I agree the main bottle neck is the hard drive. But getting a name brand motherboard (ASUS, Gigabyte, Abit, Soyo) has other advantage besides overclockability. Generally (I've done some benchmarking at work) and ASUS motherboard will out perform anything by Dell, IBM or Compaq. And now most motherboards come with built in IDE RAID capabilities, this helps a great deal in HD performance. And with how cheap RAM is if you have 512, the hard drive issue becomes even less important.

Two thing effect gaming performance. CPU and Video card. This is where overclocking can make a large difference. Add to that a whole pile of ram and IDE RAID 0, and you have a wicked machine.

It all depends on what you want the machine for.

While the video isn't always built into the motherboard (in some cases it is), you choice of video is limited to what Dell will agree to install. Most Tier 1 companies have a prefered vendor, and more often than not this is ATI. But to Dell's credit they will agree to put what every you want in (this was the case with us), however this comes at a large premium due to certifying non-standard components.

Don't get me wrong, Dell seems to be a good company. And if you aren't concerned about flexibility and want a decent warranty Dell is the ticket.

Jay

 

You can built almost the EXACT same system with the same Case in Black for around $2500 usd, that you would pay Alienware $2951. Alienware is a system builder, no different than going down to your local store and specing the system out. And if you had your local store build it they could match the warranty.

Not saying that Alienware isn't cool stuff, I just think you are paying ~$500 for that cool.

Jay

 

Vid card is the make it or break it component in gaming, heck pc use in general.. however.. I still rate CPU (within reason.. ie a hundred or 2 mhz difference) very far down the list on importantance in the gaming experience.. I put things like video card, ram, hard drives, sound card, surround sound w/sub, monitor size.. etc above it .. but meh.. to each their own ..

The worst thing about dell is that their an Intel shop.. and for those who don't know, a few years ago, intel shortened their cpu cycles so that they could claim faster speeds (slimy rat bastards).. if I was planning on getting a new desktop.. I may be forced to build my own simply because AMD rules, and Intel drools

 

I like AMD, they are a good company. In fact, I just built a PC a few months ago and it has a XP1800 in it. Great processor, I love it. Intel definately has it going on right now with it's performance, it's pretty much the top dog right now. Yes, AMD is fast too, but the highest end AMD is still not as fast as the newest P4s. With the enthusiast in mind, P4 is probably the way to go if money isn't an issue. P4s run SO much cooler than the AMD XP chips, and they are overclocking monsters, if you're into that. Even the price difference is coming down between two.

Next year or so AMD will be releasing the clawhammer, which is apparently going to be a great new platform to start with, so we'll see where it goes from there

Right now, I think RAM is the most important thing to get your system smoking. You can't go wrong with AMD vs. P4 these days, just make sure you have 256M+ in your system to notice a difference. I have 512M, and I might be interested in upgrading to a full gig soon.

 

Laptops by compaq are actually pretty good, I have a AMD 900mhz Athlon it kicks butt , the worst part is the speakers really suck. It is just a lap top so it' s ok. Never had a problem with the OS.

 

In my opinion if you are going with a laptop go wih either IBM or Sony. Sony's PC arent much to gawk over but the laptops are. Dell, ComCRAP and Gayway laptops are terrible. As an IS analyst I deal with Dell's all of the time and they are always having hardware problems, not to mention that they run super HOT.

 

Here I go quoteing myself, Damn harddrive took a **** last night!!!!!!!!!!! Cracked it open and had a listen to the worst sounding HD time to upgrade...

 

I've owned a couple of computers in the last few years (needed to upgrade)
The first was a e-machine. What can i say thats good about this? Its was one hell of an anchor for my boat. This was the worst pile of cheap *** components ever put together.
My next one was a HP. Not bad, but if you wanted to upgrade something you pretty much had to tear the whole thing apart. Other than that I would recomend them.
My current one is one put together with what I wanted in it, and the price was very good. His address is www.hotwired.com He's in Canada.
My sugestion to you is if you buy quality parts you can upgrade with no problem and it would be cheaper too.

 

Sorry... It's supposed to bewww.hot-wired.com

 

You can look into buying one of the 'barebones' system packages from places like Mwave (MultiWave) and a few others. They will set you up with a case, motherboard, CPU, memory, drives, cables etc, and test the sucker to ensure all components run initially. And of course everything is covered by an mwave or a manufacturer/OEM warranty. Yes, you will add other peripherals yourself, and the OS too - but you get to buy a system with minimal installation effort needed (still more than Dell/Gateway etc etc) that is still way more future-proofed and upgradable, not to mention a better price-performance value.