Within 10 minutes of getting the machine set up i got multiple blue screens of death, dont read hex so no idea what the problem was.

 

sound card was glitchy graphics were glitchy and so much pre-installed free offer gubbins it was unreal.

 

Did a full clean install of XP (beware if you have a raid controller you will need a floppy drive) and its been stable as stable could be with exception to a few sound card problems.  (to which my service tag brings up a sound card that isnt even installed!!)

 

I'm lucky, i'm an IT professional so know what i'm about. 

 

I do however think its a bit of a disgrace that a system as expensive as this required all of the above to work correctly.  If i can re-install the OS and drivers in an hour and make a stable system why cant DELL??

 

After alls said and done its a great system when running correctly and i'm really happy with it, just expected it to work out of the box.