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The exact link that they included with the mail message that was sent to me, and I assume the rest of the members on the mailing list, was to this page which seems to be exactly the same link as was in the Slashdot posting.

I have no idea where Boing Boing got their link, but I'm telling you this is exactly what arrived in my inbox from Alienware, so I'm fairly confident it's not being used to track referrals for a single person.

yummy

Alienware MJ12 mobile workstation would fit the bill there kinda sorta, close enough anyway

If I was a gambling man, I'd put money that the new wintel consumer workstation quality king will be Alienware.

I think you need to investigate how these people are becoming infected. I suspect that vast majority of such infections have more to do with the social aspects rather than the technical.

As for the household appliances, where have you been, see the following:

* Home Entertainment

* Sega Dreamcast

* the Windows Embedded Bernina Sewing Machine

The author of the article is not smart, and the article is not clever, and i suspect you know that too, he just astroturfing for a**le computers...

incorrect, read the actual paper here it says "IBM's Legally Binding Commitment..."

The FragBox is a much better looking similar idea... IMO.

And, Falcon NW is a great company. They - unlike other computer manufactures - don't install all the extra shit, and their prices aren't horrible.

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/DHS_ 5/dhs_5_features.aspx?SysCode=PC-DHS5&SubCode=SKU- DEFAULT

Obviously, these things can't replace an Xbox, though, they are too expensive...

First you where looking for good quality peripharals... You seem to have the small form factor case down. I am a littel leary of the Nanode, since the specs are a little vague and it runs on a VIA cpu.

Today most computer parts are no longer beige, it seems that build quality has gone down. Mitsuko which is generally considred low end becuase of the price, but they make a good keyboard available in a variety of colors, and for mice Alienware has all the microsoft high end mice in custom colors. You pay a little bit for it but they match the mitsuko keyboards in color.

As for cases most cases look like cheap plastic junk now. I've been using a server size chenming that is similar to the original alienware. Not flashy not cheap looking, but has the size I need to run all my drives, as well as clean lines.

Another option is just to check out www.newegg.com and see what is offered they have a large selection, with pictures of every item, as well as a good search engine, and search engine interface.

Alienware has some truly great cases. In fact, all the other ones I've seen mentioned here are ugly, square, or both. There's really not much on the style front here.

Number 2 and 3 generate lots of revenue and are therefore not wastes of time. Proof of number 2 generating lucrative money. Proof of number 3 are online ads.

Number 1 could arguably be productive if you are practicing for tournaments where you can win tangible assets for being a good player.

As for number 4 being a waste of time. We can see it didn't stop you from wasting yours and ours.

Hyprocrite!

You can already buy from the alienware luxury collection some gaming systems featuring SLI

True. Not many PC laptop owners will be playing Doom III either, unless they have one of these.

This won't be showing up anytime soon in the "thin and light" laptop category, but I could easily imagine Falcon Northwest or Alienware doing this in one of their heavyweight "desktop replacement" models. They don't tend to emphasize battery life anyway...

I have an AlienWare box and it cost less then a Mac and kicks the crap out of a Mac speed-wise.

Did you a purchase a 17 inch flat screen monitor to go with that? Oh no you didn't... Ahh I see you forgot to add that. Let's just talk about base prices:

Alienware and the G5 iMac

But lets not forgot to look at the cinema displays as well.

I think your price comparison is fairly off. I don't believe it outperforms one another. If your solely talking on GHz, and video game titles, then I will concede to your argument otherwise, don't compare the two.

if you compare a $1,500 iMac G5 vs a $1,500 AlienWare box, there is no contest. uhm, yeah. there is no contest. the $1,500 price point of the iMac has a very nice 17" LCD display. i went to alienware.com and found this for $1,531 (without it even configured to the same setup as the dual-G5 powermac. come on now, quit talking out of your ass and spreading the lies.

>People who are used to 2, or prefer trackballs can easly buy one of the many non-Apple products that will work fine with Macs

Yes, but it's not made by Apple. People that prefer 2 are left dissapointed that Apple makes poor hardware for them (_not_ "used" to 2, but genuinely prefer 2+ button mice, for example, X users [odd that Apple wouldn't make a multibutton mouse when they are basing their OS on what once was the OS of choice to run X])

>Liquid cooling

Not so good of a design, IMHO. If the liquid coolant cooling device fails, you melt parts down really fast without an instant shutdown (Well, this depends on how hot the CPU and other parts run. In the case of a PC, this can be true). A more passive solution, even if it uses a fan as an active component will leave the computer opportunity for a controlled shutdown and could avoid starting fires (!).

>Please show me a high-end desktop PC from another big brand which also does this.

Okay!

>This is completly the opposite of Virgin, who are in the bussiniess of getting into as many industries as possible

Nothing wrong with that. Big thinking has turned many smaller companies (and, at one time, Virgin didn't even register in my mind as a company I knew of until I managed to pick up a geography title by time back in the early 90's) into successful larger companies. And, of all larger companies, I don't see a lot of particularly bad mojo coming from Virgin.

I'm not suggesting Apple hardware if of low quality, but it isn't necessarialy high quality either. The perceived quality level of it is really going to depend on if it fits your needs or not. I find it usually doesn't.

