Alienware: those who can build the X51 for under £700 "aren't the target audience"

[John25]

You keep saying wasting time, how is it a waste of time? Maybe, to you, it's a waste of time but it doesn't actually take long to find the components you need. Because you don't like/can't check the parts thats only your own fault. But as they said - You are the target audience, not someone else who can/wants to build their own.

That said, you won't be playing too much on ultra but i hope your happy with your purchase at the end of the day.




Don't be silly, thats wasting time
Some people have the money they want to spend on getting someone else to do it for them. Personally i'd rather do it myself and spend the money i would've paid someone else on better components but hey ho. I guess it's a console mentality vs PC mentality.



Yeah good point, i guess anything is easy when you know what to do (I can plumb in a bathroom and central heating system - Booyah). All you'd need to do is watch a video on youtube or just follow the instructions that come with whatever your buying and it's pretty straight forward.

Either way, Alienware themselves said this isn't aimed at those who can build their own machine so i guess some of us are expecting something that it's not.

lol you couldn't re-wire a house by watching some Youtube vids ,theres too much that needs to be takin into Consideration Like Voltage,Cable size,MCB's,Protection etc and thats before all the testing thats involved

[BoyBettaKnow]

I didn't make myself clear, i mean anyone could build a computer after watching a few youtube videos - Not rewire a house lol.

[John25]

lol my bad

[keefy]

Humans are always looking for an easy way example beign SatNav we can all read maps (i hope) but using a satnav makes it easy.

[BoyBettaKnow]

Haha, I can't ever work out if Karl Pilkington is genuinely like that or a comedy genius. Love Stephen's little observations as always too

[Inzane2050]

As someone who has spent a lot of time rewiring my father's rental houses among the like and my old job as a Audio/Video technician running wiring thru thick-ass wall from multiple story houses and drowning in my own sweat working in your attic, I have to outrule the misconception that rewiring a house is easy!

[BoyBettaKnow]

But it is easier for someone who doesn't know where to start if they had to rewire their house. Ironically, electronics scare the shit out of me

[keefy]

Everyones different you find it hard I don't I have been doing it since 1997 and fully qualified since 2003. ITs an individual thing.
I service my car but alot take it to a garage to get that done for them.

I honestly don't see why make such a big deal out of people wanting a decent PC made for them.

[Inzane2050]

I meant to say that wiring a house is indeed very difficult so sorry if I didn't word that better.

But putting together a PC is fairly easy. The biggest problem is that it simply looks difficult. But most any PC gamer will be familiar with building PCs and tell you it is actually very easy to pick up.

[Bligmerk]

There is a big difference between building a PC in a mid-tower or tower case to building one that will fit in a console size box. This Alienware one is only able to do it with the power supply in an external brick. Anybody that has looked at building what used to be called HTPC (Home Theater PC) case knows what a quagmire that is plus the whole objective is getting a box that looks good enough and the right size to slide underneath the HDTV or sit vertical next to it.

This could start to be a game changer (pun intended). The target audience is millions of people that go to Dell for their desktop and laptops. A certain percentage of those are those who have been mostly console gamers that have an old PC is barely useable for Word and web browsing that wants to get into a decent PC gaming rig without the investment of a top end desktop and even better if they can slide it next to their console.

The big problem here is if the HDTV has two or more HDMI inputs, so it is possible to switch from this gaming PC to a console with the same game titles. Even not being top end, this PC has technology that is 6 years newer, especially as far as the graphics card. Even a lower end graphics card is going to have little problem with current games running at 1080p 60 frames per second with 2X aliasing, medium to high textures, processing effects, etc. that are going to make the console version appear very blurry and lacking in many areas. In addition, if something like Joytokey is incorporated, then a controller can be used to navigate on the Windows screen to start up the game where the controller is then mapped to the game. This is going to create a very transparent operating environment. By this summer, sales of this Alienware unit will determine if there is a significant sea change occurring.

[Inzane2050]

The Alienware "console" is just a laptop in disguise.

[Seahawkk]

You are a student.
You enjoy doing that.
You are ready to waste time on that.

Thats my answer. All i want is playing games on ultra at 60 fps. Probably i need a more powerful computer for that but im fine with the x51.

it literally took me 2 hours tops to assemble my pc.
No pc can carry 60fps constantly.
if you are fine wasting more money on something you can do yourself that is fine with me

[Noxia]

The Alienware laptop in a box serves a purpose and yes the target market are paying over the odds but then if they aren't comfortable building a PC themselves then it's perfect.

[Centurion]

it literally took me 2 hours tops to assemble my pc.
No pc can carry 60fps constantly.
if you are fine wasting more money on something you can do yourself that is fine with me

Why not?

[Cybertox]

it literally took me 2 hours tops to assemble my pc.
No pc can carry 60fps constantly.
if you are fine wasting more money on something you can do yourself that is fine with me

My friends computer can run sc2 on ultra with a constant 160 fps. So a powerful computer can get costant 60 fps and even more.

