my ultimate gamin system (ALIENWARE)

D

-=[Diablo]=-

Guest
helllo,

gonna buy me a alienware for my xmas.
so im looking forward for hl2 and doom3 :bounce:

AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 3200+
1GB Corsair XMS DDR SDRAM PC-3200 - 2x512MB
ATI RADEON™ 9800 XT 256MB
200GB Western Digital Ultra ATA 7200rpm w/8MB Cache
Plextor Plexwriter Premium 52x32x52 CD-RW
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/W Drive
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro - 7.1
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 19" 930SB BK
Logitech® 5.1 Z-680 THX

price £2500 roughly.

i have only one qustion, are alienware pcs worth the price or would i be better buyin else were?
 
Well you coul probably build a better (or simmilar) system yourself cheeper. Alienware computers are notorious for being much more expensive then they need to be.

Edit: Wow 2500 Pounds is equal to 4418 US Dollars. You can definately do better then that, you could build almost two of those systems for that price if you peice them together yourself.
 
www.cclcomputers.biz

I bet you could get a system like that, or slightly better for around £1,000 at CCL, probably with a 22inch monitor instead too. Build it yourself or for £25 extra they'll build it for you and make sure it all works.
 
Huge waste...

You could build a brand new A64 FX51, 9800XT, 2gb of registered RAM, WD 36gb rapors x 4 in a RAID setup, 22 inch monitor and everything else you had there for LESS then that.
 
i have only one qustion, are alienware pcs worth the price or would i be better buyin else were?
Click to expand...
99% of all prebuilt PCs are not worth the price.

And I agree with Sgt.Igneri on the components, those are more ultimate :)
 
For those of you in the US, I use www.newegg.com for all of my pc hardware purchases. Most of the time they're the cheapest around and even when they aren't, their shipping prices and customer service make up for it.
 
Why would you just buy it??? Are you retarded? No offense but, why would you pay nearly double to get the exact same PC? Just because its alienware? Man, I hate stupid people.
 
Although I agree that it would not be a very effiecient purchase, do not be rude, it is his choice.
 
-=[Diablo]=- said:
helllo,

gonna buy me a alienware for my xmas.
so im looking forward for hl2 and doom3 :bounce:

AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 3200+
1GB Corsair XMS DDR SDRAM PC-3200 - 2x512MB
ATI RADEON™ 9800 XT 256MB
200GB Western Digital Ultra ATA 7200rpm w/8MB Cache
Plextor Plexwriter Premium 52x32x52 CD-RW
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/W Drive
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro - 7.1
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 19" 930SB BK
Logitech® 5.1 Z-680 THX

price £2500 roughly.

i have only one qustion, are alienware pcs worth the price or would i be better buyin else were?
Click to expand...


I put together the following system by ordering all my parts from newegg.com which is probably the best place online for parts and the price is always right. The shipping is cheap as hell.. I only paid $79 for shipping for Fedex which got here in 2 days and I live on the east coast and newegg is in california. I paid around $2700 for all of the stuff below and that was with Fed Ex Shipping. From What I heard the Alienware PC"s are not that well made. If you go to www.resellerratings.com and look up alienware it will give you reviews from people who bought from them before.

Antec Sonata Ultra Quiet Case (Black)
Abit IC7-MAX3 Motherboard
Pentium 4 3.2ghz
Enermax 450 Watt Powersupply.. With Adjustable Fan
1 GIG of Corsair XMS DDR400 RAM
2 120GB Western Digital SATA Drives 8mb Cache
Asus ATI 9800XT 256MB Video Card
Plextor PX708 DVD Writer and 40x CD Write as well
Lite 48x/16x DVDRom/CDROM Reader
Floppy Drive
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS
Viewsonic 17inch Flat Panel Monitor
Logitech USB Mouse and Keyboard
 
With Alienware though its more than just buying the computer theres supoib customer service, software etc etc and everything inside the case is so neat :) . Nevertheless it doesnt really justify the high price. I'm happy with mine though :dork:
 
GPRT said:
With Alienware though its more than just buying the computer theres supoib customer service, software etc etc and everything inside the case is so neat :) . Nevertheless it doesnt really justify the high price. I'm happy with mine though :dork:
Click to expand...

