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Alienware Reveals 4GHz desktop
keeleysam writes "c|net news.com is reporting that Alienware is going to ship a 4GHz desktop. The new Area-51 ALX, introduced on Friday, uses overclocking, or the practice of pushing a processor past its factory speed setting, to elevate a standard Intel Pentium 4 chip to 4GHz. Because overclocking a processor can cause it to overheat, the desktop also includes a special liquid-cooling system devised by Alienware. Purchasing the 4GHz Area-51 ALX desktop is an expensive proposition for most consumers, as the machine starts at about $4,200, according to pricing on Alienware's ALX Web site."
http://www.alienware.com/alxpagesarea51alx.aspxsit eid3oid2100-1042-5347518ontid1040lopnlex/
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considering how backlogged AW is i'm guessing the guy it's being shipped too purchased it last spring.
...when speed is a concern. However I cannot find on the Alienware web site what material is used for cooling.
Have you Meta Moderated t
Ultra-Fast "Hello World" here I come...
which is why it's on a desktop, not a laptop
Now I can play tetris even faster!
glad we got a definition of overclocking. i always thought overclocking was moving my clock ahead fifteen minutes so i could get places on time. but when i figured out i had an extra fifteen minutes, i just hit snooze. then i was late again. shit. so much for overclocking.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
I have always wanted to try out liquid cooling in my gaming PCs, but am petrified of bringing the box out of the house to a friends house for gaming sessions. Alienware usually puts together a pretty good package for it's customers, but reading the site doesn't give me any insight on its portability. My geeky friends feel the same way as I do - an article or study showing that the integrity of the cooling system remains after traveling with it would go a long way towards me taking the plunge, as it were. (By normal traveling I mean putting it safely in your car, securing it, and setting it back up, not waching it into a wall or some other moronic stress test.)
"As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
Sorry to reply to my own post, but the cooling system is in fact water. Here is the proper link.
Have you Meta Moderated t
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 :(
Skype Me! username: john_allen_mohammed
http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/area51_alx.aspx
Most people know Alienware is quite overpriced, but $4,200! I know you're paying for the aesthetics more than anything but still, if you want that power then buy two 2GHZ boxes and save yourself $2000, I can't imagine Alienware would have many people 'in the know' purchasing their hardware.
/. and now about 100 other news sites) than anything else.
I think this is more of a gimmick for advertising (seen by the fact it's on
I can't think of one Mac that costs $4,200 even the dual processor 64bit ones. And they say Apples are overpriced! Wow.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I am curious why other systems manufacturers like Dell, Compaq, or Hewlett Packard, do not overclock their products. I would expect that, with all of the setup time they already devote to their products, they would be able to click a few more times in the BIOS as well. Not to trivialize the process, but with the consistency granted by producing the same computer repeatedly, that is all that would be required.
These systems could then be sold at slightly elevated prices. The script-kiddie crowd would lunge at them, buying into a piece of the OC'ing action. The naive would purchase them for the in-between performance levels they would have. The rest would build their own computer and do it themselves. But, in the mean time, those companies get to gouge good customers - all while making them feel that their purchase was personalized.
Would anyone please tell me why it is necessary to spend 5 grand on a PC?
Okay okay -- especially when XBOX and many other consoles approach PC graphics? This is overkill -- the amount of money spent on this one machine could be used to build a small cluster of less powerful machines.
It is a shame that XBOX, a $300 dollar system can get amazing games -- but if you want amazing graphics and sound on the PC you must spend 5 g's.
I'm guessing that the 2mb l2 cache is faster, so why are we still following the fascination with clockspeed (other proof, like AMD, aside)?
you know alienware has struck it rich when they include their own "ALX High Performance Network Cable".
Wouldn't it be alot cheaper and better to purchase a 2 processor system instead of a extremely high-priced overclocked 1 processor system?
Seriously, except the "coolness" I fail to see the sense in this system.
