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Dell XPS 'Gaming' PC Review
cojsl writes "[H]ard|OCP has an entertaining review of a Dell XPS 400 'Gaming PC'." From the article: "If the Dimension XPS400 is any indication, Dell considers computer gamers a joke. Harsh, yes. But we think it's accurate. The system itself is a decent gaming platform and the hardware was well built. It was put together decently with parts that can pull the weight required to play today's graphically intensive games. But we couldn't even install one of the most popular games on the market, Sims 2, and trying to play other popular games would lock up the system and gaming sessions, when they would run, would get interrupted. The pre-installed programs that Dell chose to include on its computer were almost certainly the cause of all these problems, and unloading these programs from the boot-up routine fixed the problems."
Gaming, it's as easy as.... oh wait no it's not. Who expected anything different from Dell?
/.ers think of DirectX overall- are they relatively satisfied with how it works from a programmer's (as opposed to a user's)perspective, or does it suck 9 shades of butt and the world would be a better place without it? Just a question cause DX never really comes up on /.
It's crap like this that tends to push gamers away from the PC and towards consoles (the occasion XB360 lockup being the exception that pees all over this post).
Fortunately for me I've got my machine just about stable on most games I try on it, but it does take a lot of effort to keep a machine up to date, most problems being fixed by new drivers & directX updates.
Dell should supply those gaming machines with just a clean copy of windows XP (or as clean as XP gets0) and the latest drivers and version of directX and let gamers screw things up themselves.
Oh, that machine looks like crap as well. Please Dell hire a few designers. Your cases make me want to scrape my eyes out with a rusty spoon.
As a side note, i'd like to ask what
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I don't know why it is that vendors insist on preloading so much crap on their machines when they ship them but it drives me crazy.
:P
We buy Toshiba laptops at my place of work and whenever we get a new one in, its preloaded with the Toshiba default build.. and its pretty awful! When you first fire it up you have to run the gauntlet of about 5-10 pop up windows from apps all letting you know that they are there and running. Cast a glance down to the system tray and there are about 11 or 12 memory resident apps all sitting there taking their cut of the memory and CPU time - one was a Toshiba app that basically takes over the Microsoft power management suite with a far more complex and convoluted piece of software!
I don't understand it personally. Windows might grind the gears of plenty of people but these days its quite a sleek, easy to us OS - why must they insist on bundling all this crap on the machine which must surely confuse users, and give them so much more overhead in places that they don't even need it! Not to mention the quite obvious performance impact on the machine.
I still prefer to make my own PC's - most recent build was for my girlfriend - a really nice Biostar IDEQ barebones box based on an AMD Sempron/NForce3 250 combo! It goes like a rocket, and there is no clutter and crapola on it! Other than Windows
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Any sensible business should be either re-installing the systems themselves after purchase, or paying someone else to do so - in both cases based on the company's actual requirements (software, network/profile setup, configuration, devices).
One size fits all doesn't work, and it's the reason for many problems with Windows even after careful configuration.
Careful configuration (switching off unneeded services for example) makes a huge difference to the resources used by Windows, and can help security also.
-- *~()____) This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
Funny how you guys don't seem to get the CDs in the States.
I have similar problems as presented in this review with my Gateway notebook. I'm just glad I never tried to do gaming with this thing. However, I can easily relate to the pre-installed hardware trouble.
I instantly relate with the tech-support trouble. I blame this on the fact that Joe Smith over the phone in some third world country (who has a fake phone-based life to talk about) is just reading a long sheet of instructions. I actually ask them what call center they are based in, and take note of when I get good technical service. I can easily say that I get "I am from the USA" from the worst tech support agents, and things like "Oh, I'm from the San Fransisco call center, why?" from better more pleasing agents.
If I was paying for support when I bought this notebook, I got ripped off. However, I bought these notebooks because my girlfriend and I could easily use them together, they where cheap (over $200 off in rebates) and ended up getting a notebook as fast as my desktop for less than $600. We both knew that we would have trouble with Gateway, but they did replace her notebook when she broke the LCD within the first 8 days in her bookbag.
While I'll agree that Dell can't exactly make a gaming PC, it has to be said that refurbished Dells can be a source of quality parts for a good price, assuming you purchase their higher line machines and not their low end stuff. I'm really only a casual gamer so I may not count, but the last time I did a full system upgrade, I found that there was absolutely no way I could build an entire machine for cheaper than it would cost me to purchase a refurbished Dell and then add a few key parts. I bought a refurbished Dimension 8300 and 19" monitor, tossed in another 512MB of RAM, binned the 64MB GeForce 5200 in favor of a Radeon 9800 Pro (top dog in October '03, even despite pesky driver issues), and installed a SB Live! I had lying around. Yes, the preinstalled OS was a joke and I had to do a clean install, but in the end I calculated that I probably came out ~$150 - $250 cheaper than if I had built it myself and bought a brand new monitor. And it was only mildly less labor intensive than building an entire PC from scratch. I'm still using the PC now, albeit with even further upgrades from stock.
