alright here is anoyther option. Son really wants an alienware. so i went back to the sight and went to the Aurora and customized that some. Tell me what ya think on this besides it being over priced...by the way the power supply is 875W I upgrated that and the video card the hard drive and the memory..i can shange the HD to a 1.2 TB RAID for another $150...i think, if that would be better. as follows is $1700..... before taxs.

CHASSIS COLOR Lunar Shadow,

Alienware Aurora Chassis PROCESSOR Intel® CoreTM i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

VIDEO CARD Single 1GB GDDR5 ATI RadeonTM HD 587O

0edit MEMORY 6GB Triple Channel 1333Mhz DDR3

HARD DRIVE 1TB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 32MB Cache HDD

OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

MONITOR No Monitor

KEYBOARD Alienware Multi-Media Keyboard

MOUSE Alienware Optical Mouse, MG100

WARRANTY AND SERVICE1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis - Important InformationeditIn-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis: for issues covered by Limited Hardware Warranty, technician and/or part will be dispatched, if necessary, usually in 1 or 2 business days following Remote Diagnosis. During Remote Diagnosis, you may be asked to access the inside of your system (where safe to do so) or to participate in troubleshooting until a cause can be isolated.My Accessories ALIEN FX Alien FX Color, Quasar Blue AVATAR Alien Cyborg

WALLPAPERAlienhead Chrome Red PRE-INSTALLED GAMES AND CLIENTS Steam and Portal TM Factory Installed

AUTOMATIC UPDATES : Enabled My Software & Accessories

ECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee® VirusScan Plus - 30-Day Free Trial (English)

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM Alienware Aurora Desktop COOLING OPTION AlienwareTM High-Performance Liquid Cooling

Adobe Software Adobe Acrobat Reader

my son has said to me that he is worried about fps or fbs..lol...cant remeber which...and smoothness,,what ever he heck that means...I understand about over cliking to a point but will he have any problem with any of them doing any othe things he is worried about??? I am not familure with this processer : Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550(2.83GHz)

how is this one also...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227188&cm_re=extreme_gaming_computers-_-83-227-188-_-Product

compared to this one....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227179&cm_re=extreme_gaming_computers-_-83-227-179-_-Product

or if I am spending that much what about this one from ibuy? Seems to be much the same in price but on some things seems to offere a little more. The processor seems better, the video card is similar, the Hard drive is 1TB instead of 1.2 TB RAID O, and a few other things...$ 2500 ($100 more than the Alienware) Which one would you prefer? Also how good is iBuypowers customer service? thanks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227199

• Recommended Usage: Gaming
• Processor: Intel Core i7-975(3.33GHz) Extreme Edition
• Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333
• Hard Drive: 1TB SATAII
• Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray High Definition DVDRW Combo Drive
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 2GB Video Card
• Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio, 8-channel audio
• Ethernet: Realtek chipset, Gigabit LAN
• Model #: Gamer Supreme 929SLC
• Item #: N82E16883227199
• Return Policy: Personal Computer Replacement Policy

Hieveryone, Nope did not go away...lol....I am still here. Well I have been looking over everything everyone posted and started googling so i could figure out what was what. I have been learning and my head is clearing :)....I have come to a decision and am going to do one of 2 things. Get either the ibuy comp that was shown to me here that you all said was good, or get an alienware. Yes yes Alienware will rip me off but there are advantages of getting one, I also have tweeked the one I am thinking of getting at a price of $2400 ...OUCH! I know building one makes so much more sense, however, I think being still way to illiterate on the issue I decided that a warrentee would be best. You all have really helped me more than you know! I would love to learn more and build my own computer for me. I think that would be fun.

So how does this look...by the way the power supply is 1k : $2400...OUCH yes but how does it look...

CHASSIS COLORLunar Shadow, Alienware Area-51 Chassise

PROCESSORIntel® Core™ i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processored

OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

VIDEO CARDSingle 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 MEMORY6GB DDR3 1333MHz (3x 2GB) Tri Channel Memory

HARD DRIVE1.2TB RAID 0 (2x 640GB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs)

OPTICAL DRIVE24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

WARRANTY AND SERVICE1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis - Important Informationed in-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis: for issues covered by Limited Hardware Warranty, technician and/or part will be dispatched, if necessary, usually in 1 or 2 business days following Remote Diagnosis. During Remote Diagnosis, you may be asked to access the inside of your system (where safe to do so) or to participate in troubleshooting until a cause can be isolated.

