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Normally we criticize gaming PCs from large vendors like Dell for failing to keep their specs as aggressively up to date as their boutique competitionBut after looking for systems to compare with Dell's new $1,499 XPS 625, it seems as of this writing that the entire desktop market is behind in offering AMD's most up-to-date, DDR3 RAM-supporting chipsetThis is a pity, because as Intel brings its DDR3-only Core i7 chips to the mainstream market later this year, we expect that faster memory will be common in PCs in this price rangeWe've seen it in a few $1,000-or-so desktops alreadyIn the interest of faster memory and a longer upgrade path, you might want to wait a month or two before purchasing any midrange AMD gaming PCIf you're simply after the best deal today, we found Dell's XPS 625 more expensive than competing PCsAnd although Dell emphasizes this system's overclockability and its room for aftermarket upgrades, we wish it provided more immediate benefits to offset this desktop's higher price

To clarify the AMD chipset issue above, AMD has two versions of its new Phenom II CPUsThe Phenom II chips it launched at this year's CES use the Socket AM2+ motherboard design, which only supports older DDR2 DRAMEven at launch, though, AMD made plain that it had a Socket AM3 version of the Phenom II right around the corner, which promised support for DDR3 memory at higher clock speedsThose updated chips and motherboards came out last week

Had Dell waited to adopt the newer AM3 motherboards, the XPS 625's upgrade problems would be goneBut with 4GB of DDR3 RAM about $125 more than the same amount of DDR2 at retail right now, Dell would be hard-pressed to offer this system for $1,499Throw in the cost of the upgraded motherboard, and the price of a fully realized AM3 XPS 625 would undoubtedly be higherFaced with that trade-off, we can see Dell and other vendors' reason for sticking with the older motherboard on midrange systems, for now

Even if Dell is in lock-step with the rest of the PC industry on the motherboard, we still found the XPS 625 more expensive than similar Socket AM2 PCs from its competitionMaingear's Dash, for example, came in at $1,250 for almost the exact same specsWe also found a competitive Intel-based Gateway FX6800-01e for $1,250 that clocked in almost the same performance four months ago

Comparing the Dell and the Gateway above helps illustrate our point about DDR3 RAM already creeping its way into the mainstreamYou'll notice that the Gateway uses only 3GB of DDR3 to the Dell's 4GB of slower DDR2You could bring the Gateway up to 4GB post-purchase and still stay under the Dell's $1,499 price tagWith their performance already so close, we expect you'd see that upgrade alone push the Gateway past the Dell, and you'd still walk away with the Gateway's larger hard drive and its own fancy caseWhat you don't see in our chart in Dell's favor is the XPS 625's overclockability and its beefier power supply, both of which we'll get to shortly