New Computer - Alienware or Dell?

La Chaton · July 7th, 2008, 04:05 PM

Okay, so as some of you know I posted yesterday that my computer had died, and after a few hours of fiddling about we concluded that it's the motherboard. So, we are going to fix it, but we're also going to get a whole new computer while we're at it.

My brother wants to do a lot of gaming, so we were looking into Alienware. I really only need hard drive space for all my movies/music/junk plus a good processor. So I was looking at Dells and some of them seem alright, but they have tons of crap that I don't want and aren't as good as the Alienware, but they're also cheaper. Should we spring for the more expensive one or go for cheaper and worse?

Also, does anyone have any other computers that would be good? Our basic needs are good processor, lots of RAM and a really good graphics card.

I would also really like a PS3. I really only want Grand Turismo and GTA4, but it's still a lot less expensive than a whole computer. Would it be a wise decision? We may buy it separately, after the new computer, but my brother and I don't have a ton of money to burn so would it be totally pointless to get a PS3 just for a couple games if we already have two computers? We already have a Wii too, but it's pretty lame. -_-

And then my dad's going to reclaim his laptop which we commandeered right after he bought it. images/smilies/tongue.gif

BlitzR · July 7th, 2008, 04:16 PM

Alienware = overpriced, you pay alot for something you could build yourself or get some where else for much, though not as fancy looking.
Dell XPS range I think is cheaper but only slight.

La Chaton · July 7th, 2008, 04:25 PM

That's what I think, but my brother's pretty adamant about it. After discussing with my dad I think that building our own would be best, but I don't know if either of them is going to go for that. It'll just be too much work for them.

LeMans GTR · July 7th, 2008, 04:30 PM

There are some places where you can go have them build a computer for you either with you selecting the parts or having them do it for you.

Don't know how much it costs though.

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 04:50 PM

Your brother only wants the Alienware because the case is uberhaxbbq and what not.. If he's not planning on playing Crysis on a 30" Screen with all Ultra High a Alienware in pretty much any configuration would be massive overkill.

I'd go for one of Dell's XPS systems, they are going to handle what ever games he wants to throw at it at a much better price. At first thought i would not recommend building your own system if you absolutely not a 100% certain that you know what your doing, if anything goes wrong it's money out of pocket, if your very good with computers or know someone who are building your own is by far the cheapest.

Comedy option would be to get a Voodoo Omen

Edit: If you still want the Alienware then get a HP Blackbird 002, much, much better product.

LurkerPatrol · July 7th, 2008, 06:50 PM

I went with a dell XPS. It's been faithful, fast, and even though I've had it for a while it still surprises me with it's speed and capabilities.

I'll probably rip out the video card on mine and upgrade pretty soon, get a new sound card as well and throw in another gig of ram to make it 3 GB, but all in all it's been good.

I'd go with either Dell or BYO. Velocity Micro makes some good computers as well. My roommate has one and it's run fairly well. Only 1 or 2 small fires to contend with images/smilies/tongue.gif

.

Just... whatever you do, don't get an alienware laptop or a dell laptop. Both suck and overheat VERY badly. My roommate had 1 of each. The dell first and it didn't have proper cooling or anything and was heating upto 50 C out of the box.

The alienware was his 2nd option after the dell calamity and it worked fine for a couple of years until the video card fried and he had artifacts and gibberish all over the screen upon reboot. He wasn't even playing games when it happened, just surfing firefox after a reformat.

I had a sony vaio laptop at the time and it was still functioning for at least a year or year and a half after his... until the mobo fried and was running at 95 degrees C

der_jackal · July 7th, 2008, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LurkerPatrol

Just... whatever you do, don't get an alienware laptop or a dell laptop. Both suck and overheat VERY badly. My roommate had 1 of each. The dell first and it didn't have proper cooling or anything and was heating upto 50 C out of the box.

The alienware was his 2nd option after the dell calamity and it worked fine for a couple of years until the video card fried and he had artifacts and gibberish all over the screen upon reboot. He wasn't even playing games when it happened, just surfing firefox after a reformat.

My wife's Alienware lappy has been fine for 2 years, mine's not given me any issues. She plays WoW and NVWN constantly. I use mine for work and astronomy and futzing around w/ RTS games (Civ IV, WiC, etc).

BerserkerCatSplat · July 7th, 2008, 07:42 PM

That Voodoo Omen is sweet, if you have more money than brains.

cvrefugee · July 7th, 2008, 07:45 PM

Doesn't Dell own Alienware anyways?

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvrefugee

Doesn't Dell own Alienware anyways?

Yep, but they are two different companies. One is value for money and the other is lol green lazerz!

Deviate · July 7th, 2008, 08:19 PM

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Gatew...oductDetail.do

2.2 GHz quad-core
6 gigs of RAM
ATI HD 3450 video card
640 gig hard drive
The one I looked at in-store had a TV tuner card already installed (although it lists it as not being included on their website)

It scored really well on Vista's Experience Index. IIRC, all of the scores were in the high 5's (max being 5.9).

$750 without a monitor.

