Not really sure which to choose........

[drewll66]

I am going off to college soon, and am trying to choose between a dell XPS and one of Alienwares Aurora series. Now, i hear many good reviews about alienware, and i also hear that dell will give me a bunch of garbage that i dont need on the computer. Maybe its just me, but when i built a dell on thier site, it seemed like i got more for the money than alienware. Dell included a 19" lcd, had a pentium D as opposed to a pentium 4, as well as a few other options that i had to pay extra for with alienware.
With so many processor options, i dont know where to look---pentium4, D, AMD etc What is right for me? Which system woudl be better for me? There are sooo many differnt systems as well (especially on alienwares site) I am looking to spend about $1500ish not including monitor and speakers. It will mostly be used for multimedia, as well as typical college use. Please help! thank you
-Drew

 

[slick_tech15]

Alienware is better for gaming rigs and Dell is better for budget systems (except the renegade). But if you have $1500, build your computer! You will get a Much much better deal.

 

[GoodNews101]

I agree with slick_tech15 100% because I spent $1,500 for my new rig a few months back and I couldn't be happier. Much better and wiser expenditure of money.

 

[drewll66]

I don't think I could build a computer myself, and i don't have the knowledge to choose all the correct components, thats why i asked about which processors, memory upgrades etc to choose.

 

[thebleakness]

I don't think I could build a computer myself, and i don't have the knowledge to choose all the correct components, thats why i asked about which processors, memory upgrades etc to choose.

Its not hard to build one yourself. I had no prior knowledge and i got mine together just perfectly. If you need help selecting components and the like, just ask the members here at TF and they will be glad to help you. I have to 3rd building your own.

 

[drewll66]

What goes into building your own computer? I would just worry that i would go off to school and be missing software, or a component that i would need in the future. Where do you buy parts, and what kind of chassis would you use on a system you build yourself? Do you really save alot over buying something already put together? The reason i am stressing over this is because the computer needs to last me 4 years, which is alot in a world that technology changes every day, ya know? So i'm assuming it will probably be a badass unit to start off with.

 

[thebleakness]

When building your own comp all you need to do is place the components in the correct connection and screw down if neccesary. And yes, its much cheaper to build your own unless you have a very small budget like that of dells cheapest models. If you want something to last you 4 years, it prolly will but it will become slightly dated due too the speed of the computer business. At first it was will kickass but it will start slowing down if you want too run and play the lastest games at max settings.

 

[drewll66]

now that i'm looking into things, it actually looks like it might be fun to piece together a unit and build it myself. Think i could get some advice on some of the basic components. What really is the best processor at a reasonable price (i'll probably need something fairly high end if i want it to last 4 years) AMD 64? Pentium 4, pentium d? What about a hard drive? And i definetely need a great graphics card! Help me out here! thanks so much for all your help

 

[MrZucchiniHead]

Just use elbatrop's guide on building a computer to get the parts checklist.

http://techist.com/showthread.php?threadid=65571

and there are multiple guides on how to put it together.

and if your a visual learner or know nothing about building computer PZERO's guide has alot of pics that tell you what to do.

http://techist.com/showthread.php?threadid=82566&highlight=computer+building+guide

but there are alot of other guides on other forums or other websites that will tell you what you need to know.

 

[infiltrator7]

yeah its really easy to build your own pc, and kinda fun. theres plenty of guides out there that make it really easy, search google for build your own pc. i used this guide www.pcmech.com/byopc.