On Budget - Alienware Vs HP vs Systemax vs Cyberpower or keep current

[GummyWormz]

I need some advice on which pre built system you guys would pick out as the best bang for your buck value wise. I have listed 6 systems after some researching and they are all priced after taxes including shipping. Some of them include discounts that I can get.

Purpose of this computer is for some gaming (new Kings Bounty game, Starcraft 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Modern warfare 2), internet, listening to music and watching hulu.

I'm not the type to spend much money on a computer since I'm not a hardcore gamer or photo editing person etc. I also have no plans to really OC unless I get the MSI P55 board.

In the future I do plan to upgrade to a Direct 11 card so all the systems I picked have Power that is at least 500 Watts.

I also would like to get ram up to 6 GB since most of these systems only have 4GB so thats not a big a issue since I can order that anytime.


Option 1)

Systemax SG-1150 Gaming PC Intel Dual Core E5300 2.6 GHz, genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, 4GB DDR2, 500GB Hard Drive, DVDRW, 9800 GT Video Card. FREE Crysis Game! FREE Far Cry 2 Game!
650 watt power supply, MSI P-43 NEO motherboard.

$634 to my home.

This seems like the best bang for your buck but I'm concerned about the E5300 processor. Is this decent nowaways?

When I went to upgrade in the future, Is it a matter of just swapping in the CPU for a quad core?


Option 2)

Systemax P55 - Intel Core i5 750 Quad-Core 2.66 GHz, genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, 4GB DDR3 1333, 640GB Hard Drive, DVDRW, 9800GT 512MB Video Card, 500W Power Supply.

$888 to my home.

I do like this one due to its MSI P55 motherboard. There is a simple button you press "OC genie" which gets you up to 3.2 - 3.7MHZ.


Option 3

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 8268 Desktop PC - AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz, 4GB DDR2, 500GB HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4850, DVDRW, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
700 watt power supply


$763 to home




Option 4

Dell Alienware Aurora

I7-920, 6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3
, 5870, 640GB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 16MB Cache HDD,windows 7 home, 525 watt power, 24x cd/dvd

This is probably the strongest system. I probably wouldn't touch anything on this one. It also has 6GB of RAM and the video card is just awesome. No need to upgrade for a long time.

But is is worth the premium over the other systems when value is more important to me than performance?

$1374 to my house



Option 5

HP Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz, 4MB L2, 1333MHz FSB], 4GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB,
1GB ATI Radeon HD 4850, LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive, Windows 7

$840 shipped to my house

I do like the fact that it has a Quad core processor so it should be fast for a long time to come.

Option 6

Asus I7 920, 9GB DDR# Ram, 1 TB SATA (7200 rpm) HD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 896MB, Windows 7, DVD/CD.

$1200 picked up at Best Buy


Option 7


Just upgrade my current p4 – 3.06mhz to a Pentium D 945 3.4ghz along with adding an ATI HD 512mb 4670 video card and add another .5 of ram for a total of 2.5 gb ram.

Total cost is about $141

 

[MJinZ]

2 or 3

 

[boomhower]

6 would be my pick or 2 for a smaller budget.

 

[Zap]

1) Decent bang/buck. E5300 is reasonably capable and probably a good match for a 9800 GT. Yes, upgrading is basically swapping the CPU (and maybe CPU fan/heatsink) unless they really gimped the power supply.

2) Not as good. Value is fine, but for gaming is very unbalanced with a powerful CPU but weak (in comparison) graphics card. Also, they don't mention PSU brand/model, but a lower wattage PSU than #1?

3) This one seems the best to me. Not the most powerful, but fairly balanced GPU for the CPU and a good value at under $800. Only caveat would be that it uses DDR2, meaning it isn't the newer socket AM3. This means that you probably won't be able to upgrade it cheaply in the future. However, for NOW it would be my top choice.

4) A lot more performance for a lot more money. Interesting that Alienware has now embraced the micro ATX form factor. Too bad they had to make it freekin' two feet deep.

5) #3 is a better system because the Q8300 is the Celeron of Intel quad cores, plus the graphics card is lesser.

6) If you were to spend that much, may as well get the Alienware. The couple hundred extra might be worth it for the more powerful graphics card.

7) You would be polishing a turd if you did that. If you were going to be upgrading your current rig, may as well aim a bit higher and also assess your current gear. Does your motherboard really take that faster chip? Why go only 0.5GB more RAM and does it retain dual channel? Is your PSU good enough for a more major upgrade? AGP or PCIe? Does your case have suitable ventilation and room for a big graphics card?

