Dell's XPS 730x Core I7 Gaming System Reviewed 171
MojoKid writes "Shortly after Intel released their new Core i7 processors about a month ago, Dell announced a new update to the XPS 730 with Core i7 tech under the hood.
The new Dell XPS 730x is first and foremost a technology update but the chassis has also been buffed up a bit. The Intel Core 2 processor and NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI chipset powering the original XPS 730 line have been swapped with
the new Core i7 processor and an Intel X58 Express chipset based motherboard. The XPS 730x retains the original 730's ability to
support both Crossfire and SLI multi-GPU graphics. Like all XPS 700 series machines since the XPS 710, the XPS 730x is available with optional factory overclocking and a H2C edition featuring a two-stage liquid cooling system. And yes,
it rips through Crysis quite nicely and puts up rather impressive benchmark numbers."
Oblig. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Oblig. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Oblig. (Score:4, Informative)
While it is a ridiculous shitload of money, I did a quick cost comparison and it's actually a pretty good deal considering what's it in. Sure, you get the semi-sucky Dell versions of everything, which means a blah motherboard, blah (underclocked?) graphics card and a "1000w power supply" that competes with 700w models from Antec or Seasonic (same shit really), but you would have a hard time building an equivalent system for that kind of money, and you certainly won't get any kind of warranty from online dealers.
I hate to say it, but if you're in the market for a $5000 beast, this one ain't so bad. That said, if you're still somewhat sane you could build a rig that yields 90% of the performance for less than half the price, but clearly some people just have to have that last 0.2 ghz for $1500 more.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And lets see how well the SLI/Crossfire graphics cards run games while also being called by the desktop window manager and and explorer to redraw aero effects constantly. And by the way, you're paying an as
Indexed Search is a Lifesaver (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Indexed Search is a Lifesaver (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Indexed Search is a Lifesaver (Score:5, Insightful)
Desktop search has its place. Organizing yourself is form of self restraint and discipline that is absolutely vital to getting stuff done. On the other hand, the reason we have all this technology is to make life easier.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When the great grandparent post said they liked indexing because they have a huge hard drive, the only thing I can think of for having such a hard drive would be Music/Video libraries, games, or absolutely huge Flash documents. The music/video most certainly woul
Re: (Score:2)
You organized your mp3s by genre, band, album... Now you don't feel like clicking through a bunch of folders to get to your music
That's what locate, find, globs and tab completion are for.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, locate is desktop search. Just bad desktop search. It only does filenames and typically the index is only updated once per day. Spotlight indexex content as well as filenames and does it on the fly.
Re:Indexed Search is a Lifesaver (Score:5, Informative)
Hold it, you are assuming people are going to search only by file name. However, the rest of us do search by content. How will you remember which file contains "int restriction_level = 1;" on a project with thousands of files and a class diagram that looks like spiderweb on steroids? Indexing is very useful in that aspect.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Unless you write your code in Word
Hmm...not that I use Word, of course, for coding, but if I did use Word and was, well, looking for a suitable alternative for writing code, not that I am, what might you, err, recommend?
And where's the Save button for this comment thing...
Re: (Score:2)
I had a teacher in highschool who used to write his code in Word or Wordpad. I don't know if he programmed that way or if it was just for his examples and lesson plans, but it was wierd. I heard that a couple years after I left, they got another teacher. He had them write their code in windows, but transfer it to a linux box (via floppy if I recall) and compile it using GCC
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Find in files" or grep search every file every time. For many thousands of files that can take a while. With an index, like the ones desktop search tools build, it would take a couple of seconds. When finding anything takes a few seconds you can eliminate many tedious processes. When it's quicker to search than to navigate a filesystem, there's not much point organising many classes of information at all. I organise my code, but I never organise my email. I don't even erase the old stuff, I just search and
Re: (Score:2)
So is solving the problem of having a design that looks like spiderweb on steroids, though.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the problem with that, is when you want files indexed more than one way. Your approach can work, but you might end up having a shitload of softlinks, since a given file might appear in several different directories. Then let's say you want to delete a file: do you really want to delete it from everywhere, or just that one directory you were looking at. Maybe you want hardlinks instead. But then, maybe not.
