A MicroATX ABS with the 13700F, 4070, and 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM from the drop-down menu in one of your links is already just $1299, the same price, so I wouldn't get the Alienware at that price. There is also a variant with the 4060 Ti for $100 less.
Other folks can explain the merits of the R16 better, it's a lot more practical than previous Alienware chassis and the premium isn't as much.
I don't know if anyone is interested Intel NUC's have come way down in price after Intel announced they have leaving this space.
580.00 dollars.
"
Intel NUC 11 NUC11PAHi7 32GB DDR4 RAM,1TB SSD,Win 11 Pro Mini PC,Core i7-1165G7 Processor 12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz Mini Desktop Computer, Thunderbolt 4/Support 8K/WiFi 6/4K Quad Display/Bluetooth 5"
I was just pointing this out because I was looking into making digital signs for someone who made big signs and the NUC's first came out and where wildly overpriced and he opted for a small raspberry Pi solution vs spending over 700 bucks each. They ended up installing 50 units in a big office building. If at the time they where around 500 bucks he may have gone with them. They provided directions to different areas "medical and professional office building" within the space. Pi's still ended up costing with all the things they needed around 250 each.
Unless they’ve changed in the last year, absolutely do not buy an Alienware. Honestly if if they have changed the stuff they were doing recently was so bad I would never trust them again
They have. R16 was a major chassis redesign. Whether that's enough, ymmv
The case is smaller now but they still use proprietary parts.
That is correct, most OEMs do, even though that's one of the main reasons system integrators have crushed them in sales recently.
Most OEMs don't overprice like Alienware does though.
The R16 is also practically in line with pricing from HP and Asus these days, and Acer is sitting out the US market for the most part this year.
So a buddy of mine wants to be able to play the new Final Fantasy on PC, but his current option is a form factor with a GTX 1060 so the game won't even turn on. Something about Direct X 12. Anyway, he's looking for a new machine, and his budget is no more than $800. Unlike me, he won't be building his computer from scratch. He doesn't really know much about upgrading, other than I could walk him through snapping in a piece of ram or maybe screwing in/plugging in a HDD. That's about the extent of it. So, we're looking for pre-built machines here, plug and play.
I pulled up a couple options so far, but I'm curious if you guys had any ideas or knowledge of deals he could roll with.
Spoiler tagged is an image of the recommended specs for the game, and reaching Ultra is not necessary:
I dig that. My buddy was going to go for it, and balked when the Zotac store didn't allow pay by credit card or anything but Paypal, which he doesn't have.
What city/region is he in?
An alternative to the MSI from Newegg is another MSI from Best Buy for $100 more. Slightly inferior CPU (R5-8400F vs.R5-7600), but slightly faster RAM (5200MHz vs. 4800Mhz), and in particular the stronger 4060 Ti GPU (vs. 4060) since from the game's recommended PC specs it appears the game is relatively more demanding on the GPU than the CPU; to expound, the CPUs in these MSI prebuilts roughly match the 5700X quoted in the Ultra recommendation, but the 4060 falls far short of the 4080. The Best Buy MSI also looks to have superior airflow with the mesh front panel & more fans, and a superior WiFi standard.So a buddy of mine wants to be able to play the new Final Fantasy on PC, but his current option is a form factor with a GTX 1060 so the game won't even turn on. Something about Direct X 12. Anyway, he's looking for a new machine, and his budget is no more than $800. Unlike me, he won't be building his computer from scratch. He doesn't really know much about upgrading, other than I could walk him through snapping in a piece of ram or maybe screwing in/plugging in a HDD. That's about the extent of it. So, we're looking for pre-built machines here, plug and play.
I pulled up a couple options so far, but I'm curious if you guys had any ideas or knowledge of deals he could roll with.
Spoiler tagged is an image of the recommended specs for the game, and reaching Ultra is not necessary:
