I have a "Crysis"!

[Se7en]

I recently received the game Crysis from my girlfriend and would love to get stuck in and enjoy the game but I'm having a little bit of a "Crysis" myself, which to no surprise is that my current system just can't play the game,

I've had a look around the net for some good Pre-Builds and have found the ones by alienware.co.uk to my liking, they seem to offer good spec systems, in awesome looking cases with lots of extras and customization options, there site is well presented and easy to follow and they even offer finance if i decide to go down that route, so far i have been looking at this system and would just like to know what you guys think of it and more importantly will it run Crysis at a decent FPS?

Alienware® P2 Chassis in Saucer Silver with Alienware® Standard System Lighting in Plasma Purple
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
1000 Watt Alienware® Approved Multi-GPU Power Supply
2GB GDDR5 ATI® Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 – Dual GPU Technology
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 2048MB
150GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 10K RPM Velociraptor
20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Writer
Killer K1 Gaming Network Interface Card
AGEIA PhysX™ Physics Processing Unit PCI-E
24" Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition

And I'm tempted to even throw in the Alienware® Limited Edition Chronograph Watch, but the best part is i will get all of this and still have money left over from the £3000 i have put aside for my new system, which means i will be able to either get a new mouse/keyboard or possibly a few other new games for my new system!

What do you guys think? Is there anything i have chosen that just doesn't seem to fit right with the rest of the setup, would i be best putting a little bit of the remaining money in to changing the CPU to something a little more powerful?

I'm open to hear any of your suggestions and most importantly will this system be adequate to play Crysis at a good FPS with high settings?

Hope you guys can help!

[oralpain]

Yes that system would run Crysis just fine, but...

1000 Watt Alienware® Approved Multi-GPU Power Supply

Overkill.

The system, as spected out would run well on a 500-600w PSU. Even with a Quad core and another video card, 850w is plenty, provided it's of good quality.

150GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 10K RPM Velociraptor

Waste of money/poor value.

Twice the price, one third the storage space, and only marginally faster than the better 7200rpm drives in most situations.

Killer K1 Gaming Network Interface Card

Of dubious usefulness except in rare situations. Waste of money.

AGEIA PhysX™ Physics Processing Unit PCI-E

Totally useless, complete waste of money.

You can get an NVIDIA video card of similar or lesser cost that will dramatically outperform the PhysX cards in PhysX. Regardless, very few games see any benefit from hardware accelerated phsyics at this point anyway.

Also, I'd probably get a quad core at this point. The prices are right and Crysis can put them to good use.

Lastly, I find Crysis to be quite dull and think you are insane to even consider this kind of upgrade for that game, but I am doing my best not to judge.

[Fraz]

Agree with all of the above post. Lot of marketing BS in that sys that is just sucking away money pointlessly. (Although I think Crysis is quite good)

[richieuk]

If you want a pre-build computer, take a look at 3XS by SCAN, they do VERY good rigs (imho) and they actually built the rigs for Omega Sektor (A 400 computer LAN in Birmingham) which ALL play Crysis.

[b0redom]

You're nuts buying something like that from Alienware. £3k for a new system? I put mine together for less than 1/2 of that, and I have an E8600, 8GB RAM and a SSD drive.

If you want something built for you, how about:

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ConfigureSystem.asp?SystemID=491

Although personally I'd ditch the Xfi and the wireless adapter.

As has been pointed out before, the gaming NIC is pointless (you'll be limitted by your ISP connection far quicker than LAN, and even then they've been shown to give very shonky results), and you'll get no noticeable performance benefit from DDR3 over DDR2.

PhysX is now onboard on nVidia graphics cards isn't it?

[shaithis]

I find it amazing that in the current credit crunch we have had more people come to here talking about buying AlienWare then I've ever seen.

Beggers belief....

[Se7en]

I find it amazing that in the current credit crunch we have had more people come to here talking about buying AlienWare then I've ever seen.

Beggers belief....

