Dell vs ALienware

Dathaigh

I am setting up an internet cafe and have narrowed down my PC provider quotes to Dell and Alienware. Wondering if anyone had any experience with either or stories, etc before I try to choose.....

weeder

to sum it up dell sucksthe cockrel and ive never actually used or been inside an alienware but i hear there great.....should be cheaper to cuustom build if ya want good specs......also lemme be ther first to welcome you toi boards

Dathaigh

Cheaper they certainly are not, but if they are as good as they look they might be worth the extra bucks.

PowerHouseDan

Would you not build some custom builds?Save some cash and still have savage machines?

Dathaigh wrote:

Cheaper they certainly are not, but if they are as good as they look they might be worth the extra bucks.

Creamy Goodness

where might this internet cafe being set up?

hope it's somewhere around dublin as dublin is gagging for a good internet cafe.

alienware's will be the better machine, but they come at a cost.

jesus_thats_gre

On a highend machine, i.e. a gaming machine with a 7800GTX, Del will cost you about 700 euro less.

Dathaigh

wouldn't know how to be honest - most of my PC knowledge is limited to Microsoft!! I'm at the business end of things so I don't mind buying the complete package at the beginning and learning...

Rabies

Custom building would save on costs.
Where are you thinking about setting up business?

jesus_thats_gre

Dathaigh wrote:

wouldn't know how to be honest - most of my PC knowledge is limited to Microsoft!! I'm at the business end of things so I don't mind buying the complete package at the beginning and learning...

I sent you a PM.

PowerHouseDan

I am sure you could get someone easy enough to put them together for you....Where exactly is it going to be based?

Dathaigh wrote:

wouldn't know how to be honest - most of my PC knowledge is limited to Microsoft!! I'm at the business end of things so I don't mind buying the complete package at the beginning and learning...

VeVeX

Decent spec'd Dells will do the job in an Internet cafe.

Minimizing your outlay expenditure would be a wise move initially. There is no point in paying a premium price to an overrated manufacturer when starting a business. Granted fanboy's will say alienware are fantastic but if your playing a game in a cafe at 60fps who would really give a $hit if its on a Dell or an overpriced alienware ??

duridian

I'd have to say I'd be thinking along the same lines as what Vevex has said.
Why would you need something as powerful as Alienware just for an internet cafe? Are the primary criteria for a pc in an internet cafe not that it is adequate for websurfing/office & word processing type activities?
Alienware machines are aimed more towards the gamer side of things. They are expensive because they are built from high end components plus you are paying a premium on top of components for the assembly of this fancy computer. While I am rarely to be heard singing the praises of Dell (hack...hack...spit ), I would have to say that for someone with your particular needs to go for Alienware rather than Dell, would be simply like burning cash. As we are talking of Dell, would something along the lines of their Dimension 5100 models not be adequate for an internet cafe?
Unless you are planning to open up an internet cafe that specialises in holding ultra high quality gaming lan parties I'd say Alienware or even Dell's higher specced XPS type machines are complete overklill. As long as you stay away from the absolute bottom of the heap Dell models, namely the Dimension 2400 & 3000 models plus most of the Optiplex range, you would have a machines with a certain amount of upgrade-ability. The ultra low end Dells are very limited in this regard, lacking a graphics card slot, or space for extra hard disks for example, as well as having pretty low output power supllies. But something in their midrange should offer a reasonable compromise between price and performance.

MadMoss

I agree with duridian. Why would u consider an Alienware system for an internet cafe? Alienware are computers which are made to satisfy the high end gaming market. They look fab too. However they are pricey, alot pricey when compared to a standard Dell worksation which is more than adequate for general internet browsing.
I have used both systems, so i will try and describe their differences quickly. Bear in mind that both have their disadvantages. Alienware are expensive, they can also be noisy and i have had more than one argument with their phone support. The look great and their spec are great. If money is no object, they are the best gaming machine available to buy.
Dell are mass manufactured and their prices are very compeditive when dealing with average spec. machines, which is what you want for internet browsing. Dells back up can be mind numbingly awful though, and their standard workstations look boring
For an internet cafe if i didn't go for a custom build i would choose Dell
Hope this helps

Stephen

I assume if he's thinking of going between Dell or Alienware that he's setting up a gaming café rather than your usual check-email-and-type-stuff-in-word-only type place. The problem with going with custom built machines in a business is support/warranties. I don't know any hobbyist system builders that could commit to that. With the likes of Dell you can get good next day business support & warranty packages. I know these come at a price but from a business point of view where a machine out of order is costing you money, they can be invaluable.
You could probably persuade them to give you a nice discount if you're buying a bunch of them at once, too.

Much as it pains me to recommend Dell, I probably would in this situation. A high-end XPS with good (3 year?) warranty will set you back less than the equivalent Alienware.

Sparky

If its just a standard internet cafe id go with dell as they are good for money, like mentioned the 5100 or XPS would be sufficent for your needs.
Alienware is aimed at top end people in to extreme gaming, photo and video editing, there the sports cars of computers, plus id rather see a dell get damaged by public usage rather than an alienware pc tbh.

duridian

Stephen wrote:

I assume if he's thinking of going between Dell or Alienware that he's setting up a gaming café rather than your usual check-email-and-type-stuff-in-word-only type place.

