what I remember reading a while ago Intel was the way to go.

It's the G2 model, so that's the one that supports TRIM. One of the best SSD drives you can buy, things will load instantly and starting windows will fly. Your 30 or so system tray apps should all load in like 2 seconds!

 

[bridegur]

Considering Dell's 27" display starts at $1,100, you probably won't.

Just buy a PC with no monitor and order one off newegg for like $400 if you want. Probably not as good as the Apple or Dell ones, but it will let you build a PC that can run modern games.

In that case, do you think I should just stick with a 27" iMac with an i7? How well would that setup run high-end games in Boot Camp?

 

[Minsc]

In that case, do you think I should just stick with a 27" iMac with an i7? How well would that setup run high-end games in Boot Camp?

Significantly worse than a PC with a GTX 480 or ATI 5870 (read less than half the framerate), which is the bare minimum card you should have for a 1600p display, unless you go SLI/XFIRE.

Here are some benches.

The 4850 that the iMac has will perform a little worse than the 4870 you see in those benches. For instance, the Battleforge 4870 gets 14fps, so figure like around 10-12 for the 4850. The 5870 get 40 fps, so almost 4x that of the iMac! You can see the other games there too, just subtract 20% from the 4870s scores.

Crysis benches really shows what I'm talking about, the 4870 gets like 3-4fps, so it'd be a complete slide show on the 4850 (if it even loads!), while the 5870 gets at least 20ish.

 

[flsh]

It's the G2 model, so that's the one that supports TRIM. One of the best SSD drives you can buy, things will load instantly and starting windows will fly. Your 30 or so system tray apps should all load in like 2 seconds!

Bought Should be here tomorrow or the day after at the latest. I don't plan on reinstalling windows 7, so is EASEUS Todo Backup a good clone tool? (Or any other I should use?)
I have way too many programs working at once, so being able to multitask and still have everything work fast is going to be a dream come true

 

[Minsc]

Bought Should be here tomorrow or the day after at the latest. I don't plan on reinstalling windows 7, so is EASEUS Todo Backup a good clone tool? (Or any other I should use?)
I have way too many programs working at once, so being able to multitask and still have everything work fast is going to be a dream come true

I'd personally not restore a cloned drive from a normal HDD to a SSD, a clean install would be better... it'd go a bit smoother I think... be sure to read up on it before you decide to do that, you could end up with something not detecting right and get worse than perfect performance.

Maybe it's fine, I'm not sure, I've read a couple other people here advising against it, but do some research and good luck with the drive! I think you'll want to turn on ACHI in your BIOS too, iirc.

 

[bridegur]

Significantly worse than a PC with a GTX 480 or ATI 5870 (read less than half the framerate), which is the bare minimum card you should have for a 1600p display, unless you go SLI/XFIRE.

Here are some benches.

The 4850 that the iMac has will perform a little worse than the 4870 you see in those benches. For instance, the Battleforge 4870 gets 14fps, so figure like around 10-12 for the 4850. The 5870 get 40 fps, so almost 4x that of the iMac! You can see the other games there too, just subtract 20% from the 4870s scores.

Crysis benches really shows what I'm talking about, the 4870 gets like 3-4fps, so it'd be a complete slide show on the 4850 (if it even loads!), while the 5870 gets at least 20ish.

Wow, crazy. Thanks, I guess I have some thinking to do.

 

[Brannon]

Check your motherboard producer's site on what CPUs your mobo support. I also have AM2 mobo and it supports all Athlons X4 but only Phenoms X4 with lower TDPs (I think up to 95W). Unless you want to change motherboard also but than you probably won't stay in 120-150$ range.

Managed to get the 945 Black for less than I thought I would, and got a compatible motherboard as well. Time to get to work on this.

 

[Little_Luke]

So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I have a $500 budget and only need a

Mobo?
Processor?
Memory?
GPU?

I have a 700 watt OCZ psu , case , dvd drive , and harddrive already so I figure I can score some decent parts. I'm just at a loss as to what would be most worth my money.

This will strictly be a gaming rig and I have a 1680x1050 monitor.

 

[Quadratic]

Thinking of replacing my 9800+ GTX. Is Ati readying a refresh of the 58XX series anytime soon? I'm seeing the orginal line with new cooling solutions from other vendors. I might just hold off until the fall.

 

[Wallach]

Thinking of replacing my 9800+ GTX. Is Ati readying a refresh of the 58XX series anytime soon? I'm seeing the orginal line with new cooling solutions from other vendors. I might just hold off until the fall.

