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XPS Dell or Alienware?


L.T.W.
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STOP! Unless you are interested in a warranty from either company I strongly suggest you buy neither. My computer (also a gaming computer) is top of the line and only cost me $1500. Granted I didn't buy a new monitor, keyboard, or mouse but since you'll be getting a desktop (I assume since it's a gaming computer) the parts will be cheap. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.4ghz, 2gb of ram (I have XP but if you'll be getting Vista for DirectX 10 then I'd get 4gb of ram) and an nVidia 8800 GTS all on a ASUS P5K Deluxe motherboard.

If you're worried about building the computer, I figured out how to myself with no previous knowledge about how to put one together.

There is no use throwing away $1000-$1500 just to have a company give you a warranty and build it for you. Do some research on the parts and if you really don't want to build it yourself, pay a friend or a local company to do it for you. All the parts I got for my computer I bought off of www.newegg.com

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I fully agree with building your own. If you are a complete novice look for barebone kits. Sweet setups some come with ram some dont but they will all have processors motherboards and power supplies (The three biggest headaches) already installed. Every year PC gamer does a PC building bible. Its worth the money if you can still find one on news stands. It has everything you need including parts recommendations.

I will hopefully be building the next house computer and for certain i will be building my own personal computer when i am ready for it. You can go through them but these days if you know what you are doing and can find the right information its significantly cheaper to build your own. Even with OS most solid current config necessary gaming pc's dont require more than 1100 The ones that do probably are dx10 jobs.

With the current list of DX 9 games including HL's upcoming episodes SC 2 unreal tournament 3 Far Cry 2 and other massive name games (not to mention some MMO's going both DX10 and 9 compatable) You dont need to move to vista either. This will save about a hundred. Build it man. You will thank yourself later.

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AVAdirect.com has the same kind of warranty/labor service offered by Dell/Alienware (with varying levels), extreme customization, and no BS bundled software unless you want it. They're also inexpensive. It's the solution I went with for my music rig.
Hey, thanks for mentioning that site. I've been looking for a place that will build one for me without enacting a prison rape scene. Thanks.
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Ill try to find the PC building Bible then, and thx for the recommendations.

the main components youll need are as follows:

case: where you gonna put all this stuff? :) choose a case to your liking, some come with CD-ROM drives. if it doesnt, you will need to buy a cd drive seperately. also, select a case that would accomidate all your modding joys. for the most part, one that will be OK when it comes to cooling. fan slots etc.

motherboard: id go with an ASUS with SLI compatability. (note: SLI is nvidia, crossfire is ATI, similar technologies, only ATI is bad at it).

processor(s): id go with an AMD.

RAM: depending on your current motherboard you can probably reuse the RAM, but read what type of RAM the motherboard takes first, then order more RAM if you need to. crucial.com is a good site for RAM. 1 gig should be good enough to do whatever you want.

hard drive(s): again, check the motherboard to see what type of hard drive communication it supports. if it supports serial ATA (SATA) get a SATA HD (or multiple HDs). SATA is slightly faster than traditional IDE, and allows for a larger array of hard drives.

video card(s): i hate ATI, but choose a video card(s) to your liking/budget (or 2 if you want to use SLI/crossfire. crossfire only works with ATI cards and SLI only works with nvidia. to my knowledge, ASUS boards only do SLI).

as far as any other components are concerned just ask. but a word of advice: READ INSTRUCTION MANUALS.

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I second building your own computer. It's not nearly as hard to do as you'd think, and is pretty self explanatory. If you're still nervous about DIY though, one thing you could do is shop around your local computer parts places for barebones kits and start with one of those. Also, stay the hell out of Best Buy/Comp USA/etc (unless you're going in for a specific part and they have it on sale or something).

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So, I finally decided to make my own.

And now I wonder a very important Q.

Is it worth getting a DX10 ready Video Card?

There are not many games that support it yet, but I'm getting Vista, so...

should I?

EDIT:

Oh yeah, so far I have:

BOXD975XBX2KR LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562QX6700

and

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4

I just got started tonight (because I just received in the mail the PC Building Bible :P )

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why vista is the most colossal failure since...shit man i dont know its pretty colossal.

Thankfully the new computer games arent dx10 exclusive but that may only be a matter of time. And the term you are looking for is M.E. :P Unfortunately Microsoft is making the move that some videogame companies made before the PS No backward compatabilty forcing everyone if they want to play certain games to upgrade. I dont know how long XP support will last nor how viable one of those DX 10 projects are. Vista sucks royally but gamers may be left with no choice unless Apple/Mac finally gets it through their heads that they can wipe microsoft off the map if they open up to gamers.

Its a sucky situation. But its what we got.

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Thankfully the new computer games arent dx10 exclusive but that may only be a matter of time.

i love how microsoft monopolizes their own shit.

No backward compatabilty forcing everyone if they want to play certain games to upgrade.

i dont know why people deal with that bullshit.

Vista sucks royally but gamers may be left with no choice unless Apple/Mac finally gets it through their heads that they can wipe microsoft off the map if they open up to gamers.

that deserves a big LOL.

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