Deciding between Xeon, Athlon, and Opteron for new PC...

[SAFX]

If I build it myself, I assume these are the main components required, more or less. Let me know if I missed anything important:

Motherboard
CPU's
Memory
Video Card
Sound Card
Hard drive(s) w/ controller
DVD dual layer drive
Power Supply
Case
Keyboard + Mouse

SAFX

 

[The General]

Not true at all. I would not call them crap. Let's be fair. In fact, the Xeon 5080, which runs just above the 5060, competes very well with the Opteron, and in some cases performs better. Not making this up, see for yourself...

Xeon and AMD Opteron Performance Comparisons

SAFX

If you want a Xeon, then get a Xeon. But I will tell you right now that the only Xeons worth getting at the Woodcrest ones. And if you think that link you sent had anythnig to do with Xeons then you are blind. That is the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 "Kentsfield" ...

 

[SAFX]

My bad. I posted the wrong link. No need to get all bent out of shape over it calling me blind and all. Read this article and you will see that the Xeon 'Dempsey' 5080 series, which was used simply as a point of reference in the benchmarks to compare against the Woodcrest 5100 series, actually beat the Opteron in a few tests, and in most other tests trailed the Opteron with minimal performance lag.

This site is giving me problems with this link. Just go here, then click on the article title 'Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron Battle Head to Head'.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/index.html


SAFX

 

[The General]

The Xeon 51XX series are new, they have a way more efficient core ... based on the Conroe core. Xeon 51XX series is awesome, totally kill any AMD's, but the Xeon 50XX series aren't that great, and I'd go with an AMD over it.

 

[b0dge]

See sig. Opterons Rule. (Mine was £67 inc. shipping!)

Gotta be honest, never had any experience with Xeons tho...

 

[lancec2c30]

okay if you want a really good gaming machine I say go with a core 2 duo e6600, 8800gtx, 2bgb of 800mhz ram (ddr2), 320gig wd sata2 hard drive, 74gig wd raptor 10,000 rpm hard drive. full tower case, ocz gamexstream 600w power supply, couple of optical drives, 680i motherboard (socket lga775), g5 logitech mous, g15 logitech gaming keyboard, 20in widescreen monitor, copy of windows vista premium. and for speaker the logitech z-5500 5.1 set-up.

That would be a really awsome set-up, and I am sure it is within your budget.

 

[SAFX]

OK, I did a half-***, but decent, estimate and price comparision between the Alienware Area-51 7500 and a build-it-yourself PC with all parts and quotes from TigerDirect.com

Alienware Area-51 7500
Total: $3,950 (not including tax/shipping)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
Windows Xp Pro (with free upgrade to Vista)
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
2GB DDR2 Performance SDRAM at 800MHz
2 x 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM on RAID 0
18x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
768MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTX
700 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio (not SB)
Alienware mouse, keyboard, etc
3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service


CUSTOM BUILD PC using the above components
Total: $3,500 (not including tax/shipping)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
2-year On-Site Extended Waranty on CPU (total 3 years warrnty)
Windows Vista
EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 Mobo
OCZ DFI 2GB DDR2 Performance SDRAM at 800MHz
2 x 250GB WD Caviar SE 16 SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM on RAID 0
2 x PPA 2-Port SATA PCI Controller Card
Plextor Premium 18x8x16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
EVGA nVidia 8800 GTX
Thermaltake Toughpower 750-Watt PowerSupply
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse
No sound card
Case, cables, cords, etc

The main advantage of the AW system over the custom build PC is the 3-year warranty on all components. At least with that I deal with Alienware customer service in the event any part needs to be replaced. With a custom build PC, I can potentially deal with 12 different manufactures, all with their own warranty policies and crapola. Also, a Vista upgrade is included, whereas with the custom build system I included $270 for Vista Business full version retail (approximate pricing from Zdnet).

The main advantage of the custom build PC over the AW system is clearly the price savings of about $400. For me, paying this extra $400 while getting the benefit of full coverage for 3 years on the entire system is more than worth it.

With the exception of those differences, the two systems are identical in terms of mobo, cpu, memory, hd, dvd, and GPU.

SAFX

 

[The General]

Either of those will be awesome.

 

[lancec2c30]

You dont honestly think that windows vista upgrade with the alienware will give you buisness edition do yo? You will get the basic of basic version of vista with the upgrade.

 

[Dex.Terity]

I'd go for the custom build over the Alien Ware. No sense paying them big money for what you can buy cheaper and put together in 30min (not hard to do at all).
I just bought the gaming rig in my sig monday and I'll be running it by Friday. I got all the components off Newegg.com for a total of about $1650 with shipping (though I have yet to buy a sound card, and am using the monitor off my old pc for now). I suggest getting the GTS over the GTX of the 8800, as this is the first installment of DX10 cards, and it makes more sense to me to get the GTS for ~200 less which still performs very impressively (second only to the GTX) and then maybe upgrade later, or go SLI (though make sure you get the SLI MoBo if you want to do that).