New Rig

[Strange1]

ok so im thinking of getting a new PC and not really knowing alot about computers and their innards ive decided to ask for some much needed advice from a community ive come to trust and in full knowledge that its stock full of gaming/computer fanatics. (apart from ipunk of course...)

but anyway i came across a spec on the alienware website where it didnt give you much customisation to do except choosing your monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. but the spec it did give was imo very impressive for the price.

ok so what you get is as follows:

Processor:
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (8MB Cache / 800MHz FSB)

Video/Graphics Card:
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800GT

Memory:
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 X 1024MB

Motherboard:
Alienware® Approved NVIDIA® nForce 680i SLI Motherboard

Power Supply:
Alienware® 750 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply

System Storage:
250GB 7,200 RPM (8MB Cache) Hard Drive

Chassis:
Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling

Optical Drives:
20x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)

Audio:
7.1 High Definition Audio with Surround Sound

Operating System (Office software not included):
Windows Vista® Home Premium

all for the price of $2,373 which in pound sterling is £1,202.38

now firstly i know quad core is all very nice as well as dual graphics cards and the 4gb of ram and the storage but all the rest of it is a bit of a mystery to me. also not entirely sure if that is in fact a good price. im sure you can get cheaper but as usual im attracted by the alienware logo etc. plus the guarantee that i suppose what you pay for is what you get. if i pay for a very very very good gaming pc im going to get exactly that.

[Nodd]

You might want a bigger hard drive, or an additional one. Apart from that it looks amazing!

+ not bad price. Do you get a monitor with it? If so what is it?

If it's just a tower I'd say the price should be more around 900-1k, than 1.2

[Hudders]

You could get cheaper if you built it yourself, but I figure you maybe don't want to get into that with limited technical experience.

What games do you actually play? If it's just WoW then you'd probably be better off with a gaming laptop like the one Nodd's got.

I'd say the spec you posted is a bit overkill for your needs. I know everyone wants the biggest, bestest, fastest machine but at the end of the day it's just going to go obsolete faster. You may as well buy less top-of-the-range components and save some money.

I would also try finding that setup on the UK website rather than translating dollars into sterling. The American prices more than likely won't include tax since in the US you don't pay sales tax on items bought outside of the state you're in. If you ship it from America you'll have to pay import duty and VAT on it to the British Government.

[Strange1]

yeah im hoping to purchase an external hard drive. something reasonably large to accomodate for the music, films, porn etc. oh yes the monitor comes with...i think. 24" flat panel something or other. widescreen.

as for hudders points. well made but up until now, ive never had the kinda computer that could run...well anything. wow is its limit. i really want to play other games apart from WoW. im not just a 1 game man like crysis, AoC, COD4. the list goes on and i wont bore you with it. thats why i went with the overkill

well its time to start saving them it seems ^^. and yes good point again hudders ill look it up on the uk website.

[EDIT] how odd. on the uk website you cant even get the same option. on the first website i got the 'gamer's choice' selected it and got that and you couldnt really customise any of it and all you could do was choose keyboard mouse etc. with the uk website i chose the same computer (in this case it was the area-51 7500) and as well having to choose all the stuff that goes inside the computer it comes out at £600 more...so im a little confused. ill probably have to look for the same spec elsewhere. or just save up...alot more.

[Hudders]

Can you post your current spec?

If you want to play Crysis you will have to save up a lot. Haha.

[Strange1]

yup currently im running an AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+, 1gb ram, radeon all-in-wonder 9200 (256 mb), 250gb hard drive. something like that anyway.

also i dont mind saving up enough to play crysis but thats what i want. a computer that could handle crysis which would to a certain extent tell me it would last for a few years. 

[Hudders]

To be honest, there looks like there's life in your PC still.

I'm going to make two assumptions:

1. You've never reformatted and reinstalled the operating system.
2. You've never opened the computer case.

It can make a huge difference merely reinstalling Windows and cleaning all the dust out from inside the machine. I wouldn't go as far as saying that if you upgraded it, it would be as good as a top-of-the-range PC because, frankly, it wouldn't be since it's using obsolete technology, (I suspect, for example, that the graphics card slot is AGP not PCI-E).

If you do buy a new machine, for God's sake don't just trash the old one, (so many people do - I apologise if it hadn't crossed your mind). At the very least you can grab the hard drive from it and beef up the storage in your new machine.

[Strange1]

1. i have. twice. last time was recently.
2. i have. cant remember how many times...maybe 3 times? first time was to try to install a new graphics card but the motherboard wouldnt take it. second time was to clean it out as a friend suggested that might be why it wasnt running so well. there was alot of dust and afterwards it did seem to run a bit smoother. uhh...well there was a third time maybe about a month ago now but cant remember for the life of me why i opened it, but it had again collected some dust so cleaned it out. oh yeah i was trying to find out what motherboard i had.

but i still want a new pc. this one cant even play battlefield 2 which is about 2 years old now? something like that. maybe more. i was reading up on the graphics card i have and apparently it wasnt really designed for gaming and also its just an upgrade from inbuilt motherboard graphics.

and dont worry, im not gonna trash this one my brother says he wants this one for his room. probably so he can look up porn in private.

[Nodd]

Why not use an xbox 360 for gaming as its a cheaper alternative? Crisis is coming to the 360 


You might want to spend cash on upgrading your computer rather than buying a new one. Hudders makes some very good points! 

[iguanapunk]

I have a Quadcore, phwoar! That same one in fact. It's the cheapest of Quadcores I believe, but that's not a negative. Crysis will be dumbed down for the 360, much like its users, so if you want to see it in its full glory (or near enough as it only runs on the MAXIMUM settings on the NASA mainframe) a quality gfx card is needed, and you've gone for SLI so even better.

My new case has a spoiler and a door key.

[Hudders]

I have a Quadcore, phwoar! That same one in fact. It's the cheapest of Quadcores I believe, but that's not a negative. Crysis will be dumbed down for the 360, much like its users, so if you want to see it in its full glory (or near enough as it only runs on the MAXIMUM settings on the NASA mainframe) a quality gfx card is needed, and you've gone for SLI so even better.

My new case has a spoiler and a door key.

He's gone for SLi but only one card... so not really getting the benefit on that.

Make sure you don't skimp on the power supply or your graphical super computer wont even boot. 

[Nodd]

i dont really think the graphics will be dumbed down, you should have seen farcry on the xbox.

i think all they will do is optimise the code and areas better so they are more efficient at loading the information when you are within a certain area and looking in a certain direction. They probs didnt bother optimising it too much on the pc as they knew idiots would just upgrade to play it, rather than slag them off for not optimising code/loading times   hahahaha muahahaha mua muaah  muahahahahahaaaa

+ ever see bioshock on the 360? yum yum.




+ I'm not saying 360 will beat ultimate spec PC in screenshot comparrisons, just crysis will run better on 360 than about 90% of pc users that tried to play it

[Strange1]

He's gone for SLi but only one card... so not really getting the benefit on that.

only one card? what does the word dual mean then?

[Hudders]

He's gone for SLi but only one card... so not really getting the benefit on that.

only one card? what does the word dual mean then?

lol I missed that.

TBH you're better off only buying one. Gives you room to upgrade later and allows you to buy a better single card now.

[Strange1]

ive always wondered what the point of 2 graphics cards was. is it something to do with having two monitors? or does having graphics cards actually help?