Investing in a new PC

[celestial65]

my greetings and thanks to all whom read this post,

as the title implies I am currently in the market for a gaming/multimedia PC I can depend upon for at least two years without major upgrading, but ultimately something that offers great performance and quality for a reasonable price (preferably no greater than $3,200; and honestly I think that much is far greater than reasonable)

I would build it myself, and consider myself capable of doing such; but the subtle doubt of what could go wrong and the stress it entails(the great task of finding what went wrong, where, and how so only to have my already taxed adrenal glands be completely wrung dry waiting in front of my mail box hoping the warranty hasn't been voided) leaves me taking the more expensive route.

so my questions reside as such:
-is an alienware reliable enough to drop 2k+ on and be worth the expense, and if not whom might be a better alternative. I know of a few others such as ibuypower, falcon, cyberpower, ect.
-of the i7 family processors how much is too much I feel the extreme 980x might be a bit overkill for my needs as well as far too expensive
-video card: ATI or nVidia dual or single(not too familiar with the whole video card aspect)
-SSD is the price worth the speed increase and comparative lack of space

thank you again for reading, looking forward to any suggestions ^_^

 

[sxr7171]

If you build a machine for $1800 you will get the same performance or better than a $3200 Alienware. With the extra $1200 you can replace parts if needed which in all likelihood you won't need to.

SSD is 100% worth the money IMHO.

Buy the ATI 5870 and nothing less at your price point.

For proc i7 920 or 930 and O/C.

 

[FishAk]

If you build a machine for $1800 you will get the same performance or better than a $3200 Alienware. With the extra $1200 you can replace parts if needed which in all likelihood you won't need to.

SSD is 100% worth the money IMHO.

Buy the ATI 5870 and nothing less at your price point.

For proc i7 920 or 930 and O/C.

+1


No need to overclock heavily, and you can get the 920 or 930 to 3.8 or 4GHz easily with a decent board.


Buy a Corsair H50 cooler. It's about the same cost as a good air cooler, but performs like a great one, and is very small and easy to work around.


The SSD is definitely worth the money, but you may be wise to wait a few months for the generation 3 models to appear. Gen. 2 will be half the cost they are now when G3 comes out.


With the money you save, you could strap a couple graphics cards together, and buy more RAM. You will have much much more than the Alienware, and in two years, you can use many of the components for your new build.