- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
It's true about Dells having bottlenecks. I have looked at the dell ads and they put a super fast CPU in, but give it minimal memory and a crappy graphics card. I bought mine new for $1200 with a 2.0Ghz P4, 256MB ram, Ge-Force 4 MX 420 and a SB Live! Value sound card. I have since upgraded the memory to 1GB using PNY Brand, and the video card, a Ge-Force 5200 with 128 MB.
The bottleneck comes from the fact that Dell put in a 4x AGP slot instead of an 8x, AGP slot, which was brand new technology that has just rolled out of the factory.
Nevertheless, my Dell plays Halo quite beutifuly in 640x480, (I don't mind the jaggies) with specular turned off.
Word of advice, don't buy dells to play games on. The hardware is only good for playing the year's games that you buy it in and then it's reduced to internet, e-mail and school.
If you got the money, buy into an Alienware ALX system, the hardware will be able to play new games for at least 3 or 4 years down the road. I know I'm going to get one when I got the money.