Question for pc users!
Added 2023-12-14 12:50:41 +0000 UTCGood morning everyone! I had a question for those of you who know your stuff when it comes to computers. I've mentioned it a bit a while back, but I've been saving up to get myself a decent gaming pc over the past few months. I originally wanted a Starforge pc but that's a bit out of my range at the moment. I found a place that has a pretty good deal on another brand though and wanted to know any thoughts before I decided to buy it or not.
My intention is to not only be able to play games at decently good graphics and FPS (doesn't have to be the best but good) and can also handle video and audio editing. The one I'm considering is:
Alienware - Aurora R16 Desktop - 13th Gen Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060Ti - 1TB SSD
I know Alienware was really good back in the day but I'm not sure how they are now since Dell took them over. Anyway, thanks for any info and I hope you all have a good day! :D
Comments
That's not very good to hear, and hope it's not something that continues to happen after the holidays. Depending on the company shipping it, they may just bring it back to their own facility if you aren't able to sign for it since it is a high value item. Whatever solution you come to, hope you are able to get a computer one way or another in the near future!
JokermanTalon
2023-12-18 03:15:10 +0000 UTCA big issue I'm having right now is being scared to have something delivered to my place. I don't know if it's the holidays or what, but someone has been acting a bit sketchy. I recently got a package from a family member (some tcg cards) and it obviously looked messed with. This is the second time this has happened now over the past month I'd say so I'm a little hesitant to have something else shipped right now- especially something expensive! I'm currently trying to look locally and maybe pick it up there- at least I know no one will mess with it that way xD I did find an ibuypower model after reading what some of you said and it seems a lot more upgrade friendly! *edit because Patreon was acting up* That's honestly a big thing for me though- being able to upgrade it later down the road.
alichu
2023-12-17 19:03:40 +0000 UTCNo problem, happy to help in anyway. I defiantly am not the best at just starting from scratch, but if I see a particular computer I find it easy to consolidate the pros and cons. If you're still looking for thing though, I got my computer through NZXT.com and have had no complaints. I'm not too sure if they are having a holiday sale or not but the "Player: One Prime" should be the one in you're price range. It has a slightly less powerful CPU than the Aurora R16 but almost everything else is comparable. And they use parts that are compatible with all PCs! I will say though that they make a lot of their own parts, since they were a parts manufacturer before they had PC building services, so it can be a bit ugly to have NZXT written on all the things inside your computer lol. Other than that though, my friend has bought a PC from ironsidecomputers.com and hasn't had any problems with it. I am not too familiar with their pricing but it may be worth a look. There is also newegg.com which is basically THE PC Store lol. They carry parts, desktops, monitors, etc. so you can probably find a bunch of stuff in their gaming desktop section that will work and they always have sales of some kind.
JokermanTalon
2023-12-15 12:40:31 +0000 UTCThanks so much for your comment Pro, it's much appreciated and I learned a lot from you all this morning! :) Don't worry about the structuring of your comment either, sometimes Patreon is finicky about that anyway lol. The storage is definitely something I would want to upgrade. I think Skelly said it best in that 1TB seems like a lot, but games nowadays use so many GBs that it will run out quick. That on top of art, audio, and video editing just isn't enough. Unfortunately, it seems like this specific computer isn't upgrade friendly, which is a big turn off to me. I kinda wanted to use this for learning purposes later down the road when I wanted to upgrade. For now, I think I'm going to keep looking. I learned a lot from reading comments here so thanks again for taking the time to give me some info! ^_^
alichu
2023-12-15 11:30:31 +0000 UTCYour comment was definitely not annoying Skelly so don't think that at all. I really do appreciate all the info you gave me so thank you! :) Admittedly I'm a complete noob when it comes to computer stuff. I don't mean this to be funny, but I know it probably is to someone who knows computers: my means of "fixing" a computer up until this point is hitting it, putting it on the ground so it shuts up, or just saying f** it and getting another one lol. Despite my short patience with them I have always wanted to learn about them. One of my bucket list hobbies is building my own PC one day and actually understanding what the hell everything does. Having said that, going off what you said and a few others touched on, it seems like this PC isn't upgrade friendly- which is kind of a deal breaker for me. My intention was to buy it, play the shit out of it, and when it came time to upgrade use it as my "guinea pig" to learn. You may be right in that it's better to see if I can find a local computer shop or a place that specializes in computers specifically. At least if I have a question, I'm not asking Tom at Best Buy (no offense to Tom but I work retail too- we know the product but not really lol). I think for now I'll hold off and see what I can find after the holidays. Pickings seem to be a little slim right now so it may be better to wait until more options are available. Thanks again Skelly, I really appreciate it! ^_^
alichu
2023-12-15 11:18:29 +0000 UTCHonestly, it's super easy to upgrade lol I use a laptop that came with 1TB myself, but the first thing I did when I got it was add a second 2TB SSD, also recently just added 32gbs of RAM too
Delta
2023-12-15 11:15:23 +0000 UTCAh yes, the gamer's comment I was waiting for! :P Thanks for the feedback Joker, I appreciate it a lot. I didn't even think about seeing if I could upgrade this thing or not until you all started mentioning it. That is something I've always wanted to learn and do (switch and buy my own parts to upgrade, etc.). So the fact that I can't is a bit of a turn off now that I know that. My idea was to get at least a decent/good gaming PC and use it for as long as I could before it needed to be upgraded. Then I wanted to use it as my "guinea pig" for lack of a better term on how to figure things out myself since I need to start somewhere with that hobby lol. The 1TB of storage was a bit of a concern already since I'll be playing games (most likely a lot) and doing other tasks. It seems like everyone who's commented so far has brought that up so all the more reason why this may not be the best choice for me at the moment. After reading your comment and others, I think I'll keep looking. I definitely don't want to rush my decision. It's also getting to that point in the holidays where the choices are slim so it may be better to wait until more choices are in stock. Thanks again Joker! :)