Which card are you going for? With the 5850 it seems like the reference is going to be your best bet; outside of a couple non-reference cards none of them have a voltage controller that supports software voltage regulation (and stock these things have huge voltage room for OC). If you're thinking of the 5870 though I agree it might be better to wait for more non-reference options as they're not quite as OC friendly reference wise, though I think HIS has their iCooler V 5870 at retail already (which is a good aftermarket cooler).

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

Last question. Is there a particular 5770 model that I should get. Does it matter if it is the XFX, Sapphire, Asus. ect model? It seems that there are some failure concerns with this card.

 

[Wallach]

Last question. Is there a particular 5770 model that I should get. Does it matter if it is the XFX, Sapphire, Asus. ect model? It seems that there are some failure concerns with this card.

If you're getting a reference card, I'd say it doesn't matter, just get one with a good warranty and/or customer service (XFX, ASUS, and actually ECS all have great service in my experience). Non-reference I'm not as sure about, though I will say I do not like XFX non-reference cards' build quality.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4150447&cm_re=XFX_5770-_-14-150-447-_-Product

That looks like a reference PCB 5770 and given XFX's warranty and customer service would probably be the one I would go for.

 

[Raoh]

i'm sure there is another thread on this but i cant find it, please comment or point me in the right direction to peoples feedback on these

dual sfx frag pro
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SQPV2G/?tag=neogaf0e-20

and the

dual sfx evolution
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SQFZTK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

i was really looking at the fragfx v2 but it was only ps3 compatible not pc, i'm looking for something that works with both

any suggestions/comments

thanks in advance

 

[ChoklitReign]

So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I have a $500 budget and only need a

Mobo?
Processor?
Memory?
GPU?

I have a 700 watt OCZ psu , case , dvd drive , and harddrive already so I figure I can score some decent parts. I'm just at a loss as to what would be most worth my money.

This will strictly be a gaming rig and I have a 1680x1050 monitor.

Corsair 4GB Memory
Phenom II X4 940 3.0 GHz Quad-Core CPU
ASUS Radeon 5770 Graphics Card
ASUS Motherboard

After MIRs it's under $500. All are great values with great customer service.

 

[Brannon]

Thank you GAF.

I AM RUNNING AT THE SPEED OF GOD!!!!!!

*comparatively speaking*

 

[Wallach]

Corsair 4GB Memory
Phenom II X4 940 3.0 GHz Quad-Core CPU
ASUS Radeon 5770 Graphics Card
ASUS Motherboard

After MIRs it's under $500. All are great values with great customer service.

You have DDR3 paired with a Phenom II X4 940 - you need a 945 for a DDR3 controller, which is $25 more or so (but like I showed in the link on this page there is a $15 gift card with that on Newegg). DDR3 won't work with the 940.

 

[Piano]

So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I have a $500 budget and only need a

Mobo?
Processor?
Memory?
GPU?

I have a 700 watt OCZ psu , case , dvd drive , and harddrive already so I figure I can score some decent parts. I'm just at a loss as to what would be most worth my money.

This will strictly be a gaming rig and I have a 1680x1050 monitor.

I've been doing research for the past couple of months in order to build a new rig soon, and the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and ATI 5770 seem to be the best midrange CPU/GPU out there at the moment - both around $150.

4GB of RAM will cost you another $100, leaving $100 for a decent Mobo.

 

[ChoklitReign]

You have DDR3 paired with a Phenom II X4 940 - you need a 945 for a DDR3 controller, which is $25 more or so (but like I showed in the link on this page there is a $15 gift card with that on Newegg). DDR3 won't work with the 940.

Since when the hell did memory have anything to do with the compatability with the CPU?

 

[Wallach]

Since when the hell did memory have anything to do with the compatability with the CPU?

When the memory controller moved from the northbridge to the CPU die for latency reasons.

 

[Smash88]

Thinking of replacing my 9800+ GTX. Is Ati readying a refresh of the 58XX series anytime soon? I'm seeing the orginal line with new cooling solutions from other vendors. I might just hold off until the fall.

Well there is word that a refresh, the 5890 is coming out mid-june. So hold off until that comes out, if it comes out.

 

[SePhoBroth]

Well there is word that a refresh, the 5890 is coming out mid-june. So hold off until that comes out, if it comes out.

Source?

 

[Wallach]

My PSU is supposed to arrive this Friday... but the 5850 is not scheduled to get here until next Tuesday!!

