Build my own PC or buy an Alienware or XPS?

[Chazell29]

Hey, I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should buy all the parts and build my own computer (which would be really fun, but im nervous about th eparts being DOA or me breaking them trying to install them) or buy an Alienware or a Dell XPS.

The total for my Custom PC is $984 and has these specs:

XG Viper CA-V2-WOP-R Red Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case- $80

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive- $44

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE Combo Drive- $25

Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 800MHz FSB 2 x 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor- $116

ASUS P5LD2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard- $110
newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131538

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply- $52

SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card- $112

Logitech Internet Pro Desktop Standard Keyboard Mouse Included- $17

GENERIC 24" 3-pin & 4-pin Connectors Audio Cable Model 11A1-10425- $3

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2- $90

G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory- $90

Acer AL1515 Black 15" 16ms LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 450:1 0.297mm Pixel Pitch- $135

Thats everything I'm going to buy for my PC.

Or for the same price, I can buy an Alienware Area-51 with:
-Intel® Pentium® D Processor 930 w/ Dual Core Technology 3.0GHz 800MHz FSB
-Alienware® PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 945 Chipset
-NVidia GeForce 6200TC with 256MB PCI Express™
-256MB dual channel DDR2-533MHz SDRAM standard, upgradeable to 4GB dual channel DDR2-533MHz SDRAM
-Liquid Cooling
-17" Flatpanel Monitor

Or for $900 I could get an XPS with:
-Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
-128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory
-1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
-250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache
-19 inch E196FP Analog Flat Panel

So what should I do?

[jimmyrules712]

build your PC. The 2 you listed aren't very great. The first only has 256 mb of memory and the second has a video card that a budget video card (since you put a nice video card in the parts you listed, i assume your a gamer.

[Chazell29]

Originally Posted by jimmyrules712 build your PC. The 2 you listed aren't very great. The first only has 256 mb of memory and the second has a video card that a budget video card (since you put a nice video card in the parts you listed, i assume your a gamer.

Yeah, I want to build that PC for gaming because my current PC sucks lol.

[swampdonkey]

Definitely build your own system. It really isnt as hard as you think it will be, and even if you do encounter any problems you always have the internet and this forum to rely on. You can build a very nice system for $1000. Much better than Alienware and Dell have to offer.

[blue60007]

You already started a post on this.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=164226