Quality is just a qualitative factor, and, IMHO, top notch utility and ability to withstand abuse make a quality product. I usually don't care how fast something is, I just want what I buy to last not matter how much it is abused.

For others, a well rated artsy design and exciting new featres are #1. That's fine too. But both sides need to recognize that people on either side of the water have valid reasons to say Apple products in general aren't "quality" or are.

If you're gunna spend that much cash just for hardware.. why not get an AlienWare gaming desktop. PCI Express, raid, etc.. plus I like the look a lot more than macs. A dual G5 would be nice, but costs way too much money.

And Windows runs like crap on anything lower than a P3-1 GHz (you should see it on my P2-333, in fact, I'm writing this on it). Seriously, KDE runs like crap on slow hardware. So why do people keep using this argument? And when comparing prices, why not compare Mac prices with high-end, well designed PCs, like http://www.alienware.com/ or http://www.falcon-nw.com/? Last time I did it, I found the prices to roughly the same.

I've got a big heavy "laptop".
[Alienware Backpack]
is what I use to haul around my 9 pound laptop. Plus, cellphone, mp3 player, and pda. Plus related cables/charges and a spare battery.
It's not exactly a normal backpack, and it's not laid out to carry around books, but it's extremly confortable to wear, and hold (the top strap).
$90 dollars might be out of your price range, but I enjoy mine.

Alienware sells a very nice one for about $90. Check out the Alienware Gear Shop for more info.

http://www.alienware.com/GearShop_Pages/Gear_Shop. aspx

Nope - he's rather saying it sucks to have to pay for looks that you don't need. If I just want to use the machine, I couldn't care less how it looks inside as long as it works as expected (include reliability here) But maybe it's just me, with this habit of using computers instead of drolling all over them. Of course, if he thing would stay open instead of closed, it might make some sense.

Anyway, hey, it's not my money - as far as I'm concerned, people can buy a CPU-less iMac with a cool heatsink. Besides, and here is the counter-argument, Apple might want to ride this new hip wave for all it's worth. Unfortunately that's the problem with them never getting mainstream - not enough people would buy more hip instead of more power for the same money.

P.S. If you want to sound at least passable intelligent, stop the "buy Dell" crap - otherwise someone with less brain-damage could (meta-)mod you down. Everyone knows Dell is crap, but unlike Apple they're not the only vendor around for the hardware. If you didn't realize that, get out of your hole and look around

I see Alienware PCs are subject to the Microsoft Tax (i.e you can't buy one and not buy Windows). I refuse to buy a piece of software I don't use and I refused to support a company I don't like the business practise of.

Here is the correct link

1. The news page which mentions the 4.0 GHz CPUs Now Available in Alienware Area-51 ALX Systems.
2. The ALX configuration page - As the name suggests you can use it to configure your desired ALX

1. The news page which mentions the 4.0 GHz CPUs Now Available in Alienware Area-51 ALX Systems.
2. The ALX configuration page - As the name suggests you can use it to configure your desired ALX

I believe this:

http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/main_alx.aspx

is the link you're looking for.

Working Link

That link doesn't work, you lose. The correct link is: http://www.alienware.com/alx_pages/main_content.as px

http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/area51_alx.aspx

Sorry to reply to my own post, but the cooling system is in fact water. Here is the proper link.

http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/main_alx.aspx

alienware also offers a Opteron box too, for a cool $4,964.00 - The Aurora. Firefox doesn't seem to load that up here unfortunately, had to use IE :(

http://www.alienware.com/alxpagesarea51alx.aspxsit eid3oid2100-1042-5347518ontid1040lopnlex/

Willing, yes. Not able to, though.

At least, that's what my wife says.

Alienware has some of this crazy lighting into the cooling system.

Do I have to Google EVERYTHING for you? Here's a Link for you. There it is, Firewire 800 in a PC, available pre-installed. And look at that, it's $1600. Available with a 30" LCD monitor if you want. It's one of a dozen manufacturers that do it. My point is that you CAN get a PC with or without Firewire 800...go to your local corner computer shop and they'll build you one with a 30" LCD and Firewire 800, too. Blind zealotry that the other poster spoke of is not an excuse, it's a fact. You helpfully ignore that a PC can be gotten with any amount or lack of equipment you want...and Apples are Apples, no more, no less. I don't dis any Apple product or user...but when you make statements like Firewire 800 not being available on a PC, you shoot yourself in the fruit.

I am interested to see how this will affect sales in new CPU's and video cards.

I expect PriceWatch to feel the burn if it hasn't already. I used it as a starting point to build my last couple systems.

Aside from tweaking options, is custom built still cheaper/better than off the line?

FTA: "There are no major differences in image quality between NVIDIA and ATI video cards when playing DOOM 3 at the same settings."

From this shot, I would have to say, ATI looks nicer for quality of lighting. The blending seems more natural.

FTA: "There is no doubt that DOOM 3's minimum system specifications can easily deliver a good gaming experience."

If you don't mind frames dropping to this and their ultimate Doom 3 system.