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
forcing customers to use software preinstalled on their hard drive to burn their own backup discs is absolutely the worst policy ever. this is of course just one problem of this dell model, but so many companies are starting to do this, and they need to stop.
most people who don't have a clue what they are doing won't even think to perform the important step of making a backup disc, and will only think about restore discs after their computer fails. then they are completely out of luck.
i will never buy a PC from a manufacterer ever, except for apple. it's always a bad deal, anyone who takes the 1 hour of time to learn how to build their own computer will reap the benefits of overclocking, having a fresh, clean version of windows OEM edition for $80-$130, and having infinate customizability.
as for notebooks, well, i just have to buy the least Dell-like brand availible. buying off-brands is actually strangely enough the best way to go in this age. and usually you end up getting the best deal and similar quality, since all the major manufacterers buy from the exact same Chinese suppliers that the smaller brands do.
and it is because of this very issue I know a few people who run without AV protection. Norton is the king of annoyances but some free solutions can be just as bad.
The biggest annoyance is that these types of programs love to pop up windows and take focus from whatever application is in use regardless if that application was in full screen (usually games). Now if it was some notication of a hack/virus/etc it could be understood, but no, Norton and many AV programs will do this for simple updates! Hell even JAVA from Sun pops up a little floater above the task bar.
Developers need to realize that many of us prefer to have the comfort of protection but without the annoyance factor. We do not need to know your updating. We do need to know if you cannot update. We don't need pop-ups that tell us updates are available, a simple tray icon is sufficient. Lastly never ever interrupt any full screen application unless the world is ending.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Aside from the curiosity that they have someone listed as a "Grammatical (sic) and Spelling Editor -- whose duties evidently do not extend to punctuation (should be: manufacturers'), this passage translates as: "normally, we only review stuff we can get for free -- we paid for this one." I don't have a problem with the practice of reviewing Hardware from the retail perspective: indeed, for similar reasons and about the same time, Tom's Hardware has taken the same step. What's worrisome is the curious mix of the "Consumer Reports" style with an allusion to a failed negotiation with Dell's Marketing Department. Well, okay, maybe not an allusion: it is conceivable that nobody at [H]ard OCP tried to contact "the largest manufacturer in North America" for a "review copy" deal. It is conceivable, but not likely.
So at the start of the review, the editors tell us that Dell "won't play ball", and they probably spent around $3000 in taxes and restocking fees. The review that follows, of course, will not reflect these facts.
And the review that follows is a beauty: tearing into Dell for all those awful bundling practices they negotiate with third parties to bring the price down further, for not including a recovery diskette, then charging $11 for an OS CD, and having crappy customer support. Oh yeah, the system is unstable as Hell because, after running their "torture test" on the original setup -- with all the crap running., it crashed at the 24 hour mark. system restore.
Then, at the end of the article, the editor steps in with the reason for all this:
For those of you that missed it, the Review in question evaluates a system a couple notches up in the performance category (but, one assumes, since Gateway's marketing dept. played ball, the journalistic budget didn't factor in). But even hardware differences aside, methodologically the two cases aren't comparable. As far as bloatware goes, the Gateway shipped not only with McAfee's antivirus (which the Dell review repeatedly cites as a nuisance and a cause of instability), but also Norton and BigFix. The drivers were not 3 months out of date like at Dell, but 8 months (to which the reviewer says: "Big deal? Not really" and proudly states he installed the latest driver immediately -- instead of, like the Dell review, going to try out games he knew wouldn't work). The Gateway had tons of toolbars and installed bloat. What did the reviewer do?:
I wonder if this problem has gotten better or worse over the years... (as I remember the days of "Packard Bell Navigator" and *shudder*)
I still remember back around late middle-school/early high-school (when I fixed people's computers as a side-job). I had my custom build and nicely configured 486DX2-66, and my upgrade cycle was offset by a year or two from many people in my area. So all these people I knew had just upgraded to new Pentium-based machines, which on-paper were probably better than mine by a long way. (of course they were also mostly store-bought crap) In any case, these machines were all so overloaded with gunk that in actual use, my measly 486 was *much* faster and thrashed *much* less often.
(Yes, this was all in the early/middle Win9X days... Back then my only Linux tinkerings was a brief flirtation with SLS, and eventually some version of Slackware that came in a Linux book I bought.)
