First Time Buyer Help Please

Hi, trying to buy a new pc, and I'm a complete noob, the only things I know about what I want in my pc are the system requirements on my games. The only games I like to play are World of Warcraft and a few fps's like stalker and bioshock, I've been using a pc from 2002 for a loooong time and it's about time to upgrade. I don't know how to make a pc and since I'm a student I'm trying to spend under $2000 and have something that I don't have to spend time on building so pretty much looking for a system already built. I've looked in two places dell and tigerdirect, it should be noted that I'm canadian and don't want to buy internationally. I'm not asking for hand holding just a little big of advice before I drop a years worth of tuition on a pc so if anyone could give me a bit of a rundown between the two pc's I've found it would be greatly appreciated.

The first pc is an alienware from dell, I would just post a link but it seems when I configure a pc they link doesn't adjust to my upgrades.

Alienware Aurora
Aurora 875W Power Supply Chassis
Intel® Core™ i7 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (3x 2048MB)
1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs)
Single 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 240
Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio
Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling
$1,902

The second is a cyberpower pc and I've heard nothing but great things about them
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea…;sku=C477-12127
$1,399.97
Since this one is much cheaper, are there any recommendations for addons?

I'm wondering where the extra money is going as the two systems look very similar, and I'm also wondering if anyone has bought a pc from tigerdirect and can tell me how they are for service.

I did find a 3rd pc http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea…;sku=I455-92600 which is closer to the dell price but I find myself even more confused since after comparing it with the cyberpower they cyberpower seems better.

Thank you so much for your time.

There is a major flaw in buying store built systems, and thats you have no control over the parts, yes they all look great systems, yes they are probably all very good systems, BUT, there is always a cost, for each good part there is a cheap part, this is not always bad as such, don't get me wrong, but if you were to build your own system there are parts you would and wouldn't use, now the main areas the costs are cut is usually the PSU and the ram, so there is always a trade off in buying pre built.

As I say the trade off is usually no name or lesser spec parts in the above areas, what big makers have the advantage of is buying power, so they can get a lot of the parts at a far cheaper price to make a better looking system more affordable, now deciding between them is simply a balancing game, look at each individual part in turn, and simply check the one that is the best, then move onto the next part and so on, at the end theoretically the list with the most ticks is probably the better system, but as your into gaming thats where I am not as up on, I can suggest good cards, but I don't know gaming enough to clearly say which card is best out of these.

So where to start, forget the PSU, they will all be using average units that they know to work generally speaking, but do not be swayed by the numbers (wattage) they throw at you, this is where quality rules, a cheap 1kw PSU wont come close to say a 610w PCP&C unit, now I don't suggest they are using anything that bad, but I use it to show just how little the numbers can mean in the PSU field.
The 2 main things to concentrate on IMHO are the processor and the video card, I don't suggest the other parts are not going to influence the outcome, but these are the core parts that will give you the power you want, more so as a gamer.

Now the reason for the costs difference is fairly simple, the 1st system is water cooled, a fairly sort after thing by gamers, because by definition of wanting higher performance the temp's get higher, so the cooler the better, but that said many game using normal air flow just fine, the quality of the build\case etc all play a major factor in this area, also it is a fairly good card, but can't comment on the gaming side.

The 2nd unit is air cooled (as is the 3rd), and 6 months back that was a very good card, nothing wrong with it now, but this area moves so fast theres always something newer\better\faster round the corner, and I suspect a typo in the description for the CPU, they label it as the same as they use in the 3rd system, and yet they state a different speed, so unless I'm missing something (quite possible lol), it would appear to be the weaker of the systems.

Lastly the 3rd system, the biggest difference here is the video, you get 2 cards in SLI, in theory this should be really good, BUT, I don't know graphics from a gaming side, and many times getting a single top end card is usually better than going SLI, but that said they are quite impressive cards, and on a par with the 1st system, I can see why your having a hard time choosing, for me it would be the 1st or 3rd system, water cooling or SLI, I wish I could advise more on the cards involved, but I don't know enough to be comfortable saying which is the better choice, hopefully someone more up on video can say more on that side for you, but to give an idea of cards, here is a top 10 list, it may help you visualise what your looking at more, so I hope this helps you to choose, it is a hard one, good luck.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-co…ld-today-654141

Thanks so much for your time, I'm starting to lean towards making my own pc, it's just a whole can of scary.

Yeah when I built my first system I was in 2 minds, on one hand I knew I was more than technically capable of the physical building of it, but there was the unknown that made me hesitant, but once you finish your first build you wonder what you were worried about lol, but of course there are all the firsts to face, and the biggest is probably figuring out what cable goes where, but as long as you can get online there is always help to figure out such problems. Although I say building your own is the ideal, the 1st build is extremely expensive, well it can be as cheap as you like, BUT, assuming one wants the best it does push the price way up, so what I advise people to do is buy a case, transfer your existing kit into it and enjoy the better cooling\temp's from having a quality case, next get the PSU, buy the biggest\best you can afford, I got the 1kw PCP&C unit imported from the states, the theory is I may never need to buy another one again, as it has more than enough power and is the Rolls Royce in PSU's. Those are the parts that make a new build very expensive the first time, drives etc are pretty cheap and wont add a massive amount to the price, and the beauty is you can add them at any stage, but once you have all these the only things left are the board\CPU\ram, and future upgrades will be as simple as these 3 parts in the worst case, that just depends on how a big a jump in tech there is by the time your ready for your next upgrade, sometimes ram can last for a few builds. Now the video, this is the wild card, very expensive for a new top end card, but can be switched from a lesser card later on to make it more affordable, but these come out so fast compared to the other components you have to figure when is it enough for you, because whatever you buy it will be outdated by the time you hand the money over, and 6 months to a year later it will appear to be really dated by the newer cards standard, so buying wise is the best advice here to maximise your investment, just look at the 4890's to the 5970's, probably not even a year apart, and yet the difference is very noticeable, on paper at least. Taking everything into account with your current systems age etc, buying pre built is provably you're wiser option, especially with the ones you're looking at, they have a lot of quality parts, these can then be the starting point for future upgrades, change the PSU when money allows, add a few drives (storage etc) at any point as needed, the case and components are going to serve you well for quite a while, depending on the ram they include (make\spec etc) this can be updated down the road if better stuff comes out that will give a noticeable improvement, but no need to change unless you would notice a difference, then next major upgrade you just need the board\CPU and maybe ram depending how big a jump tech has made by that time, hope this helps you figure out your best options.