xkcd

by **Felstaff** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:41 am UTC

So, every time I've sniffed around the Alienware® site for a snazzy PC, I've ended up coming away thinking the finalised product I've chosen is a bloated, overpriced ridiculous peacock of a machine; a flashy plaything for the super-rich, like a first generation iPod in 2001.

What's the big deal? Why is it so popular amongst gamers? I've done a quick comparison between two rigs; one I purchased off of pcspecialist.co.uk, and a similar rig set up through Dell's Alienware® customisable page.

PC Specialist:

Alienware:

That's... that's more than double the price of pcspecialist! And the Alienware® has inferior CPU, memory, storage space, and doesn't include liquid cooling. The GPUs are roughly equivalent^[1], and the Radeon is $70/£50 more expensive than the nVidia... But a £1000 difference? Even if all the shiz in the Alienware® was branded, and the pcspecialist guts were all assembled by BeiruTek (Lebanon's finest computer parts manufacturer!), is it really worth the price difference?

Does anyone have experience with Alienware®? Is it all it's cracked up to be? Personally, I feel it's more of a geeky status symbol than a genuinely superior machine.

by **AvatarIII** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:44 am UTC

a) they look snazzy.
b) it's a known brand-name.
c) a flashy plaything for the super-rich.

does there really need to be any more reason?

by **Felstaff** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:58 am UTC

I was thinking there should be more than that. Colour me stereotypical, but I thought custom-built PC purchasers would be a bit more, uh, discerning (and knowledgeable) in their taste for purchasing computers. Otherwise they'd go to $Popular_Retail_Outlet like the rest of the technologically ignorant and buy an overpriced standard machine that doesn't crash when I click on The Google and plays Solitaire without fritzing. Would someone really customise their PC on Alienware without spending a whole five seconds searching for other custom-built PC sites? Especially when the lowest priced model is the cost of funding a new Eritrean hospital?

People who go into flashy car showrooms with no knowledge about what they really want (it's gotta be red! And make my manhood look HUGE!), I would say have more money than sense. People who actually care about the engines and intricacies inside their PC would Shirley have the common sense and technical knowledge to know that Google exists?

Or am I overestimating the number of sensible people who purchase desktops? (btw I'm using this comparison solely in the desktop area--I know Gabe from Penny Arcade was talking about Alienware® laptops the other week, but I have no knowledge about that area of hardware).

by **AvatarIII** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:15 am UTC

i honestly thin Alienware computers are for the kind of people who would normally play games on a console, but somehow find themselves with a lot of money, it's exactly the same as your car analogy, as far as i'm concerned.

rich people want to spend money before they care about quality, it doesn't have to make sense to us normal people, it just happens. it happens in nearly every part of consumer culture, why wouldn't it happen with computers?

People might buy a Sony TV when you can get a Samsung that does more for 3/4 of the price, people can buy Levi's Jeans, when you can get cheap Jeans for 1/5 of the price (or less) that do exactly the same function, people buy Nike Trainers when you can get trainers 1/3 of the price that are almost as good. why should computers be different?

by **PhoenixEnigma** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:35 am UTC

Well, your comparison looks a little skewed to start with. Looking over the UK site, I was able to throw together

3.4GHz Intel® Core™ i7-2600 (8MB Cache) w/ liquid cooling
1.25GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 TI
8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
1TB - SATA-II, 7,200rpm, 32MB Cache
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

for £1,418.99, as an Aurora R3, which is better but still overpriced. For solid assembly, top quality components, good testing, excellent support and the like, that 35%ish premium could well make sense. I'd probably take a chance on an unknown and pay that to falcon northwest for a desktop, and I'm happy paying that to Lenovo for a laptop - it's good value, even if it doesn't show up on a spec sheet.

I have no idea if Alienware currently offers those benefits, though. I bought a laptop from them 5 years ago (maybe?), and I've had zero interest in purchasing anything else from them. They are, in my experience, very much an expensive plastic shell and pricy logo wrapped around otherwise mediocre hardware, and little more.

As to the argument that price-sensitive but discerning PC users wouldn't pay the extra? Those people are mostly building their own, frankly. A good number of people buying high end PCs are often swayed by shiny, and Alienware is certainly a status symbol. There is a market for red, e-peen increasing gaming PCs, and that's who Alienware is selling to.

by **Obby** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:56 am UTC

Regarding pre-built PC's in general: Some people don't have the time, or the inclination, to build their own machine. My cousin would rather pay a little bit on top of the price of the parts to places like CyberPowerPC in order to not have to muck around on the inside of the machine. It's not that he can't, he just got tired of doing it.