Working Link
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By taking the CPU over Intel's rated speed, there's no warrantee from Intel. Does Alienware promise to replace 'em if they fail during a (nominal) warrantee period?
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GMail invites for iPod referrals
I'm sure the group of people who buy overpriced Alienware products are the same group who'd pay for penis extensions.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I used to overclock, but squeezing out the highest performence-per-watt is more fun these days. I read about it on silentpcreview.com and gave it a try. It turns out that Athlon 64 CPUs can usually run full speed at 1.3V (vs. 1.5V), which cuts power consumption almost in half. 1.8GHz (3000+) at 1.2V (35W max), 1.4GHz at 1V, and 1GHz at 0.85V (maybe a dozen watts) work well too. Someone with a newer CPU than I have managed 1.2GHz @ 0.875V. Use ClockGen to tweak the clock multiplier and core voltage under Windows. (Does anyone know of a Linux equivalent? 64-bit compatible?)
I watched a bit over 3 hours of DVD video on my HP zv5000z with the CPU set to 1GHz @ 0.85V before the 12-cell battery ran out. Normal screen brightness and everything.
Of course, this won't work all that well on Intel CPUs. Maybe Alienware will include a free naquada generator with their "4GHz" P4's.
I hear it gets over 30FPS on Doom 3 too!
Who doesn't like free music?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
When you buy an el cheapo knockoff for a lot less, you get cheaper (read slower/less reliable) peripheral hardware such as disk controllers, disks, video cards, RAM, cheap keyboards and mice that last one month if you're lucky, etc.
Well, the surprising thing to me is that a similarly configured (but with more features) loaded 2.5 Ghz Dual G5 from Apple (with liquid cooling as well) runs about $2300 cheaper than the Alienware box.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Dude, you're just digging yourself in deeper. Anyone who read your first post can tell that you thought it was a laptop. Just admit to being wrong instead of trying to talk your way out of it.
Dual 2Ghz G5. Perhaps not quite as powerful but a far more elegant design. Could probably afford an Apple Cinema Display to go with it for less than the cost of the 4Ghz Intel box....
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
- The news page which mentions the 4.0 GHz CPUs Now Available in Alienware Area-51 ALX Systems.
- The ALX configuration page - As the name suggests you can use it to configure your desired ALX
Btw, the moment you choose to configure, the price shoots up to $5,458.00 (which includes ALL rebates)!http://efil.blogspot.com/
I don't see this computer as a feasible option for anyone... It is possible to build a Pentium-4 3.4GHz system comparable to this one for a lot cheaper. 600MHz usually won't make a difference at this point; it is the other components of the system that would slow it down. Personally I think anyone spending $4,200 on a gaming desktop is insane.
OC'ing a P4 to 4 ghz isn't likely to result in any noticable difference... If you're a gamer (like me), a 2 ghz+ machine works just fine, slow-downs are generally caused by graphics card/memory issues... If you do a lot of multi-tasking you're better off spending the money on a dual processor system that has 15k rpm scsis, I assure you if you do this you will see a very noticable difference. I also noticed that alienware is using a raid 0 SATA configuration -- that's just downright stupid considering the data corruption potential.
Seriously, comparing it to heat problems in a notebook is pretty silly, as there simply isn't the same amount of space available for a cooling system. I know what you're saying, but the comparison is pretty shaky ;)
since when does overclocking have to be explained to the slashdot crowd? This reeks of marketing
I'm sib888, and I approved this comment.
no problems here with mozilla 1.7.1
-- Karma: beyond good and evil - mostly affected by posting political
$4,200 isn't $5,000. In fact, it's closer to $3,500 than $5,000, which shows that "Dave420's law" (people always round up/down statistics to prove their point) is still alive and kicking ;)
the effective clock speed is 550MHz.