Why bother? (Score:2)
The whole point of computers it to make difficult stuff like that go away so we can spend our time doing things humans are better at doing.
Besides, organized folders are really a piss poor way to structure large amounts of data. It is even piss poor for small amounts of data. For example, how would you structure your folders for a bunch of one-off "I'm learning API XYZ" projects you created in visual studio? Since they are all stupid apps, it isn't worth the time to properly oragnize them, yet still you
Re:Oblig. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but only to use the extra RAM and processing time to "cache" all of the crap you never use
I'm confused, you'd rather Windows just didn't do anything with the extra memory and processing power? If you really don't want you hard drive indexed, you can turn off indexing. The memory used to cache frequently used programs is reallocated when necissary, don't let the little graph in the task manager fool you into thinking you don't have enough memory just because your memory is actually being used for a change.
And lets see how well the SLI/Crossfire graphics cards run games while also being called by the desktop window manager and and explorer to redraw aero effects constantly.
Aero is automatically disabled when running any full screen game. If you really hate it that badly, disable it.
Vista has a lot of problems. Having features that many people like, which can be disabled by those who don't, isn't one of them. The only valid complaint you make, in my opinion, is obnoxious UAC prompts.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The only valid complaint you make, in my opinion, is obnoxious UAC prompts.
..which can also be turned off.
Re: (Score:2)
Slight problem there. As techies, we'll work on Vista machines more than actually installing the damn thing for ourselves. As such, do you really want to turn off UAC on some luser's PC? Much as I hate to give MS any credit, UAC actually does help a little bit. And if you troubleshoot MS machines for a living, every little bit helps.
I hope people listen to you (Score:3, Insightful)
Turning off UAC on your own computer is one thing (I leave it on, turning it off is like running as root all day). Turning it off on a computer that isn't yours is horrible. You are opening them up to security issues by doing that. Instead you should keep it enabled and train the users what it means when you get a UAC dialog (hint: they shouldn't get any unless the install software). If they are really "clueless", train them to call you before clicking through one so you can make sure they aren't about
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The only valid complaint you make, in my opinion, is obnoxious UAC prompts.
Which is also pretty groundless, since generally speaking UAC prompts appear for the same reasons, and with similar frequency, as sudo prompts on Linux or Windows.
And you can even turn them off, if you want to expose yourself to more risk.
Re: (Score:2)
Which is also pretty groundless, since generally speaking UAC prompts appear for the same reasons, and with similar frequency, as sudo prompts on Linux or Windows.
I'd have to say the big difference 'tween a sudo prompt and UAC would be that any monkey or three-year-old can click an icon and then a button. Might take 'em a bit longer to get past my password.
That's gotta be my biggest gripe with UAC: without the use of a password, it can't even secure a PC from a click-happy granny from out of town.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That's gotta be my biggest gripe with UAC: without the use of a password, it can't even secure a PC from a click-happy granny from out of town.
Which is not what it's meant to do.
If you really want to, you can configure UAC to prompt for a password (and even a username). In typical scenarios, however, it adds nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Oblig. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not stupid as such, it's the standard human thought process for making decisions which is:
1. Make a decision based on what you feel or what other people tell you to decide.
2. Find evidence that supports your decision, ignore evidence that counters it.
3. If there isn't much evidence make some up so you don't look stupid for making the wrong decision.
Nothing to do with Vista, or Microsoft, just the usual method of thinking.
Re: (Score:2)
PS: It's not all about fast boot the OS wants to keep RAM free so you can quickly allocate memory without swapping which is a good idea, but if I open a 24 hour old tab it's not in memory even if I have 2GB of free ram. I think the bug has something with not loading back stuff that's been swapped out in favor of the ready boost crap.