 

[Decembermouse]

I agree with Zap.

With that said you can build a faster machine for less money. Sorry, I had to say it. I know these companies need to make a profit, and it's moreso the more exotic the company name (like Alienware, Voodoo[which sucks anyway these days], Falcon Northwest) gets... you spend more. A couple hundred of that price is pure margin. If you'd like to build a gaming computer I and many others here would love to help. /rant

 

[Parasitic]

Mmmm...did not know that you can get an Alienware for that kind of money nowadays. A bit surprising, really.

 

[bamacre]

If it were me, I'd wait for a Dell Outlet Home coupon (estimated Jan 14th), and get an XPS 435 Tower (same as Studio XPS 9000) and just upgrade the video card yourself. I forgot the actual wattage of the PSU, but it has 6pin and 8pin connectors for high-end video cards.

 

[SZLiao214]

Mmmm...did not know that you can get an Alienware for that kind of money nowadays. A bit surprising, really.

They have had the lower priced 1000 dollar alienware's for a while now. I saw an alienware notebook with integrated graphics....

 

[Jjoshua2]

I would buy a computer with decent cpu and psu and upgrade the gpu / memory yourself. Both are super easy very low risk upgrades. Or even buy the gpu now and save it for the new computer in 6 months?

 

[sethk]

I always build my own PCs at home, but obviously that won't fly at work. My last two PCs at work were Dells (last one a XPS 710), and it kept dying, repeatedly. Also the power button broke, and I had a stick of RAM go bad. I went through four motherboard swaps - I blame the crappy Nvidia chipset, or at least its implementation in the board. Other users in the office with the same XPS 710 model also went through several motherboards each. At least the 3 year support was honored properly, they kept sending people out to fix / replace stuff, although sometimes it took them more than the promised 24 hours. And the XPS support line is way better than the outsourced standard Dell support.

Anyways, this time I got a Cyberpower. Corsair Dominator RAM, Corsair PSU, even the option of an ASUS P6X58D Premium (USB3 / SATA 6Gb) and the Gigabyte equivalent. These are parts I would pick if I built my own PC. I was amazed at the number of options they had, just for kicks I also requested a factory overclock. I paid extra for the super packing option (since those big heatsink can snap or warp during shipping), and also the pro wiring. With the deal they had running, the PC was still about $100 cheaper than the parts on Newegg.

Here's my assessment - they did a nice wiring and system build job. No real mistakes - I looked very carefully since I do my own builds and I was interested to see how they handled routing and cabling. The overclock on the other hand is useless , if you know what you're doing yourself. It's clearly just some standard profile they load off a USB drive or something - voltages were higher than needed (but not dangerously so), and settings were not optimized (I got tighter timings and had the option of raising the clock a lot while remaining prime stable, but I kept the clocks relatively low for a full time / long term stable overclock). So if you're an overclocker, do it yourself. Oh yeah, skip the crappy free all-in-one liquid cooling option if you get an i7, it was designed
for lower TDP parts, not an i7.

I did my research, picked good parts so the PC is great, no real surprise there - performance is great, and the build is first class, would have taken me several hours to do a similar job myself - they clearly know this case very well. I have experience building PCs for years and years, and I can be quite anal about getting a build done right - this job is not bad at all. I chose extra cost option because I saw other people complain about the 'standard' build without the extra cost pro option. The PC was so cheap I had no intention of screwing up the whole thing just to save a couple of bucks. Personally I think they should just make this pro build option part of the base package, not an extra cost option. I know they're trying to keep prices low, but it would probably build their reputation if it was always included.

So I would recommend keeping the extra-cost packing option (they use injectable foam on the inside of the case to keep things from moving), and the pro wiring option if you like a neat case (I chose the Raven RV-01, its an excellent case on the inside, if a little too star-trekkie on the outside.) Oh and the quiet fan option was also nice, the PC is dead silent with SSDs, quiet fans and quiet PSU. I installed the O.S. myself (clean) so I have no idea what they do with OS installation. I have no idea what to expect in terms of hardware support if anything goes wrong as this is my first Cyberpower system. Overall I recommend it with the above caveats.

P.S. I have bought Alienware systems for myself and others, they do a great job as well with build quality, although I don't always like the limited component choices. Back then the Alienwares were quite noisy, although I'm sure that has improved? They are very expensive though - which is OK with some of my relatives - this Cyberpower deal was much, much better - cheaper than part cost on Newegg during the last sale! My boss would only approve up to a certain amount and for that amount I could have got a much lower spec Alienware or XPS Studio. Plus that ugly Alienware case is starting to look really old now, they really need to hire a top notch industrial designer to do a unique (and clean) redesign. It looks like its designed for a 14 year old, except it costs too much for most 14 year olds to buy.

