New machine/need opinions

B

BOBbagels

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Hey Yo,

Im interested in gettin a new machine and need your advice.



heres the specs of what I'm thinkin about.
Obviously its an Alienware product. I have a few of their machines now and really like em alot and would like to stick to them if possible.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 Processor with HyperTransport Technology
1GB Registered DDR SDRAM PC-3200
2- 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA 7,200 RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drives
NVIDIA GeForce™ FX 5900 Ultra 256MB 8x AGP w/DVI & S-Video
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2-6.1
56x CD Rom
Plextor PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x CD-RW
NVIDIA® Integrated 100Mb Ethernet
Alienware™ USB 2.0 32MB Flash Drive
3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Klipsch ProMedia™ GMX D-5.1 Speakers

Info on the 64 Bit Chip-
Processor AMD® Athlon™ 64 FX-51
Frequency 2.2GHz
Bus Speed 1600MHz
On-Chip Level 1 Cache 128 KB
On-Chip Level 2 Cache 1 MB Advanced Transfer
Special Features AMD64 Technology
HyperTransport Technology
Integrated Memory Controller

Gonna cost about 3,300.00

This machine will be used for gaming and surfing mostly. I have other machines for buisness and stuff.

I know I could build a machine for cheaper but ya know, I just dont have the time and I do got the money. I want a really high end machine for gaming right now for the games I am playing (planetside and a future BT upcomming game that will be real hard on the graphics)

One of my concerns is the 64bit thing. I dont really know much about it yet. Will I be able to do all the things I usually do? I know its backwards compatible and all but like I said, I dont understand that end of the chip.

PS- I know I aint got a monitor listed, I dont need one. And I dont have a DVD listed either, I dont think I have any use for a DVD rom in a computer unless its used for something other than watching DVD's on the computer which I will never do (I watch DVD's on my 65" projection TV with some unreal surround system I picked up

Any help is appreciated.
 
The Athlon 64 will run 32 bit applications just fine. It's basically for future use, and current 64 bit applications. You might want to start thinking about a DVD player because already games are available on DVD instead of CD, and I'm sure it will become a standard before you know it.

Other than that, if you are willing to spend that much then go for it. Everything else looks good. You can probably find the parts cheaper elsewhere, but as you said you do not want to build it yourself. Drop the flash drive and you can afford your DVD player :)


BTW: if you get a DVD drive you will have no need for just the CD drive since DVD drives function as both. Also, unless you really have a need for it then drop the floppy too. They are on their way out, and a waste of the extra money.

These are just my opinions :)
 
The chip itself is backward-compatible, and Microsoft is insisting that the upcoming 64-bit edition of Windows will also be backward-compatible. A 64-bit OS with 64-bit drivers will be where you will truly see a benefit from your Athlon 64.

You must be positively hemmorhaging cash from every orifice of your body...

Excellent computer though! :D
 
Athlon 64 system. The first look reviews said the nforce 3 chipset is bug hell. Avoid it until it is fixed. The VIA KT800 was stable. Not sure if it has dual ddr memory bus though. If it doesn't, that's a deal killer.

DO NOT go for a FX5900. All hell is breaking loose over its DX9 performance, or rather the lack thereof. Nvidia keeps rolling driver set after driver set trying to get its performance up and all they get is degraded appearance. The developers at Valve doing HL2 dissed the Nvidia stuff pretty bad. G0 for the 9800 PRO or wait a few weeks and see what the new offering from ATI looks like.

PS from what the rumor mongers had to say don't expect to be able to buy a 64 FX until next year.

OR

It pains me to say this...
The P4 Extreme CPU is Intels stab at the gaming market. It slammed the AMD 64 FX pretty bad in the speed competitions. It may be a better choice.

In either case don't expect to actually be able to buy something until next year.
 
LeeJend: They are available now... plus that is an alienware system. He got the quote from their site.
 
Wait until november before making a purchase on the 64-bit machines. Let the heat cool a bit on the new processor and get reviewers' opinions on them first.
The FX series is based on the Opertron CPU - do you really need that?
 
