Help me spec a new PC

[LarsenNET]

My current gaming PC was build when Doom 3 & Half-life 2 came out in '04. It was bad ass. AMD 3400+, Geforce 6800 Ultra with 1GB of RAM. How times have changed, this is the longest I have ever kept the same config by far.

I have been seriously considering an Alienware Aurora desktop. I think they look great, all put together for me and great performance and I don't have to worry about compatibility etc. The problem is I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on about a 3K PC for gaming.

So what do you think? I'm assuming i can put together just as good of performance as that machine for quite a bit less cash.

[Karak]

My current gaming PC was build when Doom 3 & Half-life 2 came out in '04. It was bad ass. AMD 3400+, Geforce 6800 Ultra with 1GB of RAM. How times have changed, this is the longest I have ever kept the same config by far.

I have been seriously considering an Alienware Aurora desktop. I think they look great, all put together for me and great performance and I don't have to worry about compatibility etc. The problem is I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on about a 3K PC for gaming.

So what do you think? I'm assuming i can put together just as good of performance as that machine for quite a bit less cash.

Holy gawd shit no.
Holy jebus no.
Stay away from their stuff. My lord, you can easily put one together for less.
For less than a grand you can get a whompin good computer. For less than 500 a computer that is still better than what you have AND can be upgraded.

Not even building your own. You could go barebones deals and then piece the parts you want to later like GFX card and such.
Or totally do it. I would go barebones because most companies do indeed test it for compat issues if you ask.

EDIT:
My entire system was around 850.00 and it includes an i7 920(Overclocked to 3.8 on air), 3 gigs ram, 500gig harddrive, ATI 4890, and other options. Amazing system for any game I can throw at it.
You can do amazing things with a week of patience and a bit of looking.

[Wally]

I would second getting either a barebones system and filling in or building from scratch, cheaper and you get more satisfaction from the process.

The system I am looking at getting will have:
i7 920
6 Gigs of ram
ATI 5850
and a 1 TB HDD

I hope the build goes well, but it should as I have spent extensive time researching and checking. Also its about my 4th build.

[AntonThaGreat]

For $1500 you can easily have Core i7, SSD Harddrive, latest ATI card and 4 gigs of ram...

Why in the world would you spend twice as much for the same thing?

If you'd like, I'll build it for you and charge you $3000 and I'll do customer support on top of that.

[jpublic]

Go with an i7-8x0 series, not the 9x0 ones. The motherboards are usually $100 cheaper, you use double-channel memory as opposed to triple, and they outperform (marginally) the 9x0 series at the same price point.

[roboninja]

Go with an i7-8x0 series, not the 9x0 ones. The motherboards are usually $100 cheaper, you use double-channel memory as opposed to triple, and they outperform (marginally) the 9x0 series at the same price point.

Plus the x58 chipset required for i7-9x0 will be relegated to server parts in the future; i78x0 series run on the Lynnefield/1156 chipset, which is where the consumer-level advances will be made. I am personally just finishing an i7-920 build, but would have gone with the 1156 chipset were I to start buying now.

[Shadowstorm]

My current gaming PC was build when Doom 3 & Half-life 2 came out in '04. It was bad ass. AMD 3400+, Geforce 6800 Ultra with 1GB of RAM. How times have changed, this is the longest I have ever kept the same config by far.

I have been seriously considering an Alienware Aurora desktop. I think they look great, all put together for me and great performance and I don't have to worry about compatibility etc. The problem is I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on about a 3K PC for gaming.

So what do you think? I'm assuming i can put together just as good of performance as that machine for quite a bit less cash.

No! Not Alienware. It's almost always better to build, not buy. You could spend half that much and get a better system then what they offer.

[LarsenNET]

So your saying I'd be better off with this:
Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

Instead of this:

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

They are about the same money. Although the 860 is quite a bit cheaper than the 870.

[Wraith]

I'm curious what system you had priced out at $3k. I priced out a pretty decent system (i7 920, HD 5870, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 850W PSU, no monitor) and it only came out to $1729. Still more expensive than building your own, and not nearly as flexible for choosing specific components, but not a terrible deal, for someone looking for pre-built. Can't comment personally on Alienware quality/reliability.

[LarsenNET]

I'm curious what system you had priced out at $3k. I priced out a pretty decent system (i7 920, HD 5870, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 850W PSU, no monitor) and it only came out to $1729. Still more expensive than building your own, and not nearly as flexible for choosing specific components, but not a terrible deal, for someone looking for pre-built. Can't comment personally on Alienware quality/reliability.

It was the Aurora ALX, I got up to $3300 and stopped. i7 950, GTX 295, etc. They don't give any options for SDD which I find odd, it would probably add even more.

