Alienware Area51 or Dell XPS?

[Psionicist]

Yet again I throw my vote on monsterbox. I don't think alienware or dell sell pre-overclocked systems (3.0C @ 3.8 GHz and overclocked Radeon 9800 Pro is a really cool gaming system) with warranty, for a better price than both dell and alienware.

Just my two cents.

 

[jdavis]

That's so far from true it's not even funny. My Dell perfectly handles every game I throw at it. And it's more solid and stable than any machine I've ever used.

Alienwares are indeed great computers. But don't act like Dells are so vastly inferior, because they're not. They may not be dedicated gaming machines, but they meet the needs of most gamers very, very well.

Most computers are so fast these days only the most cutting edge games require anything special (like the upcomming Doom 3). Dells are great computers but they are not really special computers. There are dozens of companies out there that make good computers (just like with cars, general quality is so high there really isn't a bad new car anymore). The thing is that people who know can tell the difference in computers when playing these cutting edge games and there are many people who want the fastest just because that's what they want. Dell just isn't cool or hip anymore.

Myself I play a lot of strategy games that could be played on any old computer made after 2000 but I like to have the latest and greatest of parts just for the sake of being a techno junkie. I just sold off my AMD 2100+ with raid and a Radeon 8500 for $100 bucks just because it wasn't cutting edge enough anymore. I'll be building a faster one in the very near future but for now my 3 year old IBM A20 workstation with intergrated sound and graphics will do just fine. I still have 3 computers and a laptop, 4 monitors and three printers laying around, you know if I would clear out some of the junk I could probably afford that Alienware rig myself but where is the fun in that.

 

[MarauderX]

Get a Dell, Dood!

I use a couple of Dells at home and got rid of two others(HP, Compaq) that just had hardware compatibility issues that were working out with each other and some programs.

I have added and changed around my Dells so much and still I have come to trust them more than the machines where I work (IBM). When I get a new machine I will do some research from a good third party (PC World, etc.) before buying and make sure to get my $ worth for each and every component as I use them all pretty rigorously.

IMO, HP service and reliablity has been lacking from the start and should stick to printers. Our firm will prolly never need their machines again.

 

[Aazenius]

I purchased an Alienware Area51 (custom) last tuesday. The GeForce FX 5900 Ultra broke the camels back. Dell doesn't even have that card yet.

I went with Alieneware, because I have been a Dell man for the past 6 years (i'm typing this on a Dell), and I wanted to see if all that Alienware hype is true. I was really hoping more people who owned Alienware computers would come here and share their experience. Before I chose Alienware I did a ton of research. Alienware gave me what I wanted for a price I was willing to pay.

However, I also stumbled across a few horror stories about Alienware pc's so it made me very cautious about buying a pc from them. However, like I said... the new GeForce FX card took me off the fence. That and the fact that I have Planetside sitting in a box waiting to be used. This PC can't handle it.

If any of you have bought an Alienware PC in the last year or so please share your experience, good or bad. So far, my expereince has been rocky. I bought the PC on tuesday. However I noticed that it was still in stage 1 on Friday. So I called their customer service, who told me that my debit card had denied their attempt to charge my card. Apparently they had the wrong info. So I corrected it, and they tried again, this time with success. However when I called my bank, I discovered my card was charged twice. Uh... so I called them back and told them of the mistake. It took an hour of talking to various people, and a 3-way call to my bank to get the whole thing fixed.

I am told i'll have my pc in 4 weeks... (ouch!) But, these PC's are custom made... I hope it is everything I dream it will be. I am going nuts looking at this Planetside box... and not being able to enjoy it.

Please share your Alienware experiences here... I'd appreciate them! Might even help others thinking about buying one!

 

[gariig]

I thought the ATI 9800 pro was beating the pants off the new Geforce FX, or was that the last one?

Gariig

 

[drothgery]

I thought the ATI 9800 pro was beating the pants off the new Geforce FX, or was that the last one?

Gariig

Roughly speaking, in most games at most resolutions, its GFFX 5900 Ultra > Radeon 9800 Pro > Radeon 9700 Pro > GFFX 5800 Ultra. However, the performance difference between the Radeon 9800 and the GFFX 5900 Ultra is minimal, the Radeons have better image quality, and the Radeons are less expensive.