alichu
2023-12-15 11:01:57 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing your experience with Alienware Chancellor! I've never had one myself, but I do remember a friend having an Alienware laptop back when I was in school. I remember thinking that thing was badass, but I didn't have much to compare it to admittedly lol. I'll keep your feedback in mind before making a decision, thanks again! ^_^
alichu
2023-12-15 10:39:55 +0000 UTCThanks so much for your comment Cody! You brought up some good points to think about. I know Alienware back in the day seemed to be "the" computer, but I've heard they weren't as great since going with Dell. I've never used an Alienware though so I wouldn't know how they were at any point haha! It seems like a few others are bringing up the graphics and ram also so I may need to re-evaluate before I make a decision. Thanks again for the info, I appreciate it! :)
alichu
2023-12-15 10:35:41 +0000 UTCThanks for commenting Delta, I really appreciate it! You bring up a good point about the storage. While 1TB seems like a lot I know how fast it can go, especially if I plan on playing games. I may look into either getting something with more storage or seeing if this one can be upgraded. I didn't know that about the graphics either so that's something I'll look into more- thank you! :)
alichu
2023-12-15 10:26:41 +0000 UTCI upgraded my PC recently, did it on a wing and a prayer, so take what I say with a grain of salt because I am no expert. I can't comment for editing, but if it's built to handle videogames I don't really think you have to worry about it not being able to handle editing, I don't imagine that it would be too intensive. I can't make new lines on mobile, so this sucks for structuring. I can't really comment much more than others have on the CPU/GPU side, since I've never really gotten too deep in that rabbit hole. RAM and storage though, as others have said are not much of a priority, being that they're probably the easiest things to work with when upgrading or adding imo, but speaking from experience, you may want to get more storage, especially if you don't plan to juggle installing and uninstalling games over and over. My steam library constantly cries in agnoy 😭. The last thing I'd recommend, especially if you plan on getting a prebuilt is seeing whether it will be upgradable, because I know some aren't, or are harder to upgrade. Hope my jaw flapping can be of some assistance anywho 👍
ProzXADYN
2023-12-15 01:36:48 +0000 UTCSo I honestly haven't heard great things about the big name premade pc builders, I would stay away from them if I could. The best option in my opinion to find a somewhat local pc building company that can warranty their build, but make sure they get good reviews just to make sure. The biggest thing to consider is going to be what resolution you want, because that's going to tell you what gpu you should be aiming for, The 4060ti should be more than enough for 1080p and has pretty good price vs performance, the only thing worry about is the vram, they have 8GB versions and 16GB versions. If you want 1440p then your probably going to want the 4070ti, the only thing with that is that they only have 12GB vram models. I think that all of these models should be fine for what you're using them for in terms of vram, that is unless you plan of doing 3d rendering which is a whole other story. When it comes to cpus if I'm not mistaken Intel barely comes out on top in gaming but AMD leads in most program related benchmarks, and for me those few extra frames just ain't worth it when I know AMD beats them in every other way, at least they did when I had mine built. On the ram, 16 GB should do fine and if it doesn't that's easy and relatively cheap to replace, What is in this pc is ddr5 5600 which should be what you'd want for this pc. The storage space is and m.2 ssd which those are very good and that's what I would definitely want as your primary drive for your operating system and the games you intend to play repeatedly. The only thing is it's only 1TB which sounds like a lot but trust me it goes quicker than you think, especially since every game these days is like 50 GB. The good thing is the motherboard looks to have multiple slots so you could buy another m.2 ssd and put it in yourself, if you do then I'd go for at least a 2TB and it could be slower read and write speeds since its not going to be your primary drive, even so it should still be plenty fast to transfer files from one to another. The one that popped up when I googled it looked to have a 360 aio in it which would keep your cpu pretty cool and give you more performance out of the cpu, and hopefully keep it running quieter. Just keep in mind that this does mean that your computer has water in it. Personally I've not heard of aios failing but just something you should know. From what they say it does have wifi which means that the pc itself doesn't need to be hooked up to the router directly via ethernet, although that's something I do just to have better connection. That really just depends on where you want the pc to go and if you want to move the router so that it can be connected, if that's a thing you can do. On the power supply, the 500 should be fine for this pc but if you upgrade almost anything you'd be needing a higher watt power supply, I don't really know why they went with a platinum, it's just more money for a slightly more efficient power transfer, Gold should be fine but oh well. If you want to upgrade in the future then a 750 watt should be plenty for many many years. Just don't get a cheap badly rated power supply because if it fails then it could take the whole pc with it, rare but it does happen. And if one of the previous comments is correct and the power supply is proprietary then for me that would be a deal breaker if I was wanting to upgrade parts in the future, but if not then it should do just fine in this pc. All in all if you really want this specific pc then it should do very well at 1080p and seems to be very well priced at 1200 bucks even seems cheaper than building it yourself. What I would recommend you do is keep this pc in mind but see what places you may have around you that also build pcs and see what their prices are like, most likely they will be more expensive than this pc but would be better for stuff like upgrading if that's really something you want to do. If you want some other sources of info the the youtube channel Gamers Nexus is really good, and a good website is Pc Part Picker, it's good for figuring out if stuff should work together and the price you should expect for it. Sorry for the novel of a comment but I figured it's better to be annoyed by a long read than spending a bunch of money and not being happy with it haha.
