PC Advice please...

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martyp

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Marty
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Well, I thought about it for a little while and I've decided to go back to the dark side... :eek:

I've been out of the loop from recent processor/graphics updates since I switched a few years ago. All I know is I have a XPS 630i at work with a Q6600 CPU, 4Gb RAM, 8800GT graphics running Vista x64 Ultimate and it flies. With that in mind I'm actually going to buy one similar.

Looking on eBay there are a few options on the system and I saw a higher end model with liquid cooling too, so I'm looking for some advice as to which to buy.

XPS 630; C2Q Q8300 @ 2.5GHz, nVidia GTS240 w/1Gb, 3Gb DDR2, 320Gb HDD, Win 7.

XPS 630i; C2E E8500 @ 3.16GHz, 8800GTX 786Mb OC2, 3Gb DD2, 500Gb HDD, Vista x64.

XPS 730; C2Extreme QX7700 @ 3.8GHz, ATi HD3870 1Gb x2, 4Gb DD3, 2x 750Gb HDD, Win Vista.


I'm thinking of bidding on the 730 as it looks the fastest machine, although the XPS 630i is a close contender if it goes over budget. Do you really need 4 cores for Lightroom and Photoshop?

Looking to pair it up with a 24" Dell UltraSharp U2410, which is probably going to cost the same as the PC but I like a good screen. If you can list a better alternative please do!


Thanks in advance for any help. :thumbs:

P.S. I was thinking of doing a self build although I'm sure history will repeat itself and I'll go over the top with the spec. I also don't want the hassle anymore TBH.
 
What's your budget? Don't have much experience with Dell pc's (not in recent years anyway) but I know in the past I would have avoided...
 
I felt the same way about Dell, David. Although the XPS machines at work haven't had an issue in 1 1/2 years so I feel pretty happy with them...

The budget would max out at £600 as the Dell monitor isn't cheap... The first two machines on that list can be had for £550 and the 730 sitting at £200 ATM with 4 days to go.
 
martyp said:
I felt the same way about Dell, David. Although the XPS machines at work haven't had an issue in 1 1/2 years so I feel pretty happy with them...

The budget would max out at £600 as the Dell monitor isn't cheap... The first two machines on that list can be had for £550 and the 730 sitting at £200 ATM with 4 days to go.
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Sounds good, if you are using one at work that's reliable then go for it!
 
Don't know what difference a quad core would make to Lightroom or Photoshop, but I use a 2.66 GHz dual core E7300, 2 Gigs of DDR2 RAM and a Nvidia7900GTX with a 19inch monitor and I have no problem using GIMP.

I don't have Windows 7, but if I bought a new PC now I'd go for Windows 7. I have a laptop that runs on Vista and I find it a pain

Forget about water cooling. For what you want to do it is an unnecessary expense.

I have not owned a Dell for some time, but a IT guy at work reckons they are good and my daughter is using an eight year old Dell which, although slow, is still running.

Dave
 
Be aware that ebay is not always the cheapest for pcs. Friend just got a quad core Q8300, 2gb ram for £400, 2gb is cheap
 
Well, the 730 went for way over £1k so that was that.

Purchased a Dell XPS 720 SPAM instead. Intel QX6850 @ 3.73GHz, 4Gb Corsair DDR2 800MHz @ 1066MHz, 2x 1Tb Hitachi 7,200rpm in RAID0, Blu-Ray burner, SLi'd 8800GTX 768MHz, X-FI Xtreme Music, Vista Ultimate. The system is O/C'd from Dell which explains the higher clock speeds.

I have no doubt this thing will absolutely fly and I just love the look of it! Review linky with pics if interested...
 
martyp said:
Well, the 730 went for way over £1k so that was that.

Purchased a Dell XPS 720 SPAM instead. Intel QX6850 @ 3.73GHz, 4Gb Corsair DDR2 800MHz @ 1066MHz, 2x 1Tb Hitachi 7,200rpm in RAID0.....
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Raid 0 will give you extra speed but make sure you take regular verified backups especially if you're going to store your work on the same drives.
 
Looks great, super spec - best of luck with it. At some point it might be worth upgrading to Win7, I found it sooo much better than Vista.

Bet it flies though!
 
Apologies if you already know this but in RAID 0 when data is saved it is split between two drives. If one drive bites the dust and you don't have a separate backup of the complete data, you will lose everything.

I'd be tempted to disable the RAID and use one of the terabyte drives as a backup, and to be really safe get another external drive to use as a second backup and keep elsewhere.

Dave
 
Haha, the Vista bashing begins! :D

I will upgrade to Win 7 x64 early August when I'm off work, although will be running Vista until then. I actually don't mind Vista...

I had a RAID0 setup on my Mac Pro and know the risks but love the speed. Downtime doesn't really bother me as its not really for professional use and I have a external hard drive for frequent backups should it go wrong. RAW files and other important files are burned on to DVD.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about vista either. After SP1 it was fine. I do have W7 installed though!
 
Just to update, rig arrived yestarday and ran a few installs last night on it.

Loaded up Lr 3, imported my 2000 DNG catalogue in no time, 1:1 previews took a little while but not too bad. Compared to the Mac Pro/MBP everything is so smooth, you move a slider and instantly it updates - excellent! :D

Downloading Crysis and NFS: Shift at the moment for a little gaming test. Should be fun...

Oh, the HDDs aren't RAID'd gonna get Win 7 Pro/Ultimate x64 and do a RAID0 array then. Although its water cooled it's not exactly quiet though, not many gaming rigs are I suppose and my speakers easily overpower it.
 
Glad you like it. Watercooling does not always mean silence though, as you point out, in an overclocked gaming rig its there to cool everything and will need fans to help with that!
 
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