The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
Alienware! Fact or hype?
Dark Helmet
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Greetings and happy new year all! I am hoping to land some advice here.
My current computer is beginning to show its age, and me being the consumer whore that I am - it is time to upgrade!
I am currently eye-balling the Area 51-7500 model they advertise for $1,399. Seems like a well-rounded machine, and if the rumors are true about Alienware - I won't be dissapointed. But I am hoping to find out here: are they just rumors?
The model comes with Windows Vista, and I have heard that Vista isn't exactly reliable at the moment for people who play pc games. Right now by 2 big time-sinks are Civilization 4 and World of Warcraft. While I haven't heard anything detrimental regarding Civ4 and Vista, I have heard quite a lot of negative responses about Vista from the WoW community. Poor frame-rate, pushing cpu usage to 100% constantly - ugly stuff. I can swap out the Vista OS for Windows XP Pro - but it costs an additonal $90, as bizarre as that sounds.
Is Alienware as good as they say? I want to be as informed as possible before I drop fifteen hundred dollars on a machine I will be stuck with for some time to come. I was hoping to hear from some of yall's personal experiences regarding the company, or even hearsay from people you know.
My current computer is beginning to show its age, and me being the consumer whore that I am - it is time to upgrade!
I am currently eye-balling the Area 51-7500 model they advertise for $1,399. Seems like a well-rounded machine, and if the rumors are true about Alienware - I won't be dissapointed. But I am hoping to find out here: are they just rumors?
The model comes with Windows Vista, and I have heard that Vista isn't exactly reliable at the moment for people who play pc games. Right now by 2 big time-sinks are Civilization 4 and World of Warcraft. While I haven't heard anything detrimental regarding Civ4 and Vista, I have heard quite a lot of negative responses about Vista from the WoW community. Poor frame-rate, pushing cpu usage to 100% constantly - ugly stuff. I can swap out the Vista OS for Windows XP Pro - but it costs an additonal $90, as bizarre as that sounds.
Is Alienware as good as they say? I want to be as informed as possible before I drop fifteen hundred dollars on a machine I will be stuck with for some time to come. I was hoping to hear from some of yall's personal experiences regarding the company, or even hearsay from people you know.
Dark Helmet on
0
Posts
Otherwise Do it yourself or find a local trusted computer shop to make you a superior computer.
That and you're paying for a brand name.
Tumblr
The Vista vs World of Warcraft thing (as far as I'm aware) was an nVidia driver issue rather than a problem with Vista which has long been sorted. I don't think there are other issues with it and extremetech gave WoW on vista the thumbs up -link-. Personally I like vista and wouldn't go back to XP.
I hate to beat on a dead horse if you're dead set against it, but building your own computer is the way to go. You'll pay less, you'll have a better understanding of how it works, you'll be able to upgrade it easier and you'll get exactly what you want.
Their laptops on the other hand, are fucking awesome.
You're paying out the ass for a Dell in a fancy case. How smart does that sound to you?
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I can't speak for others, just me and two dudes I knew in the navy, our laptops went around the world and held up well in a shipboard environment where others failed. When my buddy had some driver issue he called their number and they fixed the problem, mailed him out a disc (No internet on ships) and got it taken care of. I haven't had any dealings with them since the Dell takeover, but it was my understanding that the takeover was financial, but Alienware still used their own manufacturing, just used dell for shipping.
Buy a shoddy prebuilt with rebates/sales that can't even pretend to have good parts. Limited upgrade path since almost nothing in it is worth your time keeping.
Build your ow using parts you have already + new parts (possibly refurbished ones as well). High dependent upon what you have on hand and what you can find on sale.
Medium money:
Buy prebuilts in the mid range. You pay more, get some ok components, and usually they have decent upgrade potential.
Build your own pc (with or without keeping old parts or finding refurbs). Will get exactly what you are looking for and will only overpay if you don't look for good prices.
Most money:
Buy prebuilts made to be "high performance". Will pay out the ass for some good - great parts, a fancy case, and a name. Upgrade paths are generally pretty good, components are (as I said) pretty good, so you usually don't have to worry too much.
Build your own using the most expensive/powerful parts you can find. This would be a system that stomps all over any prebuilt, but would be just as, if not more, expensive than anything you could put together via a prebuilt.
All that said, the ~1400 you are looking to spend on the alienware is far from extravagant, but you can still do cheaper/better elsewhere or on your own.
I'm sure they have some good performance, and others can speak to their warranty/service, but in the end... it's just a PC. They can't do anything any other similarly built PC can do, so I see no reason to pay for their name unless you want to be able to say you have one of their PC's.
