🚀 go-pugleaf

On 2017-02-07, The Dude <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I am looking to buy a computer for gaming and have looked at ASUS, ACER and Alienware as candidates.  I know that building your own is popular nowadays but to be honest, I just don't want to go that route.
> Below is a configuration from Alienware that is on sale right now.
> It normally goes for $2799 Canadian but is on sale for $1999 right now.
> Do you think this is a worthy purchase?
> I know ASUS might have a better name for quality but I can't seem to get this configuration at a similar price from ASUS.
> Also, I am thinking that Alienware might provide better support post-purchase.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> Alienware Aurora R6 Alienware Aurora R6 
> Operating System Windows 10 Home 64bit English 
> Processor Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz) 
> Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial 
> Memory 16GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately) 
> McAfee Live Safe No Anti-virus Requested 
> Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 
> Hard Drive 2TB 7200RPM 6Gb/s 
> Chassis Options Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Peformance Liquid Cooling 
> Wireless Intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 
> CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray-loading Blu-ray Burner 
> FGA Module No FGA 
> Driver Intel Wireless 3165 Driver 
> Diagnostic CD / Diskette Windows Resource DVD 
> Placemat Placemat (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese) 
> Retail Software Dell.com Order 
> Retail Packing Label Dell.com Order 
> Packaging Shipping Material 
> Optical Software Cyberlink Media Suite Essentials without Media 
> Non-Microsoft Application Software Additional Software 
> Operating System Recovery Options No OS Recovery Disc Included 
> Processor Label Intel® Core™ i7 Label 
> Mouse No Mouse 
> Documentation/Disks Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French) 
> Keyboard No Keyboard 
> Hardware Support Services 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Onsite Service after Remote Diagnosis 
> Cable US Power Cord 
>  
>
> TOTAL:   $1,999.99  

$2k and no mouse!
You could probably save a lot by speccing your own without such extras
as optical drives and Alienware branding.

-- 
-Toby
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject to circumvent my email filters.

> Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5

I have two complaints about this system.  The first is *no SSD*.  It's 
simple enough to buy one yourself and clone the OS to it (a 1hr job), but 
disappointing to not see it included in a new machine.

Secondly, and here's where the 'namebrand' is biting you:  they're putting 
in a mid-tier videocard at an effectively large markup.  Here is a different 
offering with a GTX 1080 at (mostly) the same price:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Infinity_XLC
This one could use a bigger HD (& SSD) also, but with the same price point 
and 1yr warranty, the better videocard is a major upgrade.  You are giving 
up the brandname, shrug.

Also, you haven't said what monitor & resolution you are targetting, which 
are key.  Anything 100hz or 1440p+, and a 1080 over a 1070 looks better and 
better.

rms

 

On 2/7/2017 8:33 AM, rms wrote:
>> Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5
>
> I have two complaints about this system.  The first is *no SSD*.  It's
> simple enough to buy one yourself and clone the OS to it (a 1hr job),
> but disappointing to not see it included in a new machine.
>
> Secondly, and here's where the 'namebrand' is biting you:  they're
> putting in a mid-tier videocard at an effectively large markup.  Here is
> a different offering with a GTX 1080 at (mostly) the same price:
> http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Infinity_XLC
> This one could use a bigger HD (& SSD) also, but with the same price
> point and 1yr warranty, the better videocard is a major upgrade.  You
> are giving up the brandname, shrug.
>
> Also, you haven't said what monitor & resolution you are targetting,
> which are key.  Anything 100hz or 1440p+, and a 1080 over a 1070 looks
> better and better.
>
> rms


I pretty much agree with all this.

I'd add, I always build my own, so I've no experience with Alienware 
(though it's an arm of Dell which is near bottom of the barrel) or ASUS 
(other than MB, which are o.k.  I love my new MSI so far though, seems 
much better than usual ASUS fare).

You can get exactly what you want through a build your own site and 
they'll put it together, without the crapware this apparently has 
installed (M$ Office trial & McCrapy) I had a look at one and getting 
something like that was considerably more though at $2700 so I'm not 
sure about it after all.

