That Time of Year - Updating the Gaming Rig

[Vampiric Puppet]

It's that time of year for me again and I need to update my gaming rig (in case the title didn't warn you) and I want your guy's opinions on the ones I'm looking at. Also if you know any other sites I can get help from please tell me so I don't have to keep bugging you!


Dell XPS 630
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core processor (2.40GHz,1066MHz FSB, 8MB cache)
Vista
4Gb Memory 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (4x1024)
Hard Drive 1TB (7200 Rpm)
Graphics Card - Dual SLI 512MB nVidia GeForce 9800GT Card

Total: £1,179


Alienware Aurora
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad Core (2.2GHz, 4 x 512Kb Cache)
Vista
4Gb Memory Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 x 1024Mb)
250Gb Hard Drive 7200 Rpm
Graphics Card 1Gb nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2
AMD 790FX Motherboard

Total - £1,212.60


A mate also suggested getting a mediocre Graphics Card with the machine and then buying a better one later and installing it myself which I could do. But I just wanted you Escapist geniuses to look over these and see if there is anything missing or if some of the hardware isn't compatible with most stuff.

Again if there's anywhere else you think I could get some help please say so

Thanks

 

[PrISM]

Funny you bring this up as I'm on Newegg pricing up a new build at this same moment. If it were me, I would drop the quad-core and get a nice dual core.

 

[bkd69]

I tend to go by the Ars Technica system guides:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200809.ars

 

[-Seraph-]

I would probably go with the alien ware comp. Just get more HD space if you want, but aside from that it's got some good parts and a vid card that eats children as an alternative power source. I think the ram would be better if you has two 2gig sticks instead of four 1gigs, but overall it's a decent gaming rig that will do the job. You could always custom build one, but if you are not planning on doing that I wont delve into it.

So yea my vote goes to the alien ware.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

Am I not just paying more for the brand?
Also I've got an external 500Gb Hard drive I'm assuming that'd work just as well as getting a bigger HDD.

Any ideas on how to improve it? 'Cos I'd rather get a brilliant rig that lasts for a long time than an ok rig that lasts for a while, then again is the best I'll get for around £1000?

 

[-Seraph-]

1200 is a freaking steal for a computer like that. The vid card alone costs 600 dollars (dont know how much it is in pounds). Even for it being a brand like alien ware your getting a well priced computer. I am not sure about the Mobo, but the rest of the compute should last you a good few years by my reckoning.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

Funny you bring this up as I'm on Newegg pricing up a new build at this same moment. If it were me, I would drop the quad-core and get a nice dual core.

Drop the Quad Core? Is it a power hog or just worse than Dual core? Are AMD any good at motherboards anymore? I heard that Intel were blowing them out the water

It's about $2000 USD. Are Alienware good at Customer Support and the like, I've always used Dell who have been ok but can I expect an answer if I were to email AW with a problem?

Also how do the Graphics Cards compare? About even?

Also any advice where I can sell my 2 laptops? Other than eBay. I thought that Dell bought old laptops to do up and sell on, anyone know what I'm talking about or was I high at the time?

 

[dukethepcdr]

I would certainly drop the quad core processor and go with a high Mhz Dual Core. Nothing really wrong with quad core except that at this present time, they are a total waste of money. No games that I am aware of even utilize quad core tech. We are only in our first generation of games that really take advantage of dual core procs. I'd also forget about the 4 GB of RAM unless you are installing the 64 Bit version of Windows Vista. The 32 Bit versions of Vista and XP can only read 2 GB of RAM and will ignore the other 2 GB. As far as storage goes, I would go with a 250 to 300 GB Hard Drive that runs at 10,000 RPM like the Western Digital Velociraptor(I saw one on New Egg for $80)instead of the slower 1 TB hard drive. It'll reduce load times and make games run smoother than the 7200 RPM drives will. You can always store extra stuff other than games on USB keys or an external USB Hard Drive. In fact, I'd highly recommend storing your photos, documents etc on an external drive of some sort so that if you have to reformat your internal HD, you won't lose your data.

You can build a great gaming rig for much less than $2000 USD buy shopping around for the best deals on parts. Each good quality part comes with it's own warranty. Sure, you wont get tech support for the overall computer, but you will for some of the parts. Plus, I'd imagine there are computer repair shops in the UK like there are in the US where you can take it if the problem you are having is more than you can figure out.

I build computers and I can build a rig with the HD I mentioned, a GeForce 9800 video card, a good Dual Core Proc, etc. for less than $900 USD. I leave out the parts and software a person really doesn't need that most off the shelf PCs come loaded down with. I also catch the sales on the web sites like New Egg and Tiger Direct. Sometimes, even local computer stores have good deals on parts, especially if you time your shopping during the times when they are getting ready for the new inventory and are having clearance sales. I also don't blow my budget on overpriced PC cases. Alienware's cases are overblown. You can get an Antec Nine Hundred case which has four huge fans (including a really big on in the roof of the case) that will keep all those parts plenty cool and is built solid for around $100 USD on the web.

If you are set on one of the two rigs you listed, I'd go with the Dell. If they will let your, reconfigure it and save even more money by choosing a Dual Core Proc, smaller but faster HD, and lose two of the GB of RAM.


