I was browsing through Dell's XPS web page planning on buying a new computer soon, and I customized the Dell XPS 710, then the 410, and found a VERY noticeable price difference, and the 410 is even better equipped! (Or so I think) I am shooting for around 3,000 Dolla.

Here are the specs the way I customized them, and prices to match:

Dell XPS 710:

-Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6400 (2MB L2 Cache,2.13GHz,1066 FSB)
-2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
-320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
-Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
-20 inch UltraSharp™ 2007WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
-768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX
-Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card
-AGEIA® PhysX® physics accelerator

Total: $3,143.00

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Dell XPS 410:

-Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB)
-4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
-500GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
-Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
-19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel
-256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS (Best GPU They offered...)
-Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition
-AGEIA® PhysX® physics accelerator

Total: $2,486.00

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The Big difference is apparently the video card, but the nVidia 7900 GS was the best they offered on the 410 (Any idea why?? space? I wish you could load up at 7950 or 8800). Secondly The sound card on the 710 came stock, and even then upgrading the 410 to match the 710's sound card is only another $75... Same deal with the screen, both came with it, and upgrading the 410 to match the 710 is only $150...

Am i missing something here? I am definitely NOT a computer expert but it looks to me like the 410 has a much better CPU, more RAM, and a bigger HD, all for a Mucchhh cheaper price?? Do people just like the bigger box??

And what are your opinions on the computer? I will be playing a lot of graphic intensive games (Vanguard for example) and FPS is a big issue with my current computer. If the 410 IS better than the 710, do you think that the added RAM will make up for the lesser video card?

Thanks for all your help and time!

Outphaze

all I'm gonna say is, it's a fucking dell..

You could build that computer for 1/2 the price. You know anyone with the ability to do so?

e6600 $315
500gb raid 0 (2x 250gb) $140
2x DVD Burners $60
2gb Dual Channel $180
8800GTX $570
X-Fi XtremeMusic $92
AGEIA $200 (?)
Motherboard $100 (similar to dell's quality)
650watt PSU $100 (similar to dell's quality)
--------------------------
Total: $1777

20in screen: $200
Savings: ~$1200

Operating system - $200 + Keyboard + Mouse + The Tower Box...

+ all the shipping costs for all of the parts

Thats alot less than $1,200 savings...

and thats DEFINITELY not 1/2 the price

If I had wanted to BUILD a computer I would've asked!!

But thanks anyways for answering the question

Outphaze

Depends on how much you recycle.



If you ask dell why the difference.... they can tell you.
Im sure they are charging a premium on the GTX as well as including a 1kw psu which is very expensive.


Labor is a big factor

Why would you want a Dell system in the first place?

Ignoring the trivial detail that you can build a better-performing system from components yourself, for significantly less cash, Dell has of late had serious quality problems. Not to mention dealing with their support system.

Also, after-market upgrades to Dell systems have been known to result in fires.

Dell does not use batteries in their XPS systems anymore. No more fires.

Probably so that those who want the 8800 will have to buy the higher margin product. Also, the 8800 uses a bit more power than a 7900, so it may need a more powerful PSU that they didn't (can't? won't?) put in the 410.

Nope, the added RAM will NOT make up for the lesser video card. It may make no difference at all on the games you're playing today, but the 8800GTX is a MUCH faster video card.

Add up the differences:
Screen: $150
Sound: $75
Video: $400*

Hey, the difference is now only $32. Add about $10 for the smaller hard drives, and $200 for the RAM and the difference is now 242. That is probably eaten up by markup.

I would never buy either one... (he says while typing on the Dimension 4700 and looking at a Dimension e521 box waiting for him to set up for a co-worker ) If I was going to put together a gaming computer and not build it myself (which I have done, and will do again), I would not go to Dell. I would go to... almost anywhere other than Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. Don't know where that would be, because I put together my own gaming machines. I guess the correct answer there would be: I would go to Newegg or Zipzoomfly, or maybe TigerDirect - but I still wouldn't be having them put it together...

* Yes, $400. 8800GTX: 599 MSRP, 550 street. 7900GS: 200 MSRP, 150 street. And that $400 is not including any additional markup for Dell. Do you think they'll give you a product without markup?

Mike.

Edit for typo.

You should read my post on mass manufactured systems in our forums under Don't get ripped buying a new computer.

ACGinc, are you just posting one-liner replies to every existing thread? Just got 40 emails from THG!.

reading and posting I thought thats what a forums was for? Here if you need more then one line I guess I can copy and post my entire post I tried to just redirect him to.

1. First and foremost, in the computer industry and in most other industries YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!! Computers created by the mass manufacturers are built with parts from the lowest bidder.

2. The CPU is the brain of your computer. The mass manufactures want your motherboard to last for now and they could care less about your future needs. Most all their machines can have ram upgrades but they usually max out the CPU. Our systems handle multiple CPU upgrade options keeping it a valuable unit for years to come.

3. The motherboard has a speed it runs at between certain components like from the RAM to the CPU. This is known as your bus speed, like how fast you can drive from one location to another. If you buy a mass manufactured unit usually the ram they includes’ “highway speed limit” runs at the same speed the CPU does. Which means when you go to upgrade a CPU if possible the speed of the bus may increase and the RAM you use may not be fast enough and will have to be replaced “ thrown out”. Also if you only have 2 slots for your RAM and they are filled with two 256mb sticks of ram, then when you go to do an upgrade of RAM you have to throw out your old RAM “investment” and buy new to increase capacity two 512mb for example to get a gig. Our Machines come with the faster RAM so if you want to upgrade the CPU you don’t have to upgrade the RAM too. Ours also don’t have the slots maxed out so when you upgrade your RAM you add to it throwing nothing away. “Keep Your Investment”

4. The hard drives mass manufacturers use are usually inferior in one or more ways. First off they usually just say 120 gig hard drive for example in the listing. They do this on purpose because details are the difference between really good to really bad. We tell you 120 gig for the wow factor like they do but then tell you their drive may be brand X with a 1 year warranty. Ours are Seagate that have a 5 year warranty. Ours are SATA hard drive 10 to 20 times faster than their old IDE hard drives. Or if you get their SATA drives they are usually the slower ata100’s ours are the 3gps transfer rated ones.

5. Video is important. Most mass manufactured units are cheap and have onboard video. This means all your graphics are handled “Shared” by the motherboards resources meaning very limited and useless in a lot of scenarios. You should have a designated processor just for graphics called a gpu or video card. Now most mass manufacturers will use old school slow agp slots for their cards if you get one. Ours have the latest in technology PCIX16 and our higher end units have 2. So in the future you can upgrade you graphics to a $80 single pcix16 card or quadruple it with a $1400 solution of dual core gpus and dual cards in what we call sli mode termed as “Quad Core Graphics”

6. Drives are sometimes confusing for my customers. A lot of mass manufactures will give you just a DVD/CDRW and people think they can burn DVD’s. Well you can’t it’s called a combo drive it will let you read cd’s and dvd’s but only burn cd’s. You have to have a DVDRW that will read cd’s, dvd’s, burn cd’s, and burn dvd’s like all of our systems do.

7. Multimedia card readers are selling features.”Unfortunately” The multimedia card reader is one of the least important items to pay attention to when deciding what machine to buy. If you must have a reader for your camera cards and such you can get a USB multimedia card reader for like $20 and will go on any machine. But since everyone thinks it’s such a big deal we put one in every machine we build. It costs us very little but makes up minds. Their systems usually handel 10 or 15 formats of cards ours handle 54 to 74 types of formats.