Angry Joe's new setup.

I enjoy his reviews but has anyone seen Joe's new setup video? It's pretty embarrassing because, not only does he come across as very ignorant about PC tech in general, but it's basically one big advert for his new incredibly ugly and overpriced Alienware PC, complete with reference SLI 980s (which he seems to think each have 8GB Vram) and some typically cheapish standard components commonly found in pre-built machines.

It's a bit of shame because PC gaming is really growing right now and the likes of Joe can reach thousands of potential PC gamers around the world, but the very last thing I think he should be doing is promoting crap like Alienware to them. For me, one of the joys of PCs is building them yourself and having complete control over the components. Not only does it save you a lot of money but, if you do your research, it guarantees you a future-proof system where you simply have to upgrade components one at a time. it also gives you troubleshooting experience and ensures you never have to take a computer to a repair shop again, or spend two hours on the phone to some customer service drone on the other side of the world, reading a script off a screen.

He says in the video that he just wanted a system ready to go but with the parts in place, you can put a build together in a few hours. Hell, he could have just done some kind of collaboration video with another channel such as Linus Tech Tips. I'm not against pre-built machines completely but I do think they contribute a lot to the whole 'I don't game on PC because they have issues and crash all the time' brigade. In my twenty odd years as a PC user, the only serious issues I've ever had were with pre-built systems.

Never heard of this guy but you got this right

Plenty of smart people(aka not angry joe) are adamant about not building their own pc. One of my best friends is extremely smart, and will not do anything manual labor related. If money isn't an issue, then it really doesn't matter if you buy a prebuilt or not.

PC gaming should be about the games, not the box it runs on. Of course, angry joe is actually retarded and only likes games with no gameplay.

No. One of the main things that sets PC gaming above console gaming is the box that it runs on. You don't have to be confined to the extremely outdated hardware that Sony or MS give to you. Complete control over what you play on is a defining part of PC gaming.

Didn't he come from being a console-only gamer ?

Nothing wrong with him preferring to buy a pre-made PC and sounding a little ignorant about PC gaming. As long as he can enjoy the best gaming experience, in other words: PC gaming.

A 1500w psu? what overkill manner is that? He'd be lucky if the whole system uses more than 500w

I agree with you on that, I saw the vid few days ago and I wasn't surprised at all, those YouTubers that review games aren't TECH savy what so ever.

Few mistakes a normal PC gamer wouldn't do:

A) Alien brand, seriously?

B) Stating things (8Gb VRAM) before you understand them, or at least enter the goddamn Alienware site and see that it's 8Gb VRAM combined, which comes to another thing, is it really legal for a "professional" building computers brand to advertise like this? I mean they should know and explain that 8Gb combined isn't a real thing.

Also I'd like to mention I loved AngryJoe and the begginng when he was all funny about stupid games like Battleship the video game and many more, but to tell you the truth once I saw some of the latest vids of his, I have a conlucsion about him: complaining and crying like a baby over small issues - making them major things isn't my style so I've stopped watching his review and even concidering his reviews a legit point of view about games.

Another thing: he plays FPS with a freaking controller on PC!!!

Alienware may be overpriced. I don't think it's crap though.

Edit:

I also agree with those who said it's all about the games. So what if he has a prebuilt? I played LAN MP (BF2, FSX) with a number of PC gamers who brought their prebuilts with them. Why should I exclude them from gaming with me? If the prebuilts can do the job, who cares if they're not DIY.

Assembling a PC doesn't make anyone that much smarter. There are a lot of DIYers who don't understand how the whole PC architecture work. They just slap the parts together and that's it.

Couldn't even bring myself to watch the video, he just looks so smug in the thumbnail alone you can tell it will contain cringeworthy idiocy.

Regardless if it is an Alienware or not, that is a beast rig (ugly as **** though). I don't understand the hate for Angry Joe. He doesn't claim to be an expert or anything. He is just happy about his new setup and wanted to share with his viewers. Sure, he got a deal from Alienware (possibly free) and he is helping advertise the system, but can you blame him? It is not like the video is just about the Alienware. He shows and talks about everything.

Just got done playing some Far Cry 3 with a controller. After spending a whole day behind a PC at work it's nice that I can game from my couch if I want to.