 

[MJinZ]

I always build my own PCs at home, but obviously that won't fly at work. My last two PCs at work were Dells (last one a XPS 710), and it kept dying, repeatedly. Also the power button broke, and I had a stick of RAM go bad. I went through four motherboard swaps - I blame the crappy Nvidia chipset, or at least its implementation in the board. Other users in the office with the same XPS 710 model also went through several motherboards each. At least the 3 year support was honored properly, they kept sending people out to fix / replace stuff, although sometimes it took them more than the promised 24 hours. And the XPS support line is way better than the outsourced standard Dell support.

Anyways, this time I got a Cyberpower. Corsair Dominator RAM, Corsair PSU, even the option of an ASUS P6X58D Premium (USB3 / SATA 6Gb) and the Gigabyte equivalent. These are parts I would pick if I built my own PC. I was amazed at the number of options they had, just for kicks I also requested a factory overclock. I paid extra for the super packing option (since those big heatsink can snap or warp during shipping), and also the pro wiring. With the deal they had running, the PC was still about $100 cheaper than the parts on Newegg.

Here's my assessment - they did a nice wiring and system build job. No real mistakes - I looked very carefully since I do my own builds and I was interested to see how they handled routing and cabling. The overclock on the other hand is useless , if you know what you're doing yourself. It's clearly just some standard profile they load off a USB drive or something - voltages were higher than needed (but not dangerously so), and settings were not optimized (I got tighter timings and had the option of raising the clock a lot while remaining prime stable, but I kept the clocks relatively low for a full time / long term stable overclock). So if you're an overclocker, do it yourself. Oh yeah, skip the crappy free all-in-one liquid cooling option if you get an i7, it was designed
for lower TDP parts, not an i7.

I did my research, picked good parts so the PC is great, no real surprise there - performance is great, and the build is first class, would have taken me several hours to do a similar job myself - they clearly know this case very well. I have experience building PCs for years and years, and I can be quite anal about getting a build done right - this job is not bad at all. I chose extra cost option because I saw other people complain about the 'standard' build without the extra cost pro option. The PC was so cheap I had no intention of screwing up the whole thing just to save a couple of bucks. Personally I think they should just make this pro build option part of the base package, not an extra cost option. I know they're trying to keep prices low, but it would probably build their reputation if it was always included.

So I would recommend keeping the extra-cost packing option (they use injectable foam on the inside of the case to keep things from moving), and the pro wiring option if you like a neat case (I chose the Raven RV-01, its an excellent case on the inside, if a little too star-trekkie on the outside.) Oh and the quiet fan option was also nice, the PC is dead silent with SSDs, quiet fans and quiet PSU. I installed the O.S. myself (clean) so I have no idea what they do with OS installation. I have no idea what to expect in terms of hardware support if anything goes wrong as this is my first Cyberpower system. Overall I recommend it with the above caveats.

P.S. I have bought Alienware systems for myself and others, they do a great job as well with build quality, although I don't always like the limited component choices. Back then the Alienwares were quite noisy, although I'm sure that has improved? They are very expensive though - which is OK with some of my relatives - this Cyberpower deal was much, much better - cheaper than part cost on Newegg during the last sale! My boss would only approve up to a certain amount and for that amount I could have got a much lower spec Alienware or XPS Studio. Plus that ugly Alienware case is starting to look really old now, they really need to hire a top notch industrial designer to do a unique (and clean) redesign. It looks like its designed for a 14 year old, except it costs too much for most 14 year olds to buy.

I just specced out my PC in Cyberpower and it ended up being around $300 more, with some lower end components as well (RAM, CPU cooler etc). Which is OK I guess, they are charging $300 + shipping (I guess) for the labor of putting it together and testing it.

 

[Zap]

I just specced out my PC in Cyberpower and it ended up being around $300 more, with some lower end components as well (RAM, CPU cooler etc). Which is OK I guess, they are charging $300 + shipping (I guess) for the labor of putting it together and testing it.

That, plus I'm guessing a warranty and some sort of tech support is included with that price.

 

[sethk]

Keep an eye out for Cyberpower sales and promotions. They just happened to have one running when I ordered mine, it reduced the cost about 10% over the non-sale price (I had specced it out a week prior to that.)

And yes, the PC comes with a 3 year warranty + lifetime H/W support. No idea how good that support is, but as a no-cost option, I thought it wasn't too bad.