New Alienware computer system.

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: KeepItRed
Where can I find out what's compatible and works optimal with what? I don't know where to get started.

Anyway, what I found to be easiest in getting started was to pick a processor type. For gaming I would recommend going with AMD. Since you are obviously willing to blow the cash on big stuff, you probably want a SLI motherboard for using up to two GPUs. Look for a review of socket 939 (the most current AMD chip socket size) motherboards and pick one. From there, that will dictate compatibilities (which you can find on the motherboard makers website).

Enjoy, good luck.

 

[dfloyd]

Ok first and formost building your own computer can be risky if you dont know what your doing.

Its very easy to put a computer together but you have to be careful doing it. I have seen people with years of computer experience and computer college degrees and they still make mistakes when putting computers together. (Simple things like putting the motherboard in the case incorrectly, not putting the heatsink fan on the cpu very well, not hooking up leds and switchs properly, not configuring fsb and such perfectly. That said is it hard to put a computer together? No not really, but its something you have to pay attention to and do carefully or you can mess it up.

The main reason to put your own computer together is to save money. Most of the time you can come out with a better made pc overall as you choose the motherboard, cpu, memory, etc, etc, etc instead of just getting what the manufactuer puts in it. The reasons to not build your own is simplicity and support. Its alot easier to deal with one company for support than it is to deal with quite a few different ones if you have problems. If you build your own you will not have one company to call for tech support if something is not working correctly.

Can you do it? Sure, its not really that hard but it would help alot if you have someone on hand who has done it and can help you with advice and support if you run into issues. Like most have said Alienware is a pretty expensive computer. If your wanting to buy a pre built gaming computer there are several companies to consider. Personally I have heard great things about Falcon Northwest. They are expensive as well but they usually build great computers, all High quality parts, but Alienware is supposed to do this as well. If your looking to invest this much money into a pc make sure you feel comfortable with which ever route you choose. Building one right now may not be the best option. It might be better to play with your old one and figure things out a bit before you decide to definatly build one. See how comfortable you feel being your own support tech. In other words posting here, searching the net, doing alot of research on your own time to troubleshoot and figure things out.

I myself always build my own computers for several reasons. The main is saving money. Honestly if I had plenty of cash I probably would not build my own anymore. I have done it for going on thirteen years now and have built many pcs in that time but its just plain easier to buy a box thats setup and ready to go without any extra work on your part. Of course building can be fun and satisfying as well, but there are positives and negatvies to both points.

Good luck on your choice friend.

 

[KeepItRed]

Originally posted by: hootpie
1) Build your own computer.
2) Use AMD
3) Use ATi
4) ???
5) Profit.

One last thing...A case... I wanna get something fancy that would fit...all motherboards should fit right? lol... < NEWB

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: KeepItRed
Well i was only planning for overclocking using software lol I've just never seen someone build a rig, so I don't know what it's like..We need guides!

No matter how you overclock, you are basically running your hardware outside the specifcations of what that maufacturuer has deemed safe. So, there is an inherent risk. There are guides all over the web about how to overclock, however, most of them assume that you understand the hardware that you have as well as what you are actually doing when you overclock If your sole knowledge of overclocking is "turn this knob up to 11", I suggest that you go ahead and buy two AlienWare systems from the start. Conversely, if you actually want to learn about tweaking computers, the best way is to build your own and learn about the hardware as you go.

 

[Cheesetogo]

When you look for a case, make sure it is ATX. Almost all cases are ATX though, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[KeepItRed]

So I can get any motherboard I want just as long as it's an ATX case..

 

[Megamixman]

How about you give us an idea on price and we can give you a good idea on the best parts, then you can choose the case. A good case is not hard to find.

 

[ZobarStyl]

Originally posted by: hootpie
1) Build your own computer.
2) Use AMD
3) Use Nvidia
4) ???
5) Profit.

If built today, yes. If built in 3 months, it may be R520. Just simply saying keep your options open.

 

[KeepItRed]

Price...I was looking for $2,000 ~ $3,000 CDN.

"If built today, yes. If built in 3 months, it may be R520. Just simply saying keep your options open."

Yea, I won't be getting this computer until early '06, That's why I'm saying ATi, cause the R520 is SUPPOSEDLY going to come in Fall '05..In the meantime I have to work for my computer.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl

Originally posted by: hootpie
1) Build your own computer.
2) Use AMD
3) Use Nvidia
4) ???
5) Profit.

If built today, yes. If built in 3 months, it may be R520. Just simply saying keep your options open.

Even if built today, Nvidia doesnt have the best products in all the price ranges. For example, a 6600gt used to be the best midrange card, but now you actually can get a x800 pcie for the same money, and it's better. But if you got cash to blow, then yeah, use nvidia and get dual 7800's.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl

Originally posted by: hootpie
1) Build your own computer.
2) Use AMD
3) Use Nvidia
4) ???
5) Profit.

If built today, yes. If built in 3 months, it may be R520. Just simply saying keep your options open.

QFT!!

