Curse

Dex · Mar 30, 2007, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by w0lla

dont buy Itanium or FX-74, totally waste of money.
If u want Quad core go with Q6600/700, if u can settle with a dual core, take a E6600 (with the price cut in april). Now you could wait for the new ATI card, but then u would have to wait 2-3months, so if you want the best of the best, take a 8800GTX, 4gb ram, a good motherboard (nforce 680i, or a intel equivalent), a PSU from Seasonic (M series) a 150gb raptor and some storage hds and ur ready to rumble.

1. E6600 / Q6600/700
2. 8800GTX
3.4gb ram (ddr2)
5. PSU , Seasonic M series
6. Case, Maybe a Silverstone TJ9 ?
7.Hardrive: Raptor + storage drives
8. Motherboard; 680i or intel

2000dollars should be enough

Itanium? How is that even an option? It doesn't even have a native x86 instruction set...it has to emulate. It's barely compatible with x86 instructions. No, Itanium is NOT a processor for personal desktops. It's not even really designed to run Windows.

Aside from that, 4GB of RAM is a bad idea unless you're going to be running Windows Vista...XP can't handle 4GB of RAM very well. IMHO Raptor drives are a waste of money unless you're ok with spending twice as much for your HDD storage for very little performance increase. The newer, high-end 7200rpm drives are only a hair slower than a Raptor (to the point that you probably wouldn't notice much difference), cost half as much, and are more reliable (in general).

easyg · Mar 30, 2007, 04:40 PM // 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by eggrolls

You can build a computer equivalent to a $2000 Alienware for about $1000 without skimping on quality. Those prices in USD of course, but I'm sure you can save that much over in Australia too...

As has been pointed out many times, this is not close to being true anymore.

My favorite boutique is digitalstorm.com, but all the boutiques generally are priced about the same.

Go to Alienware's website and configure the computer you want. Then find the same components on Newegg and sum up the prices. Don't forget to add the operating system, cooling, cables, etc.

The amount you'd save by DIYing is only 15-20 percent. In other words, the E6600 that costs $304 on Newegg is being sold for the equivalent of $350 by the boutique. These are real savings, but on a typical system you are only talking about $200 max savings. For a lot of people, maybe the $200-$300 would be worth it for the OEM's warranty, customer care, etc.

w0lla · Mar 30, 2007, 06:30 PM // 18:30

I assumed he was gonna use vista , but if not 3gb ( theres a patch for xp with 3gb ?) would do. or minimum 2gb. And with the budget he had, he can get raptors, anything to boost that video editing right.

Alpha Moth · Mar 30, 2007, 10:34 PM // 22:34

thanks for all the feedback so far, has really helped. Also, i would like to make sure my MB is SLI aswell and how much PSU do i need to run a good system? would 500W be enough or should i go at least 800?

Dex · Mar 30, 2007, 11:07 PM // 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha Moth

thanks for all the feedback so far, has really helped. Also, i would like to make sure my MB is SLI aswell and how much PSU do i need to run a good system? would 500W be enough or should i go at least 800?

Well, IMHO SLI is a waste of:

Money (on the second video card, plus the more expensive PSU and motherboard)
An expansion slot
A video card

SLI is insanely inefficient. By the time you cut through the overhead the speed increase you get at typcal resolutions isn't worth the money. In my experience it's a lot more cost-effective to simply buy a fast single video card and upgrade periodically to a faster one. The only exception to this is when you have a very large, very hi-res monitor (higher than your average 24" monitor), which is where SLI and Crossfire actually have a benefit beyond their fairly unimpressive framerate increase (for the money).

On the power supply: it really depends on what hardware you have in your system and what brand of power supply you're buying. If you want to plan ahead, a 700w from a good company (PC Power & Cooling, Antec, Enermax, Sparkle, OCZ, Seasonic, Hiper, etc.) should serve you well for some time. You'd probably be fine with a 600w, though. Like I said, it depends on how many watts you need to drive your configuration. If you're going to do SLI make sure you get an SLI-compliant PSU with (at least) dual 12v rails and two PCI-Express connectors.

Lurid · Mar 30, 2007, 11:46 PM // 23:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by easyg

As has been pointed out many times, this is not close to being true anymore.

