Just wondering if Dell motherboards are proprietary or not. They are running a deal right now where you get a 20" monitor
and a i7920, 4GB System for $999 which seems like a great deal but I don't know much about the quality. All they will tell
me is it's an X58 chipset which is obvious.

The time I checked, the inspiron series of desktops were all standard micro-atx, meaning PSUs, mobos and such could be swapped out. I'm not sure if anything changed with i7

Since the XPS 630/730, all Mobos are now ATX and not BTX. So they can be swapped. I would be very surprised if Dell had made an X58 board already!

I'm guessing it's an Intel board and probably won't do SLI or Crossfire in the future. I was going to build something but this seems like a really good deal considering that monitor is $300 I would guess they also have crippled any chance of even minor overclocking.

If it is the Intel DX58SO board, it does support Crossfire configurations.
The strange thing is the memory. 4GB? Now, the DX58SO does have 4 slots for DDR3, but I thought it would not run optimally with all 4 slots filled, since it will not be running in triple channel.

But the Intel DX58SO board would be a good guess as the board in the Dell system mentioned.

This topic has been moved from the section CPU-Components to section Motherboards & Memory by Jake_Barnes

Might be X58 but it won't OC!

two things here. Dell typically uses some pretty crappy parts. Also, Dell doesn't "make" much. They put things together. If the board is X58, then i would wonder who the supplier is. Sure, it will have a dell specific BIOS, but I really really really doubt that Dell makes the board.

^Correct. Usualy a 3rd party like Foxconn makes them. The XPS line boards how ever AFAIK are by ASUS. Still no OCing on Dells

The XPS series desktops allow overclocking, at least that I've seen. They seem to have fairly open BIOS settings.

The stock 4GB config is only Dual Channel. For $100 more you get 6GB of Triple Channel. Nice thing is you get their 24" monitor in the package which almost makes me think it's the way to go. Having Windows Home Premium on there saves another $150 or so too. Special ends at 6A so I guess I have to decide soon. $1150 shipped with a 24" monitor, 6GB, 500GB HD seems pretty good. Course I'm sure the video card sucks. I'm just concerned about not being able to run down to the store and buy parts after the warranty runs out.

cjl I was referring to the non XPS line. Even then the options on the XPS are limited in voltage values, as in has very short range (ie voltages are not close together. ie 1.2 jumps to 1.3,etc)