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My Stupid Dumb Friend Decided To Upgrade His PC to These Specs at the Cost of $1360 USD (PC GAF, Get ITT!!!)

Alienware Aurora R8 (Highly Upgradable Pre-Built PC Gaming Desktop)
Processor
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700 (8-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit, English
Video Cards
AMD Radeon™ RX 570X with 8GB GDDR5
Chassis Options
Alienware 850 Watt Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
Memory
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Wireless
Qualcomm DW1810 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless + Bluetooth 4.2
Wireless Driver for 1810/1820
Service
1 Year Hardware Warranty with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis
Cable
US Power Cord
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed)
Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial
McAfee Live Safe

($1360 USD including shipping and tax)

So GAF, did my stupid dumb friend make a better decision this time around?
You sure this friend of your isn't you?
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Just don't be this guy, OP's friend:

Man, I wish I could locate that original video. I distinctly recall the snapping sound from when he forced the gpu out.
 
Bro. Build your own. Just watch this guide.



mbqyhJ5.jpg
 
Just don't be this guy, OP's friend:

Man, I wish I could locate that original video. I distinctly recall the snapping sound from when he forced the gpu out.
"bUt iTs EaSy tO bUiLd A pC bRo!!!"
YZSEdho.png
 

kiphalfton

Member
But not putting up with these things gets you a $1360 PC with a 570X GPU. All you have to do is google this for every component if you want to be lazy "best CPU under 400 dollars 2020" (change according to peripheral, budget or year) read a couple of articles for an hour tops and you'll DEFINITELY have made a better decision than buying a prebuild. Hell, even if you spend 5 mins and picked the first part you skimmed in those articles you'd still make a better decision.

Let the lazy/uninformed pay through the nose.
 

V4skunk

Banned
It definitely not like that.
Took me a lot of time to build my mother PC and lucky I did not break anything but the parts are confusing and sometimes you try to force and end breaking it.

Tou have to look a lot of pin manuals from
Motherboard too.
This simply is not true. It is impossible to force things into the wrong place....

Also my advice is to go to a site like newegg, pick a cpu-ram-mobo combo and get them to build up these parts for you.
Now when you get the parts you only need to install gpu, ssd/hdd and psu.
Shit i bet newegg would build your entire custom pc up for £30-40.......
It really is not hard at all. You can honestly watch Youtube videos to learn how to build.........Sites like Tomshardware have guides and even forums full of experts ready to help....
 

kiphalfton

Member
It definitely not like that.
Took me a lot of time to build my mother PC and lucky I did not break anything but the parts are confusing and sometimes you try to force and end breaking it.

Tou have to look a lot of pin manuals from
Motherboard too.

"A lot of pin manuals"? Are you serious? There is the motherboard, CPU, GPU, system/heatsink fans, and usb header (and maybe a few others). If you opt for a NVME storage, it trivializes the storage issue and makes it so you don't have to deal with the SATA cables associated with hard drives or SSD's.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
"bUt iTs EaSy tO bUiLd A pC bRo!!!"
YZSEdho.png

He pulled something out that was locked into place. The force required to make this mistake ought to signal that something is wrong. The guy was clearly an idiot. Is your friend prone to idiotic fits of rage? Can he plug a square peg in a smaller, round hole? If yes, then pre-built is for him.

For everyone else, you can learn everything you need to know on PC building from short YouTube videos. It's far less intimidating than it looks.
 
He pulled something out that was locked into place. The force required to make this mistake ought to signal that something is wrong. The guy was clearly an idiot. Is your friend prone to idiotic fits of rage? Can he plug a square peg in a smaller, round hole? If yes, then pre-built is for him.

For everyone else, you can learn everything you need to know on PC building from short YouTube videos. It's far less intimidating than it looks.
My friend has no experience with computers whatsoever and is willing to pay a premium for this because I convinced him atleast it lets him upgrade the rig's GPU, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc.
 

ethomaz

Banned
This simply is not true. It is impossible to force things into the wrong place....