If you don't want to shell out for an SSD, at least get a Hybrid drive, 
which is near the performance of an SSD.  Spending this much I can't see 
why you'd not get an SSD though.

I looked into the CPU, it looks like a pretty good deal, it's not much 
faster than the i7-6700 (only 3% faster FPS) or i7-4970 (6% faster FPS) 
at 1080p (comparatively faster if higher res) but it's not much more and 
will provide some future proofing vs. the cheaper CPUs.

- Justisaur

The Dude  <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>It normally goes for $2799 Canadian but is on sale for $1999 right now.
>Do you think this is a worthy purchase?

Well, given a $2000 price it's not all that bad, but it's probably more
than you need in some areas, and seriously lacking in one key area.

Specifically:

>Operating System Windows 10 Home 64bit English 

Reasonable choice, Windows Pro or Ultimate aren't going to give anything
you'd likely actually use.
 
>Processor Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo
>Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz) 

The CPU is mostly reasonable, it's probably more than you need, but at
the price its OK.

>Memory 16GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately) 

That's enough, though I'd prefer more RAM.

>Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 

Reasonable enough, though a GTX 1070 is more than you need than enough
if you have 1920x1080 monitor.  On the other with higher resolutions
you might end up wishing you had a faster card.

>Hard Drive 2TB 7200RPM 6Gb/s 

This is almost insulting.  Pretty much all but the cheapest new computers
should have an SSD, as it's pretty much required now.  To give you an
idea of the price I just bought a 500 MB SSD and a 3TB 7200 RPM HD for
my computer and it cost me CDN $290 total ($180 + $110).

>Chassis Options Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
>with High Peformance Liquid Cooling 

Way bigger power supply than you need.  Notably you only have a single
GPU.  I don't think liquid cooling is really worth it, the parts aren't
that hot and you don't sound like you're going to be overclocking.

>Wireless Intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 

Uhh... what is this?  A laptop?  I assume you don't really need this,
but if you do it's reasonable, as it's a pretty cheap add on.

>CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray-loading Blu-ray Burner 

Reasonable in this price range, but you probably don't need a Blu-Ray
burner, and maybe not an optical drive at all.

If you build it yourself you can probably get an i7-7700 CPU + motherboard
+ 16 GB RAM + GTX 1070 + 480 MB SSD + 3 TB HD + case w. 500W power supply
+ DVD burner + Win10 Home for less than CDN $2000.  If you "rightsize"
some of the components and reuse the case from your old computer you
could probably get it down to $1000 while still having a PC that can
run all your games at 60 FPS at 1920x1080.

On the other hand you'd probably have trouble finding someone that will
put all that together for you for $2000.  If you can find a way to get a
decent sized SSD into that AlienWare computer, by downsizing or removing
things you don't need, and keep it at $2000 it wouldn't be a bad deal.

					Ross Ridge

-- 
 l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]  rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/  http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ 
 db  //	  

