What do you think of this system??? Would you recommend any changes???


Aurora™ 7500

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 - Saucer Silver

Cable Management: Alienware® Cable Management System

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 510 Express 650 Watt peak power

Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4800+ Processor with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology

Motherboard: Alienware® nForce™4 SLI™ Chipset Motherboard PCI Express

Memory: 2GB Ultra Low Latency DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 333MHz - 4 x 512MB

Graphics Processor: Dual NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 Ultra PCI Express 256MB DDR3 with NVIDIA SLI Technology

Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance Optimizer

Chassis Upgrades: AlienIce™ 2.0 Video Cooling System with Acoustic Dampening - Astral Blue

System Drive: Extreme Performance - Serial ATA RAID 0 - 500GB (250GB x 2) Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/16MB Cache

Optical Drive One: NEC® ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive

Optical Drive Two: Plextor® PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x CD-RW 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

Display One: No Monitor
Display Two: No Monitor

Speakers: Logitech® Z-5300e 5.1 280-Watt Speakers

Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Saucer Silver

Mouse: Razer Diamondback Mouse

Alienware Exclusive Offers: Gamespot Complete - Free 90-day Trial (a $20.85 value)
Alienware Exclusive Offers: 10% off your next EB Games online purchase
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!
AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - $99.99 Value - FREE!

Nice system, but because it is alienware, you could probably build it cheeper yourself. plus I've heard some bad stuff about alienware tech support.

Alienware tech-support is non-exisitant. So let me see what I could build that for:

(All from NewEgg for simplicity unless noted)
WinXP Pro SP2 OEM: $145.95
Thermaltake Shark Full Tower blue light kit: $156.98 (from Xoxide)
SilverStone Zeuz 650W PS: $168.99 (from Xoxide)
AMD Athln64 x2 4800+ 1GHz FSB socket 939 Dual Core Processor - OEM: $1139
ASUS A8N-SLI atx nForce4-SLI AMD motherboard: $144
Corsair XMS 2Gb (4x512mb) DDR PC 3200 Dual Channel : $376
MSI nVidia 6800Ultra 256meg SLI PCI-X DDR3 $970
AcoustiPack Acoustic Dampening $69.95 (from QuietPC.com)
Maxtor DiamondMax 250GB S-ATA HDD x2: $278
NEC DVD Burner (dual layer): $59.99
Plextor Plexwriter Premium CD-RW: $67
Creative Audigy2 ZS Gamer Edition (7.1 surround): $72.99
Logitech THX Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers: $138
Logitech LX300 RF wireless keyboard/mouse: $43
Total: $3830 before shipping.

I would change a few things:
-The NEX and Plextor would get changed out for two Lite-On drives.
-I wouldn't in my wildest dreams use RAID 0 for my system drive.
-Why pay for a 'video optimizer'? What are they going to do, sing to your screen? Video optimization is easy and you shouldn't have to spend money for it.
-A 510Watt PS is not enough for that SLI setup (two S-ATA drives, two optical drives, dual core CPU, light kit, floppy drive, case fans AND two SLI enabled 6800Ultras - minimum requirements by my math would be 610Watts continuous power.

Alienware price: $4683 after a $300 mail-in rebate.

So I am overpaying.

Considering you could build it for about a grand less - AND get a better rig out of it - yeah, I'd say you're overpaying. Of course this is all on the premise that you are comfortable with building a system of this magnitude. From what I've heard, dual SLI systems can be a real pain in the arse to setup - and the dual core Athlon64 also a bit flakey about setup.

If it were me, I'd build it - I've built dozens of systems and I'm just bidding my time (and waiting for a SLI alternative from ATI) before I put together my own little gaming monster.

But like I said, on yours, I'd make those changes - you could even save some money doing it - get a 100Gig S-ATA HDD for your OS/Programs and a 300Gig S-ATA HDD for files, should be cheaper than two 250Gig S-ATA drives. You don't really need the acoustic damping foam, get Lite-On drives over the NEC & Plextor, you could even get a 'lesser' case than the Shark - I only used it because it's every bit as much eye candy as the Alienware case.

Oh...and if you're worried about 'tech support', just get everything in retail packaging (I quoted some OEM stuff) - with retail packaging you get longer/better warranties (AMD's OEM warranty is 90 days, retail package is 3 years).

dude, look at it this way,

anytime you get alienware, you are more than likly overpaying.

and like audiyoda said, get everything retail and you will not have to worry about warrienty.

Thanks for the advice. My problem is that I am not comfortable building my own system, particularly with the setup. But you have given me good ideas on how to reduce costs and what is worth the price and what isn't. I still haven't decided to buy but I want (don't need) to get something more powerful than what I now have.

Dude! It's soooo easy to build your own system!!! You just buy all the parts and put it together. If you're really paranoid and can't be stuffed touching the case all the time, you could buy a static wristband and you'd be set! It's totally symple.

First you buy the parts and then put in the motherboard, add the ram, CPU and heatsink. Then install the PSU, the video and PCI cards, install the HDD and optical disks, additional fans, then boot and start your OC'n!

cheers dude, it's easier than you think. Set aside a Saturday, read your manuals and then put it together slowly, bit by bit. You can do it!