Ditto, I had a great experience with them on a Laptop a few years before the Dell takeover. Their customer service was outstanding, very helpful and knowledgeable, at least the ones I dealt with. But as others have said, DIY for desktops.
TF2/ETQW: [e]Encloser;
If I can do it, absolutely anyone can.
If you want a pc that will run games well right of the box with no muss or fuss, alienware can do that.
If you want to research the components, put it together, and work out the hardware gremlins on your own, you can make a better system for your money.
In retrospect, other than the badass case, the alienware was just a higher end version of something I could have picked up at best buy. My friends gave me endless crap for getting one, partially because they sent a folder along with that was stamped "TOP SECRET: for your eyes only" with my windows recovery cd and assorted manuals. It was pretty much the nerdiest thing I had ever seen, and not in a good way.
Honestly, I'm currently scrounging up parts for a new build myself(Though I'm not really crazy about it, so I won't start getting parts at prices that aren't heavily rebated 'till Summer), and I got a 500W PSU and a Raidmax Sagitta case for free with rebates. The PSU is more than I need in terms of overall power and amperage along specific rails, and the Case is just gorgeous even before I mod the hell out of it.
Unless you really, really, really, really need specifically an Alienware case, there's really absolutely no reason to buy Alienware. And if you just want a pretty case, those are out there too for the building crowd.
I mean, I just looked at the Area-51 7500 at $1,400.
For around $1,000 you could get a system with a better GPU, more RAM, and a Monitor included. Hell you could probably get an extra .2 GHz on the processor and a bigger HDD.
In terms of build quality, I like the P2 chassis alot. It does have a very large footprint, but it's great if you have the space. I think it has good lines, excellent ventilation, and plenty of internal space for any component under the sun. Internally, the wires were/are as nicely wrapped, hid, and tucked away as any pre-built machine I've seen, and the liquid cooling system on the CPU (Athlon 64 X2 4600+, that I've OC'd to 2.8GHZ) is rock-solid and has worked flawlessly (even in the summer at peak load, I haven't seen it edge above 43 C).
There were no driver hiccups or OS problem on intial startup. Although one stick of RAM was DOA, but I called them up 2 days after getting the system and they overnighted me a new stick free of charge. Other than that, I haven't had a single problem with my system. And the couple of times I've called them up with questions, the people I spoke with have spoken flawless English and actually knew what they were talking about.
I will say, that after finding out what my dad and boss paid for it, it was overpriced by about 500 bucks, even for back then, but I can't say that I didn't get a good product or support from them.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Honestly, if you are a complete novice at building your own, the biggest trap you can fall into is compatibility when you're buying components - the rest is 90% plugging shit in
Hell it can be even more plugging shit in. My case is tool-less construction. I basically just place stuff where it goes and tighten the thumbscrews.
A gamer should never buy a prebuilt system. Unless it's a gift for his/her mother.
I love elitism.
So me working 2 jobs and not having a whole lot of time for messing around with compatibility issues, and/or futzing around with BIOS settings is less of a PC gamer for asking for and recieving a pre-built rig from a big name company (note: I was also considering saving up and buying it myself, if I didn't get it as a gift)? Thanks.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
I've built many computers, and outside of the old Soundblaster IRQ issues, I haven't run into any compatibility issues or needed to futz around with BIOS settings unless I wanted to do something crazy like overclocking. I recently just built a system for my father-in-law and it was all just plug and play.
Call me elitist if you want but the jab doesn't fit.
I'm saying you can build something yourself that is better and cheaper then what Alienware will sell you. If anything Alienware is elitist by claiming what they provide is so much superior to what I can build on my own with minimal effort.
Yes. You are a sissy girl, and will henceforth be treated as such.
It's not elitism so much as common sense. It honestly doesn't take THAT much time/effort to get recommendations on which parts to go with if you're putting your own rig together, and the actual building is not that complicated (I've done it, and I'm anything BUT a tech-geek, really).
I just don't understand why Alienware is such a big, high-priced name. Any time I see their ads and look at the rigs they're selling, I think to myself "people are basically paying an extra $400+ for someone plugging their components in.
sketchyblargh / Steam! / Tumblr Prime
Their laptops are great. Desktops, are not worth the price.
Their desktops, aside from cool cases (at least my older one is cool looking), offer nothing that you can't get/do by building one yourself. No over-clocked stuff or anything.
Custom service has not been good. I always fix the problems myself via various forum communities/general troubleshooting. You really are paying for the name, at least on the desktops.
If you want to get a pre-built system, go for Falcon Northwest, Overdrive, or VooDoo. Really, though, I still recommend building your own above all else.