Also my advice is to go to a site like newegg, pick a cpu-ram-mobo combo and get them to build up these parts for you.
Now when you get the parts you only need to install gpu, ssd/hdd and psu.
Shit i bet newegg would build your entire custom pc up for £30-40.......
It really is not hard at all. You can honestly watch Youtube videos to learn how to build.........Sites like Tomshardware have guides and even forums full of experts ready to help....
"A lot of pin manuals"? Are you serious? There is the motherboard, CPU, GPU, system/heatsink fans, and usb header (and maybe a few others). If you opt for a NVME storage, it trivializes the storage issue and makes it so you don't have to deal with the SATA cables associated with hard drives or SSD's.
Guys I mounted one.
You don’t need to make it look better than it is.

It was fun and I loved but it is not easy and I don’t recommend to any average gamer.
 
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Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
My friend has no experience with computers whatsoever and is willing to pay a premium for this because I convinced him atleast it lets him upgrade the rig's GPU, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc.

There is no shame in that if you(he) have(has) the cash. Take a look at CPU & GPU when considering a pre-built. I would try to help out but I've honestly never done a pre-built and haven't followed the market on components in a few years.

I do promise it is easy to build yourself. My wife and I both built our PCs without any experience (back in the day) and without someone showing us how to do it. Plus, it's good to know what everything is in case you want to add additional storage or upgrade just your GPU or some other component.
 
There is no shame in that if you(he) have(has) the cash. Take a look at CPU & GPU when considering a pre-built. I would try to help out but I've honestly never done a pre-built and haven't followed the market on components in a few years.

I do promise it is easy to build yourself. My wife and I both built our PCs without any experience (back in the day) and without someone showing us how to do it. Plus, it's good to know what everything is in case you want to add additional storage or upgrade just your GPU or some other component.
What's funny is that Dell deducted $600 already from the asking price. We used pcpartpicker and put in the exact same specs/components/ports as the alienware we got and it was around the same exact price.

Granted, the 5600XT will suffice for an upgrade in the future, but people on here have to know that my friend just wants to play Overwatch/CSGO/Team Fortress 2/Left 4 Dead 2/etc. He isn't planning to play any console games like RDR2/Cyberpunk/Death Stranding/Metro Exodus/etc.

He also wanted a 2-in-1 gaming rig that can handle proper DAWs and VST Plugins for music production, which the CPU will suffice hopefully in the long run.

Yes, Dell and Alienware will skimp/use cheaper hardware, unfortunately. However, ny friend told me the time it would take to buy parts and build it up and possibly brick it out of sheer incompetence scared him enough to purchase this overpriced rig.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Alienware Aurora R8 (Highly Upgradable Pre-Built PC Gaming Desktop)
Processor
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700 (8-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit, English
Video Cards
AMD Radeon™ RX 570X with 8GB GDDR5
Chassis Options
Alienware 850 Watt Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
Memory
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Wireless
Qualcomm DW1810 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless + Bluetooth 4.2
Wireless Driver for 1810/1820
Service
1 Year Hardware Warranty with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis
Cable
US Power Cord
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed)
Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial
McAfee Live Safe

($1360 USD including shipping and tax)

So GAF, did my stupid dumb friend make a better decision this time around?

CPU is solid
operation system is solid
videocard is dog shit for new titles, old titles as you said its fine., also easy replaceable however
powersupply is solid ( why its watercooled nobody knows but 850 is good, for future purposes )
16gb ddr4 2666mhz is kinda iffy but nothing to problematic its not ryzen he's running. so its fine.
256gb ssd is kinda lowish 512gb would be the bare minimum in my opinion, but oh well can also be upgraded relative easily later on when he wants more space.
wireless whatever
service, whatever
software is useless

Simple just get him a new GPU sell that 570x and he's fine.
 
