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Dell XPS 700 - reviewed, dissected

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by WilHarris, 4 Sep 2006.

  1. Lazy

    Lazy Meow?

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    How can you say you're severely disappointed with it performance wise and then give it a recommendation? That’s completely ridiculous. If a retailer uses the recommendation to sell the product then surely you’re misleading potential consumers somewhat…?
     
  2. r4tch3t

    r4tch3t hmmmm....

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    :read: <-well the Article.
    It says they are sissapointed in the performance loss due to bad RAM, They recommend it because it is a good system fo rpeople who do not want to mess with the insides of computers. A hassle free, powerfull gaming computer. Not suited to almost the entirety of Bit as we would build our own preferably, or mess ith the insides.
    Looks good, just tell Dell to upgrade that RAM.
     
  3. el rolio

    el rolio What's a Dremel?

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    man i just want the case. to mod and put an am2 system in it with a triple rad somewhere. wheee
     
  4. Sinner666

    Sinner666 What's a Dremel?

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    Wait for the next big hurricane to hit the US then troll eBay like a whore on payday for rigs that got trashed due to flooding. It'll happen...watch.
     
  5. yahooadam

    yahooadam <span style="color:#f00;font-weight:bold">Ultra cs

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    whenever i look on dells site i see a few things wrong with their computer (so they seem cheap)

    1) Usually the prices don't include their service charge (default is something like £300)
    2) most of the PC's start with a Celeron
    3) Most of the PC's have very little memory, although they frequently run double memory deals to make this look better
    4) Any change from the default build and you will pay through the nose for it

    In all, dell make their PC's look better then they are, and dell lives by their support - the only reason i might buy a dell - but that's not included by default, and is very expensive
     
  6. sl1xx

    sl1xx What's a Dremel?

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    nice case but i dont like anything else !
     
  7. Drexial

    Drexial Minimodder

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    i know its been dead a couple days now.... but i just realised that they put onboard video... it has two PCI-Express slots. why onboard? i supose it doesnt entirly matter. but its just that in a high end machine whats the point?
     
  8. c0r3y

    c0r3y What's a Dremel?

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    Let's get over that 800mhz story again...
    If you look at Nvidia's own specs about the nForce 590 SLI it states 667mhz as memory speed, not 800mhz.

    http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce5_specs_intel.html

    But the AMD reference system in the review uses 800mhz memory.....on that same chipset.
    Can someone explain to me?

    (sorry no expert here)
     
  9. JeffDM

    JeffDM What's a Dremel?

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    Case

    It's an interesting system and definitely has a market, but that market probably isn't anyone that frequents this type of site.

    It would be nice if there were some nicer aftermarket cases available. That one is better than any I see anywhere in my area. Pretty much everything I've personally seen for an aftermarket or bare case is pretty cheap feeling and cheap looking.

    Did anyone notice that Alienware had the silhouette of this thing compared to their new case, as if this unit was competition? I mean, even then, they were owned by Dell, it seemed weird that they were implying that Dell was competition. They changed it though, now it has the silhouette of a Mac Pro, but I'm not sure that is really competition either, completely different type of product, workstation vs. gaming computer.
     
    Last edited: 9 Sep 2006
  10. MrEvil

    MrEvil What's a Dremel?

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    I've been an avid bit-tech reader off and on now, never a forums member till now. A member of Notebook forums linked to this review. Thought I'd post a few comments.

    Dell had brought two XPS 700's to QuakeCon this year in Dallas and the one machine that Dell had attendees competing against in the benchmark competition was pushing 5 digit 3DMark 06 scores. NOBODY that benched their machine they'd brought with them to QuakeCon got out of the 4 digit score range. (The AMD 64 rig I brought with me with it's single 7800GT didn't get beyond 3500 marks) But then again, the machines Dell was demoing had 7900GTX's in SLI coupled to a Core 2 Extreme, and I doubt they had any of Dell's value added software installed.

