Decent gaming PC?

[Aada]

Have just come home to find out my GF has ordered an Alienware PC i for one am cautious about their prices and exactly if the kit they use is that good.

I have told her we could have the parts ordered then take them to my local computer store and have them build it up but she is telling me she doesn't want to bother with all the hassle of parts coming here and there and just wants a play out of the box pc.

Here it is

Processor: AMD® Phenom™ X4 9650 Quad Core 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache
Processor Cooling : Alienware® Standard System Cooling
Operating System: Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium - English
Alienware P2 Chassis : Alienware® P2 Chassis - Space Black
System Lighting: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Fusion Red
Acoustic Dampening: Alienware® Acoustic Dampening
Motherboard: Alienware® Approved Asus AMD® 790FX Motherboard
Includes PCI-Express 2.0, ASUS BIOS Overclocking Utility, and Support for AMD Phenom Quad-Core Processors
Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply - UK Powercord
Graphics Processor : Single Graphics Card - 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 – Dual GPU Technology
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 500GB Serial ATA 3 Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache & NCQ
Storage Drive: None
Additional Storage Drive: None
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM : 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Writer
Secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM : None
Enthusiast Essentials: Single High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Port

I know there are a lot of PC wizards on this forum who could tell me if it is good and worth the price is just over £1100.

I realise she wants to buy from a reputable company and have a hassle free time of not waiting for parts to come in the post etc but hey i am one for saving money if i can.

 

[Frizz]

Personally, if you're going for an out of the box PC, I'd have gone with Novatech's Energiser Pro. More bang for your buck I'd say with the dual 8800GT's and a gig of Ram each.

 

[inactionman]

You'd be better off with a Core2Quad, on a P35 mobo, with similar ram (how can they justify shipping 32bit Vista with 4Gb ram?), with a 9800GTX (or an overclocked 8800GTS 512 if you can find one), and building it yourself, it's really easy these days.

No monitor with that?

 

[inactionman]

Managed to knock this together in a few mins on scan, if you shop around you may get a better deal, but the components are good.

Bear in mind there's a 24" monitor, and a decent keyboard & mouse in there, which isn't in the Alienware spec. Drop them if you don't need them.

 

[dysfunction]

I would avoid getting an AMD machine. Intel is where its at right now.

Alienware are also rather expensive I always find.

If you want straight out of the box then I would go for this machine:
MESH Computers - Award Winning PCs Since 1987 - Xtreme X9450GTX

 

[Kryten]

Dell are ditching their XPS brand for Alienware, which is bad enough.
I certainly agree: the Phenom is getting better but bang for the buck, it's like pissing into the wind still. Far too much money for not enough juice; which just about encapsulates everything Alienware.
To put it even more bluntly, everyone knowing how much I hate Apple, I think Mac's are less of a waste of money than Alienware kit

 

[Cemeterygates]

I had an alienware system an tbh i was happy with it, expensive but went like a c**t.

 

[Aada]

Also what is the MAX amount of RAM this setup can have?

6gig or more?

 

[Kryten]

Probably 16gb, but knowing AMD's penchant for odd memory setups that they claim works better than anything else, it's probably something like 13
And of course you'd need a 64bit version of Vista to run it.

 

[Aada]

Decided to do abit of digging about Alienware and people that have bought from them and i have read some horror stories showed my GF and we are going with MESH.

This any better?

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad Core Processor(2.66GHz,12MB Cache,1333MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition with Service Pack 1
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 1000W PSU [upg £ 150.00]
Performance Pack - OCZ Vendetta Heat pipe quiet cooling, Performance updates, specialist cabling [upg £ 59.00]
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLi nForce 780i SLi - Intel Core2Duo/Quad Core - ATX [upg £ 105.00]
8GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (4 x 2GB)
1TB (1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer
Blu-ray ROM Player Dual layer DVD Writer 24 x CD Writer
512MB nVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out

 

[Kryten]

Far better. I'd certainly still stick with Intel chipset boards rather than the nVidia unless you really think that you'll need another one of those 9800's further down the line. And of course it may be part of a package deal you don't have full control over

Out of interest, what's the price difference? I'd put the cost of the Alienware that the Mesh walks all over it, and for less money?

 

[ST^]

- You're paying £150 for an extra 450W on the PSU? I wouldn't.
- 8Gb of RAM for a gaming PC? Even 4Gb is a little overkill. My Crysis beast only has 2Gb.
- You're playing for a blu-ray player. Do you really want to do that?
- Performance Pack for 59 quid? Drop it immediately, you don't need it so don't buy it.

So yeah, my main concerns are that you're buying a bunch of stuff you don't need. I'm also concerned that you won't know what hard drive and RAM you'll be getting (unless I'm not looking close enough).

 

[Ch3tan]

Yeah stick to minimum ram and then buy more if and when you need it. Ram is cheap, and you'll be able to get much better performing stuff than mesh supply you with (most probably).

 

[Aada]

When i take off the suggested things it's actually £100 more expensive then the Alienware.

My gf has been weighing up the two and she says she wants the Alienware now again so i'll just let her get on with it and when we get the 2nd PC in a few months (one each) i'll design mine better.

Will the Alienware PC be able to run Age of Conan ok? because my GF is going mental over that game hence the new PC.

Thanks for the help anyway folks damn women.

 

[- English -]

also why do u want 8gig ram on vista home, you will need x64 version or your gonna have 3.2gig

8gig ram would be cool though

 

[Ch3tan]

Aada, sort her out. The alienware is only cheaper because of the substandard AMD shite it is using. Do you not think their is a reason that every single new PC thread in the last two years has ended up with the buyer going for a core2duo system?

You have too many things you do not need in the mesh system. Including the CPU, get a slightly lower spec c2d instead.