Dell XPS for $2500

Unknowledgble consumers, can't live with them, can't live without them...

Eh, Dell also has some great deals. All about being able to find them. Top of the line though, is never a nice deal, even something mid-end like this.

7900GS in a $2500 gaming system? Wow they really must be kidding!

Dell's revenge for what? People buying their computers? For them being the biggest computer company in the world?

Enlighten me BM, what have we done to deserve this from Dell?

Maximum PC did a special on 7 systems for $2500. They were all WAY better than that. LIGHT YEARS better. The worst system out of the seven was... ::chuckle:: an ALIENWARE system!

Dell's revenge for what? People buying their computers? For them being the biggest computer company in the world?

Enlighten me BM, what have we done to deserve this from Dell?

He's talking about revenge against Intel. I'm sure Intel was taking them to the cleaners for a while....

It's funny cuz AMD strong-arms the industry with a great product and finally convinces Dell to share the market, and then Intel beats down AMD like a red-headed stepchild.

Someone at Dell hates their life.

No, that $1100.00 is the cost of someone other than you assembling the computer, loading the software and testing the computer. It also covers the overhead and profit for the company. You have to make enough to cover the lights, building, sales reps, customer service reps, Mike Dell's boat...

Actaully in the scheme of things a 100% mark-up isn't bad. Most of the products you buy have around a 400% mark-up from manufactur to consumer.

How much is your time worth? For some people it's worth more than the $1100.00 for others they can't build their own. It fills a nitch, just not one for most of the people who visit these forums.

Think customer support and warranty. That and for them putting it all together insuring that its guaranteed to work is where the cost comes together.

I've gone with Dell and custom. They both have their perks. Dell used to have great customer support a few years back before they outsourced it. Now, it's just okay. They used to give 3 years standard, but now it's cut back to 1 year for the default price, which isn't as great of a deal. They replace anything with 2-day cross-shipping, paying for it both ways. This is really nice for businesses where parts go bad all the time just due to numbers.

As with any "finished" product, of course, there's going to be a significant mark up. As a builder, it's easy to bypass that, but of course, not everyone has the want or is able to build a box. You could say that same thing about lots of stuff. If you go to a cloth store, buy the materials, you could make your own clothes significantly cheaper, but not everyone has the expertise and/or time to do so. To a lesser extent, the same can be said for food and restaurants. You pay for service and knowing the food will usually turn out fine.

For really low end stuff, Dell does pretty well since this is their bread and butter business. For higher end boxes, agreed, it's much better to build your own if it's feasible.

Hmmmm, I think someone doesn't like Dell... I could have gone to work for them, but I decided making beer is much more fulfilling way of life. I make people happy this way, instead of having angry consumers yell at me when they don't know how they broke their machine...

True true, but see, everything is variable. How much Dell wants to pay depends on their contract with Intel, so we don't even know how much the real price of these things are. However, I know Directron puts a small mark-up on their individual items compared to other stores. How much they pay for the original items however, would depend on how many they buy, history, yadda yadda...

[quote="bliq"]

He's right on the money with this. In fact Dell's biggest business? Consumers? No way, everyday Joe Schmoe consumers make up 20% of Dell's market if not less.

Even if they sell a million computers a month, how much do they spend just on advertising? $50 million a month? That right there is $50 of the cost of each computer. Warranty claims actually cost Dell more than people pay for. Salaries, profit, etc do all play a part and probably account a nice chunk of the difference.

How about engineering and R&D, that could easily run in the hundreds of millions a year.

Then think of the loss leaders which Dell sells more of than the cash cows (and I'm not talking about XPS systems). For every XPS they sell where they make $100 (and really, they probably just break even), they sell 100 $399 machines where they lose $50 each. Why? So they can be everywhere so business customers buy their stuff (which is where every large computer company makes their money).

Here's a tip- servers are where the money is at. the consumer computer business is just advertising.

It honestly doesn't matter what Dell does with their money. What matters is the value of their product to the consumer. For the XPS, the value of the system versus the cost is way off. You can't tell me that $1100 is an acceptable price to pay for tech support.

If you're referring to what I said about my friend, the newegg machine was 1100, the Dell machine was 1300, a difference of 200 dollars. And to my friend it was worth it because.
1) the system came ready to turn on, didn't need to be built or configured
2) OS was installed, sure it had other stuff on it that wasn't needed, but I think it's pretty easy to Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs...
3) Tech support, not that great if you're speaking to a guy you can barely understand, but at least I don't have to call Seagate, Gigabyte, Intel, Crucial, or look up their numbers if one of my parts goes bad.

EDIT: BTW I'm a big advocate of building your own system if you have th time and know how. My friend had the know how, just not the time. In those situations I support buying a Dell, HP, Alienware, whatever... Sure it's a whole seperate entity trying to make money off your 1 purchase you just got to know what to buy to make it the best value for YOU. At newegg and such it's easy to do that because you have control over what goes into your system.

We're all enthusiasts here... we get things normal consumers does not...

People in other fields with other hobbies get things we do not and probably laugh at us also...

Unless you're Mr. Wikipeida, there is always things you're going to overpay in, and things you will have little to no knowledge in.

Ok, I'm confused a bit, but I found what looks like the same machine for $500 less on Dell's website.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dells [...] 00B1&s=dhs

The XPS is an alternative for Dell buyers that are not willing to make the switch to Alienware or another high end custom 'puter builder. It is an ego product. A bit like an Audi versus a Volkswagon, or a Lincoln versus a Ford. Sometimes the high end product is bigger, better, faster, sexier.

Sometimes.


XPS 700 might be big bucks, but the same guts in a standard Dell Dimension 9200 is a whole lot less.

For the record, there are differences in pricing models. Home buyers, small business buyers, and medium/large business buyers have a different price structure and the computers are stocked with different "accessories" and support services. There are volume discounts that the "Average Joe" will never see.

I just priced out a 9200 for $1301. Don't know if it is truly identical. But it looked roughly apples to apples.

An "identical" HP to that Dell 9200 was $1322..

Change the mix of "stuff" and the HP would be cheaper by those few bucks.

Sure I could buy the individual parts and make the computer for less.

Maybe.

My time costs money. I think I am very valuable. Do I want to spend my days (and nights) playing with computer parts to save a few $.

What if I was having to build computers for every member of my extended family .... and their friends and neighbors?

Those few $ that I saved doing my own suddenly don't appear so great.

And then there is support. Preloaded software and hardware, and a single contact point to correct problems is quite attractive. Especially if the problem is complex, such as no video display which could be related to a wide range of hardware and software sources (or a poor connection on a video cable ... from the voice of experience).


The computer that we are describing would be considered moderately high end.

Try buying the components for a low end computer and doing it cheaper than Dell, HP, Gateway etc. Good luck. Those $399 computers are extremely hard to beat.

The flip side to that coin are true high end computers ... dual CPU's, mega RAM, 5 HD workstations with advanced graphics cards supporting dual monitors. Building such a 'puter would be much cheaper than buying the 'puter from Dell or HP.

Not very many people build their own high end computers. But there sure are a lot of those high end computers sold each and every day.

Why not build your own high end 'puter? Because every body's time is worth $. And then there is that support issue for a complex device.

(and businesses and governement customers that buy 99% of the high end computers are not going to waste their time trying to build the computers that they need)


Between the low end price leaders and the ultra high end super PC's is the only point which the price of builiding your own is attractive and practical. If you want to compare your basic home made 'puter, then compare it to the off the shelf equivilent 'puter.

If you want to bash the Dell XPS, then compare that 'puter to other "custom" off the shelf 'puters, such as Alienware, Voodoo etc.