Dell to buy Alienware. Really?

[dvdpiddy]

$1000 markup on a PC isn't that bad. Think about what they have to fund with that $1000, marketing? support? replacement hardware? expansion? r&D (so to speak)?

actaully i think it goes into bribes for amd to give them the best procs lol

 

[hongkongphuey]

If I may interject once more...
I have read many many reports on AlienWare on the BBB... (Better Business Bereau) as a friend of mine was inquiring about one of these. He like most novice PC users, sees the lights, the alien and automatically thinks that it's the best. I had to inform him that they DO build fast rigs, but for the price of most of their units, you can fit your PC with HIGH END components instead of Midrange last season stuff. I had also explained to him that AlienWare costs so much not for quality, but for accesibility and convenience. I say to him "video card"... He says "DUH?! AlienWare!" As was expected... Most reports that I read on the BBB where from users who bought $4000+ machines, didn't get what was advertised, no online or phone support, excessive delays in shipments, and just basically bad stuff. Not something I would want if I just dropped 4 grand on a sub-par system... But that is me... Basically their rant was AlienWare ran with their cash... (Who would buy PC's from Miami anyway? What the hell comes from Miami except for the the two caines/canes... Cocaine and Hurricanes. Now I get why the PC's cost so much..... :roll: LOL

Here's to you Alienware 😳

 

[SuperFly03]

Haha. I personaly have had 0 dealings with Alienware. I did not mean that they were great at tech support, was just trying to difuse the outburst about the $1000 markup. I remember back when I had my 2nd Dell and I had a probelm and when I called in I would talk to a person who was knowledgeable and spoke clear english. I'm not bashing those who don't speak english natively (its hard) but I honeslty have REAL difficulties with accents and the like. Dell has always done well by me.

Last time I called them I fried my Radeon 9800 pro 128mb. I acctually had a Dell XPS and custom mounted a water cooling setup inside (now that was interesting). On the GPU was a Danger Den block and I got some mad clocks out of that bad boy, I acctually blew a fuse, or transistor (im no engineering major). So i just told them my card blew and I had a new one on my door step 2 days later.

 

[dvdpiddy]

ya that was before michael dell started being greedy

 

[SuperFly03]

ya that was before michael dell started being greedy

By definition if you run a company your greedy 😛

 

[PCtech]

lol big diff between between alienware and dell is Dell is 1000 times bigger, alienware isnt a person its a board with ppl sitting on it offer them enough money game over.
Also Dell use standard parts diff is dell own half the companys it buys off including a percentage of intel,samsung etc

 

[Propain666]

$1000 markup on a PC isn't that bad. Think about what they have to fund with that $1000, marketing? support? replacement hardware? expansion? r&D (so to speak)?

You sacrafice alot building your own system but you also gain alot, as with everythign its a trade off and whats best for you. Personaly I like being my own tech support, and alot of the times its a f***in pain in teh ass, espcially with the recent DFI Expert bios issue. But I also have had 2 Dell's and a Compaq (back when they were quality 😛) and don't regret it. I used them to learn off of.

When most of the world cannot, or are not willing to, build their own pc, rely on product level warranties and company specific tech support $1000 is a small price to pay for the peace of mind that comes with it.

As for the "takeover" you can't say your at all surprised? It was only a matter of time before the large corporation types tried to do a friendly takeover of a enthusiast company. It just makes good business sense. Why risk failure in designing your own esthusiast division when you can take over someone else who already knows how to do it and just tweak it to your liking?

This of course Alienware's shareholder's vote to allow the buy out. Its all up in the air, so we shall see.

$1000 is a total rip off and a huge markup. Back in the day before the Dells and Gateways ECT My business was building PC's like crazy. I was getting about $400 profit from each PC and even that was undercutting IBM by $1000.

Support is something to pay for of course, and maybe you can justify 1k for support but I feel it’s a bit to high.

Hardware replacement is covered by the manufacturer unless an extended warranty is paid for on EACH PRODUCT at purchase. So AlienWare will not Warranty everything in your PC for an extra $400 a year, they will extend only certain parts for that price.

So the end result is...

$1,000 more for a PC for phone support? If your thinking about building your own PC you should have enough knowledge to not need such things.

$1,000 more so you dont have to make the phone calls yourself to the manufacturer for RMA's?

$1,000 more for a name??


If your lazy and got money to burn then yes, AlienWare is fine. If spending $4,000 on a PC that is only worth $3,000 then yes AlienWare is fine.

Personally ill take that 1k and go with a water cooled system and upgrade anything I can or just put it in my pocket.


Nuff said...

 

[SuperFly03]

I can get onboard with that, but small companies can usually undercut corporations not always though . 😛

 

[g-paw]

Thought this was interesting. Especially the fact Alienware is expected to do $225 million in sales this year. Throw in Voodoo and Falcon Northwest as well as Dell high end gaming machines and there must be a lot of gamers buying these machines rather than building.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ALIENWARE?SITE=SCAND&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT