15 replies to this topic

[Cript]

I'm finally considering buying a desktop but here's my dilemma. I don't have the time to do the whole buy a crap load of parts seperately thing. When buying a pre-assembled one, what site should I go to? Alienware? The main reason I want to buy a pre-assembled one is so I can do the financing thing where I only pay a little a month.

Suggestions? My main motivation in this is that my video card on my laptop can't handle Source like I'd like it to, but I also would love a desktop.



I should mention my budget is about $2500 but I'd prefer to keep it under $2,000. I want this geared toward video as much as possible. No RAM upgrades because I can probably just do those myself for cheaper using work discounts. Someone customize me an alienware and see if there's somewhere that's cheaper with similar product?

[Mr. Hobo]

2k US? Ebay.com. For under $700 you can get a pretty good system, Harddrive will probally be small (Under 120gb) but video cards/processors are great.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/A...1QQcmdZViewItem

If you mail people generally speaking they're willing to take off ram and lower the price

[Cript]

2k US? Ebay.com. For under $700 you can get a pretty good system, Harddrive will probally be small (Under 120gb) but video cards/processors are great.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/A...1QQcmdZViewItem

If you mail people generally speaking they're willing to take off ram and lower the price

eBay is definitely out. I plan on doing a lot of things to this PC that might break it and customer service and warranty is a big deal. Plus eBay is usually a 1-time payment since I don't want paypal financing.

[Hater_Boxden]

I'm finally considering buying a desktop but here's my dilemma. I don't have the time to do the whole buy a crap load of parts seperately thing. When buying a pre-assembled one, what site should I go to? Alienware? The main reason I want to buy a pre-assembled one is so I can do the financing thing where I only pay a little a month.

Suggestions? My main motivation in this is that my video card on my laptop can't handle Source like I'd like it to, but I also would love a desktop.
I should mention my budget is about $2500 but I'd prefer to keep it under $2,000. I want this geared toward video as much as possible. No RAM upgrades because I can probably just do those myself for cheaper using work discounts. Someone customize me an alienware and see if there's somewhere that's cheaper with similar product?

I think alienware's are overpriced dells(yet i secretly want one myself). In this months PC magazine Mac blew away the competition in every category. Including picture quality and rendering of images.

[Cript]

I think alienware's are overpriced dells(yet i secretly want one myself). In this months PC magazine Mac blew away the competition in every category. Including picture quality and rendering of images.

If anyone suggests a MAC, I will completely ignore your post. :-P I'm going to make this a domain controller as well so that's not going to be happening.

[Cory]

I think alienware's are overpriced dells(yet i secretly want one myself). In this months PC magazine Mac blew away the competition in every category. Including picture quality and rendering of images.

But not in gaming.


I suggest just looking for a decent HP. You can get a good deal on a x2 4800 and then upgrade the video card to a xtx 1900 for around 1600 after everything.

[Alex]

Does Source even work on Macs lol ?
I'd just checking out velocitymicro.com as well. I think its a bit cheaper than Alienware but Alienware obviously has the better customer support.

Here's not a bad one.
http://velocitymicro...izard.php?iid=1

[Cript]

Does Source even work on Macs lol ?
I'd just checking out velocitymicro.com as well. I think its a bit cheaper than Alienware but Alienware obviously has the better customer support.

Here's not a bad one.
http://velocitymicro...izard.php?iid=1

Not half bad. What kind of video card should I be looking for here for the best performance? Is a 7600 good enough or do I definitely want a 7900? I get a 15% discount on dell.com through work, anything there pretty good?

[travis]

Just get the new dell....

http://www.dell.com/...g...;l=en&s=dhs

Alien wares..
bad.
I can build an alien ware equivalent [or better] for 1500...
Their price is up by about a grand, just becuase its "alien ware"

[Alex]

Duno about dell, here's an ok alienware.
http://www.alienware...ode=SKU-DEFAULT
Since Alienware is owned by dell, maybe you can use your discount on that too? Who knows, you should ask at work.

[Cript]

Would this thing be good enough?

Nevermind, will post it in a minute.

Dual 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS [Included in Price]
High Performance - High Value

512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX [add $100]

Dual 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX [add $600]

Is the 512 mb a ton better than the Dual 256mb?



WTF: I wouldn't get it until November?!

Edited by Cript, 23 August 2006 - 01:48 PM.

[Alex]

Would this thing be good enough?

Nevermind, will post it in a minute.

Dual 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS [Included in Price]
High Performance - High Value

512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX [add $100]

Dual 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX [add $600]

Is the 512 mb a ton better than the Dual 256mb?
WTF: I wouldn't get it until November?!

Even one 256 mb 7900 GS would be more than good enough I think. If you get 512 GTX it'll probably last you another 5 years.

[Hawk]

Even one 256 mb 7900 GS would be more than good enough I think. If you get 512 GTX it'll probably last you another 5 years.

Yeah, if you get the 256 you should be good. If it does ever start to slump (When new, more graphics intensive games come out) make sure your mobo is capable of SLI. Then you can slap a new vid card in there and you are close to a top-of-the-line machine again.

Edited by hawk117, 23 August 2006 - 06:05 PM.

[doobie]

PS....

AlienWare was bought out by Dell a while ago. Quality has suffered from what I have seen....

Check out ABS computers, I am sure you know their spinoff company: Newegg.com or their new one chiefvalue.com ... if their websites are any indication of their customer service their machines should hold up pretty well...

anyway best of luck

[Fatal]

eh all you need atm is a cheap conroe (intel core 2) and a 7900GT (equivilant to a 7800GTX)

[shabba]

Bump on that Fatal!
Definately Get a Conroe there amazing.