Alienware or ABS?

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: AbominableJinx
Lol, guess no one can read what I said about building my own. Thanks anyways people 🙂

We read it, but it's blasphemous all the same 😛 Build your own, it's easy even for first-timers.

If your life depended on picking the better computer between Alienware & ABS though, I'd say ABS.

 

[Sunner]

Just get a friend to build it for you.
For $500 I'd build a computer that would beat the Alienware and throw in 5 years of support, and you'd still save money 😉

 

[guptasa1]

Might want to take a look at GamePC. They're also expensive, but build a hell of a system if you want something custom built. And they support what they build very well.

 

[Bugalaman]

time? it takes less than an hour if you don't want to make everything neat and tidy inside.

 

[yhelothar]

Yep building computers are like a 10 piece jigsaw puzzle... brainlessly easy... you don't even need to learn, it's self explanatory.

 

[GnomeCop]

the answer to your question without all the BS... between alienware or ABS, go with ABS.

if you are still looking, you may want to look at Velocity Micro too.

 

[earthling30]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
the answer to your question without all the BS... between alienware or ABS, go with ABS.

if you are still looking, you may want to look at Velocity Micro too.

Agreed. I haven't heard too many good things about alianware.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Thanks for all the replys. You told me what I needed to know. Looks like I will go Alienware........just kidding 🙂.

I will go with ABS since that was my choice to begin with. Only thing I hated about them was the tax and shipping which is 150 put togther. But at least if I dont like the thing, I wont lose 200 dollars on an illiegal 15% restock fee.

I see alot of people recomend amd over intel. I thought the amd was a very unstable processor, and doesnt last as long as P4? Is this 754 pin good, or is it already obsolete?

Will this amd 64 play my older games like Baldurs Gate 1? If it wont play that, I will go with Intell. Thanx again 🙂

 

[yankeesfan]

Originally posted by: AbominableJinx
Thanks for all the replys. You told me what I needed to know. Looks like I will go Alienware........just kidding 🙂.

I will go with ABS since that was my choice to begin with. Only thing I hated about them was the tax and shipping which is 150 put togther. But at least if I dont like the thing, I wont lose 200 dollars on an illiegal 15% restock fee.

I see alot of people recomend amd over intel. I thought the amd was a very unstable processor, and doesnt last as long as P4? Is this 754 pin good, or is it already obsolete?

Will this amd 64 play my older games like Baldurs Gate 1? If it wont play that, I will go with Intell. Thanx again 🙂

Those are myths. AMD is not unstable, as it will last as long as any Pentium 4 . 754 is good (not obsolete for low end Athlon 64s), but 939 is better. AMD Athlon 64's are better and cheaper than their Intel counterparts.

 

[ChineseGuy]

IMHO, Athlon processor are just as good as intel processor (if not better) Benchmarks has showed that Athlon 64 witll beat even the high end level of Pentium 4 processor. In terms of games, it should really make a difference. It should run in both configuration, it depends on the OS support. Some Win98 games will just not run in WinXP, now... if you go old school, you might find a lot of old dos programs will not run in XP 🙁 But i think Bulder's gate will do just fine. Why do people recommend AMD orver P4? Well it's cheaper.... you are getting more preformance, for a couple of hundred dollars less. Some people might say that AMD processors are not as stable, but in my personal experience, they are just as solid. Was told by others that the CPU life might not be as long as AMD processor, i think it's because of the heat generated by the processor, CPU don't just crap out on you for no reason 🙂 With proper cooling, AMD will run nice and cooled.. 754pin is a good choice for first time buyer that don't want to spend too much. The 939 pins are nice, but the main differences between the two is 936 pins processors has dual channel support. Which means your ram have twice the bandwidth. But 754 is a lot cheaper. the low end 754 processor go for ~$150 and then the low end 939 pin processor go for ~$400. But the 754 is going to stay for a while, the fact is, we all wish we have money to spend on a nice fancy processor, but we don't , so 754 is here to stay, maybe not as long as 939, who knows. But it won't be gone for a while. But if you want to wait a little, it looks like the price for 939 will come down, or they will start making lower end/speed processor for the 939 pins. http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20040821122657.html Hope everything helped...

 

[bigboxes]

Originally posted by: AbominableJinxI see alot of people recomend amd over intel. I thought the amd was a very unstable processor, and doesnt last as long as P4?

Who told you that? AMD is faster and cheaper and just as good quality wise.

