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New PC help

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Vhailor, May 4, 2014.

  1. Vhailor

    Vhailor Justice is not blind, for I am her eyes Veteran

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    Alienware X51 vs. Dell XPS 8700

    Video card vs. processsor speed?

    I don't really know enough to build one of my own. Which would be the better purchase? Any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    If you want to Alienware note that it is overpriced.

    What do you need to game? A balanced PC. I5 4670 is more than enough for a good gaming PC. Add the graphics card you want. An I 7 with a medium gaming card gives medium performance.


    What is it you really want?

    You want to wait a few weeks for the next motherboards to be available. Those cannot only work with the current and refreshed generation of Intel Haswell processors, but also with the next one.

    You want a case that you can open yourself, to upgrade parts that you do not like, or are to slow. With cases made by Dell, HP, Alienware, etc etc that is sometimes not possible. Two or three years from now you will kick yourself in the head for it. Difficult? No just like lego, upgrading is almost idiot proof these days.

    You want a motherboard wit a Z97 or H97 chipset made by Intel. Ad one of the Haswell processors. You want an SSD for windows, and a huge HDD for data. You want a Top power supply that will earn it money back in three years by using less power. A 80+ gold or platinum supply. Add those parts in one of the hundreds of cases that money can buy.

    What you want is most likely not for sale by companies like Dell, Alienware, HP......

    Of course, the computer store will build it for you. A small price on top of the hardware, and of course, you just go back to the store if something is wrong.
     
  3. henkie

    henkie Hammertime Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Alienware is overpriced, for Dell you need to customise.

    Dell, HP and other pre-assembled computers generally have an expensive CPU, a mediocre to slow GPU, a fairly small HDD and a little RAM. You can customise it, but it'll cost extra, of course.

    Generally what you want for gaming is a mediocre CPU and a good GPU. Some games benefit from faster CPUs too, though. An SSD for Windows and your favorite games for performance, an HDD of several TB for storage (music, films, etc.), HDD disk space is cheap. RAM is cheap and useful to have, so take what you think is an amount you'll never need and then double it. Check in your task manager how much your current usage is (and if you're running XP, add another 1 GB for memory when you switch to Win7 - no, I don't recommend any other windows versions).

    Good advice by Merlanni on the power supply. Don't cheap out and get a good one, if a cheap one burns out, there's a good chance it'll burn some other hardware as well.
     
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