Alienware x51 vs Vortex

D

DanielEvans

Member
What would be better, a vortex from Specialist with the following specs:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2012 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£14)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

or an Alienware x51 with the following specs:

Processor
Intel® Core™ i5-2320 Processor (3.00GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 4C)
Operating System
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Monitor
Display Not Included
Memory4
8GB4 Dual Channel at 1333MHz
Hard Drive
1TB Serial ATA (7,200 rpm)
Video Card
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
Optical Drive
DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
Keyboard
Alienware Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Wireless
Integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Wireless LAN
Security Software
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
Services and Support
1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware Support
Advertised System Weight
5.49 kg.
Recommended Upgrade


Purely in specs ignoring all the anti-virus protection and warranty etc.
Please help as i am new to buying computers

P.S would the top one be able to play games like ARMA 3, Skyrim, BF3 etc?
 
T

ThomasM

Well-known member
The Vortex will always win, although you could edit a couple of things to make it even better.
Yes it will play those games :)
 
Wolvo7

Wolvo7

Bright Spark
Yeah pretty much every component in the Vortex is better. But as Thomas said you'd be better off customizing this spec to make it even better. Just post your budget and I'm sure someone can come up with a great spec for you.

It's always better to have the choice for every component, like that you can be sure that you don't skimp on quality.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
Certainly the pc by pcs. As already said by Wolvo, do provide a budget and use which would be helpful to come up with a better spec.
 
D

DanielEvans

Member
My budget is £800, although i am willing to stretch slightly further if it would make a world of difference. I would really appreciate if someone could post a good spec for playing those games in particular (and other games of that quality and required standard.

P.S, would the vortex be able to play those games at a good graphical setting?
 
F3AR

F3AR

Well-known member
The alienware has unbranded components, and are probably terrible because of it.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
Yes, it would be fine to play games from mid to high settings but nothing overly bizarre.

A spec I recommend going for with your budget. Takes you to the end of your budget but worth considering. Good all rounder and better graphics which should turn things up a notch:

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Total: 797

Configure it here :)
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
One thing I cant stand about the major brands you see in pc world/currys/comet/ maybe alienware too, is

1. That they dont provide the windows installation disk! it causes massive problems if you require a fresh install, I had this problem with my naf netbook (win 7 32bit) wanted to reinstall fresh on a small ssd, to put it simply I couldnt as I they dont provide a installation disk, when I asked HP they said it would cost 50-60 quid for a backup cd. (lol which may not even have allowed me to do a fresh install) My only other option was to buy a fresh copy of win 7. No thanks.
2. You get a load of naf HP/whatever brand you bought software that you dont need or want, that pops up everything single time you turn on the pc -.-
3. the cheapest components going, with the highest prices.
4. I could keep going, but you get the picture.

I'm sure this would apply to alienware as they are dell's.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
The spec I posted is better in everything than the pre built vortex 750 except the graphics card. Same card but the 7850 is just a new upgrade 7xxx series by amd which has extra power.

@tom Definitely agree with the no installation disc. Could of at least provided a usb version instead but nothing apart from the flimsy branded disc they have which has troublesome installation processes.
 
Last edited:
Wolvo7

Wolvo7

Bright Spark
That they dont provide the windows installation disk! it causes massive problems if you require a fresh install, I had this problem with my naf netbook (win 7 32bit) wanted to reinstall fresh on a small ssd, to put it simply I couldnt as I they dont provide a installation disk, when I asked HP they said it would cost 50-60 quid for a backup cd. (lol which may not even have allowed me to do a fresh install) My only other option was to buy a fresh copy of win 7. No thanks
Click to expand...

Tell me about it have the same problem with my VAIO it came with Vista pre-installed without even a recovery CD.. It crashed once and I had no other choice than to download an iso image of the recovery disk and burn it on my uni's PC at midnight..
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
tom_gr7 said:
One thing I cant stand about the major brands you see in pc world/currys/comet/ maybe alienware too, is

1. That they dont provide the windows installation disk! it causes massive problems if you require a fresh install, I had this problem with my naf netbook (win 7 32bit) wanted to reinstall fresh on a small ssd, to put it simply I couldnt as I they dont provide a installation disk, when I asked HP they said it would cost 50-60 quid for a backup cd. (lol which may not even have allowed me to do a fresh install) My only other option was to buy a fresh copy of win 7. No thanks.
2. You get a load of naf HP/whatever brand you bought software that you dont need or want, that pops up everything single time you turn on the pc -.-
3. the cheapest components going, with the highest prices.
4. I could keep going, but you get the picture.

I'm sure this would apply to alienware as they are dell's.
Click to expand...

I did get a windows 7 disk with my alienware aurora desktop ( previous rig ) , you also could make a backup recovery disk as well for re-installing windows (presumably for non alienware dell PCs that don't come with the windows 7 disk - most brands do let you at leased make a recovery disk)

I suppose the reason they don't supply windows disks is its cheaper to just buy a bulk license form microsoft & continually copy the OS in the form of recovery partitions to the PCs

Bu these recovery disks can only be used on the PC that you have created them on , plus its hard as hell to do any kind of dual boot with them as they always format the entire drive , so there goes your partition with your other OS on it , sure you can install the recovery disk first & then your second OS on a created partition , but this can be so much of a pain if you say need to get xp on first , then vista/7 (easiest way around) as you cant put the newer os on last as it will wipe out the older os partition , can be done the other way around if you can be bothered with all the hassle , but simply supplying a windows disk would do away with so much headache
 
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