[azuza001]

As the title suggests, I've been given the option to buy a pretty decent Dell XPS 420 system with 3 gigs ram, Q6600 Proc, X38 Motherboard (BTX But still), 375 watt power supply, 320 gig hd, dvdrw, 19" LCD Screen, and a Radeon 2400 pro video card for 500$. I'm gonna jump on it as for the price vrs. parts it looks to be a good deal to me.

Here's my issue. It appears the only way that I can overclock will be through the pin mod to make its fsb run at 1333 instead of 1066, personally not affraid of doing this at all, or by using soft FSB. There have been "subtle" comments posted on the web that a custom bios could also possibly be put onto this board to give access to the FSB. Anyone know anything about this?

Also, I havn't been able to find out from my own research if this system uses a standard PSU or a "Dell Special" PSU. I'd like to know as I plan on ripping the 2400 pro out and putting my 4850 in, but 375 seems kind of low to me and I'd like to also throw my 600 Watt Thermaltake into it as well.

And finally, is this a good deal? Without the monitor, could I get the same thing for say 400? I don't think so, but I've been wrong before Lol. Thanks in advance.

[JonSimonzi]

Are you trying to get 2 PCs? Or just buy that one, and throw your best parts in, and just have 1 PC? If your only going for 1 PC, you'd be better off spending $500 on your current machine.

[azuza001]

I'm going to be selling off the processor/dvdrw drive from my current machine actually for now, but in the end 2 pcs, 1 for encoding video and the other for movies/gaming.

[SkiBum1207]

hmmm the 375 is already low but if you OC it with a pad mod, i doubt it will be enough, esp with a 4850 in it. I have no clue if the psu is propriatory, i dont THINK so, but dont quote me on that, DELL is notorious for having weird qwirks so you cant upgrade with out their blessings (and your hard earned cash lol)

[Automiketic]

id say spend the money on individual parts you dont need the vid card or psu so a proc is like 200 and mobo from 100-300, hdd for 65 as well as ram for 50 or less. spend about the same except you will have better parts that can actually oc.

[tgorczca]

Originally Posted by Automiketic

id say spend the money on individual parts you dont need the vid card or psu so a proc is like 200 and mobo from 100-300, hdd for 65 as well as ram for 50 or less. spend about the same except you will have better parts that can actually oc.

Although the XPS is a nice system and you do have a good price, it is not worth trying to modify it significantly, I tend to agree with Auto. I have a stock XPS410 with a 925 chip in it hooked up to my 720p LCD TV and it works great, though I use it only for playing movies and HULU. It has a NVidia 6800 card which is adequate for the TV. Basically, I'm happy with it but I left it stock, if I want to futz around a PC, I play with the system in my sig...

[tachi1247]

I agree with the previous guys....you could put together the same system yourself for the same or less (minus monitor) and you could pick your parts resulting in a better overclock.

also, it sounds like you have some spare parts lying around so you could save some money and buy less expensive parts to put into your second comp. the 4850 and 600 watt PSU can go into the new one and a cheap video card and whatever 350 watt PSU newegg has on sale for $30 can go into the old system.

[tachi1247]

640gb hdd for $60, 4GB ddr2-1066 for $30 (w/ rebate) and probably another $60 to get the second comp up and running.