Regarding Alienware specifically: Who the hell knows. IMO, Alienware computers are ugly as sin, aside from the fact that they're drastically overpriced, so I wouldn't ever get one. I guess some people like the little alien symbol a lot? Their build quality and part quality is certainly leaving much to be desired, so they don't offer anything more than any other pre-build service to justify the price.

by **Felstaff** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:11 am UTC

Huh. It didn't let me select the Aurora R3 when I tried last time (using the check-boxes on the right, rather than selecting the model itself and customising from there), so I went with the Area 51. The Aurora is definitely closer to, if not identical, to the pcspecialist one:

PC Specialist:

Alienware

Two virtually identical rigs, £898 price difference. Or: The Alienware is 87% more expensive than the pcspecialist. I think the HDD and memory on the Alienware may be superior to the pcspecialist, down to branding, but the pcspecialist still has the edge in the GPU.

I just think it's ridiculous that the price disparity is so great. So, people really only buy Alienware 'cause of the funky neon-lit casing makes them think they're the next Fatal1ty? I didn't realise the market for flashy boxes was so great. At least when you buy branded jeans for 150% of what you would buy unbranded jeans for, you can walk the streets and flash off your shitty fashion sense to all and sundry. I don't see too many Alienware PC owners lugging their beastbox up and down the strip making eye-contact and saying '...ladies' as they suggestively jiggle the shopping cart they need to carry that thing around.

PhoenixEnigma wrote:Those people are mostly building their own, frankly

...good point. I am on the cusp of technical know-how to build my own (do I cut the green wire or the red? How much Sellotape® do I need to stick the Intel thingy to the mothership?), but I honestly just wanted an out-of-the-box machine I could switch on without having to twiddle with Jurassic-Park style blinking screens. Also a tech support and RMA safety-net is a good thing to have.

I just thought the market for caring what goes inside the box was larger than what it looks like on the outside. I am disappoint!

by **Nescio** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:58 pm UTC

Isn't this just like Mac vs Windows? Looking at hardware they sometimes cost 1.5, but more often, 2.0 as much. As with Alienware, Mac computers have the design-edge, but performance wise that doesn't matter. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Apple pays attention to what hardware they put in with their computer and makes sure the OS is finetuned to the hardware.

Don't get me wrong, Mac is a blessing to my parents who can't figure out how to turn a computer on, but a Mac they can work with, so I'm happy it exists :p

But it looks the same to me anyway: flashy design, overpriced, popular brand.

by **Bhelliom** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:25 pm UTC

Basically, Alienware is for lazy people who just don't care.

Fellstaff, all the know-how you need is knowing when to keep your wallet shut. You say you are close to having the knowledge, just go for it! There are a hundred threads on this very fora all about the best part combination for a certain budget, and if you look out in the googles there are 10 million more. It does seem intimidating at first, but building your own computer is a great experience and these days it is so easy. If you can follow simple directions you can build a computer.

Granted, there are drawbacks. You don't get a simple all-in-one RMA/warranty with a manufacturer. However, almost all of the parts you buy will come with at least 1 year warranty, sometimes more, or even lifetime.

It is all worth it when you fire up your machine that is cutting edge at half the price.

by **Kromix** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:04 pm UTC

what's funny is that i would rather have a shoebox ugly and dull computer than an alienware, mainly because i built it, it was cheap, i know what is in there, i know how to trouble shoot it if something happens, and it doesnt blind me or lights up the room at night

by **AvatarIII** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:05 pm UTC

Kromix wrote:what's funny is that i would rather have a shoebox ugly and dull computer than an alienware, mainly because i built it, it was cheap, i know what is in there, i know how to trouble shoot it if something happens, and it doesnt blind me or lights up the room at night

That's not funny, that's just logical. But even so, you can get pretty fancy looking light-up alienware-like cases for a fraction of the price difference, even if you are someone that likes that sort of thing.

by **Carnildo** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:42 am UTC

Felstaff wrote:So, every time I've sniffed around the Alienware® site for a snazzy PC, I've ended up coming away thinking the finalised product I've chosen is a bloated, overpriced ridiculous peacock of a machine; a flashy plaything for the super-rich, like a first generation iPod in 2001.