Its the same with a dell too, and compaq, and everything else. The only thing you get is customer service and some crappy software... THAT ONLY WORKS WITH THE BRAND OF PREBUILT YOU BOUGHT IT FROM.

Besides, you can get even better service from building your own. Not only will you know exactly where the problem si coming from, but you will get 5x better support from places such as www.hardforum.com or your components manufacturer.

Oh, and you can also make your case extremely neat too, and make it look hott while doing so with UV reactive cable sleeves, etc.
 
Eh... I didn't even bother readin' all these posts, 'cause I just wanted to tell ya' that straight off the bat, I myself would not buy that Alienware... sure, they're name is pretty 'legendary' I guess you could say, and they're supah-l337 to look at; but they're rip-offs if ya' ask me.

I'm sure everyone else said this, but you could get much better deals on sites such as www.newegg.com and www.pricewatch.com... hell, I'd even go with eBay. I have before, and I had no problems at all!
 
If you build the PC, your gonna get it cheaper. You could go to a place like Cyberpowerinc.com and get a pre-biult PC. But Building will still be cheaper...
 
Ultimate my ass....3.2 ghz is not ultimate.Hard OCP built a modded vapo-chilled pc and oc'ed it to 4.2ghz!!!Thasts ultimate....you could never do that with an alienware.
 
i heard people in sweden a couple of years ago, oced a 2.0 to a 4.0 with liquid nitrogen. i thikn it was when 2.0 was the top cpu, so thats a while ago
 
Lol, that sounds like bullshit. Liquid Nitrogen freezes anything that it touches, doesn't it? So... what would be able to hold it without being frozen over, along with the mobo, etc.?
 
my chem teacher just some demonstrations with liquid nitrogen before my winterbreak. she used some sort of an icecooler but the walls were really thickso we could see it and she transported it from the store to the class using come sort of metal can so maybe the liquic N was stored in some container that was pressed against the cpu but then it kinda takes a lot of effort to store liquid nitrogen at -175C ( i belive thats the temp that nitrogen turns into liquid)
 
Just buy, who cares if you can build it for cheaper. You can't beat the thrill of having the Fed Ex guy ring your doorbell while holding the all black box with the alien face on it!!!

I have had my Alienware for about 3 years. Only one major problem, mobo fried, but it was my fault probably.

Plus they gave me a free 60gb HD when I sent it in to get the mobo replaced. Happened just before the warranty ended.
 
Its a shame that voodoo and falcon northwest cost like $3000 JUST for a 2.4, 512 RAM, and a FX5600...
 
The best pre-built system is one pre-built by a trusted friend who knows his stuff. Buy custom parts and build the best system for a great price. Although no tech support. That is why we respond to ppl who don't know how to build their own with www.dell.com . ;)

Alienware is great (as is Falcon/Voodoo), just they are really overpriced. There really is no benifit with Alienware vs self-built other than warranty/tech support for those who don't know about PCs. The big draw back is PRICE.

I had a friend who really wanted an Alienware because of the name and he really though it was better than everything out there possible. Paying for the Alienware name is a big waste. Turned out he didn't have enough cash and I think he was saved from making a wasteful investment (he was low on cash).
 
some guys in the states used liquid nitrogen too, i lost the link to the video tape, their temps were -37 cpu i think, i cant remember, i cant belive i lost the website for it,

ohh ya i remember how they did it,

First they put in some kind of liquid, all the way, coverted the mobo, all the parts were wet, then they poured in the LN, overclocked thier 300 megaherz to a 800, also they oced the buss speds to like 200 units, i dont remember what, they have pictures and divided videos to show the process, im shure if u guys search for it it will be right, but i dont understand how they poured wet stuff on the mobo with parts in it and it still run, by the way it wasnt h20, some kind of hard luqiud. only buffer between the computer parts and the LN was that hard liquid substance. see it actualy can be done with somewhat direct contect. =D
 
Here's a quick Excel table (3 pages: one high-end, one mid-range, one low-end... at least for my budget it's low-end) I whipped up just now to guage what prices you can get for various computers.