[Noxia]

Is SC2 really used as a benchmark? Surely it would have to run the same battle or whatever to be a fair test as my laptop could get 120+ with not a lot going on..

[BoyBettaKnow]

it literally took me 2 hours tops to assemble my pc.
No pc can carry 60fps constantly.
if you are fine wasting more money on something you can do yourself that is fine with me

I disagree - A high end gaming PC can run games at a constant 60fps. I don't think this will be able to do that however

[keefy]

Depends ont he game

Quake my PC can achieve over 800FPS.

Crysis its possible but once you start encountering bunches of enemy AI the FPS drops due to CPU usage aparently. I never really got that far Crysis always bored me.

[Nakatomi Uk]

You could probably build a better system maybe an iCore 5 rig or a Bullzoder rig for that mark of £700 just hunting around looking for the best prices.

[Tyrien]

Each to their own i guess, i built my first computer back when i was 12 - People who get intimidated by building their own computer (especially now) are too ignorant to take the time to learn how to, imo. It's not hard and it's getting even more fool-proof.

That's really no the point though. I wasn't even focusing as much on knowledge rather than interest. There's a lot who don't want to because they don't know how, but even more who just don't care enough to do it themselves. That's fine.

Hate? What hate are you going on about. I think Alienware are a fantastic brand with even better build quality HOWEVER the fact still remains in my eyes that they are overpriced. This has nothing to do with beating my chest or that i can build my own machine. There are many far cheaper companies out there that sell pre-built machines that out perform Alienware for a fraction of the price.
I'm not expecting them to sell at a lost, they are a company to make money first and foremost but that doesn't mean i can't criticise them for being too expensive.

They are the boutique of the gaming world. Weather you want to admit it or not you are paying an extra premium simply because of the name Alienware (and the flashy lights) on the product. I accepted that when i bought my Alienware product but it doesn't change the facts.

More often than not when Alienware has been discussed on gaming boards I've noticed claims about how expensive it is and how trash the machine really is. I was just being defensive based on anecdotal evidence.

Building a PC is really easy. Just slide the cards into the appropriate slots, connect the appropriate power connectors, and place the CPU on the slot (use small booklet if you are slightly confused at best). I built my first computer when I was 11. It is all as simple as fitting the square block in the square hole and the round block in the round hole, etcetera, etcetera.

That's cool. You're not everyone though.

See what I'm saying?

Maybe I'm misinterpreting this but I keep encountering this "well if I can do it anyone can do it, and should do it because they're just silly for not!" vibe any time I see a statement about how easy it is to build a PC.

I'm sure there are other members here who agree with me.

You don't have time to go around looking for parts? Justified.

Also, how is it wasting time if I enjoy it?

You enjoy playing video games.
You waste time playing video games. (:

Because it's subjective.

I'm sure you could list several hobbies you consider a complete waste of time that others would viciously disagree with you on.

The Alienware "console" is just a laptop in disguise.

Except it has desktop class parts. I thought they were using some notebook class key components, but the GPU for example is not a mobile version, it's a desktop card.

[Seahawkk]

Why not?

My friends computer can run sc2 on ultra with a constant 160 fps. So a powerful computer can get costant 60 fps and even more.

I disagree - A high end gaming PC can run games at a constant 60fps. I don't think this will be able to do that however

its been proven ill try and find the study i read on it. And im talking about actual graphic intensive games such as bf3/skyrim.

[Tyrien]

Skyrim isn't that graphic intense. My M14X can run it on ultra without an issue.

[Seahawkk]

Skyrim isn't that graphic intense. My M14X can run it on ultra without an issue.

is that with fps showing? because during initial load times i doubt it runs it at a constant 60fps.

[Inzane2050]

Issues with initial load times may be due to insufficient RAM. Or the other reason may be that their engine or games are just not optimized well enough to load efficiently.

[Vulgotha]

is that with fps showing? because during initial load times i doubt it runs it at a constant 60fps.

That's not really fair imo. There are many bottlenecks in a machine.. From DVD read speed, HDD read speed, memory bandwidth, CPU speed, to GPU speed and VRAM bandwidth... When it comes to computers your fleet is only as fast as your slowest ship. A better indicator, to me, would be how it handles the game once most of the content is loaded. Like in the middle of a mission\quest. Not seconds after you've loaded past the title screen.

@cyber

I'd be interested in knowing how he manages that. SC2 is very poorly optimized for modern hardware and does not really benefit from modern CPU's (like Quads, hyperthreading, etc). It will only really use 2 cores no matter how many you have.

Now yes, obviously it indirectly benefits since the other cores offload all the OS\system and background processes, but the point is SC2 is CPU limited no matter how beastly of a machine you have. My core i7 machine with a largely overclocked GTX570 can run SC2 around 75-80fps...

And my GPU never goes above 49% and my CPU is only ever at like 20-30% use.

I'm guessing whatever CPU he's using is massively overclocked.