[trip]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Saturday, May 5 2012, 22:42)

QUOTE (trip @ Saturday, May 5 2012, 18:17) QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Saturday, May 5 2012, 19:42) Also after looking at that article this looks like a very compact system so upgrades and replacement parts you might be left at the mercy of Dell/AlienWare. I see that did a nice trick to use a full size gfx card but had to use basically an adapter board so it can connect to the mobo. There doesn't look like a place to add a second HDD so that's out. Also means if you want/need more space you're stuck with either getting a bigger HDD or getting a USB drive which will cut down on it's performance. My Area51 is far from compact. Not sure about the one you are referring to. Aside from the 4 front bays and a few internal bays, it has a cool 6 bay clip in system for sata drives on the one side panel. [IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JHAskhTLnaw/T6XC3EzYnHI/AAAAAAAABeE/LTBMORb8rgs/s650/drives.jpg[IMG] That's a completely different system. Try reading the OP's first post and read the article. The X51 is completely different from the Area-51

I know, I know...I didn't read the article. I was being lazy. I guess I just half assume that Alienware were always going to be the monsters they are. I didn't know they were starting to make a scaled down series.

Expandability is a big thing. If you can't be tossing in drives and using standard cards and what have ya - it should be cause for concern.

And maybe I just wanted to show off my side panel

[PrometheusX]

QUOTE (TheTrikstar @ Saturday, May 5 2012, 23:34)

I'm definetly not building my own tho, I havent had any luck finding a better Gaming PC for the same price tho, If anyone could find one it would be much appreciated

You can just but parts from an E-Retailer, and ask them assemble it.

[TheTrikstar]

Wow just reading through some of your suggestions was great. Anyone who wants to know my budget, it is around £900 and thats around $1500 in dollars.
Not including Keyboard, Mouse & Monitor. I still have my mind set on the alienware as i said im not to bothered about Graphics but looking for a decent Gaming Experience. And for AMD desktops, I do not have the slightest clue whats good or whats not. I know im not so bright

Urmm anyway im looking into building my own PC now, But if I feel the stress i think i will just go with the alienware. Thanks everybody

[yojo2]

This is what I'd consider getting for ~900:

£177,78 Intel CPU Core i5 3570K Quad Core IvyBridge
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/29-4intel-c...mart-cache-34x-

£333,35 Asus DirectCU II Radeon HD 7950 AMD Graphics Card - 3GB
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-asus-ra...k-dvi-i-hdmi-2x

£93,32 MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 Socket 1155
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z77a-g4...-dvi-d-hdmi-atx

£68,38 Seagate 1TB SATA 3 ST1000DM003 Performance Hard Drive OEM
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate...che-8ms-ncq-oem

£38,58 Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)...-9-9-24-xmp-15v

£71,58 650W OCZ ZT Modular PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-ocz-zt...5-year-warranty

£13,67 LG GH24NS90.AUAA50B
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lg-gh24ns90...-sata-black-oem

£50,20 AeroCool Strike-X Black GT Gaming Tower Case
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/aerocool-st...er-case-w-o-psu

£59,94 Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB - Solid State Drive - CT064M4SSD2
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-crucia...b-s-new-version

= £906,80

Quad core CPU (which is just as good in games as i7), fast graphics card, proper motherboard, very quick 1TB HDD, 8GBs of RAM, fully modular PSU, DVD recorder, fancy case, and an SSD drive.

[TheTrikstar]

Thank's alot, Does all that fit and work together? Plus does that site build it for extra?

[yojo2]

Yep, everything will fit nicely. As for building... honestly speaking, I've got no idea.

[TheTrikstar]

Thanks Alot, I'll Try get my Uncle to build it, But that means going to another Country

[Gareth Croke]

After looking at that, yes it would, although you'd need some extra inter-connecting cables for the PSU, but that's not much of a worry.

I don't think Scan do offer a building service, but building a PC is easy, it's like Lego.

