Alienware or XPS?

[terminatorjim6300 40]

Hey guys, I hope you dont think I am trying to spam or anything, I am posting this because I really do need some help and advice on this, now, I go for cheap gaming rigs, mine was a total of $800, and I am going to get a new gaming computer next year, as mine is defenilty getting old, and I want to run GTA V on ultra, here are the two setups I am looking into, also if you guys have any ideas on a good build that is custom but $1.6k or cheaper, please post it here, for me really it comes down to, do I want a quad core i7 or a hex core i7, this alienware on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Alienware-Aurora-R4-Black-ALX-Case-w-Dell-FPV4P-Motherboard-Power-Supply-/351412379806?looks pretty good to me, it has the 2011 socket which basically means third an fourth gen hex core i7, i would get that, and put these in, (also I see these a lot on ebay) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i7-4930K-/281706331028?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4197017b94 that would be its cpu, it is powerful according to http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html which they seem to be good at determining performance of CPUs, I would also put in one or two sets of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/16Gb-Corsair-Vengeance-2-X-8Gb-Desktop-Memory-Kit-DDR3-1600-Gaming-Non-ECC/221791946526?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D18434f7e083640a8b9ea449f46abdc7a%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D121667117021&rt=nc

 

and this would be my GPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202144&cm_re=r9_290x_directx_12-_-14-202-144-_-Product

 

That would be my alienware system, also, one of the reasons I do like Dell/Alienware is they seem to be dependable, and I have a bunch of discs for them,

 

Now my other setup would be much simpler, I would buy one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-XPS-8700-DESKTOP-i7-4790-4GHz-16GB-1TB-4GB-GTX-745-WIN8-1-WTY-/381121826112?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58bca18d40

 

and I would put the same GPU in it as I would the Alienware, however, I am not adversed to a 980Ti, but I dont particulary trust Nvidia, because of thier monopoly, so what do you guys think? could I run GTA V on ultra? And like I said I am open to suggestions to building something, as long as it is not really more expensive than these, I do not mind used parts as well, as long as they still work fine, I really could use some input on this, Thanks in Advance

 

JImmy
 

[Bromance 1,657]

That alienware I bought for the wife. Good PC but it has a micro mobo so your really limited. A 980 may not fit. Right in front of the mobo you have fans and some small board running fans.

[luky7evens 5]

Honestly I would take the money and build a PC, you will get alot more for you money. If you dont know how to build a computer and would like to learn check out /r buildapc on reddit, they are very helpful and can help you shoose what would be best for your money.

[Wesker 93]

A ran an alenware x51 for a very very long time.  Was able to fix a GTX 650 2g (with a pair scissors to the board of the card... lol) and went to 16 gigs of ram and I played games without lagging, the whole thing cost me around $600 so, im a fan of alienware.

[GuardianFromSteam 0]

I bought the Alienware 17 laptop. I have had it for about a year now and its still kicking. It has an 860M graphics card, and it can play any modern game at medium to high settings.

[johnny2x2 2]

Hey man I hope you read this in Time! Do not buy an XPS or a Alien Ware PLEASE buy a custom build I will help you if you need.. anything with a i7-4790k and a GTX 980 will run GTA 5 on ultra and the rest of the parts are just extra performance boosters.

[Blackbird4503 13]

iv got a alienware i love it games great

[RX-7 35]

Neither, do buy either of those.. head over to xotic pc, and configure something better, especially if you're geting a laptop, you can config a sager for an amazing price. i.e i7 4720hq, 980m, 16gb ram, 1TB Crucial SSD for $1500.. is amazing. If you're going the desktop route, you'll find yourself a lot happier with a custom built desktop, with the cheaper price. use pcpartpicker to get your build going since you already have specific parts that you want. If you need any suggestions, you could probably post here on the forums, or you can pm and or contact me on teamspeak. I research, and keep up to date with most of this stuff.

[charlie692014 14]

hi, my advise is, dont buy pre-build game rigs...its a rip-off, check his specs, with that money you can built your own rig, and better, save some money they dont built his rigs with the top of the line parts, just a fancy and very beautiful case, but thats it...

 

 

its just my advise, i work building pcs in latin america that its twice as much the price in your country, and i find pc builds much better an cheaper, now imagine in your country... save money an built it yourself..