A few other options (all with 6 gigs of RAM):
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Deskt...ategorylist.do

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 08:31 PM

hahaha... 6gb of RAM.. And then a HD 3450 images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Deviate · July 7th, 2008, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lilleput

hahaha... 6gb of RAM.. And then a HD 3450 images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Not the best video card in the world, granted, but that can be fixed pretty quickly.

I definitely wouldn't suggest running an nVidia video card with Vista if you have any intentions on using it to play games.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e163/Deviate_3s/vista-crash-chart.jpg

You'll likely become very familiar with "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

It's not common when you're just cruising the net or watching a video, but it starts to happen after ~30 minutes of gaming. The screen will freeze up for a few seconds, then completely black out and reset itself. You're looking at ~1-2 minutes of down time for the drivers to reset themselves.

Once it happens for the first time in a session, it begins to crash more frequently. I've closed my game more than a few times to find 10+ of those little yellow triangular ! signs in my system tray, notifying me of every single crash that happened during my game.

I went through 3 different nVidia video cards, too. All did the same exact thing, even with the most current drivers (all of which claimed to have resolved the issue).

This isn't a Vista issue. This is a problem with nVidia's drivers. I never had this problem when I switched to an ATI HD 3450.

awdrifter · July 7th, 2008, 08:48 PM

Basically, after building your own comp, anything pre-built is overpriced. Alienware is massively overpriced. I would suggest maybe consider getting a barebone kit, it comes with everything except for HDD, DVD drive and video card.

Something like this
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...964&CatId=2405
Add this video card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...036&CatId=3670

For $790, this combo can handle 99% of the games out there. You will have to reuse your old HDD and DVD burner from your old comp though.

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deviate

I definitely wouldn't suggest running an nVidia video card with Vista if you have any intentions on using it to play games.

You'll likely become very familiar with "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

Please.. That was an issue the first 6 months of Vista, or if you are still running a nvidia 2xxx card..

Deviate · July 7th, 2008, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lilleput

Please.. That was an issue the first 6 months of Vista, or if you are still running a nvidia 2xxx card..

That was with a 7600 GTS, a 7300 GT and a 6600 GT. Not cutting-edge, but they were all supposed to be "Vista ready". All with the latest v.175 drivers.

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deviate

That was with a 7600 GTS, a 7300 GT and a 6600 GT. Not cutting-edge, but they were all supposed to be "Vista ready".

Then your doing something wrong, i have been running two machines for about a year now one with a 6600GT and one with a 8800GT, never seen that..

Deviate · July 7th, 2008, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lilleput

Then your doing something wrong, i have been running two machines for about a year now one with a 6600GT and one with a 8800GT, never seen that..

Are you running any games on it?

Lilleput · July 7th, 2008, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deviate

Are you running any games on it?

On the 6600GT one i think he's running TF2, CS:S, Titan Quest, Max Payne and WoW. I only play TF2 on my 8800GT.

Im pretty sure the problem was fixed in a Driver Update.. Some time ago.

July 7th, 2008, 04:05 PM	#1
La Chaton Not A Dude Joined: Jun 23rd, 2008 Last Online: October 12th, 2008 Location: New York State, USA Posts: 233 Car: Umm.. the imaginary one in my mind Rep Power: 9	New Computer - Alienware or Dell? Okay, so as some of you know I posted yesterday that my computer had died, and after a few hours of fiddling about we concluded that it's the motherboard. So, we are going to fix it, but we're also going to get a whole new computer while we're at it. My brother wants to do a lot of gaming, so we were looking into Alienware. I really only need hard drive space for all my movies/music/junk plus a good processor. So I was looking at Dells and some of them seem alright, but they have tons of crap that I don't want and aren't as good as the Alienware, but they're also cheaper. Should we spring for the more expensive one or go for cheaper and worse? Also, does anyone have any other computers that would be good? Our basic needs are good processor, lots of RAM and a really good graphics card. I would also really like a PS3. I really only want Grand Turismo and GTA4, but it's still a lot less expensive than a whole computer. Would it be a wise decision? We may buy it separately, after the new computer, but my brother and I don't have a ton of money to burn so would it be totally pointless to get a PS3 just for a couple games if we already have two computers? We already have a Wii too, but it's pretty lame. -_- And then my dad's going to reclaim his laptop which we commandeered right after he bought it. __________________ Only squares have signatures... oh, wait.... I am the self-proclaimed queen of run-ons. +1 my post. C'mon, you know you want to. No, I haven't been lost to the internet forever just been VERY busy and visiting through my phone frequently.

July 7th, 2008, 04:16 PM	#2
BlitzR Joined: May 1st, 2006 Last Online: 06:49 AM Location: Sydney, Australia Age: 20 Posts: 1,503 Rep Power: 17	Alienware = overpriced, you pay alot for something you could build yourself or get some where else for much, though not as fancy looking. Dell XPS range I think is cheaper but only slight. __________________

July 7th, 2008, 04:25 PM	#3
La Chaton Not A Dude Joined: Jun 23rd, 2008 Last Online: October 12th, 2008 Location: New York State, USA Posts: 233 Car: Umm.. the imaginary one in my mind Rep Power: 9	That's what I think, but my brother's pretty adamant about it. After discussing with my dad I think that building our own would be best, but I don't know if either of them is going to go for that. It'll just be too much work for them. __________________ Only squares have signatures... oh, wait.... I am the self-proclaimed queen of run-ons. +1 my post. C'mon, you know you want to. No, I haven't been lost to the internet forever just been VERY busy and visiting through my phone frequently.

