I want to play PC games. I have been so patiently waiting for an Alienware computer. They are so beautiful and their specs are so amazing. Now all I need is to become rich.

Are alienware good computers? Anyone else have a different suggestion?

Build your own, save yourself a bunch of money. You can splurge on one of their cases while you're at it, I guess.

I'd pass on Alienware. As Captial said, you can build one yourself and save a BUNCH of money. If cases that look like they were designed by 12 year olds with Alien fetishes are your thing then whatever I suppose but I personally wouldn't overpay for something like that.

For something like ~$800 you can build something that will easily run everything on high+ (@1920x1080 res) with a solid FPS rate.

Alienware computers look pretty, but thats about it. You could buy a non-Alienware computer thats just as pretty but with far better specs for about two grand less than an Alienware system.

....never built my own computer. Only ever helped dad with his.

I for one never built a computer and never will, as I need a laptop and I can afford only one computer.
If you are going to buy a laptop, there should be good offers around for Christmas. Generally, a 700-1000€/$ laptop can easily run all the games of today with no issues. The more expensive above that the more years you buy for future games.

You don't really build a computer. You get a Mexican to do it for you.

(No really, my computer was built by a Mexican.)

Before the racist comments...I'm Mexican.

If you don't have the dexterity that you feel safe about putting a computer together or know anyone you'd trust, going to a company is a good option

I have had good luck with http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ & http://www.ibuypower.com/

i5
4GB ram
2TB HDD
GeForce 570+
Cosair PSU

That's all you need for a gaming PC.

You don't necessarily have to build it yourself. Just pick the components and pay a small fee to a technician to assemble the parts. It would still be much better and cheaper than any prebuilt let alone an overhyped and overpriced Alienware.

Don't know about you, over here retailers take your order and assemble the machine for you.

Howdy, and welcome. :wave:

I see that you're a newcomer, so here's a bit of info:

This forum has a "tech thread" where questions like this typically get asked. There are some good folks who frequent it. Not sure anymore, but sometimes you could post your intended use, budget, and tower vs. laptop, and they would point you to an appropriate computer. :thumbsup:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1247846-the-community-tech-thread-no-109/page__st__180__p__19501531__hl__tech+thread__fromsearch__1#entry19501531

Also, I came to the thread thinking this was going to be about games, and not computers

Good luck mate!

All of my computers for the past (almost) 20 years have assembled by a short Mexican guy that I know very well!

To the OP, as everyone else has said Alienware is overpriced, if you want to build your own rig then feel free to ask any questions you may have. There are many of us who can offer assistance. If you really want a cool looking computer then I suggest takeing a look at the myriad of cases available that are not made by Alienware, IMHO there are much better looking cases out there that don't cost nearly as much. If you are mechanically inclined you could also try modding or even making your ouw case, then you would really have something to show off.

Well my computer doesn't have that at all. It's an old 2007 god forbid how old graphic cards alongside not enough memory space, alongside a dying fan. lol And when I say computer. I actually mean a desktop replacement. It's a hug laptop computer replacement.

@Everyone else: Oh cool thanks. I'm a hopeless technician. I'm one of those people who sorta kinda knows what they are talking about. And yes alien ware are overpriced, but they are beautiful. lol.

Sorry I don't quite get it. What in the list I made did not meet requirements of yours? I won't ask you to be technician, just print out my list and hand it to the retail shop guys to assemble for you. Can be like 1/3 of your Alienware and with better specs.

You most certainly don't. Even if you were building a high-end gaming rig (which your GeForce 570+ suggests), you'd be better off with more RAM and an SSD than a 2 TB HDD. There are also plenty of good non-Cosair brand PSUs. There are many i5s, including i5s from a generation ago, not a specific target at all.

You'd want a current generation i5 if you are going into the i-core family. There are other options if you need to save money, but the 2500k is where it is at.
8 GB is cheap, no reason not to go with it these days.
Windows will happily sit on 320 GBs with plenty of space for games and mods. Not to mention speed of a hard drive is much more important for gaming than the size of it.
There are plenty of GPU offerings at various price ranges that will offer great performance, so don't need to decide it until you have a budget.
As mentioned above, plenty of quality brands besides Cosair, so no need to feel limited to them

The OP will also need:

-A case
-A motherboard
-A Windows Installation Disc
-A disc drive

So basically: Budget first, parts second.

Well I was just saying the computer i have now is old as in old. It's choking and dying slowly. It's why I'm considering a computer that I can invest doing homework and playing high end games.

Err.mm nope. You don't need more than 4 GB RAM, personal desktop won't go that far. I don't expect him to pull out 20 Photoshop projects and rendering animations at the same time. You can open 30 office documents at the same time and running some videos with a mid game running in the background in 4GB RAM. It is more than enough for daily consumer usage. Of course the RAM is rather cheap today, you can easily dash out extra cash for the extra RAM, just telling you most of it will be idle.

SSD is overrated IMO. Current HDD are already fast enough to handle heaviest tasks without hiccup. Writing with SSD is slower than writing on HDD, so he would need a big HDD as data/game storage, with SSD OS runtime, but this setup is probably too complicated for him. Besides, unlike console games, you don't call up the HDD everytime you change screen, so transfer rate is least of his concern. Games these days render contents through video cards on the fly, so as long as his card is good, there is little chance HD transfer rate would affect his enjoyment.

He can always research for good AMD chips and non-Cosair PSUs, but again, for a non-techie he has to dip his head with loads of new terms and then he would end up listening to the Alienware salesman instead. Nevertheless, I've tried 4 brands of PSUs and Corsair gives the best stable voltage amongst other craps I got.



He's not going to build it piece by piece. let the computer store worry about that for him. Since he's considering Alienware I suppose his budget is pretty loose, I'm just trying to help out so he could save more and spend on game titles instead.