I'm thinking of buying a new desktop that can comfortably run games like WoW, CS:S, and CoD4. Oh and Starcraft 2, of course. My friend recommend Dell XPS 420 to me

Features
Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB


I know the video card is not so good for gaming, so i'll upgrade to a 8800. how do you guys think? for that price, worth to buy? any other good suggestions?

Hi,
That computer will run all your games you mentioned fine.
CoD4 will be the most CPU and graphics intensive but should still work great. (or maybe SC2, not that its out.)

Dell are not always the cheapest, so best to shop around.
Cya and good luck buying a new PC.

For gaming I would recommend a core 2 duo extreme edition since most games wont take advantage of a quad core processor. The higher clock rate of the extreme edition will help with frame rates. The computer you listed will play just about anything. Accept for of course the coveted Crysis with that you will need the best graphics card available and most likely 2 of them. The upgrade to the Geforce card is a good idea. I looked at dells site and the Extreme edition option is a pricey one You may want to stick to the quad core unless you can afford it.

I personally hate everything with the name "Dell" on it.

But, a suggestion for a gaming pc, or any pc if desktop is build it.

If your trying to get a "gaming" laptop, thiers no such thing. Yes thier are good laptops and the SLI laptops and such but thier not fit for years to come, they will eventually be outdated compleatly and upgrading is incredibly expensive. Desktops have so much more for them.

Aside from my laptop and dell bashing...

Minimal what you want:

Duo-Core processor
Atleast 2GB Ram
Video card w/ 512MB [Id recomend a 8800GT]
Windows XP

I have a budget build as such that is about 750$ But its + anti virus and everything I could think of.

High-End build

Quad-core Processor
16GB of ram
A board that will support 16GB O.o
A board with 3 PCI x16 Express slots
3x EVGA 8800GTS in a triple SLI
Windows XP Pro x64


My recomendations of brands I have had good times with:

Hitachi hard drives
Kingston ram
Gigabyte boards
nVidia video cards
Microsoft Operating systems [Who else ]
Intel Processors

What I have heard is great for gaming;
Solid-State drives [ I dunno ?? ]
Any 790i board [ Strong disagree ]
Ubuntu [ erm.......]
Ram isnt important [ erm, ram timings? ]
amd processors [ Ok, ill give you the unlocked multipliers, thier more common on amd ]
ATi vid cards [ ??? ]



'Tis up to up to you.
Good luck

Yeah I think you'd be better off building one, primarily to save cash, unless money isn't an object to you.

The video card that comes with the Dell is pretty crappy IMO. If you do decide to build one, www.newegg.com has some great stuff for cheap.

As for the dual/quad core thing, Dual Core is great now because that's what most games use. If you're more worried about how it will be in the future, Quad Core would be a better choice because as newer games come out, they'll start to utilize the quads.

But of course, it's all up to you.

WOW! 16GB RAM? For a server yes but I cannot imagine in a desktop application. Not even running multiple instances of the most memory hungry apps will use that amount of memory. Do you actually use a system like this? What's all the memory for?