Dell Buys Alienware

Wonder what that means?



http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2564&Itemid=2

More unintelligible tech support?

It means I won't be buying AlienWare, but then again I never bought one previously either. On the serious side, the last two Dell machines we got at work had the hard drives go out - I'm wondering how long it will be before the AlienWare machines start falling under the budget chop as well.

Yeah thats what I'm wondering. My Dad had me look at low price desktops. All the ones he was interested in had integrated video hardware sharing system ram.

It amazes me that people still fall for the big shiny CPU, and wonder why their system doesn't seem all that much better than their old one.

I'm thinking Dell computers will drop in price and increase in quality. Well you're allowed to dream.

Never. For starters they're already cheaper than a similar Dell system, but more importantly Dell hav eno interest in Alienware apart from their profits.

green dell cases?

--Mike

> Never. For starters they're already cheaper than a similar Dell system

Some beancounter deep in the bowels of Dell will find some widget that is less expensive to procure then the Alienware equivalent, it will be replaced, and it will all go downhill from there. It may take a few years before it happens - but it will happen.

The question is whether or not they'll switch from AMD to Intel like all other dells, as a cost-cutting measure.

But if they do, they'll likely kill a good number of their sales in the process since AMD is definitely the preferred gaming CPU atm...

Dell Notebooks that actually work?

From what I heard, Alienware was already going down hill anyway (using cheaper components that they were once using, providing crappy support). The last couple years, I have heard nothing but complaints about Alienware.

I never have purchased a Dell machine, but it seems like one of the benifits is that you won't get bootleg parts. A lot of the local computer shops here in Toronto will sell you a custom built machine, and somehow they fake the bios to look like it has a faster processor, or they give a lesser graphics card figuring that people won't notice until it is too late. And they just go out of buisness and then start up under a new name after a while.

I purchased my PC from a moderate sized company. Not big enough to outsource tech support to India, but big enough that they don't want to get a bad reputation.

Had one dell laptop die on me... They built me a new one (XPS Gen 2) and had it to me in short order. And I've had 4 now in the last 5 years. Across the board at work we've had at least 20 dell laptops and the only other problem was an inspiron 6000's screen died. A guy was out within 24 hours and had it replaced. So I think dell's laptop track record is pretty good.

Two years ago, I bought a Dell notebook, the hard drive died within days. They sent a replacement hard drive which also died within days. They got a notebook back and I got my money back.

I bought an Inspiron laptop recently which completely locked up every few minutes. After going through the nightmare tech support system I eventually managed to get my money back, but I won't be buying a Dell again in a hurry.

In my experience Dell products are quite good... if you manage to get one that works and keeps working. Their laptops are generally deplorable, however... usually the type of problems that will see a part break within a time frame and the replacement part will do exactly the same thing in the same amount of time. Or less.

Dell Aus business support is very good - new parts and a techie sent out within a day and if they can't fix the problem then and there, that's only one more day. Regular customer support is the exact opposite, of course.

It means that the Alienware logo will now have "DELL" inscribed upon its forehead.

Never fear, HP/Compaq's got AMD Turion-based notebooks, so does Gateway, and Acer. However, if this is Dell's way of getting the AMD processors in their PCs, well, that's gonna be something to see...

As it is everywhere else. This is the key though..

Dell systems are as good as the market they are targetting.

If you're going to buy Dell, or Gateway or Compaq, etc.. the business-grade workstations will always run better than the home-user desktops. At least that's been the case in my experience.

From their point of view, business machines have to be more reliable as they represent a different and far more visible impact to their bottom line. (Dell can afford to @#!* you off, but can't afford to @#!* off an office buying 30-40 of their business class PCs every quarter)

They are always more expensive, but that's the price of reliability... Of course, there will be the roaming exception to that rule, but in general, that's been the consensus in my experience.

Rule of thumb..
consumer class PCs = crap.
Business class = More reliable with the occasional crap.

Dell definitely uses a tiered market -- buying a system through their corporate store and buying 'the same' through the home store ends up in two very different installs: the corporate one is pretty much completely clean (except they started loading the google toolbar & desktop search on them recently), while I spend an hour uninstalling 19 (!!) different time-limited programs, samples, and 'free' ISP deals off of the system bought for home use.

That's the hardware equivalent of adware.

One of the reasons they can offer consumer grade PC's at a lower price is because of the income they receive from the "advertisements" that make their way into that standard install.

True... Except it's not unusual for the same system to be identically priced, or cheaper through the corporate store.