Not getting Alienware, help me build PC

[Dude500X]

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/

 

this is the site all my mates suggest, however, I dont know what the hell any of this shit is lol

 

basicially my budget is likely going to be 2k, 1.5k PREFERABLY.

 

I want to play all the modern games etc.

 

any suggestions?

[gregathit]

I wish you luck, I could make suggestions but that would most likely start a verbal war. I've built computers for well over 20 years but any time I try to make suggestions on a forum the know-it-all's come out of the woodwork if I make even the slightest mistake.

So again I wish you luck

 

Everyone has an opinion and honestly you should not worry about folks criticizing yours. 

 

I too have been building my own computers for well over 2 decades and my current computer is from Alienware.  Why did I do this when I could have built a nicer computer for less?  Because I was lazy and had more money than time to F with it.  That and I didn't want to try to install a liquid cooling system.

 

 

 

To the OP, depending on your level of skills, you can buy parts from places like newegg or tigerdirect or some other online source.  You can also buy a bare bones kit that already includes some of the trickier stuff to install and buy\install the additional items (like a video card or sound card and so on) that you need for a complete system.  You can get a very decent system for your budget.  How decent you can get it will depend on what level of work you want to put into things.  Generally the cheapest method is to buy individual components and assemble it yourself. 

 

There is no "right" or "wrong" way, it is just a function of what skill\money\work you want to put into it.

[ritualclarity]

Like the post above me. I have built more computers than I care to mention. I also have ideas as well. The best advice however isn't equipment or Intel or AMD argument. It is look at various Forums across the web. Overclockers.com. Tom's hardware to name a few. Read their info and reviews. They are professionals that make a living at reviewing the materials. Another source if you are inexperienced but willing to build one yourself, check Maxim PC or other magazines where they build the machine with parts that they have chosen for a particular task or need. You can gain great ideas from these magazines. In fact the first PC I built completely from scratch came from a magazine with some selected upgrades to fit my added desires.

 

Good Luck.

 

EDIT:

If you are going to have a pre-built from the guys you mentioned

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSPB6123W&name=PB-6123W-Gaming-Series-Intel-Ivy-Bridge-i5-QUAD-CO

and

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSPB6213W&name=PB-6213W-Gaming-Series-Intel-Quad-Core-i5-3570-3.4

 

Not exactly what I would buy.. and not sure of their quality as being I am not from there but. Decent regular equipment should be able to upgrade in the future if needed. Just need to decide if you want the AMD graphic or the nVidia Graphics.

 

The previous is the cheaper ones:

The higher choice close to your budget..

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSPB6502W&name=PB-6502W-Gaming-Series-Intel-Core-i7-3770-3.4Ghz-1

 

If you are gaming only you might not need the added power of the i7 processor. You can then save your money and upgrade when the better graphic cards drop in price.

[Jerbsinator]

Go to this site, register and make a thread asking for tips. There are tons of people on there that will help you and give you a list of recommended hardware that is compatible. Newegg also has a really nice video series that helped me a LOT on my first build, http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/727951.aspx

 

The main thing you need to choose is if you want to have a AMD CPU or Intel, that will determine which motherboard you buy. Personally I would go Intel, it's a little more than AMD but the i5's and 7's are really great CPU's. Don't skimp out on your power supply either, make sure it's a good one. Either way $2000 is a pretty good budget and I think you could make something really good with that.

[Dude500X]

cant remember if I mentioned but it is $2000 NZD which is probably... about somewhere between 1k and 1.5k US?

 

anyway thanks for the tips guys, im actually leaning towards alienware again however I am still researching

[gregathit]

I would not buy an alienware desktop if you are on a budget, as you can get quite a bit more via new egg and other similar venues.  I bought one because I had more money than time and didn't want to jack with installing a liquid cooling system.

 

Course it all depends as I said before on whether you can put the thing together or not.  If not then your choices get more limited and the price goes up.

[GreyDeath]

you might want to give http://ibuypower.com a try .

[canderes]

Never buy an Alienware notebook. I know this is a desktop discussion but it is a warning. I've fixed three of those mx whatever they call them for some friends and met only one person who owned a desktop version; this crappy little shuttle PC. They end up on craigslist here alot. No offense but I wouldn't buy Alienware anything since it is part of Dell.  

 

If something happens to the machine and it has reached the end of life period (normally 6 - 8 months) almost no company will want to help you unless your ready to pay in full or more. Which is typically that happens with Dell and HP. And if your thinking HP please don't. Look around for the posts on computer forums complaining about the design flaws or company cost complaints when they decide to buy cheap components to put in those pre-built computers.