Originally posted by: AbominableJinxIs this 754 pin good, or is it already obsolete?

Socket 939 is AMD's attempt to unify 754 (Athlon) & 940 (Opteron) platforms. You'd be fine with 754, but might choose 939 if you plan on upgrading in the future.

Originally posted by: AbominableJinxWill this amd 64 play my older games like Baldurs Gate 1? If it wont play that, I will go with Intell. Thanx again 🙂

Of course it will. The A64 is both a 32 bit and a 64 bit processor (The P4 is only a 32bit cpu). It will run all your old 32 bit games. You won't even being using the 64 bit until M$ releases Windows with 64 bit support (that and any games that will be developed for that platform in the future).

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: bigboxes

Difference: $635.51 Use that $$$ to buy a case and a video cooling solution and have $$$ left over. 🙂

LOL...better yet, use it to buy a years worth of high speed internet
:roll: ...

US Robotics® 56K V.92 Performance Pro $67.99

You WILL be disappointed after you drop $2K on one of those comps and find out how much it has depreciated in 3 months, or find out how terrible their customer service is. You can assemble a PC in 5 minutes. Installing Windows takes another 20.

 

[freeject]

Im telling you bro, you need to check out www.monarchcomputer.com or www.ibuypower.com

Both these companies get high scores @ resellerratings.com and they will build you an equivalent pc for less than ABS and MUCH LESS than alienware - and they will warrantee it longer. Also, when it says "On-Site", that means they HAVE TO COME TO YOUR HOUSE and do the repairs.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Thanks for the great info all, and taking the time to research all these configurations 🙂. I am goin to check out Monarch also and see what they have to offer. 🙂

 

[AbominableJinx]

I came across this alien-like case the other day. Maybe monarch will put make one for me in this case? I will make a new post and see what people think of it.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1865

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: AbominableJinx
Thanks for the great info all, and taking the time to research all these configurations 🙂. I am goin to check out Monarch also and see what they have to offer. 🙂

I second Monarch!

I've bought components from the company and they truly kick ass! They back up everything and their tec support is very good. In addition, their systems (overall) get great reviews. Maximum PC has been reviewing their PC lineup of late and they are on par with the big companies: Dell, Alienware, NW-Falcon.

good luck.

 

[tyanni]

I see alot of people recomend amd over intel. I thought the amd was a very unstable processor, and doesnt last as long as P4? Is this 754 pin good, or is it already obsolete?

Do people really still believe this? Wow.

 

[trexpesto]

Socket 754 is good. You can get the 1MB cache processors for hundreds of dollars cheaper than the equivalent 939.

Some people say they are getting 939 so they can upgrade later, but really, by the next time you upgrade you'll want a new motherboard anyway. and a new vid card.


EDIT: A64's dominate right now.

I heard Dual Channel will get you maybe 5% memory speed improvement. Anyone correct me??

Check out my earlier post of the monarch system if you didn't see it.

They didn't have the exact mobo I was looking for from JPeyton's Buyer's Guide, so get a second opinion on it. Probably you don't need the modem, except emergencies. You should invest in high-speed internet if you want to play games online.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Here is a configuration with Monarch. Is this mess all compatable? I dont really want to pay alot for a graphics card, and think the 9800 pro would suit me fine just to play bg1 and nwn. Im not into doom or farcry stuff. Please put in your 2 cents 🙂



Case NO PS - Antec Plusview 1000AMG Case w/Cle $75.00
Power Supply: - PS 480W - Antec True480 w/Gold Plated Con $91.00
Case Fan: - 80mm - Antec 80mm Quiet Case Fan $15.99
Clear Side Panel: None
Motherboard: - Asus K8V-SE Deluxe K8T800 Audio/SATA/USB/ $117.00
Processor: - AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Retail Box-w-Fan) $290.00
Thermal Grease: - Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease (Cools CPU $13.00
Heat Sink Fan: - Thermaltake A1826 AMD Opteron Heatsink-w- $24.47
Memory: - DDR (400) 3200 - 512 MB Corsair (CMX512-3 $115.00
Second Memory: - DDR (400) 3200 - 512 MB Corsair (CMX512-3 $115.00
Hard Drive: - SATA - Seagate (ST3160827AS) 160 GB/7200- $129.00
CD Drive: - DVD-ROM - Lite On XJHD16SB 16x DVD 48x CD $49.00
CD-RW Drive: - CD-RW - Lite On LTR-52327S 52X32X52 CD-RW $39.00
DVD/DVD-RW: None
Floppy Drive: - Mitsumi 1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Drive (Black) $20.00
Sounds Card: - Creative Audigy 2 ZS 24BIT/5.1/IEEE/MIDI/ $96.00
Video Card: - ATI (Sapphire) Atlantis 9800PRO 256 MB DD $229.00
Network Card: - 3Com 3C905CX-TX-M NIC 10/100 $39.00
Round Cable: None
Case Light: - 12" Blue Cold Cathode Neon Light $15.00
Operating System: - Microsoft Windows XP Professional $154.00
Warranty: - 24/7 Tech Support + Plus 3 Year Onsite Wa $99.00