My Accessories

ALIENFXAlienFX Color,

Quasar Blue PRE-INSTALLED GAMES AND CLIENTS Steam and Portal™

Factory Installed AUTOMATIC UPDATESAutomatic Updates: Enabled

BaseAlienware Area-51COOLING OPTION Alienware™ High-Performance Liquid Cooling

Adobe Reader SoftwareAdobe Acrobat Reader

[QUOTE="DieselCat18"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

Well abncdefghijklmn, everything looks good on the Ram,Motherboard,Cpu, and PSU, everything else is a waste of money to a degree. Raptor hdd, too much for too little. This drive below holds almost 10x more room and is fast enough you wont tell the difference from 10000 rpm vs 7200rpm .http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433&cm_re=1tb_seagate_barracuda-_-22-148-433-_-Product. Right there saved you $70 Then sound card there, isnt really any needed since newer motherboard's onboard audio do 5.1-7.1 surround sound. So thats $160 off the price. Next the case is really long, and is not needed. There are plenty of cases that are under $100 that do the job. Like the HAF 922 $90 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197&cm_re=HAF_922-_-11-119-197-_-Product Just with those things cut or replaced just saved you $300

On another note if your son only plays CS 1.6, and wants to get into newer games a ATI 5770 might be the better choice for both worlds, while keeping the gaming performance and saving your wallet from burning a unneeded hole. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-864-_-Product Right there will save you another $145 so that $1600 Pc is turning into a $1200

04dcarraher

I agree...good alternative suggestions ...those other parts were utter overkill and a waste of money (I wonder who suggested them) .....also that pre-built system you mentioned earlier would be plenty imo...the only component that I wouldlook to change out if possible is that power supply. Get it replaced with a good name brand unit. Every thing else is fine....The TC's son would have no problems with that PC for his gaming and other general PC needs. There is nothing wrong with pre-built PC's as long as one properly researches for the companies that do a quality job. It may be a bit more expensive and not getting as much as if you purchased the parts and built it yourself...but NOT EVERYONE wants to do that for lots of different reasons.

I'm sorry..... but it amazes me when people that have little to no knowledge of computers come to this forum and ask for help or advice on getting a PC or putting one together, the parts suggested by some are generally the high end components that cost the most and use tech talk and reference info such as benchmarks that many have no idea what they mean....I know a lot of people here really mean well and want to help but to me thats not helping or giving that person the good advice they are asking for or really need.........

I would consider04dcarraher recumendations..... imo his is very "Sound Advice"

*+

The specs that I posted came from a player in CS 1.6 that also builds Computers and gave my son those specs. No one on here gave them to me. Should have mentioned that. The guy that gave them to my son said he does something, cant remember with computers...fixing them and such and has a degree. He gave those specs and said they would be gret for CS 1.6.

[QUOTE="abncdefghijklmn"]

So now that I am just completely confussed and one saying this is good and taht is better hows a girl to really know that has not much of a clue about gaming computers..lol...so I have another question...yup here comes another, are ya ready?

Alienware..yes the overpriced gaming computers. Price aside, what do you all think of the specs for the Alianware Aurora and the Alienware 51? and would either be good for CS 1.6 ? I know geesh this lady and her son are driving me crazy..lol..sorry but all your ideas are getting me closer!

http://www.alienware.com/

UltimateGamer95

I was referring to me as not knowing...hope that was clear and did not mean anyone else on this thread! :)

So now that I am just completely confussed and one saying this is good and taht is better hows a girl to really know that has not much of a clue about gaming computers..lol...so I have another question...yup here comes another, are ya ready?

Alienware..yes the overpriced gaming computers. Price aside, what do you all think of the specs for the Alianware Aurora and the Alienware 51? and would either be good for CS 1.6 ? I know geesh this lady and her son are driving me crazy..lol..sorry but all your ideas are getting me closer!

http://www.alienware.com/

Thanks everyone, you are all giving me great advice and am sooo thankful. My son was told by a gamer he plays with OL that this is what he suggests. He also plays CS 1.6. So can you tell me if it looks like what you would do also??????? Thanks. You all ROCK! :)

Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136296&cm_re=raptor_hard_drive-_-22-136-296-_-Product



Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163154&cm_re=raven_case-_-11-163-154-_-Product



SoundCard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102019



RAM (Purchase 2 of these pairs)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145268&cm_re=desktop_ram-_-20-145-268-_-Product



Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727



Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131392



Graphics Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161302



Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006


TOTAL APPROX PRICE BEFORE TAX:: $1,635

I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS SPECIFICS ABOUT THIS SETUP WITH YOU WHEN YOU HAVE TIME.

I'm tired of people insisting custom built PC websites, and prebuilt systems are ripoffs, some are, but still, some and most aren't, sure building is cheaper to do but it isn't that easy to build a computer, it may be to you, but to someone who can't tell the difference between an Nvidia 6600 and an ATI 4770, let alone know what they are, it can be extremely overwhelming.

Also, I hope your son has done something good to earn this, If only my Mother were so kind, but seriously, if you're dropping $1000+ into this you better make sure he treats you with respect, regardless of your financial situation.

But yeah, that does seem like a pretty good deal for $900, you should go with that, it should be able to handle anything out there nicely at the moment, it's a good deal, I recommend it.

Ikavnieks