When the GFFX 5800 came out, it was expensive, loud, and couldn't keep up with the Radeon 9700 Pro. New drivers improved performance to the point where its fairly competitive in performance (but still expensive and loud). Then NVidia rushed the GFFX 5900 Ultra out (it's just now becoming available), which beats the Radeon 9800 Pro by a whisker and deals with the loud problem, but is even more expensive.

 

[Aazenius]

I've heard some people grumble about ATI's driver problem, and that their video cards sometimes cause certain games to crash. I've always owned Nvidia products and never had a problem. Another reason I wanted the 5900 Ultra was that EQ2 was being designed to take advantage of CineFX 2.0

 

[jdavis]

The ATI driver problem is considered old news. The new Radeon boards have a excellent reputation, and are superior to the new FX boards on every level, that's why they rushed the FX5900 out, the FX5800 couldn't compete with the ATI boards. I'd like to see just how good the new FX5900 is (it's supposed to put Nvidia back on top, but then again so was the FX5800). I'm sure Nvidia won't play second fiddle for long.

 

[Ristamar]

When the GFFX 5800 came out, it was expensive, loud, and couldn't keep up with the Radeon 9700 Pro. New drivers created the illusion of improved performance to the point where its fairly competitive in performance (but still expensive and loud). Then NVidia rushed the GFFX 5900 Ultra out (it's just now becoming available), though still doesn't definitively beat the Radeon 9800 Pro, deals with the loud problem, but is even more expensive.

There, I fixed it for you.

I used to love nVidia. Now I don't know what the hell they're doing, but they've definitely lost a once loyal customer. The way they've been vigorously 'optimizing' (read cheating) their drivers to beef up benchmarks makes me sick. They still make decent cards, granted, but not as good as nVidia touts them to be.

I recommend going for an ATI Radeon card. The 9800 Pro is still King of the Hill, and the 9500 Pro is the best budget card out there by far. The proof is in the pudding:

Tidbits From MSI GeForce FX5900 Review @ FiringSquad.com Full Article

Nascar Racing 2003 Season (custom demo)

After countless hours troubleshooting the 875P/RADEON combination with CATALYST 3.4 with no success, we finally decided to try an nForce2 setup. Voila, the RADEON scores jumped significantly! As you can see, the RADEON cards put up a strong fight at low resolutions, although admittedly even the archaic GeForce4 Ti 4200 is able to keep up with all of the latest DX9 cards. Once we crank the screen res up however, the CPU becomes less of a limiting factor and we see the two GeForce FX Ultra cards slowly make their way up the ranks. By 1600x1200 the fill rate advantage the enjoy allows them to take the top three positions, with GeForce FX 5900 Ultra at the top of the heap.

Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (custom demo)

Once again we're seeing different results than what we've seen in the past, although this time we've upgraded to the latest point release, in addition to using our own new demo. In the demo we're paired up with bots on Q3DM1, first one to 40 frags wins. It's a pretty intensive demo as you can see by the frame rates, the rockets and plasma are flying constantly.
The RADEON cards earn a clean sweep in this benchmark, most likely in part to their anisotropic filtering engine. We've found that the RADEON cards take a less dramatic performance hit once AF is cranked up. By 1600x1200 the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra is trailing by 8%, while GeForce FX 5900 is behind the Ultra card by 15%.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (custom demo)

In our original GeForce FX 5900 Ultra preview article, the RADEON cards didn't finish ahead of the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra until 1600x1200. But with the detail level cranked up to "quality" and our own custom demo, the RADEON cards take the throne as early as 1024x768x32, where the 5900 Ultra trails by 6%. At the same resolution, the FX5900-TD128 is down to the FX5900 Ultra by 10%. This gap opens up to 13% by 1600x1200, while the margin between RADEON 9800 PRO and GeForce FX 5900 Ultra doubles to 12%.

 

[Aazenius]

The Radeon 9800 has been out for a while now. ATI has had time to tweak drivers to give better performance. The FX 5900 Ultra was just recently released. In time drivers will be tweaked and optimized. Compare the 2 cards again in 3-4 months and see if the Radeon 9800 is still as close on the benchmarks.

I will also add, that I was going to purchase a 9800 pro 256 ram, but decided to see if the hype about the 5900 Ultra was true.
Time will tell......