Alienware Aurora or a custom system

[fire_storm]

Hi

I am planing to upgrade to a new PC, my old one specs are

GA-965-DS3
E6750 2.66
5gb ram
275GTX

I am planning to either buy an Alienware aurora with the following specs

Processor Intel® Core™ i7 930 Quad Core Processor (2.8GHz, 8MB Cache)
Memory 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (3x 4096MB)
Hard Drive 1TB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 32MB Cache HDD
Graphics Card Single 2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5970
Optical Drive Single Drive: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
$2,348

or build a PC my self, which is better?

Price wise I found the alienware to be cheaper than a custom PC


Note : I don't live in the US so please don't give me part prices from newegg. this is where I will buy my parts http://ncix.com/

 

[gkay09]

^ Well for the same config, if custom built, it would cost ~$300 less...
Links taken from www.newegg.ca and not www.newegg.com

i7 930 + ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.434527

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231356

Samsung F3 1TB
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

HD 5970
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131324

Samsung BD Combo
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151199

CM HAF 922
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

PSU - For single HD 5970
Corsair 750TX
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

For 2x HD 5970
Antec TPQ 1KW
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371012

Total - ~$2036 with the 1KW PSU...

 

[gkay09]

But again I would like to say that if with shipping, taxes and other charges included, the price difference is less, then the Alienware might not be a bad option after all...

 

[fire_storm]

But again I would like to say that if with shipping, taxes and other charges included, the price difference is less, then the Alienware might not be a bad option after all...

newegg.ca ships from the US which makes it more expensive that it looks

also the Alienware comes with a water cooler

 

[asteldian]

The only way that could be cheaper than a custom made PC is if they use a really crap HDD, RAM and PSU (very possible). But even then and even Canada prices I would expect a cheaper system to be built by yourself - Alienware have never been known for value, just power.

For a start, is this a gaming PC primarily? If so you certainly don't need 12gb of RAM!
In fact gaming wise an i7 is pretty pointless, but we can keep that for now assuming you really want it.

I am curious, why do you not want to use www.newegg.ca as even with shipping costs it looks to be cheaper than your site for Canada

i7 930 - $319.01 ($303.98 Newegg.ca)

G Skill 6gb RAM CL9 - $207.25 ($190.48 at newegg and CL7 not 9)

Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD 1TB - $99.99 ($90.73 Newegg)

GPU 5970 - $799.99 ($746.98 Newegg)

Blue Ray Drive - Couldn't find at ncix as i am not very good with that site ($77.48 Newegg)

HAF 922 case - $129.99 ($125.98 Newegg)

PSU Corsair 850W - $174.99 ($168.58 and then $20 rebate)

Motherboard ASUS P6X58D-E - $266.76 ($249.99)

Ncix Total: $2075.46
Newegg Total: $1954.20 (these prices include shipping)

As you can see, both builds are cheaper and using top quality parts (the mobo has XFire capability, it also uses USB/SATA III) a great PSU, top quality fast RAM, one of the best HDDs around, an excellent case.

The only thing your own build has les of is the 12gb RAM the Alienware has, but that is $200 for nothing really, you have more RAM than you need and great quality and faster.

If that Alienware system comes with windows 7 then you need to add $118.99 ($111.98 Newegg) to your custom price

New totals:
Ncix: $2194.45
Newegg: $2066.18

So, still cheaper and top quality. If you were to go with newegg.ca, then of course you can likely combo up alot of your items so you would be saving even more money.

It looks like a no contest to me, making yourself is cheaper, better parts and no money wasted on pointles extras. Even the Water cooling is what I would consider pointless - even if you want to heavily OC, I bet the quality of cooling in that system is inferior to a load of air coolers available.

Edit: I was being optimistic going with an 850W in case you Crossfire those cards, Gkays 1KW PSU is a better idea and only $20 more

 

[fire_storm]

The only way that could be cheaper than a custom made PC is if they use a really crap HDD, RAM and PSU (very possible). But even then and even Canada prices I would expect a cheaper system to be built by yourself - Alienware have never been known for value, just power.

For a start, is this a gaming PC primarily? If so you certainly don't need 12gb of RAM!
In fact gaming wise an i7 is pretty pointless, but we can keep that for now assuming you really want it.

I am curious, why do you not want to use www.newegg.ca as even with shipping costs it looks to be cheaper than your site for Canada

i7 930 - $319.01 ($303.98 Newegg.ca)

G Skill 6gb RAM CL9 - $207.25 ($190.48 at newegg and CL7 not 9)

Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD 1TB - $99.99 ($90.73 Newegg)

GPU 5970 - $799.99 ($746.98 Newegg)

Blue Ray Drive - Couldn't find at ncix as i am not very good with that site ($77.48 Newegg)

HAF 922 case - $129.99 ($125.98 Newegg)

PSU Corsair 850W - $174.99 ($168.58 and then $20 rebate)

Motherboard ASUS P6X58D-E - $266.76 ($249.99)

Ncix Total: $2075.46
Newegg Total: $1954.20 (these prices include shipping)

As you can see, both builds are cheaper and using top quality parts (the mobo has XFire capability, it also uses USB/SATA III) a great PSU, top quality fast RAM, one of the best HDDs around, an excellent case.

The only thing your own build has les of is the 12gb RAM the Alienware has, but that is $200 for nothing really, you have more RAM than you need and great quality and faster.

If that Alienware system comes with windows 7 then you need to add $118.99 ($111.98 Newegg) to your custom price

New totals:
Ncix: $2194.45
Newegg: $2066.18

So, still cheaper and top quality. If you were to go with newegg.ca, then of course you can likely combo up alot of your items so you would be saving even more money.

It looks like a no contest to me, making yourself is cheaper, better parts and no money wasted on pointles extras. Even the Water cooling is what I would consider pointless - even if you want to heavily OC, I bet the quality of cooling in that system is inferior to a load of air coolers available

Last time I ordered from newegg.ca they charged me a lot for importing to the US or border broker fees, I don't remember what it was but it made the price significantly higher than other stores

for now I found better princes on http://www.canadacomputers.com/

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65&item_id=028693
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_558&item_id=027642
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_443&item_id=023484
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_111&item_id=019666
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_54&item_id=029829
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=025450
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_611&item_id=023348

but I don't trust these guys, they tried to sell me used stuff as new

 

[asteldian]

Ah, so in addition to the shipping fees from newegg.ca (which is fairly expesive given the .com has no shipping costs) you get charged even more in addition? If that is the case then I can see it being more expensive...on the other hand, including the fees on the site you are still $130 cheaper than ncix, if you add in combos it could be about $200 cheaper, will the hidden extra cost equal that?

Either way, whichever company you buy from it looks to be cheaper than the Alienware and better parts

 

[fire_storm]

question, should I go with the 480 GTX or 5970 HD?

 

[asteldian]

Personally, if you have the money I would grab the 5970, it is more powerful than the 480 whilst using probably the same kind of power and probably being cooler. But then I am pretty anti Nvidias 400 series, they disappointed me to be honest when compared to ATI