smcculloch posted on October 05, 2005 00:00
System Specs
Aurora 7500 SLI, AMD X2 4800+, 2x7800GTX nVidia cards
2x74GB WD Raptors 10000 RPM HD in Raid 0
510 Power Supply, 2GB Corsair Ram
Sony DVD/CD writer
Benchmarks: 10541 in 3DMark05
Pros:
- Performance Powerhouse
- Extremely Stable
Cons:
- 7 weeks for delivery
- No freebies for an expensive purchase
- Noise
Overall experience rating so far is 8 out of 10
Background
I had some extra cash in my business and I really needed a decent development PC (now that I work the majority for home) plus have the advantage of being able to play any game I want. I am a big fan of the Total War series and World of Warcraft.
Building vs Alienware
Previously, I had built all my PCs, but didn’t have much time to do the required investigation, so I decided to go with Alienware and let them have the hassle of putting it together, warranty, etc. It was a little more expensive, but that didn’t concern me too much.
Ordering Experience with AW Australia
This was definitely the worst part of my experience. Alienware is unwilling to haggle over anything and offered me no extras, a very different experience when dealing with other vendors.
The delay on delivery was particularly bad; I ordered on the 3rd of August and received my PC on the 21st of September. You might not think this is too bad, but when I am told about half a dozen different delivery dates and it will definitely ship the following week, you begin to doubt your purchase. They really need to work on there order pipeline.
Setting it up...
Like other reviews have said, the box is huge! But everything is very well packed and I had absolutely no trouble at all setting it up. The great thing about it is, you can just switch it on, and start playing games. The Windows GUI is very nice and the box is extremely tidy inside but very heavy, so you won’t want to move it around much.
Performance
I’m still amazed at the performance; it completely blows away any system I’ve used before. Every game I run at high detail and coupled with my new 24” dell LCD is an extremely good system to use. It’s run flawless for the last 2 weeks as well.
The only bad thing I could say is that it can be quite loud at times, during gaming I don’t mind, but general browsing it would be good if it was just a little quieter.
Conclusion
Would I recommend the system to someone else? Probably yes, if you had the spare dollars and don’t mind the wait in delivery. Once the system comes, you won’t be disappointed with its performance or style.