Gaming desktops

current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
edited December 2012 in Technical Support
<div class="IPBDescription">Can you recommend a manufacturer?</div>Sorry been out of the pc gaming for quite a long time so I"m not really familiar with what people like. Can any one recommend any manufacturers? The desktop would be a pure gaming desktop.

I googled "gaming desktop" and alienware came up. They any good? I seem to remember their name but never looked into it back in the day.

Also i am not very computer savy but from what I understand the most important aspect in buying a new computer for future usage is the processor right? I understand graphics and memory can be upgraded but in terms of processing power what you get is what you get right? I haven't done research yet but what do games currently require right now? Is 3.4 ghz enough for the next few years? I see their next model up has 4.2 in it..

Thanks for any help!
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited December 2012
    Alienware is pretty good, but you do have to keep in mind that when buying into the "brand PC market". You are also paying for that brand, usually this means you pay more. But if you're not that computer savy, it is your best bet and you get the benefit of warranty.

    Now unless you have a friend that is indeed computer savy to help you build your own rig, you can open up that avenue. They tend to be better performers and also you save a few bucks.

    He's the usual though, even holds true for Brand PC's:

    Go for the Intel iCores (the K stands for being able to <strike>go turbo mode and also</strike> overclock):

    Sandy Bridge
    i5 2500K
    i7 2600K

    Or the newer Ivy Bridge (~4-10% faster and less power consumption, but more expensive)"
    i5 3570K
    i7 3770K

    Motherboard would be a LGA 1155 platform with a bout 8-16Gb of DDR3-1600 memory, 16Gb is a bit overkill for gaming though. Just make sure they come in double memory modules (not four modules), so it is more stable if you ever want to overclock (or run the processor in Turbo mode)

    Videocard, I tend to say NVIDIA is currently better in terms of driver support and performance. However the latest ATI/AMD is technically faster AFAIK...

    I'm not into Brand PC's so someone else has to take up that one if you really want to go with a Brand PC... I jsut listed the basic requirements for a good rig. Even on stock speeds
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    edited December 2012
    Sadly I think I'm going to stick with name brand stuff. I am not up to building my own.

    What about these specs:
    alienware X51
    <b>PROCESSOR</b> 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 (8M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz) ----(<i>I don't see the K after the name so I guess I can't overclock it but is 3.4 ghz enough?)</i>
    <b>OPERATING SYSTEM</b> Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
    <b>VIDEO CARD</b> 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 <i>(Looking at the nvida line the GTX660 is up there but not the best - Is the 660 a good card in modern gameing standards?) </i>
    <b>MEMORY </b>8GB (2 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 up to 1600MHz <i>(It has the 2x4 like you recommended)</i>
    <b>HARD DRIVE </b>1TB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache <i>(Is getting a solid state hard drive worth it for 250 more instead of this 1TB drive?, What do most gamers use?)</i>
    <b>MONITOR</b> Dell U2212HMC 21.5-Inch UltraSharpâ„¢ Monitor

    That comes out to be $1458

    Alienware Aurora
    <b>PROCESSOR </b>2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3820 (10M Cache, Overclocked up to 4.1 GHz)--- <i>(again I don't see the K after but it says its overclocked???)</i>
    <b>OPERATING SYSTEM</b> Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
    <b>MEMORY</b> 8GB (4 X 2GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz <i>(4 slots not 2, I suppose that's worse then the other one for stability reasons?)</i>
    <b>VIDEO CARD</b> 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660
    <b>HARD DRIVE</b> 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
    <b>MONITOR</b> Dell U2212HMC 21.5-Inch UltraSharpâ„¢ Monitor

    That comes out to be $1700

    So looking at these two computers Is the .7 ghz worth an extra 250 dollars? I kind of think yes but is it overkill for modern games? Or more importantly overkill for ns2? The x51 has 2 memory slots so maybe it's better for that reason?

    Sorry for the dumb questions :)
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited December 2012
    Even without the K they do have the turbo mode (my bad in my earlier post) which takes it in the case of the Ivy bridge i5-3570 and i7-3770 to 3.8Ghz and 3.9Ghz. And the two memory modules being more stable only comes into play if you go for the real big overclocks in the range of 4.5Ghz to 5Ghz. Intel's Turbo mode should be fine even with 4 modules. Basically a CPU has to do more work with more modules and there is a higher chance the faster you clock it for instability issues with more memory modules. That is the only reason I advice 2 instead of 4 :)


    SSD is more of an OS or fast loading drive. The standard is the HDD for storage, the usual setup these days is to have a 120Gb - 250Gb SSD for the OS and programs you want to load fast and have a second HDD for storage.


    Just an FYI, the i7 is a core that has 4 extra virtual cores so to speak, these only come into play if you're doing heavy video editing or other threaded stuff. Most games don't make use of hyperthreading all the much. So an i5 is cheaper and in terms of gaming does the same thing for much less money...
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    edited December 2012
    VERY good info thanks. Ill keep looking around. Right now I'm looking at this maingear x-cube thing and it seems to be a decent system for around $1500 including a monitor and keyboard.

    Chassis: X-CUBE SFF Chassis - Black
    Motherboard: Intel® DH77EB Featuring USB 3.0, SATA 6G, Lucid Virtu
    Processor: Intel® CoreT i5 3570K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4000
    Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR Certified Intel&reg Retail Cooler
    Memory: 8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 Value Select (2x4GB)
    Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForceT GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX [PERFORMANCE]
    SSD Caching For Faster System Response: 60GB Corsair® AcceleratorT SSD Caching Drive
    Hard Drive Bay One: 500GB Seagate 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA

    <a href="http://www.maingear.com/custom/sff/xcube/index.php" target="_blank">http://www.maingear.com/custom/sff/xcube/index.php</a>

    Does any one else have suggestions? I'm open to suggestions but right now I'm trying to keep it around the $1500 range...
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  • kalvkalv Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31339Members
    Alienware is high end gaming PCs... but they are very expensive. The main components for gaming performance are CPU, Video card, ram and a SSD can improve load times. Before buying a PC make sure you have good enough components that can run the game of your choice.
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  • kalvkalv Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31339Members
    <!--quoteo(post=2051952:date=Dec 27 2012, 02:34 PM:name=current1y)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (current1y @ Dec 27 2012, 02:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2051952"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->VERY good info thanks. Ill keep looking around. Right now I'm looking at this maingear x-cube thing and it seems to be a decent system for around $1500 including a monitor and keyboard.

    Chassis: X-CUBE SFF Chassis - Black
    Motherboard: Intel® DH77EB Featuring USB 3.0, SATA 6G, Lucid Virtu
    Processor: Intel® CoreT i5 3570K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4000
    Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR Certified Intel&reg Retail Cooler
    Memory: 8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 Value Select (2x4GB)
    Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForceT GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX [PERFORMANCE]
    SSD Caching For Faster System Response: 60GB Corsair® AcceleratorT SSD Caching Drive
    Hard Drive Bay One: 500GB Seagate 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA

    <a href="http://www.maingear.com/custom/sff/xcube/index.php" target="_blank">http://www.maingear.com/custom/sff/xcube/index.php</a>

    Does any one else have suggestions? I'm open to suggestions but right now I'm trying to keep it around the $1500 range...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    With that PC you can play any game on the market now smoothly. It's not top notch, but definitely a good gaming PC you can use for years.
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  • AussieKidAussieKid Join Date: 2012-08-07 Member: 154896Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited December 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=2051922:date=Dec 28 2012, 05:28 AM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Dec 28 2012, 05:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2051922"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Alienware is pretty good, but you do have to keep in mind that when buying into the "brand PC market". You are also paying for that brand, usually this means you pay more. But if you're not that computer savy, it is your best bet and you get the benefit of warranty.

    Now unless you have a friend that is indeed computer savy to help you build your own rig, you can open up that avenue. They tend to be better performers and also you save a few bucks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Very good advice, I was expecting people on here to start going off on a rant about how you should build your own PC from components (which admittedly I do) however it's worth noting everyone has different requirements. Buying a complete brand PC such as Alienware (DELL) gives you the benefit of more convenient warranty which can be invaluable, especially for those who may not be that confident opening up a system and replacing parts themselves as well as for those who know there's a single company to deal with if anything on their system breaks.

    Edit: was going to recommend maingear but looks like you're already on the case... in regards to their x-cube system, I've noticed that they don't give you any extra options for a cooler (it uses a standard intel cooler that comes with the processor). This means that if you do actually want to overclock the CPU then you would want to look at getting a better cooler installed. Maybe email them and ask if this is possible for them to do for you and to give you some quotes? Otherwise, save a few dollars and consider getting a non "K" version CPU as those can still be overclocked to some extent, just not as high as the "K" version.
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    edited December 2012
    Well it turns out two coworkers build them and another friend have been building PCS for a while now. Everyone seems to highly recommend it. Since I am on a budget and would prefer to get something nice I think I'll be building my own. I'm kinda worried about it but since apparently I know so many people who do I i doubt I can mess up...

    Hopefully I am not getting in over my head..

    Can any one suggest any websites? Right now All i know is newegg.
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    edited December 2012
    Well this is what I put together over the last 24 hrs off of newegg. Any opinions? Maybe I'm missing somthing? From my understanding every thing works together.I tried finding 2x2 motherboards but none seemed to be very popular.

