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Post by cazme on Jul 20, 2005 0:56:45 GMT -5
No, believe it or not, I don't do a lot of video.( my wife might do that when i am not here). but I do like gaming.. I just wanted to have a top end machine from the beginning, instead of eventually building it to the machine I want on a piece meal basis. I went that route with the last one. I guess I want to maximize the enjoyment curve before this one becomes obsolete, too. It always bothered me to have to disable higher graphics functions for mediocre performance. Well, I had the chance to spend some inheritance so I took it. I'll post the pics/benchmarks if it ever comes in .(Dell informed me that it would be delayed until the 26th.. agggghhhhh!!!)
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Post by ResidentBio on Jul 21, 2005 17:34:12 GMT -5
ok i finally have mine....
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Post by devnull on Jul 22, 2005 10:23:12 GMT -5
Casme, they probably cant find 4gb of ram to give you, haha.
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Post by cazme on Jul 27, 2005 22:47:53 GMT -5
mine finally came in today. Awesome machine. I'll be spending most of the weekend tweaking it!! the 2405 monitor is definitely worth the cost.
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Pauly
Freshmen
"What is real?" -- The Matrix
Posts: 11
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Post by Pauly on Jul 28, 2005 12:03:28 GMT -5
Comment..... My GEN4 produces heat...... No Kidding---- To keep my son's room (upstairs)cool in this HOT summer I have had to reroute cooling for our house to his room.... I am thinking of purchasing a small window airconditioner to keep the room livable or moving it to the basement for the summer where it's always cool.. Ahhh what we do for the best performance...
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Post by crusier on Jul 28, 2005 20:49:01 GMT -5
doh...see the post in guild wars.... it must be the heat getting to me....it's 95 F in here on the desk....but the system here runs cool enough to crank it all the way up....the rear nidecs are cooking at 3800-4000 rpms with the vid card cooler set to manual 100%....
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Post by cazme on Jul 29, 2005 3:25:31 GMT -5
this machine rocks!!! Definitely worth the 2 week wait!! Gen5 3.85 GHz P4 670 800FSB w HT 4Gig ddr2 sdram at 667MHz wrls Kybd and mouse 2405FPW wide Aspect Digital Flatscreen ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition 1 TB Performance Raid 0 500GB Serial ATA drive Dual TV tuner and remote 48x CD RW 16x DVD Dual Layer Burner Sound Blaster Audigy 2 z5 PCI w Dolby Digital EX IEEE1394 Dell 9 in 1 Media reader 2 years waranty and tech Support 300 GB Maxtor external backup this machine is the cat's ss!!!
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Post by Zefram0911 on Jul 29, 2005 16:51:58 GMT -5
nice... a little bit nicer than mine too! wow... mine's not best anymore.. =(
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Post by scottymoze on Jul 29, 2005 20:59:13 GMT -5
So I have had a Dimension 8200 for over 3 years. 2.0 ghz 768mb rambus ATI 9800 and all that. It was time to upgrade. And sure enough Dell had 34% off all Dimension XPS Gen 5. Had to max it out. Had to. So, I went nuts. Over 7K worth of computer, 34% off for 5k. Pentium EE 840 ATI X850 PE 4 GB RAM 1 RAPTOR HD (shoulda got two!!) 1 SATA II 500 GB HD Logitech Z5500 5.1 speaks Logitech MX518 mouse 24" FP Display Anyhow, I am a happy dude. It is coming next week and I'm interested in: 1) Overclocking (this seems do-able in BIOS) 2) Adding cooling (maybe replacing the 92mm fans in back to start, with some higher CFM fans, def adding a PCI fan from Mad Dog, not sure what depth the 92mm fans are though) 3) Adding another RAPTOR in RAID 0 4) Adding a fan controller maybe in the third 5.25 slot What else??? If anyone has thoughts gimmie a shout, cool? Oh and I got the 1 year warranty. Thinking of re-imaging the PC right when I get it with Windows XP only clean install (no Dell apps), not sure if that jacks up the warranty. Anyway happy weekend everyone, and lemme know what ya think.