    To me it's a good machine, but I'd never give money for one. It's easy enough for me to pick parts and build myself. Plus I have a Dell notebook I use for all my critical stuff. But, I have to say one thing, Dell's service beats anything you'll get from ANY parts manufacturer. You call/online chat/e-mail tech support, and the next business day you have a tech come out with a replacement part. Wish I could say the same for ASUS, the chipset fan on my A8N-SLI Deluxe (a problem ASUS knew full well about on the first release of that board) died. ASUS played musical telephones with me for a week, I'd call one department and they'd tell me to call this department who'd then tell me to call this guy, then that guy would tell me to speak with someone in the first department I spoke with. Finally after I'd had enough of that BS I put my foot down and they agreed to send me a replacement chipset fan. They took their sweet time in getting the fan to me too, they sent it to me via 1st class US post. Took two weeks for it to arrive. All the while I couldn't use my computer. The OEMs' service beats the snot out of the service you have to wring out of the parts makers.

    ASUS makes good boards (I stupidly keep buying them) but I hope my latest P5N32-SLI doesn't quit on me. Great review Bit-tech, keep it up.
     
  11. JeffDM

    JeffDM What's a Dremel?

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    Many people have had both good and bad experiences from the big PC brands and the PC parts makers alike. Maybe the service advantage might go to the big PC brand as they can't point fingers to another company if it's a compatibility issue like a parts maker might, but it's not something that you can draw from anecdotes.
     
  12. MrEvil

    MrEvil What's a Dremel?

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    Oh, but my ASUS motherboard is only one example. Over the course of my time building computers and repairing them for others. It's the same deal with these parts vendors. You get an RMA number, send the part in on YOUR dime and they take their sweet time getting you a replacement.

    I had a Seagate Hard Drive fail on me. I request the RMA and had to pay an extra $20 to have an advance swap done (Not a $20 hold, $20 out of my pocket). Seagate did get the new drive to me the next day, and you'd think for Paying $20 I shouldn't have to pay to send it back right? WRONG! Western Digital doesn't charge for a advance ship RMA, but they put an $80 hold on your credit card and then take a week shipping it to you via UPS ground....you guess it still have to foot the bill to get it back to them.

    The Hiper 580W PSU I have in my main desktop died on me about a week before QuakeCon this year. I bought this PSU because every review I found on the 'net of this thing sang nothing but praises for it. Anyway, I e-mailed them requesting an RMA, waited 3 days and e-mailed them again, waited another 3 days and e-mailed them AGAIN. Finally got an answer back telling me where to ship the PSU. I send it DHL 2nd day signature required ($48) and went to QuakeCon using an extra lower wattage PSU I had. I get back, not a peep from the folks that handle Hiper's US RMAs. So I call the guy up that I sent the power supply to. He tells me "I didn't receive your RMA." Then I say, "Are you sure? I sent it DHL under waybill xxxxxxxx, DHL says it's delivered." And I give him the name of the person that signed for it. He goes and asks that person if she signed for a DHL package and then tells me that she doesn't remember accepting a DHL delivery.....now common sense would dictate that you'd go ahead and take care of the customer and worry about finding a missing RMA later, y'know since it can be proved the defective power supply was returned. Not in this case. Homeboy tells me he's got to talk to Hiper about it and he'll call me back. I wait a week and finally call HIM and he tells me that he can't issue me an RMA until he can find the unit I sent back. At this point I am a bit angry. So I fire off a stern yet professional e-mail to Hiper telling them (not asking) to replace my power Supply which I paid a perfectly good $130 for. FINALLY their guy calls me telling me he's shipping a new one....via UPS ground. Personally, I don't think it'd be unreasonable for them to send me a replacement next-day air considering the problems that have occurred, but that's just a slap in the face. I pay 4 times the cost of ground shipping to send their junk power supply back to them. Their chuckle-headed sub-contractor loses the thing and then acts like I paid $48 to send them a box of rocks in an attempt to score free product.

