I have M11x R2 (i5-520um,8gb ram,Geforce 335m) for one of these?

I like the M11x R2 alot but I dont need portability, I just hook it up to a monitor and game. I been looking for Desktops that could handle games, I have two people are interested in my laptop

First Person (He wants my M11x R2+cash, no agreed amount yet)

-Alienware Aurora R3
-i5-2300 @ 2.80 GHz
-1 TB Harddrive
-AMD Radeon 6800 Series video card

Second Person (Wants to do straight up trade for my M11x R2)

-Custom Built computer
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
1 x CoolIT SYSTEMS ECO-R120 Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC)
2 x Western Digital 320 gb SATA Hard drives
1 x HIS H695F2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
2 x PNY XLR8 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
2 x CORSAIR XMS3 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
1 x RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, w/ LED On/Off Switch
1 x BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Whats the best deal?

 

Unless the 1st one has a very good warranty I would go for the custom built one. BUT! if the 1st one still has warranty then I would take the Alienware, however the 2nd config seems a lot better. Still you gotta do a lot of tests on those computers to make sure they both work fine. Here are some that you can try.

 

^Nice thanks, I just am not sure how much cash he wants though

 

Still a very good deal I would say ^^

 

i5-2300 > Phenom II X4 965 any day of the week, including Christmas and public holidays.

Take the first one TBH, the 2nd setup has a slightly better GPU and a gimmicky water cooling setup, but it's old tech (especially the CPU) which is really on-par with your R2. Depending on the cash amount, get the Alienware.

 

Just heard back from first person with the Aurora R3, they want my laptop+$500, yea going to pass on that for sure

Nevermind I looked over the benchmark and the i5-2300 was better

 

AMD Phenom II X4 965 (125W, BE) vs Intel Core i5-2300 click the "performance tab" to see graphs, the Phenom is old gen and architecture and runs hotter. Clock rates aren't everything.

Not to mention the resale value of the aurora is considerably more, the case alone is worth $200-250 and Alienware products always demand a higher premium (the M11x R2 being an exception, it's not much of a "revision" at all it's just an R1 with newer CPU).

 

What do you think the cash value for the Alienware M11xR2 with the stats in OP?

 

The R2 in the US has a market value of ~$500-600, the latter being the revised i7 model, so for an i5 unit i'd say $500. RAM honestly doesn't make the biggest difference in price, manufacturers and resellers love to price high but the fact is 8GB of RAM is $50 and that drops to $20 on the used market.

I'm not pushing the Alienware on you at all, i'm just expressing what my personal opinion is. I would personally negotiate that $500 down to $400 or even $350. He wanted the trade, he's going to negotiate on my terms not his. I would then have ~$800 invested in a machine worth $1,200-1,500 in the US and $1,800-2,000 in Australia.

Also i'm assuming the Aurora is a fully working PC with 4-8GB RAM and everything else, it's not just a stripped-out shell with the specs you listed

 

I never built a PC before, so that Aurora R3, can I upgrade the videocard easily? or is it like the M11x where you cant change out videocard at all?

 

Desktop PC's are extremely easy to upgrade, the Aurora should be able to run any card which can physically fit in the case (provided the PSU can handle it).

 

I agree with the previous posters: Intel CPU of the Aurora is much better than the AMD CPU of option #2. You should be able to upgrade the video card easily later on. Go for the Aurora!

 

Get the custom built desktop. not everything is about the cpu. everything in that build is better then that aurora except for the cpu.

would you rather have an OEM craputer, or a nice custom desktop that can be built up easily? that aurora is a waste of time and money.

also if you like overclocking, forget about that on the alienware. you can take that phenom II to 4ghz and it will kill that i5 2300.