03-16-2004, 10:40 PM
Why not? What makes you think that Dell can? Which Radeon 9800 card are they giving you? The 128MB or the 256MB? Is it the Pro version? What kind of sound card does the machine have? Does it support more than a gig of RAM? Why do you need "dual DVD RW" drives? I saw a 250 GB drive for like $159 after rebate at Best Buy yesterday.
At the end of the day, the reason why you can't build the machine for the same price as the Dell machine is that you're not going to use el cheapo components like they will. Sure, they give you a Radeon 9800 card, but I guarantee you that it's not the same one that you'd get at Retail, it's an OEM version.
It's a cop-out to buy a Dell machine. Finally, do you really want an LCD monitor? IMO the picture quality just isn't there yet compared to CRT monitors.
At the end of the day, the reason why you can't build the machine for the same price as the Dell machine is that you're not going to use el cheapo components like they will. Sure, they give you a Radeon 9800 card, but I guarantee you that it's not the same one that you'd get at Retail, it's an OEM version.
It's a cop-out to buy a Dell machine. Finally, do you really want an LCD monitor? IMO the picture quality just isn't there yet compared to CRT monitors.