My next upgrade will either be something like the high-end one (minus the parts I keep from this computer) or better if I wait until HL2/Doom3/etc... which I recommend doing if at all possible.

I don't care so much about my pre-made computer selections... but using something like this as a template really helps speed up the process of entering and calculating prices. For example: All three pages of that chart (not including relearning Excel after not using it for 5 years) took a total of less than 10 minutes to make.
 
hey i have a list like that too, but mines in word =P, im buying that in mid march or april. constantly upgrading it, plus u can see how detailed i am in it.

special thanks to Rabies for helping me choose out the parts.
 
Yes... but does yours automatically recalculate the price every time you update one of the parts? :D

That's the main reason I made it. Doing it manually with notepad and a calculator is a pain in the ass.
 
well its not that hard, all u do is get the sum equation, with excell u just point and highlights, no prob, but ususasly i calculate shit in my head, so /me sticks tounge at ocybramano, ahah im smarter than you!!!!

really tell me what u think of my system, any suggestions guys ?? i think im all set, just waiting for the month to come.

p.s. its is with word not wordpad. big difference.
 
On the advice, I mostly agree with Pendragon.

Don't buy any Athlons other than the 64's. The XP 3200's are beaten (or at least tied) even by a P4C (800MHz FSB) 2.4Ghz, which is a fraction of the cost of an XP 3200. The P4C that is the same price as the XP 3200 beats the crap out of it.

1) You might want to go with an Athlon 64 3200+ instead of the P4C 3.0GHz... it's a bit more expensive, but it beats even the 3.2GHz P4C in games (but not in synthetic benchmarks). Also, if 64-bit programs (or at least an OS) gain popularity before your next upgrade the Athlon 64 will hold out much better than a 32-bit P4. Think ahead. You can probably also find a good mobo to go with it for around $100.

2) If you're not into wasting money for little benefit... I would go with a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (it's almost half the price of the XT and it performs well, especially if you overclock to the XT's speeds).

3) You can get a 120GB EIDE Hard Drive for under $80 and an SATA one for under $95. Try searching with pricewatch or newegg.

Hmmm... can't think of anything else at the moment.
 
And to add to that, if you buy Athlon 64...buy 3000+ or FX51 rather than the 3200+.
The 3000+ is half the price of the 3200+ and is almost the same exact performance. Or you could go all out and get a FX51. ;)
 
I haven't looked at any 3000+ benchmarks. So I wouldn't know.

... but the FX-51 is at least $720 and I doubt he wants to spend that much. :D
 
ya 700 is to much, no money. thanks for the advice guys. im planing to hold out untill late march or april. thats a long ways away. but probably untill then maybe pentium will come out with a 64bit processor i dont, but i keep on updating my list, keep the advice coming.
 
i have a question, does anyone here have the x-clear (acrylic) case form xoxiode? i really need to ask some numericaly detailed questions about it. please post if u have that case.
 
-=[Diablo]=- said:
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro - 7.1
Logitech® 5.1 Z-680 THX
Click to expand...

A few comments if I may :naughty:

The Audigy ZS Platinum Pro, you do realize that it is external right? You may want to go with the ZS Platinum internal, same great features, less mess.

