The ongoing quest to kit out my apartment has reached phase 2... gadgetry and electronics!
My gorgeous Sony Plasma has already arrived from the UK but is being repeatedly confused by the Xbox switching HD resolution on it.. seems to be coping just fine with 1080i in widescreen but occaisionally glitching, nothing serious. So with the lounge mostly sorted as far as techie things go.. there's my study, and the subject of my "serious" rig... at the moment it's my feeble Dell D820 laptop provided by my employers..
I'm down to 2 choices for the PC.. the Alienware ALX vs the Voodoo Omen.
Both are watercooled, both feature quad-core processors, both have cases which are easy on the eyes, both are quiet, and both are a real tour de force of processing and graphics power, lovingly assembled by people that know what they're doing.
Firstly, my thoughts on the Alienware. Lovely case, but a tad "teen" for my liking.. it's the sort of PC I'd have wanted in my bedroom when I was about 18. Has that kind of sci-fi look, and I'm thinking that black case with red lighting is going to look pretty good. Also appealing with the Alienware is that it already ships with a pair of seriously fast 768mb nVidia cards, also Alienware overclock that quad processor to 3.2ghz which is impressive.. after acoustic dampening and a nice 24" Dell HD widescreen display the whole thing spits out at a little under $7k. Not too bad (see my comments later as to why I dont think that's insane!).
Onto the Voodoo which proudly urinates all over the Alienware's case from a great height in what looks like something seriously industrial but still very pleasant on the eyes. Hardest choice here is picking from Voodoo's various paint jobs, and the fact that for a bit of extra cash they'll colour match my display to the case.. well, they have alienware beat on the aesthetics. Power is a different matter, there's no mention on the Voodoo site with regards to the final processor speed but it does mention that they are "performance tuned" so I think they're going to be close to if not above the Alienware's 3.2ghz, though for an additional amount Voodoo actually offer the Qx6800 rather than the standard 6700 that the Alienware ships with. The big downfall is the standard shipping arrangements for the display adapters, Voodoo charge almost $200 more to upgrade to the 768mb GTX, and then another $900 to add an additional card (dual's are standard in the AW), given that by the time I've finished tinkering with the spec (and produced a gorgeous orange pc, with color matched 24" HP Widescreen display) the Voodoo comes out at almost $9k, which is a bit.. well... much!Now both these monsters are hugely expensive.. but I'm looking at them as a 2-3 year platform. Over a 3 year period I probably spend about $6k on a PC, probably more. Both these pc's offer a great platform start.. both of them already support HDCP display cards, and natively outpout HDMI to their respective flat panel displays, both are capable of 1080i/p and the whole blu-ray experience. The Alienware offers more power for your buck than the voodoo, but the voodoo build quality, cooling systems and those lovely aesthetics are pretty much unbeatable from any other supplier. Question is, is that all worth $2k over an AW?!
Much deliberation must continue!
1 comment:
Personally I would go with the Voodoo because the case looks like it could have been a prop on the original Dune movie set.
Right on about the Alienware being perfect eye candy for an 18-year old. But I still love it. What does that say about me? :-)
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