Thoughts on the computer I might buy.

In My Humble Opinion
1

New computer for me! Hooray! Of course, working over the summer to pay for it won’t be fun…

Anyway, i’m thinking of getting one from Alienware, as I’d like a good gaming PC and I can’t build my own. I believe they’ve just been taken over by Dell, but they seem to be selling an equivalent product to them for cheaper, so i’m sticking with AW atm. Here’s my prospective setup;

Alienware® 485 Watt Power Supply
Alienware® nForce™4 SLI™ Intel Edition Chipset Motherboard PCI Express SLI
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 920 w/ Dual Core Technology 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GT
250 GB Serial ATA-II 7,200 rpm w/ 8MB Cache System Drive
Intel® High Definition 7.1 Audio Integrated Surround Sound with S/PDIF and Coaxial Digital Outputs

Ok, generally, is that a good setup?
More specifically, I could spend £32 less and get this processor;
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 640 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 2MB Cache
Should I do so?
And for £65 more, I could get;
Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7600 GT - SLI Enabled
…instead of a single GeForce 7900 GT; should I?

2

Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear, i’m very much into gaming but as a student not exactly Croesus. I’d like as much bang for my buck as possible, and those alternate components at the end are the ones that it would be cheapest to switch out. I’d rather not have to buy a better component for any of the others unless I really have to, since the jump in price is pretty big.

3

It looks like a really good system.

Did you make a typo and say 2.8GHz when you meant 3.8GHz. The trade-down option doesn’t make much sense.

Go for the single video card. SLI allows you to choose to hook two of them together and that feature usually isn’t worth it.

If you want extreme performance, the best and newest way is to increase the hard drive to 10,000 or even 15,000 (extreme) RPM. Those hard drives are typically smaller in capacity but they are affordable and I hear that they make a noticeable difference in performance, much more so that a CPU with slightly higher GHZ or the next higher model in a video card.

4

Maybe you didn’t make a typo on the CPU. I see that it is a dual-core and different than the trade-down one. I would probably trade-down to the lower one because CPU performance isn’t as much a limited factor at the edges as many people seem to believe. Other components seem to limit well before the modern CPU does.

5

Nope, not a typo. The more expensive one is dual-core, but has decreased power/performance (uhm, I think). And I’d agree I probably don’t need it, since I haven’t seen any games that require more than 3GHz from you, but I thought i’d ask just in case.

The 10,000 rpm drive they’re offering is 74GB and £119 more expensive - I did have a look at it but i’m not sure I want to spend that much more and get less than a third of the memory, unless it’s going to make a huge difference.

6

Don’t bother with the 10k drive. The performance delta between the 10k drives and their 7.2k brethren is getting smaller all the time, and not worth that much extra money, IMHO.

And I’ll second the motion to stick with one video card. Assuming the mobo is going to be an SLI board anyway, you’d be robbing your self of future expansion options (adding a second 7900) by going SLI now.

Just my $0.02.

7

I note you’re in the UK; my brother bought an Alienware gaming laptop from the 'States. They had some ID/Credit card/Verification rigamarole 'cause it was being shipped to another country, and when the monitor started acting up a month later, he had to pay over $100 to ship it back from Canada. (Even though he had the extended warranty, and if he’d been in the 'States it would have been free).

Perhaps things have changed since they’ve been bought by Dell, but you might want to check on how that works.

8

I’ll also add that building a PC isn’t very hard either. I know bargain PCs are cheaper from Dell, but I’m not so sure about high-end machines. Maybe its cheaper to order the parts and build one yourself?

9

Nanoda; how long ago was that? I’m pretty sure they have at least offices in Ireland, but i’m not sure if they actually build there. Plus with the takeover by Dell might give them some foothold here. But i’ll check it out further.

Merkwurdigliebe, I have literally no experience in building computers, or anything like that, short of rewiring plugs (which i’m very bad at). I don’t know anyone who does, either. I’m pretty sure it would be cheaper, but I’m not sure I’d want to risk me screwing up some part of it and ruining a component or several.

10

The risk of actually ruining a computer or component by building it yourself is pretty low. All it really consists of is a series of upgrade like tasks (plug RAM in, plug video card in) that inexperienced people do everyday. Motherboards these days are designed so that if it fits in the slot, there isn’t any risk of screwing it up. It is almost like LEGO bricks for the most part although the minor motherboard and CPU assembly requires following the directions closely so that you don’t have problems later. It is easily something someone can do with no experience if they read the directions.

The only real risk is getting frustrated and wasting time after you figure out that a tiny jumper should have been on pins 2 and three when it was really on 1 and 2. There aren’t many of those type things though. Software can be way harder than hardware.

I would figure 6 - 8 hours for a first timer to assemble a computer and then add the time to select each component and have it delivered. You can save money and definitely get a better or at least more custom system if you build a higher end computer yourself.