Re: (Score:2)
In my experience, Vista keep caching long after you've gone to paging file. (Or did, its possible MS fixed this) Even if all it does is move the cache to the paging file, thats still a waste of resources, especially since disk I/O is a big bottleneck.
Re:The Oblig. VISTA FUD (Score:2)
Explain to me how the Aero GUI becomes a load on the GPU when you are running Crysis full screen and with F/X cranked up to the max --- which is, after all, the reason why you lay out the big bucks for a high performance gaming system.
How Do I ... tweak Vista indexing options for better performance [com.com] [Dec 15, 2008]
The Great Vista/Mac Show [zdnet.com]
Re: (Score:2)
-The extra memory that caches all the crap you never use is freed if it is required. Which means it's used only to speedup your computer, and you won't notice the microsecond it takes to free it.
-The hard drive indexing can be turned off. Windows XP has a similar feature, this isn't new.
-Redrawing aero effects doesn't happen when you're running a fullscreen game. If you launch Half-Life 2 for example, aero will id
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Indexing on Vista = goodthing.
winkey + first [couple of] letter[s] of anything you're looking for and .. you're there.
It's not about remembering, it's about speed.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually the chassis looked to be one of the better pieces from what I read in the article. It does look a little rice-y but it fits standard ATX motherboards so future upgrades can continue to use it. It also has internal LED lighting so you don't need to fumble around with a flashlight when working inside the case (powered by 2-AA batteries so the chassis power can be disconnected, as it should be any
Re: (Score:2)
we choose to save anything outside of our home directory.
Or you use external drives or have a home network with other systems holding documents, or are in a business environment where you have vast network shares of documents dating back decades.
I have a couple external 500gb drives and a lot of network shares locally and remotely, and searching a few million documents in a couple of seconds is quite nice, especially when the servers or peer clients do the heavy lifting and you are just querying their searc
Re: (Score:2)
So I upgraded to 2GB of RAM, and damn if Vista still took its own sweet time doing anything.
After months of this, I gave up and tried Ubuntu 8.04 via Wubi, and not only d
$5099 for a gaming computer... without SLI? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Here's a comparison. Here's a similar system at CyberPowerPC for $3600: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Infinity_SLI_KO/ [cyberpowerpc.com] Same CPU, same motherboard, but twice the memory, twice the video and nearly twice the HD space.
For $4900
Dell? (Score:2)
Next we'll see a story showing just how cheap laptops have become showing an Apple AirBook as the example. I'd give a car analogy, but there are just too many to choose from... and it's too easy to throw dirt at the American car compa
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Dell bought Alienware.
Re: (Score:2)
Well I missed that bit of news... I guess that explains why Dell is making gaming rigs with weird cases.
Re:Dell? (Score:4, Funny)
Might want to peruse some tech-related sites from time to time, then.
Re: (Score:2)
Alienware is Dell (Score:2)
$4,700 later, you can play a $40, year-old game (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's funny that we're using Crysis as a benchmark, rather than an object-lesson in "what not to do in game development."
The only reason why Crysis is being chosen here is because it's notoriously difficult to get it running on any system maxed out. The article's graph notes that the test was run without adding in anti-aliasing, and it manages to barely squeak out a playable frame rate (on a 22" widescreen lcd resolution).
Crysis looks good, sure, but so do most games at this point. It can scale down to run OK on lower machines, but again, so do most games at this point.
Benchmarking aside, I think it's beyond ridiculous that anyone would buy a $4,500+ PC for home / game use. What could possibly justify that? I have a year old system (quad core, 8800GT) that can literally play every game on the market at max settings... at 1920x1600! Oh, I guess with the singular exception of Crysis, which I haven't bothered with.