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 4:44:31 PM UTC-5, Ross Ridge wrote:
> The Dude  <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >It normally goes for $2799 Canadian but is on sale for $1999 right now.
> >Do you think this is a worthy purchase?
> 
> Well, given a $2000 price it's not all that bad, but it's probably more
> than you need in some areas, and seriously lacking in one key area.
> 
> Specifically:
> 
> >Operating System Windows 10 Home 64bit English 
> 
> Reasonable choice, Windows Pro or Ultimate aren't going to give anything
> you'd likely actually use.
>  
> >Processor Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo
> >Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz) 
> 
> The CPU is mostly reasonable, it's probably more than you need, but at
> the price its OK.
> 
> >Memory 16GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately) 
> 
> That's enough, though I'd prefer more RAM.
> 
> >Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 
> 
> Reasonable enough, though a GTX 1070 is more than you need than enough
> if you have 1920x1080 monitor.  On the other with higher resolutions
> you might end up wishing you had a faster card.
> 
> >Hard Drive 2TB 7200RPM 6Gb/s 
> 
> This is almost insulting.  Pretty much all but the cheapest new computers
> should have an SSD, as it's pretty much required now.  To give you an
> idea of the price I just bought a 500 MB SSD and a 3TB 7200 RPM HD for
> my computer and it cost me CDN $290 total ($180 + $110).
> 
> >Chassis Options Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
> >with High Peformance Liquid Cooling 
> 
> Way bigger power supply than you need.  Notably you only have a single
> GPU.  I don't think liquid cooling is really worth it, the parts aren't
> that hot and you don't sound like you're going to be overclocking.
> 
> >Wireless Intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 
> 
> Uhh... what is this?  A laptop?  I assume you don't really need this,
> but if you do it's reasonable, as it's a pretty cheap add on.
> 
> >CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray-loading Blu-ray Burner 
> 
> Reasonable in this price range, but you probably don't need a Blu-Ray
> burner, and maybe not an optical drive at all.
> 
> If you build it yourself you can probably get an i7-7700 CPU + motherboard
> + 16 GB RAM + GTX 1070 + 480 MB SSD + 3 TB HD + case w. 500W power supply
> + DVD burner + Win10 Home for less than CDN $2000.  If you "rightsize"
> some of the components and reuse the case from your old computer you
> could probably get it down to $1000 while still having a PC that can
> run all your games at 60 FPS at 1920x1080.
> 
> On the other hand you'd probably have trouble finding someone that will
> put all that together for you for $2000.  If you can find a way to get a
> decent sized SSD into that AlienWare computer, by downsizing or removing
> things you don't need, and keep it at $2000 it wouldn't be a bad deal.
> 
> 					Ross Ridge
> 
> -- 
>  l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
> [oo][oo]  
> -()-/()/
>  db  //

Thanks Ross and others for being honest and very detailed in your replies.
I really appreciate it.  
The biggest hurdle for me building my own or going to a computer builder with a parts list is I don't want to mess up the symbiotic relationship of the parts when they are placed in a case.  I know the basics but not how things work best together.  I also don't want to have hassles when and if something goes wrong post purchase.  I know Dell is not the best maker for the money perhaps, but they have been very good for me to deal with regarding service and warranty coverage after the fact.  
Anyway, thanks guys and if replies still want to come in, I am very appreciative of it.

