It's a SAD Day for the industry

WillieDH

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/23/dell_buys_alienware/

Dell gobbles up a decent company who care about customers !

Geff

Alienware are overpriced and so are Dell.

Who cares?

Dobroin

Dell overpriced? Well unless you buy and build at least they will be there when you have problems. Or of course you can buy in your local supermarket! And now it might be easier to get my hands on an Alien.:D

iregk

Geff wrote:

Alienware are overpriced and so are Dell.

Who cares?

I'm assuming you haven't seen a dell computer for about 5 years and the pricing issue is based on knowledge of dell systems in the 90's?

After ordering 150pc's and laptops in work here Dell came in by an absolute country mile the cheapest of the lot and for better spec too. So do a little research next time before you shout.

Alienware were great pc's but you paid mostly for the design. Altough you did get top class after sales from them so yes i agree, its a sad day.

rsynnott

They bought a company which makes 15lb laptops. Hehe.

rsynnott

They bought a company which makes 15lb laptops. Hehe.

projectmayhem

if it means alienware can lower their price then i'm all for it. i'd love an alienware, except i'm not forking out so much for a fancy case when the innards can be bought and put together myself fairly reasonably (by gaming pc standards anyway)

iregk

^^ echo above.

Wertz

So looks like the end for the XPS range...lot of R&D money down the toilet there. They'll obviously keep the alienware tag/brand and ditch the XPS. Oh and on the TS issue; didn't you already pay a hefty premium to alienware for that service? and isn't there a similar dell service available if you so choose?

As for Dell being overpriced :rolleyes:

tba

Sweet I hope this means market growth for alienware. Im all about the Irish jobs market. In fact I wonder would they be moving from Athlone to Limerick?

DemonOfTheFall

Aren't Alienware cases still just Chieftec Dragons with a few crappy mods done to them ?

I don't see why people jizz themselves over them.

demanufactured

alienware isnt moving to limrick its stayin where it is...nothing is going to change its just owned by dell now

The Gecko

Dell dont just buy something and let it run as it was. There will be changes.

tba

demanufactured wrote:

alienware isnt moving to limrick its stayin where it is...nothing is going to change its just owned by dell now

I assume you have the grapevine being from the area? What did you hear?

zaxxon

it is a sad day indeed. big business trumple on. yes, i know economy of scale, and all of that but dell is such a monster, it has even made microsoft move in to unchartered teritories..
i wonder if that means that dell will start offering more AMD systems now instead of all that intel ? interesting stuff in this blog by one of alienware main competitors, VOODOO, owner
overpriced ?!? dont know where you live, but its not where i do. unfortunatly dell plays it size so well its driving margins in the industry way down. and small builders out of business

Dempsey

projectmayhem wrote:

if it means alienware can lower their price then i'm all for it. i'd love an alienware, except i'm not forking out so much for a fancy case when the innards can be bought and put together myself fairly reasonably (by gaming pc standards anyway)

Dell should be able to reduce Alienware's costs but wether thats passed onto the customer, only time will tell.

I hope so, Dell do great offers on a PC, a high end PC is a different kettle of fish to them completely.

nadir

so who wants to make custom pc rigs, now that alienware arn't l337 anymore

youcancallmeal

tba wrote:

I assume you have the grapevine being from the area? What did you hear?

Well in fairness it does say this in the article "Dell plans to let Alienware operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary with its own marketing, sales and support staff."

slave1

After ordering 150pc's and laptops in work here Dell came in by an absolute country mile the cheapest of the lot and for better spec too. So do a little research next time before you shout.

I have to jump in here with an example.
I needed a 19" TFT for work, the IT dept. gave me a speel about minimum of 2 weeks to get off Dell so I thought I'd see if a personal - non-business order would have quicker delivery time.
Away's I go to the Dell site and pick the monitor - now this was last year so excuse my memory of exact prices - for around €420 which of course included VAT as I was doing a non-business order.
Funny says I, and had a look at the company purchase order I was asked to approve...same monitor was just over €600 EXCLUDING VAT.

I laughed at the price, showed the IT guy the price on the Dell site and he followed up with Dell who refused to budge on their business price.

Sad, so my conclusion is that if you keep your eye on the Dell site there can be good value, however there are cases of stupidly expensive purchases also so I would agree more with the Dell overpriced comment

Matt Simis

Ive heard bad things about Alienware Support from a few sources, tho never used them myself so cant comment. Dell arent dropping the XPS btw, to those that mentioned it.

Alienware and Dell will continue to operate and sometimes compete as seperate entities.


Matt

tba

well all the regional dell sectors compete with each other...

demanufactured

i know cos my missus works for said company they have been all filled in

DemonOfTheFall

Dell are thieves. I've seen them quote twice as much for a TFT when it was included with an XPS than when it was included with a dimension or bought by itself. They have mastered the art of ripping off idiots for sure. I'm sure thousands of people paid twice the going rate for a TFT from the XPS configurator page.

Methinks Alienware won't be getting much cheaper.

smeggle

Agrees with the overpricing comment being daft. Laptop I got before Chrimbo would have cost 2-300 more for the same specs had I gone somewhere else.

As for there pricing :rolleyes: Was on there site last night pricing a power edge server - the 1425c was advertised as a dual xeon @ 599euro (Strange thats cheap thinks I). Go's for more details and the 599euro model is actually a single xeon.