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Post by devnull on Jul 29, 2005 21:24:53 GMT -5
Your warranty will be fine if you pitch the dell crap. Actually, its not all bad. The diagnostics stuff on your drive can be pretty useful at times.
Read read read, if your gonna do any overclocking, you better research the CRAP outta what your doing. Frankly, I dont know why you would want to at this point, as your performance is gonna be in the top group of computer users anyhow. ATItool is a good start for your video card. Hell, we always need more video card performance. As far as fans go, I am not totally familiar with the new gen5 but I can tell you this, if the fans in the back are like the gen3 (one in, one out) switch them so they both point out, put a 120mm fan in the front to pull more air in and put a dedicated fan to push air through the CPU heatsink. That should probably do ya s far as cooling so far.
An arctic silencer is always a nice touch but I dont understand the point of the PCI fan. First of all, I dont know what it is and second of all, its probably not gonna help airflow any more than the aforementioned stuff, but if you want to (and you seem to be made of cash) then go ahead. Lastly, your fan controller in the front bay should controll any and all additional fans you put in your machine so why add that thing?
I would re-apply arctic silver 5 on all your components from:
1) CPU 2) Memory Card 3) Northbridge heatsink
Other then that, use some common sense tips to keep your machine running smooth and cool. If possible, put the computer low to the ground, where cooler air is. Keep it elevated a little bit to keep dust bunnies from getting into your power supply (its still on the bottom, right?) Make sure in the winter your away from registers, or maybe even turn off your heat to that room totally (your computer will do all the heating you could ask for, honest). In the summer get it near an AC register if possible. Keep your big speakers away from your tower (just in case your massive sub leaks enough magnetism to damage parts. I think that is pretty much it. Rock on my friend and welcome to the XPS forums!
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Post by scottymoze on Jul 29, 2005 22:47:14 GMT -5
watching troy. it's just not gladiator, ya know? -Overclocking- Dell's site def says there is overclocking ability with the Pentium EE 640 right in the BIOS. That processor is the only one with that option, and the only one with the 650 PSU. I will confirm this when I get the computer next week. Def not going to be OC'ing it until I upgrade cooling though, even if it is offical Dell overclocking. (I think there's a 3.4 and 3.6 option), -Video- Cool tip on ATITool. I've always heard there's better tools out there for ATI cards than ATI can offer. I'll check it out, thanks!!! -Fans- Here's what i'll do. as soon as i get the Gen 5 I'll bust it open and measure fans and post specs on this thread. There are a few PCI fans out there, they blow air out of the rear PC. Some are made to blow air over the vid card (the X850 has a 2nd fan over it built in so no need.) but mostly they just push hot air outta there. Cant hurt i figure, for 10 bucks. I have used a Mad Dog Multimedia PCI fan (35 CFM) and it really blows well. I got it b/c my Dimension 8200 was overheating after a few hours, and it solved the issue. Antec makes a 2-slot (!) fan but its almost the same CFM as the Mad Dog, thus a waste of PCI slots ( but it looks cool). CompUSA sells them all. Mad Dog fans (see PCI fan, 120mm 100CFM) www.maddogmultimedia.com/products/techietoyz/fans.aspAntec 2-Slotter www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77194DEF like the 120mm idea. Mad Dog has a 100 CFM at compusa im going to see if itll fit in Gen5. Again awesome ideas with the cooling. -Fan Controller- They just look cool. There's one here that is all programmable and cool. I would always run the fans on full blast but i just thought this was great to fill up the third drive bay. I think being able to program your own logos on the front is very nice. xoxide.com/vl-system-lis-premium2.htmlIT looks like a car stereo! Crazy! But, if you think it'll jack up my system I wont bother. But if you agree its pretty nice looking i just might spring for it. Temp readings and stuff is cool too. Its nice to spoil oneself for cosmetics sometimes ya know? -Arctic Silver- Is that a thermal compound? Easily avail? -Machine Placement- My central air runs through my ceilings, so, winters I'll be ok, but summertime i wont have the luxury of putting it near a vent, so ill be having it on top of a desk. Should be ok with xtra cooling, if i go that route. Thanks for the feedback!!! Lemme know what ya think, and whats better - Gladiator or Troy? Helen is NOT that great in this movie, considering she was sposed to be the hottest girl ever in the history of hotness.
