[Just Josh]

Hi There,

I wondered how easy it is to bring a desktop to university. I am thinking of buying an Alienware X51 computer for gaming and uni, as i'm doing computer science. But I wondered if it's too much of a hassle to bring to uni and back, and at risk of getting stolen, so am wondering if I should buy an M17x r4 instead.

So basically, do you use a laptop or a desktop at uni? and which would you go for out of a X51 desktop or m17x r4 laptop?

Thanks

[Camoxide]

Oh god. NEVER buy an alienware desktop. They are insanely over priced. If you want a desktop build it yourself. You can do it for half the money. It's quite easy really. Just slotting things into place and then popping a few screws in.

I have my desktop at uni and it's fine. I'll be bringing it home for the summer. Was fine left on its own over the holidays.

[Gofre]

Build a desktop from scratch and buy a basic laptop/netbook with the leftover. Alienware offer horrible value compared to the price you should be paying for the specs they offer. Have the desktop for gaming/compsci at uni, have your laptop/netbook for travelling home with.

[Mad Vlad]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Hi There,

I wondered how easy it is to bring a desktop to university. I am thinking of buying an Alienware X51 computer for gaming and uni, as i'm doing computer science. But I wondered if it's too much of a hassle to bring to uni and back, and at risk of getting stolen, so am wondering if I should buy an M17x r4 instead.

So basically, do you use a laptop or a desktop at uni? and which would you go for out of a X51 desktop or m17x r4 laptop?

Thanks

Build your own desktop.

[James82]

Not likely to get nicked, laptops are far more likely to.

[Just Josh]

Right, so alienware are just overpriced? Any idea where I can get stuff cheaper then? I have no idea how to build a computer myself...would be freaked out I would mess something up

[tooosh]

You're a compsci. Don't disgrace us by buying an Alienware desktop.

[Just Josh]

Ok, so lots of hate for alienware i take it. Does anyone have a good beginners guide to building a computer from scratch then? And any good websites to get the components from?

[James82]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Right, so alienware are just overpriced? Any idea where I can get stuff cheaper then? I have no idea how to build a computer myself...would be freaked out I would mess something up

You're doing computer science and the idea of building a computer freaks you out?

To be honest you can't really screw it up unless you're a complete idiot, the worst that will happen is you won't have fitted something properly, it won't work and you'll just have to take it apart and build it again.

[James82]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Ok, so lots of hate for alienware i take it. Does anyone have a good beginners guide to building a computer from scratch then? And any good websites to get the components from?

ebuyer, scan, amazon, ebay, whatever is cheapest once you've found the components you want.

[Just Josh]

(Original post by James82)
You're doing computer science and the idea of building a computer freaks you out?

To be honest you can't really screw it up unless you're a complete idiot, the worst that will happen is you won't have fitted something properly, it won't work and you'll just have to take it apart and build it again.

Ha yea i don't really have much prior knowledge of the subject, but that's another issue. I guess it would be good experience for me to put together a computer. Any help on a good guide?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Ok, so lots of hate for alienware i take it. Does anyone have a good beginners guide to building a computer from scratch then? And any good websites to get the components from?

It's honestly not that hard at all, just need to know how to connect the parts together and where the power supplier connectors go, it's honestly not that hard at all.

Ebuyer, dabs, Overclocked, Scan are generally the good websites to get your parts from, plus your desktop will be far cheaper than Alienware. We hate Alienware cos it's honestly a lie, it's just to rip off consumers don't know much about pc gaming.

What's your budget?
few of us could put a package together

[James82]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Ha yea i don't really have much prior knowledge of the subject, but that's another issue. I guess it would be good experience for me to put together a computer. Any help on a good guide?

Google it, there are literally millions of guides, watch a few youtube videos for the bits you're not sure of.

[SubAtomic]

This was linked in another thread here, it may or may not be of use to you.

[Camoxide]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw

[Just Josh]

Thanks for the links, i'll look into custom building then. I have a summer job lined up for me so i don't really have an exact budget yet, but should be about 2K budget by the time i'm done. I hope to build a monster with it, in time for GW2 and GTA5

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Ha yea i don't really have much prior knowledge of the subject, but that's another issue. I guess it would be good experience for me to put together a computer. Any help on a good guide?

