Yikes! Nice components, [bold]way[/bold] too much money. You are building on the wrong part of the curve (the price/performance curve). Why would you get a NorthwoodC p4-3.4 ($630 CAD) when you could get a NorthwoodC p4-3.2 for $390 CAD ? This is just one example... Praetor if someone wants a $3500 computer, you should tell them to give their head a shake, not help try justify it! It's like a contest, to see who can spend the most money. My Barton used to be $300 - now they are $115 incl. heatsink and fan! MadSkillz will be nauseous when he sees his rig worth maybe $2000 by Christmas. Won't he? [bold]CPU[/bold] Intel P4 2.8E GHz @800 w/1MB L2 ($250 CAD) [bold]MOBO[/bold] ASUS P4P800E-DLX ($165 CAD) [bold]Memory[/bold] Corsair 1GB PC3200 XMS ProSeries, 2x512 @ 2-3-3 ($400 CAD) These three components are [bold]$615[/bold] less than your three, although granted they are not at the top of the curve... Regards _X_X_X_X_X_[small]IT Technician BSc MCSA XP2500+Barton 512MB PC3200[/small]
Yes but note that the significant jump comes from the proc rather than the other two. The same though occured to me as well however he did specifically note a P4-3.4. I would have recommended the P4-3.0 myself but "the customer said so". If he had said "Reccomend me a system for $3000-$3500" i would have mentioned that thats a little excessive for one system but he came in and explicitly spec'd some of the parts he wanted and seemed like he knew what he was getting into. There are lots of legitmate reasons to build such systems which you and I, in a different light might deem excessive: each year I build one or two $3000-$5000 systems for computer competitions (for cash prizes) -- so I go out of my way and get extreme parts for a damn good reason. I talk to my sellers, contacts and friends and spec' out some serious hardware and since im not the only person on this planet, it doesnt seem unlikely that other people might also be involved in rig competitions and such. As for the RAM, it was a difficult call on my part (since I'm a corsair fan myself) but the OCZ did offer some extremely nice performance and more OC tolerance than Corsair. Nice call however, I might have been slightly too zealous on the ram performance there. Nice call on the mobo too, personally if I were to get a P4 system I'd get the 865PE since its virtually the same as the Canterwood but since budgent wasnt a serious concern in this case, one might as well grab the top board.
Of course your words are true my friend! (But I didn't get that feel from MadSkillz; I thought he had simply seen an ad for a $3500 Dell XPS.) Hopefully people will find this discussion about 'the curve' thought-provoking...
Possible, i didnt consider that Even if you look at the specs for the XPS there, its not too bad for $3000-$3500 at all (although im kinda wierded out by the lack of -R support and how they found a DVDburner that does 32x cd burning and the kinda small hdd .. still all in all, for an OEM machine thats not too shabby at all -- the funny thing is, for flagship systems, Alienware comps are significantly cheaper than Dells (which was a real shocker)
Yes Dell people pay [bold]big money[/bold] for the support (it really is top-quality) but if you don't want it/need it, don't buy it. Dell's proprietary cooling solutions are fascinating, though, all the times I have been inside one of their cases.
LOL about Dell's customer service .... tell that to my roomate last year .... we encountered some of the crappiest service imagineable :S ... i built him a new system this year and he's has hapilly trashed his old Dell
Ahh i see (well even if you wanted a true 3.4 it can be done with that budget) .... im not sure if i would spend that kinda money on something that isnt bleeding edge (i.e., P4EE-3.4 or even P4EE3.2) or even if i would spend that kinda money on an Intel platform but you seem like you know what you are getting into
