BrandX Vs Alienware

I'm a comp sci major and an art minor, going to college. My laptop, emachines and amd overheats on me and the fan dies, so it immediately shuts off...a lot. It's been repaired twice already. Time for a new computer.

I wanted a desktop considering I haven't had one in a long time. Games aren't that important to me...well maybe they are, but I'm going to college, I'll have better things to do. Should I buy a brand name like a Dell XPS or splurge on an Alienware Area-51? I don't have the time to make my own.

If your going to buy a prebuild foget Alieware or Dell, both same company anyway nowadays.

Alienware uses decent compnents but are built like crap. If you want quality prebuild get a vodoo.


And how do you not have time to bild a prebuilt? it takes like 1 hour to shop on Newegg and then ~ 2-3 hours to build it - that is if you want clean wiring - otherwise ~1hour.


this way its cheaper plus you have 100% quality control both on parts and asembly.

Since IBM left the market I'm seeing more and more Dell's and HP/Compaq's in the national accounts I service and I love the Dell's. They have so many problems that my service business has almost doubled. Dell's are cheap upfront but may end up costing you more. Propietary pieces of ...., you get what you pay for and they are virtualy impossible to upgrade.

but a Dell would be an upgrade from an emachine.

Since IBM left the market I'm seeing more and more Dell's and HP/Compaq's in the national accounts I service and I love the Dell's. They have so many problems that my service business has almost doubled. Dell's are cheap upfront but may end up costing you more. Propietary pieces of ...., you get what you pay for and they are virtualy impossible to upgrade.

but a Dell would be an upgrade from an emachine.

I would agree with that, but is there a better brand then Dell. How about compaq?

I like the MPC computers, the old Micron company. You don't hear a lot about them, they sell mostly to the military, governments and institutions. And they sponsor the college bowlgame here. HP's are pretty good to. Better to stick with a major brand for warranty and all the preloaded software you don't get when you build your own.

Compaq is a piece of shit, imo. Neutrino's right, build your own, its fast and easy, and you know that everything is assembled correctly. I built my computer and it was on par with an alienware when built, but a lot cheaper in the end.
If you're going to go pre-built, +1 to Voodoo (http://www.voodoopc.com/omen.aspx), also, look at OPC (http://www.overdrivepc.com/), and if you really want to splurge check out Falcon NW (http://www.falcon-nw.com/)

here's a review of the Falcon's Mach V: Maximum PC (http://www.maximumpc.com/2006/01/falcon_northwes_1.html)

i love how ya'll suggest voodoo like everyone has over 2 grand to spend so easily.

ya know, just dont buy the cheap ass dells. ive had two (had to upgrade for all my software) and they've both worked great. i sold on to a friend and he hasnt had any problems with it.

dell is the way to go, just dont go and buy a cheap ass one. get a higher end inspiron or XPS. toshiba is good, latitudes, m's , etc. Sony aint bad, but at that price, might as well get a voodoo unless you want that 7in screen one which is quite cool.

one thing im sure everyone can agree on, stay away from compaq and hp.

I'm with those who have recommended Voodoo. There is also a place called ViciousPC that has a pretty good reputation from what I've heard. Otherwise, I would build one completely from scratch. I have a dell desktop that I got three years ago when I started college and up to now (with my reformatting impending) I really haven't had any issues. While I knew it wasn't the greatest build quality, I simply needed something. I upgraded as best I knew and added RAM, a second HD, a better video card and some case-fans (fabricated the drill holes myself ;-)).

I looked at Alienware for a laptop and after going over owner insights and customer service, I ruled them out because of their high prices and low customer service confidence.

I'm going to be building myself a new desktop next summer and plan to make it a beefy machine because I know that it's probably the only way I'll get the computer exactly the way that I want it. That's my vote :smile:.

Another thing you might consider is a Mac. The iMac is at a pretty decent price right now, not to mention the student discount.

Come on guys, he said he's a college student and not into games. The days of building you own for less is long gone. Yes you can customise to your needs, but you can't beat the prices in this Sunday's back to school ads for most users.

The PC I'm using right now is a fully loaded laptop I bought for $349 cash, no rebates, while on a business trip when my Toshiba lap top bit the dust, and I didn't have the luxery of shopping around.

i love how ya'll suggest voodoo like everyone has over 2 grand to spend so easily.



he said he was considering a Dell XPS or an Area 51, that tells us he he is clearly looking for something rather pricy with a fancy badge. If he is going to spend a lot of money on a prebuilt he might as well get a quality part like a vodoo or the already mentioned falcon.


