Actually IMO, not worth the xtra $.

In fact , you could just spec out an alienware system (e.g. - area 51 7500 or ALX system, or whatever fruity name systems they build)....
Then order the parts/like or better parts thru www.newegg.com and build it yourself.

Get XP pro (32 or 64) and tweak for best daw-a/v usage (http://www.musicxp.net/).

Purchase a/v hardware of your choice budget...and applications you wish to use

It isn't that hard these days.

I don't like the cases alienware goes with, all you need is a simple mid to full tower case that will hold the appropo amount of HD's and dvd/cdr's you will need (now and in future) + power supply.

They'll $ding$ you at a pretty good clip as for all hrdware/OS/applications goign thru them (in most cases)...so I'd say just take some time to do it yourself (Plus, you'll learn the most about your own system/apps going this route, giving you a better chance to resolving your own issues down the road).

Call them and spec out a sys - write down what they tell ya and later do it yourself.

GL

Ah, well the one area that needs critical attention (unlike the good old days) is getting the heat sink correctly on the CPU. The surface of the CPU and the surface of the heat sink must be bare-metal clean, and then an extremely thin layer of heat-conductive paste must be applied. One fingerprint, a speck of dirt, an eyelash in there and your CPU will toast itself. In fact just a dab too much of the paste (more is NOT better) and your CPU will run hot.

Also, GPUs on video cards, memory sticks, north and south bridges are getting their own heat dissipation devices. No longer can you just stuff items in a box without seriously understanding heat issues. It even matters now where you put the disk drives, even what you lean up against the side of the computer case. It is much like having 3-4-5 even 6 100watt light bulbs burning in a metal box. These devices are not water-cooled just to look snazzy.

If you understand the inherent problems, then by all means build a screamer and save some $$. Otherwise, pay the extra for factory-built and be glad for the warranty.

Well, that used to be true when Intel had 250W CPUs before overclocking. But, now, the Core 2 Duos run overclocked by 30% on the stock air heatsink without getting over 45 C. Just about anybody can build a performance screamer these days without worrying about heat.

Dear friends,

Thank you for all the valuable information!

Randini

Guy, you are saying the 2.9g Core2 Duo can run 30% overclocked on a stock air heat sink without properly applying the heat transfer paste, on a MOBO stuffed with 4gb of DDR2-800 memory, dual GPU DVI cards, hooked to internal DVD burner, internal CD reader, 2x500g ATA drives (C: D:) and a dual-terabyte of internal RAID5 , all in a mini-tower vented by one 12mm power supply fan?

I guess I've been out of touch with developments these past few months. As an old fogey, I do tend to be inflexible, rigid, and welded to the past. I apologize for misleading the poster by suggesting undue caution concerning heat.

...without properly applying heat transfer paste...; ...[including]dual-terabyte...; ...dual GPU...; one 12mm power supply fan...

Wow, I didn't read that in his question :)

I just built a new system with a dual core 5000+ processor. (the standard heatsync/fan combo came with thermal paste already on the heatsync). I put 2 gigs of DDR2 memory in it as well as two SATA Raid configured drives and two ATA drives. as well as two Optical DVD drives and a 600w ps unit. The case I bought has a port going directly to the processor fan (they presently are making cases more adept to heat dispensation) as well as a 120mm fan in the front, the back, the bottom and the top with one blowing in and three sucking out. The CPU runs at a pretty cool speed of 29 celsius while doing modest tasks and the mobo stays at around 23 celsuis.

j razz

It's really the misapplication/mis-installation of the heatsink that would give you heat problems. If you install the retail CPU + heatsink correctly, then you should have no problems with heat. The CPUs are clocked to give lots of headroom (which is why you can overclock them).

The third-party pastes do a better job than the waxy stuff on retail heatsinks. However, they are a little more difficult to apply correctly. The waxy stuff will melt on correctly, whereas the pastes won't- you need a thin layer of paste to begin with, and the heatsink + CPU need to make good contact.

I've got a new Intel QX6700 chip on order - that's the 2.66ghz quad core. What's fun is that Vegas 7.0 was one of Intel's demonstration programs for showing how much faster the QX6700 is compared to the X6800. It also mentions that Vegas is one of the FEW programs out there that can actually make use of more than two cores.