I recently came across a Dell XPS 630i... the one with the stylish stainless steel casing – I just had to have it :).
After a moment's thought, I decided to turn it into the ‘ultimate’ 2008 gaming PC – the alternative would have been to install a new gaming PC (the thing is ATX-compatible).
So I quickly ordered originals of the top 3 European AAA games from 2008-2010 from a used game retailer ;).
And until then, I'll pimp the hardware.
I received the computer with 6 GB 667 MHz RAM, an Intel Q8300 CPU and a GTX 285 – lucky me, it was delivered just in time for Christmas 2008 and was Nvidia's top model.
Speaking of top models, for the CPU that would be the Q9650... it's ‘shot’ at KA and in demand, as is 4x 2 GB 800 MHz gaming RAM :).
So first I set a baseline using 3DMark Vantage, which is the contemporary benchmark version.
Image 1: Baseline: Dell XPS 630i, Intel Q8300, 4x 2GB DDR2-667, Nvidia GTX 285, (Win 7 64-bit, 80 GB SSD OS, 2x 1.3TB Samsung HD as a stripe set for games)
I will then add the updated results for the components – and then we will see if the clock frequencies can be adjusted to squeeze out a few more points.
(P.S.: This post was of course also written on the XPS :))