Hey all,

I used to build my own gaming PCs way back in the 90s/early 2000s but I fell out of the habit when I realised I’d rather kick back on the sofa with something that “just works” than constantly chasing framerates etc, and I switched to exclusively console based gaming. Now that I own a Steam Deck, and with Xbox going down the shitter, and my kids becoming of the age where having a static family PC makes a lot of sense, I’ve decided to move back into PC gaming.

I started looking at self builds again but everything’s moved on so much since I last dipped my toes into that space that I struggle to know where to start. Then I saw an Alienware A51 in the refurb store with a decent early Black Friday discount code and very-nearly top-end specs so I pulled the trigger yesterday:

£2525

  • Core Ultra 9 285K
  • Geforce RTX 5080
  • 64GB RAM
  • 2TB Gen5 SSD
  • 1500W platinum PSU

Retail, this spec is currently going for £3600 so it’s a sizeable saving, but now I’m getting cold feet on the basis of the Intel chip not being the best choice for gaming (and will possibly never see the BIOS fix that Intel rolled out to address this), the odd PSU that’ll likely need swapping out at some point in the future, and the sheer size and weight of the thing.

On the plus side, the reviews I’ve seen say that it’s very cool and quiet, which is pretty important to me, and I do like the case design itself - it’s very understated compared to most of the off-the-shelf options out there. On the downside what looks like a huge discount on the surface is mostly just wiping out the Dell premium, and similarly specced AMD options are available elsewhere for similar prices - albeit with the aforementioned off-the-shelf cases and a big question mark over noise levels.

All of which is to say: Help this former DIY builder feel a bit better about dropping this much money on a Dell of all things! Odd CPU choice aside, this is still a decent system at a decent price, right?

  • argv minus one@mastodon.sdf.org
    1·
    4 days ago

    @TedZanzibar

    The nice thing about building a PC yourself is you can choose the components and therefore control costs *a lot*. I put together a competent gaming PC last December for US$1400.

    My GPU is not as fast as yours (yours has a PassMark score of 36002 and mine’s is 24250), but it still runs everything at 60fps and is half the price.

    • FreedomAdvocateEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      At what resolution? What settings?

      You definitely didn’t build an i9 + 5080 gaming PC for $1400, given a 5080 can cost more than that by itself.

      You can’t really control costs any more than you can with buying a “prebuilt” these days, unless by “controlling costs” you just mean skimping out on something massively.

      • argv minus one@mastodon.sdf.org
        1·
        4 days ago

        @FreedomAdvocate

        7800XT, 2560×1080@60. Max settings in MechWarrior 5 usually results in 60fps. 10/10, no notes.

        And no, I mean controlling costs. Paying $500 for a GPU is a once-in-a-decade splurge. Paying $1000+ is unacceptable. Paying $1000+ for a GPU that won’t even work on Linux in 10 years is pure unadulterated lunacy.

        The only vendor I found willing to sell me a comparable build for a comparable price was a small outfit with a bad reputation.

    • TedZanzibar@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      Yeah agreed, and that’s what I always used to do when it was just for myself. I did actually have a grand plan of buying parts and trying to get the kids involved in building it, but I’m in my 40s and out of the loop, and really I need something that kinda “just works” and that the rest of the family can use without me incessantly tinkering with it.

      That’s why I talked myself into a pre-built, with the mindset that a project PC that takes time and effort to spec out and build just right can come later. But the fact that that pre-built isn’t exactly how I would spec it is likely causing some of this angst!

      • argv minus one@mastodon.sdf.org
        1·
        4 days ago

        @TedZanzibar

        Heh. My story is basically the opposite of yours.

        I was thinking I’d get a pre-built so it’d just work, but I couldn’t find anything pre-built whose price and components I considered acceptable except one builder that had been widely panned for shipping broken computers.

        So, over a couple of days, I gradually became resigned to having to build it myself.

        I did not end up regretting my decision. The machine came together without a hitch and works great.

        10/10 would build again.

        • argv minus one@mastodon.sdf.org
          0·
          4 days ago

          @TedZanzibar

          I do have one regret: I wanted a more retro-style case, both for fashion reasons and because they’re easier to work on.

          Sadly I couldn’t find one that would ship in a reasonable time, including a nice-looking one from Antec. (I used their cases for my builds back in the '90s. Fond memories!)

          So I went with a fairly standard glass-sided case from Corsair.

          • argv minus one@mastodon.sdf.org
            0·
            4 days ago

            @TedZanzibar

            It just occurred to me that, if I had not thrown away my old '90s Antec cases, I probably could have used one of them for this build.

            But the airflow would have been atrocious. PC components didn’t dissipate a thousand watts in the '90s. I’d have had to drill a bunch of vent holes and somehow attach fans and a dust screen. Would’ve been a major pain.

            On the other hand, it would have had an optical drive bay—several, in fact—which I really wanted for this build…