So, I'm still using a DELL XPS gaming system from 2009 and am thinking about upgrading.

I'll probably just go ahead and donate my old computer after wiping it. Is that a good idea or should I try and sell it?

For my new computer, I want to get something already built and with a good warranty. I had a good year financially, so I'm willing to spend some coin. I'm currently leaning toward getting an Alienware. I already have an Alienware M11X laptop and I love it. I really like Alienware's aesthetic and customer service. Have you guys had good experience with Alienwares?

I'm torn between getting the more mobile Alienware X51 desktop or the behemoth Alienware Area-51 desktop. Does anyone have one of these machines? Any issues?

What I'd like to be able to do is have almost immediate boot up times, be able to play World of Warcraft at max settings on a 1960x1280 monitor and play any top rated games coming out in the next 3-4 years. I'm not big into FPS but do love to play strategy games as well. If I could do all that with a smaller Alienware X51, I'd love it. I really don't like lugging around huge gaming machines here and there.

Games I like to play:
World of Warcraft
StarCraft 2
Civilization 5
X-Com Enemy Unkown

Either of those computers could run the games you listed at 60fps on max settings as they're not that demanding. As far as games 3-4 years in the future, like the big graphics heavy AAA titles, just make sure you have a nice high end video card like the GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290.

I'm not TOO familiar with Alienware, but I think they allow quite a bit of customization with their desktops.

A lot of X51 reviews said it was pretty loud when I was looking. My brother got a computer from iBuypower.com and it's pretty silent and was cheaper than it would've been had he bought the same computer from Alienware.

GTX 970, an i5, and an SSD will cover everything you're asking for. Most of that is to protect the longevity of the computer.

My options for the Alienware X51 are:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 with 4GB DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti 2GB GDDR5
AMD Radeon R9 270 with 2GB GDDR5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760Ti with 2GB GDDR5

Get the best one? (GTX760)

The 700 series gtx cards are going out of vogue with gamers and except for the 780 aren't able to run the newer graphics heavy games at high settings with any acceptable FPS level.

If you get a 700 series get a 780. The 760 definitely won't be able to run games at decent settings in 3-4 years. If you're looking that far ahead you need to find an option to get one of the newer high end graphics cards.

I would not donate your PC with a wiped HD. Go spend $30 on a new drive and sell it with the OS new installation.

If you have anything personnel on your PC, it can be recovered.

Troll?

Don't buy alienware, seriously, terrible idea.

Look at Asus G series of laptops...I've had two, lasted a long time, gamed great.

Build your own rig from new egg building is so much fun

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Build your own rig from new egg building is so much fun

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This. You can build a better rig than anything straight out of the box.

Came here to suggest building your own. With a very limited amount of time and effort you can build a much better rig for the price or an equivalent for much cheaper.

Newegg, microcenter, pcpart*****er are your friends

Does the newegg thing come with instructions? Do they build it for me?

newEgg does have a series of videos on YouTube that walk you through it step by step. Go watch the videos first and see if it's something you would be interested in. The only thing I can tell you is you will save a lot of money and get a more customized rig with a sense of accomplishment and know-how that you won't get from buying an Alienware

I don't know if it's still true that building your own is significantly cheaper. 10+ years ago this was certainly true. These days, I just don't know if that's the case. A quick check on pcpartpicker shows that you can get a comparable PC to the Alienware X51 with the I-3 processor for roughly the same price, remembering that there is an OEM graphics card not available for individual sale, there isn't a comparable case available, and windows 8.1 isn't free.

I'd build my own, but that's just me. You can find excellent information and guides on tomshardware as well, it's been a good source of BYO information for almost two decades

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The 700 series gtx cards are going out of vogue with gamers and except for the 780 aren't able to run the newer graphics heavy games at high settings with any acceptable FPS level.

If you get a 700 series get a 780. The 760 definitely won't be able to run games at decent settings in 3-4 years. If you're looking that far ahead you need to find an option to get one of the newer high end graphics cards.

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Sorry but my superclocked (factory) 770 still kills modern games.

For the OP check out this site.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

And this page

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales

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The 700 series gtx cards are going out of vogue with gamers and except for the 780 aren't able to run the newer graphics heavy games at high settings with any acceptable FPS level.

