Dell Alienware Builds

[RikuoAmero]

Okay people, I'm ordering a Dell Alienware either this week, or next week, just need to wait for my passport to arrive (getting a loan off Dell Finance, and they'll want my passport number).

Basically, what I would like is for Kametsu people who have built their own computers or who have/had Alienware computers to pick me out a customised desktop rig off of the Dell.ie site. Note, it has to be Dell.ie, the Irish site. There's bound to be options on the Dell USA site I won't be able to pick. Price range...keep it in between €140-180 per month, the sweet spot is €150.

What I want for this computer is for it to be future-proof for at the least the next year or two. It has to be able to play Crysis 2 on max settings on one monitor. Once the computer arrives, I will be doing a Youtube video, comparing PC Crysis 2 with a console version (btw, chime in on which console version is superior, PS3 or Xbox 360, I have both consoles).

The reason I'm asking for help on this is that while I do know a lot about computers and have upgraded my current rig (see signature), I'm bound to pick an option that I don't strictly need.

Thanks guys!

[-Zero-]

Before I(or anyone at best) can give you our opinions, it would be nice to know what type of budget you are on. Unfortunately, the site, after building the computer, does not give the price per month, unlike the USA site. Knowing that would be nice.

I'll go ahead and make some suggestions:

For graphics, you'll probably need a hefty graphics card if you want to play Crysis 2 on max settings. I would've recommended a GTX 580, but looking at reviews, you'll be better off with 2 Radeon HD 6950's in CrossfireX. I hope that you're aware that most HD 6950's are just HD 6970's with some of the hardware being turned off at the "software" level, which pretty much means you can unlock the remaining parts and have you're self a nice system.

CPU: This model offers 2nd gen Intel Core processors. I would recommend the i7 2600k, just in case you want to overclock. An i5 2500k would be nice but it lacks 2 MB of L3 cache which can have some impact to performance.

Storage depends mostly on what you want. At this point in time, I would honestly recommend that you get an SSD. For secondary, a 1-2TB hard drive is good.

As far as memory goes, the norm is now 8 GB instead of 4. For speed, I will direct you to an article that can help you decide:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15967/1

[RikuoAmero]

Before I(or anyone at best) can give you our opinions, it would be nice to know what type of budget you are on. Unfortunately, the site, after building the computer, does not give the price per month, unlike the USA site. Knowing that would be nice.

I'll go ahead and make some suggestions:

For graphics, you'll probably need a hefty graphics card if you want to play Crysis 2 on max settings. I would've recommended a GTX 580, but looking at reviews, you'll be better off with 2 Radeon HD 6950's in CrossfireX. I hope that you're aware that most HD 6950's are just HD 6970's with some of the hardware being turned off at the "software" level, which pretty much means you can unlock the remaining parts and have you're self a nice system.

CPU: This model offers 2nd gen Intel Core processors. I would recommend the i7 2600k, just in case you want to overclock. An i5 2500k would be nice but it lacks 2 MB of L3 cache which can have some impact to performance.

Storage depends mostly on what you want. At this point in time, I would honestly recommend that you get an SSD. For secondary, a 1-2TB hard drive is good.

As far as memory goes, the norm is now 8 GB instead of 4. For speed, I will direct you to an article that can help you decide:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15967/1

[Officer Kj]

I think you would have to re-install your windows onto the new hard drive to make it your primary. Of course, you could just leave it on the original hard drive, and then use the new one for other fun things. I'm not the best with computers though, and have no idea what the requirements would be for what you want to do.

[Leviathan87]

alienware/dell over price there computers im still paying for a broken laptop i bought 4 years ago from them just saying. and as for physx not alot of games use it. if your getting 580 gtx sli u wont need a physics card. for the ssd question you cant transfer the os as it will give you big problems best thing to do is redo the computer.

[RikuoAmero]

alienware/dell over price there computers im still paying for a broken laptop i bought 4 years ago from them just saying. and as for physx not alot of games use it. if your getting 580 gtx sli u wont need a physics card. for the ssd question you cant transfer the os as it will give you big problems best thing to do is redo the computer.

[-Zero-]

The site does give a per month, you just have to finish the build and put it in the checkout basket. And I did say a budget, I said somewhere between 140-190 per month.

