Alienware

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
You're confusing power supplies; the Antac power supplies are internal, and convert household power to the DC flavors PC compnents need.

That Belkin takes household power and "cleans" it, while offering a battery backup in the event of a power outage. A good idea, but not the same thing.

I don't even think you can select one in Alienware, or Dell for that matter.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Nuclear Master
Would this be a power supply? Belkinlkin® Universal UPS 800VA (450W Capacity)

That's a battery.

PowerSupplies are little boxes inside the tower.

Alienware likely uses a good one, don't worry.

[Kramerman]

i got my system from here:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

very, very satisfied. got a great computer custom built for a reasonable cost and without all the extra software and customer service and crap that i dont need. tho if you want that crap, they have options available.

actually, about 5 months ago, i came to the OTF when i was searching for a new computer and someone here recommended this place to me... cool

[Tassadar500]

With the Area 51 and the XPS that I posted, which one is the better system, for the money, accessories, and power.

[pg]

i'm too lazy to compare everything but the differences seem minimal. the area 51 is better(faster cpu and higher quality parts i imagine) but it does cost more(the main price difference might just be the cpu). i would check those 17" flat screens. some flat screens have lag which makes gaming really bad. in general crt are still much better than flat screens in everything except how much desk space they take up and of course they are much cheaper.

i'm really surprised you are only getting a 17" screen with your budget. going from a 17" to 19" is a fairly big difference. imo it's better to downgrade a few parts of you system so you can spend more on a screen. screens also last a long time. while many other parts of your system you will likely not ever use again once you upgrade in the future you could possibly keep using your screen. i still use my 8 year old 17" from dell to play dos games on since it is so much brighter in 256 color mode for example. i use a 19" for everything else. 21"/22" screens seem to last a really long time if you get a good one. if i had gotten one of those with my dell i'd probably still be using it today.

[Jon Miller]

you should get better than 17" screen for your money

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

I thought the new (as in not out yet, but announced) PCIe video cards were good...

Jon Miller
(checked out Tom's Hardware)

[The Mad Monk]

I like the as-yet-unannounced hyper-x vidcards being released in 2020, myself...

[Jon Miller]

that might be the case

I sort of figure that announced cards (ones that places like Tom's have physical copies of and have tested) will arrive a lot sooner (as in end of the month)

Jon Miller

[pg]

the problem with announced and benchmarked cards lately is it seems like it can take a few months before they start showing up. paper releases suck.

[Tassadar500]

I was actually thinking about upgrading to a 19" LCD. Is NEC a good company for them?

[Asher]

Yes,

[Tassadar500]

I was looking at the 20", and it was $500 Canadian more than the 19". What's the deal with that?

[Asher]

Much more supply of 19", and they're easier to produce. With time the 20" will come down, and 21" will cost $500 more.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Nuclear Master
But is that worth buying it? I'm buying a new PC soon, and I want as much information as possible.

The only commercial advantage I can think of for Alienware is, like the Viper and Corvette, they keep their value better than their competitors.

However, this is a COMPUTER, they are notorious for becoming obsolete very quickly - so not really much difference in the real world.

It's an "aspirational" thing - a salesman trying to convince you that this really is a different product. If it was truly a different product it wouldn't run Windows - so don't believe the hype.