buying a computer, what should i go with?
 

i'm primarily a graphic designer, and a gamer. so the computer would have to be "up there" in terms of speed and such.

i understand that building your own computer is cheaper, but i don't want to waste time doing all of that, i'd rather just waste a thousand or more and buy it some place that puts that shit together for you....

so with that said, i was looking at Alienware... seem to be a favorite amongst gamers.

here is one i was looking at:

http://www.alienware.com/System_Pages/custom.aspx

Alienware Full-Tower Case (420-Watt PS) - Plasma Purple
Alienware Cable Management System
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz 800MHz FSB w/ 512KB Cache w/H-T
Intel® D875PBZ - Intel 875P Pentium 4 Motherboard
1GB DDR SDRAM PC-3200
120GB Seagate Barracuda ATA V ATA-100 - Quantity 1
16/48x DVD-ROM - IDE - Black w/Software MPEG-2 Decoder
ATI RADEON? 9800 PRO 128MB 8x AGP w/DVI & S-Video - LIMITED AVAIL
AlienIce? Video Cooling System - Terra Green
Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 Platinum - 6.1 w/Black Audigy 2 Drive
Integrated Intel Pro/1000 CT Gigabit Ethernet Adapter w/CSA
Creative MegaWorks THX® 5.1 550 - Black
NEC 22" MultiSync FE2111SB Flat CRT - Black
Microsoft Internet Keyboard - Space Black
Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 - USB - Standard Color
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black
Bonus 12-Month Subscription to Computer Games Magazine!
AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System
1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service

Price: $3,100

opinions?

if you don't care about the cool case, I would go with a refurbished dell... im sure u could get one with close to those specs , just with a pentium instead of AMD processor

my opinion: that pc kicks ass! pretty expensive though

You can always just go to www.pricewatch.com and buy everything there, then get a friend or someone to put all the pieces together for ya for $100 or $200..

AlienWare is just the name branded pc for gamers. It's always been on the pricey side.

Compaq Deskpro 286! :thumbsup

ya, if u get everything separate and put shit together yourself you can save a grand easy, thats what i do

Take a Dell or Micron. Don't get a Gateway they are very unrleliable. If you want many headaches and nervous breakdowns then go ahead and get a re-furbished machine - you're only getting someone else's leftovers.

Buy new, buy warranty and whether it's games, movies or work you won't have any hassles.

don't buy dell. i bought a laptop a couple years ago with a 3 year warranty and when i called about warranty work they said i never bought an extended warranty.

i would go to a local pc shop and get one custom built. you get to choose what you want and its usually cheaper.

Somebody on YNOT once posted shit about Alienware. I can't remember who, but I think it was Mark Tiara.

If you are going for a consumer brand, HP or e-machines. I like building my own and haven't ever bought a name brand, except way back in the early 80's when Apple came out with the IIC and IBM had the XT and the AT. I opened up the IBM and saw how simple it was and have done custom systems to my exact specs since then.

Dude, your getting a Dell!

:thumbsup

http://www.bay.k12.fl.us/mis/images/dellstevenA.jpg

You'd be mad if you don't get a mac.

You can get a nice mac for that price..

Dual 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
2MB L3 cache/processor
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
120GB Ultra ATA/100
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
64MB DDR video memory
FireWire 800
56K internal modem
Bluetooth Ready

haha, i've never had a mac before and i've had 4 other computers, i didn't get mad at all. :)

Do yourself a favor and build yourself your own computer. You can definitely have a better custom built computer and shave off at least $800 off that Alienware price.

Are you sure? :)

no. i'm just gonna do a few designs for it.. i'd rather just do that, instead of getting very pissed, and wasting time trying to put a damn computer together... i know its not all that of a complex task, but i've never done it before and i imagine there is a bit of "knowledge" entailed. either way, i've had bad hardware experiences, dont wanna fuck w/ shit

i hear www.falcon-nw.com is good too.

Ever consider switching at all or are you just plain hopeless?

Hmm.. :(

tell me which of these wouldn't run on macs:

photoshop, fireworks, dreamweaver, aim, icq, quake2, half life, command & conquer, 3d studio max, Maya 3d, gamespy, the soon to come doom3, kazaa, arles, etc...

??

My opinion, buy a dell. I ordered their new XPS system last week should be here soon... Supposedly built for gamers
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/produc..._dimen_XPS.htm

Looks to be about the same as that alien one except larger harddrive as a free upgrade, a dvd drive in addition to the cd/rw one, and maybe some other differences i'm missing.

Oh and I don't think dell gives you a free t-shirt if that's any consideration.

half life, 3d studio max, gamespy (but there's something much much better than that.. gameranger), kazaa..

you can get close to everything for the mac nowadays.. apart from being different and having a cool looking box on your desk you'll become much more productive.. you'll start to love your machine and what's left of your social life will eventually evaporate. of course you'll also get a lot more pussy with a mac.. seriously get a mac. it's worth the extra buck, once you go mac you'll never go back.

