Alienware computer

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Hey, thinking of buy a premade gaming computer and was looking at Alienware X51/Aurora. Are they worth it to just buy them or to just build my own? Also, which one is better in terms of getting more for your money?

[Shiromar]

Building it yourself will definitely save yourself a nice sum of money. If you really want to know the benefits, go ahead and make up a build you might order from Alienware, then source the parts together yourself. You'll notice it's definitely going to be more than a few hundred dollars, which is the difference between getting a mediocre computer and an awesome one. Also quality is assured since you picked the parts yourself, instead of generic parts prebuilts sometimes use.

If you fill this small form out, we'll be able to build a computer to suit your needs and your budget.

Budget
Resolution
Games / Settings Desired
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc)
Country
Parts that can be reused
Do you need an OS?
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)?

[bloodwulf]

Also Dell owns Alienware, so you might be able to get an XPS with similiar specs for cheaper without the branding.

But the best weigh is to order it piece by piece, and have a friend help you if your not quite sure.

[Cyanotical]

building an identical system, its hard to actually beat Alienware, you may save $100 or so, but you will still have to buy an OS and you will lack the support (dell has some of the best in the industry)

however, you can build smarter (Z77 instead of X79) for the same price, however, in general these parts all perform the same, but a Z77 build will let you get a finer tune on your build list, X79 is not really meant for gaming

[Lemmiwink]

building an identical system, its hard to actually beat Alienware, you may save $100 or so, but you will still have to buy an OS and you will lack the support (dell has some of the best in the industry)

however, you can build smarter (Z77 instead of X79) for the same price, however, in general these parts all perform the same, but a Z77 build will let you get a finer tune on your build list, X79 is not really meant for gaming

X79 might not be "really meant for gaming", but it pummels Z77 in that area anyway.

[Milkshake86]

X79 might not be "really meant for gaming", but it pummels Z77 in that area anyway.

Not really, while the 3960x has netted some performance gains over the i7 3770k and i5 3570k, they are not in the gaming arena. These cpu's are workstation chips. They render faster, which is the huge money maker. They probably do other things while rendering w/o a noticable hitch as well, they just are not $700 more powerful in the gaming world. Epeen world your up there cy on a mountain top alone looking down at us peons.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

X79 might not be "really meant for gaming", but it pummels Z77 in that area anyway.

Oh, really? I must be going blind, because the grey bars here say otherwise.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Produ...i=60.61.62.129

And that is the 3930k, not the standard 3820 that is the no-surcharge baseline for X79 Alienwares.

[Lemmiwink]

Not really, while the 3960x has netted some performance gains over the i7 3770k and i5 3570k, they are not in the gaming arena. These cpu's are workstation chips. They render faster, which is the huge money maker. They probably do other things while rendering w/o a noticable hitch as well, they just are not $700 more powerful in the gaming world. Epeen world your up there cy on a mountain top alone looking down at us peons.

Nope they are not worth 700$ more, that is for sure, and probably more than 700 considering the MB's are more expensive as well.

As to what Butlerlog said: Yes, the 3930k at stock isn't better for gaming than any K i5 or i7, but overclocked you will see a different result. Considering the 2011 is the enthusiast platform, overclocked state is what I would look at first, not stock speed. However, I do agree that buying X79 is a complete waste of money but I won't ignore the fact that in an overclocked state they are the top dogs. Is 700$ a reasonable price for 5% increase in fps worth it? No. Especially since the 3930k will not beat the 3570K/3770K in all games.

To the OP: If you are looking for an i7, you are better off with a 3770K, but if your main thing is gaming and you don't do much else than even an i7 will be a huge waste of money. And buying Alienware has never ever given a good price/performance ratio tbh. Alienware is like fashion shoes: they cost alot more than the average pair of shoes but ultimately they will both enable you to walk quite comfortably.

[Tehterokkar]

Oh, really? I must be going blind, because the grey bars here say otherwise.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Produ...i=60.61.62.129

And that is the 3930k, not the standard 3820 that is the no-surcharge baseline for X79 Alienwares.

How the hell can you compare a ~200$ CPU compared to a ~550$ CPU? Goes without saying the i7 beats i5 in games/software that benefit from multi-core performance.
I'd take the i5 any day if 4 FPS is worth 350$

The i7-3930k/x are purely for people that actually need them. Streamers, Media users etc. For a Gamer, they are not worth it in the slightest. Spend the extra for addinational SSD or another GPU

[Milkshake86]

Nope they are not worth 700$ more, that is for sure, and probably more than 700 considering the MB's are more expensive as well.

As to what Butlerlog said: Yes, the 3930k at stock isn't better for gaming than any K i5 or i7, but overclocked you will see a different result. Considering the 2011 is the enthusiast platform, overclocked state is what I would look at first, not stock speed. However, I do agree that buying X79 is a complete waste of money but I won't ignore the fact that in an overclocked state they are the top dogs. Is 700$ a reasonable price for 5% increase in fps worth it? No. Especially since the 3930k will not beat the 3570K/3770K in all games.

To the OP: If you are looking for an i7, you are better off with a 3770K, but if your main thing is gaming and you don't do much else than even an i7 will be a huge waste of money. And buying Alienware has never ever given a good price/performance ratio tbh. Alienware is like fashion shoes: they cost alot more than the average pair of shoes but ultimately they will both enable you to walk quite comfortably.

Top dogs @ what? They are not better at gaming in any area by a wide enough margin to even remotely make this truthful, even your statement on Alienware is wrong, fact is every site that gives unbiased and honest reviews puts Dells Alienware WAY ahead of the competition. Let us not even touch the fact that the M18x is the king laptop, or that enough of the shrouding and airflow tunnels in the Alienware rigs are obscene and do their jobs super well.

---------- Post added 2012-12-11 at 02:43 PM ----------

How the hell can you compare a ~200$ CPU compared to a ~550$ CPU? Goes without saying the i7 beats i5 in games/software that benefit from multi-core performance.
I'd take the i5 any day if 4 FPS is worth 350$

The i7-3930k/x are purely for people that actually need them. Streamers, Media users etc. For a Gamer, they are not worth it in the slightest. Spend the extra for addinational SSD or another GPU

Huh? I7-3960x is Sandy Bridge i.e its using the same cores as the i5-3570k, so even @ higher clocks the overall performance will increase right around the same, these again are WORKSTATION cpu's not really intended for a gamer, live streamer or even your random enthusiast overclocker. They are used for significant rendering and mathematical loads, while being able to address other functionality.