    Sorry to write a book here, but my experience with my A8N-SLI is not simply an anecdote as to the standard level of slow service the parts makers provide. They are absolutely slow as christmas compared to Dell at the very least. Dell offers a 1 year on-site warranty standard with the XPS 700 (I checked) Yes, it's just one year, but if anything breaks you won't have to pay to send defective parts back and wait very long for replacements to arrive. I've been through Dell's warranty process on two of my three Laptops (only reason I keep buying Dell is because their laptops are cheap and they fix them quickly). Needless to say though I will continue to build my own desktops in spite of the parts makers' RMA procedures.

    If you still don't beleive me, I have alot more stories from my own experiences to share with everyone. Oh, and don't say it's bad luck, there's no such thing.

    Oh, and before anyone asks, I do not work for Dell, I am merely a technician certified by Dell to work on their stuff. I am also certified with IBM/Lenovo.
     
  13. socrates

    socrates What's a Dremel?

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    Reviewer missed key points

    Pity the reviewer didn't pick up on important issues that XPS 700 owners are now finding Dell is unwilling to resolve:

    1) No VT support, despite a Core2Duo processor, because Dell disabled this in the BIOS (this impacts Vista compatibility and makes VmWare/Virtual Server run slow). http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&message.id=26668
    2) No EMT64 support, despite a Core2Duo processor. This means you can't run 64-bit versions of Windows or Linux on this machine. http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&message.id=27514
    3) Problems (with the BIOS?) prevent the use of fast 800mhz memory. http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&message.id=27512

    Oh, and on the positive side, my SLI configuration does work, contrary to the reviewer's machine.
     
    Last edited: 14 Sep 2006
  14. zr_ox

    zr_ox Whooolapoook

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    @ MrEvil

    Dell.....pfff let me tell you a story about Dell.

    Afew years ago I bought a Dell workstation. After 6 months I hear crackling and popping from the speakers, so I call Dell tech support. They arrange to send me a new CD drive despite me telling them that it will not fix the problem. I change the drive and the problem still exists, so they arrange for an engineer to visit me with ANOTHER CD drive. When I explain the problem he flips his lid, and goes bezerk about how often this happens to him, but proceeds to fit new CD drive. Whilst he is doing this a courier arrives at my door asking me to sign for a replacement CD drive from Dell. Well the engineer almost burst a blood vessel whilst screaming down the phone to Dell tech support.

    The engineer says that I need a NEW SOUNDCARD to Dell tech support, but they tell him that they must follow their standard protocol and send new speakers. The PC is booted, load a music CD, Game and what ever else and the problem is still present and played down the phone to tech support. They persist and to my surprise the speakers arrive but do not fix the problem, next up is the CPU which I replace. Then its a complete reformat....not fixed. Next up is the motherboard....still the same..... STILL CRACKLING AND POPPING like the biggest bowl of Rice Crispies. I change the RAM, get a new HD AND Windows 98 CD and would you believe it...STILL not working???? Finally after 3 months a recieve a new soundcard......

    TA...DAAAAAAA NO CRACKLING AND POPPING!

    In the time I had that PC I went through 3 soundcards and for my trouble I got an upgraded CPU from 600-800Mhz.

    Regardless of what you say I can tell you that DELL SUCK!

    The last post by socrates also highlights some alarming oversights by Dell!
     
  15. hitman012

    hitman012 Minimodder

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    I would have to agree with MrEvil. I don't own a Dell myself, but two friends have them; their machines have each had a hardware fault at some point. In both instances, a Dell engineer was dispatched quickly and identified the problem straight away, replacing the part within 2 days (one was a faulty PSU fan, another a fried processor & motherboard). The time from call to working computer was less than week.
     
  16. JeffDM

    JeffDM What's a Dremel?

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    The problem is that the last time I've seen numbers on it, I think in Consumers Reports, the people that assembled from parts didn't report a significant difference in warranty support vs. the major brands. Personal experience can't compare with collected data.
     
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