My favorite boutique is digitalstorm.com, but all the boutiques generally are priced about the same.

Go to Alienware's website and configure the computer you want. Then find the same components on Newegg and sum up the prices. Don't forget to add the operating system, cooling, cables, etc.

The amount you'd save by DIYing is only 15-20 percent. In other words, the E6600 that costs $304 on Newegg is being sold for the equivalent of $350 by the boutique. These are real savings, but on a typical system you are only talking about $200 max savings. For a lot of people, maybe the $200-$300 would be worth it for the OEM's warranty, customer care, etc.

Heh, this is incorrect. The reason the price differentials are fairly close between certain OEMs vs buying the system and piecing it together all comes down to the quality of parts chosen. With Alienware and the other OEMs you're at their mercy when it comes to what goes into the computer, sure you might get to choose the thing they're adding, but for the most part you're getting the shittiest things available. Hell just look at most motherboards, generic RAM, and horrendous PSUs used in those system builds.

Not to mention the ability to tweak a custom setup, and not have a stupid amount of OEM software clogging up resources. I'm an overclocker by heart, and definition, and if nothing else this fuels my extreme distaste of almost all OEMs. The only good OEM is an extreme budget build, say for an office PC, or a laptop. Otherwise I can / will build something that is considerably better, for (usually) considerably less money. This gap widens when you look at their "top of the line" computers, $6k for that Area-51 ALX is retarded.

eggrolls · Mar 31, 2007, 12:35 AM // 00:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by easyg

As has been pointed out many times, this is not close to being true anymore.

My favorite boutique is digitalstorm.com, but all the boutiques generally are priced about the same.

Go to Alienware's website and configure the computer you want. Then find the same components on Newegg and sum up the prices. Don't forget to add the operating system, cooling, cables, etc.

The amount you'd save by DIYing is only 15-20 percent. In other words, the E6600 that costs $304 on Newegg is being sold for the equivalent of $350 by the boutique. These are real savings, but on a typical system you are only talking about $200 max savings. For a lot of people, maybe the $200-$300 would be worth it for the OEM's warranty, customer care, etc.

I hate being wrong, so I did what you said just to prove my point:

$1999 computer on Alienware, the Aurora 7500.

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4600+ Processor = $120
Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium = $120
Alienware® Approved NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Motherboard = $130 (eVGA)
1GB Low Latency DDR2 PC2-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 x 512MB = $95 (OCZ CAS4)
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ 8MB Cache = $75 (Seagate)
18X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Burner = $30 (NEC)
320MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTS = $280 (eVGA)
Alienware® 700 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply = $180 (FSP 760W)
Some case to make the numbers nice and even = $170

Total = $1200 before $60 in rebates

It might not be $1000 less like I said, but $800 is a lot. Let's see what the $800 gives you:

1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
Alienware keyboard, mouse, and mousepad
AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $100 Value - FREE!
AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - $100 Value - FREE!
Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black - a $19.99 value
Alienware® Standard System Cooling
Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling

Regular keyboard, mouse, and mousepad with the Alienware logo on them - worth $0 to me, but maybe $20-30 to some.
$100 value for "integration and inspection" - um, ok?
$100 value for "internal wire management" - cable ties, etc, cost <$5 and a little bit of time
T-shirt - I wouldn't wear it, $0
Standard System Cooling - air cooling, $0
AlienIce Video Cooling- air cooling, $0 - looked everywhere to find out what this actually is, finally found an article with a picture. In that picture, they have an Alienware with "Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling" and "AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling ". The video cards are air-cooled. Note how the tubes don't connect with a block on the cards. Air cooling given the name "AlienIce" is still air cooling, and those coolers look like standard coolers you get on the 8800's.

I believe this system isn't worth anything more than $1200 (actually less, IMO), despite all those fancy marketing names they have. I think building one yourself is the better way to go.

Alpha Moth · Mar 31, 2007, 07:34 AM // 07:34

Kandalf LCS VD4000BWS Case with 2x VGA Water blocks
Core 2 Duo QX6700 overclocked to 3.5GHz
6GB DDR2 Ram with OCZ XLC
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA HDD
GeForce 8800 GTX x2 in SLI
Tagan TG1100-U95 PSU
Asus P5NSLI MotherBoard

How would you guys rate that?