I think I'm just pissed from not having a whole lot of free time anymore to fool around anymore. I was a major tinkerer back in the day, before real-life happened. I miss being about to just waste a whole weekend trying to sqeeze a couple hundred more MHZ out my Pentium IV or Thunderbird Athlons and finding just the right combonation of voltage and latencies to make my RAM that much faster.
C'est la vie...
~ Buckaroo Banzai
I don't mean to offend or anything, but in Drool's defense it would stand to reason that if you have time to game you can scrape a night or two together to plug tings :P
so ya, sissy
Really the hardest part of building a new PC is getting a mobo with the proper socket for your CPU. And that's basically as simple as being able to read Pentium or AMD.
edit: And you really don't have to tinker or anything. You can buy overclocked GPUs from places like BFG which I personally recommend. But I've never been the kinda guy to try to squeeze out every last frame from my system. If it's holding steady about ~35 FPS I'm happy, and if my FPS is holding at my monitors 60 FPS refresh I'm super happy becuase I have vsync on anyway.
Really, just building it isn't so difficult. They make that part easy. Researching all the hardware can take a long time, since they're making that more confusing - if you're not up to date with what's new, I strongly suggest you make a thread in the tech section and we can recommend stuff to you (or just fire me a PM).
Ordering online from Newegg is usually a good bet, as they have a wider selection and generally lower prices than most brick and mortar stores, and shipping is generally fast and efficient.
I also have no free time and yet I interestingly enough do have enough to plug shit in.
I mean really now.
What're you doing when you get home? You could probably list a lot, but -- wait, are you eating a cracker? Okay, stop eating the cracker and, instead, place the CPU in the appropriately-shaped slot and push the lever into place.
There. A few more crackers like that, and you've built your system. The research part you got for nothing by posting a five-minute thread in the tech forum.
Edit: man, I just want a cracker.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
As for the time spent researching the components, I'm sorry but that's just as important of a step regardless of whether you're buying pre-build or building yourself. You can certainly skip it much easier if you buy pre-built, but that's just as stupid as skipping the research step when you're building your own.
Unless you're clearing $100 an hour, you've really got no business buying a pre-built machine for gaming. Besides, it leaves you with a much more thorough understanding of your machine and if you don't see how that's a good thing, I can tell you haven't been gaming on a PC for very long.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I'm not sure if this is directed at me or not, but my problem was I took about a 6 year hiatus right after graduating high school (circa 2000) and have been trying to get back into the PC scene and get up to date.
In terms of PC gaming, I've been gaming on one since my dad's old TRS80 and an old Kaypro II. By the time I was 8 I was editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files so my Sierra Online, LucasArts, and Origin games would run right on our new 33MHz 386 monster.
I kept up being a dedicated PC-freak for a number of years. But by the time 2000 rolled around, my family wasn't in so good of financial straits, so I had go into the work place full time. I took a rather long hiatus from the scene. I've been getting back in the swing of things the past couple of years, but it's been slow going. Even though I work with computers in both my jobs (I'm a entry-level programmer for a company called LBComputing and also work for Hollywood Video), but I've hardly been keeping up with everything.
So I decided to take the short route and ask for a pre-made system to try get into the 21st centry. Apparently that negates my nerd status and is universially seen as a waste of money.
Oh well, win some, lose some.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
That was my first game, also on my dad's Kaypro.
Edit: oh, awesome!
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Indeed, Ladders was the schiznat. I had that along with a bad Pac-Man port and a strange ASCII based Star Trek game.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Try reading the rest of the sentence for context.
It's directed at anyone who doesn't feel an understanding of the PC's hardware and driver setup is useful to a PC gamer. It is. It very much is. Such is the nature of PC gaming.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
My apologizes, I've been killing time on the forums waiting for my shift to end, I need to try reading everything instead of skimming. :P
~ Buckaroo Banzai
In one work day I make more than enough money to close to gap between the prebuilt systems expense and the money saved by buying the parts individually.
I mostly game on laptops these days so the point is moot, but still. For some people its simply more time efficient to buy prebuilt than to build yourself.
I make a pretty reasonable amount of money myself, kind of.
That doesn't mean that I throw money away left and right.
I can honestly say that if I was making Millions of dollars per year while still working my fun 14-16 hour days, I would still build my own computers, because even if I make enough that saving that crucial half-hour of actually putting the thing together isn't worth the $500 I save doing it, it's still retarded to spend $500 for pure laziness.
Which is why I hate PC Gamer magazine.
ZOMG! NEW AWESOME GAMES1111, Oh and apparently theres a new graphics card or something...