Dell XPS 8700 VS Alienware X51 for gaming

[Alex Mohler]

Would an $800 Dell XPS 8700 be better or worse then a $900 Alienware X51 gaming-wise? I get a student promotion with both, that's why I'm buying from these two brands I would not buy from otherwise.

 

[ryan27968]

They are both made by Dell and will have about the same quality. As far as I can see, The Alienware is better off the bat and looks much cooler. But the Dell has more room for expansion due to the psu and the case size.

 

[Momo Iko]

alienware is much better for gaming imo

 

[ryan27968]

alienware is much better for gaming imo

Alienware are just overpriced, gimmicky computers imo. but this looks like a fair battle to me. I would go for the dell, as it has more potential for expansion.

 

[NickPrus]

I have an x51 and it is are very good for gaming ( high to ultra at 60 fps).............for now. But the problem is with the small case and 330 watt powersupply, the upgradabilty is practically zero. I still enjoy it and if you plan on having this pc more than 2-3 years i would recommend the other option. I hope this helped, and ignore these people saying they are gimmicky and overpriced, they are very good pc's.

 

[Rosspest]

I would pick the Dell XPS 8700. Upgrade the Power supply to around 700 watts, cost about $70. Upgrade the GPU to a Nvidia 660 or better, I got a rebuilt 660 OC 2GB for $160. Add a 256 Mb SSD. Don't worry about how much RAM you have. 8 Gb or better is fine. Buy the crappiest Dell 8700 with an i7 4770 CPU you can find and upgrade it yourself.
Before you upgrade the GPU, I had to go into the BIOS and disable UEFI Secure Boot in XPS 8700 to get the video card working.
I wasted a lot of money buying the best Dell 8700.

 

[ryan27968]

i would agree that upgrading the system to your needs is best, but you need to keep in mind that the 4770[k] has no gaming advantage over the 4670[k] i7 has been shown time and time again to be overkill for gaming giving no actual fps advantage. rather go for a i5 4670[k]

 

[ryan27968]

ignore these people saying they are gimmicky and overpriced, they are very good pc's.

while they may be good pcs, they most certainly are overpriced. you could build a system with equivelant hardware to a baseline x51 for under $600 wheras alienware will charge you $700+

 

[vicentereis]

In my opinion the Alienware X51 is better prepared for games

Designed in SFF - Small Form Factor, the X51 is a machine that comes to fill a gap between desktops and gaming consoles.
The X51 is the perfect addition to your home theater. With HDMI and Blu-Ray drive outputs, you have in a single device, the most complete multimedia center.
Can also be used with up to 2 displays simultaneously via HDMI + DVI output
This machine is equipped with 4a. generation chipset Intel i7-4770, 3.90ghz, 8gb 1600mhz dual channel DDR3 RAM, nVidia GeForce GTX 760ti GPU with 2.0GB GDDR5 dedicated memory.

 

[Rosspest]

I'm really not all that impressed by the 760Ti, it delivers about 20% better performance than the 660Ti. Still you are comparing a $850 XPS 8700 to a $1,300 Alienware. Upgrade the XPS 8700 PSU for less than $100 to 700 watts or better..... Now you are comparing a $950 XPS 8700 to a $1,300 Alienware.... Invest $350 in a graphics card and the Alienware get's blown away.... XPS 8700 has 4 memory lots...Alienware has 2... XPS 8700 has far more expansion capability

 

[NickPrus]

ignore these people saying they are gimmicky and overpriced, they are very good pc's.

while they may be good pcs, they most certainly are overpriced. you could build a system with equivelant hardware to a baseline x51 for under $600 wheras alienware will charge you $700+

I know that actually recently i built a pc worth that much that runs much smoother for the same price, im just saying.

 

[navyboy887]

Stay away from Alienware desktops. Overpriced & mediocre hardware for the price. I noticed that you said that you get a $100 student promotion, but if you are willing to give up that deal I would highly recommend building your own computer. You get to choose exactly what goes into your system and you can really save a lot of money by building. pcpartpicker.com is a very nice resource to use if you're new to that, along with YouTube of course.