[Razer]

For those baffled by the thread title, I'm looking at purchasing a new computer in January. This will be for games and Windows. end of. I just want it to burn through games without lag. Im sick of chipsets so my mind is made up that im getting a new computer I just need to know which is the best.

I also read this thread: http://www.computer-juice.com/forums...mputers-15834/ in which it was said that Dell and Alienware were knocked for something i cant quite remember

I want to know which of these PC's is the best at this point in time. Obviously these may change with the release of new technology such as USB 3.0 and such.

Dell XPS 720 (Not H2C)
Dell XPS 630
Alienware Area-51

All of these look attractive to me, but the comment about them being below standard has somewhat changed my opinion. I'm open to other computers maybe even my own building option since i know 99% what im doing.

My budget limit is £1,000 any less would be great. Preferences would be nVidia Graphics and Intel processor.

Any help on the matter to clear my head would be highly appreciated. Razer.

[Cew27]

build your own, it will be cheaper and its fully customised
it isnt hard at i just built mine ad if you do get stuck the forum is here

[alex]

I agree with Cewy; building your own gives you more control over components and layout and you're still covered by warranty(s) but on the individual components.

It also allows you to learn more about the land that is PCVille.

But if you don't want to take that step then I'd go with PC Specialist, maybe the build below that I've spec'd. It doesn't have a monitor listed but as it's optimised for a 20" (1680x1050) screen I'd go for Samsung's 206BW. £170.

You also come in at under a grand.

PcSpecialist have the best service I've come across, eclipsing the likes of Dell/Alienware, Mesh.....although that isn't hard. But they really are a superb group of guys.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® P5K: DDR2, SATAII, 2 xPCI-e x16, 3 PCI, PCI-e x1
Operating System
WINDOWS® VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1 (inc CD & License) (£55)
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd CD/DVD Drive
16x DVD-ROM WITH 48x CD-ROM
Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 8800GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Sound Card
8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE)
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Case
Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
DVI Cable
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Deluxe 660 Cordless Keyboard & Optical Mouse(Black) (£16)
Mouse
NONE
Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£12)
Printer
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Webcam & VoIP
NONE
Media Center Kit
NONE
Anti-Virus
NONE
Office Software
Microsoft® Works 9 - Word Processing, Spreadsheets, etc (£6)
Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1 Year Free Collect & Return: £5
Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

Build price: £747 (inc del) plus £170 for the tft (inc del) = £917.

[buchanan]

these guys are right razer, building your own would be the best solution: thats what i would do, and if you know 99% what you are doing you know more than me.

whatever you decide, do not buy alienware. i did a few years ago when i knew NOTHING and basically i just spent twice as much on a pc as i would have done if i built it myself or bought it from a better site.

i threw about £600 more than i had to away and all i had was a different case and a load of hardware problems (plenty of time on the phone to customer support which was a major pain, i would have been much better off coming here where you can get legit help rather than some guy lying to you and trying to get you off the phone: i had to send 2 separate pieces of broken hardware back to them and it was UNBELIEVABLY difficult, they really ran me through rings it was very frustrating. if i had bought from ebuyer i could have exchanged those items instantly and with no effort). really it was a joke at my expense

alienware is a major con basically and the current alienware cases are ugly anyway so there is no benefit to buying from them. it hurts me now to think people make the expensive mistakes i did and alienware are laughing at us: there is nothing different to an alienware pc from another pc except the case, don't do it

[Desertfish]

And to add to Buchanan's post: just aske around at people here on the forum what their experience is with buying a computer from Dell... That knocks both of your current potential providers from the list.

The spec that Alex put together looks really good for gaming. I'd go with his recomendation. Cew27 was right about building it yourself as well. If you're stuck, you can always come here, post your problem or question and there will always be a buch pf people ready to help you out and give you the advise you need. There is nothing as satisfying as playing some high end games on the system that you build yourself.

Cheers:
Chris

[Carbon]

Hahah oh man. I just wandered over to Alienware to go do a price comparison, and it's great.

They have the 8600GTS as the "standard" graphics card, give you an option of 2GB of RAM with no brand name or anything and then have the "2GB Patriot EP+ Low Latency Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz" with Low Latency bolded, as if anyone would want to choose anything else with those many adjectives...then recommend the 3GB, but in an effort to make it still dual-channel at least they give you 2 512 sticks.

Don't even get started on their attempts to push the "KillerNIC" (which got debunked years ago and remains a joke among PC gamers spoofing the targeting of "too little sense/too much money" consumers pretty much everywhere) or the 128MB physics card that's soon to be obsolete.

The system that I configured in my build thread is under $800 without the case, these ones are more than double at the same configurations. If I was going to go high-end and didn't want to mess around with water cooling I'd go for Falcon NW, which at least knows what they're doing in this regard. Don't even touch Alienware.