Hello,

I have a problem on my hands. I recently Bought an alienware alx computer from well.. alienware ^^.
I am happy with my purchase but i am now hearing of newer technoligies coming out that could potentially leave me unable too play all the games i so love too play at the graphic quality im used too. I live everything as highend as possible but i also though i was buying a pc that would last me 3-4 years without having too upgrade.

So i bought an alienware alx with the most tech i could put in it but with these new solit state drives and newer graphics card coming out i would like too know will my rig be able too hold up too runing the lastest games 3-4 years down the line or should i return it and get a refund and just wait till this new stuff comes out and buy it? But then if i do wont it just be out of date aswell another 4 years down the line? Im sorta in a delema because i love playing all the latest games that come out on the pc and for the minute i can but what about years down the line?

My budget is actually £6,500

This is why i need all you smart computer ppl out there ^^

All Advice would be appreciated and It would leave it in a less pickle of a situation =P

O and my rigout or everything i bought is as follows:



1 | AREA 51 ALX R6


1 | ALX FULL-TOWER BLACK CASE 2.1


1 | EVGA NFORCE 680i SLI MB REV D


1 | CDKE,QX6850,3000/1333,2X4M,4C


4 | PDP 1GB DDR2 LOW LATENCY PC-6400 AW108


2 | WESTERN DIGITAL 160GB SATA 10K RPM HDD


1 | HITACHI 1TB 7k1000 SATA 3.0G NCQ


1 | LG H20N 6X BLU-RAY COMBO


1 | LG 20X DUAL-LAYER DVD RE-WRITER NON-LIG


1 | ATECH 28 IN 1 MEDIA READER REV 1.2


1 | KILLER NIC K1


1 | INTEGRATED HIGH-DEF AUDIO NVIDIA C55-MB


2 | NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 ULTRA


1 | ALIENWARE MOUSE PAD


1 | VISTA ULTIMATE COA 32 BIT


1 | WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE RECOVERY DVD 1.1


1 | ALIENRESPAWN V2.0 FACTORY INSTALL


1 | ALIENFX SOFTWARE VERSION 1.05


1 | VISTA SUPPORT CD - AREA-51 ALX R6 REV2


1 | ALIENWARE ALIENADRENALINE (ETPS V3.75)


1 | NERO 7 R5.9


1 | POWERDVD BLU-RAY FOR WINDOWS VISTA 8CH


1 | ALIENRESPAWN V2.0 MEDIA KIT UK


1 | WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE UK


1 | ALIENWARE DESKTOP ALX BINDER UK


1 | OWNER IDENTIFICATION CARD


1 | ALX CUSTOMER NAMEPLATE


1 | TC LCS COLD PLATE RETENTION MECHANISM INTEL KIT W/VREG


1 | ALIENWARE MAIN BOARD RGB REV 4


1 | CONTROL ELC SW CARD-Active


1 | TC LCS SINGLE PROCESSOR LIQUID COOLING SYSTEM PANAFLOW FAN


1 | NVIDIA SLI TECHNOLOGY CONFIGURATION


1 | VISTA SLI CONFIGURATION


1 | 1 KILOWATT OEM ATX PSU


1 | DELL 1 KW POWER CORD UK


1 | 1 KILOWATT MOUNTING BRACKET AMTEK


3 | SATA DATA CBL 60 CMS ST TO R ANGLE


1 | 3.5" TO 5.25" EXTERNAL DEVICE ADAPTER


1 | INTEL CORE 2 EXTREME QX6850 3.33GHZ OC


1 | CPU OVERCLOCK


1 | ELC RED


1 | RAID 0 STRIPING 2 DRIVES


1 | 3-YR 24/7 ALX WARRANTY


1 | CUSTOMER SUPPORT WARRANTY (NO CHARGE)


1 | AVATAR:ALIENHEAD FLAT


1 | WINDOW STYLE: VISTA BLUE


1 | MOUSE POINTERS: STANDARD


1 | WALLPAPER: ALIENHEAD FLAT (Widescreen)


