Prices from $1,249 (£635) in the US but starting at £849 on the Dell UK site.

US Prices tend to exclude taxes whist UK (consumer) prices must include all taxes and delivery costs by law.

If US tax rates were the same as those in the UK (17.5%) then the system cost would be £746. Dell also charge £50 for delivery, so although the US system is definitely cheaper, the price differential is less than the quoted prices suggest.

£50 difference is still pretty hefty though.

Must admit that im tempted by this...

I specced up the equivalent on ebuyer (was on the site at the time so thought id waste some time at work...) and it works out slightly cheaper than Dell...but whats new.

Overall a nice little rig in my opinion. The other XPS options are pretty sweet too, if youre looking for a nice gaming setup, though get a little more pricey!

The £849 system is horrendously overpriced.

Core duo 2 chip, 1gb ram, 250gb hard drive and no monitor for £849 quid?

I've specced a q6600/8800gt system with samsung 226bw 22" monitor and 4gb ram / 500gb disk space for around that price.

Given that the monitor is over £200 retail, that entry level Dell is a huge con imo, simply to make their more expensive systems look better value when you compare them...i.e 2 graphics cards and 1gb more ram for only £100 more looks great value until you realise how much the first system is overpriced.

Similarly, I noticed their xps system advertised in the national press that keeps bouncing between 599 and 649 which used to have an 8800gt card and 3gb ram [before xmas] and thus seemed good value, now only has 8600gts and 2gb.

Little tricks with the spec like that, and using the same model numbers / same advert layout and same price are just a con.

Avoid them like the plague - buy from somewhere where, if they do change the spec, they do that only to improve the system for the same money, rather than downgrading it or artificially inflate the price of a "cheap" system to make something else look better than it is.