Last edited:
CPU is solid
operation system is solid
videocard is dog shit, easy replaceable however
powersupply is solid ( why its watercooled nobody knows but 850 is good, for future purposes )
16gb ddr4 2666mhz is kinda iffy but nothing to problematic its not ryzen he's running. so its fine.
256gb ssd is kinda lowish 512gb would be the bare minimum in my opinion, but oh well can also be upgraded relative easily later on when he wants more space.
wireless whatever
service, whatever
software is useless

Simple just get him a new GPU sell that 570x and he's fine.
Dell gave him $50 in rewards and will use it to buy an additional SSD from their website.

Yeah, the GPU sucks for current gen games but check the post above yours and see the types of games he wants to play.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
What's funny is that Dell deducted $600 already from the asking price. We used pcpartpicker and put in the exact same specs/components/ports as the alienware we got and it was around the same exact price.

Granted, the 5600XT will suffice for an upgrade in the future, but people on here have to know that my friend just wants to play Overwatch/CSGO/Team Fortress 2/Left 4 Dead 2/etc. He isn't planning to play any console games like RDR2/Cyberpunk/Death Stranding/Metro Exodus/etc.

He also wanted a 2-in-1 gaming rig that can handle proper DAWs and VST Plugins for music production, which the CPU will suffice hopefully in the long run.

Yes, Dell and Alienware will skimp/use cheaper hardware, unfortunately. However, ny friend told me the time it would take to buy parts and build it up and possibly brick it out of sheer incompetence scared him enough to purchase this overpriced rig.

lolwat

Also, had a second hard drive and increase the capacity on the SSD like the poster above mentions.
 
but people on here have to know that my friend just wants to play Overwatch/CSGO/Team Fortress 2/Left 4 Dead 2/etc. He isn't planning to play any console games like RDR2/Cyberpunk/Death Stranding/Metro Exodus/etc.
So he's (you're) massively overpaying for the parts he's (you're) getting and getting parts that are overkill for what he (you) actually wants to play!?
I could've built him (you) a system that met his (your) needs for like $350.
 
So he's (you're) massively overpaying for the parts he's (you're) getting and getting parts that are overkill for what he (you) actually wants to play!?
I could've built him (you) a system that met his (your) needs for like $350.
He is very much into music production and a $350 rig would not suffice in both short and long run. He already games on consoles but wants a PC rig that future proofs his endeavours into Music Production and casual multiplayer gaming for the next years or so.

Is he spending on an overpriced rig? Ofcourse.

Is he gonna be able to use the rig for music production and casual gaming at 1080p with an upgradable rig for the next 5 years or so? I hope so.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
He is one of those weird gamers that likes to play games on normal settings in order for him to freely jump from one generation of games to another (PC<->PS4<->PS3<->PS Vita<->Wii<->PS2<->PS1)>

Can't blame him these type of games i would never max out because of visual noise, make sure he got a high hz screen, that CPU is going to put some serious fps forwards in those games.
 
Can't blame him these type of games i would never max out because of visual noise, make sure he got a high hz screen, that CPU is going to put some serious fps forwards in those games.
He got a decent 75 HZ monitor with Radeon freesync which is why he chose the AMD 570X.

I think he will lock games to 60FPS only to avoid creating a jarring effect when playing console gaming.
 

Kenpachii

Member
He got a decent 75 HZ monitor with Radeon freesync which is why he chose the AMD 570X.

I think he will lock games to 60FPS only to avoid creating a jarring effect when playing console gaming.

75 hz is shit, pretty sure nvidia also supports freesync now so he shouldn't have that issue with nvidia. Would just buy a 144hz 1ms screen. His GPU will probably hit that amount in those games. Will create a good smooth picture. Pretty sure all screens these days have freesync anyway as its a standard and its cheap as hell. He will hit those fps in those games relatively easily.

