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Post by marrhav on Sept 10, 2007 10:05:12 GMT 7
Can anybody recommend a reliable computer expert to put together (assemble from components) a top-of-the-line desktop gaming computer (along the lines of Alienware Area 51 ALX)? Thank you
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Post by Admin on Sept 10, 2007 11:54:04 GMT 7
Hi,
If you are looking at building a gaming PC, you dont need an expert per say but the cash. ;D
I'll be glad to help you out with this if you want send me a PM of your budget and we can start building it together.
Do you need help in assembling it as well?
Cheers Faizul
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Post by marrhav on Sept 11, 2007 8:58:30 GMT 7
Yes, need it to be assembled as well. Will get precise specs and get in touch with you. Thanks a lot.
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Post by Admin on Sept 11, 2007 19:55:27 GMT 7
no worries, if you are living in singapore you might want to go to hardwarezone.com to view some prices. If I was wanting to build one, which I wish I could I would be looking at spending probably round 2 K minimum and that is with a kick ass 21 inch LCD screen Let me know soon Cheers Faizul
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Post by marrhav on Sept 12, 2007 21:34:27 GMT 7
The ideal computer if it were available in Singapore would be an Area51 ALX by Alienware, customized to have Dual 768MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 Ultra - SLI Enabled - Liquid Cooled Graphics Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB - Overclocked to 3.33GHz! Includes Liquid Cooling! 4GB Low Latency DDR2 Performance SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 x 1024MB Memory Alienware® Approved NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard 1TB (2 x 1TB) Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ 2 x 32MB Cache High Performance with Data Security (RAID 1) System Drive 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Burner w/ LightScribe Technology Killer K1 Gaming Network Interface Card Ageia PhysX PCI-Express Processing Unit w/ 128MB GDDR3 Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer High Definition 7.1 Audio - AlienAdrenaline v1.0: Video Performance Optimizer plus LCD screen, gaming mouse/keyboard, speakers, etc. The options can be seen at www.alienware.com/configurator_pages/Area-51_ALX_r6.aspx?syscode=PC-AREA51-ALX-R6&subcode=SKU-DEFAULTQuestions: 1. Would it be possible to build something like that with components found here in Singapore? 2. Are there any proprietary components we would not be able to replicate? 3. Are any of the specs selected excessive/redundant/useless? 4. How long would it take to get everything together? Note I am not asking about cost. Just looking at the Alienware website I know what to expect... but it is a b-day/high honours/Xmas gift Thank you!
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Post by Admin on Sept 14, 2007 18:38:26 GMT 7
Quite Impressive specs I must say! Believe it or not I talked to Dell's Regional Director here and I managed to squeeze in a question about Alienware being available here in Singapore since Dell did kinda took over Alienware in the states.
I asked him so why isnt Dell even considering this given the fact that Asia has a fast growing gaming community and I have to hand it to the guy he did say that there will be Alienware or somewhat close to Alienware specs computer here in Singapore but for now we will have to make do with the XPS line that Dell is offering, well so much for that so us gamers will have to just built our own for now.
To answer you question in detail yes there are if not the same but simillar hardware available in Singapore.
The hardware that you listed are proprietary by nature already like the NVIDIA SLI but we can still purchase it here. I would recommend against overclocking unless you have an excellent cooling system and are playing in an air conditioned environment.
As for the liquid cooled, again I am against that just because of the risk you take if the tubes kinda spring a leak while you are running the system and low behold you have a 2000 dollar piece of junk.
The amount of RAM is excessive unless you are running a 64bit machine with Vista on it as XP is only able to page a certain amount of RAM any amount over 2Gb is basically useless.
What you want is a kick ass Graphics card with SLI meaning you will have to buy 2 of them and that would split the workload that you put on it for better rendering of graphics and objects that need to be accessed during for example a first person shooter game.
The Amount of disk space is great and you have RAID1 which means the drive is mirrored so if one drive fails your data is still available on the next all you have to do is to replace one drive and you are up and running at full capacity again. This also means you can still run on one hard disk if one of them should fail.
The sound card is also very important as a true gamer I cherish to be able to hear the foot steps my opponent makes and being able to tell which direction it is coming from is again a plus. The creative one you chose is able to do just that.
The NIC card is basically excessive as we dont have a great connection here to the US so no matter how good a NIC card you have the bottleneck would still lie in your broadband router and the subscription service you are running. Unless you intend to play your game in a local area connection so thats fine.
It would probably take some like me including shopping time and entire day to get it up and running, something like we start off shopping at Sim Lim at 1 pm because all the good shops stay closed till then, we would then scout around for the parts and try to get a good deal, this could take 4 to 5 hours depending if you know where to look.
Afterwhich we get back to the house hook everything up which could take about an hour if you know what you are doing and finally installing the operating system and what other software that you need installed which could take about 2 to 3 hours depending on whether or not Microsoft deploys service pack 3 for XP by the time you decide to build it as there are a load of patches even after service pack 2 is installed.
That also brings up another question, you will need to buy an operating system if you dont have one they are about $140 to $180 OEM as you will be buying a computer technically speaking that is.
I will be away for 2 weeks to serve my reservist training meaning 2 weeks in the bush so I wont be able to answer this thread by next week Monday. I will let one of my buds know that you are intersted in doing this so he can continue to advise and help you out on your project.
Cheers Faizul
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Post by marrhav on Sept 16, 2007 11:46:49 GMT 7
Thank you for all the useful comments. If you can help us build it (we have no experience buying components or assembling computers) we can wait and go ahead on your return. Have a good time in the bush!
M.
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Post by Admin on Sept 16, 2007 15:06:49 GMT 7
Sounds good, I'll be back by 1st october so see you then.
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Post by marrhav on Oct 2, 2007 8:40:51 GMT 7
Hi,
Welcome back! Pls. let us know when you can start putting this computer together. Thks!
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Post by Admin on Oct 2, 2007 20:15:12 GMT 7
Thanks for the welcome back I'll check my schedule for the next week or so and will let you know. We need to talk about when you have free time and how much you want to spend for this project and work within the budget as it can be blow out off proportion REAL quick. Cheers
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