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Ordered an XPS710
Okay, I normally do not purchase pc's from the big name commercial companies because I know how overpriced the hardware is compared to building it yourself. I have been building pc's for years and just haven't been in the mood to build one lately.
I did however need a new gaming pc. I had been hearing a lot about the XPS systems and figured, what the heck. I knew I would pay more but at least I didn't have to go thru the headache of building and tweaking it so I decided to chuck up the money and dive in.
I looked for reviews on these systems for a long time before actually making my purchase but I couldn't find anything for the exception of the sites where they tested and pushed the XPS710 to the limits and the overall conclusions were that it could handle a lot. Sounded good to me. I couldn't get any "real user" reviews.
Anyway, so I made my purchase. Customized it with the duo-core cpu 2.66, 160g HD at 10k RPM, 2gigs of Ram, and the 8800gtx card.
Now I found some posts and comments about the XPS700 that I'm not too happy about. blue screens on startup, faulty Mobo, all types of stuff. Anyone have these problems with the XPS710?
If I really have to in a year or two I will swap out the mobo and just do my thing but I hope I don't encounter these issues. I really went for this pc because of the tower's appearance. Didn't really like any of the towers on the market.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Message Edited by JeXus on 02-12-2007 09:53 AM
Message Edited by JeXus on 02-12-2007 10:24 AM
pointguard1122
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Posted February 12th, 2007 15:00
Unfortuanately no. There is currently no way to upgrade and keep the case. The case is BTX and has a proprietary front panel and LEDs. There are no BTX retail mobos that you can swap it out with(even with a new power supply). Intel has pulled the plug on the BTX form factor. This means there is no way to upgrade unless Dell decides to create and sell a BTX mobo that will swap into the case. This is what many of us are working towards. Dell has shown some interest in looking into this option, but no decisions have been made formally.pointguard1122
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Posted February 12th, 2007 17:00
I wouldn't be so sure of that. GB (one of our great forum members) is going to Dell headquarters AGAIN to meet with the VP Mike Dell put in charge of this issue. After a phone conversation on Friday he seemed pretty positive about the chances of getting Dell to do the right thing. Dell advertised this system to be fully upgradable with any BTX mobo with the full knowledge there will be no more BTX mobos made. There is actually a firm that is investigation possible action agaist Dell because of this. Dell also advertised many specs with the Nvidia 590 SLI chipset that were cut from the final version. There was a disclaimer on the XPS710 stating that some features were removed. Also, I have been told by a XPS tech reffered to me by a High level exec @ Dell that there will be another mobo released in April that is swapable in the XPS700/710 case. No other details of the mobo have been revealed yet. I guess we will see in a few months if that happens or not.
JeXus wrote:
aaahh, I see. Well, I there is no chance that Dell is going to do that. Business is business and producing mobo's for a tower that is not current is not something that will be cost effective for them. Only a small portion of people actually upgrade their pc's or have the know-how to do so. I think we are beat. Now I just have to decide whether or not that is acceptable for me.
- aaahh, I see. Well, I there is no chance that Dell is going to do that. Business is business and producing mobo's for a tower that is not current is not something that will be cost effective for them. Only a small portion of people actually upgrade their pc's or have the know-how to do so. I think we are beat. Now I just have to decide whether or not that is acceptable for me.I think the setup I chose will last me a couple of years. The Nvidia 8800 supposedly is far beyond the games available on the markey that will push it to it's limits. From what I have researched one 8800 card is faster than a 2x ATI xfire cards. I don't have a huge monitor so I won't be playing in xtreme resolutions anyway. When the time comes I can prolly pop in another 8800 for an SLI config and maybe upgrade my CPU that should prolong the need for completely upgrading the other parts.I do feel you guys tho. The reason I chose the XPS was beause of the cool looking tower and it s to know I wont be able to keep pushing it with new hardware. Oh well, the way I am I will get tired of it anyway and want a new one.Thanks for the info it is much appreciated and has cleared up a lot of things. I haven't been keeping up with the technology lately. When I read the XPS desc. I could have swore it said full-atx tower. I guess I was wrong.
- So as far as upgrading is concerned with the XPS systems. How far of an upgrade are we talking about here? If they bring out one mobo upgrade they are off the hook? How much further can you upgrade right now with the technology that is out? Or do you mean like a continuous flow of mobo upgrades for X amount of time? I'm a little confused about this issue. I guess it sort of pertains to me since I just dove in head first.
Message Edited by JeXus on 02-12-2007 01:52 PM pointguard1122
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Posted February 12th, 2007 18:00
I think right now we are hoping for a 680i mobo that doesn't have every nvidia feature removed. The 680i reference is about the best mobo you can get today. After that, who knows? GB is going to meet with Dell and I assume it will go one of 2 ways. Either Dell will continue to support this chassis and offer future upgrades to us, or Dell will move to another chassis. Hopefully in the long run, Dell will moe towards an ATX case that is completely swapable without any proprietary parts. Who knows what the future will hold.- Yea, I wouldn't have thought that the XPS had a BTX mobo or a BTX tower for that matter. The full towers I have seen were mostly ATX which is what I thought the description said. I was under the assumption that eventually I could just swap out all the parts when I got tired of it. Hopefully they do continue to offer upgrades, but if they did anyone with an XPS system wouldn't be as quick to go out and buy one of their new systems. They would just keep buying parts (cheaper) and Dell wouldn't sell as many new systems with the new chasis that they want to use.On the other hand, it would be nice if they did keep offering upgrades for this system tho. They might actually see more people start buying their systems. Why go anywhere else to buy a PC, when there is a company offering you a PC and upgrades for their parts in the future.By doing so they would be locking you into their product which is kinda what they want and at the same time pleasing the customer as long as the upgrades really do become available.I guess only time will tell what is in store for us.
ArmpitOfDeath
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Posted February 13th, 2007 08:00
One of the very good reasons for the BTX layout is the noise and the cooling. You can get ATX prebuilts which are pretty quiet - or expend a lot of research and effort silencing your machine - but the XPS range is very quiet for the punch that they can pack (if you load it up that is, and I don't really see the point of getting an XPS with a CPU/GPU that you can put in any other 'regular' desktop).
All my XPS's live under a fairly wide desking area spread out throughout the room and it just makes a huge difference compared to the self-built / small-scale boutique desktops I had before. I have had a couple of problems with the 700 (including bits falling off :o) which does worry me a bit, but so far no issues with the 710 or the latest acquisition, the H2C.
The support to deal with those issues has been pretty much what I expected as a regular Latitude/Precision user - i.e. not as good as the support for those lines, but pretty much delivers what they say they will provided you don't talk to the tech support like a smarta--. I'm happy. Another thing different to many other self-built or even prebuilt efforts is that I'm getting superb stability on all the 7xx's, even though the 700 and 710 are no longer stock.
I don't keep any computer for more than 18-24 months typically so an upgrade path wasn't important for me. Still, it's a fantastic case (except for the front panel) and it would be a shame if they didn't somehow keep it current.
Message Edited by ArmpitOfDeath on 02-13-2007 10:53 AM
pointguard1122
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Posted February 12th, 2007 14:00