Alienware: Which one should I buy?

If you wanna go extreme, i'll try to help ya out:)

There's some parts i recommend:

CPU: INTEL CORE I7-2600K can easily overclock over 4.0ghz with almost any aftermarket cooler. Or you can wait till AMD "bulldozer" series will show up and read some benchamarks to help you decide.

MB: ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z, tough and sturdy motherboard with very high quality components for example vrm in this board is as good as money can buy. Which means voltage will be very stable. And ofc it will overclock like hell:D

VGA: Nvidia GTX580 single or sli(i recommend sli). Radeons is a bit behind atm.

RAM: 8gb dual channel rams. Dont look at frequency only because the higher frequency, the crapier timings will be.
1600mhz frequency and CL8 timings is the best of bouth worlds.

PSU: Go for ~1000w to 1200w supply with good efficiency (80+ silver for example). I suggest looking at corsair Power supplies, they'r known for very high quality producks. And dont worry your power supply wont draw 1.2kw from a socket. Its always good to leave some breathing room for your PSU cuz it will run cooler and quieter and ofc will serve you longer.

Got any questions? Feel free to /pm me :)

I've got an Alienware Mx17 for about 2500, this was about 2 years ago and to be honest its really not worth it. It has about 2 Gigs of video ram, Nvidea something or other. And 6 Gigs of regular ram. i7 Intel Quad core (8 cores technically)

Basically, you're going to overheat...Alot..Alot alot alot, the two words, "Gaming" and "Laptop" shouldn't be ever combined. I know that is probably going to strike people in the wrong way, however, in my personal experience, it isn't worth the extra 800-1,000 dollars just to make your machine mobile.

never bought alienware but i have drooleed many many times on their computers..

i would not but their overprice POS that is alienware or dell buy from maingear or digitalstorm i got my from digitalstorm i would however rec that u get noctua fans instead of the fans they offer

i would only buy from maingear or digitalstorm if u can build ur own try newegg

To answer your question on the Black Pearl.
It looks like a very solid system.
I'd look at spending a little extra $$ an upgrade the Raidmax power supply.
They aren't known for quality psu's.
You'll want that on any good gaming rig. Especially when running SLI.
You'll also want to run a soundcard that will take the processing off the cpu itself.
Onboard is going to rob you of performance.
All in all for the money, it's a nice rig.

"

GivingUpTheGhost wrote:

To answer your question on the Black Pearl.
It looks like a very solid system.
I'd look at spending a little extra $$ an upgrade the Raidmax power supply.
They aren't known for quality psu's.
You'll want that on any good gaming rig. Especially when running SLI.
You'll also want to run a soundcard that will take the processing off the cpu itself.
Onboard is going to rob you of performance.
All in all for the money, it's a nice rig.

Integrated soundcard cpu usage is barely noticeable and wont affect perfomance, but if you enjoy high quality audio then good soundcard is a must (Asus xonar series for example). And ofc you will need high quality speakers/headset with it.
And never ever look at logitech speakers or headsets. Its overpriced and sound quality is far from good. Unless your fan of Drum n bass and similiar music cuz subwoofers is highly overpowered compared to satelites.

I just figured if he's spending the money on a new rig, he might as well limit any bottleneck regardless of how small it is.

"

GivingUpTheGhost wrote:

To answer your question on the Black Pearl.
It looks like a very solid system.
I'd look at spending a little extra $$ an upgrade the Raidmax power supply.
They aren't known for quality psu's.
You'll want that on any good gaming rig. Especially when running SLI.
You'll also want to run a soundcard that will take the processing off the cpu itself.
Onboard is going to rob you of performance.
All in all for the money, it's a nice rig.

So let's say I buy this computer, the CyberPower PC Black Pearl..and decide to upgrade a few things. But here's a question: Can I upgrade it before I buy it..or do I have to do it manually. Sure, I can try it out myself..but i'm afraid to do so because i'm not particularily known for having steady hands..hehe. And could you clarify on what to upgrade and so? How much the price would increase and so on? What could be improved and what doesn't need to be improved. As I've said before..i'd love to have a gaming computer that can handle Crysis 2 and Rift at ultra settings..if that's possible. I know this is much to ask..but i'd be grateful if I could receive some info on that :)

"

brutaliz wrote:

If you wanna go extreme, i'll try to help ya out:)

There's some parts i recommend:

CPU: INTEL CORE I7-2600K can easily overclock over 4.0ghz with almost any aftermarket cooler. Or you can wait till AMD "bulldozer" series will show up and read some benchamarks to help you decide.

MB: ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z, tough and sturdy motherboard with very high quality components for example vrm in this board is as good as money can buy. Which means voltage will be very stable. And ofc it will overclock like hell:D

VGA: Nvidia GTX580 single or sli(i recommend sli). Radeons is a bit behind atm.

RAM: 8gb dual channel rams. Dont look at frequency only because the higher frequency, the crapier timings will be.
1600mhz frequency and CL8 timings is the best of bouth worlds.

PSU: Go for ~1000w to 1200w supply with good efficiency (80+ silver for example). I suggest looking at corsair Power supplies, they'r known for very high quality producks. And dont worry your power supply wont draw 1.2kw from a socket. Its always good to leave some breathing room for your PSU cuz it will run cooler and quieter and ofc will serve you longer.

Got any questions? Feel free to /pm me :)

Any chassi you could recommend? Oh..and how much would the cost be? That would also be a good thing to know^^ How long do you think this build could last? And...does it support direct x11? Well, thanks for taking your time to write all of this^^ Maybe I should buy the Black Pearl and...well..start to take out things and replace it with these things you mentioned? How would that be, you think? Thanks in advance.

"

brutaliz wrote:

Integrated soundcard cpu usage is barely noticeable and wont affect perfomance, but if you enjoy high quality audio then good soundcard is a must (Asus xonar series for example).

You know...I'm not sure how true that is. I've got an integrated soundcard on my mobo (Asus P5Q Pro) and it honestly has the best sound quality of any rig I've owned. Though I'm sure pairing it with a great set of speakers and headphones has helped.

YMMV, but depending on the mobo an integrated sound card isn't always a bad thing.

@ EvilMegaCookie -

I've never bought from Cyberpower, but my current computer started life as a pre-built from one of their sister/related spin-offs, Xtreme Gear. (I've since taken over maintenance/upgrades myself...replaced some LEDs and a case fan, and just upgraded the GPU to a 6970 a few days ago.) FWIW I never personally had any trouble with it or with the company--the video card showed up DOA, but they were able to RMA a working replacement to me and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

Of course, for every good experience like mine, I also hear horror stories. If nothing else, something can go terribly wrong in shipping--but that's also a risk you take when shipping in individual parts to build your own system. Lemons happen too, whether it's through standard manufacturers (I've got a friend who just had to invoke the lemon law on Dell), Cyberpower, or building your own.

On the plus side, looking at Cyberpower's site it looks like you can customize options including some of the parts brutaliz recommended.

If nothing else, please make sure you get a quality PSU. Corsair are very good, and I hear some good things about Antec as well. Thermaltake is good too if you manage to get a good PSU on the first try. I've got a Thermaltake myself and it's great...other people haven't been so lucky.