A good choice on the Z-680, good system. I nicknamed mine "plaster blaster", we already had 3 pictures fall off of the wall. :angel:

Besides with the ZS Platinum Pro, you are going to have one "fun" time with all of the wires, haha. The Z-680 has 11 by itself. Oh and also, don't use fiber/fibre optics or digital on the Z-680, the only way to get true 5.1 dolby is to use 6 CH input or direct input. Fibre/Fiber, and digital are all emulated, they sound like crap. :afro:

Other than that the system looks great, some overkill parts, but hey, they will last "time" longer. :)
 
Earliest you will see an Intel x86-64 cpu will be late next year or beyond.
OCybrManO said:
I haven't looked at any 3000+ benchmarks. So I wouldn't know.
Click to expand...
Some reviews on the 3000+ here on the first post and near the end of the thread.
 
Hyenolie, those all acrlyic cases are junk. You even have to assemble the case. PCgamer and Maximum PC reviewed them over the summer and said they broke several parts during the isntallation.

Oh and yes, this friggin audigy 2 ZS combo w/ the Z680s, ROCKS THE DAMN HOUSE. God i LOVEE them!
 
OCybrManO said:
Yes... but does yours automatically recalculate the price every time you update one of the parts? :D

That's the main reason I made it. Doing it manually with notepad and a calculator is a pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Um, I downloaded it and your second total is wrong man. Look at your memory, cost for 1 is $50 then in quantity u put 2 making it cost you $100 fo memory, so why the, when all the other prices are the same, is the grand total the same?

edit: its youf rist total thats wrong, it should be $2,272. and why all P4's? Everyone knows that Athlons are cheaper, and faster, and better for gaming. So why, especially for the low/mid range comps do you have P4's?

edit 2:
its youf rist
Click to expand...
How did I switch the f and the r??
 
but acrylic cases so perdy. weeeeeeeeeeee

if you set it up nicely it a charm man, if u have regualr crap wires hanging out its nasty as ****, but check this out

http://www.icehouse.net/blktiger60/pcpics.htm

the guy did a somewhat good job, hes got a buch of crap in it i dont like, but i need to know how many thumb screws do i need, i dont want the gold(eeeeewwwww) ones it comes with.
 
The Terminator said:
Um, I downloaded it and your second total is wrong man. Look at your memory, cost for 1 is $50 then in quantity u put 2 making it cost you $100 fo memory, so why the, when all the other prices are the same, is the grand total the same?

edit: its youf rist total thats wrong, it should be $2,272. and why all P4's? Everyone knows that Athlons are cheaper, and faster, and better for gaming. So why, especially for the low/mid range comps do you have P4's?

edit 2: How did I switch the f and the r??
Click to expand...
The price is right (hehe)... you just don't understand how it works. First, all the prices (the value of one unit) of the components are multiplied by their quantities to calculate their costs (the total value of X units). Then, the costs are all added together to find the total price of one of those PC's. Then, the price of one PC is mutliplied by the quantity of them you want to buy, giving you the cost of that many PC's.

... and unless by "Athlon" you mean "Athlon 64" then, no, P4C's (the 800MHz FSB ones) are better in almost every test (including gaming) compared to Athlons. A P4C 2.4GHz even beats an Athlon XP 3200+ more than half of the time (including almost all games, if I remember correctly)... and it's slightly more than half the price of a 3200+. Until the Athlon 64 3200+ and 3000+ the P4's were a much better value... now, the tables have turned yet again.

EDIT: Since I posted the template I have made a bunch of changes to the computers... I just posted it so you guys could use it to help speed up the design of your computers if you wanted to. Don't take them as advice, I only spent 10 minutes total on all three. I should have just left off the quantity and cost of the total... it just confuses people. There are people that need to build more than one computer of the same type... like people that make computers for a living, people that run those gaming places (couldn't remember what they're called if my life depended on it), etc.
 
2.4 can beat out a 2800+ in most tests. Not a 3200+, although Im sure there are some cases where it can happen.

May I ask if you got this theory of a 2.4c beating out a 3200+ at tomshardware?
 
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