I wouldn't dream of spending that much cash on a game system. Think about it this way: You can buy this PC, -or- a used Audi. Or... a well-equipped gaming PC, a Sony XBR TV, a PS3, 360, AND Wii, and still have money left over for games.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:$4,700 later, you can play a $40, year-old game (Score:4, Interesting)
What are you talking about. Computer games have *always* been designed to have settings headroom so that they can take advantage of new hardware. Crysis is normal, not some wacky exception.
That's bullshit. FarCry 2, for example, also wouldn't run on max on that rig. And that's good. It means that game graphics haven't stagnated. It means that games can look better, and all you need to do is upgrade to see them. Just like it's been for the past 15 years.
Re: (Score:2)
At 1920x1600?
I've got a 9600 GT (which benchmarks only about 30% slower than an 8800 GT on similar games), and I get well under 20 FPS on Far Cry 2 at 1920x1200 with the settings cranked all the way up.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Dell is building this thing for gamers. Who else do you think the target market is?
And not to be rude but if someone can afford to buy this rig and still have enough money to ride the bus who are you to question it? It's not like they're molesting children or kicking puppies.
Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't pay a dollar for an extra frame a second out of any game that I play but at the same time I normally pay many times the normal going rate for a set of headphones
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's beyond ridiculous that anyone would buy a $4,500+ PC for home / game use.
My dad, approaching 65 years young, purchased a Dell gaming rig recently for over $3K. He showed me the specs and I was surprised to find that I could have built a similar machine for at most half the price (sans warranty and support of course). But building a machine isn't hard, but it's got some nuances (power supply pins for one) and if you don't want to attempt it, you'll buy one pre-built. And who will you go to?
Re: (Score:2)
Not only that, but this new hardware isn't sporting ECC. ECC single bit correction rates as indicated by Google and EETimes are much higher than you would expect. Ever have a memory read error, or a "BSOD" or panic you cant explain? I don't. All my rigs have ECC. Until one converts to a no-compromise on ECC stance, one never knows 2 things:
Are my bits really safe? (both in memory and on disk)?
Is my memory actually working ?
Its tiresome to see that at the end of 2008 ECC isn't standard fare yet.
EETIMES: Micr [eetimes.com]
Re:Well put... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Mobo? (Score:2)
What about the mobo? What is it?
Supporting both CrossFire and SLI is interesting, most interesting is X58 chipset being Intel's ... and it gets SLI?
Intel's chipsets are faster than Nvidias, partially thereof, Nvidia won't license Intel the SLI technology to make it work on their chipsets. On the other note then again, some Nvidia chipset (MOST OF THEM infact) refuse to work at all, or almost completely on them (Core Quad Extremes 9600-9770), even on the latest chipset.
I'm running a Q9660 UNDERclocked to 2.4
Re: (Score:2)
It's the MOtherBOard, which holds a computer's main components such as the processor and disk drives.
But that's not important right now.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Does it really matter if, one day, Windows is a gaming OS and serious stuff gets done in, say, Linux?
Yeah, it does. I don't want to have to waste time and resources on Windows. If I was going to do that, I'd buy a console... which is the why of Xbox.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And if XP lost all the crap and became a game only OS then I could live with that as well.
I'm not getting my head around why this appeals to you so much. Maybe its just how I look at it.
For me - Linux is great. I work in it. I dabble with various hobbies in it. When I want to game, its nice to just swing over to a virtual desktop and fire up a game for an hour or two (or hell - a weekend lost to downing bosses and fighting battlegrounds). A specialized gaming OS would mean I have to reboot (I couldn't imagine running in an emulator but hey - we're getting there).
What you're asking for is a s
Re:Windows again (Score:5, Interesting)
While I don't really disagree with your assessment, I find it interesting to note that many people have blamed the fall of the Amiga as a platform on it being too heavily marketed as a games platform rather than being for "work stuff".
Ironic that now it seems that one of the major obstacles preventing a particular platform's wide level acceptance is the presence of games.
Truthfully given how limited my scope of gaming is these days Linux could PROBABLY serve all my needs if there were a good WoW (and Ventrilo) client for it. For the time being though my Mac is thankfully able to handle both those tasks.