Thats mis-leading and false advertising and is a constant near enough on all there products. They give the better specs, i.e. dual xeon with a marked price of 599 but in relaity when you then configure it correctly the dual xeon is twice as much...

Isn't that 'Illegal' or something?

DemonOfTheFall

They probably had "capable" in 2 point font beside "Dual Xeon".

rsynnott

Processor
Up to two 64-bit Intel® XeonTM processors (up to 3.80GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)

It's borderline, but they are a large company; one would be somewhat surprised if they were entirely honest.

conzy

A Dell spokesperson denied the takover during the week, this is old news:D

DemonOfTheFall

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1941399,00.asp

Seems confirmed to me...

Optikus

It is confirmed.

conzy

Oh right,

On monday I heard about the takover and I thought it was a great oppurtunity for Dell to sell AMD cpus;)

Then I heard that they Denied it,

And now its confirmed

Will they discontinue the XPS line after the renegade?, Will we see AMD processers in XPS systems?, Intel will not be happy with this:D

StRiKeR

demanufactured wrote:

alienware isnt moving to limrick its stayin where it is...nothing is going to change its just owned by dell now

i know cos my missus works for said company they have been all filled in

that's true, alienware will remains where they are and what they do, which had been mention at the announcement, keeping their brand name and logo, keeping seperate from dell pc's, as for rather anything may change or not in the future, none of us can really tell rather it may or may not be any or what could change, to be able to success, they will have to provide whatever the market is demanding.

many of us have a different point of view for many different companies out there from various different industries, some say they are good in a way and some others don't agree, it's kind of a never ending discussion!

and yes I do build my own rig and never bought or buy complete system from either or any other computer companies out there, but it is still interesting to see what is going on with them for some reason kind of thinking that they could have some level of effects to the components market!

projectmayhem

conzymaher wrote:

Will they discontinue the XPS line after the renegade?, Will we see AMD processers in XPS systems?, Intel will not be happy with this:D

i wouldn't be surprised if they keep XPS with intel in the guts, and keep alienware with AMD in the guts. that way they get to sleep with the enemy, as it were. have everyone cater to them, etc.

Judt

I wouldn't waste my time wondering about Dell and AMD, they've been flirting with them like a 14 year old girl for yonks. However, interestingly, I was speaking to Mark Vena, Alienware's VP for marketing, yesterday and he told me that Dell will be handling all of Alienware's supplier relationships, including that with AMD. So there is an open line between Dell and AMD now.

My bet is that it goes like any acquisition like this, and the separation of the companies, AMD aside, appears only on paper in a few months. However nothing can happen for at least 45 days, as regulators have to look over the sale before it's final.

As for the XPS range, Dell is hanging on to it. I'd say they'll continue to hold on to it as well, and make it the really top end machine maker - nobody but Dell has a machine with a stock price close to $10,000, in the XPS Renegade.

iregk

slave1 wrote:

I have to jump in here with an example.
I needed a 19" TFT for work, the IT dept. gave me a speel about minimum of 2 weeks to get off Dell so I thought I'd see if a personal - non-business order would have quicker delivery time.
Away's I go to the Dell site and pick the monitor - now this was last year so excuse my memory of exact prices - for around €420 which of course included VAT as I was doing a non-business order.
Funny says I, and had a look at the company purchase order I was asked to approve...same monitor was just over €600 EXCLUDING VAT.

I laughed at the price, showed the IT guy the price on the Dell site and he followed up with Dell who refused to budge on their business price.

Sad, so my conclusion is that if you keep your eye on the Dell site there can be good value, however there are cases of stupidly expensive purchases also so I would agree more with the Dell overpriced comment

Thats just someone who couldn't negotiate their way out of an empty room!

Its common knowledge though that you never by flat panels off dell, they are well over priced as individual components. If however you order them with teh pc you get them for free!

Like I said I've ordered hundreds and saved a fortune going with dell. Maybe its how I thrashed out our deal...

gline

bah alienware were overpriced anyway, probably still will be too:D

TheDoc

if you are building a pc for yourself for gmaing needs dell and alienware are overpriced. A PC i have had custom built for me by an english company cost me €900 I priced on both Dell and Alienware and the machine came to over €1600 euro.

so I've saved 700. Easyly done.

If your buying a crappy house pc for typing or works pcs then obviously dell are cheaper they have the ability to buy in bulk and they are only giving you average spec pcs that are worth in reality maybe 300 euro.

This isnt going to mean Alienware are going to drop dramatically. They will jsut kinda take over from the XPS, but xps prices were relitivly the same as will the alienware prices, they are jsut eliminating competition, if you want a highe end rig you either custom build or your buying from alienware, thats the whole plan.

Hobbes

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

so I've saved 700. Easyly done.

Did you factor in delivery, support costs as well? Curious.

This isnt going to mean Alienware are going to drop dramatically. They will jsut kinda take over from the XPS, but xps prices were relitivly the same as will the alienware prices, they are jsut eliminating competition, if you want a highe end rig you either custom build or your buying from alienware, thats the whole plan.

XPS are not the same as Alienware. When I spec'ed my laptop the same spec on alienware was 2k more then Dell.

Judt

Dell is keeping XPS, for the moment at least. Indeed, their latest XPS has a stock price close to ten grand... see this for our thinking on it all. I'd say Dell keeps the XPS and makes it even more premium than the Alienwares. Plus you have the obvious Intel vs AMD machine runs. But Dell wants to keep the XPS in business - and rightly so, I think.