Hi all,

First post to the forum, in a long long time so I thought I share my experiences with my 630i.

(Using a new name too as I cant remember my old one!)

I ordered it last Wednesday - it arrived a couple of days later on Saturday morning so 10/10 on that front!  Must be quiet aat the factory though! :)

Anyhow, out of the box she came.  I got it with 4GB bog standard ram (will upgrade myself to better). 2 x 640gb hdds regular DVD and 2 x 3870s.  I also ordered the 2408 ultrascan. 

First irritant - the cellophane wrapping on the case while mostly easy to remove, it must have been applied before assembly as it seemed to get caught between bonded panels.  Still can't remove some of it.  Anyhow, a minor grumble.  I love the case and the look of the machine.  A real bruiser and the alu case feels great.  The front panels are a little flimsy though and are a bit of a let down.  Lucky I'm a careful owner!

Machine is quick and quiet.  Bootup is only a few seconds and I love that fact. 

I have it located on the floor so light fx and flickering hdd led is not much of an issue but I am irked to see it not implemented properly.  I did mess about with the nvidia settings a bit and can say I experience the same sorts of issues as is reported elsewhere - 'nuff said on that front.  I'll be followingthose threads with interest.

Now, I use a DiNovo Edge keyboard and that syncs up with the built in bluetooth perfectly - no need for Logitech's dongle.  I also use the MX revolution mouse but that needs it's own dongle to work.  Anyhow, interesting issue cropped up.  I uninstalled the Dell's Mouse utility (not needed you see) and that freaked out the NVIDIA software.  Came up with multiple errors on reboot.  So much so, I had to download and reinstall it - errors went away when reinstalled.  I'm sure i'll figure it out when I have time but if anyone else has experienced this one let me know!  Other issues being; the X-fi software seems to always reset itself from 5.1 to 2.1 channed and default the volume to 'LOUD!' on reboot??? and, after updating the Catalyst drivers (from ATI), the Catalyst Control Centre will not launch - mouse flickers a couple of times and that's that.  I've a bit of work to do to figure that one out.

I've no current games atm, but HL2s performance is stonkingly fast. 

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase so far.  Only a few days in to ownership so we'll see how it all goes. 

Dell have some work do do to get things right and claw back some credibility - particularly from what I'm reading here. 

I do feel like I purchased a premuim machine - my last PC was a Dimension 8300 and that lasted me 4 years.  In fact it it still a great PC but noisy like a high end server.  The mouse mat is nice but a couple of other goodies to make the purchase feel  a bit more special would not have gone amis.

So, that's it for now.  I'll try participate on the board as much as possible - it's good to be back!

V.