At the time it was ordered she configured it with the nVidia 6800 GTO video card, that card never performed well, my older agp card would out perform it. To make a very long story short….Durring my trials and tribulation with Dell tech support, I was invited to a Dell online chat session with Dell XPS Development team, this was a by invitation only chat session on Dells forums, one of the Develpoers took an interest with my problem and contacted me via email and we then continued the discussion via phone ( how is that for luck) anyway he informed me that the 6800 gto card was only offered for a short time because they installed them without realy testing them and found them to be of very poor quality, he felt Dell should have recalled them but they didnt, probably becuse of ther money..well he offered me an upgrade to the 7800 gtx card free……but I had all ready got so angry with Dell that a week earlier I had gone out and bought a 7800GT-OC BFG Video Card, while all this was going on I was on my 3rd week of waiting for a tech to come out to my house to check out my system……he never came…well then the warranty was up (I stuck with the 1 year warranty)and then 2 days later the floppy Died…I have never had a floppy die before…along with other problems with this system I could never ever trust Dell again…My Xps is doing great now..I spent another Grand and replaced just about all the Dell parts…the only Dell components left in it are the MOBO…Case..Power supply…Dell lost a good customer..I have since purchased 2 laptops…a Toshiba Qosmio for the wife last Christmas and last month I broje down and bought me one of those Gaming laptops from Hypersonic….I am pleased with both machines…the thing about Hypersonics machines are they dont install anything you dont want, they wont even put the OS on it if you dont want, but they do cost a pretty penny.
Dell is trying to become the Wal-Marts of the Computer Builders and they are doing a good job at it…selling cheap stuff. If I could find a partner I would love to start a Computer Building business, I have owned a business in the past. Treatinf customers the same way you want to be treated is the key, give them a good product at a good price and then stand behind it.
Reality is tech support and customer support is going down the tubes everywhere, why is this happening….we are letting it happen…..its time to stand up and stop buying products from those who send our jobs across the ocean….who once they get our money dont want to hear from us again unless we want to buy more junk from them.
I dont know what happened to Dell, but its also happening to other companies.I have decided to never buy another Desktop from anyone again, I dont care about the cost..I will build it myself. Laptops are another story, I am looking into the steps it takes to build them now…I will say this, a lot of laptops sold as gaming laptops are realy built by one company…Clevo…they build for Aleinware…Hypersonic…….Voodoo…..Falcon NorthWest and a few other so called boutique PC Builders, so look around and do some research when it comes to buying a laptop, you could save as much as a thousand bucks……the system I bought from Hypersonic would have costed me another grand from Aleinware..exact same system,…. all Aleinware does is add their molded cover to the laptop……
I could go on with other things I have discovered since my Dell deal…….Just research and read up on a company……the names are the same but trust me…they arent the same companies you did business with years ago.

here is a great place to start

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1867.html

Good work Mike…keep it up, feel free to conract me anytime