Thinking about buying a desktop- advice needed

[Royalty]

Would this handle Tribes Ascend on max settings with FRAPS recording and still have 70+ FPS?

Alienware X51: $2500

• Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor 3.4GHz(8MB Cache) with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
• 8GB Dual Channel 1333 Mhz DDR3
• 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
• Internal High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio with Waves MAXX Audio Software

Includes:

• 23 inch Monitor
• Microsoft Office Home and Business
• Alienware TactX Keyboard
• 3 year Premier Service
• 36 Month MacAfee Security

What do you think?
BTW, my dad recently bought two Dell's for his office and got the price down from $3500 to $2180, so I could get a better deal.

 

[Application-1]

That pc but with a 2GB video card instead of 1GB and I would say that it should be able. And you are paying way too much money if you buy a alienware. You pay more for the brand then for the components.

T:A still acts weird on on pc's performance wise though, so I would not know for sure.

 

[St3lth]

Pretty sure FRAPS caps your fps to 60. If you want advice, do not buy alienware. Build your own desktop, it will be better in the long run and given that your budget is $2500 you could build something twice as better than the alienware.

 

[Dabbleh]

Pretty sure FRAPS cap your fps to 60. If you want advice, do not buy alienware. Build your own desktop, it will be better in the long run and given that your budget is $2500 you could build something twice as better than the alienware.

What St3lth said, Dell are a piece of crap. Don't buy anything from them ever.

With an i5, GTX 550 (Basically a 555) recording at full res (1680x1050) and max settings puts my fps down to like 15. I don't know if the i7 would show much difference, you'd need to go for a more expensive price range.

EDIT: Half-res is fine, but not "70" fps.

DOUBLEEDIT: The GTX 560 is a lot better than the 550.

 

[SeymourGore]

I think the X51 is pretty neat, it's super small, with a similar footprint to a Xbox 360. With that said, that could also be its Achille's heel to the system, future upgrades might be a bit more difficult because of it. Still, the form factor is really cool.

I'm currently heading out the door but I'll check out some reviews if I have time at work.

Here's a video of the PC in action:

 

[Dabbleh]

I think the X51 is pretty neat, it's super small, with a similar footprint to a Xbox 360. With that said, that could also be its Achille's heel to the system, future upgrades might be a bit more difficult because of it. Still, the form factor is really cool.

I'm currently heading out the door but I'll check out some reviews if I have time at work.

Here's a video of the PC in action:

Nice, a GPU slammed next to a boiling hot HDD.

 

[SeymourGore]

Hey now, it does look nice, though. TBH, if the 'Steambox' rumours are true, I would be very tempted to purchase a unit like the X51.

 

[Calimo]

Pretty sure FRAPS caps your fps to 60. If you want advice, do not buy alienware. Build your own desktop, it will be better in the long run and given that your budget is $2500 you could build something twice as better than the alienware.

I cannot agree with this more.

After learning how to build my own desktop, I would never waste my money again buying one premade.

The first time you put a desktop together can be flippin scary.. I thought I was going to break everything, but you learn a lot in the process..

Although that Alienware PC is cool looking, you're spending atleast $500 just for the brand name.

Nice, a GPU slammed next to a boiling hot HDD.

This is extremely true. That desktop is basically ctrl+k'ing itself every time you have it on for longer than 5 minutes, imo.

Practically its not worth the money. Cosmetically ... it is kinda cool looking... but still nowhere near worth $2,500.

 

[WildFire]

Too expensive anyhow, will never appeal to console gamers so form factor is a load of rubbish + extra charge for it. Dat powerbrick as well. Will never appeal to me and I guess not many other pc lads.

 

[SeymourGore]

Here's my take on this product. It would appeal to me if I needed a unit that could go in my livingroom and I was only going to game at 720p (not sure how decently the 550 will run at 1080p, though they advertise on their page that it can run 1080p comfortably). The form factor is cool, but it's quite a bit pricier than a similarly sized console. As a side note on the price: I'm thinking Royalty is using the Australian price, the North American price for a similarly configured machine starts at $1049 (not including the monitor + accessories) with the base i3 model starting at $699. Which isn't too bad.