    <b>Motherboard</b> - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI - $180
    <b>CPU</b> - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) - $219.99
    <b>CPU</b> Fan/heat sink - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus -$30
    <b>GPU</b>- EVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB - $289
    <b>Memory</b>- CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 x2 so 8 gig total - $50
    <b>DVD</b> – ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM – $20
    <b>Hard Drive</b> - OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128G 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $120 <i>I'm unsure on this simply becuase I've never heard of ocz. They got great reviews on newegg and the price is $100 cheaper then the samsung 840 SSD</i>
    <b>Keyboard</b> - Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Keyboard - $49
    <b>Monitor</b> - ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P - $170
    <b>Power</b> - CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W - 130
    <b>Case</b> - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $ 99

    Total is around $1300
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  • SixtyWattManSixtyWattMan Join Date: 2004-09-05 Member: 31404Members
    Ditch the OCZ SSD and go for Samsung, Intel, or Crucial. OCZ is not quality.
    ***Also you will still need an actual hard drive in addition to the SSD. You don't have one listed in your current build. Go for Western Digital Black drives.

    Your current power supply is over priced and over powered for your build. I recommend the Seasonic X650. You save a lot of money and get one of the highest quality power supplies on the market.
    <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151088</a>

    Also $50 for a non-mechanical keyboard is a little high. I recommend something cheaper or something more expensive. The only mechanical keyboard worth getting on newegg is the CM Quickfire Rapid. It's tenkeyless but high quality. (CMs other mechanicals suck. Be warned.)
    <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129006" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16823129006</a>

    As for cases, I would ditch the Antec and get a Fractal Design. Same price range but much higher quality.
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  • DavilDavil Florida, USA Join Date: 2012-08-14 Member: 155602Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=2052806:date=Dec 29 2012, 04:48 AM:name=SixtyWattMan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SixtyWattMan @ Dec 29 2012, 04:48 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2052806"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Ditch the OCZ SSD and go for Samsung, Intel, or Crucial. OCZ is not quality.
    ***Also you will still need an actual hard drive in addition to the SSD. You don't have one listed in your current build. Go for Western Digital Black drives.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    How can everything you say be so opinionated yet so wrong all the time? I'll just link this article from tomshardware and let you figure it out for yourself. OCZ drives are actually pretty near the top on that chart and the one he picked out ranks at #5. Please stop giving advice bud.

    <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269-6.html" target="_blank">Toms Hardware Best SSD's article</a>
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  • SixtyWattManSixtyWattMan Join Date: 2004-09-05 Member: 31404Members
    edited December 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=2052932:date=Dec 29 2012, 01:21 PM:name=Davil)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Davil @ Dec 29 2012, 01:21 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2052932"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How can everything you say be so opinionated yet so wrong all the time? I'll just link this article from tomshardware and let you figure it out for yourself. OCZ drives are actually pretty near the top on that chart and the one he picked out ranks at #5. Please stop giving advice bud.

    <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269-6.html" target="_blank">Toms Hardware Best SSD's article</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Unfortunately, OCZ drives have a tendency to DIE CONSTANTLY. There is a reason no one buys OCZ and everyone buys Samsung, Intel, and Crucial.
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    edited December 2012
    I ended up changing the case, motherboard and hard drive based on every ones suggestions and came up with a similar 1300 price tag.

    I built this on cyber power and its damn close to the exact build i personally was going to do. It will be about 150 dollars extra. What do you guys think of this build?

    <a href="http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1EQYGY" target="_blank">http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1EQYGY</a>
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  • AlphaWolfAlphaWolf Join Date: 2003-01-11 Member: 12175Members
    <!--quoteo(post=2051922:date=Dec 27 2012, 01:28 PM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Dec 27 2012, 01:28 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2051922"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Alienware is pretty good, but you do have to keep in mind that when buying into the "brand PC market". You are also paying for that brand, usually this means you pay more.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I haven't kept up with the consumer end (I mostly deal with enterprise grade server clusters, switches, and routers these days) but as far as I'm aware, most of these are actually heavily subsidized by the crapplets that ISV's pay the OEM to include with the computer. I don't mind them myself, because any time I buy a whole computer (something I can't build, e.g. a laptop) I just take a stock windows disk, wipe the whole thing squeaky clean, and install using the OEM key printed on the COA.

    In the end I still get a clean system only cheaper.
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  • current1yoldcurrent1yold Join Date: 2012-09-10 Member: 158911Members
    well for better or worse I got bought a premade desktop. I ended up going with one made by cyber power since i could configure how i wanted it and It ended up being extremely close (less actually) to what I would pay for the parts individually and built it myself. I hope I didn't make a mistake but these are the specs. I plan to add a regular HDD when this one fills up.

    Here are some of the main components:
    CAS: Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid-Tower
    CPU: Intel® Coreâ„¢ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz
    Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan
    HDD: 120 GB Kingston HyperX 3K SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD
    MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
    Motherboard: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASUS P8Z77-V LK Intel Z77
    POWERSUPPLY: * 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 80 Plus
    VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (EVGA Superclocked)

    ended up being 1250 otd with no monitor.
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