pat!s New Alien Desktop! (OR: A happy ending to the sad story of pat!s 7700)

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[pad11]

If you peruse the pat!s new lappy thread, you'll see that I'm soon to be the lucky owner of a Sager 9262 UBER laptop skillfully designed by XoticPC!  Why?  Well, my first gaming laptop, my Alienware m7700, kept dying...constantly...after two years of agony and ecstasy (great when it worked...the key being WHEN)...and two years of fighting with Alienware, they've agreed to a full price credit upon return.  So here's the deal my friends (and that is any of you!!!).  I've got $4,800 to spend w/ Alienware and since nothing they make can effectively touch my Sager as far as laptops go, I'm getting a desktop.

So help me out!

Follow the below link and spec one out, post what you'd order here and keep it as close to $4,800 as possible!  Remember, this is my first desktop so i'll need monitor, everything....since this is money already spent, I really need to get the monitor through them, etc., etc. 

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_7500/area-51_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-7500-R5&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

have fun and help a desktop out!!!

later,
pat!

[MaxBeta]

  Well pat!!

My first run through customizing this series I came up with this amount. 


Area-51® 7500
Advantage

In-tel Core 2 Extreme - Quad Core
NVIDIA Next Generation Graphics
800MHz DDR2 memory
Standard Features

nForce 6 SLI x16 Motherboard
HDCP ready Graphics
$4,344.00 
Price is before all applicable rebates.

I just wish they had LISTED all the items I had chosen.  My attempt to put together a good Box and have enough to pickup the 24" Samsung monitor was my intent.   

What's driving me nuts..is now I know that the 3x Sli is available..and now I want to build one..  hehe 

[pad11]

thanks maxy!  heck, that's better than i did, i keep coming up with like $5,200

Question:  Do you think I would need the liquid cooling and sound dampening for this?  I just don't know if liquid cooling is necessary....

also, did you include the warranty and the respawn w/ that?

thanks max (oh god i just called you maxy, that the heck is THAT??????)

pat!

[City Builder]

You can see how I spec'd it out by going to the url listed in the original post, then click the customize button, then click the "retrieve saved quote" and enter the following in the scripted windows (which you'll likely have to approve if using internet explorer): alien@citybuildergames.com-1067394

[pad11]

CB, I LOVE THAT!

Okay, a couple important questions for you....

You went w/ the 8000 GTX (not the Ultra) in SLI and that really did save $1000 that you could spend on other major stuff!  Explain the reasoning because that is a big nice savings and I'm interested in following that path...I mean w/ the Ultra, you'd get 1.5 GB of memory w/ Ultra and with the GTX you'd get 1 GB (which would completely match my coming Sager).

I also really like the idea of a 1 TB SSD drive, VERY NICE!  So what do we do for back up in that sense then?

Things I know I'd switch would be NOT buying the Samsung montiro seperately and getting the Experience pack, which includes that monitor and upgrades keyboard and mouse plus adds speakers, which I would indeed need.  I'm also thinking Vista Ultimate because it includes some data back-up programs, etc. that home regular home doesn't include...

LOVE your set up and you've really got me inching towards the 512 vid card and the 1 TB of memory!

Now I'm thinking of going back to reconfig again!

THANKS THANKS!!!!!

later,
pat!

[City Builder]

CB, I LOVE THAT!

Okay, a couple important questions for you....

You went w/ the 8000 GTX (not the Ultra) in SLI and that really did save $1000 that you could spend on other major stuff!  Explain the reasoning because that is a big nice savings and I'm interested in following that path...I mean w/ the Ultra, you'd get 1.5 GB of memory w/ Ultra and with the GTX you'd get 1 GB (which would completely match my coming Sager).

I also really like the idea of a 1 TB SSD drive, VERY NICE!  So what do we do for back up in that sense then?

Things I know I'd switch would be NOT buying the Samsung montiro seperately and getting the Experience pack, which includes that monitor and upgrades keyboard and mouse plus adds speakers, which I would indeed need.  I'm also thinking Vista Ultimate because it includes some data back-up programs, etc. that home regular home doesn't include...

LOVE your set up and you've really got me inching towards the 512 vid card and the 1 TB of memory!

Now I'm thinking of going back to reconfig again!

THANKS THANKS!!!!!

later,
pat!

