BYOC vs Alienware

[Ayyyla]

Besides the obvious pro of having it be someone else's problem when shit doesn't work right...would it be worth it to buy an Alienware (yes, yes, I know they are a tad pricey) or should I suck it up and try to build a new one?

It's time to upgrade this old girl for sure.

Also AMD vs Intel...discuss

[XoR]

Just my 2 cents ... I have nothing but respect for alienware, however you can build the same system they can for less.

The challenge comes down to assembling the PC and installing windows. That's what you pay for ultimately.

Part for part, you will win economically with something like newegg, but you will be stuck with "major assembly required".

[Tasmania]

My last 2 computers have been Alienware, and I have been happy with them. The cases are very easy to work with as well when you are ready to upgrade/add new componets. But like you said they are a bit pricey.

[Archangelus]

my two pence is BYOC. you get to build it with exactly the components you want and for much cheaper.

[midnightservice]

anyways you can paint it green, put a picture of Arch oin the side and it will lok jsut like alienware anyways.




-Mid

[Undead_Mercenary]

Yup, you will save lots of money building yourself. Also, stick with Intel.

[Ayyyla]

I knew it would be cheaper. That's a no brainer. And I don't want it green anyway! (black and teal kthx) I guess my main issue is I'm tired of going wtf and trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with these computers. It would be nice if it were someone else's problem for once.

So if I build my own, who's gonna come down here and put it together for me?

[JungleJim]

build it and they will come! and AMD ROCKS!

[Thowarr]

Depending on if she wants this now, or can wait until April when I get home to put this together, can you guys throw a list of parts together? We were looking at a pent quad core 3gig processor . 3gig ram, sli gt8800x2, 500gig HD, 1kW P/S, Windows Vista (ugh), uhm... think that's it. It was going to be around $2800 or so.

Also, we don't want a pic of Arch's ass on the side her case for the next 5 years. Bleck!

[Archangelus]

We can't do it of my penis either....they don't make cases that big.

[Ayyyla]

You meant small right? They don't make cases that small.

[BadAsh]

The real question is which would you rather do? Fix the computer yourself if you have a problem or ship back to alienware and wait for 2 weeks for it to come back?

[Imperil]

I'm going to get made fun of for this suggestion.. but hear me out before bringing out the beating sticks

The new Mac Pro with an 8800GT. ($3000 USD) Why do I suggest this? Because you get two 2.8Ghz Quad Core Xeons at 1600mhz FSB, 2GB RAM (upgrade after the fact for 200 bucks), and a good video card. It actually comes out roughly 1500-2000 cheaper than if you built the exact same system at Dell.

I have been using one of these at work (running Vista on it mainly) and it just destroys any built PC in the office. Although mind you there are a few things you miss out on such as SLI, and using buffered ECC RAM which is a little more expensive. I'm actually ordering one up myself with two of the quad core 3.0Ghz xeons, 10gb DDR2, and an 8800GT... smokes the pricing I got from Dell/AW (and as a developer I get the convenience of being able to boot into MacOS to compile cross-platform apps).

[Thowarr]

Imperial- actually we've thought about Macs before. We just don't know enough about them to make an informed decision.

[Undead_Mercenary]

After using them a lot in college, I simply think they're different. Some things I like more than PC, other things I don't. Overall though, I just prefer PC as a gamer.