Far Cry Promotion: - FREE Full DVD Version of Far Cry - $39.95
Antivirus: None
Wireless Network Card: None
Subtotal with your selected options:$1,824.46
+ $50 shipping

 

[AbominableJinx]

I just seen your configuration trex. Thanks, I must have overlooked it earlyer. I really need a modem cause where I live there is no cable, and I couldnt afford it anyways right now. Lucky I can dish out to buy a new pc, which will break my bank 🙁

With the abs I noticed you get 2 hard drives, and the raid setup is free, but they are Maxtors, which I have seen alot of people in here do not like them, and will take a seagate before a maxtor. Are 2 drives even necesary?

Also, what mobo would really be tops? I hear the asus is really good, but is abit better?

 

[trexpesto]

2 hd are only needed for RAID, 1 is fine and seagates are nice - 5 year warranty nowadays. Their SATA drives at least are real quiet too, so are the samsungs.

Do whatever you need to do to get the 6800GT, it is a 3-4 times better than that 9800 Pro.
If you really don't want to go there, at least get the 6800 plain - it's only $75 more I think.

Get only one stick of memory and order one from newegg - there it is $75. Saves $40.
The motherboard comes with gigabit LAN, so I think you can use that and skip the Network card. Saves $39
Get 2 years of on-site support. You will probably never need it and after 2 years your machine will be obsolete and you will be wishing it broke down. Saves $20
I would say skip the sound card for now since that motherboard has on-board audio, see how good it is. Saves $96

As far as the motherboard, I would try to go with some recomendations from other posts. That builder's guide that I mentioned earlier has some of the best ones listed in the mid-range build. You could start with the list from monarch, that would narrow it down from the beginning if you are getting from them. Search for "754" in General Hardware and Motherboards forums. Look for recent ones, because there are still boards coming out. There are 2 general flavors: one has the nForce chipsets, the other has the VIA. nForce was ahead last time I looked, with on-chip firewall, etc. When you narrow it down, google for "that board name +review" and read up.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Thanks Trexpesto. I will get the gforce then. I may have to get the 6800 plain though, but since what you configured to save money on, I may put it on the 6800GT.

So onboard sound will be cool then? I am realy not into music on the computer, since I have a nice stereo rack with a 200 cd changer, heh and hardly even listen to it. Plus, whatever is out now will beat what I have in my old hp ten to one I am sure.

Is this the Seagate Barracuda? SATA - Seagate (ST3160827AS) 160 GB/7200- $129.00 . All it says is the model number.


I will see what others say about the motherboards, and what runs best. I will reconfigure this then, and dream on it awhile lol. Thanks again for the help 🙂

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I recommend dropping the cd burner and dvd rom and get a DVD burner. It will burn cds dvds and play dvds. The only thing you lose is being able to use 2 cds at the same time, but you can always get a dvd-rom down the line for cheap anyway.

 

[trexpesto]

Yep, onboard sound is usually good, varies slightly with the motherboard. I use headphones most of the time, pretty beat ones at that..

And yep it is a barracuda, I looked up the model number on google: http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,625,00.html

And I second the above post about getting a single dvd/cd burner. The NEC ones I know are good. Dual Layer disks are still $10 so I wouldn't worry about getting a dual layer burner right yet.

 

[trexpesto]

Oh yeah just noticed - you have both the "retail boxed CPU with HSF" and a separate HSF specced there. Save $4 and get the OEM version of that Proc, otherwise you will just have an extra heatsink lying around, or worse they could just put on the retail fan and send you the good one in the box. Sounds like they are sharp enough to catch something like that, but don't confuse them.....