Come on guys, he said he's a college student and not into games. The days of building you own for less is long gone. Yes you can customise to your needs, but you can't beat the prices in this Sunday's back to school ads for most users.


Yeah its very hard to build a cheaper system than one of those super bargain systems but the one you build yourself will be a quality product. Basement bargains will not.

Well I made my decision. Storebought with a 3 year warranty from Best Buy. It's a Gateway, which I hear is better than HP or Compaq so I'm getting somewhere. Got a nice 19W flatscreen LCD which I'm used to on my laptop. It's the 940 D, with a Pentium Dual Core 3.2ghz, 2gig DDR2 already installed, so I'm not gonna upgrade the ram. The video card is an Nvidia GeForce 6200. Not sure how old but it's better, because I know Nvidia kicks ass. It's got all the goodies, a DVDRW drive and DVD drive, some kinda media center, total price $1,600. Of course I have to go to another store to get it but i'm fine with that.

I told you I was in a rush so thanks everyone for your help.

If your a real power user, then you still can't beat building your own system.
Even if your like me, and not a serious power user, but like to have full control over your system then you can't beat building your own.

I have a resonably average spec PC at home, cost me about NZ$3,000 for everything in it, and Iv been able to build it up over about 18 months so it hasn't cost me that in one lump sum, and there's still room to upgrade it a lot further. And I know its built with quality parts.
To get a similar spec machine from Dell I would have to spend at least NZ$4,000, I would have to do it all at once, and I would have no control over the quality of parts, and whats worse I would have to start all over again when it comes time to upgrade.


However, if your just looking for something low end to mid range spec wise, that you can play a few games on in your spare time, and surf the net and check your emails, then a dell or similar system is a good deal.
Just don't expect it to be easy to upgrade when you need to run windoz vista.

he said he was considering a Dell XPS or an Area 51, that tells us he he is clearly looking for something rather pricy with a fancy badge. If he is going to spend a lot of money on a prebuilt he might as well get a quality part like a vodoo or the already mentioned falcon.




Yeah its very hard to build a cheaper system than one of those super bargain systems but the one you build yourself will be a quality product. Basement bargains will not.
no no no no....xps is only 1300 the cheapest. and area 51's start 400 less than that! come on trino, you should know this. the cheapest voodoo is almost a grand more! that's a lot of money. and just cause people say something, doesnt mean they know what theyre taling about, just what they hear and how its the best.

(not saying you dont what youre talking about)

i wanted a voodoo, but something about spending 1200 more for one didnt quite intrigue me enough. thats a alot of money when you think about it. i could have got 2 laptops! the xps's are fine.

i mean, he owned a emachine originally, ugh!

Damien they might be cheaper but its bad quality. I had to fix my friends 2500USD Alienware several times. For pete's sake they actually paired a Winchester core with 4 sticks of ram...that is a major rookie mistake unaceptable from a manufacturer.




Well I made my decision. Storebought with a 3 year warranty from Best Buy. It's a Gateway, which I hear is better than HP or Compaq so I'm getting somewhere. Got a nice 19W flatscreen LCD which I'm used to on my laptop. It's the 940 D, with a Pentium Dual Core 3.2ghz, 2gig DDR2 already installed, so I'm not gonna upgrade the ram. The video card is an Nvidia GeForce 6200. Not sure how old but it's better, because I know Nvidia kicks ass. It's got all the goodies, a DVDRW drive and DVD drive, some kinda media center, total price $1,600. Of course I have to go to another store to get it but i'm fine with that.

I told you I was in a rush so thanks everyone for your help.


You might not like it but I'll be brutally honest: You have been majorly ripped off. The 940D is so oudated is based on the old Intel netburst architecture that was the laugingstock of the industry. Intel lost major market share because of it to AMD and its replacement the conroe/woodcrest cores are miles ahead of it.

Two, I would not brag about the 6200. You say "its better" so if you will allow me to paraphrase Clarkson: "Better than what? Being stabbed in the back". 6200 is only better than onboad graphics and that is about it.

