As mentioned previously, I recently ordered an Alienware gaming computer. As I was finishing my Devil May Cry 4 review, it arrived. Since then, I've been busy playing all the PC games that I couldn't play because my previous machine gave up the ghost as well as those that my old computer could never, ever play. After years and years of building my own machines, I now see the folly of my ways. Never in my wildest dreams could I have built a machine this completely awesome, and I didn't even get the top of the line Alienware. I got the "low end" gaming rig which, after some customizations, can play any game out today. Many of them maxed out. It will even play Crysis at 1680x1050. Granted, at that resolution, Crysis is set to "medium". But I don't care. It's not like I like Crysis all that much anyway.
It even came with a hat!
The whole experience was just great. I plunked around on the Alienware website, decided what I wanted, and ordered it. A little over a week later, it showed up at my door in a seventy pound black box with a giant alien head on it. In the week before I got it, I could check up on the status of my order at any time. They have this 9 step process where they assemble and test it and whatnot, and you can see which step they're on at any time. Upon opening the box, I was not greeted by a single piece of stupid clear plastic. I found another stylish, black box with my new mouse, keyboard, hat and leather-bound manual containing my "respawn" discs. Under that was a monster of a machine with the following specs:
Aurora™ 7500
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5200+ Processor w/ HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling - Space Black
System Lighting: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Terra Green
High-Performance Liquid Cooling: Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling
Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
Graphics Processor: Dual Graphics Cards - Dual 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 GTS - SLI Enabled
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 x 1024MB
Motherboard: Alienware® Approved NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Motherboard
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 – DirectX 9 Only!
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 500GB (2 x 250GB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 2 x 16MB Cache
Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports
Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio - Standard
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Desktop Binder
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: Internal Wire Management
SubTotal: $2,099.00
Shipping: $190.00
Discount: $0.00
Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $2,289.00
Sure the specs aren't the best you can buy, but they're by far the best I've ever had, and there's not a game I can't play. And that's all I care about. And yes, I know I could have built a machine with similar specs for less money, but I would have screwed it up. I don't know what motherboard or chipset to get, anymore. There's too many of them. What video card(s) do I get? Who knows. The thing about Alienware is they only have a few basic models and all of them are designed from the ground up to be gaming machines. They know what motherboard to put in it. They know what chipsets and video cards and hard drives and RAM to put in the machine. Saves me the trouble of diagnosing the multitudes of blue-screen crashes I would likely get building my own machine.
Plus, Montana has more static electricity than I've ever seen anywhere.
So, here's a list of games that you can expect reviews for in the near-ish future. I know some of them are older, but my old machine wouldn't play them. Now that I can, I'll be reviewing them:
Age of Empires III
Command & Conquer 3
Civ City Rome
Titan Quest w/Immortal Throne Expansion
Neverwinter Nights w/Mask of the Betrayer
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (plus various expansions)
Tarr Chronicles
Sim City Societies
City Life
Empire Earth III
Star Trek Legacy
The Witcher
Supreme Commander
Civilization IV
Crysis (prolly just the demo, though)
Sins of a Solar Empire
Plus some console titles:
Lost Odyssey(360)
Conflict: Denied Ops(360)
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements(360)
The Club(360)
One Piece: Unlimited Adventure(Wii)
Fire Emblem(Wii)
Culdecept Saga(360)
Dragon Quest Swords(Wii)
Professor Layton and Curious Villiage(DS)
Assassin's Creed(DS)