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
Alienware Computer to run it on: $4,200
Losing the last vestiges of any proof of ever being in the sunlight: Priceless
Cheers,
Erick
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Interesting that the price tag is now 'expensive' for a machine assembled for extreme performance. It was not very long ago that that was a upper level standard machine.
I worked out that if you bought *THE BEST* PC components there are currently, you'd spend about £1000 (= $1500) in total.
That means Alienware is charging you $2000+ for a pretty PC case...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
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So - they're telling us that going back to -shudder- less than $1.00 per MHz is progress???
Dude, I know there's profit incentives out there, but you can buy a serious 2 way 64 bit machine for that much which would blow that thing out of the water, even running 32 bit windows xp professional.
$1 per MHz... They must seriously be pining for the old days. Let it go, man. Just let it go...
-Adam
So would you buy one if you weren't forced to get it with Windows installed?
Assuming you use Linux and nothing else, do you game a lot, since that is (usually) the primary purpose of buying an Alienware machine?
Somehow I get the feeling you're posting just so you can get in a jab at Microsoft - if you genuinely support the views you claim to, you shouldn't need to post just to basically say "Lookit me! I'm fighting The Man!"
Alienware's dirty little secret is they are all marketing. My wife bought me one of their laptops last year based on their awesome marketing. After getting the run around on out of stock parts and waiting for damn near 2 months, the laptop came without SP1 installed, a virus in the windows system restore files and a faulty backlight switch.
It took over a month to get the laptop back when I sent it in to get the backlight switch fixed.
Their customer service is severly lacking. I would highly suggest you build it yourself instead of paying for Alienware's marketing department.
You can read my whole sordid tale on this topic at my website along with several other peoples comments.
Str8Dog
using System.Darkside; public
And I recently priced how much the parts for a 'normal' (non alx which is very overpriced) AW would cost if purchased individually, it came out to around $1800 only $400 less than the system I purchased from AW.
I figured I'd pay the $400 and let someone who knew what they were doing put the system together rather than do it myself.
The magic words in the CNet article are "starts at", the advertised price out the door at the Alienware site is over $5K. I've bought OTS machines for a bit less and a bit more but it works as a general rule.
The exact number of chips on a CPU has not exactly doubled every 18 months on the dot either, but as a general rule they do double at roughly that frequency and the price of the machine you lust after will be on the order of $5K.
Yes. And you can buy extended warrantees, tech support, etc., just as with any other computer.
I might think about it yeah. I don't play games no, but I quite like the cases - I like to have a fast machine because I do a lot of CPU intensive work (although dual CPUs would be better) such as Povray, PRP and large scale document indexing.
My beef is not with Microsoft so much as the PC sellers (although I'm sure MS has them in an arm lock).
Just because most people what to play games on them under Windows doesn't mean everyone should be forced to purchase one with Windows. I don't think that is unreasonable.
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You want us to pay $4200 for a system which, not only is overloaded with shiny blinkenlights, but is also overclocked, and so not guaranteed to be completely stable? And you expect us to run Windows on it!?
...the sad part is, people will buy it. People bought Windows ME, after all.
It's only an insult if it's not true.
No, I use all this free time I got to play with myself... fast.
I worked out that if you bought *THE BEST* PC components there are currently, you'd spend about £1000 (= $1500) in total.
While I consider even a $1500 system to be a real luxury, I have to disagree about it being the best.
$14609.43
Has anyone know about the power (electrical) requirements of this? It's not much good if you're electricity bill is higher than your credit card bill after purchasing it!
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Thanks you for shopping Stargate Computers. Please come again.
You can build yor own for less than $3000. $2500 is quite a bit to pay for that 5up3r l337 case.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - BF
Just because most people what to play games on them under Windows doesn't mean everyone should be forced to purchase one with Windows. I don't think that is unreasonable.
Fair enough. Whether you like it or not, though, the vast majority of people, especially gamers, have no problem with Windows being preinstalled.
For your situation/beliefs, you would be far better suited to either build your own system, or find someone that builds high-performance custom Linux boxes.
