*drool*
AWESOME MACHINE...

d00d, its a frickan dEll

the problem with that system is the fact its a modified nforce chipset .

my question is why would u get a high end gaming system that has a locked bios and no access to temperature sensors or fan speeds not to mention no type of tweaking ie overclocking and such due to a locked bios unless dell has changed there usual bs for the xps systems:banghead:

With some dell xps' you do have access to some overclocking features, still not great for overclocking though.

Well, to be honest I'm never going to spend that much money on something from Dell... I'd expect them to mod it to half it's potential speed anyway.

The machines are great, they just aren't what the modding community want, it isn't marketed toward them anyway. It is marketed towards John Q. Public that has no idea how to overclock, no interest in it, and could care less about fan speed control and locked BIOS. They just want a machine that works right out of the box, and performs great, regardless if it costs a lot of money.

Also, they talk about quad-SLI, but it seems like in the picture they have used 2x 7800GTX 512MB cards in it...though I am sure it is just the stock picture and I am just being picky.

newtekie1 put it right. some people don't need/want to overclock or tweak their hardware.

it still a dell which means its cheap manufacturing. Most of the money that one spends on the dell is labor. Why not just build your own computer? Cheaper faster and better! If you don't know how then make some friends who do know how. Chances are every person who plays computer games knows someone who can at least install a video card.

probably true, but as has been said, if you are the type of person who would consider building your own PC, then you are not Dell's target market. If you are reading this forum, you are probably thinking about what kind of an awesome system you could build for £1,100 and how poor value this Dell is in comparison.

PCs frighten the life out of most people - everyday, people pay the likes of PC world £150 for a 6600gt and then another £30 to fit it. To us, this is lunacy - to them it is safety.

If you build a system for a friend, and it goes wrong, what kind of warranty do they have? How sure are you that you could fix it? What if you cant and they have given you £1,100 based on your assurances of a better system?

Leave the Dell buyers to their ways - they deserve each other :laugh:

I went in and used their PC builder to create a system as close to one a friend just built for £700, and it came in at £1,650. An that was using an e6400 and a 7900GTX 512MB whereas my friends is an e6600 and X1900XTX 512MB. And that was reducign the warranty to 1yr onsite.

But...

zekrahminatorAnd if you live in the UK, your new Dell ships with a Core 2 Duo processor.

Sure, but through their "special" BIOS, they've disabled all the features you'd want in this new processor, including VT support and the ability to run 64-bit editions of Windows.

socrates2006Sure, but through their "special" BIOS, they've disabled all the features you'd want in this new processor, including VT support and the ability to run 64-bit editions of Windows.

No it doesn't. I am sure they wouldn't gimp it that baddly. The locked BIOS is only going to prevent people from using it to overclock the processor, not disable features of the processor. Dell has never done this and I don't expect them to start now. In fact I don't think it is even possible to disable these features via the BIOS, is it? And what good reason would they have for doing it? They don't disable 64-bit support on their other 64-bit processors, hell even their Celeron D machines have 64-bit support, so why would they disable it on their top of the line machines?

I'm sure there was a hint of sarcasim in that. But dell is good (well this is my situation anyway) when you have parents that are afraid of sales people at futureshop and the like and wouldn't let a certain son of theirs build the computer because they are afraid :P. But yea everything is idiot proofed so i can't do anything to my computer.... strangely enough my pc came with ati tool :confused:

heh...
My dad flipped when I removed ata cables/dvd drive/floppy drive/front case pannel to MOVE things. heh... He'd die if I ever OC'd the processor...

wait huh? your pc came with atitool? what manufacturer? dell?

Yea, it came pre-loaded with ati-tool. Which at the time i had no idea what it was. I just assumed it came with my x800se :P (god damn se)

-yes its a dell... 8400 if it matters

hehe, maybe some of the dell technicians were playing with it and forgot to uninstall it.

Beats me, actually now that i actually got thinking about it... it does seem extremely strange to have overclocking software on it :laugh: . Its a shame they didn't do something more usefull such as put in a x800xt or something just for kicks. Though the x850's weren't out yet :(

newtekie1No it doesn't. I am sure they wouldn't gimp it that baddly. The locked BIOS is only going to prevent people from using it to overclock the processor, not disable features of the processor. Dell has never done this and I don't expect them to start now. In fact I don't think it is even possible to disable these features via the BIOS, is it? And what good reason would they have for doing it? They don't disable 64-bit support on their other 64-bit processors, hell even their Celeron D machines have 64-bit support, so why would they disable it on their top of the line machines?

Do you own one? Have you tried this? Have you escalated this issue with Dell? Have they told you it's possible, because I've had feedback directly from them stating specifically that VT will NOT be turned on this BIOS. So if you've been told something different, I'd like to seek clarification from Dell because this issue alone is sufficient reason for me to return the box. forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&message.id=26668

Secondly, the Windows XP 64-bit setup fails with stop error A0 and the specific error message that the ACPI BIOS is not compatible with Windows 64-bit. This is not hearsay but first hand experience from a professional system builder. Seems I'm not the only one to have hit this wall: forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&message.id=27514

Oh my - just read that thread about them not supportign VT - is this a new low from Dell or have they done worse?