Gaming PC help

[Noj]

Basically a mate of mine wants a half decent gaming PC but doesn't want an self built one. He wants an XPS / Alienware. ( Don't know why he's just a pain in the ar*e )

He found this and just want some opinions on it? Please don't have ago at me if its crap.

http://www.crs-uk.biz/cheap-computers-new-and-refurbished-used/dell-xps-720-quad-core-extreme.html

 

[Darren S]

On the face of it - it doesn't sound too bad. However, it says nothing about the motherboard and that's ALWAYS a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. Having a Ferrari lump and BTCC suspension setup in your car is all well and good. Until you find out that they are connected with lumps of cheese.

Obviously the CPU is previous gen now and the 8800's are getting long in the tooth. It will (or should) play most games alright - but I suspect that on the newer stuff, a few notch downs on the eye candy will be required.

D.

 

[welshname]

agreed. doesnt seem too bad but if there are no MOBO details its gonna be a shitter. since dell bought alienware i wouldnt touch them with a barge pole. anything dell is destined to fail, preloaded with tonnes of s**t,saying that hp are even worse. what are his reasons for not having a self built one??

 

[Munson]

ALWAYS self-build gaming PCs. End.

 

[welshname]

ALWAYS self-build gaming PCs. End.

+1

 

[wozzaa]

If he absolutely has to buy it prebuilt then it might be worth looking at some of the scan or overclockers prebuilt systems. At least they are actually designed more towards gamers and come with up to date hardware for the same price. Usually you just pick a £500 ish system and spec the better GPU for £100 more job done. Will be far more powerful than that he is looking at.

Anyone who spends that kind of money on a system that old because its a Dell / Alienware (which are crap now) is an utter fool.

 

[Gareth]

8800GTXs are VERY long in the tooth now, tbh I'm shocked they are still being sold in new PCs.

 

[st3ve]

lol, 8800GTX for a gaming PC, not just one but SLI if I'm not mistaken, talk about throwing money away.

Only place I would even remotely consider buying a pre built system is overclockers as there are some nice looking specs on the emails I get from them, I've no first hand experience of them though.

Self built is the only way to go imo.

 

[Noj]

Cheers for al the comments. Looks like he's more interested in self built now (thank f**k for that ) Thanks again

 

[UncleGrumpy]

So he wants an Alienware but then considers a second hand crate with a misaligned case (whatever the hell that means), sounds to me like he doesn't know what he wants.

Actually after looking at the pics again it looks like it's been dropped at some point £586.33 down the bog if you ask me.

Only the truly enlightened (ie. with more money than sense) can have an Alienware, it says so on page 5 of the manual....

Dear Valued Alienware Customer

Welcome to the Alienware family. We are thrilled to include you among the growing number of savvy high-performance computer users.

In other words....

Dear wealthy person

Welcome to the Alienware family, we're thrilled to have your money, feel free to give us loads more whenever you feel the need.

 

[cliobritt]

Dont bother with AW - Overpriced.

Hate how some waffle on about "build your own" when somone has expressed sincerly that they want to just buy a gaming pc, as I did. I know nothing of and have no interest in building one,

Just look on overclockers, I got a beast of a system for £900 9 months ago, and can play anything at all but the highest settings.

 

[cliobritt]

So he wants an Alienware but then considers a second hand crate with a misaligned case (whatever the hell that means), sounds to me like he doesn't know what he wants.

Actually after looking at the pics again it looks like it's been dropped at some point £586.33 down the bog if you ask me.

Only the truly enlightened (ie. with more money than sense) can have an Alienware, it says so on page 5 of the manual....

Dear Valued Alienware Customer

Welcome to the Alienware family. We are thrilled to include you among the growing number of savvy high-performance computer users.

In other words....

Dear wealthy person

Welcome to the Alienware family, we're thrilled to have your money, feel free to give us loads more whenever you feel the need.

Nice!

 

[iain187]

Why get a quad core? Not a massive amount of games will use it.

Same again with that physics card thing


Enough people pointing you in the right direction so I won't repeat it

 

[cliobritt]

Yes, easy to go overkill iain.

 

[G3 NYX]

Why get a quad core? Not a massive amount of games will use it.

Same again with that physics card thing


Enough people pointing you in the right direction so I won't repeat it

Future proofing, all games released now have quad core support.

Looking at the pictures the wireing is horrid, it will probably overheat :/

But the miss aligned case is the problem, if its the rear panel it may short out the mobo, hence they are selling it cheap.


As for the specs your only bottleneck is the slow ram.


Some other things worth noting, first don't get a pc with windows pre installed, it will come with a load of s**t software that you don't want and will slow down your new pc, secondly it comes with a 10krpm, I just soly my 10k because it is SOOO loud!

But it does seem worth it... But I would built it yourself (or I'd do it )

 

[Munson]

No such thing as overkill when it comes to gaming PCs. Play better games at higher resolutions if you think your machine is on a cruise.

 

[st3ve]

No such thing as overkill when it comes to gaming PCs. Play better games at higher resolutions if you think your machine is on a cruise.

+1

I so want one of those 2560x1440 monitors but can't justify the price of them atm.