New Computer Time

For such a powerful computer i would highly reccomend building your own. I built a high end one minus a great gaming video card for around $800 a few months ago.

 

I don't like Alienware computers, they are just too expensive for what they bring.

I would suggest that you look into building a PC, its really not as hard as it may look and you can save alot of money doing so.

One of the things that I do like about Alienware is that they don't use any proprietary parts like Dell, HP, or Gateway would use so it's easy to replace something like a motherboard.

Since your going for a gaming pc I would also suggest looking into the AMD 64 processors

 

It's really easy to build one -- if you want, I'm sure myself or someone else here would be happy to help you.

 

Build one, I just upgrade my old AMD 1200 computer to a brand new P4 3.0 GHz with 800 FBS, 1GB PC2100 DDR memory, with a new SOYO P4 mother board plus Dragon 2, and a fancy PC case with neon lights all over it and a LED temperature display on the front.

The mother board and the CPU I bought from tigerdirect.com, cost me 280 after rebet, memory I got it for 50 dollars from the company I work for, and the PC case is bought from ebay for 60 dollars with the 420w power supply. I kept the old DVD drive ,cd-rw drive, and my 2 40G hard drive.s Right now the machine runs like a dream!!

 

AMD 64's dont really give you anything if you are running windows xp, until a faster windows is made you wont feel the effects of the AMD chip...

but still make your own. how about this, ill get you set up on how to make it, and you pay me the other grand that you save... and heck ill even throw in a free mouse pad.

 

Vengeance is right, its extremly easy to build one.

They are so easy to set up nowadays that all you have to is connect some cables and mount a few drives with some screws. It can be intimidating at first but there is so much great information on the web its very easy. The only possible complications are buying the right components in the first place. Plus you could always ask questions around here. I and many others around here would be happy to give you some help.

 

This is what I would do for 3k:

P4 3.4 CPU with 1028k L2 Cache and 800FSB -- around 500 dollars

SOYO SY-P4I865PE Plus DRAGON 2 800FSB mother board -- around 150 dollars

1GB Kingston PC3200 Dual Channel DDR400 Memory -- around 300 dollars

250GB Western Digital SATA WD2500JB Hard Drive -- around 150 dollars

SONY Internal 16X DVD-ROM -- around 50 dollars

SONY Internal 4X DVD-RW -- around 150 dollars

Scorpio 668 Full Tower ATX PC Case -- around 120 dollars

Antec 600W Power Supply -- around 150 dollars

ATI RADEON 9800XT 256MB Video Card -- around 500 dollars

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card -- around 200 dollars

Logitech Z-680 Dolby 5.1 THX PC Speaker System -- around 300 dollars

Microsoft Wirless Keyboard and Mouse -- around 50 dollars

Have the most powerful PC in the world -- Priceless

 

If you want, you can throw up your price tag on here and those of us "in the know" can price out a system -- we'd each come up with something different, I'm certain. All that Alienware does is build a system that everyone here can make, then slaps a HUGE price on it.

BTW, tigerdirect sucks. http://www.newegg.com rules! Also, there are some local shops, but they're more expensive.

If you live in Houston though, when you're ready, you can bring all your stuff over to my office and I'll walk you through it. REALLY, it is easy. The difficult thing is picking what to get, and what goes with what.

A week is plenty of time -- after you get the stuff, 3 hours is easily enough time.

The ONLY negative to building a machine yourself is no tech support. I used to think people needed tech-support. Now I realize that no one uses tech support -- they ask the people they know to help them.

 

Athlon 64 FX-53 is still the fastest processor in 32 bit mode.

If you have 2-3k to spend, do yourself a favor and buy an Athlon 64 FX-53!

 

NewEgg does rock. I love that site. They have the best shipping ever, I order my stuff and get free shipping and it arrives with in 2-3 days.

I would look into the new Dell gaming series too. My magazines gave them some great marks. I think they are callind XS series or something like that.

 

a) i have found that they charge a big premium over the actual cost of the parts to assemble it for you. In addition they may not use exactly what you want. Picking the exact hardware you want is one of the big advantages to building it yourself.

b) I picked up some nice weekly specials at Fry's but got burnt by a few rebates. They are still worth looking into if in your area. My favorite online place is newegg.com. They have the best prices around and have great customer service and shipment tracking system

c) If you do the proper research before you start actually assembling the hardware it will take very little time. It can easily be up and running in less than a few hours. If you know how to format a hardrive and install an OS then things will be even easier. If not good instructions can be found on the web.

 

How much would you like to spend?

 

Yeah, you said a few thousand, but perhaps you should be more specific.

 

You can build an amazing computer for that amount.

1) do you want/need a DVD burner?
2) do you aready have nice speakers? (i imagine they would be important for gaming)
3) how large of storage capacitly are you looking for with the harddrive?