 

It isn't very hard to put one together yourself if you have a diagram of the motherboard but you can to go to a PC shop and pay to have it built. It really is cheaper to order the parts than to buy one pre-built and if you live in a place out in the middle of nowhere like me, you'll have to pay 200-300 % the price for the part in town than if you had ordered it. If you buy from a place in town don't let them trick you into buying the most expensive thing on the shelf. You probably don't need it and what it costs will be enough to order two or more of them on newegg or some other site.

 

There's one guy I know who from school who spent probably around $5000 to play Crysis because graphics, but I can say with 100% certainty that its probably used for nothing but web browsing now. Nothing quite like having a million core machine running at some ridiculous speed to browse facebook. 

 

[gregathit]

Canderes,

 

I would agree with "part" of what you are saying on assembling being fairly easy (if you buy a bare bones kit it becomes REALLY easy) and HP and Dell computers are NOT gaming machines and should be steered clear of, as they often bundle crap off on you.

 

I also agree that folks buying "gaming" laptops should have their heads examined.  You "may" find a laptop that could hang with a middle end desktop for a bit but it will cost you FAR more money and last half as long if you are lucky.  The other thing that is a HUGE drawback to "gaming" laptops is their upgrade ability which as you know is pretty limited for the average user.

 

 

HOWEVER Alienware Desktops are a completely different story all together.  I bought an Aurora in April 2010 and all I have replaced is the video card.  The only reason I replaced it was to go from a 295 to a 560 for more graphics power.  Everything else works fantastically.  Now admittedly, I did overpay somewhere around $400 bucks more than if I built it myself, but I didn't want to jack with a liquid cooling system and I was buried under work and didn't want to spend a minute of my precious free time on assembling jack crap.

 

 

[gregathit]

you might want to give http://ibuypower.com a try .

 

I had a buddy that bought an ibuypower PC.  It was fine.  The case was most definitely on the cheap to borderline crappy end of the scale, but as long as you customized the parts inside (never by the stock as they load it with junk parts) then you'll be fine. 

 

 

 

Gateway falls into the same category as Dell and HP - avoid them as a desktop gaming pc if you can.  They tend to load those suckers with junk parts and their case\components are configured in a way that hampers you from making your own upgrades.

[GreyDeath]

just as a note i only offered ibuypower because he is looking for a prebuilt, in truth i also would agree with everything stated above about Dell, and to add to that the Hype that is associated with the 2 words "Gaming and Laptop" should be an Oxymoron to begin with , not mentioning above is another issue often found with said devices

 

a standard laptop is hard enough clean and maintain and the heat issue is one of the worst to manage on a gaming laptop, reason simple stock laptops have small ventilated heat sinks and large air-passages where as on a gaming laptop they fill those large areas up with more heat sink material which is fine , but it leaves less space for the system to exspell things like  ,  cat hair, lint, dust  not a big deal for those with the proper tools to maintain them properly but for the average day to day user , they can spend more time in the shop then being used , to add to insult here, DELL is great for buying components from major mfg/'s and tearing them apart to produce their own motherboards in NON-standard format so that you the consumer are tied to their company for their parts in short making them Priority for parts replacement

 

in reality though i would only buy build it yourself now , because you get the full mfg. warranty

usually everything falls under this system heading

 

memory, video card = lifetime warranty

hard drives, psu's    = 5 year warranty

cpu, motherboard    = 2-5 year warranty

 

compare that to a standard warranty anywhere else:

that and you can save more and usually upgrade early on more for more performance parts

its just smarter money and making it work for you instead of the other way around

 

[Rayblue]

There's one guy I know who from school who spent probably around $5000 to play Crysis because graphics, but I can say with 100% certainty that its probably used for nothing but web browsing now. Nothing quite like having a million core machine running at some ridiculous speed to browse facebook. 

 

Oh, geez... Lot like buying a Lambo just to buy groceries. What a waste.

 

Never liked buying a "branded" PC, generally because you're paying for the brand name more than the actual quality of the parts inside. For the same price of a "branded" rig, I could very well assemble a more powerful gaming PC.

[GreyDeath]

high 5 to Rayblue, right on ...love the analogy

>http://:lol: Oh, geez... Lot like buying a Lambo just to buy groceries. What a waste.

[GreyDeath]

here are 2 examples for you if you were to go with a Build it yourself:

these don't include the DVD player/RW due to many different options available, but both of these hover around the $1500 Range and would be a Decent System capable of anything you do with them, To the Upper Level PC Junkies out there they are miles apart, but for someone new to the PC Venture you would be hard pressed to see a difference between them, I have both of them currently, and with both set up the same in stock configurations with no Over Clocking they both perform the same .