Then also add a cheapo sata 3 ssd if he's out of budget ( if more budget swap the nvme drive for a bigger one or add another towards it ) to get some more game space so he can drag and drop the games from his nvme towards SSD on a fast note or just install games on it that he doesn't play much. Or use it as storage. These things are cheap as hell anyway much like the screen.
 
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75 hz is shit, pretty sure nvidia also supports freesync now so he shouldn't have that issue with nvidia. Would just buy a 144hz 1ms screen. His GPU will probably hit that amount in those games. Will create a good smooth picture. Pretty sure all screens these days have freesync anyway as its a standard and its cheap as hell. He will hit those fps in those games relatively easily.

Then also add a cheapo sata 3 ssd if he's out of budget ( if more budget swap the nvme drive for a bigger one or add another towards it ) to get some more game space so he can drag and drop the games from his nvme towards SSD on a fast note or just install games on it that he doesn't play much. Or use it as storage. These things are cheap as hell anyway much like the screen.
His screen is FHD 1ms but only 75hz. Again, he doesnt want to exceed the FPS because it'll make his console gaming experience a lot more jarring and worse in general :p
 

Kenpachii

Member
Ocing GPU and CPU is great to tweak out some free frames, but if you want max stability never OC.
mine 1080ti runs at 10% faster then stock its good noticable, it completely covers my nvenc streaming to make it completely free.
9900k sits at 5,1ghz here on all cores, gives a solid boost which is needed for maximum performance on games i play.

His screen is FHD 1ms but only 75hz. Again, he doesnt want to exceed the FPS because it'll make his console gaming experience a lot more jarring and worse in general :p

Well his loss i guess.
 
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Hobosluz

Neo Member
I dunno when i play console i expect there could be fps issues and don't even get phased by this when i switch between console and PC gaming, the only time it would a be HUGE stand out is if he was playing the game on the pc then jumping on the console to play the exact same game.
 
I dunno when i play console i expect there could be fps issues and don't even get phased by this when i switch between console and PC gaming, the only time it would a be HUGE stand out is if he was playing the game on the pc then jumping on the console to play the exact same game.
Ill let him know that, thanks for letting me know :)
 

Kenpachii

Member
He literally doesnt mind playing 30FPS if it brings stability and max graphical detail but I told him to stick to 60FPS for first person games in general.

Well he's kinda like me in some way then. i play only at 1080p for maximum performance and even sometimes drop the settings to high even in games like witcher 3 to get 180fps going.

Why? maximum smoothness is godly.
 
Well he's kinda like me in some way then. i play only at 1080p for maximum performance and even sometimes drop the settings to high even in games like witcher 3 to get 180fps going.

Why? maximum smoothness is godly.
Yeah, i can definitely see how that would look great on a proper PC Monitor :messenger_bicep:
 
He hates the concept of overclocking. Called it a "lame PC MasterRace initiation ritual" lol.
It's his loss. Overclocking CPUs and GPUs I consider very much optional...but monitors? Overclocking your monitor is a must IMO, especially if it's a relatively low refresh rate like 60 or 75Hz. The 60-90Hz range is where the biggest gains are to be had and the closer you can get to 90Hz the better.
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
Alienware Aurora R8 (Highly Upgradable Pre-Built PC Gaming Desktop)
Processor
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700 (8-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit, English
Video Cards
AMD Radeon™ RX 570X with 8GB GDDR5
Chassis Options
Alienware 850 Watt Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
Memory
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Wireless
Qualcomm DW1810 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless + Bluetooth 4.2
Wireless Driver for 1810/1820
Service
1 Year Hardware Warranty with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis
Cable
US Power Cord
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed)
Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial
McAfee Live Safe

($1360 USD including shipping and tax)

So GAF, did my stupid dumb friend make a better decision this time around?

I dont see any reason to be mad about...

No offense to some poor folks in here but $1360 is affordable for me...