Cheers

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 4:54:53 PM UTC-5, The Dude wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 4:44:31 PM UTC-5, Ross Ridge wrote:
> > The Dude  <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >It normally goes for $2799 Canadian but is on sale for $1999 right now.
> > >Do you think this is a worthy purchase?
> > 
> > Well, given a $2000 price it's not all that bad, but it's probably more
> > than you need in some areas, and seriously lacking in one key area.
> > 
> > Specifically:
> > 
> > >Operating System Windows 10 Home 64bit English 
> > 
> > Reasonable choice, Windows Pro or Ultimate aren't going to give anything
> > you'd likely actually use.
> >  
> > >Processor Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo
> > >Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz) 
> > 
> > The CPU is mostly reasonable, it's probably more than you need, but at
> > the price its OK.
> > 
> > >Memory 16GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately) 
> > 
> > That's enough, though I'd prefer more RAM.
> > 
> > >Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 
> > 
> > Reasonable enough, though a GTX 1070 is more than you need than enough
> > if you have 1920x1080 monitor.  On the other with higher resolutions
> > you might end up wishing you had a faster card.
> > 
> > >Hard Drive 2TB 7200RPM 6Gb/s 
> > 
> > This is almost insulting.  Pretty much all but the cheapest new computers
> > should have an SSD, as it's pretty much required now.  To give you an
> > idea of the price I just bought a 500 MB SSD and a 3TB 7200 RPM HD for
> > my computer and it cost me CDN $290 total ($180 + $110).
> > 
> > >Chassis Options Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
> > >with High Peformance Liquid Cooling 
> > 
> > Way bigger power supply than you need.  Notably you only have a single
> > GPU.  I don't think liquid cooling is really worth it, the parts aren't
> > that hot and you don't sound like you're going to be overclocking.
> > 
> > >Wireless Intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 
> > 
> > Uhh... what is this?  A laptop?  I assume you don't really need this,
> > but if you do it's reasonable, as it's a pretty cheap add on.
> > 
> > >CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray-loading Blu-ray Burner 
> > 
> > Reasonable in this price range, but you probably don't need a Blu-Ray
> > burner, and maybe not an optical drive at all.
> > 
> > If you build it yourself you can probably get an i7-7700 CPU + motherboard
> > + 16 GB RAM + GTX 1070 + 480 MB SSD + 3 TB HD + case w. 500W power supply
> > + DVD burner + Win10 Home for less than CDN $2000.  If you "rightsize"
> > some of the components and reuse the case from your old computer you
> > could probably get it down to $1000 while still having a PC that can
> > run all your games at 60 FPS at 1920x1080.
> > 
> > On the other hand you'd probably have trouble finding someone that will
> > put all that together for you for $2000.  If you can find a way to get a
> > decent sized SSD into that AlienWare computer, by downsizing or removing
> > things you don't need, and keep it at $2000 it wouldn't be a bad deal.
> > 
> > 					Ross Ridge
> > 
> > -- 
> >  l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
> > [oo][oo]  
> > -()-/()/
> >  db  //
> 
> Thanks Ross and others for being honest and very detailed in your replies.
> I really appreciate it.  
> The biggest hurdle for me building my own or going to a computer builder with a parts list is I don't want to mess up the symbiotic relationship of the parts when they are placed in a case.  I know the basics but not how things work best together.  I also don't want to have hassles when and if something goes wrong post purchase.  I know Dell is not the best maker for the money perhaps, but they have been very good for me to deal with regarding service and warranty coverage after the fact.  
> Anyway, thanks guys and if replies still want to come in, I am very appreciative of it.
> 
> Cheers

BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD (Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for $250.

>BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD 
>(Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for $250.

    A nice thing about a separate boot drive, is you can put a 
backup/restore utility on a usb flashdrive, then back up the entire 
bootdrive partition to the hard drive (I use Acronis' utility, there are 
many others).  So if the OS gets corrupted somehow, you can restore and be 
back up in a matter of minutes.

rms 

On Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 11:47:34 AM UTC-5, rms wrote:
> >BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD 
> >(Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for $250.
> 
>     A nice thing about a separate boot drive, is you can put a 
> backup/restore utility on a usb flashdrive, then back up the entire 
> bootdrive partition to the hard drive (I use Acronis' utility, there are 
> many others).  So if the OS gets corrupted somehow, you can restore and be 
> back up in a matter of minutes.
> 
> rms

Thanks rms

The Dude  <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The biggest hurdle for me building my own or going to a computer
>builder with a parts list is I don't want to mess up the symbiotic
>relationship of the parts when they are placed in a case. 

Well, that's not really a thing.  Basically if you can it physically
fit part in in the case, and connect it up then you're good to go.
For example with a video card what you need is a 16x PCI-Express slot
on the motherboard, the appropriate additional power connectors on the
power supply, and physically enough clearance in the case for card to fit.

The only mistake you can make in terms of matching parts, is doing
something like puting $1000 video card in a computer with $50 CPU, most
of the time you'll be bottlenecked by the CPU and your video card will
be sitting idle waiting for it to catch up.  It'll still work but you've
wasted a lot of money.  Once you get in to more reasonable range though,
things are less obvious.  It's hard to say that a $200 CPU matched with
a $400 video card is bad choice, or a $400 CPU and a $200 video card
would be bad either.  Some games might perform better with the first
option and others might perform better with the second.

>I also don't want to have
>hassles when and if something goes wrong post purchase.  I know Dell is
>not the best maker for the money perhaps, but they have been very good
>for me to deal with regarding service and warranty coverage after the
>fact.  

Yah, just so you have an idea you're paying extra for that service.

>BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA
>SSD (Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for
>$250.

You can install your own 256GB SSD for about $100, so that's pretty
terrible deal.  Even the top-of-the-line Samsung 850 EVO 500 MB SSD is
available for less than $250.

