[PH3N0M]

Well, I just called Dell Spare Parts to ask what the cost would be for the XPS 730x motherboard C771N and XPS 730x Intel 940 processor G441M. Barely 2 minutes into the call, Julia hung up on me...FOR NO REASON!!!!! I called right back using her extension and whaddya know, I'm told I need to leave a message. Dell must have a requirement for people to have an I.Q. lower than 70 if they want to operate the phones.

Then, I call back a second time. Mark proceeds to tell me that maybe I should upgrade my hard drive and ram and I replied that I have 10,000rpm Raptor hard drives and 4gb of ram, I don't need to upgrade either of them but that I want to upgrade my chipset and cpu to the latest technology. He then tells me that I need to be transferred to tech support to make sure it would be compatible with my system. I tell him that I have an XPS 730 and I know it's compatible but he proceeds to transfer me anyway. Then, tech support transfers me back to sales.

This time, I finally have someone who knows what's going on. However, she asks me why I want to change my chipset and cpu, what has happened to my computer? I tell her nothing, I just want to upgrade. I give her the part number for the Core i7 chipset and she asks where I got this information and I tell her from Dell Chris M, the desktop liaison for the Dell support forum. The price for the chipset...$569. She tells me they're not allowed to sell the processors and I tell her that she's misinformed because I have the part number, which she asks for...the cpu price, $1400.

She then tells me for the cost of upgrading, it would be better for me to just buy a new Dell computer! I laughed and said...I don't think so! I can get the chipset and cpu from an online e-tailer for under $1000!! Then, without further ado, I hangup the phone.

I can get a 940 Nehalem 2.93ghz cpu and an X58 chipset on Newegg for $900. I guess I'll just wait awhile because for what I do, gaming and web design, there's no need for me to drop $900 for the latest and greatest when Dell wouldn't give support if something was to go wrong.

Oh, well. The tri-sli with GTX 285s, QX9770, and 8gb of DDR3-1333 will have to suffice.

[Hampton]

Well, yeah, you are always better off when seeking high performance to build it yourself.. Dell just like all the others are proprietary machines.. they will always limit you.

[carnageX]

Doesn't surprise me in the least.

[c0rr0sive]

Heck, if you want to update it that badly, just buy a new case, the mobo/cpu and then swap all the other parts into it, but you should note your dell cd wont let you reinstall windows anymore as it isn't a dell motherboard.