11

Would I need small fiddly random parts? As in, If I just go out and buy all the components, would that be everything i’d need?

12

Everything you need is included with the components.

You just have to buy:

  1. 1 case. Should come with power supply. Get one with a 450+ watt power supply.
  2. Motherboard - Don’t get a cheap one <$90 U.S. That can lead to problems immediately or later. Some of the cheap ones are really bad.
  3. CPU
  4. RAM
  5. Video card
  6. Motherboard should have onboard sound but if it doesn’t, you need a sound card.
  7. Hard drive
  8. CD/DVD ROM drive

There are only a few way of actually making a big mistake. One is not putting the little brass risers under the motherboard to separate it from the case to prevent shorts. The other one is not putting on the thermal paste for the CPU on at all or not putting it on right. Both of those are obvious how to do as long as you know to do them. The motherboard assembly requires plugging in about 10 or so little wire clips and although you won’t damage anything if you get them wrong, it can be frustrating if you power and reset button don’t won’t and you have to stare at the directions again.

After that, you just start plugging stuff in and you won’t hurt anything if you manage to get it wrong although that is pretty hard to do. You have to work with some small screws to secure things in place but a standard screwdriver is all you need.

13

You make it sound a lot easier than I thought it would be. I’ll give it some thought.

I wasn’t planning on buying a computer too soon anyway - end of year exams are coming up, and I know if I got a computer before I’d be playing on that and not revising. :stuck_out_tongue:

14

If you buy a retail packaged processor that comes with a heatsink and fan, it’ll typically come with the thermal paste already on it, under a little plastic cover. That thermal paste is always one use only, but it saves a novice from having to know how much paste to put on.

A good motherboard will come with documentation that tells you where to plug the stuff in, and it’ll usually have pictures of where that stuff is on the motherboard.

One big thing to remember is that if the processor doesn’t just fall right into the socket with no pushing, it’s not on right. Line up the marked edges and then just let gravity put it in.

15

I think it was almost a year ago; certainly it was before they joined with Dell. I imagine that move did help their warantee coverage.

Building a PC isn’t that difficult (except for attaching the CPU fan. I hate that part), but things can be fiddly or a PITA, like you don’t get optimal performance without ensuring your BIOS is set up correctly, etc. Troubleshooting a part can suck too if you don’t know what to look for.

If you think you’d have fun spending the time, then I’d recommend it. If it would just be a chore and lead you to drink (more) and tear your hair out, then no. :slight_smile:

16

There haven’t been jumpers on computer components for years.

17

Well, maybe hard drives.

18

Games need to be written to utilize the dual-cores, and most current games don’t, so you’ll see no performance boost with a dual-core, unless the game is written to utilize the multi-threading.

However, since dual-cores are the current “big” thing, and becoming more ad more mainstream, games are starting to be written to take advantage of multi-threading, so while you may not see a difference now in your games, in a year, you most likely will.

Don’t bother with the 10k drives, not worth the money in any way, imo. For a gaming rig, you’ll be much better served by getting 2GB of RAM with the extra money you’d spend there.

As far as video cards go, I’d get the single 7900 now, and then have the room for a 2nd 7900 at some point in the future.

Building your own rig isn’t hard at all, all you’re going to be paying Alienware for is a really expensive customer service contract, imo.

I’ve heard many stories from unhappy AW-owning gamers over the last year that AW really isn’t what it used to be, and not really worth the money anymore. I’ve also heard more than a few stories saying their CS isn’t what it used to be either, YMMV. I’ve no idea how Dell’s purchase of them are, are not, or might in the future be affecting these things.

If you decide to experiment with building your own, my personal reccomendations for buying pc parts online are newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com (Disclaier: I have zero idea what their overseas shipping policies are, their US shipping however, rocks, never had a single problem with either company)

19

And just to reiterate what I said about RAM, I really personally wouldn’t even bother putting less than 2GB into a new gaming rig.

We just added another GB to my husband’s 2 year old machine (for a total of 2GB), and the difference in gaming performance was huge. My guildmates who have also bumped up to 2GB in their machines report the same huge improvement.

(Sadly, my motherboard only has 3 slots for RAM, I cntly have 2 512 sticks, and as I’m limited on this machine to PC2700 RAM, I’m certainly not investing in 2 1GB sticks of PC2700 RAM when I plan on building a new machine in the next 6 months…will just have to stick it out till then. sighs wistfully)

20

Go for the processor with the faster clock speed, not the dual core.

Go for 2 GB RAM.

Go for a pair of HDDs and mirror them.

Make sure you have a decent PSU.

But you’ve indicated that you’ll be buying in 6 months time. Odds are, things will have changed considerably by then.

You’re quite likely to get a better deal from the local white-box outfit.