Im may be ordering a computer from Alienware w/ these specs...

[mythtym]

Im a newb when it comes to building a computer. Ive always just walked into a best buy and bought one off the shelf. My needs have changed over time though, and I want something with some power. I heard of alienware, liked what I saw, and Im thinking about ordering. Here are the specs on the computer I picked out, I'd like to see what everyone thinks:

Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case (480-Watt PS) - Space Black
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 510 Express
Processor: AMD Athlon? 64 FX-55 Processor with HyperTransport Technology
Motherboard: Alienware® nForce?4 SLI? Chipset Motherboard PCI Express
Memory: 1GB Corsair? XMS Extra Low Latency DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: Dual NVIDIA® GeForce? 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 with NVIDIA SLI Technology
Video Cooling: AlienIce? 2.0 Video Cooling System - Astral Blue
System Drive: Extreme Performance - Serial ATA RAID 0 - 148GB (74GB x 2) Western Digital® Raptor? 10,000 RPM w/16MB Cache
Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive One: NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Optical Drive Two: Plextor® PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE® 1394)
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Portable Storage : Alienware® 10-in-1 Digital Media Reader / Writer

 

[Duvie]

Great stuff all around...Price???

Also why get a cd-rw burner with a dvd burner that will burn cd-rs 48x??? Get a good DVD-rom so you can do rips from a DVD straight to the burner.....

 

[amol]

OMG, how much is that??

$6000?!?!?

 

[mythtym]

It was just over 4500 dollars.

 

[callmesteve]

Originally posted by: mythtym
It was just under 4500 dollars.

Not a bad price, if you're looking for a ripoff.

NewEgg > *

 

[flamingspinach]

Just because you're a "newb" doesn't mean you can't learn. And you will save a lot of money if you build it yourself and buy parts from an online retailer.

As for the specs you have right now, first of all I think you don't need super-special memory for the Athlon64, doesn't make much of a difference. RAID is pointless IMHO, use the drives separately. SLI is also IMHO pointless, and a waste of money. Get the NEC ND-3520A instead of the ND-3500A, it's a newer version and is only $5-10 more. Why do you need a CD-RW in addition to the DVD+/-RW? I don't know how stable that Alienware motherboard is. Is it really a proprietary SLI mobo they made specifically for Alienware rigs? If you must have SLI I'd say go with Asus's K8N-SLI board. I hear DFI is going to come out with an SLI board soon as well. And what is "Alienware® 10-in-1 Digital Media Reader / Writer"?

-fs

 

[boyRacer]

You guys telling him to build his own better be there 24 hours a day for him if he has to troubleshoot something.

 

[amol]

do AT forums EVER sleep?

 

[nvbtye]

gmjkhz

 

[mauiblue]

Build if you have the balls and confidence to. Buy off the rack if you have the cash and don't want the aggravation of building and tweaking. For that kind of cash, I hope that they have 24/7 support and a three year warranty.

BTW, nice setup and hope you enjoy it.

 

[DragonFire]

Originally posted by: bR
You guys telling him to build his own better be there 24 hours a day for him if he has to troubleshoot something.

Truth be told, Alienware has sucky tech support and google will lists all sorts of horror stories. I read one story where come guy had to send his laptop back 3 times, still didn't get fixed and on top of it all, he had to wait at least 2-3 months before getting it back each time.

He would get better tech support from us with a custom self built system.

Why do you have a DVD burner and a CD-RW burner listed? SLI is a waste (3DFX found this out the hard way) and will cause the FX-55 to become a bottleneck. Since when does the Raptor come with 16MB cache?

 

[Duvie]

Alienware has conveniently added them together like they did with the HDD space....148gb!!! 2 HDD at 8mb cache equals 16mb!!!

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Duvie
Alienware has conveniently added them together like they did with the HDD space....148gb!!! 2 HDD at 8mb cache equals 16mb!!!

Now that's awesome. Why didn't I think of doing that. I'm going to set my 2 drives up in Raid so I can have 16 MB cache too.:laugh:

There are many companies that will build a custom computer for much cheaper, give better customer service, 3-yr warranty, and at the very least tech support on par with Alienware. I'm not rally sure how they sell any systems for the prices they charge.

And, I too agree that SLI is a complete waste at this point.

 

[mythtym]

It actually does come with a 3 year 24/7 warantee. Supposedly you have 3 options for repairs. On site service, mail away, or they send you parts and you call a tech for them to help you install.

 

[mythtym]

To whoever asked about the 10 in 1 digital media player, its a floppy that reads all sorts of digital media. i.e. memory sticks, flash cards, stuff like that.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Go for it man. They build quality stuff.

 

[ciwell]

You could save yourself a lot of money by building your own.

 

[Ike0069]

I completely undertand why someone wouldn't want to build their own system. But that doesn't mean you have to buy from Alienware. You should shop around a little more and you can defintely find better deals.

 

[Budmantom]

Fot half the price you can buy a Dell 8400 3.8ghz, 320gb Raid, x800xt, 1gb 533mhz, dvd and dvd burner etc.....



tom

 

[otispunkmeyer]

if your gonna buy from alienware why not check out Falcon Northwest and Micro velocity, both make equally good computers...and i love that micro velocity case, has a real sense of style about it. the alien ware cases make me wanna puke, they're immature in design its something i expect to see in a 16 year olds bedroom.

on top of that the other two use standard parts, ( i think alien ware does a little dell number by using some proprietry parts) so you could easily upgrade as and when

again why dvd r/w and cd rw when the dvd/rw can do both.

 

[flamingspinach]

I agree. If you want a high-powered custom-built gaming machine from a company, I'd have to say that Falcon Northwest is the way to go. Alienware I've heard bad things about.

-fs

 

[techwanabe]

Building and supporting your own computer isn't for everyone so I wouldn't fault him for going pre-built. But he could get a very nice system for less than half the price. If I were him, I'd find a nice pre-built gaming system for about $2000 or so and set aside a litte $$ for a next gen video card in a year or two.

 

[miketheidiot]

If your going to buy a pre-built, please don't buy an alienware

1) ugly
2) poor service
3) proprietary junk
4) ugly
5) can be had cheaper elsewhere
6) ugly

try Velocity Micro or Falcon NW. Hell, i would recommened dell over alienware. :disgust:

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
If your going to buy a pre-built, please don't buy an alienware

1) ugly
2) poor service
3) proprietary junk
4) ugly
5) can be had cheaper elsewhere
6) ugly

try Velocity Micro or Falcon NW. Hell, i would recommened dell over alienware. :disgust:

I won't dispute the ugly aspect - ugly they are. But they look "cool" to the teenage and young college age male clientel - who I'm guessing they are aiming their product at. They funny thing is the 15-25 year old male crowd are usually not able to afford those high prices, but I guess there are enough upper-class males of that age group to keep Alienware in business. Sure, there are a few "like minded" men above age 25 who have teenage tastes - I'm sure many wifes and girlfriends could attest to that!