Any advice on my purchase (XPS 15)

I just bought a refurbished Dell XPS 15. I looked up a few topics on Dells outlet and it seemed like many people had no problems with their refurbished purchases. I got mine for $799 total and wanted to know if I got a deal or not. I know that it may not be the best gaming computer but if anyone would know if this can run Dragon Age II well that would be great.

Intel Core i5-560M (2.66GHz Turbo Boost 3.33Ghz Dual Core/4 Threads 3MB L3 cache)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M 1GB graphics with Optimus
Internal Backlit Keyboard - English
4 GB DDR3 ECC SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
15.6" FHD (1080p) B+RGLED Display
640 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
9 Cell Battery

Oh also if there is any advice on optimizing its performance. I don't know much about computers and I've been going back an forth on whether getting this or the Alienware M11x.

 

Dells for the most part will not come with bloatware. Your best bet is to install all Windows updates and update drivers.

As for Nvidia Forceware drivers, installing official ones from Nvidia's site usually fail if you have a manufacturer branded/tattoo'd OS. If it really bothers you, make recovery discs and do a clean install, but don't wipe out all partitions, your recovery partition is really handy to keep.

 

Would using PC de-crapifier to get rid of all the bloat-ware be the best option or would it be more efficient in the long run just to make a recovery disk and do a re-install of OS and install drivers?

 

I would make recovery discs first. When you start removing crap, the higher chance recovery discs fail.

Again, Dells have some of the least amount of bloatware compared to HP and Acer/Gateway/eMachines. I wouldn't really recommend a clean install unless you are absolutely paranoid about drivers.

 

Ah thanks. I just learned what bloatware was from an alienware m11x thread. It was a little difficult to follow just because I've never done any of that stuff. The only thing I've done that required recovery discs was a restore to factory settings things which is probably not what you're talking about

 

Ah well Alienware is different than Dell. The recovery discs program is the same, the Dell Datasafe Backup, and select recovery media. Needs 2-3 DVD discs if your Dell/Alienware didn't come with discs (only few do and now Dell has the option for $$). Recovery discs are better than the Dell branded discs as it installs all original content again.

However if your hard drive craps out and it is still under manufacturer warranty, Dell will provide them at no charge.