I'm in a secure job, live with parents and my only out going a month are my internet, phone and car so the credit crunch isn't really effecting me, and you have to agree that once you see them alienware cases no other case looks as good

[b0redom]

But still, £3k. Spend 1/2 that on a PC which will perform at least as good, if not better, and 1/2 taking your Mrs to the Bahamas for a holiday or hiring a porsche for the weekend.....

[Fraz]

Or give the money to charity mate. Nice.

[s_kinton]

I find it amazing that anyone could even contemplate spending £3k on a computer for gaming!! Unless you're incredibly rich, why not save for a house/holiday or just build your own for 1/3 of the price.

Although, its your cash and your choice. Alienware would be the last people to get my money; pointless spec and expensive price. I'd build my own or pay Scan to build it - its whats inside that counts, not the paint job on the case!

[shaithis]

I'm in a secure job, live with parents and my only out going a month are my internet, phone and car so the credit crunch isn't really effecting me

Your not the only one though.....there has been a spate of people talking about buying the overpriced alienware systems recently.

and you have to agree that once you see them alienware cases no other case looks as good

That's a matter of personal opinion. Personally, I think they are some of the most hideous cases I've ever seen........and plenty of people do rip-offs of the design anyway.

[emul8]

Se7en

There is a lot of good advice going your way here mate!

Personally, I think they are some of the most hideous cases I've ever seen........

Your not wrong there shaithis

[NovaSphere]

Alienware is all marketing, when I first wanted a new PC, I checked there site out, looked all very nice, but looking at the prices, it's overkill for everything...

They advise a 1000W Specially approved Alienware PSU for a single GTX260 lol
Also, I believe those 'amazing' cases from Alienware are made out of plastic or sort like material (or partly steel I believe) which isn't that good at all, I'd think you get better cooling from an Antec 300 which is like 1/5 of the price lol

Don't buy from Alienware, as many already told you. They are right.

Better build your own PC out of ~£700 (my spec in 'my system' cost me ~800 euro) and save the rest, spend it on your girlfriend or your friends.
Remember, Friends and your girlfriend are forever, your PC gets old within 5 years, you do the picking =)

[Se7en]

Build it myself....??

Now thats a scary thought, since as far back as i can remember i have always gone with Pre-Built system, some times i've bought bad ones from companies that went under not long after and then sometimes good ones that have lasted for 3-4 years. Some of you speak like alenware are the devil but they come across as fantastic.... or at least to me anyway,

So apart from being slightly overpriced are there any other huge pitfalls to there systems?? What if i was to go with there minimum spec entry level system and make some minor alterations, would that work out as better value for money?

Alienware® P2 Chassis in Saucer Silver with Alienware® Standard System Lighting in Plasma Purple
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
750 Watt Alienware® Approved Multi-GPU Power Supply
Single Graphics Card - 896MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260
4GB - 4 x 1024MB High Performance 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM
20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Writer
22" Dell UltraSharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

This system comes in at around £1300, also the prices seem to have changed since i built the other system (come down fractionally), and I'm not one hundred percent sure but i think they have changed some of the components they offer to!

There seems to be a lot of hate out on the web when i have searched up about alienware, almost no one seems to like there cases either, maybe im ??

[Webby]

CPU: E8400 £114 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=736334
Moterboard: Asus P5Q-Pro £88 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818514
Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR2-800 £53 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=632574
PSU: Corsair TX650 £66 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=684734
Graphics: GTX260 £165 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=849682
Hard Drive: 250GB Samsung HHD £33 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=870464
Optical: Samsung DVD £14 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=862663
OS: Vista x64 HP £71 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=527300
Case: Whatever you like
Total Cost £604

Oh you will need a case, monitor, keyboard and mouse but hey you have £700 for those!

I hope my point has been made, oh and the components I have chosen are probably better than what alienware will use.

Edit: I do not necessarily recommend you buy this system it was just done as a direct price comparison to the alienware spec, and some improvements could be made

[s_kinton]

For less than £1260 at scan you could get a full 3XS system, custom built with 4Gb ram, Q9550 quad core, GTX 260, 500Gb HDD, a 22" monitor and a logitech G51 5.1 surround sound system.

Its the spec and support that counts really. Scan wins hands down against Alienware.