Dell XPS Vs Alienware

[jkovilak]

Hi,

I am thinking of buying a new desktop PC. My budget is about 1200$. I came across these 2 configurations and I am confused between the two. Can you please suggest pros and cons for these and recommend which one is a better buy. The Dell XPS comes with a Dell ultrasharp U241M 24 inch monitor. I already have a 22 inch monitor and so I do not really need it.

DELL XPS - New - Price $1149

XPS 8500 XPS 8500
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
Processors 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (up to 3.90 GHz)
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 2 DIMMs
Keyboard Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard
Monitor Dell UltraSharp™ U2412M 24" Monitor with Adj Stand, Widescreen, VGA/ DVI/ DP
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 2GB GDDR5
Wireless Driver Dell SRV Software 1703
Hard Drive 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
Chassis XPS 8500, Black Chassis w/19:1 media card reader
Mouse Dell Laser Mouse
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Optical Drive 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW), write to CD/DVD
Sound Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Wireless Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE



Alienware Aurora R4 - Dell Certified Refurbished - Price $1223

Processor: Intel Core i7-3820 Processor (3.6GHz,Quad Core, 10MB Cache) Overclocked up to 4.1GHz
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Alienware Aurora Desktop R4
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8 GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 555

 

[azeem40]

What is it going to be used for?

 

[jkovilak]

Gaming, Some work involving hosting multiple Virtual Machines

 

[azeem40]

Are you against building your own?

 

[jkovilak]

Not really but I have never built one before and I wouldn't want to delay getting the system for more than maybe 10 - 12 days time. Is there a really marked advantage that I can get over the config I have posted?

 

[azeem40]

Yep, for $1200, you can build a system with a GPU that performs many times better than the 7770 for games and your work. Currently, that build can be done on a $700 budget, so you overpay $500.

 

[jkovilak]

Can you please point me to such a build if one has already been posted or can you recommend one? I tried looking at a part by part price on Newegg but couldn't find such a drastic difference in price.