If you get a 700 series get a 780. The 760 definitely won't be able to run games at decent settings in 3-4 years. If you're looking that far ahead you need to find an option to get one of the newer high end graphics cards.

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Sorry but my superclocked (factory) 770 still kills modern games.

For the OP check out this site.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

And this page

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales

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That's fine if it's "killing" it now, but that's why I mentioned the 3-4 year timeframe. My 670 was "killing" it in a sense, but in 3-4 years it won't be anywhere near being able to run the best games at good FPS.

A lot of PC gamers are upgrading from 700 series cards to 900 series cards for that very reason. The 700 series cards have been able to play the most graphics heavy games for a few years now since they came out.

If you're building a new PC and want 3-4 years of being able to run the most graphics heavy games at good settings you need to go higher than the 700 series cards.

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The 700 series gtx cards are going out of vogue with gamers and except for the 780 aren't able to run the newer graphics heavy games at high settings with any acceptable FPS level.

If you get a 700 series get a 780. The 760 definitely won't be able to run games at decent settings in 3-4 years. If you're looking that far ahead you need to find an option to get one of the newer high end graphics cards.

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Sorry but my superclocked (factory) 770 still kills modern games.

For the OP check out this site.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

And this page

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales

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That's fine if it's "killing" it now, but that's why I mentioned the 3-4 year timeframe. My 670 was "killing" it in a sense, but in 3-4 years it won't be anywhere near being able to run the best games at good FPS.

A lot of PC gamers are upgrading from 700 series cards to 900 series cards for that very reason. The 700 series cards have been able to play the most graphics heavy games for a few years now since they came out.

If you're building a new PC and want 3-4 years of being able to run the most graphics heavy games at good settings you need to go higher than the 700 series cards.

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True, I just wanted to correct you on "except for the 780 aren't able to run the newer graphics heavy games at high settings with any acceptable FPS level." part.

If you're going to build a rig with any sort of "future proofing" of course you're going to go with the most modern current options.

Currently gathering parts for my first build. Can't wait! As far as building your own pc, just saying the words sounds daunting, but there is such a wealth of info on the Internet that it makes building one much more accessible.

I want to build my own (as opposed to buying a prebuilt) because I'll know what parts are in it, know how they work, where they go, what to do when something goes wrong, etc. I'll also know that they are quality parts that I hand chose. Plus, several years down the line when I need to replace/upgrade something, I can just buy one $100 new part instead of a brand new $700-$1000 computer.

Here is a wonderful website that I've been using to pick parts.

pcpartpicker.com

It's fun just to tinker with different builds, find the lowest price, and is a great way to budget.

As far as learning goes, I would DEFINITELY watch Newegg's 3 part series on building your own PC on YouTube. EXTREMELY helpful.

I could go on and on. Less than a month ago, I knew absolutely nothing about building a PC and now I'll probably have it completely done by mid January.

It's been an amazing learning process and I am definitely +1ing the build it yourself crowd.

Ok. Yea I guess I was a little biased toward the 780 because I've played on one for a bit.

I'm actually curious, have you benchmarked your 770 with some of the newer games? I had a 670 before I upgraded and with Far Cry 4 for example I was running at medium settings and hitting around 45-50 FPS but when I switched to high it dropped to 30 and ultra dropped into the 20s. Always curious how the 600s compare to the 700s.

I've built one computer in my life, but I do remember really enjoying it, even though I ran into multiple headaches in the process.

Keep your audience here in mind. You're asking this on the Nerdery so naturally a bunch of nerds are going to encourage you to build. If you were asking about cars on the auto board a lot of them are going to encourage you to think about it from the mindset of an auto tech nerd.

If you're not a computer nerd and/or if you're coming at this from a "time is money" angle, Alienware is great. It's also nice because Dell offers flexible payment options. You can buy a beastly rig and pay it off in small chunks rather than gradually gathering parts for a build and by the time of assembly your rig is already a bit outdated.

Not that the build advice is wrong, but it isn't right for everyone.

I just bought a 17 Alienware laptop. Very happy with it. Probably the fastest and nicest laptop I have owned, even though I have spent as much on other laptops.

May not compare but I got the GeForce 860 gc to save the money over the 880. Blows away every other graphics I have had.

There's also other custom PC builders that offer warranties and support. Lifehacker recently did a top five:
http://lifehacker.com/five-best-custom-pc-builders-1664766332