 

AMD Build

">http://

Intel Build

">http://

[Rayblue]

high 5 to Rayblue, right on ...love the analogy

>http://:lol: Oh, geez... Lot like buying a Lambo just to buy groceries. What a waste.

 

Rule of thumb is, buy a notebook to use FB, and buy a heavily-armed gaming rig for gameplay and multimedia-heavy work.

[Dude500X]

well, i did abit more research and i've changed my mind.

 

again.

 

I'm going to go with the x-14 gaming laptop

 

http://www.dell.com/nz/p/alienware-m14x-r2/pd

 

the expensive one at the end of the page, nearing 3k but I think it will be worth it for me as I can take it when i'm studying and it looks so god damn sexy, 2nd to only having a big butt on my lap I think

[Captain Cobra]

Have fun wasting your money.

[canderes]

Lol atleast look at this before you buy that. You could get the x79 with 32 gb of ram and it would still cost less than that.

 

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=8

[GreyDeath]

yeah best bet would be to go the sager route.... they are fully customizable... if it were between the dell and the Sager I'd still go desktop

Dell M14x's are one of those 50/50 bets of actually getting one that does what its supposed to type laptops

 

case in point, looking at customer reviews, and seeing all of the 4 stars does nothing but add to the Bling factor when it comes to a gaming laptop

I'm only adding this information as a comparative example. but these are the things i look for in a laptop and one reason I stay away from Dell or Alienware is for the basic rule, if the intakes are larger then the exhaust then you know its gonna be hot loud as they error on aesthetics as opposed to functions, here's a write up:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6272&review=alienware+m14x+best+gaming+laptop&p=4

 

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19499061.aspx

 

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19502219.aspx

 

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19473652/20220855.aspx

 

these were the first 4 on the page of 50,000 said posts on these laptops

[blacklord9]

Have fun wasting your money.

 

Hahaha that was so blunt. 3/4 of this thread was just warnings against buying gaming laptops and then the OP is like this 3k gaming laptop is just great and then this guy comes in and is like: dude... f*** you. Nah I'm j/k.

 

 

Now for my 2 cents: I would never buy a ready built PC. For me it's fun to build PCs, it's like legos. Also I would guess it depends on the region but where I live branded rigs cost near to double the price of the rig home built. I honestly don't know why anyone would buy a ready built PC. Not even lack of time justifies the waste of money and lack of customization.

 

Also if the OP does still want a gaming laptop (hahahaha) I would recommend waiting for Acer to release a beefed up laptop. They usually release models that are extremely similar to gaming laptops every now and then at half the price of alienware with the same specs.

[RzXzB]

To me the price for new parts are way too costly I buy used parts to build my PC the only thing I buy new is the hard drive. I paid close to $80 for my used build $30 for 2 Acer 13-inch 1280x1024 LCD's $5 for Pentium D 820 2.8ghz $8 for the motherboard $10 for the 4 1 gig DDR2 sticks of ram $11 for the Hard Drive and $15 for the Geforce GT 120 1gig.They may be off brand parts but it plays Skyrim just fine on medium and and if it breaks down no worries I still got my use out of the used parts and another great thing is there is so many used parts out there it will be cheap to repair lol

[Dude500X]

considering I had stated afew times I was using NZD and options here for building PC's are limited I kind of thouuuuuuught people would of understood the price differences and added costs.

 

GreyDeaths post on here was quite helpful however, as was everyone elses until sarcasm started popping up in messages.

 

Anyway I have asked in over 10 places online now for opinions and ideas and the majority all up seem to favor me going Alienware due to my location and the costs, but apparently I did not need to buy the expensive model and I would suffice with the cheaper option which was awesome.

 

Though to be fair due to the nature of forums like this I could not state what specific games I was planning to play apart from the PC games.

 

According to most folk as well my Laptop should have a good lifespan of around about a year to 2 years before needing to upgrade any of the hardware due to the games I play and plan on playing.  Also, I was paying for the aesthetic look as well, I want my Laptop to look sexy.

I even got a name plate on it that will say Lord Dweedle

 

Thank yee all for constructive ideas.  Now I just need to find a good gaming wireless mouse and a copy of Microsoft Office.. hmm, then I'm set

This has been one very confusing journey.

 

[ritualclarity]

I even got a name plate on it that will say Lord Dweedle

I have to say that is cool.

[Dude500X]

I even got a name plate on it that will say Lord Dweedle

I have to say that is cool.

 

I know lol

 

Gonna be awesome

[ritualclarity]

Hey did you get it yet? If so how is it working for you?