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Post by scottymoze on Jul 29, 2005 22:50:49 GMT -5
oh one more thing, u think the logitech pc speakers could possibly damage the pc? i figured the speakers would be de-magged. not sure tho. def will be carefull if u think its risky.
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Post by TRow on Aug 9, 2005 4:38:49 GMT -5
Theres any easy way to find out, just use an OLD Television set. They should be shielded, but as a precaution I never have speakers next to any electrical interference. Well, at least not intentionally.
No Tech related issues with Gen 5? You mean they got it right?
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Post by russell on Aug 20, 2005 14:28:13 GMT -5
I just got an XPS Gen 5. It performs about as expected but has an extremely loud fan noise when I open a program with any graphics. With WoW, all fans come on at full speed and stay that way. Very loud. I cant hear people talking in the same room. It wakes up my gf in the other room. lol Has anyone else had trouble with fan noise? Is this normal? Is there a solution?
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Post by TRow on Aug 20, 2005 15:00:31 GMT -5
Welcome to the Forums! Youll find a lot of information about Fan noise in the Overclocking & Cooling section. Good to see that the XPS still sounds like a airport, but you have a LOT of options with regards to combating it. Some of which can become addicting!
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Post by russell on Aug 20, 2005 15:32:34 GMT -5
I have Gen5 3.8Gh. The fan noise is horrible. When I open any graphic program, all fans come on full speed. Two CPU fans are so loud they can wake up someone in the other room. Has anyone else experience excessive fan noise on the Gen5. Any possible solutions?
Thanks!
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Post by russell on Aug 20, 2005 15:40:55 GMT -5
Thanks for your post and the link. As I read about excessive fan noise in Gen3 and Gen4, it appears to occur in some PCs but not in other identical models. Heat sink and heat pipes seen responsible at times.
Are the fan speeds in the Gen5 controlled by temperature? Dell tech support said no. They are sending me a new everything (except for heat sink, processor and/or heat pipes). It appears they are throwing money after the prob rather than being able to diagnose the underlying cause.
Could I please hear folks experiences, good and bad, with the Gen5 fan issue? Thanks!
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Post by cazme on Aug 20, 2005 21:57:42 GMT -5
I've had mine(XPS Gen5 3.8) since July 27th and my fans don't run constantly or as noisy as yours have been. So far, pretty impressed with the machine. AlthoughI am a bit concerned about case temperature. According to the ATI catalyst utility, my video card temp orbits around 62 degrees celcius (approx 144 F.) when gaming and around 42C (107.6 F) at idle. Good luck with yours.
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Post by devnull on Aug 20, 2005 22:29:30 GMT -5
Even with my arctic cooling ATI silencer, in far cry I get some crazy temps. ATI Tray Tools constantly monitors my temps in the upper righthand side of my screen when gaming and the thing got up to 59C. Thats with tons of mods and aftermarket cooling. The simple fact is, Far Cry owns your computer.
In a game like CS:S it rarely gets higher than 53C and thats with 6xAA 16xAF and all the goodies turned up (yes, and it still is at a constant 60fps). So I guess the game really does matter.
Also, easier than a television, you can use a small compass (not drawing compass but a North/South navigational compass) to detect minute magnetic fields. This should tell you if your sub is pushing out lots of fields.
Still, we all gotta work on getting our temps down.
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Post by russell on Aug 25, 2005 3:19:24 GMT -5
You postings are appreciated ;D
On the XPS Gen5, are the CPU fan speeds controlled by a temperature sensor? How difficult (and effective) would it be to put liquid cooling in the system?
Thanks!
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