I was shopping for a new computer at Alienware this morning. Some of their upgrade prices, especially for RAM, looked fishy. You can get what appears to be the same items from Newegg for less than what Alienware charges as the upgrade price. The upgrade price means additional cost to what you are already paying for the base component. This seemed especially true for the 2 GB low latency patriot memory upgrade. Alienware wanted an additional $600 but I can apparently buy this from NewEgg for $240.
The memory from NewEgg
If the items are not equivalent I’ll correct this but they definitely need to work on justifying why I should pay $600 for 2 GB of memory.
I found Cyberpowerpc.com which gives you a great deal of freedom in what parts to pick. I built a computer that would cost about twice as much from Alienware. The only problem is that it’s very hard to know what parts to pick given the wide range of options, some of which are incompatible. The website form isn’t that good either, often resetting your choices if you go back and forth between pages.
I basically ordered the top of the line AMD, with dual top of the line video cards.
Code: ULTRASLIQUADZ $2,627.00 x 1 $2,627.00
Gamer Ultra SLI Quad (NO MONITOR)
www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Ultra_SLI_Quad/
*BASE_PRICE: [+2259]
CAS: NEW!!! CoolerMaster Cosmos Silent Gaming Tower Case w/ 420 Watts Power Supply (Original Color)
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CS_FAN: Default case fans
CPU: AMD Phenom(TM) X4 9950 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology [+16]
CD: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
CD2: NONE [-18]
CABLE: None
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
FA_HDD: None
FAN: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
FLOPPY: NONE
FREEBIE_OS: None
HDD: Single Hard Drive [-327] (300GB Gaming Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache WD3000GLFS [+244])
HDD2: NONE [-54]
IEEE_CARD: NONE
KEYBOARD: PS2 MULTIMEDIA INTERNET CONTROL KEYBOARD (BLACK COLOR)
MOUSE: Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse (BLACK COLOR)
MODEM: NONE
MONITOR: NONE
MONITOR2: NONE
MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) Asus Crosshair II Formular 780A SLI Chipset DDR2/1066 SATA RAID PCI-E MBoard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio [+155]
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard) 2GB (2x1GB) PC8500 DDR2/1066 Dual Channel Memory [+150] (Corsair Dominator)
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/1000 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional w/ Service Pack 3 [+61]
PRINTER: None
PRINTER_CABLE: None
PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU [+19]
POWERSUPPLY: 900 Watts Power Supplies [+38] (Apevia Warlock Series)
RUSH: RUSH!!! READY TO SHIP IN 5 BUSINESS DAYS [+49]
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: Logitech (BLACK) X-540 70Watts 5.1 Configuration Speaker System
TEMP: NONE (AS SHOWN)
TVRC: None
USBHD: NONE
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
VIDEOCAMERA: NONE
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX280 1GB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5])
VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX280 1GB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5])
VIDEO3: NONE
WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card + GigaByte GN-AT2050D 2.4GHz Indoor Omni-Directional Dipole Antenna [+25]
_PRICE: (+2627)