I would get a computer that has one of those 15,000 RPM hard drives. I build my computer a year ago with one of them and it still beats the pants off all of the computers made today (that use IDE instead of SCSI).

You can run a Kazaa client on the Mac. I don't know about the rest.

i have yet to hear _anything_ that can convince me to buy a mac except: a) it looks cool and b) it doesn't use microsoft's OS.

i can get a faster PC cheaper... why should i switch?

get a 7200rpm WD w/ 8mb cache... i bet it comes close. these drives are INSANELY faster than the 7200 drives w/ 2mb cache. it's unbelievable the difference.

i think pc's look better. some sweet aluminum cases on the market if you take the time to look.

unless you're heavy into multimedia and mac software is what you want to use, i don't see an advantage to buying a mac.

Not really.. You can run a shadow client (which doesn't connect to the main servers.. you have to feed it with clients' IP ranges). Alternatively you could run edonkey or several other gnutella clients.. but I just use iTunes for my music needs.. it lets you share your music library with a few million of your closest friends.. it's great :)

ohh and also, mac os x is unix which really rocks.. it just never crashes!

yeah... i have a lian-li case, and personally, i think it makes any other pc case on the market absolue CRAP. that alienware is nothing, except maybe a hyped-up antec sx-1080 server case. those are nice cases, don't get me wrong, but nothing compared to the style and craftsmanship of the lian-lis.

i think the mac lappies are sweet looking, and tiny as fuck. the aluminum case on the $$ ones is nice, but those ibooks are amazingly small. pretty nice screens, as well.


however, all the software i want to use is available for pc. in fact, there are a few programs i use that are not available to the mac.

which is the exact reason i wont switch.

been there, done that. as i said, i have not found anything that is truly convincing. _why_ exactly switch? what will i benefit from buying a much more expensive piece of equipment with a different OS? what will i have that i don't now?

go with a dell, you could get a way better system from them for that much money..and why have a 800 mhz fsb running sdram? why not rdram pc 800?

go with a custom build. a lot of places will ship assembled. dell's are nice for laptops and workstations, but when you're looking towards something like the alienware, you're not going to get that with an oem.

for the most part that's a pretty sweet setup, but yeah you can get that for around $1700-2000 if you built it yourself. i just upgraded to something very similar to that for $850.. keeping some of my own parts.

I'd go with a Dell...and get a GIG of RAM minimum for graphic design. I did :thumbsup

You'll feel much better.. go to an apple shop and play with the os for a few minutes.. you'll see.

yes... that's right... travel hundreds of miles to play with a mac for a few minutes.

played a bit with my neighbor's ibook. cute, very small, i like that, nice screen. didn't get to play with it a ton, but i'm going to borrow it sometime from him to dig around a bit. other than that.. i just don't know. it's not like pc's are difficult to me at all. my dad was a programmer, so i've been around them since i can remember. starting from a radioshack heath kit to my computer today, and my as/400 gathering dust in the corner.

And this is not just more corporate fluff???


ahahahah, Mac lackies are worst than MS lackies!!

There is no such thing as a mac lacky.. it's just love :)

Come on man.. Buy a mac ;)

Bryan

grab the latest dell on ebay, make sure its a good seller and has a 1yr warrenty

i got my dell 2.4 ghz and uprgaded it all big time with 300g of space and 750 aprx ram for some 1grand total

yea, if your starting up a landfill

Reason 1 - it just works....mmm....ok. Ok I guess since they build the computers and it's their os. I can give them that one.

Reason 2 - doesn't crash - i've never had win xp crash...and i don't go easy on it.

the rest of the reasons are just fluff stuff like music, digital pictures, built for the internet???....and works with PCs.. :sleep

I'm glad you're happy with your 'puter...but until mac has the vast variety of software and the market penetration of pc's then there is no way I would switch.

:2 cents:

Dell and lease it with the same specs w/o 3 yr warranty. Good tax right off. I stopped building boxes when the prices dropped.

JMO and good luck,
:)

Get a refurbished powermac and start pimpin. To hell with all the mac haters, no one needs to convince you to do anything, take up learning a bit on your own and trying it out. It's easy to criticize something that you're not very familiar with and don't own personally. If you're smart enough to make your pc operate without spyware, viruses and multiple updates to Microsuck programs then you're in good shape already and maybe you don't need to switch. However that's the minority of users on that platform.

Apple's OS is light years ahead of Windows and much more fun to use as well.

I use a Mac and a PC and I would choose tha Mac any day.

My 2¢

Mitch

If you go for a Dell, get the 3 year warranty. It rocks.

Man, Macs are great but the fact is they are overpriced compared to what's out there, a bitch to maintain for reasonable price, software is expensive and in some cases non-existant and most people use PCs.

Time for Apple to take their well-deserved place next to Beta tapes as the little engine that could..but ultimately got eaten by a bigger fish..sorry Macfans