1 | POWER PLAN: HIGH PERFORMANCE


1 | AUTOMATIC UPDATES: ON


1 | SIDEBAR GADGET: CPU METER


1 | RSS FEED: EUROGAMER


1 | RSS FEED: ENGADGET


1 | TIME ZONE: GREENWICH MEAN TIME


1 | SYSTEM PERSONALIZATION


1 | PERIPHERALS


1 | LOGITECH MX REVOLUTION


1 | MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 PRO ENGLISH


1 | ALX ALUMINUM BRIEFCASE


1 | ALX POLO SHIRT


1 | LOGITECH DINOVO EDGE


1 | DELL 30" ULTRASHARP WIDESCREEN FLAT PANEL MONITOR


1 | CREATIVE GIGAWORKS S750

The only thing that comes to mind for me would be the new PCI Express 2.0 cards, which your 8800 Ultra is not. I'm not sure how the processor will affect the newer games coming out or not, but your quad-core should last 3 years at least.

As for the SSD, I wouldn't expect a large change in them just yet. Eventually yes, but I don't think 'gaming' is really going to make the switch very quickly.

That system is already obsolete.

It sounds like you have quite a system there. As for future proofing, though, there’s no such thing. In 2004 you could’ve bought an AMD FX processor (which had no rival) just to have it get out performed by a cheaper Core2Duo less than 2 years later. With that much money to spend I would think you’d be better served building yourself a computer; if you feel comfortable undertaking the task. You could save money (which probably isn’t a concern); but more importantly you would be more easily able to adapt to changing technologies by simply ordering a single upgrade component. The most important thing is to get a good mainboard. Having a slacking mother board is the quickest way to have technology run by you.

Like the previous comment, I tend to agree SSD drives are a bit overhyped at the moment. Do you really need that much performance? Won’t a 15k Cheetah or 10k Raptor do just fine? Or put a pair of them in raid… I’m sure you’ll notice some latency issues starting games and what not, but actual gameplay just won’t see any effect, I don’t think. I’m not too savvy on all the advancements yet, though, so don’t take my word as gospel. I’m sure someone out there can tell you more than me. But I’m also always weary of investing in technologies that are in their infancy. Which SSDs as main drives certainly are.

Ok thank you for your input all

So then do you think i should just return the alienware and build my own or just keep the alienware? =P

By 2011 your PC will most likely be an obsolete paperweight with all the computational power of a mid-range wristwatch.

Ebay will have dozens of PCs just like yours up with the "Buy it Now" feature for £0.99, but no one will buy them.

Installing a modern game on your system will be like installing Crysis on the ENIAC.

Just curious, but with those kind of specs why only 1GB RAM? Anyways it's just about impossible to "future proof" a PC, especially for gaming. But looking at your budget and specs either money is no object and you can just buy a new high PC every couple years or you're drastically overpaying and are wasting money now that could be used down the road for more valuable upgrades. My opinion is that Alienware is very overpriced. Look at some of the things you're paying for; Why would you need a Vista Recovery disc AND Vista Ultimate? A alienware mouse pad? Dell Kilowatt power cable? This is why Dell/Alienware suck. They'll push a "Owner Identification Card" but ignore more then the minimum amount of RAM because there's more of a markup on paper then silicon.

If you notice the numbers beside every item is the quanity so its not 1Gb its 4GB

and the vista recovery disk is so if the pc screws up it patritions the :c drive and puts the data back as if it just came out of the factor. An actually very very very handy tool if ur pc goes beond no return and some of the items on the list like the powercord and mousemat and breefcase ect were free things because i got an alx machine Having sayed alienwares support is top nothc and is open 24/7 they also use remote desktop software of there own and can basically fix your pc probs for you using that and over the phone. Very quick and reliable servive which is why i dont want too have too send it back unless its going 2 be useless in 2-3 years time lol

I missed the 4x1GB. As to the Vista Recovery disc it looks like from your list that you bought both Vista Ultimate and a Recovery Disc. You shouldn't need both unless they are not supplying you with the Vista Ultimate disc, which would be a rip off since you are paying for it. I don't know what you're paying for each thing you listed but it makes me suspicious when I see 3 | SATA DATA CBL 60 CMS ST TO R ANGLE. It looks like they're charging for "Special" cable's to connect your HDDs.

yes the cables were free and yesthey didnt gave the the ultimate cd, they sayed there's id better because it incorporates my copy of vista with all the drivers and software pre installed too.