Dude, the P4EE did not "slam" the FX-51... the FX-51 kills it at a clock speed of gig slower, for sure go for that rig, but change the video to a 9800 Pro
 
OK,
Judging by the replies here and a from a few other people I am gonna wait a while for bugs and stuff to be worked out.
Its not imperative I have it right now and besides, every time I rush into things I always get F....d

Also I will take the advice on the video card as well.
I dont have much experience with the Radeons, I always had Nvidia cards but i guess its like anything else, I'll learn it LOL

1 thing I'm gettin confused about though, This is a 64 bit system, yet the Microsoft XP 64 bit Operating System isnt out yet. How can the chip operate in 64 bit mode if the 64 bit operating system isnt on the machine?
Shouldnt I wait for that to be released also?
 
PS, I aint Ozzing cash from anywhere. I work my butt off all day and come home and spend like 6-8 hrs on my machines every night. (no life :p) So I figure I dont spend much on other things, why cant I have a real good computer? Its where I spend most of my free time these days.
 
All I have to say is that if the P4EE dominates the FX like the P4C 3.2 dominates the 3200+ then I wouldn't waste money on the $700+ AMD.
 
Here's Mem bandwidth...

1063963274qjhbzk4xzd_4_1.gif



Content Creation 2003

1063963274qjhbzk4xzd_4_5.gif


3DMark 2001SE

1063963274qjhbzk4xzd_5_1.gif


UT2003
1063963274qjhbzk4xzd_5_5.gif


need I go on?? This is the beginning of a new product, not the end of it like with the P4....
 
I stand corrected (and humiliated). I was thinking of the Athlon 64 not the FX version. Though who wins (FX vs EE) the benchmarks does vary with the benchmark used.

So anyone know how many days lead time is Alienware quoting for delivery?

PS Did anyone elses jaw drop when he mentioned he has "a few alienware machines already"?
 
Originally posted by BOBbagels
Hey Yo,

Im interested in gettin a new machine and need your advice.

......
......


Any help is appreciated.

I like the setup... :)

replace the video card though... seriously... get a 9800pro instead or wait and get the r360 which should cost the same amount when it debuts... maybe a little more..

drop the 56x cd rom and get a 16x dvd player which should handle high cd read speeds as well...

to save some money you may consider using onboard sound for now... the new athlon64 boards are loaded as is.. :)

onboard sound ATM is quite excellent on boards..
 
not my jaw, I don't buy prefab PC's, there is pride in building your own, besides connecting the monitor isn't as fun as bending a processor socket pin :)

Anyhoo, I have benchmarks too, I wont trust any until everything is officially released. These don't seem to be from an AMD favored site.

No pics loading
 
ok... fyi... for those who wish to start a link wars contest... please start your own thread.. it is extremely annoying having to wait half an hour for the page to load coz of whatever millions of images loaded... :)

which in j79zlr's case are not loading :cool:

anyways... the athlon64 is a good pc... the athlon64 FX is better and the pentium4 3.2 EE is a good competitor... BUT it is a stopgap measure prior to the prescott... yields are the big thing and seeing how HOT the 3.2 EE is running right now... I find it unlikely intel is going to bring a lot of these to the market...

beyond that... please also understand people... various websites make money from various IHV's and other companies... just look @ toms :) or [H]...

some of the benchmarks are conducted differently or with different suites of programs that demonstrate various pluses and minuses...

as it stands right now... IMO... there is no better cpu than the athlon64...

I would not buy it right now... of course :)

I am waiting for the next wafers with higher clocks... see the overclocking potential (the 2.2 ghz FX has been clocked @ 2.8ghz and completely whoops all the benches @ that clock... so there is definately potential)... bear in mind this is a prometia setup which costs a fair deal...

I am waiting for the next batch and pci- eXpress :D
 
Mate, don't think u listed your motherboard - most important. Your Hard disk will be a bottleneck. Go for Western digital with 8MB Buffer - whole lot faster and more reliable than Seagate (Broke down 3 Seagates in 6mths ! - I used HDDs intensively) No such probs with WD. Also, suggest onboard RAID for striping to improve performance. Change video card too - regret sticking with Nvidia.
 
The advantage is system warranty and cheap OEM parts sourced by the retailer. The disadvantage is that if you want to make hardware changes yourself you'll void the warranty. Also, I have never built a custom made PC without a compatibility problem of some kind. Retail systems take the hassle out of troubleshooting this yourself (depending on how trustworthy the store is of course).:)
 

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