What's the big deal? Why is it so popular amongst gamers? I've done a quick comparison between two rigs; one I purchased off of pcspecialist.co.uk, and a similar rig set up through Dell's Alienware® customisable page.

Back in the day, very few companies made dedicated gaming PCs, and high-end systems were pretty much exclusively a do-it-yourself proposition. Buying an Alienware would get you an absolute top-of-the-line gaming system at about twice the cost of building it yourself: for a premium of $2000 or so, you'd get an Alienware warranty, Alienware know-how in part selection, Alienware build quality, and Alienware reputation.

Then Dell bought Alienware. Somehow, Alienware managed to keep the reputation while losing everything else.

by **Technical Ben** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:57 pm UTC

Yep. AFAIK Aleinware were ok, still overpriced but they had good systems. Now they are probably just an average over-hyped product.

by **Malconstant** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:22 pm UTC

Oh yeah, Alienware is a notorious ripoff. It's not at all like mac vs. pc, because they don't manufacture custom parts designed with the complete package in mind, it's just a third party putting the pieces together, that's all.

I put together my little masterpiece here with the help of the good people at Microcenter's build your own pc department. I easily saved thousands compared to getting something comparable with Alienware. All the better if you want to physically put it together yourself, lots of good websites to get the hardware from too.

by **Turtlewing** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:59 pm UTC

Alienware PCs do have unique cases. The majority of the "benefits" of those cases are cosmetic, but you can't get those cases except as part of a new alienware pc or used from a previous owner of an alienware pc.

Other then that, the only reason to buy Alienware over building your own PC in convenience. If you lack either the skills or the motivation to research design and build a PC the extra cost to have someone else do it for you may be justified. And if you lack the skills to design and build a PC yourself, you probably also lack the skills to evaluate the quality of a brand yourself. Alienware has the advantage of having earned a good reputation for build quality, choosing their components, well and designing cases that are easy to perform maintenance on (some may say they no longer deserve it it but I've never seen proof one way or another so I reserve judgment).

So if you're looking to buy a computer for high end gaming, don't actually know anything about graphics card architectures, or front side buss speeds, etc, and have more money than desire to learn an unspecified quantity of new information that will be largely obsolete in 6 months, you buy an Alienware because it's easy, and they have a good reputation. If you know computers inside and out and can quickly become familiar with the pros and cons of current cutting edge hardware you save a lot of money by buying from a lesser known brand, or by building the machine yourself from parts.

by **Ryom** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:11 am UTC

I bought an Alienware for one reason... they were the only vendor putting out a subcompact gaming laptop (the m11x). I wanted a laptop that was as small as possible while still able to run any game I loaded on it. Alienware had the best option (at the time at least, haven't looked into the subcompact gaming laptop category lately).

by **ST47** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:51 am UTC

A research lab I work in recently bought an alienware laptop for basically a portable 3D/LabVIEW/Haptics rig. I offered a very similar rig for a fraction of the price, and was overruled because of the Alienware accidental damage protection, which no one else is crazy enough to offer (and apparently not dropping your computer into the ocean is a skill that humanity is losing). So maybe that's part of the reason they're expensive.

by **threatre** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:43 pm UTC

The m11x is the big deal with alienware, haha. They are on like, r3 now with 2nd gen i7 mobile processors which get pretty extreme battery life along with the nvidia gt 540m +optimus GPU switching.
Similarly there is the m14x.

There are simply no manufacturers that offer laptops like this, well there are other 14 inchers with graphics cards sure but especially with the m11x there are just NO nice gaming machines that size.

Also, when you start looking at their m17x series, its pretty amazing that they offer those to the masses, and they're actually good laptops. They are totally niche items with dual upgradeable MXM 3.0 mobile GPU slots. The only competition out there for them is Clevo/Sager which aren't necessarily cheaper for the whole SLI deal (and they suck because the BIOS locks out all unknown graphics cards).

by **Metaphysician** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:24 pm UTC

All the PC gamers I know (including myself) build their own rigs. It is cheaper and you know everything about everything you put in the machine.

by **Little Richie** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:17 am UTC

Ryom wrote:I bought an Alienware for one reason... they were the only vendor putting out a subcompact gaming laptop (the m11x). I wanted a laptop that was as small as possible while still able to run any game I loaded on it. Alienware had the best option (at the time at least, haven't looked into the subcompact gaming laptop category lately).