 

[Blizzard]

Well there is word that a refresh, the 5890 is coming out mid-june. So hold off until that comes out, if it comes out.

:lol I just spent way too much money (went for the non-OEM windows 7 home premium because I'm silly and didn't want to deal with OEM reactivation in the future) ordering some parts, mainly the HIS 5850. I made sure to very carefully measure my Antec 300 case though, and it looks like the card will fit with a quarter inch to spare, since it's longer than reference 5850's. The prices will probably drop and I'll be sad...oh well!

Hopefully some day memory prices drop again. I should have gotten 8GB back in the day, but my 4GB has only rarely been maxed out so it's not too bad. Once I get to Windows 7 again instead of Vista I should have fewer problems. I think I've filled most of 4GB basically just by using a couple of web browsers and TF2 before on Vista 64-bit.

 

[Hazaro]

So i ran prime95 until my q9550 gave up after ~55 minutes. Here's a cap of my hwmonitor.

Can't see your pic but it is rare that CPU will cause lockups. Usually you'll just hard crash / Blue Screen. 60C load is fine (for gaming), what temps did you hit under prime?

If your temps are going over 70C load via prime you might want to reseat / get a new cooler.
Try giving memtest86+ a run (burn to a CD)

When the memory controller moved from the northbridge to the CPU die for latency reasons.

...so all AM2+ CPUs need DDR2 and AM3 needs DDR2 or 3?

 

[Wallach]

...so all AM2+ CPUs need DDR2 and AM3 needs DDR2 or 3?

Yessir. I think the 945 was the first CPU they released that had a DDR3 capable controller (which launched alongside the 955/BE). AM2/+ is all DDR2.

 

[Hazaro]

Yessir. I think the 945 was the first CPU they released that had a DDR3 capable controller (which launched alongside the 955/BE). AM2/+ is all DDR2.

Good to know. I've only need 945/955 recommended so I guess that explains it :lol

 

[Blizzard]

I also ordered a couple of extra case fans, and after cleaning out my case tonight I was looking at my temperatures (turns out you need to run SpeedFan as administrator explicitly in Vista to use SMART stuff). How do I interpret the temperature, though?

What do the 111 and 105 values mean? I could see 0x24 (36 C) being my current hard disk temperature, though that seems warm (the hard disk is way down at the bottom of the case by itself). But is that what it really means, and if so how do I interpret the other columns?

Thanks in advance for the education!

 

[Wallach]

I also ordered a couple of extra case fans, and after cleaning out my case tonight I was looking at my temperatures (turns out you need to run SpeedFan as administrator explicitly in Vista to use SMART stuff). How do I interpret the temperature, though?

http://i46.tinypic.com/2r3b6ys.jpg

What do the 111 and 105 values mean? I could see 0x24 (36 C) being my current hard disk temperature, though that seems warm (the hard disk is way down at the bottom of the case by itself). But is that what it really means, and if so how do I interpret the other columns?

Thanks in advance for the education!

SpeedFan S.M.A.R.T data in that tab is a little cryptic, to be honest, and varies a bit from drive to drive. You should be able to view your HDD temp from the Readings tab under HD0 (36c is probably correct, maybe a few degrees c higher than I'd expect but may be airflow or cable management or something).

The main thing you really want to look at there on the S.M.A.R.T. tab are the bars at the bottom for Fitness and Performance. Those are basically what SpeedFan sees as current values as compared to threshold values (which are pulled from S.M.A.R.T.) to give you an idea of where the HDD health stands compared to "optimal" (i.e. 100% or "new") operation.

If you really want to understand more about the S.M.A.R.T. data tab you can go here: http://www.almico.com/sfarticle.php?id=2

Edit - Some other reading there within the SpeedFan program itself can be found just clicking that "?" icon just under your HDD selection.

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

Still screwing around with my build and I was wandering if their is a better case and power supply to get other then what I already picked out(Antec Sonata III w/ 500w Power Supply).
^That thing is kind of lame looking.

Any other popular recommendations for a case and psu for around $120-$150? Someone recommended me the Antec 300 and 400W psu, but I am worried about 400W being enough, or if it would be future proof.

 

[Wallach]

Still screwing around with my build and I was wandering if their is a better case and power supply to get other then what I already picked out(Antec Sonata III w/ 500w Power Supply).
^That thing is kind of lame looking.