For me it was a cost savings move.  I feel that the dual GTX video cards are more than plenty and the savings in price can be better used on other components in the computer.  But if your one of those people that will constantly wonder if your game isn't running the best it could because you got the GTX instead of the ultra then I'd say stick with the ultras, for me Im not really like that and feel that the dual GTX's are more than enough to power any of todays games and many of tommorrows games too.

I chose not to option the blue ray as you said that you din't have a need for that, but fo rme with the 1TB drive I would get the blueray drive and use it for backups since you're not likely to have to back up the entire drive, just the data portions so the blueray would still be a good option for the 50GB per disk size.  Yup ultimate vista does have more features than home basic or home premium has but not likely  (in my opinion) to be anything that you couldn't find something better from a 3rd party developer.  The only real reason that I would go with ultimate vista would be to get the dreamscape desktop when they finally get around to releasing it.  It's basically an animated desktop from what I understand so you could have the background as a roaring fire etc.  But for me that's not worth the extra price of ultimate vista and Im so stuck in my ways of using the software that I already use that for me microsoft pretty much provides me the operating system and the internet browser and everything else that I use comes from 3rd party developers (usually).

I think to adhere to some basic thoughts is best in my opinion, more is usually better in computer world.  More disk space is good, more ram (to a certain point) is good, more cpu speeds is good.  I'd likely try to get the highest cpu that they offered, the largest hard drives, but for RAM I'd get the 3GB if going with XP Pro or the 4GB if going with Vista.

[pad11]

CB, in terms of hard drive, since the TB drive is SOOOO BIG would an external SATA drive work as well as BluRay back-up?  Set on automatic, say, weekly?

pat!

[City Builder]

It would work, however we must remember than an external SATA drive is still a hard drive and subject to breakage (like my last one broke after 2 years and I was lucky to spend 8+ hours pulling the data off of it one file at a time) so you are always going to have the possibility of the external needing a backup like the internals, where as the blueray is a disk that is not likely to go bad under normal use (like a dvd that lasts for 70+/- years.

If you don't have use for such a large hard drive then I'd obviously suggest going with the option that you chose in your quote.  I've got 4 hard drives in my current computer totaling now more than 1TB and while I've not yet used it all, I could easily do so if I wanted to install everything I want to install.

[MaxBeta]

     OK "maxy" reporting...heheh   sheesh..CB you mean I could've .."retrieved quote".. I'll try to remember to do that.. I went through the custom build list twice because ..if you go back ..the list started over with the base price.  Oh well I had fun reading all the various options...cool stuff.

I went with the highest CPU, 2 500GB drives( RAID) and SLi GTX's, Vista Ultimate and 4GB of Ram..that the basics..with basic KB / mouse and speakers.  Those are things people personalize most of the time.  No bundles but I did think the three year total coverage warranty makes sense... I'm not familiar with that Re Spawn deal..maybe pats used it ..and would know best on that deal.  I was kind of glad I came in close to 500 under the allotment..as that would be enough for most of those personal choice items.  I have the 22 inch Samsung.. it is a great monitor..but who wouldn't want the biggest deal there..whoa..   

One thing to consider..is with this Desktop..you certainly not going to get a mediocre box no matter how you cut it.. I matched the specs on my latest build..to this list and came up with $5300.... heck I might've saved some buying..of course my Ram was more expensive..and the price of the G-cards has moderated somewhat.   

So what are you going to do about a Monitor?...

[pad11]

CB, very good points on back-up, I'm just not sure what to do right now but when push comes to shove, obviously I'll have to decide upon something!

Max, I am definitely getting the Experience Bundle, which for $625, includes the 24 inch Samsung widescreen with 2.1 speakers, upgraded logitech gamers mouse and keyboard....it's a savings of a bit all told....

Still not sure what to do!  I went back and came up w/ a rig that, spec'd out using some of CBs input, is at $5491 (including $200 for shipping)...so 5291 w/o it....I could probably save a bit by initially just going w/ a 500 GB hard drive, no RAID and then buying one at a later date off newegg and basically setting up as a back-up...OR go the 250 GB RAID 1 setup...just not sure...having 1TB is very VERY tempting!!!  And remember people, I have goofy kids, so i would get smacked if I didn't get the $100 pretty light bundle....

later,
pat!