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whats a good gaming pc???
- Thread starter illtype
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I always build my own.
It can save you some serious cash, and is a great learning experience as well.
As for retail gaming PCs, I always liked Voodoo, but since that's HP now, well.. who knows? Same with Alienware now being a Dell product. *shudder*
It can save you some serious cash, and is a great learning experience as well.
As for retail gaming PCs, I always liked Voodoo, but since that's HP now, well.. who knows? Same with Alienware now being a Dell product. *shudder*
it really doesnt take long fyi. like maybe an hr or less to put it together
lets say that i built this:
quad core 2.4ghz Q6600 since oc'd to 2.91ghz
8800gt 512 oc
4 gig ram
dvd dual burner
500 gig hd
for 900 bucks
can probably build it for cheaper now since i made that in feb
a similar performing hp or whatever will be at least 2x or more the cost
The best gaming PC is one you make yourself. Well, the best PC in general is one you make yourself. It doesnt take long to put things together, theres only like 5 things, the longest thing to put together is screwing the motherboard to the case since sometimes the screw holes are hard to line up. Its a very basic skill, putting a desk or shelf together is far more difficult, legos are far more difficult.
You can make an amazing gaming rig for < 1000.
For $4000, it would buy top of the line everything....
It takes an afternoon or less to build a computer. If you don't have time to build one, you don't have time to play any games on it.
I agree, building your own machine is the better way to go, and much more cost effective. And for a great gaming rig you can build it yourself and go wild and still only spend about $1500 or $2000 if money is no object.
The only reason to buy one retail personally is because you want style, which is okay. I would go for style as well, since most self built machines look like crap no matter what case you get.
The HP Blackbird 002 is ridiculously priced, but that'd be the machine I'd get if I had $4000 to blow.
The only reason to buy one retail personally is because you want style, which is okay. I would go for style as well, since most self built machines look like crap no matter what case you get.
The HP Blackbird 002 is ridiculously priced, but that'd be the machine I'd get if I had $4000 to blow.
I vote for either building your own or getting a small PC shop to build you one. Where I used to work we only charged £40 extra for building the PC ourselves. It'd be up and running within half an hour (longest bit for me was always plugging in motherboard LED/power cables).
My first build took me around 2 hours and was a great learning experience.
You'll pay a premium for Alienware but they do make exceptionally powerful gaming rigs. Even if they are horrible to look at
My first build took me around 2 hours and was a great learning experience.
You'll pay a premium for Alienware but they do make exceptionally powerful gaming rigs. Even if they are horrible to look at
well i guess its not that i dont have time to build a pc. I actually just sold a amd phenom black edition i built. I guess my question is do you know anyone with say an xps or blackbird or aleinware? Does anyone have any feed back with the machine or there service?
You can't build a PC for less than you can buy a Dell. However Dell's have proprietary components which may or may not be an issue in the future. Personally I don't like short towers. For reference what I'd do is buy a PC Gamer magazine and check out all the computer vendors who advertise there. Even if you build your own it may be a challenge to beat their prices. The two most important items to look at is the speed of the processor and the speed of of the video card(s) with a minimum of 2GB RAM, 4GB is better.
Unless you like paying top dollar, I'd steer clear of Alienware. You can get an adequate gaming PC in the $900-$1400 price range.
Unless you like paying top dollar, I'd steer clear of Alienware. You can get an adequate gaming PC in the $900-$1400 price range.
Besides not being able to SLI, what is so bad about a Mac Pro?
Mac Pro was made for workstation use, not gaming.
I don't know where you got your parts pricing but a $1700 Dell XPS Gaming Machine can be built with parts from Newegg.com for about $1250 and this includes a slightly faster GPU and for and extra $35 you could add a CPU cooler with a 120mm fan a do a massive overclock of the CPU. Not to mention a computer built without lots of crapware and the latest driver updates are more readily available. The only time a Dell makes sense is a $400 desktop with reinstall CD or a Laptop.
To the OP as others have said definitely build your own for $2000 you could build a Uber gaming rig that would probably cost over $3000 from Alienware, Dell etc... I personally would not spend anymore since a $4000 gaming machine would only slightly outperform a $2000 one. If $4000 is your budget how about $2000 now and $2000 in 18 months when all of the parts have been refreshed once or twice. You would definitely get more for your money this way instead of say $4000 every two to three years. Although in 18 months you would probably spend less than $2000 since there would be no need to replace your monitor.
Now if 1-2 hours of your time is worth more to you than that extra $1000+ dollars then I would go with any of the above companies (I think Alienware is owned by Dell). I say 1-2 hours because of build time, and OS install. Remember with either Build your own or a Dell etc... you will have to still install all of the latest drivers, OS updates, Firmware and your basic everyday software for them to run near perfect. Which can take several hours.
Another pro of building your own. You control all of the parts and I would buy through Newegg.com.
Updates? I slipstream before I ever install.
Wait I already have an image of Windows on my hard drive that I can just reload without dealing with activation.
Build your own or go with a Dell. I just like tweaking my own machine so I build my own. Not to mention I have the skills to take care of any problems on it and research for the problems I can't yet solve.
I haven't seen the ACER Predator, I have used a good deal of XPS towers, but the love will have to go to the HP Blackbird 002, which was originally a Voodoo project I read.
It cost a LOT more, but for me it's a tower that rivals the Mac Pro in design and functionality. It's ginormous and will tower over anything you have in your house, but with the right processor you may never need to change out the MOBO and cooling system.
It cost a LOT more, but for me it's a tower that rivals the Mac Pro in design and functionality. It's ginormous and will tower over anything you have in your house, but with the right processor you may never need to change out the MOBO and cooling system.