I should have specified, sorry, but I'm going Nvidia this time, as I want PhysX. I have heard of hacks that give PhsyX when doing a Nvidia+Radeon setup, but that would literally be wasting the Nvidia card, as it would only do PhsyX, nothing on the graphics.

No, I'm not gonna overclock, I never have before and I'm not gonna risk doing it on a machine this expensive.

As for SSD...I might go for one. Thing is, they're really expensive, so they're last on the list of what I want to pay for. Budget wise, what I would prefer to do is just get the one traditional hard drive. Two questions though do spring to mind

1) I have three external USB 2.0 2TB hard drives. Can I take them out of their cases and just slot them in? I'm 99% sure of that.

2) Let's say I just start off with the one hard drive and then later on I buy an internal SSD. Could I transfer my Windows installation to it? Cracking the OS is something I will never do, as I'm not comfortable with. Individual programs yes, but OS no.

[RikuoAmero]

Sorry about that. That was my fault. Hehe. I didn't add it to the basket. Ok. Question 1. Yes it can be done. However you will have to do some tweaking with the hard drive itself so you can connect it to the sata ports. Nothing major. On the Alienware Aurora R3, there is space for 4 hard drives so yes it can be done on that model.

Question 2. You can use software like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to make an "image" of your hard drive then you can reload it on your SSD. Don't worry about it now if you're not getting one.

Ok, I have a build, and surprisingly it adds up to € 138.91 per month. Ok, I did not include the following:

Display monitor.

Accidental damage support

Security/Antivirus support

Network card.

Wireless network card.

SSD.

Printer

This is what I made:

Alienware Aurora R3( I chose this model because it comes with 2nd gen Intel Core processors(Z68). It won't be worth it if you get a model that supports X58 chipset cpus(which are almost about to be phased out), so there's the guarantee that it'll last you 2+ years.

CPU: 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 2600k.(The turbo boost is factory overclocked to 3.9 GHz so you don't have to do anything .

Graphics: 1.5 GB Nvidia GTX 580. (sorry, I did not see any option for a GTX 590 or GTX 580 SLI in this model, except the Area 51(there's a problem though, if you select a GTX 580 SLI setup, you'll need a 1.2k case, and they only offer a 1.1k case which I think is stupid(why bother putting that option up if it can't support it, you know?))).

O.S: Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

Memory:8192 MB(4x2GB) 1866MHz DDR3 Dual-Channel.

Hard Drive: 2 TB SATA III 7,200 RPM 32 Mb Cache. (primary)

Optical Drives: Blu-ray RW(Blu-ray, DVD, CD read and write)drive and 24x DVD +/- RW drive.

Sound card: Soundblaster XFi Titanium PCIe card.

Extras: Alienware 19-in-1 Media Card Reader.

Everything else(Avatar, Wallpaper, AlienFX Colour) I left at stock. Oh, and Steam is included.

This adds to a total of € 3,007.52 or 138.91 per month INCLUDING VAT.

A note: adding a 256 GB SSD as primary and a 2 TB Hard Drive as Secondary ups the price to € 3,707.51 or 171.24 per month INCLUDING VAT.

[-Zero-]

Hmm...sounds like a good build. A couple of changes I'd make would be to remove the Media Card Reader and the Blu-Ray Drive, as I don't use media cards (if I did, I'd just insert them into the camera, and connect that). Plus, I already have a separate Blu-ray drive in my current rig, and my mate doesn't want it, so I'd keep it.

I do have one last question, this is strictly for anybody who has/had one of the Alienware desktops. I see I can only add one PCI-E x1 peripheral card. Is that because the motherboard only has the one x1 slot? Or if there are others, are they blocked off by the graphics card(s)? For example, my current rig has two x1 slots, but I can only use one as the Radeon HD 5770 takes up too much room.

[† L4ugh]

2) Let's say I just start off with the one hard drive and then later on I buy an internal SSD. Could I transfer my Windows installation to it? Cracking the OS is something I will never do, as I'm not comfortable with. Individual programs yes, but OS no.

[Leviathan87]

all i did was answer your question on transfering your os. and say that company blows.

[RikuoAmero]

all i did was answer your question on transfering your os. and say that company blows.

[-Zero-]

Sorry if I seemed rude Naitomeru. I've been asking similar questions on other sites and I keep getting answers that are only tangentially related to my question. Guess I sort of transferred my annoyances from there to here on Kametsu sorry!