Okay the others are oversimplifying it a little if you choose the wrong parts, you'll have wasted all your money as they won't work together. For example it's easy to buy a power supply with cables which are too short, or a cooler which is too tall for your case, and once you've opened up parts and plugged them in it's difficult to return them. If you touch the motherboard you could short-circuit it and break it - the same with the RAM/HDD.

I'd recommend Tom's Hardware as a starting ground - it's THE forum for building computers pcityourself.com can be helpful as a guide you keep open on a laptop or something whilst actually building it, but you must bare in mind that the process varies depending on what parts you have. Tom's Hardware and pcityourself were the *only* sites I used

Put some serious research into it and get people to check the parts you're buying. As a newbie it's easy to screw up and make stupid decisions re: parts you buy.

(Original post by Just Josh)
Thanks for the links, i'll look into custom building then. I have a summer job lined up for me so i don't really have an exact budget yet, but should be about 2K budget by the time i'm done. I hope to build a monster with it, in time for GW2 and GTA5

Wooohoow dude! 2K is serious overkill You can build a PC capable of maxing Crysis for 1K :L

Here's a list of prices where I've literally rounded up to the nearest 100. This would be huge overkill in itself:

Crazy-ass PSU - £100
Latest i7 Ivy Bridge CPU (totally unnecessary too ) - £300
Beast of a motherboard with totally unnecessary features - £170
16GB of ridiculously fast RAM - £90
2TB high end hard drive - £100
120GB solid state drive for rapid operating system and games - £100
The most ridiculously beastly looking case you've ever seen - £100
Awesome 24" LED monitor - £150
Surround sound computer speakers - £50
HD 7970 or GTX 680 GPU (overkill in a box) - £350
Separate, top-end DVD + Bluray drives - £60
Random cooling fans, neon lights and stuff to jazz it all up - £30
Solid gaming keyboard and mouse - £50
Even that is only £1550, and that's the most ridiculous setup I could think of GTA5 and GW2 requirements are NOTHING compared to what's need for Crysis, and that ^ rig could probably power Crysis on max with a huge FPS *whilst* encoding music, installing software, listening to your own music, and playing a video via projector. Dude.. seriously if I had 2K at my command.....

Oh, and an Alienware with those specs would cost you your house btw the higher the specs are that you go for, the more you save, whereas with Alienware the higher the components you go for the higher the % they screw you over by. Upgrading your CPU costs you something like £200 with them, even though the CPU you're upgrading to costs less than that Heck, they once offered an *upgraded GPU* for £50, to a card which was worth less than the original :L

[Just Josh]

(Original post by Junaid96)
Okay the others are oversimplifying it a little if you choose the wrong parts, you'll have wasted all your money as they won't work together. For example it's easy to buy a power supply with cables which are too short, or a cooler which is too tall for your case, and once you've opened up parts and plugged them in it's difficult to return them. If you touch the motherboard you could short-circuit it and break it - the same with the RAM/HDD.

I'd recommend Tom's Hardware as a starting ground - it's THE forum for building computers pcityourself.com can be helpful as a guide you keep open on a laptop or something whilst actually building it, but you must bare in mind that the process varies depending on what parts you have. Tom's Hardware and pcityourself were the *only* sites I used

Put some serious research into it and get people to check the parts you're buying. As a newbie it's easy to screw up and make stupid decisions re: parts you buy.

Thanks for the sensible advice. I'll look into those websites.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Thanks for the links, i'll look into custom building then. I have a summer job lined up for me so i don't really have an exact budget yet, but should be about 2K budget by the time i'm done. I hope to build a monster with it, in time for GW2 and GTA5

£2k is a lot of money..........you can easily build a monster for around £1000, or a bit more if you want to go with a gtx 680.

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Just Josh)
Thanks for the sensible advice. I'll look into those websites.

I edited my post when I saw your budget. Take a peek