I was wondering if anyone had a beat on a good PC for gaming? I know that Dell (bad, bad, bad...) has one, the XPS, & Gateway has one, the 7200X. Dunno what the consumer reviews are like but was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions.
Go see a local computer shop, tell them what you want to do and they'll build you the machine you need without a whole bunch of useless bells and whistles. Get quotes from three or four shops and go with that.
I also find, from my limited experience, that custom built are more easily upgradable too.
Custom is the way to go, but why pay for it? If you don't know anything about it... either learn or find yourself someone who does. Most likely they will be happy to help (and show off if that is the case) you in developing something good.
A mid to high end Dell is not a bad idea if you don't want a custom box, but Alienware is a bit over the top with prices at $4000, when a $1000-2000 dollar machine is what you probably want.
//www.newegg.com
//www.zipzoomfly.com
Above are two sites I get the majority of my hardware from.
yeah, I just checked out the alienware site. great stuff but little hardward for the bucks. $2K for just 80GB?
NO monitor included or nothing.
Looks sleek & all but serious dough involved. I would go for the build one but my BF wants to get something that is hassle-free. Men? Go figure!
:)
I'd second (or third or whatever) building your own. It really isn't that hard, most of the work involved is researching what parts to buy. It's a good way to get exactly what you want though and you learn something in the process!
Custom self built is always the way to go, but not everyone changes (or wants to change) their own oil in their cars (I don't either).
But here is a quick list of parts you want for a computer from scratch:
Processor (AMD or Intel)
Motherboard (depends on which chip brand)
RAM (Corsair is my favorite)
PSU (powersupply... a good one is somewhat vital)
Case (need to put all this stuff in something)
Harddrives (duh)
CD/DVD (either read or both read/write)
Floppy (never know)
Mouse/Keyboard/etc
Monitor
Video card (this is a gaming rig... spend big here)
Sound card (5.1 is probably the minimum)
Speakers
Other peripherals (card readers for your cam)
If you are doing it yourself... make vitally sure you read up on everything since not everything is compatible with everything else (the pci-express video cards are coming out now, which are not agp, and AMD has a 64bit variant, and there are at least two motherboard chipsets).
People's experiences with this company are all over the map, but the price on the new notebook I purchased from them in Sept. couldn't be beat, and so far it has proven to be an excellent buy, so don't overlook checking out CyberPower. I'm not into gaming, but I hear that the prices are very good for gaming systems.
I would say just figure out what you want and custom build it - it will be the cheapest way to go, I'm sure. Alienware provides some good stuff, but is way overpriced in my opinion.
If you don't want to build one, I'd recommed Dell. The XPS will probably meet/exceed your gaming needs and at a price much less than Alienware. I've been very pleased with their service as well - 2 years after I bought my PC I had a CD burner die. My PC was still under warranty (I bought an extended option). Dell sent a technician to my dorm room who replaced it for free with a much faster burner.
If you want to build one, check out www.tigerdirect.com I'm not sure how their prices compare to others, but they're reliable and have a lot of variety in parts.
I always build my own PCs and generally agree that it's a wise decision for a gaming machine. Lately, I've used NewEgg.com for all my purchase and have been relatively pleased. You have to be prepared to reorder parts that come either defective or imcomplete. NewEgg is fantastic about turning around RMAs. Also, you'll need to pay special attention to the RAM you purchase and whether it's compatible/optimal for the motherboard purchased. If you can, get a motherboard that has a tweakable BIOS that allows custom RAM timings and voltages as well as CPU overclocking. For gaming, be sure and get yourself a separate AGP video card with 8x bus. Relying on on-board video/audio from the motherboard will result in major slowness in the gaming department.
I would go for the build one but my BF wants to get something that is hassle-free. Men? Go figure!
:)
Your BF is faulty. Hope he's still under warranty so you can send him back for repair/replacement ; )
Sheesh, a guy who doesn't want to fiddle around with bits of computer. I've heard it all now!
hilarious!
In truth, I've tried to return him for a better model but I was rejected bc I lost the receipt! CURSES!
I like to fiddle around with stuff lots more than him. Go figure!
Thanka everyone!!!
Custom building your own is the only way to really get what you want...
if you do this, be sure to build one that uses the PCIExpress video card platform... it's bandwidth is 16x as compared to AGP's 8x... you could go with the DDR2 RAM, but with what's out there I suggest doing the DDR400 dual channel ram. it's really faster than the ddr2 is at the moment... I just built a new machine that smokes.. I run Half-Life-2 with graphics cranked up pretty high and I am taking dramamine just to combat the motion sickness from the insane frame rates I am getting.. if I had the money I would step up a notch on video cards and really get cookin'.. here's the low-down on my system specs:
ABIT AG8 Motherboard with Socket 775 Pentium 4-540 3.2 Ghz, 800 Mghz FSB, and 1 Meg Cache.
Nvidea 6600GT PCIExpress Video Card (go for the 6800GT if you have the cash) However the only cards that benchmark higher than the 6600GT are the Radeon X800 and NVidea 6800GT, the 6800T getting the top benchmarks.
On some of the bench marks the 6600GT even stays up with the X800, at least until resolution goes up a lot.
1.5 Gigabit of DDR400 Dual channel memory..... smokin!
and dual 36 Gigabite 10,000 RPM, 5.2ms seek time, "Raptor" SATA Hardrives set up in a RAID configuration.
Even better as for as photos go, recently I was scanning 8 x 10 family photos in uncompressed TIF format at 300 DPI. The files were about 40MB per photo and my PC blinked them on the screen instantly with no LAG or trouble at all.
building a hotrod pc on your own (for about what you might pay for a del or gateway) or spending mega $ on an alienware are the only way to go. DEL and Gateway build their machines with cheap parts, much of it OEM. I would never by their gear.
Dual Raptors is a nice way to go (single Raptor here), but it is only useful if you really need the load speed (which as a gamer... you need). But if you have bad luck with harddrives, using a non backup raid configuration is asking for trouble (you double your data loss rate since if either drive fails, you are up the creek), though mirroring the drives can increase load time (but your write time is the same). And two drives is not enough for better configurations (striped with parity).
I agree with those folks advocating a custom job. Not only will you get a machine that is designed with your specific needs in mind, you can also rest assured that you can get service for your unit, a factor you will not find with the big box stores. Having been there,,,,trust me, service is a major issue of consideration.