I agree with this, while for a desktop build, I build my own, a laptop is much more limited in that department.
I needed a sturdy laptop to take on trips. After a good amount of reading around, it turned out that at the time one of the smaller Alienware laptops preformed, and was designed, the best.
They gave me a discount because I am a student, so it only turned out to be about $200 more than the other brand I was looking at.

by **Euler** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 1:54 am UTC

Felstaff wrote:a bloated, overpriced ridiculous peacock of a machine; a flashy plaything

Yup.

by **bundat** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:17 am UTC

a flashy plaything for the super-rich.

Well, you could say that. But when you have a lot of money, you really wouldn't care so much.

I remember when I was in college, I would scoff at people who ate at high-class restaurants, when there are cheaper restaurants that taste better and are 10x cheaper (and those are even expensive, so I just go fast-food).

Now that I have a high-paying job, I could hardly care how many pennies I would save eating on the cheap side, its all just too negligible. I splurge regularly on expensive food, just cause. And I say "splurge", because many people would see it that way, but its not really much to me.

I would think it goes the same way for other rich people (except into the thousands, and millions for the top 1%). They just couldn't care, and Alienware's reputation precedes itself, so they just go with it and don't bother needing to know technical details like PC specs.

What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?... Why is it so popular amongst gamers?

Same reason Apple products are.
A Mac is nowhere near as good as many custom PC builds out there, but its expensive, so people think "it must be good".

by **Yakk** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:14 pm UTC

Bhelliom wrote:Basically, Alienware is for lazy people who just don't care.

Just don't care about what?

Granted, there are drawbacks. You don't get a simple all-in-one RMA/warranty with a manufacturer. However, almost all of the parts you buy will come with at least 1 year warranty, sometimes more, or even lifetime.

It is all worth it when you fire up your machine that is cutting edge at half the price.

Except, now you are spending hours building that machine. At least I do when I build a custom machine -- I spend hours researching what the current state of computers is, what graphics cards are good, how to cool it, can I get it to be quieter -- is it worth it. Does the case look as good in person as it does in the picture? Should I go with AMD or Intel this time? What motherboard manufacturers are currently reliable? What chipsets should I go for? What is this SATA thing -- is it important? How about memory speed? Do I really need 64 bit? Is more cores on the CPU more important than more pipelines on the graphics card? How about bus bandwidth? What is this about asymmetric memory connections? (That last one I don't think has reached consumer machines)

I generally don't keep abreast of the current state of personal computing constantly. I spend the hours learning every few years when I upgrade my computer.

To someone with less technical knowledge than me who also doesn't spend hours every week keeping up with the state of computers, figuring out how to build a custom machine is going to take a fair amount of effort.

If money isn't expensive, then throwing money at alienware will get you a machine that is sufficient to play current games, will look nice (or, at least, like an alienware machine), and not completely suck. They could care about their machine's performance, just not feel like it is worth many hours of research into the field.

To many, money is cheaper than time.

by **Kick** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 3:21 pm UTC

Throwing my few cents in here:
I bought an Alienware M15x laptop about two years ago now. I thought it would be a good investment for college, as in I needed a machine that would last four years and still keep going. Sure, that's what I'm hoping this will do, but I've had quite a few issues so far and Dell's support was atrocious. So atrocious, in fact, that I'm never buying another machine from them.

I really wish I had done some research before making this purchase because I was going off of what I had heard of Alienware years ago, before the Dell take-over. If I had done even a little research I would have found Origin PC (run by the people who used to do Alienware) and I would have bought an Eon-15S instead.

Anyway, this thing still works and that's what I needed. I don't like the reactions I get whenever I take it to class or anywhere public, people seem enthralled by the lights and I just don't like the attention. I would have much rather preferred a bland looking laptop (like the Eon-15S) rather than this stylized, flashy, laptop.

So, I'd have to say that the big deal with Alienware is that some people love the looks and they do offer decent performance. The common argument is that they are over priced, and this is not really the case. You're paying for the support, and for the assembly, as well as for the brand. If you have the money and feel like it, go for it, but do some research first and make sure it's really what you want.

xkcd

What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Re: What's the Big Deal with Alienware®?

Who is online