magoo said:You flatter me. BUT.... I dont think you read the whole thing. I dont hate nVidia,ATI AMD or Intel (or anyone else for that matter) I wasnt speaking about the XPS set in specific,yet I was correct in saying there wasnt a high end card in the whole "gaming" section.
They have offered high end cards for a long time now (usually ATI as of late). One of the reasons the X800-850 XT PE was short in AGP trim for a while was because of the Dell contracts with ATI,
You could imagine someone ordering their "gaming" computer from Dell only to find it wont run their favourite game on anything but medium and 800 x 600 res. That, for 1500$ would be a crime (that may be a bit harsh). I DO think Dell markets their BASIC computer to be just that....a web surfer and email device that can store and print pictures or duplicate CDs or DVDs.
Most Dells - even the moderate slightly older 4700 Dimensions with 865G chipsets (mATX) will run slightly older games at 1024x768 with IGP and certainly with a 9800 Pro (which you could configure it with a ways back) will easily do 1024x768+ high settings with a 3.0-3.2C P4. Esentially when you say "800x600" i think you are thinking someone is using only the IGP Intel built in and many people configured these units with an add-in AGP card. Don't you think a 865G/I865G/915 intel with an X800 Pro will do ok? Maybe not as well as an A643000+ with the same cards, but hardly limited to 800x600.
No, Im not "high-end tech" but I think I can sort out what Dell has to offer and what Velocity Micro or some other boutique gaming store has to offer. The problem is that most people dont know what else there is "out there" because they dont do the research. They watch advertising on TV and purchase what their friends have. The word SNOB comes to mind,sir. Im sorry I offended your high endedness. have a good day Do you work for Dell or something??? Having a bad day???
Snob?.. quite the contrary i'm just clarifying a few things with you. Work for Dell? No - but i have owned and ran my own shop for 3 1/2 years. So i build alot of custom jobs, but i also know that while Dells are certainly proprietary in most regards, most of the 4700-8300-8400-XPS lines are prefectly capable machines. Maybe not as capable as the AMD machines thesedays but the new X2 P4's (Gen 5 XPS) have some zip in them. Also - i very much support AMD and use AMD myself, but it's hard to sit here and read assertations about Dell that just aren't true. If you go with the lower end Dell models with celerons obviously that along with onboard intel IGP you get a less that capable machine for a performance oriented enthusiast type of end user, and that type of machine actually IS for email, spreadsheets grandpas apps...etc...etc... I understand AMD has the edge in just pure framerates and money vs. performance catagories, but do remember that it was not that long ago when the P4C northwood was considered much better than the athlon xp.
Have a nice day