With that said, it'd probably be more cost effective (and future proof) to just build a desktop. If you really wanted a small form factor, well, there's some really nice mini-ITX motherboards coming to market, and, while not as sleek as the x51's form factor, a number of mini-ITX cases are coming to market that allow full sized GPUs (without the need of a riser) and full sized PSUs to be installed. Check out the Bitfenix Prodigy for a cool looking mini-ITX case.

 

[Calimo]

Here's my take on this product. It would appeal to me if I needed a unit that could go in my livingroom and I was only going to game at 720p (not sure how decently the 550 will run at 1080p, though they advertise on their page that it can run 1080p comfortably). The form factor is cool, but it's quite a bit pricier than a similarly sized console. As a side note on the price: I'm thinking Royalty is using the Australian price, the North American price for a similarly configured machine starts at $1049 (not including the monitor + accessories) with the base i3 model starting at $699. Which isn't too bad.

With that said, it'd probably be more cost effective (and future proof) to just build a desktop. If you really wanted a small form factor, well, there's some really nice mini-ITX motherboards coming to market, and, while not as sleek as the x51's form factor, a number of mini-ITX cases are coming to market that allow full sized GPUs (without the need of a riser) and full sized PSUs to be installed. Check out the Bitfenix Prodigy for a cool looking mini-ITX case.

oh whew, I knew alienware was expensive, but when I saw $2,500 (sad part is... I saw alienware and $2,500 and it made sense in my head..) I almost spit out my coffee.

You bring up a good point about it being more appealing depending on what room it will be stored in... I never thought of that! >_>

I need to do a little more research before I post next time! But I still stand with my other post and agree with seymour, building a desktop is more cost effective!

 

[WildFire]

Yeah, for example I put together a simple system together for my parents and it cost me about £350 in terms of parts (did have a couple of spare things though like a spare hdd) GPU is just a discreet 6450 so isn't the best but if you shoved a R7770 in there, it'd come in at around £500. Way better price.

 

[Sin]

Just to give some of you a heads up, I have a 560, and it doesn't run tribes on max with 60. Around 50 for me, with fraps running. I would advise on building your own, the only reason I didn't is because I went with a laptop, I move around a lot.

With a $2500 budget, you could build a pretty machine, a very pretty machine. Sink a lot into an amazing card, and you could run Tribes with max settings easy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150591

^Now I'm no expert with computers, but to me that looks like one of the best cards out there, and with your budget you could build around that and create a machine that would blow nearly every game away performance wise.

 

[WildFire]

Nice reference card design bro, next time link to a good 7970?

 

[SeymourGore]

Yar, either way, let us know what you decide to go with. And definitely take some pics of your new setup for us.

Nice reference card design bro, next time link to a good Geforce 680 GTX?

 

[Jordahan]

You're straight up paying for the ability to change the light that is on your computer, Alienware is so overhyped. Build your own monster, I am planning on building a pretty good computer for like <$1k, if your budget is $2500 you can seriously build a Poponfu-level-beast. That *dancing* guy has like 64gb of RAM.

 

[Bestking]

Just to give some of you a heads up, I have a 560, and it doesn't run tribes on max with 60. Around 50 for me, with fraps running. I would advise on building your own, the only reason I didn't is because I went with a laptop, I move around a lot.

With a $2500 budget, you could build a pretty machine, a very pretty machine. Sink a lot into an amazing card, and you could run Tribes with max settings easy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150591

^Now I'm no expert with computers, but to me that looks like one of the best cards out there, and with your budget you could build around that and create a machine that would blow nearly every game away performance wise.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150586

 

[SeymourGore]

if your budget is $2500 you can seriously build a Poponfu-level-beast. That *dancing* guy has like 64gb of RAM.

Its actually 24 gigs .. and I heard he needs that much to compensate for his small penis.

 

[WildFire]

Yar, either way, let us know what you decide to go with. And definitely take some pics of your new setup for us.

Still have to show mine

But actually no AMD vs Nvidia here please, cards are actually pretty equal, each card has benefits over each other so in my mind it is a pretty even match.

 

[RainPilot]

Just buy a raspberry pi and add quad Nvidia 680's!

HOW IS THAT FOR EXTREME HEAT AND SMALL SIZE

(nosrsly, just buy a dell, you'll learn.)