					Ross Ridge

-- 
 l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]  rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/  http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ 
 db  //	  

On Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 4:35:10 PM UTC-5, Ross Ridge wrote:
> The Dude  <craigme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The biggest hurdle for me building my own or going to a computer
> >builder with a parts list is I don't want to mess up the symbiotic
> >relationship of the parts when they are placed in a case. 
> 
> Well, that's not really a thing.  Basically if you can it physically
> fit part in in the case, and connect it up then you're good to go.
> For example with a video card what you need is a 16x PCI-Express slot
> on the motherboard, the appropriate additional power connectors on the
> power supply, and physically enough clearance in the case for card to fit.
> 
> The only mistake you can make in terms of matching parts, is doing
> something like puting $1000 video card in a computer with $50 CPU, most
> of the time you'll be bottlenecked by the CPU and your video card will
> be sitting idle waiting for it to catch up.  It'll still work but you've
> wasted a lot of money.  Once you get in to more reasonable range though,
> things are less obvious.  It's hard to say that a $200 CPU matched with
> a $400 video card is bad choice, or a $400 CPU and a $200 video card
> would be bad either.  Some games might perform better with the first
> option and others might perform better with the second.
> 
> >I also don't want to have
> >hassles when and if something goes wrong post purchase.  I know Dell is
> >not the best maker for the money perhaps, but they have been very good
> >for me to deal with regarding service and warranty coverage after the
> >fact.  
> 
> Yah, just so you have an idea you're paying extra for that service.
> 
> >BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA
> >SSD (Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for
> >$250.
> 
> You can install your own 256GB SSD for about $100, so that's pretty
> terrible deal.  Even the top-of-the-line Samsung 850 EVO 500 MB SSD is
> available for less than $250.
> 
> 					Ross Ridge
> 
> -- 
>  l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
> [oo][oo]  rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
> -()-/()/  http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ 
>  db  //


More great info Ross...I appreciate it greatly.
Waterloo ... great school and town.

Cheers

On Wed, 8 Feb 2017 09:47:30 -0700, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>BTW....Just got home and checked the website...can add a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD 
>>(Boot) to the 2TB hard drive for $125 and can add a 256GB SSD for $250.
>
>    A nice thing about a separate boot drive, is you can put a 
>backup/restore utility on a usb flashdrive, then back up the entire 
>bootdrive partition to the hard drive (I use Acronis' utility, there are 
>many others).  So if the OS gets corrupted somehow, you can restore and be 
>back up in a matter of minutes.
>
>rms 

I do this on one of my dev machines for work using iDrive (cloud
backup service + tools like disk imaging, dropbox-like file sync,
etc), the primary reason being that sometimes I like the peace of mind
of knowing I can quickly restore the C partition to a "before" state,
in an experimental before-and-after scenario.  I don't really bother
with that on other less critical systems like my gaming rig, I use the
built-in Windows recovery media system for that (burning the recovery
media for each system to its own thumb drive).  I've never actually
needed to do a restore using the Windows method, knock on wood.

I do also have Acronis that I'm using for local backups, and they have
some interesting drive-wipe options that I use when getting rid of old
hard drives that had financial data on them.  But I do get tired of
them trying to sell me a new version every year, with dubious "new
features".  I could probably get away with just using iDrive
exclusively, since it works across both PC and Mac.  

> I use the
>built-in Windows recovery media system for that (burning the recovery
>media for each system to its own thumb drive).  I've never actually
>needed to do a restore using the Windows method, knock on wood.

    I did try to restore using the built-in backup/restore utility, and it 
failed, due to some obscure drive letter difference.  Having a usb drive 
installed can foul it up, and I never did figure out exactly what the issue 
was.  Most 3rd party utilities are much smarter, with no such silly 
rigidity.  The official release of Win10 is very stable for me now, but I 
was on the 'Fast ring' of builds for a while, which had serious bugs and 
often failed to rollback properly, and a simple reliable full partition 
recovery option was a godsend.

rms 

>More great info Ross...I appreciate it greatly.

