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I've just been window shopping, looking at PC specs. First place I looked was: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php They give a very good breakdown to customise and build a PC system, but then after a search Alienware came up: http://www.alienware.co.uk/main.aspx They seem to be offering very good gaming systems, but the specs look just as good for 3D work. Any opinions?

I've looked at Alienware a number of times but have no actual experience of their systems but I have read a couple of things in computer mags.

1 Tend to be overpriced.

2 Supposed to be noisy

As I said this is just what I read in a magazine that did some tests on various systems!

Maybe someone else will offer some other opinions / experiences!

I have heard alot of negative comments regarding equipment failure and warranty disputes. Advertised delivery as I understand it is usually not met either. Boxx seems to have the best reputation within the upscale studio environment in the forums that I frequent. Pricing is roughly equivelant to Alienware, which is to say not entry level. :)

Try here:http://www.xicomputer.com/

Our office first dealt with this company 3 years ago(everything was dell prior to this) and are having another 4 workstations built. They are considering switching  also when  the existing  servers need  replacing. The one on one sales people worked hand in hand setting up various systems for the cad/design groups requirements.

grammy

Thanks. I'll check out the link now Grammy. Cheers.

Get a system built around an ASUS motherboard, with a good case with 500 W PSU or more (Antexc or Coolermaster cases rock), and the rest should be gravy!
"Roll your own", much cheaper and get better product imho.
:)

In the U.K. I'd also have a look at http://www.scan.co.uk/ and http://www.armari.co.uk/ both offer a wide range of configurable systems and have a good reputation.

I'm with silverblade. Making your own box saves several thousand dollars and you can ensure that you have the very best quality components for whatever general price strata you want to work in. And ASUS with the nVidia chipset is a tremendously good motherboard. Ditto on the 500 watt or better PSU (but maybe Antec instead of "Antexc.") Also, using one or more sets of serial ATA disks with Raid Stripe 1 setup on an ASUS motherboard makes your system very fast, smooth and near bullet-proof. RAID Stripe 1 means that you have two identical physical hard disk drives mirroring each other with every disk write. If one fails, your second disk should be OK. You simply replace the failed drive with a new one, and you're off to the races again. A RAID Stripe 1 system is not a subsitute for a decent backup habit, mind you, but it will often save you from yourself or the malicious computer gods, and do so at a reasonable expense. If you are thinking about one of the higher-end versions of Vue, 2 GB of RAM is more or less a must. Finally, there are many excellent online retailers - to help you save even more money. (There are some scuzzy ones out there, too, of course. But, as a general rule, online retailers that sell components for "Mods" or us "Modders" - computer case/system modifications or people who modify their own systems are usually pretty reliable and have integrity, regardless of which country you're in. Failing the desire to work on your own computer guts, I'm with krimpr. BOXX machines are very solid (if expensive) and usually much better for our kind of work than the Alienware boxes. Alienware used to be excellent about three years ago, but they started catering more to the gamer crowd than to the 3d crowd. You'll find a screamer video card in each Alienware box, but for 3d, if you purchase one of those, you generally will have wasted quite a bit of money, since your video card is not critical to rendering scenes. (But, it is critical to playing high-end games with high-end graphics.) If was buying a fairly expensive ready-made box (something I've never done), I would ask to know which motherboard is in it. A motherboard is not a significant part of the expense, but a quality motherboard will have a high-end "northbridge chip" - one that controls the disk drives among other things, and it will have a very high "throughput" or "FSB" (front sideboard") speed. You're almost guarenteed a quality, stable, reliable board with ASUS. MSI makes great boards also, but they can be a bit fluky or touchy on the higher-end boards. I'd also like to know the maker of the video card, and of the RAM memory sticks. In general, there are only two decent video card makers now (ATI and nVidia), and its nice to have 512 MB of video ram if you can afford it. (But 256 MB will do.) You want reputable RAM for a stable machine. If the RAM maker is not identified or identifiable, you should skip it. (Or insist on a brand name RAM manufacturer.)

Thanks again for the replies. Thanks Andy for some more UK links.

There is also one other option, which I will be taking this spring. If you are looking at about £2000 for a system, then a MacPro is worth considering. You get a dual Xeon  Woodcrest CPU's and a wealth of upgrade options...plus the biggie benefit - the choice of a dual boot OSX and Windows.
I have been very impressed with the ones we had delivered at work and for me the chance to run Final Cut Pro and my windows apps all on one system is an opportunity I can't miss.
The other benefit is that the multimedia side is a far better experience with OSX IMHO.
I realise that having two systems in one isn't every bodies cup of tea, but Mac's are very competitive in price when you compare them to their PC competition.

Anyway, just another ingredient in the mix.

Cheers

www.ebuyer.com is said to be very good for parts in the UK, I just shop semi-locally (Glasgow) and get systems built ot my spec :)

Oops and yes my bad, it's ANTEC, I cna't type for crap, lol ;)
Reaosn good case helps is nto only are they cooler, it's much much easier to fit boards, drives etc in them than bog standards pieces of crap, ick. WOuldn't beleive the problems I've had with cases...my gaming rig I had to SAW off a rivet that was blocking my AGP cardf rom fitting in easily!

Remember this also. You want to make sure you get a high speed RAM with your system. I run 2-3.2 Dualcores with DDR2. DDR2 has several different speeds of RAM that will all work in my system, but only 5 that I considered.

1. PC4200= 533Mhz, this is what came with my system
2. PC5400= 667Mhz
3. PC6400= 800Mhz
4. PC8000= 1000Mhz
5. PC8500= 1066Mhz
   I run 4 GBs of # 3 because it doesn't overclock my system, but it also resolved all my "OUT OF MEMORY" errors and it is the same speed as my Bus. It's not bad priced either @ tigerdirect.com