Hello guys. I've looked through the Alienware X51 questions but they didn't help me make up my mind, so I apologize in advance for starting another thread on that topic and here goes:
The old HP my kids have been using as a family PC is on its last legs - if you bump it, or breath on it, or even look at it too long I have to spend an hour fixing it. I work long hours and just don't have the time or energy to fight with it anymore, nor do I want to try and figure out what components it has that are still worth using in another build. So my options are build a custom rig or replace this prebuilt with another prebuilt. I built my own gaming rig a few months ago and after the stress of deciding on parts, assembling and then troubleshooting the thing I'm not liking the idea of that amount of work just for something the kids are going to use for youtube and minecraft, and the occasional old game off Steam. I looked at the prebuilts but unless you want to spend over $600 you are stuck with integrated graphics. So that got me looking at the X51. Its compact, its cheap and it'll play any of the games my kids want to try and run on it and it has a 1 year warranty so if it doesn't work it is Dell's problem and not mine.
Now, having had prebuilts and customs I realize that I get twice the life (at least) out of a custom rig and they are so much easier to work on after the warranty expires. I have no desire to ever open the case on a slim X51 with my fat fingers. But, I also know that every time I've fired up a custom build I've had to spend time figuring out why one component was mad at another component, or how I could have possibly forgotten to plug in that one wire that is laying in plain sight but that I missed for HOURS!!!
So, long story short, is the X51 worth the bucks if I know going into it that I'm just getting a Dell? Or should I have some of you fine users post your $700 builds (including Windows) that you can assure me (barring my own screw ups) will go together easy-peasy and work better?
The old HP my kids have been using as a family PC is on its last legs - if you bump it, or breath on it, or even look at it too long I have to spend an hour fixing it. I work long hours and just don't have the time or energy to fight with it anymore, nor do I want to try and figure out what components it has that are still worth using in another build. So my options are build a custom rig or replace this prebuilt with another prebuilt. I built my own gaming rig a few months ago and after the stress of deciding on parts, assembling and then troubleshooting the thing I'm not liking the idea of that amount of work just for something the kids are going to use for youtube and minecraft, and the occasional old game off Steam. I looked at the prebuilts but unless you want to spend over $600 you are stuck with integrated graphics. So that got me looking at the X51. Its compact, its cheap and it'll play any of the games my kids want to try and run on it and it has a 1 year warranty so if it doesn't work it is Dell's problem and not mine.
Now, having had prebuilts and customs I realize that I get twice the life (at least) out of a custom rig and they are so much easier to work on after the warranty expires. I have no desire to ever open the case on a slim X51 with my fat fingers. But, I also know that every time I've fired up a custom build I've had to spend time figuring out why one component was mad at another component, or how I could have possibly forgotten to plug in that one wire that is laying in plain sight but that I missed for HOURS!!!
So, long story short, is the X51 worth the bucks if I know going into it that I'm just getting a Dell? Or should I have some of you fine users post your $700 builds (including Windows) that you can assure me (barring my own screw ups) will go together easy-peasy and work better?
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