I just want too know with my pc's spec can i play all he games that are coming out 3-4 years down the line without the thing crashing or lagging to hell even with low graphical settings =P

I mean am i better off waiting a we while till these new technologies come out and then buy a big expensive system with newer tech? but then 3-4 years after that wouldnt it just become obsalete anyway?


Thanks,

Nathan

I bought an Alienware years ago, long before Dell bought the company, and the service was the best I received from any company whose computers I bought. Seeing your budget is so high, my guess is that you are't really shy on money, so the idea of homebuilding may be secondary to you compared with a good guarentee and service. For myself, I found the recovery disc handy at first, but after the first time I did an upgrade, it was useless. It kept looking for hardware that was no longer there and then would crash.

As for future proofing, that just can't be done with a computer. I remember seeing an advertisement where someone bought the latest and greatest computer and while on his way home saw an add for a newer computer. That said, your computer should handle almost everything that comes out for the next 2-3 years. The only exception may be in the area of graphics cards. The 8800 series cards are DX10 and a DX10.1 standard has been released. At the moment, the only cards that I know of which comply to the new standard are the ATI 37xx series and maybe the 8800GT. Not sure about the 8800GT. Its not much to worry about, though, as it will probably be a couple years before this becomes an issue.

The one main change I would get is to change the Vista 32 to Vista 64. The 32 bit is a total drag and a waste on your computer. The 32 bit OS will only see about 3-3.3 gig of your ram and will run slower than the 64 bit OS. Coming software will be changing to 64 bit as well. Fortunately you can upgrade this directly from Microsoft for a small charge. You might try to talk Alienware into making the upgrade for you.

Read a bit of this post

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] aming-help

there are lot of posts suggesting what to do with a lot of money without wasting it.

About solid state disks, they rocks, but they are just too expensive and i'm not sure about this, but i remember that they 'die' after a time because of limited rewriting capability (those were flash disks, but you should see more info before buying something like that). I hope that in a couple years they are going to be cheaper =).

Simply put. No. Think about what was top of the line in 2003. Do you think it could handle Crysis? or COD4? Here's a couple of examples of system requirements for games from 3-4years ago:

HL2
Recommended: 2.4 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

UT2004
Operating System: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP
Processor: Pentium® III or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz processor or faster (1.5 GHz or faster processor recommended)
Memory: 128 MB RAM minimum (256 MB recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 5.5 GB free
Video: Any Windows-compatible video card(NVIDIA GeForce 2 or ATI Radeon with at least 64 megs of video memory recommended)
Sound: Windows®-compatible sound card. NVIDIA® nForce(tm) or other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby® Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio
DirectX®: DirectX® version 8.1(included)or higher
Multiplayer: Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP)play supported | 33.6K baud modem or broadband Internet connection recommended

As for the second part of your question about waiting; You can wait and there will be something better but you're still going to pay a fortune and it will still have the same limited life span and in the mean time you won't have a system. This goes back to what I originally said. Either you spend a fortune on the absolute best and except that you'll have to do it again in a couple years or you take a more economical aproach and buy a lesser machine now and save money for upgrades when they come down in price. Either way you're going to have to keep on spending to keep up. There's no way around it.

It is a better choice to buy every year in a 3 years period a 2k pc than a 6k pc that "should" last 3-4 years

"In the computer world it is always better to be one step behind than one step forward"
"Super high end products are low end products realesed 2-3 years before"

hope it helps