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Buying a premade gaming machine

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Posts

  • Inquisitor77Inquisitor77 2 x Penny Arcade Fight Club Champion A fixed point in space and timeRegistered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    (and the fact that my current PC is now 2+ years old).

    :sad:

    Mugsley, you helped me find it, remember? The Dell deal! It's been a great little workhorse, albeit with some heat issues (unavoidable given the GPU came with just a single fan, and easily rectified with some tweaks and MSI Afterburner forcing the fans to push air constantly).

    But yeah, I usually go 3+ years between computers. I went six years between that Dell and the PC before it. :P

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    My last prebuilt was done by https://ironsidecomputers.com ; I was pretty happy with them. Their support was pretty responsive to questions about parts and such, though this was years ago.

    There’s always gonna be a decent size markup on prebuilts vs just ordering parts, but hopefully that comes back to you in build quality/warranty

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • MulletudeMulletude Registered User regular
    The i7 and 2080 super alone would run you about $1100

    The whole setup with liquid cooling sounds like a good deal for $1600, damn

    XBL-Dug Danger WiiU-DugDanger Steam-http://steamcommunity.com/id/DugDanger/
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    My last prebuilt was done by https://ironsidecomputers.com ; I was pretty happy with them. Their support was pretty responsive to questions about parts and such, though this was years ago.

    There’s always gonna be a decent size markup on prebuilts vs just ordering parts, but hopefully that comes back to you in build quality/warranty

    The case selection there is better than most, I think.

  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    What about https://maingear.com/gaming-desktops/ I believe @minor incident could give you insight about them - they've been solid.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Synthesis wrote: »
    Yeah, I've got an Asus Z97-A that's about three times that age.

    I'm posting this reply from my Z77 based system I built in 2012...

  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Synthesis wrote: »
    Yeah, I've got an Asus Z97-A that's about three times that age.

    I'm posting this reply from my Z77 based system I built in 2012...

    H77 here - Ivy Bridge team!
    i5-3350p. Definitely showing its age.

    tsmvengy on
    steam_sig.png
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    stopgap wrote: »
    TelMarine wrote: »
    Haven't looked at them since the early 2000s, but I remember Falcon Northwest having nice (but expensive) machines:

    https://www.falcon-nw.com/
    o4250m31a2gp.png

    Just a tad out of my budget!

    memes aside, I have a Falcon NW, you can make them much more affordable... although granted still a few thousand dollars probably

    the hardware is great, and their customer service is the best you will ever see in the industry. personal and prompt.

    so.. if it ever DOES come into your budget... I highly recommend it.

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    Jasconius wrote: »
    stopgap wrote: »
    TelMarine wrote: »
    Haven't looked at them since the early 2000s, but I remember Falcon Northwest having nice (but expensive) machines:

    https://www.falcon-nw.com/
    o4250m31a2gp.png

    Just a tad out of my budget!

    memes aside, I have a Falcon NW, you can make them much more affordable... although granted still a few thousand dollars probably

    the hardware is great, and their customer service is the best you will ever see in the industry. personal and prompt.

    so.. if it ever DOES come into your budget... I highly recommend it.

    I gave serious consideration to buying Falcon Northwest the last time I bought a boutique PC (for lack of a better term). I ended up going with the recently-acquired-by-HP Voodoo instead, the Blackbird...

  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    edited June 2020
    stopgap wrote: »
    I have been wanting to upgrade for a long time and due to an unexpected financial blessing I can, could I get an opinion on how badly I am getting screwed financially to buy something like this? https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/gaming-and-games/alienware-aurora-r11-gaming-desktop/spd/alienware-aurora-r11-desktop/wdaurr1130s?configurationid=c7555e8f-5e22-4fa6-8d2d-1f351cf507f9

    If you look at this spec now the price has dropped to $1891. There's also a $50 off coupon available on the site to drop it to below $1850.

    I was paying some bills and realized that I had an absolute ton of points available from one of our credit cards, since they hadn't been touched in at least 6-7 years. Looked into it a little further and couldn't find anything worthwhile at any of the places I could get gift cards for since many of them are restaurants, movie theaters or hotels and none of those are happening anytime soon. Then I saw that I could use points at dell.com and started looking at Alienware specs a little more. Priced out similar specs with most of the sites recommended in this thread and there really didn't seem to be a significant premium for Alienware - heck, similar specs were cheaper from Alienware than from a fair number of other sites. My biggest sticking point was probably the lack of options when you spec out an Alienware machine.

    In the end though, being able to get a new machine using nothing but credit card points, combined with many years of being psychologically conditioned by advertising and reviews to desperately want something from Alienware or Falcon Northwest when I was young and bought gaming magazines, led to me pulling the trigger. I opted to save a little on the cpu and went with a 3700X. A speedy 2TB SSD will be a big upgrade from the very basic 250GB one I have now, and I am really looking forward to a 2080 Super even if the number of games that use ray tracing is small right now. It would almost be worth it just for the look on my son's face when he sees Minecraft with ray tracing :p

    And it's expected to arrive less than a week after my birthday, so my wife grudgingly endorsed a plan that means she doesn't have to try to figure out a gift for me :P

    Ketar on
  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    Everything's so fast and the PC is so utterly devoid of bloatware and the drives are so empty! It's like driving a new car home!
    I mean, it was for a while anyway. Downloads are in progress - this thing needs to be be put to the test. In the meantime, it's crazy just how much little things like being able to import all of your bookmarks and whatnot in Firefox do to make the new machine transition more pleasant.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Ninite.com is your friend

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