PS, Talking PC hardware for Gaming rigs is perfectly fine on this forum as far as I'm concerned. One other website that gives good advice about hardware that I can think of though is www.tomshardware.com

 

[chronobreak]

No Quad Core, I have a Gateway GT5674, 3gb DDR2 Dual Channel Mem, 500 GB Hard Drive and the Phenom 9500 Quad Core, and I can't run shit for games.

Could be the GeForce 6150se though.

 

[SimuLord]

If you're buying a prebuilt it's a virtual certainty that you're getting broomsticked on the graphics card price. If you can downgrade and save more up front than it'll cost you on Newegg or at your local PC Parts R Us to buy the "upgrade", do so.

Also, I'm in agreement that a good dual-core will serve you just fine, since threaded applications aren't quite properly optimized for more than two simultaneous processes at this point. That time is certainly coming (and if you've got the capital it's never a bad thing to future-proof) but if you're going to keep the rig for thirty months or less it's not really necessary.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

I bought this and love it I am not keen on technical stuff so basically I just bought an uber PC that I hope I won't have to send in for upgrade$$s for quite a while.

ive been told before all the bla bla cheaper to make your own, well, I don't care that I could have learnt all the geeky stuff to make one and spend hours and hours doing it if i wanted to, it'd be a waste of time i could spend doing funner stuff

Yeah I kinda agree, I don't have the time to learn technical stuff and build my own (damn you work!) so I intend to build a pretty damn good machine and hope it lasts, don't get me wrong I can get a graphics card and install it but not build the machine from scratch.

Looks like Dual core Processor is the way to go! I'm going to see if Dell lets me get 3Gb memory (AW won't if I remember right) but the jump from 2Gb to 4Gb was £10 extra so would it be worth it for a tenner? Even if its not used or will it slow my system down? Shame I can't mix and match the two!

Does anyone have either of these and know what the fans are like for cooling? It doesn't say on the sit so I may have to do some serious googling later

 

[curlycrouton]

Getting a PC? I have one thing to say:
D.I.Y.

 

[TOGSolid]

Protip: Dell owns Alienware.

Yeah I kinda agree, I don't have the time to learn technical stuff and build my own (damn you work!) so I intend to build a pretty damn good machine and hope it lasts, don't get me wrong I can get a graphics card and install it but not build the machine from scratch.

Looks like Dual core Processor is the way to go! I'm going to see if Dell lets me get 3Gb memory (AW won't if I remember right) but the jump from 2Gb to 4Gb was £10 extra so would it be worth it for a tenner? Even if its not used or will it slow my system down? Shame I can't mix and match the two!

Does anyone have either of these and know what the fans are like for cooling? It doesn't say on the sit so I may have to do some serious googling later

There's actually not a lot of technical knowledge needed to build a rig on your own. The only real way you can screw up a home build is by not paying attention. I.e. buying an mobo with the wrong socket type for an intel processor.

 

[Lemony]

This is a brand new company that designs major gaming pcs for low price. (Comes with Vista or XP)
http://www.doghousesystems.com
Armor ES 4850 (This is the very basic)
-Thermaltake Armor+ MX Chassis
-One (1) Corsair 750W
Power Supply
-Asus P5Q E CrossFireX
45 chipset motherboard
-Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (This can be upgraded to quad core extreme with some of the other models)
3.0GHz processor
-6 MB Shared Cache,
-1333MHz FSB
-4 Gigabytes Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 Memory (2 x 2GB DIMMs)
-1 x 500GB 7,200 RPM
Western Digital RAID Edition III
SATA drive
-ATI Radeon HD 4850 Video Card
-2 X 10/100/1000 Copper Gigabit Port Embedded on Motherboard
-20X Dual Layer DVD +/- RW drive
-ADI AD2000B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
-Support Jack-Detection, Multi-Streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking
-Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
-ASUS Noise-Filtering
-Logitech Keyboard
and Optical Mouse
-48 Hour burn in and
stress test at factory
$1,595
Check it out! It's really something special.

 

[PrISM]

Funny you bring this up as I'm on Newegg pricing up a new build at this same moment. If it were me, I would drop the quad-core and get a nice dual core.

Drop the Quad Core? Is it a power hog or just worse than Dual core? Are AMD any good at motherboards anymore? I heard that Intel were blowing them out the water

Intel is the current champ in the CPU market (not motherboards!) with the best performance for the money chips. Unless you plan on running 16 different programs at once, like you're a multitasking champ, get a dual core. Quad core chips aren't worth the money for gaming because games still aren't being written to utilize all 4 cores. The performance increase from 2 cores to 4 is negligible.

Of course if money is no object, then forget what I posted.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

Intel is the current champ in the CPU market (not motherboards!)

Haha Yeah sorry it's been a long day

he lives in the UK, stop linking him american computershops they are no use to him at all lol.

Damn right! Thanks for remembering mate.

it's really annoying I can't take all the suggestions into one machine because neither build lets me alter them in every way so I'm going to have to pick and choose. I mean that AW let me have a small but fast HD while Dell won't but Dell lets me lower the RAM while AW doesn't.

But which Graphics Card is better, because for Pros and Cons it's about even? Or wouldn't it make a difference?

 

[ThaBenMan]

Buy an Xbox 360 or a PS3 and have a bunch of money left over for games.