I was thinking about getting a DELL XPS system. They are pretty nice. I am not that knowledgeable about computers, but I am learning. Do you think it would be more cost-effective to build a computer or buy a computer with everything you already need? I mean, I know eventually you will have to upgrade it, but what would be better?

sssshhhh don't tell anyone that. when i built mine everyone thought it must have been so complicated lol. Oh and to the guy above me, it's much much cheaper to build a computer. But as simple as it really is, you do have to watch yourself because it's a lot of expensive stuff your dealing with. But don't buy from dell or some other company because they really do jack up the price, and leave you with little options as far as upgrading

As far as prebuilts go, Dell really has the best price-to-performance ratio. If you can't build one yourself or have on built, Dell is the way to go.


If you build it yourself, you will understand it far better than jst buying one, and so upgrading it will also be easier because YOU know what you put in it.

Besidees, IIRC, Dell locks their CPU/GPU frequencies, meaning you can't overclock.

I finally sat down and decided to try learning how to overclock. Pretty fun so far.

I am not doing anything too radical, just seeing how much I can safely milk out of my processor, mobo, etc.

I've got a budget build:

Epox EP-M4ULTRA-3 motherboard
2x2GB OCZ DDR 800 memory
AMD 64 2.0GHz dual core
2x300GB Western Dig HDD

I store most of my stuff on my Buffalo Terastation (1TB NAS)

Right now I've got my CPU up to 2.2GHz but I just started about an hour ago and I'm doing lots of stress testing to make sure it's stable and temps don't get high since I just have the factory heat sink (plus 4 case fans)