Prebuilt Systems
- Thread starter gizbug
- Start date
bamacre
Lifer
- Jul 1, 2004
- 21,029
- 2
- 81
Hello.
IMHO, Alienware is fourth on my list if I'm gonna' have an ultra high-end rig built. In my order of preference:
- Voodoo PC Raul Sood and his crew may have been "aquired" by HP, but he still runs the most innovative shop when it comes to total system design, options and performance. Getting a rig from them is like having one engineered for you; everything is optimized and tweaked: the case and cooling, hardware, CPU and GPU...even the software is all changed to run faster and run with stability. If you can afford it, their rigs define computer-lust.
- Falcon Northwest The oldest of the four, building benchmark-crushing goodness since 1992. Not as many models or build options as Voodoo, but still offer outstanding customization especially with Case Design. Often can give you hardware not readily available to the buying public. If all out speed is what you want, Falcon NW makes some of the fastest rigs you can buy.
- Hypersonic PC Out of New York state, these guys are the smallest builder on the list, but they make great machines. Their machines have been reviewed and put up against the bigger (and more expensive) builders and they have come out neck-and-neck with them. Great finishing options on their rigs (they use Smooth-Creations like Falcon NW), lots of models and configuration choices. Pricey, but definately within reach for a lot more of us.
- Alienware Perhaps the most mainstream of the list and the most well known: they have their own listing catagory on e-bay! Definately fast, definately unique and more affordable than either FNW or Voodoo. Lots of model choices, but they used to have more configuration options...seems like the buyer is more "hardware-locked" since Dell got involved. You either love or hate that Alien logo and case, though.
If it seems like I'm a big fan of these builders, it's because I am! I'm like most enthusisasts; I love to put a rig together, to pick the hardware, optimize it, load the OS and end up with a great running rig. But what these guys do is done at a different level. The totality of the integration is what's most impressive. Everything fits and works better, it runs faster, cooler and quieter and all the details are sweated to a degree most of can't come close to. We just don't have access to some of the parts and the customized software these guys do.
I had the pleasure of living with a Voodoo Envy rig back in 1998...my housemate owned it. It had a Tifosi red Lian Li case with a window that showed the AMD Barton/MSI N-Force overclocked guts all lit-up by a white cold cathode set-up. It was beautiful, fast and expensive. This "box" made me decide that I wanted that kind of machine, wanted that degree of customization. That's when I becam an enthusiast.
Twitch
IMHO, Alienware is fourth on my list if I'm gonna' have an ultra high-end rig built. In my order of preference:
- Voodoo PC Raul Sood and his crew may have been "aquired" by HP, but he still runs the most innovative shop when it comes to total system design, options and performance. Getting a rig from them is like having one engineered for you; everything is optimized and tweaked: the case and cooling, hardware, CPU and GPU...even the software is all changed to run faster and run with stability. If you can afford it, their rigs define computer-lust.
- Falcon Northwest The oldest of the four, building benchmark-crushing goodness since 1992. Not as many models or build options as Voodoo, but still offer outstanding customization especially with Case Design. Often can give you hardware not readily available to the buying public. If all out speed is what you want, Falcon NW makes some of the fastest rigs you can buy.
- Hypersonic PC Out of New York state, these guys are the smallest builder on the list, but they make great machines. Their machines have been reviewed and put up against the bigger (and more expensive) builders and they have come out neck-and-neck with them. Great finishing options on their rigs (they use Smooth-Creations like Falcon NW), lots of models and configuration choices. Pricey, but definately within reach for a lot more of us.
- Alienware Perhaps the most mainstream of the list and the most well known: they have their own listing catagory on e-bay! Definately fast, definately unique and more affordable than either FNW or Voodoo. Lots of model choices, but they used to have more configuration options...seems like the buyer is more "hardware-locked" since Dell got involved. You either love or hate that Alien logo and case, though.
If it seems like I'm a big fan of these builders, it's because I am! I'm like most enthusisasts; I love to put a rig together, to pick the hardware, optimize it, load the OS and end up with a great running rig. But what these guys do is done at a different level. The totality of the integration is what's most impressive. Everything fits and works better, it runs faster, cooler and quieter and all the details are sweated to a degree most of can't come close to. We just don't have access to some of the parts and the customized software these guys do.
I had the pleasure of living with a Voodoo Envy rig back in 1998...my housemate owned it. It had a Tifosi red Lian Li case with a window that showed the AMD Barton/MSI N-Force overclocked guts all lit-up by a white cold cathode set-up. It was beautiful, fast and expensive. This "box" made me decide that I wanted that kind of machine, wanted that degree of customization. That's when I becam an enthusiast.
Twitch
Dell is like a plague. I just configured this system on IBuyPower and it is only $1400 dollars, with name brand stuff in it
Case ( Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( Neon Light Blue )
Power Supply ( Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply [SLI-Ready] )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 (2x 2.4GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
Motherboard ( Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI x 16 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( [==New !!!==] NVIDIA GeForce 7950GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( None )
Raid Configuration ( None )
External Raid Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Fax Modem ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Case ( Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( Neon Light Blue )
Power Supply ( Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply [SLI-Ready] )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 (2x 2.4GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
Motherboard ( Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI x 16 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( [==New !!!==] NVIDIA GeForce 7950GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( None )
Raid Configuration ( None )
External Raid Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Fax Modem ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
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