New PC

[irelandpc]

Hi guys,

Sorry if this is the wrong spot for it. I'm just a bit clueless as to PC specs and don't really have any close friends clued in either. I'm looking to buy a good gaming PC and was hoping for some help with the specs. I'm currently looking at the PC's. I'm just hoping for some advice on which I should go for... I appreciate the help if anyone offers it up.

Okay, here's the first PC:


DELL ALIENWARE AURORA - i7 920, 6GB, 1TB, Dual GTX260

Refurbished - 1 Year Warranty - Windows 7 64-bit


Quick Specs

ProcessorIntel Core i7 920 @2.66GHz Quad CoreMemory6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAMHard Disk Drives1TB SATAOptical DrivesDVD±RWGraphicsDual (2x) 1.8Gb Nvidia Geforce GTX260 (3.6Gb total!!)AudioInternal High Definition 7.1 AudioOSGenuine Windows 7 64-bitExtrasFirewire


Technical Specifications:
Processor:
Intel Core i7 920

Chipset:
Intel X58 Express chipset with unlocked BIOS for overclocking

Operating System:
Genuine Windows 7 64-bit

Memory:
6GB (3 x 2GB) Dual channel DDR3 SDRAM, (max 6 slots)

Hard Disk Drives:
1TB 3.5" Serial ATA
(Additional drives can be connected to eSATA, 1394 and/or USB 2.0 ports

Optical Disk Drive:
DVD +/- RW (reads and writes CD's & DVD's)

Graphics and Video:
Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (2x 1.8Gb!!)

Sound Cards:
Integrated 7.1 channel audio
Wireless Connectivity
* Internal PCI-e Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate (Optional)
* Internal 802.11 a/b/g/Draft-n Wireless LAN (Optional)
Cooling:
Alienware High performance liquid cooling

Cost: roughly 1400 euros (without a monitor)
warranty: 1 year limited warranty

And here's the second one:

BRAND NEW DELL ALIENWARE AURORA ALX COSMIC BLACK PC i7


1 X UK DELL SUPPLIED ALIENWARE AURORA ALX PC
3 YEAR DELL WARRANTY BRAND NEW UNITS - SEE SPEC PHOTO
PURCHASED BY LARGE DELL PARTNER - WILL SUPPLY ORIGINAL DELL DOCUMENTS FOR WARRANTY TRANSFER PURPOSE TO BUYER
ALIENWARE COSMIC BLACK CHASSIS
i7 2.66 1TB (2 X 500GB STRIPED SATA HDD)
6GB 1333MHZ TRI CHANNEL MEMORY
1GB ATI RADEON HD 5870 VIDEO
SOUNDBLASTER XFI TITANIUM
BLU RAY ROM ( DVDRW)
ALIENWARE GAMING KB & MOUSE
WINDOWS 7 64 BIT PROFESSIONAL

Chip type - i7
Memory (RAM) - 6,000MB
Processor speed - 2,660 MHz
Hard Drive Capacity - 1,000GB
Primary Drive - blu ray

Cost: roughly 1600 euro (without monitor)]
warranty: 3 year premium warranty from dell

I'd appreciate any advice!

Cheers


Moved from PC Gaming.

Anandtech PC Gaming Moderator
KeithTalent

 

[fffblackmage]

It looks like the second machine is better with the 5870 and 3-year warranty.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I would go with the second one too. But I don't think either of them are worth what you are being charged for them.

 

[irelandpc]

Thanks for the responses.

Yeah, I've been told by a few people that I should look into building my own PC? I did some research and from what I can tell matching the specs by buying in all my own hardware will still end up costing me about 1300 euro (for the second PC)

I'm just thinking that 300 euro is probably worth the 3 year warranty for someone with no experience building PC's? Building your own PC has me interested but from looking into it I see it saving me 300 euro max and leaving me without a warranty if something goes wrong due my inexperience.

Maybe I'm getting it wrong in terms of matching the specs though.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Manufactures parts come warrantied also. You'll miss out on alot of fun building your own rig.

 

[Axon]

Building a PC really isn't difficult. The hardest part is making sure everything works together smoothly, and that's usually circumvented if you research your parts thoroughly.

That Alienware stuff is good but also overpriced. But hey, they have to make money somehow.

 

[MisterDonut]

Overpriced, imo. All in all, I'd still opt for building your own PC. Maybe it's just me, but the satisfaction of knowing every part and putting everything together by my own hands makes me feel better about my PC than some random guy paid to do it. If your budget is gonna be comfortable, you can probably get parts that will perform very similarly. If it's just for gaming, an AMD rig will probably be better for your wallet. I still fail to see the need for 1366 in gaming (other than multi-GPU setups, of course, but with cards as fast as the 5870, it's unnecessary. Again, unless you have a multi-monitor setup), and I know more than 1 person that will agree with me.