My New Half Life 2 computer

The specs

from JoeUser Forums

I used to build my own machines. I took great pride of getting the last clock cycle of power out of them. To get one more frame per second out of them.  Then I got married, had kids, and now just am happy to be able to play games at all let alone overlocking my video card or purchasing a premium motherboard.

So when Half-Life 2 came out, I decided to get a new computer. One that was pretty well set up for gaming. I haven't played HL2 yet because I want to experience it in its maximum visual glory. So what did I do? I bought a Dell. ;)

Here are the specs:

Dimension XPS
Pentium® 4 Processor 560 with HT Technology (3.60GHz, 800 FSB), Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition		 Qty: 1
Unit Price: $3,555.00
Dimension XPS Pentium® 4 Processor 560 with HT Technology (3.60GHz, 800 FSB)
 M368H
 [221-5484]
Memory SAVE $100! 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x1GB)
 2GB5P
 [463-2996]
Keyboard Dell Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
 EMK
 [310-1696]
Monitors FREE UPGRADE! 17 in E173FP Flat Panel Display
 E173FPP
 [463-3987]
Video Card 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon™ X800 XT
 X800XT
 [320-3916]
Hard Drive 400GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
 400S
 [341-0989]
Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices 3.5 in Floppy Drive
 FD
 [340-1927]
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
 WHXP
 [313-7222]
[462-4610]
[412-0688]
[463-2282]
[420-4834]
[420-4927]
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
 OM
 [310-4037]
Network Interface Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
 IN
 [430-0742]
Modem No Modem Requested
 N
 [313-3607]
Document Management Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
 AAREAD
 [412-0705]
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 48x CD-RW Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
 CDR6DVR
 [313-2998]
[420-4919]
Sound Card Sound Blaster Audigy™2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, and IEEE 1394
 SBA2X
 [313-3114]
Speakers No Speaker Option
 N
 [313-4514]
Productivity Software Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Outlook, Word, Excel
 BASICC
 [412-0449]
Security Software No Security Subscription
 NS2
 [412-0732]
Digital Music Dell Jukebox - easy-to-use music player and CD burning software
 MMBASE
 [412-0691]
Digital Photography No Digital Imaging Software Requested
 NODPS
 [461-3064]
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr Technical Support
 S111OS
 [950-1260]
[950-3337]
[950-9797]
[412-0360]
[960-2800]
XPS Specialized Support Dimension XPS, Specialized Support
 XPSSUPP
 [960-2697]
Internet Access Services No ISP requested
 NISPFSS
 [461-3063]
[412-0625]
Enhanced Software for CD or DVD Burner Combo: RecordNow! and MyDVD Deluxe
 RNDVDLX
 [430-0947]
Video Editing IEEE 1394 Adapter
 1394
 [320-0169]
Dell Media Experience No Dell Media Experience™ Selected
 NODMX
 [462-5372]
Wireless Networking Solution TrueMobile™ 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g) USB 2.0 DT Adapter
 TM1300
 [430-0575]

Now, some of this stuff I'll end up putting onto other machines.  The monitor won't do of course. But I can bring it to work.  And yea, maybe I should have gotten 4 gigs of RAM but I decided that I didn't need it and could always add it later if I really had to have it.  But this should be adequate to play HL2. ;)

36,657 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
BTW, I also got a pretty big discount. The final price was only $2,600.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Nice machine Brad. I've been thinking about making the move back to Intel for awhile now, the new P4's really seem to be strong.

Thats going to last you for a very long time...
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
$2600?!?! Just who at Dell did you have to sleep with for that one?!
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
That is a ridiculously low price for such a machine. If I had that much money, I'd buy one of those right now. Too bad I've gotta pay for college.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
XP Home?!?! Say it isn't so!

2GB should be more than enough... unless you're planning to run a SQL database full time on the machine.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm sure Brad has a few copies of Pro laying around that are paid for... I somehow doubt software or an OS is an issue. ;)
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Awesome box for that price!!! Ffor regular joes Dell you pay a big premium, and for what I am still trying to figure out!

I build my own machines for the following reasons:

1) More bang for the buck - money goes way farther doing this.
2) Better components, and hand picked components - XYZ brand ram IS NOT the same as CorsairXMS matched pairs.
3) I like to install my own OS, without all of the preinstalled stuff Dell ships in theirs.
4) Gotta have Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse - anything else doesn't cut it anymore.
5) Once you've had a Aluminum Case with a window, you'll never go back to the cases big companies use.

My current machine is a highly tweaked Intel P4 3.4Ghz w/1024 PC4000 Ram, and a BFG 6800GT-OC (6800 series Nvidias are incredible). Its a great machine, I pull 80-220FPS in Half Life 2 with everything maxed, so I can't really complain, especially what I paid for the parts for this.

My next machine, i'm going to AMD, the FX series in AMD are incredible for gaming. I'm also going SLI on the video. So sometime next year, I project my new machine will be a AMD64 FX55 w/2GB CorsairXMS Matched Pair PC4500, and dual 6800GT-OC's in SLI Mode. Going to slap it all in my 3 year old Chieftech Aluminum Windowed case with 500Watt power supply. and call it a day.

Enjoy your 250fps in Half Life2.. LMAO!
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Actually I didn't get a special deal. They're simply running a special right now.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Kobrano:
I used to build my own machines for the whole bang-for-your-buck reasoning... but I spent so much timg troubleshooting hardware issues that I made up whatever money I saved in blood sweat and tears... With my dell (XPS Gen 2) I don't have to worry about anything... if it really starts to misbehave I make Dell fix it! I don't have time anymore to do this on my own... it's worth the money to me to have a machine that I know will work when I turn it on, and that I can turn over to someone else if it breaks, saving me time and frustration.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Dude! You got a Dull!
I think you will find out that you can be CPU bound with everything maxed and an XT800.
The game is amazing.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
get the 4gb of ram anyway!!! By the way, does XP end up using 1 gb of RAM just because its there or does it use less on the norm (like 400mb)?
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hi -

Been there, done that. Had built 6 home computers over the years, but the deal that Dell had two years ago when I but the one I have now was less than what I would have paid for the component parts on the open market, even discounted. Sort of a no-brainer.

But a word on the sound card: it's a Dell-only special that offloads a significant amount of work onto the processor. Can't be used in any computer that doesn't have a Dell BIOS for this reason as well. I do a lot of sound work and ended up getting a real Audigy 2 ZS to reduce CPU load, cut 30% off some of my processing times during remastering work.

And you can't update the card using generic drivers, but are stuck with the drivers that Dell delivers. Despite this, the price even including the additional sound card was less that what I would have paid.

And I'm up to 420 GB of hard drives at this point. Video work really eats up the drives...

John