For $1600 you could have build a Conroe E6600 with a 975X or 965 chipset on a good mobo with fast low latency ram and at least a X850XT card and a 19in monitor and the system would've been leagues ahead.

Don't belive me? Here is a small idea of the power diference between your CPU and a E6600:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/core2duolaunch_07130680720/12575.png

I'm sure my post will make you mad but think about this: I do not get anything for giving you advice while the BestBuy salesman just got a nice comision or bonus.

Don't belive me? Here is a small idea of the power diference between your CPU and a E6600:



I think he got a good deal, those charts are so overweighted to exagerate the performance on the latest game or other killer app that's graphic intensive that they're irrelevant to most users who actually use their PC's for productive things.

I think he got a good deal, those charts are so overweighted to exagerate the performance on the latest game or other killer app that's graphic intensive that they're irrelevant to most users who actually use their PC's for productive things.


yeah great make blanket staments without any proof. As i stated quite clearly that was a small example. But hey i'm probably making stuff up, what do i or any other reputable reviewer know about how much better the new Core 2 Duo generation of cores is.


Oh you might also want to look up what that bench I posted does stress. You might be surprised that its actually focused on productivity apps. But again why be blinded by facts when we can spew uninformed opinions.

Here is the whole review:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=1

Intel's Core 2 Extreme X6800 didn't lose a single benchmark in our comparison; not a single one. In many cases, the $183 Core 2 Duo E6300 actually outperformed Intel's previous champ: the Pentium Extreme Edition 965. In one day, Intel has made its entire Pentium D lineup of processors obsolete. Intel's Core 2 processors offer the sort of next-generation micro-architecture performance leap that we honestly haven't seen from Intel since the introduction of the P6.

Might want to do send a letter to Anand and tell him that his top notch reputation in the computer industry is all for nothing.

Bottom line please do not waste posting space advertising your ignorance with knee jerk reactions. What he got its a decent computer but for the price its a ripoff.

i'm sorry quicksilver, but i have to agree, BestBuy was probably the worst place to go. gateway's are good, if prebuilt was what you wanted, but fo that price you would have been better off with something else. imo, if you have time and patience, see if you can return the system, and spend more time researching other alternatives.

Uhhh...I'm not mad, should I be? I didn't listen to anyone and bought a brand XP. I don't trust AMD anymore, they get hot, real hot, and I don't know why.

When I first bought my emachines, I was playing ragnarok online (2d/3d game- entry level graphics). A year later, I got into more hardcore gaming and added notebook ram to play Everquest 2. My ati card could handle the game's normal graphics, but on high quality and with shadows turned on, it skipped. Any game that comes out now should be handled with a fairly new video card, period. Great thing about a desktop is I can upgrade it later on.

Bestbuyers always tell me they're not on commission, but even so he sent to another store like 20 miles away. He must have screwed himself huh? Okay maybe I was a bit mad about that because they really did help me.

And the emachines- This thing always shuts off on me when I least expect it. I'll be the judge to whether my new desktop is better, because if it isn't, I'm likely dropping it out a 3 story window.

oh, it'll be better than ur eMachines (and for $1600, it had better be). My brother just got a Gateway, and he's more into computers than I am... (he's a damn genius). It's running very well for him, and it was damn cheap, too. Only $900 for the system. Bought a generic 17" LCD, Minolta Laswer Printer, and his is running as well as mine (except VGA).

i dunno, i feel as if you could have gotten a much better deal. to give you perspective, i think i built my computer 5 to 6 years ago, so its definitely obsolete now, but i spent ~$1800 on it.

Asus P4C800D Socket478 Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz with Hyper Threading (brand new technology at the time)
nVidia 5700 Ultra VGA with 512MB
(2) 512MB RAM sticks Dual Channel (newish technology at the time)
(2) Seagate 90GB Serial ATA running RAID-0 (also newish technology at the time)
17" Samsung LCD
Epson color printer
a Thermaltake PC Case
DVD/CD-RW, DVD-RW, quiet power supply, and other little accessories like Temp guage, case light, etc.

see, at the time, that was a steal, all those goodies for ~$1800-2000. I'm sure if i decide its time for a new computer, i'm going to take time to research what i can make for under $2K, or if i start nearing $2K, just splurge and buy a Falcon NW.

I think it's time to simply let this thread go. He's got his computer, he likes it, we should let it be. If any parties involved wish to continue this discussion, please resort to PM.