What is the consensus on the Video card? GTX 295 way overkill, I'd like this to last a long time. $ 479 does seem a bit steep.

[Crashcart]

What is the consensus on the Video card? GTX 295 way overkill, I'd like this to last a long time. $ 479 does seem a bit steep.
I've been itching to build a PC recently, but I haven't built a new system for a number of years so take this for what you feel it's worth.

In my opinion, a $500ish video card is never a good option. Throwing exorbitant amounts of cash at a system build to future proof it just never works out. You're paying a steep premium for the top of the line, but whatever you buy will eventually be outdated. You'll be able to play new games on a mid to mid-high end card for far less for quite a while. You might be able to crank out an extra month of games on ultra high or whatever, but is it worth doubling the cost of a component?

Think of it this way: by the time your $200-$250 video card starts struggling, you'll be able to buy another $250 card that's better than the GTX 295.

[Karak]

It was the Aurora ALX, I got up to $3300 and stopped. i7 950, GTX 295, etc. They don't give any options for SDD which I find odd, it would probably add even more.

What is the consensus on the Video card? GTX 295 way overkill, I'd like this to last a long time. $ 479 does seem a bit steep.

Overkill.
For performance that is excellent, you can spent 220.00 or less. 299.99 would get you a bit more but that's when you start hedging on many other things like monitor type and so on and your cost versus true performance start to drop drastically.

[roboninja]

So your saying I'd be better off with this:
Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

Instead of this:

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

They are about the same money. Although the 860 is quite a bit cheaper than the 870.

I would go with the 860; the price differential is not worth it for the marginal performance boost of the 870, IMO.

[LarsenNET]

I've been itching to build a PC recently, but I haven't built a new system for a number of years so take this for what you feel it's worth.

In my opinion, a $500ish video card is never a good option. Throwing exorbitant amounts of cash at a system build to future proof it just never works out. You're paying a steep premium for the top of the line, but whatever you buy will eventually be outdated. You'll be able to play new games on a mid to mid-high end card for far less for quite a while. You might be able to crank out an extra month of games on ultra high or whatever, but is it worth doubling the cost of a component?

Think of it this way: by the time your $200-$250 video card starts struggling, you'll be able to buy another $250 card that's better than the GTX 295.

This is what I was thinking myself. So recommend me a great $250ish card.

I would go with the 860; the price differential is not worth it for the marginal performance boost of the 870, IMO.

Yep, that's what I have in my cart. Now recommend a motherboard. How about This one. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359)

[roboninja]

This is what I was thinking myself. So recommend me a great $250ish card.



Yep, that's what I have in my cart. Now recommend a motherboard. How about This one. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359)

At Newegg, this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131404) seems good. Then again, I have never built an 1156 PC, so my opinion might not be valid.

Or you could try this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.275798).

EDIT: That MB you edited in is an x58 board, made for the i7-9x0 CPUs.

[Crashcart]

This is what I was thinking myself. So recommend me a great $250ish card.

I've been out of the market for too long so I'd have to do some research, but I generally trust what LiquidRain says in his recommended hardware thread (http://colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=115) though he's said it needs another round of updates soon.

The ATI 5850's and and nVidia GTX 275 seem to be what you're looking for in the mid $200 price range. Unfortunately, all of those seem to be out of stock at Newegg. Maybe a 4890 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359) for a bit under $200? Looks like that lists for $250 normally, so that's quite a discount.

[Karak]

I've been out of the market for too long so I'd have to do some research, but I generally trust what LiquidRain says in his recommended hardware thread (http://colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=115) though he's said it needs another round of updates soon.

The ATI 5850's and and nVidia GTX 275 seem to be what you're looking for in the mid $200 price range. Unfortunately, all of those seem to be out of stock at Newegg. Maybe a 4890 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359) for a bit under $200? Looks like that lists for $250 normally, so that's quite a discount.

I can post my love for the 4890 by the way.
That's what I am using and with a couple checks you can get it for a good deal. And its an amazing card with some pretty damn good overcloaking capability.

[LarsenNET]

This is what I have so far:
1
XFX Radeon HD 4890 HD-489A-ZDFC Video Card
Item #:N82E16814150359
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy -$55.00 Instant $249.99
$194.99
1
ASUS P7P55D ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813131404
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $149.99
1
Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819115214
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy $289.99
2
G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231282
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy $249.98
1
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817139006
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$70.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$179.99
$109.99
1
Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
Item #:N82E16811129058
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy -$30.00 Instant $139.95
$109.95
Grand Total: $1,104.89

How does that look? I'm still trying to figure out Hard drives. I have my heart set on SSD but they are pricey. Trying to find someplace that has them in stock and good pricing.