They do offer a pre-built service based on pre-selected stuff here.

[TheTrikstar]

Just thought i should let you guys know that ive decided to go with building the pc that yojo has chosen, Thanks yojo Thanks eveyone else

@Gareth: What are inter Connecting cables and how much do they cost?

[SyphonPayne]

Alienware to me just screams "more money than sense" or "doesn't know anything about computers." Most Alienwares look "pretty" (personally I think most are ugly) but the hardware inside is underpowered for the premium price.


As for Yojo's build, I everything looks great except I would go 2500K (cheaper, runs cooler) and a GTX 680. OR I would get something like a GTX 560 Ti 448 which is a lot cheaper, still plenty sufficient, and you could wait for GK110's release, which MAY drop GTX 680 prices (but seeing as AMD/ATI is doing crap at the moment, Nvidia might not drop prices.) You could save the money for those beasts down the road.

EDIT: Oh, and get something like this so you have more headroom for overclocking.

This post has been edited by SyphonPayne on Sunday, May 6 2012, 19:34

[yojo2]

Yeah, 2500k is a tad cheaper, thogh on the other hand 3570k supports PCIe3.0. It won't make a huge differente (IMHO ~5% tops), but still.
BTW: you Americans are lucky, in Europe GTX680 is nowhere as cheap as in the US (in comparison to HD7970). GTX680 costs £70 more than HD7970. Hell, even when GTX used to cost ~$50 less than Radeon, it was more expensive in Europe. That's not fair

[SyphonPayne]

QUOTE (yojo2 @ Sunday, May 6 2012, 14:43)

Yeah, 2500k is a tad cheaper, thogh on the other hand 3570k supports PCIe3.0. It won't make a huge differente (IMHO ~5% tops), but still. BTW: you Americans are lucky, in Europe GTX680 is nowhere as cheap as in the US (in comparison to HD7970). GTX680 costs £70 more than HD7970. Hell, even when GTX used to cost ~$50 less than Radeon, it was more expensive in Europe. That's not fair

True, only way PCIe 3.0 really matters at the moment is if your mobo only does x8 in SLI. Even then it's not a humongous difference, but it can affect minimum framerates (however 99% of games affected the minimum framerate is still above 60fps.)

Yeah, I suppose I feel "lucky," however I'm not jumping on GTX 680 as I really think that the GTX 680 is (hardware-wise) more like an overpriced GTX 660 would be. I think that Nvidia just renamed the 660 to the 680 since ATI/AMD's top-end card still gets trumped.

I personally will be waiting for GK110 as I believe that it is the "true" 680. Hopefully by then, the "680" we have now will drop in price, however if AMD/ATI don't step up their game I doubt Nvidia will drop 680 prices much. For now my GTX 560 Ti SLI is more than enough.

It's just like the whole AMD/Intel thing, the new Ivy Bridge series have weird shortcuts in place that affect their overclocking abilities compared to SB. Such as the use of TIM under the thermal heatspreader. So IB will run 20C hotter than SB at the same clock speeds.

Anyway Intel/Nvidia IMO seem to be slacking off due to lack of real competition. I hope this changes soon, as even though I am an Intel/Nvidia fanboy, AMD needs to get better things going for them or else Intel/Nvidia will slow down and overprice their hardware.

[yojo2]

Allegedly the TIM used on IB CPUs doesn't affect their temperatures. One of Polish PC sites removed the IHS, and there was very little difference.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/tra...HZPtSohGppvKBKw

[SyphonPayne]

I have read at least three articles that state otherwise. http://www.overclockers.com/ivy-bridge-temperatures being the most significant.

[finn4life]

Do you know of any Local PC shops in your area?
Building a PC is not so hard but if you would rather someone else do it you can probably find a local pc store that does it for about $50.

(Where is the pounds symbol on the keyboard?)

