Oh man, one day sale, grab this alienware?

[gorgot]

I'm turning into such a sucker, reading the Dell site...never thought I'd consider an Alienware (just hate the look of the case), but I am into serious gaming and this guy stood out to me:

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7 920 (3.2GHz, 8MB Cache)
1 Year Basic Service Plan
Dual 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 CrossfireX™ Enabled
6GB Triple Channel 1333Mhz DDR3
No Monitor
750GB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 16MB Cache HDD
No Mouse
No Keyboard
Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

With 350 off it's 1499. What do you guys think?

 

[aford10]

I think it's way overpriced. You can easily OC a i7 920 yourself with a good motherboard, you shouldn't need to pay for it.

The crossfire sounds nice, but the 5770s are fairly cheap.

It only comes with 1 optical drive. That's a personal annoyance.

No monitor, so unless you have a nice one, tack on another $150 - $300.

No mouse or keyboard? And they want $1500 for it?? That's just not right....

 

[gorgot]

Fair 'enuff, thanks for talking me off the cliff.

 

[aford10]

Fair 'enuff, thanks for talking me off the cliff.

I'm here when you need a slap of clarity

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

aford woke him up!

 

[gorgot]

I'm actually looking at a home build suggested in another thread now, but I'm hesitating on the edge of the cliff. This is it:

CPU: i7-920 $289
Mobo: Asus P6X58D Premium $310
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Redline 3x2 GB DDR3 1600 mhz CAS Latency 6 $230
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $90
SSD: Intel X25-M 80GB SSD $290
Case: HAF 922 $90 (free shipping with a promo code)
PSU: SeaSonic 850W 80 Plus Silver $110
Optical: Cheapest SATA DVD burner $20
GPU: HD 5970 $650

With monitor and windows it's close to 2400, which would hit my wallet in a real bad way, so considering pairing it down.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

aford wake him up again!he is dizzy!

 

[aford10]

Wow....

It'd be a real sweet system, but do you need all the high end hardware?

The CPU is nice, and probably won't change in price much. So that's good.

The motherboard is overkill.

Samsung drive is good. The SSD is a nice idea, but if you're using it for a boot drive, it's oversized/overpriced.

the HAF is sweet. Not a bad price. Though, those promo codes don't last long. You can't sit on it.

The PSU is big time overkill unless you are planning to xfire in the future. This is a great PSU for a single card setup
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022&cm_re=ocz_550w-_-17-341-022-_-Product

 

[gorgot]

Well, truth be told, I played Crysis at semi-decent settings at a friends house and thought, gee, wouldn't that be nice to max out. That's when I got the bug. Honestly though, outside of that it's true what is really going to need that kind of power (you see those suggested Starcraft 2 beta requirements, haw!).

This would be my first build ever, maybe I'm going a little overboard. I'd just hate to build something and see a high end game sort of struggling and think, if only I had paid a few more hundred...

 

[aford10]

You can still get the features of a high end system, without overpaying for extra bells and whistles.

 

[rockyjohn]

I would stick with the 850w PSU with that build if you want room to keep the option to CF, and 750w even if you don't. The minimum requirements for the 5970 with one card - looking at XFX - is 650w, and I always like to have more for OC and upgrades and because PSUs run cooler, quieter, and more efficiently when not near operating at near capacity.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150460&cm_re=hd5970-_-14-150-460-_-Product

 

[aford10]

I think XFX is playing it safe, knowing that many out there are using 600w coolmax PSUs, that are really more like 450w PSUs.

The 5970 at peak will use ~350w.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/11/18/amd-ati-radeon-hd-5970-review/11
IMO, the OCZ 550w has plenty of room for a single card setup.

 

[rockyjohn]

Try out this build - prices were as of 1/17 - and note that it includes a Blu-Ray DVD reader. It only includes a GTX 275 - so you can substitute whatever card you want - the HD 5970 for instance (and with the larger graphics card upgrade the PSU from 750w back to your 850w):

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor – Retail - $289 with free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail - $210 + $8 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

GSKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI – Retail - $180 + $6 shipping
Timings 7-8-7-24-2N
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OCE GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card – Retail - $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143183

COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail - $90 + $10 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply – Retail - $130 + $6 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail - $45 with free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail - $90 + $8 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136162

Pioneer Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner LabelFlash Support - OEM - $35 + free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129045

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM - $180 with free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116762


Total Cost – Hardware $1299 + Shipping $38 + OS $180 = $1517