About the only thing that a single blindingly fast processor is good for is gaming. Now, the whole watercooling/Alienware thing strikes me as silly--instead of paying $2000 extra for an overclocked machine, just wait six months and Moore's Law will have caught up.
But instead of debating that, it's more informative to wonder what all those bogomips would DO in today's games.
Some people would reply: more frames per second! More varied stuff in those frames! But there's a limit to how much more graphics muscle will improve the gameplay experience in any given game (my Athlon 64 3200+/2GHz machine runs Halflife no better than my Athlon XP 1800+/1.53GHz machine), and there's also a limit to what graphics crunching can do for a game. Doom 3 may be shiny, but by all accounts you could write a game with the same gameplay as Doom 3 (but less prettiness) that would run on a P3/Geforce2.
I'm ready to see a game that really makes use of modern computers' incredible power for gameplay/AI/physics. How about a version of Homeworld with realistic trajectory modelling of every mass-driver shot, a version of NWN with *real* intelligent AI opponents, or one of a million different ideas for games whose gameplay design, in addition to their graphics, takes into account modern computers.
NWN did this -- sort of. But it took so long to release (which is a good thing!), and has been a while since release, that modern machines still get bored running its scripting/AI. Hopefully all this will be spiffed up in NWN2.
WOW! I will definitely get one of these when Duke Nukem Forever is out....Ofcourse, by then they will sell for $50 on Ebay.
Imagine the feedback:
******SELLER IS A STUPID SCHMOCK. PAID $5,000 FOR THIS PIECE OF CRAP BACK IN 2004******
This is not an automated signature. I type this in to the bottom of every message.
I was wondering when this would turn into an anti-MS thread.....
I still can't get the screen shots of Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple IIe out of my head.
Only on /. can a perfectly on-topic post be modded off-topic. I love it.
Check out the Antec cases. They're a nice alternative (actually I think they might build Alienware's cases, but I could be mistaken) and you don't have to pay the extreme Alienware prices.
Building a performance system is the best option to do it economically. Unfortunately, Alienware has a jump on the market with the dual PCI express graphics motherboards.
Barring that, I'd buy a system from a company that supports (indirectly or through ads) the OSS community.
I'm talking about Monarch Computer and similar vendors obviously.
Not that I think "Dave420's law" is incorrect, but $5000 could be closser to what that particular poster would have to pay, depending on where they live. If this person lives in Florida, then after shipping and taxes, they are paying over $4700 for the $4200 system ($4700 is much closer to $5000 than it is to $3500, but still rounding up). If this person lives in Canada, then they would be forking out half a years salary (assuming a one-person family living at the poverty line) at well over CDN$6250 (after shipping, taxes, and brokerage fees)!
Has anyone know about the power (electrical) requirements of this? It's not much good if you're electricity bill is higher than your credit card bill after purchasing it!
On the bright side, your heating bill will be much lower, and with a custom plumbing system, you'll probably be able to eliminate the hot water boiler.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
If I'm not mistaken, can't you get a rebate for not using Windows (assuming it's preinstalled)? Like, as long as you haven't accepted the EULA, you can get a rebate? I swear I saw that somewhere.
If you take out Country Kitchen buffet, old people won't know what to do.
Well it ships with the PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 (which they naturally list as a 650W supply),
and considering a nice high end Prescott system can pull on the high side of 300W under full load at stock speeds,
I'm guessing it isn't pretty. Maybe in the neighborhood of 400W full load; probably a bit less than half of that idle.
Your processor speed it not the biggest bottleneck. I say high quality RAM and a high end graphics card will get you a lot more than a 4Ghz machine. This just seems like a waste of money. Seriously it's more expensive than any of Apple's computers, and that's saying something :)
Joseph?
I, for one, would love that kind of processing power for video encoding. Of course, I also use a pirated copy of windows so if I wanted to game that wouldn't really be an issue.