[Gareth Croke]

QUOTE (TheTrikstar @ May 6 2012, 19:17)

Just thought i should let you guys know that ive decided to go with building the pc that yojo has chosen, Thanks yojo Thanks eveyone else @Gareth: What are inter Connecting cables and how much do they cost?

Things like the following cables, like the SATA, Molex, ESATA etc, things for connecting the PSU and Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Fans, Data Cables from Motherboard to Hard Drive etc.

QUOTE (finn4life @ May 6 2012, 22:38)

Do you know of any Local PC shops in your area? Building a PC is not so hard but if you would rather someone else do it you can probably find a local pc store that does it for about $50. (Where is the pounds symbol on the keyboard?)

I see from your flag you are Aussie, so you can try pressing and holding the Alt key and type in the following numbers 0, 1, 6, 3, or try pressing "Alt Gr" the one on the right of the space bar then 3, I don't know if this will work on an Aussie keyboards I know that Alt Gr and 4 works on UK keyboards for doing the Euro € as opposed to the standard shift + 4 for the dollar $.

Also to add, TheTrikstar will probably able to answer this better as he had a Scottish flag on him, but I could probably answer this if he's on the East coast either in Fife or the Lothians, then there are next to bog-all computer shops around here that are any good.

[TheTrikstar]

Born in Scotland but I live in Wales. Same here tho, I will probably have to go to Scotland and get my Uncle to Build it. May aswell make it a holiday. Thanks for the help Gareth

[yojo2]

QUOTE (TheTrikstar @ Sunday, May 6 2012, 21:17)

@Gareth: What are inter Connecting cables and how much do they cost?

Everything what you need should be bundled with components.

QUOTE

I have read at least three articles that state otherwise. http://www.overclockers.com/ivy-bridge-temperatures being the most significant.

Okay, but they didn't test it in practice, these are pure speculations from what I can see.

This post has been edited by yojo2 on Monday, May 7 2012, 11:58

[SyphonPayne]

Looking at that Polish site again, perhaps they are right, or perhaps the results are skewed due to them having to make modifications in order to run without the IHS. If the TIM makes a lot less of a difference than one would think, then perhaps it's just that Intel released a stepping of IB that really wasn't ready yet (at least thermally.) I really think that they are slacking off since AMD is hardly competition these days. Maybe Intel will release a better stepping down the road, but probably not before AMD makes a move.

[illegal_luggage]

@TheTrickstar

It not hard to build a PC, you just need to read the manuals. There's a guide on this forum which helped me
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=446714

The bit I used the most:

QUOTE

Now that that's covered, let’s get building! 1. Place your case on a table or some other surface that doesn't conduct static electricity easily 2. Install your power supply by inserting it into the slot in the rear of the case and mount it using the screws provided. 3. Place your motherboard in front of you. 4. Install your CPU by placing it into the socket on your motherboard and then close the holding mechanism to secure your CPU. 5. Before installing your CPU cooler, you need to apply your thermal paste. Place a generous amount directly on the CPU so that there is enough for a even coat. 6. Install your CPU cooler by using the appropriate mounting brackets for your CPU socket and then by mounting it to them. 7. Install your RAM by taking each individual stick and inserting it into the appropriate DIMM slot for whatever channel set-up you'll be using. Read your motherboard and RAM instructions for more 8. Install your motherboard with the CPU, CPU cooler and RAM in the case using the screws provided. 9. Install your hard drive(s) by inserting them into the appropriate slot inside the case, and then attach them using the screws provided. 10. Install your optical drive(s) by inserting them into the appropriate slot in the front of the case, and then attach them using the screws provided. 11. Install your video card by taking it and inserting it into one of the PCI-Express slots on your motherboard. 12.If applicable, install any other PCI/PCI-Express cards such as a sound card, networking card, or a USB card. 13. Add anything else such as extra case fans, etc... 14. Install Windows and follow the indicated prompts to continue with setup