Sir Skelington
2023-12-14 23:02:39 +0000 UTCLooking into it, the Aurora R16 Desktop seems good. I don't have a particularly good opinion of Alienware as a whole (or any PC builder that uses proprietary parts such as Dell, HP, Cyberpower which is Walmarts brand, ect). However, at least the R16 case is relatively normal so most graphics card should work with it if you want to upgrade later. Onto actual suggestions though for this. I am going to assume you are using a place that has similar options to Dell's own Alienware page. If so then I would drop the 4060 TI to a regular 4060 and change the chassis option to "1000W Platinum Rated PSU, Air-Cooled CPU & Solid Side Panel" (Or whatever has 1000W PSU as an option). The PSU in Alienware's is completely proprietary so you will not be able to upgrade it in the future, so changing it now would be the best bet. If not then the standard 500W will really limit any future upgrades. However, if you don't care about upgrading it in the future I would still recommend dropping down to 4060 and getting 2 TBs of storage space instead. The extra space should be enough that you never have to upgrade it and the 4060 TI is not a massive improvement from the 4060. Both of these options should keep it at the same price as what you wrote above. This is all assuming that you are buying from a place that lets you change parts, if you are buying it from somewhere that doesn't let you swap parts then it should still be okay, just not as much bang for your buck as the things I suggested. Edit after the fact, I realized that there is a deal on Dell for that one but you can't customize it. I would say that if you are not looking to do major upgrades in the future then yeah it's a pretty good deal. However you could still do minor upgrades, like add more storage or RAM, pretty easily as they don't draw much power.
JokermanTalon
2023-12-14 21:16:09 +0000 UTCJust a heads up, I made the mistake of thinking a newer series gpu was better than the previous series at most levels. So I thought if you got a 4060, it would be better than a 3090 more than likely, but that wasn't the case. I know that I may have just been dense for thinking that, but you should only compare at the same level 😅. So 4080 is better than the 3080 counterpart. My Alienware laptop from about a year ago wasn't that great to me when I got it, so I stopped using it, but when I realized I had made that mistake, Idk if I could trust my opinion on Alienware at the time.
Chancellor Branam
2023-12-14 13:34:30 +0000 UTCAlienware is a decent PC company, though they're not always great for value, they also tend to use proprietary parts which make it difficult if you want to upgrade in the future. I've heard good things about Cyberpower and IBuypower, maybe have a look and see what you can get comparatively for your budget. If possible you should try to snag at least an RTX 4070 GPU if you can, the performance difference to a 4060ti is substantial. Though it also depends what resolution and refresh rate you game at, like if you're running 1080p - 1440p and not targeting above 60fps then the 4060ti may be fine for you. Generally the hardware strain shifts from CPU to GPU the higher your resolution goes. Storage and ram are fairly low priority when looking for a system. 16gb of ram is fine for now. Ram and storage are also the easiest parts to upgrade so you can always add more down the road if need be. Good luck Ali! I imagine there are plenty of knowledgeable people here to share their wisdom
codytachi
2023-12-14 13:12:35 +0000 UTCSo I'm not too familiar with the 4000 series of graphics cards since I'm running a 3070 atm, but I imagine it's fairly decent enough, I would prefer more RAM, and more storage, but those are fairly easy to upgrade, like an extra 50-100 bucks for more RAM, and about 100-200 for 2 more TBs of storage, the processor is definitely good, as they were only released in October of last year. Only thing I'd really be concerned about is the graphics, since the 60s in their respective generation are the most budget and least powerful. Unfortunately, not sure how all that translates to audio and video editing though
Delta
2023-12-14 12:58:45 +0000 UTC
![さとと [satoto]](https://xaiju.com/istorage/108048.jpg)
