In today’s esports scene, graphic power and frames per second run the streets. Most esports competitions utilize branded PCs straight out of the box and ready to use. This is regardless of whether they are playing DOTA, League of Legends, Overwatch, or Counter Strike:Global Offensive. Building custom gaming PCs take time and frankly esports tournament organizers do not have the luxury of time. Hence, they turn to prebuilt branded gaming PCs. Alienware and MSI are the two commonly seen brands that you see powering major esports tournaments across the globe. For the benefit of those looking to purchase a branded gaming PC for running esports games, I have wrote up a quick comparisons of Alienware and MSI branded gaming PC under 1500.
Alienware Gaming PC Under 1500
Both companies have extremely good CPU specs and rightfully so, with MSi often using i7 (8 cores) and AlienWare using i7 (4 cores). AlienWare provides a cheaper, albeit less powerful, CPU for people with a budget. As the i7 processor is included with all their PCs, they usually range between 600 and 800 dollars. AW’s Alpha PC uses GTX 960 GPU, 16GB DDR4, and 1TB SSD + 1TB 7200 rpm HDD. AlienWare sells the Alpha at 600 dollars. Alpha’s specs align with a normal gaming PC with it’s specifications and price range. This makes it a better substitute to building your own.
Alienware Alpha (Credit: tomsguide.com)
Alienware sells the Aurora for 800 dollars. It surprisingly is cheap for the power given. The Aurora includes an overclocked i7 (4 core) processor. To clarify, an overclocked CPU is designed to push the processor to its limits and run steadily for better performance. The drawback is the slight chance it overheats and dies in your computer. Since most computers have safeguards for it, I do not forsee a bunch of problems. Alienware has included a GTX 1080 Ti GPU, which is quite impressive considering the cost. With a 64Gb DDR4 memory, the lag from packet loss should be very well nonexistent. AW has some sweet tech for cheap prices, as they should have no problem playing esports games.
Alienware Aurora (Credit: arstechnica.com)
MSI Gaming PC Under 1500
MSI offers a beast in a box. While they are more expensive then Alienware, they hold a lot more power. Sadly, for people who have only 1500 to spend, there’s only two models that fit the budget. Do keep in mind that I’ve only looked at towers and not laptops. MSI offers the Trident 3 for 600 dollars (full kit). Trident offers a i7 (8 core) CPU, which is immensely more powerful than its Alienware counterparts. The GPU is the GTX 1070 card that runs most esports games without any hiccups. A welcome addition to the PC is the GB LAN and Gaming Wireless (It optimizes your wireless to avoid packet loss). The Trident’s chasis is also relatively small and thin.
MSI Trident (Credit: takesontech.com)
For $1500, MSI offers the Aegis. Arguably one of the most powerful branded gaming PC on the market. It includes the i7 6700k (4 core) processor with a GTX 1070 GPU, coupled with DDR4 ram that runs at 2133 MHz. This should handle most modern titles with little frame drops. Furthermore Aegis includes GB LAN with AC 1435 which will optimize your ping and latency for online gaming. In Conclusion, the Aegis offers a lot more power than the Trident whilst all the various factors that made Trident a great PC.
MSI Aegis (Credit: newegg.com)
Conclusion
While the branded gaming PC market is not cheap, both AlienWare and MSI offer great branded gaming PC under 1500 for esports titles of your choice. Hence, their gaming PCs quickly became the go-to-choice in the esports scene. You could opt for MSI’s Aegis for raw power but at a more hefty price, or opt for Alienware’s Aurora that competes with the Trident. Ultimately MSI and Alienware deliver powerful machines to help you keep ahead of the game.
