Today I decided to do a little bit of research on SFF Gaming PCs. We took a look at Alienware's X51 and the ASUS ROG G20 SFF.
First up is Alienware.
Alienware being bought out by Dell is one of the leading "elite" PC gaming system retailers people have been buying for years. While some praise Alienware and stay loyal others claim they are too pricey for what you are getting. While building your PC can be cheaper we wanted to compare it with the gamers who are new to the PC platform or veterans who simply want the easy way out.
We've gathered some prices of two PC building companies with the same or close to builds they are selling.
With the PC's we are reviewing we are only doing builds with Intel Core i7-4790 Processors and GTX 960 or higher graphics cards.
Alienware X51 Desktop PC.
Don't let the size fool you, for the Alienware X51 packs a punch!
Armed with a 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4790 Processor (Quad Core, 8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost), 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz and an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 with 2GB GDDR5. This makes the NEW Alienware X51 unstoppable with its price set at $1,249.99 with free shipping and returns in case something went wrong during the shipment. During our scouting process, we asked a few questions while chatting with an Alienware customer support specialist. We asked if we could take out the Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 and replace it with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, with relief they said we could absolutely do it and they would help guide us through the process. We then went ahead and asked if doing so would void our warranty, the answer was (Insert drum roll here) No! They proceeded to tell me that if you wanted to upgrade your graphics card you can go on and do so and still have your 1-year up to 4-year warranty still intact. After finding out some details, we went and looked up some more SFF (Small Form Factor) Gaming PC's just like the Alienware X51.
We found an ASUS ROG G20 Variant on a website called XoticPC.
+ Good: Has the same processor as Alienware X51
- Bad: Must upgrade Graphics card from 760 to 960 for a high price
- Bad: Must upgrade RAM from 8GB to 16GB for a high price
With this SFF PC, you must upgrade your graphics card from a GTX 760 to a GTX 960, which boots up the default price from $1,289.13 to $1,533.57. Then upgrade your RAM from 8GB to 16GB which then boots the price even more from $1,533.57 to $1,629.60. Selecting the 1TB hard drive with this build (which the Alienware X51 comes with a 2TB at no extra cost) the ASUS ROG G20 only has 1TB, 3TB, 4TB or 6TB Hard drives (Non-SSD).
Final Price for the XoticPC ASUS ROG G20 i7-4790 Build: $1,629.60.
Final Price for the Alienware X51 i7-4790 Build: $1,249.99
Alien ware has multiple options and warranties to choose from where XoticPC's ASUS ROG G20 only has a 1 Year ASUS GLOBAL OEM Warranty with 24/7 Tech Support.
Final Vote: Go with Alienware!
We recommend Alienware for gamers that have a budget that is high enough for something so powerful.
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Member
Small Form Factor Gaming PC Review
Edited: July 31, 2015
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Member
Alienware = Overpriced crap
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Member
I disagree. I went and collected all the parts to build my own PC same specs. That price was $1,252.92. that's before taxes. Alienware is cheaper with this build.
Edited: July 31, 2015
