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What would you ask Michael?
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Hire someone that knows gaming PCs so you don't have to ask...

300 points posted to Gaming by pattyboy Mar 11

spend some time on the HardOCP forums, or the Tom's Hardware forums, and find someone that really knows what they are talking about and then hire them to consult. I doubt that it would cost much, shunt some free hardware their way and I'm sure they would be ecstatic.

Do we really have to think for you?

Or start a gaming club within Dell's employees, (manufacturing and sales, not corporate) and use them as a sounding board for new ideas.

jdelidc
Mar 11		 they ain't the ones buying the machines
jimmy_p
Mar 11		 Not sure what you are getting at here, most of the people involved in gaming at Dell are gamers.
jimmy_p
Mar 11		 A lot of people like the design, and to be fair pictures don't really do it justice.
ah1f
Mar 11		 True gaming systems are too individual. Alienware is about as hardcore as you will see in a spec'd gaming PC. Buy the nature of the industry Dell will produce what applies to the most sales and the largest bottom line.
ah1f
Mar 11		 I was not refering to your comment, hillboro.
sugarbear
Mar 11		 Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder!
undead999
Mar 12		 I agree with jimmy_p, the 1730 the pics dont do it justice, looks much better in person.
jimmy_p
Mar 12		 If I had the spare cash I would own one of these, I played on one in a training class and its an awesome machine (and that was before the 8800GTX was added) . The only draw back is no docking connecter, if it had one of those it would be as close to the perfect laptop as I've seen.



sugarbear
Mar 12		 @jimmy_p, It sounds like you have a new idea to post, about the docking connector.. Pictures rarely communicate the actual looks and style.
jimmy_p
Mar 12		 We have our own internal version of Ideastorm, plus because community is so customer facing we get asked about what people want and I have made it known that I think we need docking connecters on all of our laptops not just XPS.
sugarbear
Mar 12		 Yes jimmy_p, I looking at laptops now. That`s an option I definitely want, and no truelife screen. Good for you posting on the internal blog. You have our interests at heart. Thanks.
pattyboy
Mar 12		 to Jimmy_P,

There is a difference between being a gamer and knowing how a gaming machine should be put speced, put together, what corners can be cut, what should not be skimpped on, etc.

The $4000 World of Warcraft laptop comes to mind. Did a Dell gamer come up with that? You can run WOW on a 2 year old E1505 with 128mb of dedicated Vram quite well.

It would probably help if your gaming systems were separated by types of games to be played on them, FPS, Role playing, Strategy, etc. Each type of game requires different levels of components in different areas, more processor, more RAM, or a more robust Video Card, depending on the game.
jimmy_p
Mar 13		 It's not uncommon to put out special edition products and they tend to be high end.(example: have you ever seen a Shelby Pinto) I have been building systems for years and other then upgrading so I could play the latest version of a game I have never speced a system for one title. I always built the fastest system I could afford and then played what I could.



kcobley
Mar 13		 Gee a Dell rep who builds his own, It's is a real pity that Dell won't allow CPU upgrades or motherboard upgrades. I've been left with a legacy system in the XPS 720 and am very mad that I can't upgrade the motherboard as newer motherboards all appear to be ATX's. Your rep Chris was right when he describes the XPS 720 as being obselete but at least you should be honest on your website and withdraw this product. If you guys are serious at having us believe that you are gamers, then you would understand the need to be able to upgrade and that the upgrade's should be supported by Dell and parts for upgrades should be sold by /dell.
pattyboy
Mar 13		 Actually, I have seen the equivalent of a shelby pinto. The Dodge Shelby GLHS, the old dodge hot hatch. That kind of relates here. A hot hatch comparison, or a shelby pinto could be the Gateway that was released, well ahead of dell's, 8800gt mobile laptop, at $1300ish.

You guys have to be able to move faster or you will continue to lose market share in the consumer market. This is especially true in the gaming system segment. You don't have time to ask consumers what they think. You need to know what they think as soon as they think it. That sounds strange to say, but someone with consumer business sense will understand what I am talking about. Staying deep in the Forums that I mentioned will allow that, but you can't have just anyone do it, as knee-jerk asessments will do more harm than good.
jimmy_p
Mar 14		 I have a 700/720, it's a great machine, I haven't fixed the last one I built (Motherboard died) because the XPS does everything I need to do. I get 100+ FPS in Eve Online most of the time. Ran COD4 and Crysis fine, not sure I need anything better yet. The reason I got the XPS was it was priced really low at the Dell Outlet, I couldn't have built one as good for anywhere near what I paid for it.

What model Gateway, I looked on their site and didn't see anything in the same class as the M1730?
pattyboy
Mar 14		 Well, that was a while ago, but now they have the Gateway P-6831FX at their retail outlets like BestBuy at $1349.00, but now it's been upgraded to a 8800GTS.

The 1730 has it beat in processor specs, but the Gateway specs are greater in RAM, HD, and Video Card, and of course costs a mere $1000 less. Starting to get the picture?
 
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