FTA:"Without a doubt, our AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 system sporting the ABIT AV8 motherboard with 2GB of Corsair XMS RAM was the pinnacle of DOOM 3 performance in terms of image quality and speed when outfitted with the BFGTech GeForce 6800 Ultra OC."

And that is a nice system by any standards. I think I am very interested by the Alienware Doom system. The Aurora ALX looks sweet.

Xian has some cool quotes for the guys at Hard|OCP here. Most notably:

"I am proud to say that DOOM 3 is quite possibly the most aurally detailed and complex game ever made, on any platform."

Drooooool.........

FTA: "There are no major differences in image quality between NVIDIA and ATI video cards when playing DOOM 3 at the same settings."

From this shot, I would have to say, ATI looks nicer for quality of lighting. The blending seems more natural.

FTA: "There is no doubt that DOOM 3's minimum system specifications can easily deliver a good gaming experience."

If you don't mind frames dropping to this and their ultimate Doom 3 system.

FTA:"Without a doubt, our AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 system sporting the ABIT AV8 motherboard with 2GB of Corsair XMS RAM was the pinnacle of DOOM 3 performance in terms of image quality and speed when outfitted with the BFGTech GeForce 6800 Ultra OC."

And that is a nice system by any standards. I think I am very interested by the Alienware Doom system. The Aurora ALX looks sweet.

Xian has some cool quotes for the guys at Hard|OCP here. Most notably:

"I am proud to say that DOOM 3 is quite possibly the most aurally detailed and complex game ever made, on any platform."

Drooooool.........

Interestingly, Alienware is planning a dual-Xeon gaming system, with two PCI-Express video cards: one rendering the top half of the screen, the other rendering the bottom half.

Check it out here or here. Or from the horses mouth here.

Since they chose a dual-Xeon setup, I would assume such a setup is either a good choice for gaming or just sounds pretty to the marketing department. That said, Intel will soon begin to put out dual-core CPUS, so some of the game programmers out there are probably contemplating games designed around a dual-CPU core setup, rather than mere hyperthreading.

Wooohooo, I'm gonna be the next Alienware.

I'm gonna buy $1500 worth of computer parts, wrap some cheap plastic courtesy of this company, and resell it for $3000!

Link-> here.

yeah, dell does equal cheap...that's what they are!...cheap pcs for the home user...do you know what it says on the title bar when you bring up alienware's home page...it says Innovate High-Performance Custom PC's...when my mom (or the millions of other mom's) are looking for a PC to do their e-mail and shop on iQVC, they don't need the latest and greatest video card or flat panel monitor...they just want affordability...

...why was the Toyota Camry the best selling car practically every year in the 90's??? because it was reliable and affordable, just like Dell is...

Over a month ago Alienware unveiled its dual video card solution, however it doesn't connect like Nvidia's array does.

"Alienware is using an exclusive software solution as well as a video merger hub. Both solutions are patent pending and were developed in house by Alienware. In addition Alienware has developed a dual PCI Express graphics slot motherboard (X2). This motherboard is exclusive to Alienware and is also patent pending."

Alienware's Video Array splits the screen into two regions rendered separately by the cards, like Nvidia's concept does.

Also noteworthy, according to Alienware SLI doesn't function the way the Hardware Analysis article suggests - they say "SLI is a technology developed and used by 3dfx, where each card rendered alternate lines (one card would render the odd lines, the other card would render the even lines)." Nvidia's dual-card setup is not SLI in the sense of the old alternating scan lines.

Which begs the question, who is this aimed at?

Something that I'm really interested in knowing is how it compares to Alienware's Video Array technology. Video array suffers from the problem of being totally useless, because it only increases fillrate but it doesn't improve shader performance. Almost no game these days is fillrate-limited, but many games are limited by shader performances. I hope that NVIDIA's SLI solution is more interesting.

Obviously, the other big thing here is just to have another one-up over ATI. :)

Certainly the slashdot crowd will have noticed that this has nothing to do with SLI, but i don't think it's been mentionned here that the technology is actually PGC. Even though i remember it clearly, it didn't seem to get much press at the time. I found a story about it but dear Tom seemed to be a non believer.
Ok, we haven't seen it yet, but with Alienware and nVidia backing it, i'd be surprise if it didn't show up, one way or another.

Until any of this actually makes it to market, it's all speculation. Perhaps NVIDIA and ATI are going to insist that PCI express cards have connectors for genlocking on even the lower-end gaming video cards. As it stands today, the only current NVIDIA chip that support genlocking or framelocking is the Quadro FX 3000G, and I can not determine if any ATI FireGL cards support it (I see the term referenced for the Radeon7500/8500, but only in terms of the video overlay).

I just hope they're not using something like FireGL or Quadro cards.

I admit, I've bought two Alienware computers in recent years. They're stylish and after years of building and tweaking, I just wanted something cool out of the box.

But I got a link to their new ALX line in my mailbox yesterday and about fainted when I got to the bottom line.
Price: $4,799.00
As low as $144 per month!

For that price it should not only run games well, it should go ahead and finish Half Life 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Doom III and go ahead and port over Halo 2 all while I sleep.

You can already do this (big red letters on this page).