New Comp time

[Winin]

I'm pushing 3 yo on this rig and it is showing its age in Vanguard.

I met a guy who loves his Falcon Northwest gaming rig. Is it worth the money? I don't want to deal with building my own this time, because I never get those optimizing tweaks to work right.

What components are good?

www.falcon-nw.com/

Other options?

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Total ripoff, IMHO.

$1995 for a E6300 with a nVidia 7600GT is way too expensive.
Bumping it up to a worthwhile cpu and video card (E6600 + 7950GT takes the price up to $2400, and that is with NO monitor, NO dvd burner, and only 1gb RAM.

I see nothing there to justify the cost at all. I don't normally look for package deals, but I'll keep my eyes open for ya.

[Luke (Domitius)]

check out www.ibuypower.com they got computers specialized for gaming and stuff. Might not be what your lookin for but its worth a shot

[lanir]

I didn't want to build my own again this year either. So I did some price shopping with what I wanted and what it would cost if I built one or bought a prebuilt. When it came down to it, there wasn' much difference in price between the Dell XPS410 (with government discount) I bought and one I would piece together, when you include all the software and warranty you get. I jam packed my XPS machine ($1900) and I am very pleased with it. I checked out Falcon, Alienware, a couple others and man, they rip you off for the same stuff you can get and build yourself.

I had always swore not to buy a prebuilt after doing it for so many years myself, but meh, things change.

[Winin]

Yeah, I'm willing to pay a little extra to avoid the hassle, but maybe not the Falcon NW upcharge.

I'll check out the Dell options.

[Winin]

So you like the 410? Why did you choose that over the 710? I admit that I know nothing about how the current components stack up next to each other.

710 series

410 Series

[lanir]

Price was my only reason. I could get a lot more in the 410 for the same stuff I wanted in the 710.

The 410 locks you in to a smaller power supply and less space though. So if your all about upgrades, water cooling and customizing then go 710. Otherwise the 410 will support everything you may want to upgrade in the future such as: Memory, Vid Card (based on pwr supply), sound, and drives.

Here are my specs that I upgraded from the default for around $1900 (Nov 06):
Core2 Duo proc 2.4Ghz (6600)
nVidia 7950GS 1gig vid card
2 gig DDR2
19" UltraSharp Digital FP
Free Vista Upgrade

If you cut out stuff you don't need like modem, speakers, software, and extended warranty then you can cut costs here and there. Sometimes they offer the free 20" FP upgrade. I recommend taking that if you can. It wasn't offered at the time I got mine and I wish it had been. I could have waited but I am impatient.

Also, we have some of the 710's at work and they are HUGE cases, full tower. The 410's are standard mid-case size. So if you got the space then no biggy, if not you'll have a big ass box to shove under/on/around your desk. ;D

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Sometimes they advertise XPS specials here:

www.cheapstingybargains.com/

[Winin]

Cool, thanks. Sounds like the 410 is the way to go for me. I don't overclock or put neon lights on the undercarriage or anything.

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Ellwin has hydraulics on his.

[lanir]

I had to take those off. My "coffee can" muffler kept hitting the ground.

[Winin]

I'm thinking one of these.

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Whatever you finally decide on, make sure you supplement it with a USB Missle Launcher

[Kaarenyth]

That Rocks... I want one

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Do a little googling...I saw one guys setup that had a webcam strapped to it, so he could aim remotely & shoot coworkers.