Alienware X51 - Is it a good buy?

[shadowhuntur]

Im thinking of getting a new pc, but this one will be for gaming purposes! I generally want to be able to play the current latest games on Medium - High settings at a resolution of 1920x1080 with a steady 60FPS. When I say current games I mean the likes of Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Homefront, etc.

Heres the specs of the one I can afford:

Intel® Core™ i5-2320 3.0GHz (6MB Cache) with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
8GB (2x4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache
DW1502 Wireless-N WLAN Half Mini-Card

Would this be a good option that will last me at least 2 years of solid gaming? And will it be good enough to run the games listed above at 60FPS??

 

[Dell-Jesse-L]

Im thinking of getting a new pc, but this one will be for gaming purposes! I generally want to be able to play the current latest games on Medium - High settings at a resolution of 1920x1080 with a steady 60FPS. When I say current games I mean the likes of Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Homefront, etc.

Heres the specs of the one I can afford:

Intel® Core™ i5-2320 3.0GHz (6MB Cache) with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
8GB (2x4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache
DW1502 Wireless-N WLAN Half Mini-Card

Would this be a good option that will last me at least 2 years of solid gaming? And will it be good enough to run the games listed above at 60FPS??

shadowhunter,

I asked this question to a couple of Dell techs that are hardcore gamers. They said "yes" it is a "very" good system for gaming and would work well with these games you mentioned.

Thanks,
Dell-Jesse

 

[2ltjoel]

Hi, i am using a dell xps 8300.

i7-2600 @ 3.4ghz
1.25gb GTX 560ti
8gb 1333mhz
24 inch LED screen.
1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache
DW1510 Wireless-N WLAN Half Mini-Card

I am mostly into FPS games like BF3, i play a lot of bf3. With this set up you can't run crysis 2 or bf3 on max settings, but u can run it on high settings with fps ranging from 40-50 fps. (from my own experience)

As you can see, my system is more powerful compared to yours, so expect similar FPS?
Honestly, i feel you should invest in a DIY computer instead of alienware when it comes to gaming.

Why do i say so?
As a gamer, i would go for a cpu that can be overclocked to make my investments more worth it. You can get a good but cheap one like the i5-2500k. Yes, its previous generation but sandy bridge still owns

Gtx 555? its a low to mid range card. Yes it can run BF3 at a decent quality at a respectable FPS. But for future games? im not so sure. But of course, if you are not a hardcore gamer and you do not mind playing bf3 @ 1920 x 1080 at medium quality settings, go for it. Personally for me, i play it at high settings and get a frame rate of 40-50 as mentioned earlier.

If you want to ask me more, feel free to, i play exactly the games you are looking at now, both crysis 2 and bf3.

 

[Ubrales]

I agree with 2ltjoel's recommendations! Do your homework, spec out your system, and build your own.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Plus 1 ^

 

[C12Friedman]

While I have to agree that building your own would be the ideal solution, there are alternatives (Cyberpower PC and ibuypower come to mind) that will allow configuration options and aren't as expensive or limiting as the Alienware offerings (at least in my observations).
As far as the X51 system itself, I have so many issues with it, I don't know where to start... on the plus side it is a small footprint "gamer". (Note these are just my own personal issues and not reflective of actual ownership/experience with the X-51)
external power supply? could start there...
upgradeablilty? could start there...
price for "entry level gamer"? At near $1000, I will start there - Holy crap, what are they thinking? There are probably laptops in that price range that'll give you near the same gaming experience (but they won't say Alienware on them) - I'll stop now.
But (if you're in the states) check out these sites if you don't want to attempt to build it yourself and ask more questions (you can of course ignore my ramblings) to be sure of what you are getting
http://www.ibuypower.com/
and
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
You can do better than the X-51, enjoy