Re:Windows again (Score:4, Informative)
From what I can remember, it was also management issues at the top.
Not to mention that the Amiga was tightly bound to the custom chips they did in-house (Paula/Agnus, etc). Commodore didn't spend (or didn't have?) enough resources on R&D to keep up with the PC, and was also too slow in changing the platform so that it could use PC components instead.
Re:Windows again (Score:5, Informative)
There were a lot of reasons. Probably the number one overall was the same reason Mac market share dropped: the large prevalence of cheap PC clones from different vendors. The average user didn't see a real difference between Windows and another OS.
As far as the technical side, you are correct in that the custom chips ultimately held the Amiga back. The updated AGA chipset machines (more or less comparable to VGA at the time) were pricey for the power they offered. For example the A1200 was released with a 68020 at a time when 486s were becoming common on PCs.
Re: (Score:2)
I wish Apple would take OpenGL by the balls and do to it what they managed to do with OpenCL.
Right now DirectX's advantages (from what I understand) are its integration between all the necessary services needed to actually put together a game (video, sound, user i/o, etc.). If they could code an IDE that took a base of an improved OpenGL (what OpenGL 3.0 was supposed to be essentially) _and_ integrated its services with all the other necessary ingredients required to make a game, throw in some of Apples mag
Re: (Score:2)
Yea, the Amiga was seen as too much 'for children' what held it back was paradoxically its more thought-through and superior architecture. I had a choice at the time between similarly priced Amiga 500 and an XT with no graphics. I should have gotten the XT I suppose, but at least I had lots of fun while other people learned to use Lotus 123.
(I did design and develop a 3D CAD application (with GUI and mouse etc.) while still at high school in 1988 while the rest of my class were still messing around with wri
Re: (Score:2)
This assumes you have a graphic card which has decent drivers (In my case this was the nvidia-drivers package with a 8800 GTS). I never got it to work right with an ATI card.
Re: (Score:2)
I've gotten WoW to work using Wine, but haven't tried Ventrilo. Still, I've never found Wine to be a preferable solution. I want a native port :).
Re: (Score:2)
MBGMorden (803437) wrote:
> Truthfully given how limited my scope of gaming is these days Linux
> could PROBABLY serve all my needs if there were a good WoW (and
> Ventrilo) client for it.
For the record, I leveled a priest all the way to level 70 on
WINE/Gentoo. Never had a single crash. Ventrilo on WINE works fine for
me too.
Re: (Score:2)
While I don't really disagree with your assessment, I find it interesting to note that many people have blamed the fall of the Amiga as a platform on it being too heavily marketed as a games platform rather than being for "work stuff".
Ironic that now it seems that one of the major obstacles preventing a particular platform's wide level acceptance is the presence of games.
I have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to the Amiga. Which is odd, since I was such a fan of the C=64. One of my good friends at that time picked up an Amiga and it did look pretty interesting. But I never went for one. And that has me really wondering.
I find myself disagreeing with the assessment at face value; it wasn't gaming vs. business that caused the Amiga trouble. There was a more fundamental issue that could have been misinterpreted as business computing. That issue was commodity pl
Re: (Score:2)
Ironic that now it seems that one of the major obstacles preventing a particular platform's wide level acceptance is the presence of games.
The fact that a couple of slashdotters say so doesn't make it true.
In my opinion, Linux's only obstacle to gaining a significant foothold on the desktop market is a better acceptance on the business sector, as it happened with both DOS and Windows before it, with games only being a side benefit of the aditional market share. However, I am also a mere slashdotter so don't assume my opinion as truth, though I believe its better supported than the games theory. Still, conclusive proof it isn't, so take it with
Re: (Score:2)
Well what are the options.
Macs yea they can probably be a good gaming system. However you will always need to buy Apple Hardware with Apple OS (As I type it on my MacBook Pro in Safari for OS X). But for gaming where these guys often make their own uber boxes, going Mac isn't really an option.