July 7th, 2008, 04:30 PM	#4
LeMans GTR Previously Known As CSL Joined: Dec 20th, 2006 Last Online: October 12th, 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 1,779 Car: Aston Martin DB9 (In GT4!) Rep Power: 15	There are some places where you can go have them build a computer for you either with you selecting the parts or having them do it for you. Don't know how much it costs though. __________________

July 7th, 2008, 04:50 PM	#5
Lilleput Evo-less Joined: Jun 9th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: United Kingdom of Denmark Age: 25 Posts: 2,806 Car: Ford S-Max Titanium - 268hp Rep Power: 67	Your brother only wants the Alienware because the case is uberhaxbbq and what not.. If he's not planning on playing Crysis on a 30" Screen with all Ultra High a Alienware in pretty much any configuration would be massive overkill. I'd go for one of Dell's XPS systems, they are going to handle what ever games he wants to throw at it at a much better price. At first thought i would not recommend building your own system if you absolutely not a 100% certain that you know what your doing, if anything goes wrong it's money out of pocket, if your very good with computers or know someone who are building your own is by far the cheapest. Comedy option would be to get a Voodoo Omen Edit: If you still want the Alienware then get a HP Blackbird 002, much, much better product. __________________

July 7th, 2008, 06:50 PM	#6
LurkerPatrol Joined: Apr 24th, 2006 Last Online: 06:27 AM Location: Berkeley & San Diego, California Age: 21 Posts: 1,368 Car: Invisible boatmobile Rep Power: 52	I went with a dell XPS. It's been faithful, fast, and even though I've had it for a while it still surprises me with it's speed and capabilities. I'll probably rip out the video card on mine and upgrade pretty soon, get a new sound card as well and throw in another gig of ram to make it 3 GB, but all in all it's been good. I'd go with either Dell or BYO. Velocity Micro makes some good computers as well. My roommate has one and it's run fairly well. Only 1 or 2 small fires to contend with . Just... whatever you do, don't get an alienware laptop or a dell laptop. Both suck and overheat VERY badly. My roommate had 1 of each. The dell first and it didn't have proper cooling or anything and was heating upto 50 C out of the box. The alienware was his 2nd option after the dell calamity and it worked fine for a couple of years until the video card fried and he had artifacts and gibberish all over the screen upon reboot. He wasn't even playing games when it happened, just surfing firefox after a reformat. I had a sony vaio laptop at the time and it was still functioning for at least a year or year and a half after his... until the mobo fried and was running at 95 degrees C __________________ <-Pandamonium Last edited by LurkerPatrol; July 7th, 2008 at 06:54 PM.

July 7th, 2008, 07:42 PM	#8
BerserkerCatSplat Hormone Induced Joined: Jun 21st, 2005 Last Online: 06:32 AM Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Posts: 5,618 Car: Pimpmobile Rep Power: 65	That Voodoo Omen is sweet, if you have more money than brains. __________________ OSPhoto

July 7th, 2008, 07:45 PM	#9
cvrefugee Joined: Aug 16th, 2004 Last Online: 05:12 AM Location: Corona, CA Age: 28 Posts: 3,298 Car: 2005 Scion xB Rep Power: 53	Doesn't Dell own Alienware anyways?

July 7th, 2008, 08:19 PM	#11
Deviate Joined: Mar 24th, 2007 Last Online: October 11th, 2008 Location: Ft Worth, TX Age: 27 Posts: 387 Car: c5 Z06 Rep Power: 13	http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Gatew...oductDetail.do 2.2 GHz quad-core 6 gigs of RAM ATI HD 3450 video card 640 gig hard drive The one I looked at in-store had a TV tuner card already installed (although it lists it as not being included on their website) It scored really well on Vista's Experience Index. IIRC, all of the scores were in the high 5's (max being 5.9). $750 without a monitor. A few other options (all with 6 gigs of RAM): http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Deskt...ategorylist.do __________________

July 7th, 2008, 08:31 PM	#12
Lilleput Evo-less Joined: Jun 9th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: United Kingdom of Denmark Age: 25 Posts: 2,806 Car: Ford S-Max Titanium - 268hp Rep Power: 67	hahaha... 6gb of RAM.. And then a HD 3450 __________________

July 7th, 2008, 08:48 PM	#14
awdrifter Joined: Aug 29th, 2004 Last Online: 02:47 AM Posts: 1,416 Rep Power: 23	Basically, after building your own comp, anything pre-built is overpriced. Alienware is massively overpriced. I would suggest maybe consider getting a barebone kit, it comes with everything except for HDD, DVD drive and video card. Something like this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...964&CatId=2405 Add this video card http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...036&CatId=3670 For $790, this combo can handle 99% of the games out there. You will have to reuse your old HDD and DVD burner from your old comp though. __________________ TP