HELP!!! What do you think of this system?

[moo]

My wedding anniversary is on the 19th and I wanted to get Martoch something really special. Can you guys take a look at this sytem and share your thoughts, please? Is this good? Has anyone heard anything about the Alienware Aurora ALX? Do you think this would last him for a while before becoming obsolete?


PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
VIDEO CARD Single 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295
MEMORY 6GB Triple Channel 1600MHz DDR3
HARD DRIVE 1.5TB RAID 0 (2x 750GB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs)
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double
layer write capability
SOUND CARD Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio
WIRELESS 1505 PCIe WLAN card with11n mini-Card & external antenna
KEYBOARD Alienware TactX™ Keyboard
MOUSE Alienware TactX™ Mouse
PRE-INSTALLED GAMES AND CLIENTS Steam with Portal (for download)
PRE-INSTALLED GAMES AND CLIENTS World of Warcraft Preinstall Edition
Alienware Aurora ALX Alienware Aurora ALX
COOLING OPTION Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling


I appreciate your time and inputs!

[Flying JJ]

Well, from the looks of it, seems like a pretty decent setup. But, from what I have read and have seen, AlienWare is way over priced for what you get. If he has the knowledge ( it seems both of you are on here ), and I'll assume he does, why not get the parts and build one together. Save some money and treat yourselves to a nice night out.

[moo]

Well, what parts would be "must haves" and "nice to haves" for a gaming system? I really wanted to surprise him. I know posting here is a risk but, I plan to purchase very soon.

[Aaron_8015]

Must haves: would be the I7, mabye look into the radeon 5870/5850, 6gb ram.
Nice to have: couple 640Gb WD caviar blacks for Raid....

Can easily put together a list for a certain budget.... Will save you a fair bit of dosh over alienware also.....

Quote:

Do you think this would last him for a while before becoming obsolete?

The graphics card wont, new ATI cards are out already and its not long till nvidia releases next line of GPU's which will put that 295 to shame...

[Flying JJ]

If you have a budget in mind, Aaron, Karma or some others will recommend a good system.

Hows his tech level for building?

[moo]

He can build just fine but, the goal is to have it play ready and present it as a gift.

Is there another place to purchase pre-built gaming computers that compare to Alienware? My son had bought a gaming laptop from somewhere and I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the site..... and he is near impossible to get a hold of to ask.

I can spend up to around $3k-ish.

[moo]

Okay how about this one from iBuyPower....it comes out to a little cheaper than the alienware.......


Noise Reduction: Harmony SRS Sound Reduction System Improved Airflow Silent Fans

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 960 Processor (4x 3.20GHz/8MB L3 Cache)

Processor Cooling: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [SOCKET-1366]

Memory: 12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1333 Triple Memory Module Corsair XMS3 Dominator w/DHX technology

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870 - 1GB CrossFire Mode (Dual Cards)

Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI Classified -- Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire and SLI Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Dual Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way SLI PC 3-Way SLI

Power Supply: 1000 Watt -- Extreme Power Supply [Gaming Series] Quad SLI + Active PFC

Primary Hard Drive: 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s Dual 1TB Drives (2TB Capacity) - RAID 0 High Performance

Optical Drive: 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive [Lightscribe Technology] Black

2nd Optical Drive: 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive [Lightscribe Technology] Black

Flash Media Reader/Writer: 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black

Meter Display: NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Fan Control, Clock, and Temperature LCD Display

Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Network Card: Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 64-Bit

External Wireless Network Adapter: Zonet ZEW2545 802.11n 130Mbps Wireless USB Adapter

Advanced Build Options:
Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis
Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks

[Aaron_8015]

Now that is a much better system. Those two 5870 cards are so much faster/future proof than that 295 (even one 5870 beats a 295 in some tests) It is a faster clocked i7 and its on an evga classified board.

If you can does it give you the option to go for the baseline i7 920 2.66ghz? On that board you can clock it much faster... especialy with the WC it comes with......

[moo]

Thanks for all of your input! I am so excited. I am going to order it up right now! I think he will really love it. I'll take his old computer and maybe just upgrade the video card. The one in it is an nVidia 6600 GT. I don't need the gaming power that he does.



Woo Hoo!!!

[Aaron_8015]

Your going from a system with a 6600GT to this.... Saying "you are gonna be blown away" seems a little bit of an understatement...