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Buying PC Gear
By HHI Golf Guy | July 28, 2006
I have a 5 year old Alienware PC that I have wanted to replace for a while now. Back in its day it was a screamer with a 1.9GHz AMD chip and 1GB of RAM. How the times have changed!
I went to the Alienware site to price out a new PC, and I also searched the internet for the latest consumer opinions on Alienware. I was worried that since they were bought out by Dell that things may have changed for the worse. I saw a lot of complaints about their PC quality and especially their tech support. One poster suggested building your own PC instead.
I had never thought of that before, but since I’m fairly handy with electronics I though I would check it out. I went to TigerDirect.com and started pricing out components. As I started pricing out all of the components that I needed I was surprised at how little it would cost to build a great PC.
To start off I selected the new Intel Pentium D 3.2GHz dual core socket 775 processor, the ASUS P5N32-SLI motherboard, and 2GB OCR DDR2 667MHz RAM. I added an Ultra 550W X2 titanium power supply, Thermaltake Silent 775 heatpipe CPU cooler, GeForce 7900 video card, and a Seagate 300GB SATA hard drive. I already had a great, new Lightscribe DVD drive that I could transfer to the new system. I also already have a great Sony 19″ flat panel monitor.
One neat thing that I added was the AeroCool Coolpanel 8-in-1 flash card reader. Not only is it a card reader, but it also has a firewire port, high speed USB ports, video port, audio ports, and 2 SATA ports. Perhaps even more important it monitors and controls fan speeds and temperatures to prevent overheating.
The hardest decision I had to make was choosing a PC case. Because I worry about PC overheating I looked into a liquid cooling system. Thermaltake has some nice options, but the case/cooling system combo runs about $280. Another concern I had is locking down my PC - I have an 8-month old son that loves to crawl around and get in to things. And since my PC is on the floor under my work station I didn’t want to tempt him with cabinet doors, knobs, and buttons.
I finally settled on the Thermaltake Tsunami case because it completely locks down all panels. I had considered the Thermaltake Shark, Kandalf, and Armor cases. I opted not to get the liquid cooling system and opted for the heat pipe instead. The case I did buy has two 120mm fans and one 90mm fan, so that should be enough cooling for now.
I decided to go with the on board audio for now instead of a sound card, but I may upgrade that a bit later. I did buy the Logitech Z5300E 5.1 THX speaker and subwoofer combo. I also added a new Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and a USB 2.0 hub.
All of my components are scheduled to be delivered by July 31st (3 business days from my order date) EXCEPT the motherboard which is now on back order. That really stinks - I wish it was the speakers on backorder.
Since the MB was on backorder and I was really anxious to put this thing together I called Tiger Direct and asked how much it would cost to overnight the motherboard when it was in stock. To my surprise they said that they would overnight it for FREE! Now that’s great service.
One more thing - I priced shopped a lot of sites and overall Tiger Direct had the best prices and a TON of compliments about their service. All told, the total cost for this screaming PC came in at around $1,400. When I priced out these same (or as similar as possible) systems from Alienware, Dell, and others I saved over $1,200! Not a bad deal at all. I just can’t wait until it all gets here so I can put it together!
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Topics: Miscellaneous Ramblings |
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