If you missed my other thread - I haven’t been a gamer since the late 1970s so I don’t know anything about this stuff.
I’m going to buy an Alienware Aurora R16 next week. The only PSU options seem to be 500W or 1000W. The PSU is proprietary. I’m going to buy my PC from one of the following…
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New from dell.com. Both PSU options are available.
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Refurbished from Amazon Renewed. There are no power supply details. That’s even true if I use plain old amazon.com and look at new models.
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Refurbished from outlet.us.dell.com. Both PSU options are available.
Amazon Renewed might be cheaper but it annoys me they won’t give the info. Even if 500W is fine for me - I’ll like to have that “in writing” before I buy anything.
I’m going a PC at least this powerful…
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Processor: Intel Core i7 14700F (61 MB cache, 20 cores, up to 5.4 GHz Turbo)
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Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X
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Memory: 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s
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Harddrive: 2 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
I don’t know if I’ll ever upgrade. Is 500W good enough?
The iron rule of PC building: don’t skimp out on the reliability of a PSU. Ever.
100%
Always worth getting something gold rated with plently of wattage in case shit.
Don’t buy a prebuilt desktop, especially don’t buy an alienware
Alienware are widely considered bad, if not actively dangerous due to major ventilation issues.
Correct. The PSU is going to be shitty regardless of capacity, and with a weird proprietary design to make upgrading very difficult.
Third the motion. Alienare is notorious overpriced, too.
How is Asus these days? They also tend to me expensive but have a better rep.
Check out Gamers Nexus on YouTube if you want details, but ASUS has an atrocious reputation now, and deservedly so.
Gamers Nexus also took a look at an alienware a while ago and found that the front panel IO was built onto the weird non-rectangular motherboard. He called it “The Worst Pre-Built We’ve Ever Reviewed”
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
How is Asus these days?
Somewhere between “dog shit” and “fire hazard.” Their enthusiast-grade boards have been burning holes in CPU dies at “safe” default settings, and they released a string of faulty BIOS updates that made the issue worse. Gigabyte had some similar problems last year.
Strangely enough, Asrock Taichi [including Taichi-lite] boards are probably the best you can get for AM5 right now. I have a pair of older Asrock Velocita boards that I used for AM4 builds for my family last year, and those worked out pretty well as a budget-ish option. Either way, “Asrock” and “reliable” in the same sentence is still a little jarring when I think back to stuff I built in the 00s.
Ventilation/Cooling is a major problem with a lot of these prebuilt gaming pcs from the bigger brands. But if you can get them for a good price on sale, it’s worth it and then swap the case and add more fans. I bought an Acer gaming pc on sale a few years ago, swapping the case wasn’t difficult since motherboards are pretty standard size. I’m happy with my purchase, I’m not a big gamer but it runs all the games I’ve tried smoothly.
motherboards are pretty standard size
meanwhile at Alienware:
Premades from the big companies absolutely don’t tend to use standard parts. They often don’t even use standard cables
I love the smell of molten plastic in the morning.
nvidia and intel support
and are under BDS, site suggests AMD instead for bothhttps://www.whattoboycott.org/target/intel
https://www.whattoboycott.org/target/nvidiaI was about to say this + Nvidia has always been shitty towards Linux support and going Linux should definitely remain an option given how enshittified Windows is getting
PC Part Picker can give you an estimate of power usage. I just plugged in what you gave us + a random mobo and AIO and it seems to think 500W is probably too low, but if you’re buying anything pre-assembled it’s most likely calibrated correctly. Maybe they’re undervolting the GPU or the CPU, or they just have a less thirsty GPU than the random 12GB 4070 Super I picked but idk.
My instinct is that if it’s being sold as a complete system you don’t need to worry about it.
No. Both the cpu and videocard each have a power draw of about 220 w. Plus the cooler, motherboard, other hardrives, fans, etc. 500w is cutting It way too close.
Even then, as other users pointed out a bad psu will fry your other componentes.
There was recently a controversy where high end Intel processors of the 13 and 14 gens have a manufacture defect that causes them to go bad in a year or so. That includes the one you like. Also the econ cores in Intel processors have been known to break shit. So i personally would avoid those.
The ryzen 7800x is about as good, and cheaper, the ryzen 7800x3d Is better but costlier.
Personally i think both of those processors are overkill for a 4070, if your intended use Is gaming.
I’d really avoid Alienware at all costs. Their machines are super proprietary (meaning you can’t upgrade/replace a lot of the components with off the shelf parts) and usually have really shitty airflow and cooling problems because of the inadequate cooling and horribly designed case they come in. I’ve directed a couple of friends to Build Redux, they’ll build a machine for you for cost of parts + a $50 build fee + shipping and you can even save $150ish bucks by not having them install Windows for you so you can just install/pirate it yourself when you get it, experience was pretty good for both friends.
Do NOT buy alienware.
Seconding the “don’t buy a prebuilt, and definitely don’t buy an Alienware” sentiment, if you can avoid it. Otherwise, err on the side of a higher-wattage PSU. The AC filter capacitors in the power supply lose their efficiency over time, which will reduce the PSU’s maximum output below the manufacturer’s rated wattage and thus introduce potential for other component failures, if not an outright fire hazard when the magic smoke escapes. This takes longer on a higher-wattage PSU because there are beefier filter capacitors in there; loss of capacitance matters a lot less if your usage patterns are well below peak capacity. The tradeoff being that if it’s not an 80 Plus certified PSU (preferably Gold or higher), you’re using more electricity to do the same amount of “work.” With Dell/Alienware parts? I’d be shocked if it’s even 80 Plus Bronze. Pun not intended
Regarding the specs list, Intel has some serious quality control issues on the 12th, 13th, and 14th generation CPUs, but I can’t remember if that was strictly the i9 or K-series SKUs – even setting aside BDS, I don’t recommend them because of this.
Finally, with AMD bowing out of the higher-end GPU market, NVidia may be a necessary evil… That being said, you can probably score a hell of a deal on a Radeon 7900 XT or XTX nowadays. Failing that, a 7800 XT should be comparable to the 4070 Super.