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
Some of us write currency convertors, you insensitive clod!
English is easier said than done.
Forget about putting it in your car's back seat and driving to a LAN party -- imagine boxing it up and packing it as luggage or shipping it UPS to a gaming convention? You'd certainly have to drain it, pack it very carefully, unpack it with similar care, check for anything loose with a fine-toothed comb, fill it back up (with the special "magic liquid" no doubt), bleed it (I guess), inspect for leaks, and fix anything that's broken with any tools you may have onhand inside a hotel ballroom.
No thanks.
I Think I've save $3000 and build a nice gaming SFF (small form factor) system that, though aircooled and "only" 80% as fast as this liquid-cooled mess, will survive repeated trips on an airplane, either as baggage or checked in as a carry-on bag.
Oh, wait. I did. Now off to the Aces High 2004 Convention!
Actually, unless you buy chips in a "retail" box, you don't get a warranty from Intel, you get it from the OEM who provided you the chip.
Same thing actually goes for tech support for that copy of Windows that comes with most PCs, one of the many reasons OEM licenses are cheaper, Microsoft isn't your tech support contact, the person who sold you your OEM license is.
Buy me this and my ass is yours for life!
God I want it.
http://saveie6.com/
You have incredibly low standards as a consumer. They basically gave you the run around multiple times, lied to you about a rebate, refused fast shipping for some bogus reason and you sat there and accepted it instead of canceling your order and giving money to a company that would treat you well.
You deserve more when spending so much money.
--- I do not moderate.
the reason they give that definition of overclocking is because the PR people who made this press release...
Just curious, but did you notice that the description of overclocking was part of the submitter's description of the story? Supposedly this isn't a press release. But looking back at the history for the submitter, keeleysam, it looks like the account is less than 2 weeks old. Perhaps created simply as a dummy by slashdot in order to post this paid-placement advertorial.
On the topic of Alienware, I think they are selling a worthy product. There is a niche of gamers / users who want a tweaked machine, but don't have the time or technical prowess to do it themselves. Alienware is targetting that demand quite well.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
YAY!
welcome to Slashdot, where blatant brutal advertising is crammed down your throat as if it were some great news story!
who needs popups and banner ads when the story IS the advertising!
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
If your video encoding something that would lend itself well multiple processors, I'm guessing it is something that would lend itself well to being spread across multiple machines. The last couple of nights I have been ripping DVDs (that I bought and 'own') to 700M .avi files to burn to CDs so when I travel I don't need to worry about my originals (I play them on the laptop when waiting for a flight, etc.)
Yes on paper the 4.0GHz P4 w/ HT Alien box is about 40% faster than the 2.8GHz P4 (w/ HT) box I'm using, but for $5k I could buy 6 of my machine (about $800-$850 apiece) and get them all working in parallel - and I could do about 4 times as much (400%) on the array of mid-range machines as I could do on a single AW uberBox.
Funny thing is - in four years you won't be able to give 4GHz computers away for free.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
s/price effective/price effective than buying Alienware's machine/
No disrespect to your solutions. I'm just getting specific.
What I encode it tends to be TV that I need to encode just about as fast as I capture it. I can capture in segments and then encode each two minute segment right after its captured. I would think that it would be dificult to coordinate multiple machines for 2 minute files that I encode in real time and must then murge into 1 file preferably only a minute or so after the show airs.
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
I used the exact specs of last years Area 51 and built my buddy's PC for $1200 less the AW was charging. That is including the liquid cooling system. The case I bought is almost identical except for the dumb alien design. I dont know why anyone would ever buy a pre fab PC. You can just pay some geeklikemeto put it together for you.
"Patience is not a virtue, it's a waste of time."
Me and some of my friends each bought Alienware computers a couple of years ago. Without fail, each of us had a horrible experience with them.