-Kevin

 

[imported_humey]

Does QFT stand for Quit F00king Trolling, Kevin ?

 

[Megamixman]

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis...1594072&WishListTitle=PC+for+KeepItRed

I think you need a newegg account to see that. All you need to add is a heatsink and Case. For the heaksink I would go with the Zalman 7700, but I am not sure if that will fit on a DFI NF4 Lan Party Ultra. Case......choose what you like and ask to see if it?s good. There are a lot of different cases that are good and look a lot different

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: humey
Does QFT stand for Quit F00king Trolling, Kevin ?

What in the world did i do to you? Im not trolling, i simply agreed with his statement. Is there a problem with that?

Or do you really not know what QFT (Quoted For Truth) means?

 

[kman79]

Lian Li V SILENT PC-V1100 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Model #: PC-V1100 - $225.00

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Model #: A8N-SLI Premium - $179.00

eVGA 256-P2-N538-AX With Battlefield 2 Bundle Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail Model #: 256-P2-N538-AX - 594.00

PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply - Retail Model #: 510 SLI-PFC - $229.00

2 Crucial Ballistix 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered System Memory Model BL12864L503 - Retail Model #: BL12864L503 - $356.00

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail Model #: ADA3700BNBOX - $323.00

Total: $1,906.00 USD All prices are from newegg.com

Forgot the heatsink and fan. Get a Thermalright XP-90 and a highspeed panaflo or delta fan and you'll see idle temps at low 30s and load temps around low 40s, this with artic Silver 5 of course.

You still have about 600.00 left from your budget for a monitor and keyboard. If I was to do it all over again, I would have gone with everything up top. The PSU is the same one that alienware uses. Try building the same system from Alienware and I guarantee you it comes out to hundreds more. I chose 2X1GB sticks cause BF2 needs it and since its a gaming computer, chances are you'll be playing Battlefield 2.

I'd build it, you learn alot from building it yourself and you get a sense of pride with it also.

I have a similar system build in my sig. Check my 3DMark05 score I doubt there's a pentium system clock for clock that can score the same

Just did a quick search for you on 3Dmark05 scores
Closes P4 system, running at 4GHz and mine is running at 2.8GHz.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1007374

If you look through the site, almost all P4s need to run over 3GHz, to compete with a 2.89GHz AMD64.

Yea I know 3Dmark is just a benchmark, but alot of users here will tell you, in real world testing, AMD64s will outperform P4s.

 

[blckgrffn]

QFT == Quoted For Truth....

Nat

 

[imported_humey]

Gamingphreek, nope i didnt know what QFT meant never seen it used before and i never said you were trolling but you never know on here what others will reply with now please STFU (i bet you know that one and YES its a joke)

 

[KeepItRed]

Is buying individual parts online the only choice?

 

[blckgrffn]

Pretty much, or have someone down here build it for you and ship it up there

 

[KeepItRed]

Yeah well I'm 16 yrs old and my parents like to b**ch about buying things online cause their either a "scam" or that kind of BS. So I was wondering if theres a cheap alternative.

 

[pulsedrive]

There are a few places that will assemble the items for you, like Monarchcomputer.com. They will let you choose the exact parts you want and put it together for you and there is not much of a price premium for those services vs. putting it together yourself. As for your parents, trust me I understand my mother in law just the other day FIANLLY bought something online. They have had a computer ONLINE for over 7 years...*sigh* There really isn't a cheap alternative, unless you have a local computer store that has good components.

 

[KeepItRed]

Heheh I feel your pain. Guess I'll try to convince them to buy online..

 

[coomar]

i'm assuming your canadian, newegg doesn't ship to Canada (though they are supposedly starting a canadian off-shoot), you can get from monarch though you might get stuck with customs, generally the cheapest places are the chinese stores in toronto and vancouver and they will build it for you if you buy everything from them, if you want to buy online, ncix seems to be the most popular, its prices are decent, just pricematch with other stores to get the lowest prices

icct was selling a 7800gtx for 730 canadian last week though it seems ati is going to start large pricecuts in canada (ati prices are starting to drop in toronto), I saw an ati x700pro last week for 139 when 6600gt's still sell in the 210-250 range

 

[Drayvn]

Thermaltake Tsunami. Great piece of case i admit.

Also when you do build your own computer, you have the knowledge of your own computer, so if you really get into it and read up about it. Youll most probably find if something goes wrong you know what itll be, saving you money on getting it fixed by someone else, when it could have easily been just a power connector coming loose.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: humey
To buy or build any Intel rig today is dumb esp at that price, go AMD64, and them ATI 850s are old tech, get 6800 range or 7800 range GPU

You can always build better than can be bought.

Sure, enjoy a slugish A64 thats no where near as smooth, especially in multitasking, a cpu thats pretty much only good for gaming.

If your gonna be mostly gaming, go for it.

Doesn't mean Intel sucks just because its not as good in gaming.

People use computers for other things you know.


There IS a reason to get an Intel, you should read more often.