 

hope you find this helpful and good luck...

[Bromance 1,657]

@charlie692015

That all depends on price point. Under a $1000 in the US you'd be hard pressed to build one for the same cost. Plus better warranty and usually free stuff too (monitor, keyboard etc). Add in sales....

Over that price point a good chance your statement is true but with I buypower and a few others, it's a maybe when you add warranty, support, os etc.

I build mine because it's easy and fun but honestly with sales etc price is arguably only a small reason.

[charlie692014 14]

@charlie692015

That all depends on price point. Under a $1000 in the US you'd be hard pressed to build one for the same cost. Plus better warranty and usually free stuff too (monitor, keyboard etc). Add in sales....

Over that price point a good chance your statement is true but with I buypower and a few others, it's a maybe when you add warranty, support, os etc.

I build mine because it's easy and fun but honestly with sales etc price is arguably only a small reason.

yeah, but, remember, building your own a pc, you get separate warranty for each part, as for alienware or other brands, you need to send the entire pc in order to get warranty, so, if you broke a memory stick, go with the single stick and thats it, now, maybe im talking about because its my line of work, and always seems better for me and the costumer, to get separate warranty, so, in case a stick or a graphics card broke under warranty, just bring me the part, i loan a similar part until the warranty cover it, and everybody´s happy. and i know that not everybody works that way, but, its easy for the costumer to get the pc at home, not send to warranty the entire pc, plus shipping, better parts can be put in the rig due to more options, not limited on what the manufacter offers...

[Bromance 1,657]

Valid points, but most components you need to register and save the recipient. Each component has a different warranty period. OEM parts are usually 30-90 days only. Well most consumer packaged products are a year. Memory and some gpu are lifetime if you don't oc. If they figure you oc'ed the part they may deny the warranty. Here you have to ship the part after getting approval from support and more then likely get a refurbished part back, not to mention you pay all the shipping and no loaners. Where a lot of prebuilt can get one year for anything and 90 or more days they send a tech to you.

[Silent166 281]

Honestly I would take the money and build a PC, you will get alot more for you money. If you dont know how to build a computer and would like to learn check out /r buildapc on reddit, they are very helpful and can help you shoose what would be best for your money.

this.. if you really want your money's worth of a gaming rig.. this is what you should do.

[DestinedToFlail 428]

https://www.xidax.com/ or http://www.digitalstorm.com/ Both good companies with good customer service.

[NoxNoctus 930]

OriginPC is awesome as well. Building a PC these days is so easy compared to how it used to be. Just watch a few youtube videos of assembly, use PCPartPicker, and boom. 

 

You also have us to use as tech support <3

[Pete300 22]

i agree with the build it yourself idea, i also agree with the parts about having a "company warranty" for a complete unit. 

i dont know about the usa but in uk its a real pain to get pre assembled stuff sorted out, i could not be without my pc for more than a few days, it normally takes a couple of weeks to send stuff back get it sorted and returned.

building is easy enough and having looked around here there are alot of tech savvy members who know their stuff. i spent around £1500 on mine ($2300 ish) but i built it in stages, added a few hard drives later on, better graphics card, more ram. i could not afford the whole thing in one go started with a good base to build upon then added as i needed to. motherboard,cpu, cooler and psu are the start factors, had my 6870 for 2 years before upgrading, again the good part of building your own is you can easily add better parts to it as they get a bit cheaper. i have no problem with being behind in the technology stakes, its always cheaper when they want to sell off older stock.

[RyanJSmyth 6]

i would realy recomend building your own computer when it comes to gaming rigs just look at tech reviews on youtube and do your homework make sure all your parts fit and i would suggest using pc parts picker 

[Bliss IRL 5]

Self build is the way to Go as Alienware are basically Dell machines and unless you hand pick the parts from Dell site it'll be filled with over priced garbage . As others have stated there's no build like a self build .

[ChaosReignss 153]

I understand the preference for most gamers to push the "Build a tower" approach.  That said the there are often reasons outside of performance for buying a game capable laptop. 

 

In my case I spend allot of time dealing with health issues from my wife's health and spend often days at a time sitting at a hospital and a gamer laptop gives me allot of flexibility.