    So did you order the Dell or what?  Inquiring minds want to know!

rms

On Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:29:28 -0700, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>> I use the
>>built-in Windows recovery media system for that (burning the recovery
>>media for each system to its own thumb drive).  I've never actually
>>needed to do a restore using the Windows method, knock on wood.
>
>    I did try to restore using the built-in backup/restore utility, and it 
>failed, due to some obscure drive letter difference.  Having a usb drive 
>installed can foul it up, and I never did figure out exactly what the issue 
>was.  Most 3rd party utilities are much smarter, with no such silly 
>rigidity.  The official release of Win10 is very stable for me now, but I 
>was on the 'Fast ring' of builds for a while, which had serious bugs and 
>often failed to rollback properly, and a simple reliable full partition 
>recovery option was a godsend.

I would consider installing beta OS builds on anything other than a VM
or a test machine as living on the edge :)... but yeah it's smart to
have a very good backup plan if you do that.

I've never actually done a restore from Windows recovery media, so I'm
not sure how that would go, although I definately have USB drives
installed when I do it, since that's what the recovery media is (one
cheap thumb drive for each PC).

But, I don't depend on that to save my ass in a critical situation.
Most of my truly important stuff can be categorized as:

- Data (docs, photos, spreadsheets etc, some going back 30 years or
so!).  Everything is organized under one folder, been like that since
my early PC days.  I don't use the standard windows folders like
documents, pictures and such, because my backup strategy started long
before MS even came up with this folder structure, and I don't want to
change my organization of things every time someone else changes their
mind.  Plus I like having a consistent file organization that is
independent of Win, Mac, Linux etc, especially since I do have a lot
of Mac stuff as well.  

- Source code (work related and experimental projects, but these are
also backed up somewhere in a code repo)

- Emails (also going back decades, but due to criticality I treat them
differently than my data folder).  

- Music (listening).  This is just a massive collection of DRM-less
MP3 files that's taken a long time to acquire and thus I'd prefer not
to lose.  Gets backed up locally and to the cloud.

-Music (creation).  Tracks I've written, sound patches and audio
samples that either I created/bought/ otherwise acquired over the
years (i.e. large media files)

-Videos (mostly captured from elsewhere using Bandicam or some other
screen cap mechanism).  This is mostly technical videos, training
vids, how-to, etc.  In the old days when we read a book that we would
want to refer back to later, we simply kept the book.  However, these
days, a lot of people are too damn lazy to write a book with their
ideas, they just make a video and put it online somewhere.  It's a
difficult-to-search-or-index format, which makes information retrieval
difficult.  One thing I've learned, however, is that you cannot be
sure that a streaming video that's accessible today will be accessible
tomorrow, so if you see something you like snag it and keep your own
copy.  
These of course consume massive amounts of space.

-Virtual Machines.  Various VM configurations that I keep because I
wouldn't want to have to build them from scratch.


So, all told it's quite a bit of stuff.  In terms of gaming backups I
rarely bother.  Occasionally I have backed up some old single player
saves, but I find I rarely have time to go back to them.  The games I
most care about keeping my progress in are multiplayer games where
everything is stored in the cloud anyway, or in some cases Steam takes
care of cloud storage for game progress.

On Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 1:30:29 AM UTC-5, rms wrote:
> >More great info Ross...I appreciate it greatly.
> 
>     So did you order the Dell or what?  Inquiring minds want to know!
> 
> rms

Hi,
Thanks for the inquiry.
I was very close to buying the Alienware Aurora computer and then the more I read, the more I thought I could maybe really learn something about computers and build one.  Not to save money really, but rather to experience it.
So, I have a week off from work next week and I am going to dive right into more research and possibly start a build.
NCIX seems like a good place to grab the parts and they are fairly close to where I live.
Anyway, I miss gaming and really miss this site.
I used to get most of my inspiration to buy a new game right here on this group so, I would like to get back into it.
Will keep you updated.
And, thanks again to everyone for contributing to my "quest"...
Cheers