Online FPS ? Hell no.

Angry Joe's dream setup slightly sucks. What's the point of having a 3-monitor setup if you aren't even going to line up the monitors by their bezels? Thousands of dollars on the video components and what...$150 for speakers? Might as well hook that entire setup to a clock radio.

I didn't say not building one makes you dumb because that would be a ridiculous generalisation. In fact, If you go to the right places you can customise an excellent pre-built system for only a little bit more than what you'd pay to put it together yourself.

It's just, for me, I'd always encourage building your own or at least learning a little bit about the tech if you're gonna make the jump to PC. Joe has the advantage of having links to Dell, so if his Alienware system has any issues, it'll be fixed in no time. Most people don't have that luxury and, from my experience, things probably will go wrong with that kind of system at some point.

@BassMan: Actually Alienware gave him 10% off (he mentions it in the vid after mentioning their 30% mark up)................lolwut

pretty much this

Holy **** is that thing is ugly.

That tower is one ugly pile of shit...

Interesting case design.. I would like to see how that performs in cooling compared to other cases.

He's really excited... I will feel bad for him when his warranty runs out. Because he will be PO'ed when he has any issues. His PC knowledge is lacking and that's not a good thing.

I agree. I know a few people who were with the original crowd that started modding beige cases by hand and Dremel. That crowd started the clear side panel trend that is so common nowadays. Fan holes? Find a place for one and cut them out manually. Nowadays, they game only occasionally and usually buy prebuilts because they're too busy doing other things.

Alienware (just like other boutique PC makers) came from the ranks of DIYers. I can't really rag on them besides slagging them for the price tags of their products. He He.

If you go to the Alienware website then you will see that his rig costs around 6000USD.

You could build that rig for around 2000USD if you did it yourself.

I honestly think the most glaring problem with that model isn't that high end one.. But the "low end" one at $1700 has only a R9 270 in it! Where the hell is the money going! They have bundles with the X99 motherboard + Water cooler + chip for $550.. Where the heck is all that money going to warrant $1700!

I'd love to see you build a roughly $3,500 rig for $2,000.

If I take out the unnecessary parts that don't affect performance I can do it.

Like getting rid of the 1500 watt PSU and getting one around 750-800watts.

I built my rig with an i7 4770k and 2 GTX 970s for 1400USD.

for something like Joe paid for , even with 10% off of 4K that's still over 3k....

a system that is similar

i7 5820k -$390

Gigabyte X99 -$200

32gb DDR4 -$390

EVGA GTX 980 - $550 x2

Corsair 500r -$130

EVGA 850w SuperNOVA -$140

250gb EVO -$115

4tb harddrive -$160

bluray drive -$50

with windows, total is under $2800

You can easily save quite a bit vs buying that area 51. Also if you were to cut 980's to 970's would save another $440.

LOL @ that case. It looks like a trash can from "Barbarella." (look it up, you rotten kids)

No, his rig does not cost around 6K, what you mean in Alienware site you can build yourself for 5400$ 2x Titan Z setup PC.

Alienware is expensive brand but they didn't lost their minds yet.

Any idea what his rig did cost then? I'm kinda curious. >.>

I hadn't even considered prices when I started this thread but the most expensive Alienware Area 51 desktop on the Uk site is £3,098.99, and that's with 16GB memory and triple 970s (probably reference models too). Let's face it, Alienware is a complete ripoff price wise and, whether you get discounts or not, I think you're a moron to recommend them.

that case is awful

It's rather ironic I'd say for a guy who is all ways criticizing companies for crazy prices for the content present, to go out and do no research and just plop a bunch of cash on an Alienware. I know he worked at dell but damn, I thought he would have been smart enough to ask his community or even ask a fellow youtuber who is into making custom pc's to do a cross promotion. Would have been far cooler then seeing another one of these take advantage of the rich and ignorant companies like apple getting payed while getting this free Advertisement. Hell I'd even say Alienware is the "apple" of the windows gaming world. Cheap low quality boards and parts inside, with a super nice case to draw in those who like shiny shit and care for little else, at a very very premium price.

I agree. While I don't think supporting Alienware is 'evil' per se, he really passed up an awesome opportunity to show people how easy it is to build a rig - and he could've even taken part suggestions from his fans.

