XPS Gen 4?

Question

Hi,

I need to buy a desktop for a home, and I'm thinking about the XPS Gen 4 with the 2005FWP LCD monitor. One issue that worries me is the amount of fan noise. Can anyone who owns this machine comment on the amount of noise? Also, are there any custom options that Dell offers to quiet the machine? (Friends of mine suggest getting a Seagate Barracuda ATA as a quiet drive, Antec power supply, Nexus chip fan ... Don't know what Dell actually uses).

I'm not an avid gamer so I don't really need the most powerful machine (though I would like it!). Which are the quieter Dell machines that you might recommend as alternatives? Thanks for all comments.

Wiggling

DELL-Donald K · Answer

The 8400 is less expensive, nearly as powerful, & seems to be much quieter.  My neighbor got hers last night, silent as a grave.

Destroth · Answer

just ordered a XPS Gen 4 a few days ago. Im wondering if at a future time if I can upgrade my CPU 800-FSB to a CPU with an 1066-FSB sence it is a 925XE motherboard. Also am I going to have to upgrade my bios to from A02 to A03 or has Dell done that for me.

Greatone1601 · Answer

The XPS is fairly quiet until you start playing Doom 3 on ultra settings..then it gets loud! Its a gaming desktop. It's a huge case, it gets loud, it throws some heat (like a small space heater) and its blue with glowing front panel lights. It's NOT an average desktop from Dell. If you want conventional, stick with an 8400. If you want power and options, choose XPS. The 148gb raptors and an extreme edition are pretty quick my friend. Well worth the big case, noise, and heat to me.

countryboy03 · Answer

If you have the money to spend on it and dont mind doing it you will be happy with it, and you probably wont use all the power it has ever, because you arent going to be gaming but it will at least look very cool on your desk!

SmokinJB · Answer

I received my Dell XPS Gen 4 about a week ago. I used to use a Gateway 450 Pentium II that I modified until it reached the end of it's upgradeability. It had case fans, two hard drive fans, video card fan, cpu fan, so really two large fans and a smattering of smaller ones. That being said, I can't believe how quiet the XPS is. Of course, because of the case size, I've had to compromise with it's location to a carpeted floor, but not wanting to put it right on top of the carpet, I purchased a CPU holder call "Roameo" from www.modernofficeinteriors.com . It lifts the tower about 4 inches off the carpet and has some sound deadening because of the cushioned mounts. Looks like it's part of the system. The fans do kick up to a higher and noisier level under more intense work but it seems fine to me.

The cpu will be upgradable to a 1066 FSB since it's a 925XE motherboard with LGA775 socket for the processor. I did purchase the processor (which really was a poor choice since this processor offers little bang for the buck, just got enamered with numbers). Really the motherboard is where the future action is for me to be able to upgrade in the future. I think future Intel cpu's will utilize this chipset for a while, hopefully.

Hope this helps...

J

Gen 4 MCE, 2Gb, 3.46 MHz, 1066 FSB, Raid 1 configuration, ATI 800XT 256 Mb

Destroth · Answer

Thanks, thats just the answer I was looking for. My rig is coming with the stock 3.40 ghs/800mhz FSB, but a year from now I might want to upgrade to the new 1066 FSB as more apps will use it.

Now all I need to know is if I will need to upgrade my bios when my gen 4 gets shipped.

SmokinJB · Answer

My XPS came with A03 Bios, if that helps.   JB

Destroth · Answer

SmokinJB wrote:

My XPS came with A03 Bios, if that helps.

JB

Thanks that helps a lot. The A03 bios is the latest one on the download page.

The only other question I have is do I need to download the intel chipset utility as Im going to be using a USB mouse.

Message Edited by Destroth on 12-16-2004 11:57 AM

Dynoracer · Answer

As soon as the P4 600's were out Dell made a Bios upgrade to the Gen4...ck it out!

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/type.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_XPS_G4&category=1&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=308&devlib=1

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XPS Gen 4?

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