Help Choosing a Pre-built Gaming PC Please

Mine’s only reached 144Hz because of the holes that’re drilled into it. Ventilation, ye’know.

Might be their own.

How much do you really care exactly what motherboard it is? What are you going to do with it that requires you to know? I could look inside mine and figure it out, but honestly, I don’t care. I’m not losing anything perceptible in performance. I know there’s a GTX1070 in there. I know the RAM is performing at its best. I have 16GB of it, which is still overkill in 2018 IMO. The processor is a Core i7. It’s fast.

The thing about computers in 2018 is you’re splitting hairs to gain speed much of the time. The Dell/Alienware stuff is great. It’s running at the mid to top end. You are a busy guy when it comes to gaming and streaming and whatnot. Why not let this computer thing be something you don’t think much about and just play stuff on it and feel safe it all works great.

Heck, you might even be able to get them to sponsor you.

Just tell us what Alienware did with your daughter and we’ll take care of it.

;)

Seriously, what you say has a certain appeal, to be sure. And Alienware does have a great reputation. This just gives me more to chew on.

Lol! I guess I have just been really happy with their stuff. It’s quality. I have a 2009 built Dell that I’m still gaming on and it’s great. It lost a motherboard and I’ve done some upgrades, but the same processor and RAM is still rolling along in there. Gsync monitor though… keep that in the cards.

HOW DOES A COMPUTER LOSE A MOTHERBOARD? IT’S RIGHT THERE?! ;)

Once my current monitor, which I’m happy with, dies I’ll then consider one.

I need to stop reading this thread, it’s gonna end up costing me money.

I guess I’m the other side of the coin, every Dell I have dealt with (as in have had people bring to me for help with) has been an underpowered pain in the ass with non-standard parts. For a while they really took a page from Compaq by trying to frustrate anyone who wanted to change anything in the PC themselves.

Have high-end video card prices eased up as of late? I understand the mining market was hoarding them. I’m planning on doing a VR build in 2019, with whatever the latest and greatest is for GPU.

Yeah, there is a surplus now of GTX1080’s. Prices below $500 finally.

You must be talking about Dells that people buy for daily computing and not gaming. Their XPS line has not had that problem since at least 2009 when I bought mine.

Like any computer maker, they have good models for upgradability and total power and models that are much more limited. The XPS desktops and the Alienware machines in the mid-range and up have all been very powerful and very upgradable.

If I were spending that much I’d get a more efficient PSU… don’t fancy a gold model?

Maybe so, but I’m not in the habit of buying the more expensive offering when I didn’t think much of the less expensive model. I’ve bought one premade system in the last 25 years and it was a Gateway from Fry’s. It was an ok system with a nice case, but even then the 500W power supply was at the limit of what my GeForce card recommended and it was a bit of a pain to get my SSD and optical drive installed. Lesson learned.

Personally I’d cut corners and save a lot more. You’ll notice a nice 144hz monitor or a VR rig much more than most of those upgrades.

  • 16 GB Ram

  • One nice 1 TB SSD for games, and SATA is even fine. One cheapo hard drive for random other crap. Do you really need every Steam game installed at once? Adding storage later is easy anyway.

  • The 40 dollar ASUS sound card, or no sound card (depending on motherboard quality).

  • Gold or platinum power supply is fine and will save 60 to 80 bucks. Titanium is the highest possible end.

  • Copy the windows key from your old computer if you plan on decommissioning it.

  • I’d go with Intel if you are pure gaming but stick with AMD if you are streaming. Certain edge cases like Nintendo Wii Emulation work a bit better on the high-end but lower-core Intel variants at that price range.

  • Getting the highest end video card is 100% the right call, it makes the most impact compared to any other spec, the only consideration there is whether to wait for the new gen in one month.

That said, if you really want to spend the money, the specs look good.

Yeah, I want to spend the money now so I don’t have to again for a while. I like to do this every 4-5 years or so.

@Lamalo @Alistair

Calculate your PSU savings!

http://www.orionpsudb.com/efficiency-calculator

That was one of the free parts I got back about two+ years ago along with a GTX 980.

Damn. When was this? The 90’s? Because that’s the last time I heard about Dell using proprietary parts (like PSU’s and non-replaceable motherboards, etc.) I mean, they did have that problem, no question, but that was a long time ago.

I do remember them using a ton of proprietary parts, and I avoided Dell for that reason for years, but my last three rigs have all been Dell-based desktop machines, and they’ve been extremely easy to upgrade. Any standard PSU fits right in there, high-end graphics cards even fit in there (a bit tight, but they fit). Memory very easy to upgrade. And the three I’ve bought have been very solid machines. Two XPS and one Alienware (my latest).

Very possibly. I guess I’m not a second chances kind of PC buyer. Although if I was in the market for high-end, I would probably consider Alienware. That said, that Falcon Northwest Tiki was pretty damn impressive if I was going that way.

Ah, @Lamalo, there you are.
My girlfriend has been bugging me for months now to ask you to post more pictures of Scotch in the pet thread, but I kept forgetting until I just saw your posts here.
[mission complete. girlfriend’s wrath averted.]
[if Lamalo does not come through, her wrath will be focused instead on him, and I will be victorious! Haha]