The way they assemble things is very shoddy, and they must have some sort of ESD issues at their assembly facility - we all had extremely short lifetimes on motherboards and cpus - usually measured in months.
These weren't overclocked machines that we purchased, but they were at the time AWs highest end computers.
To make things worse (much worse!) their support is horrible. It takes 3 transfers to be able to talk to anybody who knows anything about your situation when you are in the middle of a component replacement. Their "on-site" replacement means that they hire out whomever is cheapest in your area to replace the myriad of things which break on their boxes. As a bonus, they continually change who they outsource their support services too, so the quality varies a lot, but it certainly is consistent at the low end.
One more thing - if you ever even mention, that you might have, at one time, considered getting a linux installation disk anywhere near your AW box, they will instantly refuse to help in anyway, no matter how obvious the hardware problem.
When it comes to responsibility, they just want to deny, deny, deny.
Just so you know - I don't now, and never have worked for AW or any of their competitors. I'm just a very unhappy consumer of one of their crappy products. I hate them, and I don't want to see anybody else burned.
thx.
Whether he likes it or not? Knowing the buggy and insecure nature of Windows, what sensible person would be happy with what you describe?
Judging from social history, consumerism isn't exactly a very dependable measure of intelligence. The vast majority simply buy what's put in front of them without question. When you add illegal monopoly control of the marketplace to that equation, you get a generation of consumers who have been raised on the craptastic experience of Windows--and it's all they know.
and in other news, build a pc from scratch with same equipment for probably, 2500$ max! yes I want fries with that.
"DUDE LAPTOP?? lol learn to read plz :P"
:D"
I was originally going to say something about the pot calling the kettle black before I realized that you can probably read fine it's just writing you have trouble with. Perhaps a good book on grammar and spelling would do you some good. In closing:
"DUDE GRAMMER?!? lol i r having no grammer
ND
This statement is forty-five characters long.
Maybe an hour if you count opening the boxes. More to configure the OS, but I -always- do a fresh install of the OS as I'm sure most other people do to. That's not a lot of additional overhead - I get to cherry pick the best components I want out of the bunch, I know I'm not getting a crap case or power supply, and I know that everything was put together properly.
:-)
I'd argue that it's even faster than digging through third party sites to figure out what's the best buy, what options are available, etc etc etc. I know what I want (hd type, motherboard and video card brand, etc), I order and I'm done.
As far as warranty hassles go, I haven't had a computer failure in a long, long time. Maybe because I assemble my own gear, using proper grounding straps, with quality components, the first time?
So I'd argue it's probably a draw if you're proficient at PC building. That "100 bucks" gets used up fast when a crappy motherboard fails, or an application starts crashing because of mystery ram, or the +12 line sags a bit too much under heavy load, or or or or..
The only glaring exception to this is my powerbook. Notebooks are a little different.. but maybe I'm full of --..
..don't panic
that can really lower your FPS!
Yeah, prices generally go down with increasing volume. If you build dozens of systems, you spread the initial time investment in figuring out how over all of them. You pick up tricks.
It remains true that if you only buy computers for yourself once every two years, it isn't worth learning the new RAM naming schemes and such. You won't save more money than you'd otherwise earn with that time.
Whether he likes it or not? Knowing the buggy and insecure nature of Windows, what sensible person would be happy with what you describe?
You'd be suprised. Though i'm sure you'd never believe it, it's quite possible to get a Windows box secured and plenty stable for normal use. The XP Pro box i'm typing this on now (for example) has been up for about a few months straight, with the last reboot being because Winamp was having some odd issues. If you get all the security patches, run regular virus/adware scans, don't open strange attachments like a dumbass, and use a firewall, you'll be pretty well off.
The vast majority simply buy what's put in front of them without question.
Yeah, I guess the fact that like 99% of all commercial games are Windows-only couldn't possibly have something to do with that, eh?
You seem to have been looking for a chance to spout off about how evil Windows is, but let's remember that we're considering gamers in particular here.