Anyone who is good with computers

I wouldn't call myself expert but I know quite a bit of things about computers so my advice would be to go to your local best buy or whatever, around here you can get an average gaming computer for about 550 Dollars and a pretty good setup for 750. I saw a pc the other day with 3GB of RAM, a decent graphics and sound card, and a 600GB hard drive for 749.99.

As for building your own computer I myself wouldn't build my own unless I knew I was going to spend more than a 1500 Dollars. Computers are a lot cheaper now (compared to a few years ago) so its not worth building one by yourself unless you are building an expensive setup.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I used game a lot, even attended Quakecon for a couple of years. The one thing I've noticed many gamers build their own systems. I find this can cost more than a out of the box unit like Alienware but it all depends what type of gaming you're going to be doing. The problem is with piecing a tower together is some thing my not work will with others, to some it's more cost effective unless you really know what you are doing. Be sure you have an excellent cooling system, these video cards can get rather hot. It's better to have this out of the way so your not spend more time & money trying to get it right.

www.alienware.com

 

dedicated gaming machines are $5k. There's a few brands out there I remember pricing out.

Only reason to build your own is if you want to geek out and indulge in the experience. When it works, it's fun: when there's an obscure timing problem causing it all to lock up, there's no one to fix it but you. Liquid Cooling and funky backlighting is cool though!

If you're not a 20hr a day gamer then off-the-shelf is fine, even a Best Buy $550 special: and the video card is more important than the cpu these days. NVidia is my recommendation - but also depends what your game-of-choice-vendor recommends.

 

I just priced parts to make a PC from Newegg that is identical in specification to the Alienware Area-51 7500. Total was $700 less buying from Newegg versus the Alienware unit. That's a lot of ham.

Also, the few people I know that own Alienware will not buy a new one again due to the poor support that the high price does not justify.

Of all the premade units, the Dell XPS 420 is a decent bit of kit if you configure one with a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT.

Set a budget and shop to that, just make sure whatever you get has a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT and an Intel Core2 Duo 2.4GHz +.

 

If you get that PC, make sure you select the 8800GT. The 8600 GTS it comes with doesn't have enough Steam to play new games very well. Erm..wait. I just selected some other options...AMD 5600+, 2GB of RAM and the price is $1419 with no monitor.

I'd recommend taking a look at the Dell XPS 420's. There's one with everything you could want for $1699 with more CPU power and a 22' widescreen LCD.

 

I missed a tic. That Alienware comes out to $1519. Less powerful CPU, 1GB less RAM than the $1699 Dell...but the Dell comes with a nice 22' widescreen LCD, all for less than $200 more than the AW.

Building from scratch isn't as bad as it used to be, the upside is you get to spend less money and don't have to spend an hour removing all the crap software that comes on Dell etc. Downside is your wallet or time is the warranty.

 

If you are going to upgrade your graphics card, get the best.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=nVidia+8800+GTX+768MB&category0=

 

The 8800 GTX is the best, but the 8800GT/512MB has 90% of its performance for 60% of the cost.

 

Run away from Alienware. They are far too expensive, you mainly pay for the name.

I am in favour of building the computer yourself. I use to do it with mine and for my family, and it doesn't take me any longer than 20 minutes now. If you aren't experienced, it might be an afternoon, but it's still worth the money, imho (and the "wow, I did it myself" feeling).

Edit: Get a monitor with at least 22''. I recently bought an LG 226 which wasn't that much more expensive than a 19'' and I am very very happy with it. You don't need a fully blown up computer when you're only playing games at the maximum 1280x960 resolution a 19'' screen provides.

 

Alienware is a little expensive, go for dell

 

19' widescreens typically run in 1400x900...which is a bit too short, imo.

Get a 22' if you can swing it.

 

the Dell XPS 420 is A GREAT GAMER.

Dell gives you a quad-core processor, and 3 gigs of ram as standard for 899!

It's a great deal, and with Dell's great support, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

 

If you have the time and are comfortable with it, I'd recommend building your own. It will save you money and you can hand pick your components. The quad core processors are nice but as of right now, OS's and games aren't really utilizing that technology. I'd wait and buy a Quad Core when the prices come down. I'd just go with a Core 2 Duo like an E6400 and OC it to 3.2 ghz, ~$200. Vid card: 8800 GT $260. MB: P5B Deluxe, ~$150. Minimum 2gb memory like OCZ ~$120. Brand name PSU like Silverstone: $100. 500gb hard drive for $100. Plus a case for ~$100. That adds up to $1030. Add in another $100 for misc. stuff like heat sink, fans, cables optical drive, etc. and it totals out to $1130. Another $200 will get you a decent 22" monitor and wha-la you have an almost top of line gaming rig for $1330. Those are prices pulled out of my head so I could be off a little.

The $900 XPS is okay but it really skimps on the video card, only a 128mb 2400 Pro. If you want the XPS with the 8800 and 22" monitor it looks like $1699. And from what I understand Dell uses cheap power supplies and generic memory and optical drives.

 

Buy a Dell! You'll be happy you did.

 

Cheap power supplies are seriously bad mojo. The units in Dells aren't bad...but over the counter stuff can be *quite* bad. Same goes for ram, and Dell doesn't dig the bottom of the barrel for that either.

It seems you are in opposition to building your own...which isn't a bad thing, really. If you get one dodgy component on a new build and if you don't have a lot of experience with hardware, then it can become a very unpleasant experience. The same goes for a failure of some random component some time down the road...days gone poking around, swapping...really a big pain if you are adverse to that type of thing, and who isn't.

Get the Dell. They also allow you to extend your year warranty just before it runs out...don't know the cost but it cannot be high. Added bonus is if it breaks, someone comes out to fix it...which can be worth the savings building yourself in just one incidence if you have a low tolerance for screwing around with things.

 

Dell blows beyond any other machine, I used to handle warranty claims for them. Avoid Dell at all costs. I think your better off going to newegg,com, get the parts & build your own custom machine.

 

Really? I've owned a few Dells and they're better than any other mass manufactured computer I've ever used. Extremely well built and the one I'm typing on now has been running for years without a problem. I did replace the main hard drive recently, but that was easy.

Sorry about your luck.