Linux for Gaming... That is actually laughable. Linux is great for a server. Passible for a desktop system, but not much for gaming... To many diver makers will not support Linux other who do take so much heat about n
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Bullshit. There are two makers of capable GPUs, and both support Linux well with decent drivers downloadable from their web sites. Installing the drivers is straight-forward for anyone capable of reading simple instructions. Different from Windows, yes, but not in any way difficult. You forget that while Linux is different from Windows, the users aren't in general any less competent.
Also, the fact that you believe there is such a thing as hunting down drivers in the Linux world shows that you have no fuckin
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, it should be:
signed, the other 89.5% of the world
Re: (Score:2)
Linux users of course.
Re:Windows again (Score:5, Funny)
this isn't the world, it's slashdot.
signed, a fat basement dweller who can't wait for 2009, year of the linux desktop.
Oh that's next year!? YES! I'm going to hit up thinkgeek and buy myself every linux shirt I can find. In your face MS admins!
Re:Windows again (Score:4, Funny)
I thought that 20NN+1 was the year of the Linux laptop.
Re:XPS cases sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't want it either because I have to buy a new case.
If I'm just swapping out mobos and CPUs every now and then I don't wanna be buying new cases. Especially if I"m using a really good and very expensive one.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Conclusion, only fat pasty linux users buy dells.
I don't know what to say.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, you can.
There are 4 drive slots located below the power supply towards the rear of the case.
1) open the side panel,
2) remove the drive tray in one of the empty slots,
3) place your drive in the drive tray, slide it in,
4) connect the SATA and power cables,
5) close the side panel.
That's it.
Re: (Score:2)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
No speakers (FAIL)
PS: I am not kidding they don't give you any speaker options on their most expensive XPS 730x H2C.
Re:1st post (Score:5, Insightful)
No speakers (FAIL)
Yeah. You're paying tons of cash for the best hardware out there, and then route the audio trough crappy active PC speakers? That's like those people who buy an expensive car, and then can't afford the fuel for it.
If you have an expensive display, or sound card, don't be cheap on the sound. Everybody I know, who has a decent system, has it connected to his hi-fi system. I have only one output on my system: Real-time encoded AC-3 trough a fiber glass cable... It's better to let your amplifier do the D/A-decoding, instead of the cheap decoders in your sound card.
At least I don't have to tell my fellow Slashdotters, that the keyboard is very important too. :)
Re: (Score:2)
(My laptop is 5 years old, and the speakers are unlistenable. Just curious if the situation has gotten any better.)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
FTFA: "Also included are a few freebies. Every XPS 730 system comes with a free tool kit with all of the various screwdrivers you would need to tinker with your system, a free Dell XPS metal mouse pad and a free set of XPS branded Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA2 surround sound gaming headset."
Re: (Score:2)
How would you handle hardware support that way? It would have to go back like the days of the DOS game, where a game only supported a finite subset of hardware, and everything else had to run on the CPU...it was possible back then, with games being minimalistic, but now?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
And the infrastructure they need is available free as open source, besides. What's stopping them.
The GPL.
And "games on Linux" is for the moment something unheard of without Wine unless you enjoy half-assed Quake clones.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Buy low, sell high (Score:2)
There are winners and losers in every turn of the market.
In the 1930s folks went to the movies - an evening out for 25 cents - or stayed home and listened to the radio.
Those quarters added up quickly.
So did the return on every pack of cigarettes or bar of soap sold through "our sponsor tonight, your neighborhood Rexall drugstore."
Re: (Score:2)
This is because most people in America are impatient short-sighted optimists who can't manage their debt.
The current economy is making it difficult to borrow money, so individuals and companies that are living beyond their means and shoring it up with debt are in trouble.
People who have money saved up might want to spend it on a nice gaming computer. It helps the economy, even. You wouldn't want poor Intel and Dell to go out of business would you?