If he wants to get a nice gaming rig asap dont have problem to spent that much for it and dont want to spent too much time building his own i can apreciate his decision

his money his rules

Enjoy
 
Last edited:

A.Romero

Member
Congrats to your friend. Welcome to the MR.

I'm sure he willl be comfortable enough to build his next rig after upgrading this one.

Enjoy it and don't give a fuck about how good of deal it is. If it does what you want, it's enough.
 
I like overclock.
In the past it was really a risk to do overclock but today motherboards all have safe mensures to allow you do overclock without harm anything.

In fact moderns CPU/GPU do automatically overclock.
My friend is actually thinking of underclocking because he realized his GPU is good enough for games like Overwatch and CSGO.
 

Dane

Member
Excuse me, but why he bought a 850W power supply with liquid cooling? That shit is for ultra enthsiast or renderers.

Also, he bought a high end cpu, yet a mid-low GPU and mid clock RAM, wtf.

If he bought a i5/3600 and a 550-600w (at best for high end GPU and remaining power) and a heatsink cooler, he would prolly save 200-250 grand.
 
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Excuse me, but why he bought a 850W power supply with liquid cooling? That shit is for ultra enthsiast or renderers.

Also, he bought a high end cpu, yet a mid-low GPU and mid clock RAM, wtf.
He's gonna upgrade the RAM to 32GB and upgrade the GPU once the 5600XT drops in price and fixes its VBIOS issues.

The CPU was mainly for music production (he's very interested to delve into the world of film and game composing) so I suggested he gets an I7-9700 non-k for power usage purposes.
 

Dane

Member
He's gonna upgrade the RAM to 32GB and upgrade the GPU once the 5600XT drops in price and fixes its VBIOS issues.

The CPU was mainly for music production (he's very interested to delve into the world of film and game composing) so I suggested he gets an I7-9700 non-k for power usage purposes.

Well honestly I wouldn't even recommend a Intel CPU at this point unless the person wanted the best of the best FPS, a 3700x is just superior in the overall package.

What VBIOS issues? I only recall that the 5600 XT 1.0 Bios were outdated before launch and brings worse performance.
 
Well honestly I wouldn't even recommend a Intel CPU at this point unless the person wanted the best of the best FPS, a 3700x is just superior in the overall package.

What VBIOS issues? I only recall that the 5600 XT 1.0 Bios were outdated before launch and brings worse performance.
Ryzens are definitely superior when it comes to most things, price specifically. However, Dell didn't give my friend that option and we read how music production favours Intel CPUs because they double down on single threading->which is optimal for music production/DAWs rather than hyperthreading-> which is optimal for gaming.

The 5600XT looks amazing and well priced but I don't think he wants to upgrade the GPU just yet.
 
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Durask

Member
People saying that building a PC is easy are
right.
it's just not a quick "pop it together in 15 mins." process. Been building for years and years and it's still a 4 hours process(at a minimum, usually longer). Anyone can do it, it is as easy as people say, but it just takes time. If one is willing to invest the tiny bit of brain power it takes to learn the process, one could save a lot of money.

My problem is that I like cases with glass and then you have to deal with cables which is a pain.

One day I think I'll just get a Digital Storm PC, no way I can make interior like that by myself.

overview-1-lg-b.jpg
 

Dane

Member
Ryzens are definitely superior when it comes to most things, price specifically. However, Dell didn't give my friend that option and we read how music production favours Intel CPUs because they double down on single threading->which is optimal for music production/DAWs rather than hyperthreading-> which is optimal for gaming.

The 5600XT looks amazing and well priced but I don't think he wants to upgrade the GPU just yet.

Ah Dell, the same company that got Intel money back in Pentium 4 days because Intel knew the Athlon would take the lead. Not surprised, they barely sell shit with Ryzen, the core i7 cpu has more PC builds on their website than the whole Ryzen range.

Nowadays the gap in single thread is small, and hyperthreading is not optimal for gaming, in fact, its for productivity, but there are productivity softwares who prefers single thread.
 
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