My first ALIENWARE. Overkill? Maybe. Advice?

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NJRonbo

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I'm not a gamer.

I run a business out of my home and need
a computer that is quite powerful in order
to run high-memory programs, lots of multi-tasking
and able to handle a boatload of start-up apps.

Had many Dells over the years. They are okay,
but lack power. I want to stay away from names
like HP, GATEWAY, IBM, etc...

Decided to try Alienware. Yeah, they cost an arm
and a leg, but I want the ULTIMATE computer that
may be more than I need, but yet I am assured of
POWER!

I was going to go with an ALIENWARE AURORA
that featured the new AMD FX-55 chip. I was told
that I'd be better off with INTEL PENTIUM as it
handles mult-tasking better. I could use your help
in that argument.

Anyway, here is my setup I am looking at:

[1] Area-51® 5550

Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service Bundle with AlienAutopsy and Respawn
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case (480-Watt PS) - Saucer Silver
Cable Management: Alienware® Cable Management System
Power Supply: Alienware® 480 Watt Power Supply
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 660 w/ HT Technology 3.6GHz 2MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware® PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 925XE Chipset 1066/800MHz FSB
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Graphics Processor: ATI RADEON™ X850 XT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/ Dual Digital and TV Out
Chassis Upgrades: AlienIce™ 2.0 Video Cooling System - Astral Blue
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 250GB Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive One: Lite-On® 16x DVD / 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive
Optical Drive Two: NEC® ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE® 1394)
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Portable Storage : Alienware® 10-in-1 Digital Media Reader / Writer
Display One: No Monitor
Display Two: No Monitor
Free Alienware T-Shirt: Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!


$2987 shipped


Overkill? Perhaps. As I said, I am not gaming but
I want a system that I can burn a DVD while doing
Photoshop editing at the same time I am running
a few APPS in my startup folder.

What's your advice on all this?

Thanks!
 
yeah thatd be nice buht ur paying 500+ for the "alienware" name.
If i were you, id go to newegg.com and setup your own computer. Smart choice on the ram since ul be multitasking. Might try the AMD athlon 64+ since windows 64 is coming out. This system will rock your sox buht try staying away from alienware.
 
edit: hmm..if you're not gaming, you don't need all that stuff

oh btw, that computer is way overpriced and you can get a much better comp with that price
 
Aside from the usual 'do it yourself' comments you get.............that comp is very nice if you don't wanna build your own. :) I've got one on the way.................soon I hope. I will tell you this. Alienware takes FOREVER.
 
Thats quite the good set up uve chosen there. Wouldnt pay that much though, like foreverxyoung said ure pretty much payin the extra cash for the name. You could save yourself a bit of money if you built ure own like that.

Other then the price, that computer will do you for what you need and then some, i would assume.
 
You have a lot of unneeded parts in there. You probably won't need a soundcard, you won't need a high end video card, and you don't need any of the "alienware" stuff they've thrown in like "AlienInspection".

3K is massive overkill, I'd be using a phase change kit with that kind of money. It would be much, much, much, much, MUCH better to simply go to a low price distributor such as newegg, picking out parts, and building it yourself. If you really have $3000 to spend, I or anyone else here would easily build you a machine that slaughters that one.

Just consider your options mate.
 
Ok people try to pay attention.

From the looks of it this guy buys comps, he doesn't build them! Stop suggesting he do it himself. He probably doesn't want to take the time or effort to go through that, so let's assume that he has to buy one, then what would you say? Alienware, dell maybe? lol

You will be doing multitasking and stuff in a working environment, therefore I agree you should go with pentium in that case. Also that is a good processor choice, and for those of you saying 64 bit, since that is a 660 intel, that is 64 bit!!!
All the components on that look pretty good. Clearly you customer support is also important to you hence why you got the 3 year plan. That's ok, Alienware has the highest customer satisfaction and service ratings in the industry.

There is one thing I would recommend you change though. Get two hard drives in RAID 0 setup instead of one big one. This will be a lot faster which will be important to you with the rest of your system being so fast. Perhaps 2 Western Digital 74 GB 10,000 rpm drives? Or at least 2 larger 7200rpm drives in RAID 0.

And yes that might be a little overkill, but hey you've got the money, you will LOVE that computer.
 
That system will rip, but if your not a gamer, that video card is WAY overkill. Everything else will also help on your apps, but the video card really won't. You could at least save yourself a feww hundred bucks and get something like a 6600GT that is still a great card but A LOT cheaper.

Two me that is the only part that is WAY overkill. You could also save some money on a cheaper/onboard sound. I also agree with the suggestion to do a RAID set up. 2 Raptors would own, and helps with load ups and stuff.
 
www.advanceddesignky.com


Case Cooler Master - Wave Master(TAC-T01-EK): ALuminum Black No Power. 5.25 : 4 (Exposed), 3.5 :
Power Supply Antec - 550W True Power: Quiet Power Supply (29) DB
Motherboard Gigastudio - GA-8I915P Duo Pro: 775/DDR&DDR2/1394/PCIE/4Sata/3pci/7.1 Audio
Processor Intel - Intel Pentium4 Processor 550 3.4G 800fsb retail box
Cooling included
Cooling 2 included
Memory Samsung - DDR2 1G/128MX64 PC4200 533MHZ Lifetime warranty
Memory 2 Samsung - DDR2 1G/128MX64 PC4200 533MHZ Lifetime warranty
Memory 3 None
Hard Drive 1 Western Digital - Western Digital WD800JB 80GB ATA100 7200RPM 8MB BUFFER
Hard Drive 2 None
Hard Drive 3 Removable Hard Drive Rack Black with tray ATA/133 fan
Hard Drive 4 None
Hard Drive 5 None
Extra Storage none
Video MSI - xRadeon X600XT 128MB PCI-E: PCI Express 128MB DDR RADEON X600XT Visual Proc
Video 2 None
CD/CD-RW/DVD PLEXTOR - PX712ASWBL: Plextors Internal Black PX-712A: 12x/4x/16x-DVD+Write/DVD/+ReWr
CD/CD-RW/DVD 2 None
Sound Card M-Audio - Revolution 7.1:Revolution 7.1 is the ultimate audio upgrade for your PCI-ba
NIC onboard
Modem None
Operating System Microsoft - WINDOWS XP Home Edition OEM full version w/manual and keycode.
Other Software Symantec - NORTON SYSTEMWORKS 2003 PRO CD ONLY
Other Software 2 NONE
Other Software 3 NONE
Monitor None
Keyboards Logitech - Premium Desktop Optical: Corded Internet KB and Cordless Optical Mouse.
Mouse None
Speakers None
Warranty 3 Yr Warranty Parts and Labor with Express pick up. Lifetime tech support.

Gaming Computer
Gladiator 2 $2,211.99


Maybe get a couple maxtor 300gb fluid bearing sata drives in raid 1 for storage of documents and stuff.
 
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