Any other popular recommendations for a case and psu for around $120-$150? Someone recommended me the Antec 300 and 400W psu, but I am worried about 400W being enough, or if it would be future proof.

Well, I'll be the first to recommend that Antec 300 (I love these things, for the price they demolish just about everything within $40), but you're right that the PSU is a little on the limp side.

You said you were looking at a 5770 right? Well, my recommendation would be to get the other combo with the 550w Antec Truepower New - these PSUs are actually quite good, and there's a combo deal with the Antec 300 on Newegg as well for $120 before MIR ($20 MIR on the 550w PSU):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.410730

If you want to bump up to the 750w Truepower New it's $155 (only $25 discount for the combo, and no MIR on the 750w PSU):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.410823

Both PSUs come recommended, one of the few I'd probably spend money on besides the Corsairs.

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

Well, I'll be the first to recommend that Antec 300 (I love these things, for the price they demolish just about everything within $40), but you're right that the PSU is a little on the limp side.

You said you were looking at a 5770 right? Well, my recommendation would be to get the other combo with the 550w Antec Truepower New - these PSUs are actually quite good, and there's a combo deal with the Antec 300 on Newegg as well for $120 before MIR ($20 MIR on the 550w PSU):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.410730

If you want to bump up to the 750w Truepower New it's $155 (only $25 discount for the combo, and no MIR on the 750w PSU):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.410823

Both PSUs come recommended, one of the few I'd probably spend money on besides the Corsairs.

I think the 550W will be perfect!

 

[Wallach]

I think the 550W will be perfect!

That would probably be my choice as well, unless you think you're going to Crossfire that 5770 in the future... though even then you might be able to do 2x5770s on that 550w with how low power those cards are.

 

[half a moon]

Trying to pick the parts I want. Help very appreciated.

Decided:
Case: Corsair 600t
CPU COOLING: Corsair H50 CPU Cooler
CPU: i7-930

Undecided:
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V?
GPU: 5850? (For one, right now I want to play Crysis on my 1680x1050. Will be upgrading my monitor in the future tho.)
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366?
Storage: SSD + HDD?
RAM: G.Skill? Whatever the best bang for the buck 6GB kit is.

Also: My mind can be changed about a lot of this. I'd like to have manufacturer/model recommendations since there's s o many to choose from And, I guess my budget is around 1,000-1,500 USD.

 

[GullyJuice]

This is almost always the case, in addition to getting better quality components in every way, but to be sure:

What country are you in?
What retailer did you use?
Will you be assembling yourself?
What parts are you eyeing?

i'm in the u.s. shopping Newegg. i would be assembling myself. here's my build:

$280 CPU: Intel Core i7-920
$300 Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D
$070 CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$140 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
$100 Case: COOLER MASTER CM690 Mid Tower
$440 GPU: Radeon HD 5870 1GB
$220 Memory: 2 x G.SKILL 4GB
$344 Hard drive: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
$027 Optical drive: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD RW

about $1920 or $1700 if I opted for a 1TB HDD

a $1700 Dell XPS would have a worse power supply, but include a BD drive and a monitor.

other than increased upgradeability, i don't see a reason to build.?

 

[Minsc]

i'm in the u.s. shopping Newegg. i would be assembling myself. here's my build:

$280 CPU: Intel Core i7-920
$300 Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D
$070 CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$140 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
$100 Case: COOLER MASTER CM690 Mid Tower
$440 GPU: Radeon HD 5870 1GB
$220 Memory: 2 x G.SKILL 4GB
$344 Hard drive: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
$027 Optical drive: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD RW

about $1920 or $1700 if I opted for a 1TB HDD

a $1700 Dell XPS would have a worse power supply, but include a BD drive and a monitor.

other than increased upgradeability, i don't see a reason to build.?

You'd be better off scrapping that $350 Vertex for a $225 80GB Intel X25 G2 + $70 1TB Samsung Spinpoint.

Also the 5870 should be no more than $400, it is in fact, $400. There are times you can catch it for closer to $350 if you factor in a free game with the card.

Memory should be triple channel RAM if you want X58 architecture, so 6GB in a set, should be same price as you have there.

The $1700 Dell does not come with a SSD that can come close to that Intel drive, you'd have to reinstall the OS yourself to match it.

You can get a cheaper Gigabyte motherboard too, that will serve you just as well... but I guess if you're within spitting distance of the Dell, it's something to consider.

Absolutely, positively factor in a 3-year warranty to the dell pricing, you'll be shooting yourself when it breaks and you don't have one.