Of course my 486 only had 8MB of RAM, which was pretty sweet when I first got it (most friends had machines with 4MB, and our previous family machine had 2MB). Heck, I even had a friend who had a 386DX-40 with 4MB who managed to tweak Win95 so well that he could usably run several programs on it at the same time. Ahh, those where the days, when tweaking and squeezing every last ounce out of one's desktop was a big factor that separated the geeks from the average luser. (and when the accelerated XFree86 x server actually had *faster* graphics than Windows)
Yeah, the few largeish companies that the store i work for deal with have a "special" way they want their systems setup, they don't want virus scanners (their own? restricted/no net access? who cares, its their choice) or adware scanners, but strangely enough love us putting firefox on, and are very happy with our "all windows updates and patches" policy.
:/
And yes, we supply ALL install disks, we work from microsoft OEM shrink wrapped cd + sticker packs. Even if the average user doesn't notice the differance, word gets out fast if you stint even one customer on what they are paying for... although aparently big businesses can get away with it
...
Dell is Legendary in the PC/Low-end server industry for their almost complete lack of a product development staff. Indeed, they even pride themselves on not doing much actual design work themselves, and even boast about it in articles and press releases.
Dell is a company of Marketing folks that somehow managed to hire some of the finest Manufacturing Engineeers and procurement managers on Earth. However, since they seem to make a $hit-load of dough doing exactly what they have been doing, the prospect of actually doing system development and testing, which would have caught most of those bugs in about five minutes, is completely anathema to their corporate culture.
At Dell, OEM's do virtually all the product development. I suspect that with this system, they relied on the Motherboard OEM to certify that the hardware worked together, but they neglected to tell their (tiny) software staff to run additional testing on this software image. Dell likely just loaded the standard "Home" image on this system, which is likely identical to every other consumer desktop that Dell ships out the door.
Bloatware is a regrettable reality for many Consumer PC's. However, to charge extra for a system market towards gamers and then not perform even the most perfunctory testing is pretty damn stupid.
SirWired
This is something that has always baffled me. Just because your shooting zombies, and blood doesn't come squirting out all over the place doesn't mean it's not violent and suitable for kids. You're still shooting at human-like creatures. This has become a disturbing trend in many games, espcially WWII games, no blood == safe for kids. It's also a disturbing trend in movies as well to get that oh so profitable PG-13 rating. You can shoot people left and right and still get a PG-13, but show one damn nipple and you're R.
As for the plot at a 5th grade level, I think that's to make sure all of their adult audience can understand it.
-- gid
I can't speak for standard business stuff, but I usually get indian techs who try to have an american accent using old slang and putting marbles under their tongue. I don't joke. I've met dell indian techs who later came to the university i work for/go to. I have to call in on dells all the time. We haven't had 1 machine make it out of the 3 year warrenty period without a hardware failure. Most commonly its power supply, floppy (i expect this), and hard drive. I've actually had 5 machines with the PROCESSOR CACHE FAIL. These were pentium 4 1.4 ghz based optiplex gx240's. I've had almost all gx260's have bad power supplies now. 280s often have sata controller problems. 270s randonly have power supply problems and are very picky with video drivers. Don't even get me started on laptops. We buy EVERY computer from dell except about 10 macs a year. They treat us like shit. We deployed 54 new machines this summer and 5 were bad in the first 3 days. We've had to call on 10 more. (all gx280 w/ mini case) They overheat of course and die. They have to gut the things.. new motherboard, processor, power supply. Dell's have bad air flow and often overheat.
I don't recommend dell's for business unless you're talking the Precision line. Thats a whole different story. Precisions are great gamer machines provided you replace the video card. A workstation card isn't designed for high frame rates and low quality open gl like we need to play today's fps. I've got a precision 650 workstation at home. Its great for et, wow, and even ok with doom 3. I dropped in an ati AIW 9600 xt card. In all serious though, if you're a true gamer you should BUILD a pc. A good gamer rig has a nice motherboard, sata raid 0 with 8-16mb cache disks, an awesome video card (pciE high end), and as expensive a cpu as you can afford. Most id software games require a lot of disk i/o to ensure fast level load times in multiplayer. UT can benefit that way to. I'm sure newer games like quake4 and farcry could benefit from faster disks as well. All OEM computers i've seen have shitty hard drives in them. Spend 80 bucks on newegg and get something with a little cache. It will do wonders reading those large map files and so forth.
If you are not bright enough or too lazy to build your own pc, i recommend looking hard at what games you play. If you can, buy a powermac. Why? Apple ships with gamer cards on those things.. nvidia and ati graphics.. not cheap ass intel. They are workstation grade machines like precisions and they are very upgradable. You can upgrade video, disks, memory, processors (overdrives!), etc. Apple actually has american tech support and i doubt you'll even need to call them.
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