RedLetterMedia is an example - they are anti-Corporatism when it comes to big popular games, and they hosted a live stream where they used parts suggested by the community and they built the machine while everyone watched and gave advice. This feels more like a weird attempt at advertising rather than Joe getting the best rig for his money. Like I said, it's even more awkward when he spent so much on everything but forgot to save a dime for any decent speakers. Given how cluttered and lazily put together his setup is, it seems like he was really eager to spend the least amount of time possible putting this setup together.

It seems like a wasted opportunity for sure. He needs to learn how to better leverage his celebrity. He could have gotten the rig for free if he knew how to sell himself. Plenty of companies would pay for that exposure. As for the speakers.... I agree that it is a sad setup.

Well I guess as long as it does what he wants it to do then whatever. But he should've asked TotalBiscuit for advice :P

Damn, now I can be like Linus and not actually play any games but just review hardware.

Of course I like the control PC Gaming gives you, but that's in terms of stuff like monitors, refresh rate, mouse & keyboard. The actual computer itself isn't particularly important besides storage configuration.

You make no sense. How is the actual computer itself not important? How do you prioritize storage configuration over CPU and GPU? You can have all the storage in the world and it will not render your games any better.

@JigglyWiggly_: Ya not understanding how what actually runs the computer isn't important. You sound like my friend who just got a $3100 dollar Macbook pro. He comes to me says look at this awesome beast I have. In which I reply 16gb is rather standard, gtx750 is low end, the storage is expensive and small, and the CPU and nice retina screen are the only upsides though at that res the gtx 750 is at it's limits even on the OS screen. His reply being it's not what's on the inside that matters. If the inside didn't matter you'd be writing shit on paper. What's on the inside running things is all that matters. Everything else is secondary.

I think his new setup is pretty damn awesome, but im a sucker for all things alien.

Not every PC case has to be a simple neat little box. Good on him, he sounds like a genuine down to earth person.

As in you can just let somebody else do it(prebuilt oem) do that stuff for you. It doesn't matter whether you put the system together yourself or it they do it, that doesn't affect your gameplay. Stuff like peripherals are all down to preference, so you can spend a lot of time on these.

Storage I'd prefer to handle myself rather than someone else since there are a ton of different configurations you can have.

That a nice, but certainly overpriced setup. So some people don't like that he went with a prebuilt? Just let it go because this is a non-issue. He probably has other crap he'd rather worry about than building a PC and I can only imagine how much shit people would give him if he screwed up the build somehow. If he's not entirely PC tech savvy then he made the right choice by letting someone else do it (even though his wallet is probably screaming in agony).

You're being incredibly naive if you think I'm not aware of computer specs. Your comparison has absolutely no relevance.

Also if he doesn't play games, or has no use for CUDA or OpenCL compute, then it doesn't matter what his gpu is.

true, I gotta say I like that alienware case but the dell psu gives me shivers down my spine, still for 6000 us $ it's probably a good psu.

I actually like this guy, his simplicity is adorable but what is this guy reviewing, hopefully not pc hardware because that would give the wrong idea to people that this hardware is actually worth 6000 $

rofl.

Yeah, and this guy seems like he just came from a fucking time machine from the 1920's or something. I mean, who hasn't heard of ssds by now? Also who the **** needs 32gb ram?

AND he only overclocks to 3.9ghz? hahah

conclusion: EPIC FAIL!!!

I watch his videos thinking he was switched on but after watching this one im sort thinking hes not

Also, no need for that swearing in a tech video.

I don't know what to say. I don't want to come out as a PC elitist nor do I want to come out as a hater as someone has said above, it's about PC gaming. With the kind of content he makes maybe that setup can help in the long run. It is stupidly overkill, not to mention overpriced, it's also somewhat of an unbalance build, which is typical from Dell to rip you off.

Whatever his reasons were, it won't change my mind about me preferring to build my own PC and staying away from prebuilts.

Alienware have had it's exorbitant prices long before Dell acquired them. if you look at the 1997 image I posted, the Area 51 was ~US$3500. Today that would be ~US$5213. That was almost 10 years before the Dell acquisition.

Yes, he's set a bad example for me lol.