I guess the OP will eventually confirm one way or the other, though I'd say not necessarily. He may be deciding between them because he wants to buy some pcs that are built in Ireland, supporting Irish jobs and all that. Alienware I believe have a plant in Athlone and Dell in Limerick, this may be the reason for narrowing it down to these brands.
Anyway even if he is setting up a gaming café, I still believe people jump to the conclusion that a person is prepared to spend €2K+ per machine, the instant they hear the word 'Alienware'.
It makes much more economic sense to get the midrange Dell model and bung a midrange (maybe Nvidia's 6600GT or 6800 non-GT/Ultra or ATI's X800GT which is similarly priced) graphics card into those systems.
The Dimension 5100 is priced €609 including vat/excluding delivery in the Small Business section of Dell's site. That's with a 2.8CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, DVD/CDRW combo, 17" CRT, 12months warranty, and it has the newer style Dell BTX chassis rather than the older black/midnight grey chassis styling that has been out for years.
Admittedly at that it has only Intel integrated graphics, but it does have a PCI-E x16 slot allowing you to as I said add a midrange graphics card. This would hopefully mean you have a reasonablly ok gaming machine for around €800. It won't be in the same league as the XPS or the Alienware machines but isn't the idea of going into to business to try and make money, not to spend? If you are looking to buy 10 or 12 of these for an internet cafe, you'd be looking at an outlay of maybe €8000-10000 for a fleet of Dimension 5100 machines with 6600GT cards.
Looking at Alienware's site, the cheapest they have (named "The Bot") is €762 excluding delivery, has a slightly faster cpu (3.0 as opposed to 2.8), 256MB - so only half the ram, same size HD, DVDROM - so no cdwriting ability, no monitor at all, same warranty period, a nice enough case, same story as the Dell with the graphics, integrated Intel and a PCI-E x16 slot.
(It would be at least €30 or more to get something as large as a PC delivered.)
So for the same money, ~€800, you could do some fairly decent gaming on the Dell, but on the Alienware you have still got to buy a graphics card, a monitor and a bit of extra ram for the Alienware. IMO this just doesn't make sense if you are starting up a business
Edit: Just wanted to point out that while I would suggest buying the pc from Dell, I would recommend buying the graphics card elsewhere as neither Dell or Alienware have the option to add anything better than a Radeon X300SE or a Radeon X600 graphics card.

Farls

I'd go with Alienware...I have a nice laptop by these guys myself and I cant reccomend it enough.

Yes their expensive but you get what you pay for, their customer support is second to none.

Also if its gaming your going for then this will attract a larger audience, people who just want the chance of using an alienware machine. Plus you have the whole "space age" look of the machine, which will look good if its a nifty kind of a place your setting up.

Big thing as well though, their set up down in Athlone, I had a tour of the place when i got mine...very nice so either way you'll be buying irish but alienware is a LOT smaller set up than dell so i'd go with these guys.

Endurance Man

You should really try and build the systems up yourslelf, buying from either these 2 is going to work out WAY more expensive.
Work out what kind of specs you are going to need. Source a wholesaler that can supply bulk for cheap cheap , and then just hire some computer punk off the street to build them, can be done in a few hours .

po0k

Not pimping, but PCPro would build what you need for a fair price afaik.
Mate of mine runs a caff in Galway, they've been his supplier for years so I assume they're decent.

cuaifeadh

Although building your own to spec is probably the way to go in terms of cost there is the thought that you may get more gamers interested in your buisness simply because of the fact that you are using AlienWare. Although they come at a cost...they do have a solid name behind them. Personally, I'd choose an café that used AlienWare over another simply because of the novilty value.

smeggle

SyxPak wrote:

Not pimping, but PCPro would build what you need for a fair price afaik.
Mate of mine runs a caff in Galway, they've been his supplier for years so I assume they're decent.

They are - I source nearly all my stuff from them and in 3-4years have only had to return 1 item, a 250gig hd that wasn't running right. Replacement was with me before I'd even returned the original!

The comps there supplying are more than adequate for what the op requires and whilst not as highend as the alienware, which is frankly overkill for a net caf, like I say, whilst are not as high spec as alienware, they are better than Dell.

They can supply the whole kit and cooboodle as they say, the comps, printers/scanners, networking side of things.

I certainly wouldn't be plonking Alienware computers in front of every tom, dick and mary jo who just wants to
1. read e-mails
2. book a flight
3. do research
4. print some stuff
5. use wordpad or ms office

Those are the most common uses in a net caf. Your not going to get folk coming in and paying x amount to play games for hrs on end, just doesn't happen.

The local nat caf near me uses p3 750-1 gig machines, which may be old but are more than adequate for the above requirements. If I remember right, equipment wise it took approx 5k to set-up and install everything!

I'd say your requirements would be easily accomadated with P4's, with 512mb ram, basic audio card like soundblaster 5.1/graphics card say radeon 128mb, tft screen, dvd-r/rw +/- & cd-r with printer/scanner and xp os (get corparate edition with licencing for all your machines). That would be more than adequate for your requirements.



nb: You need an account with pc pro to order as they only accept orders to trade.

Ri_Nollaig

id go wit alienware and mayb u cud even get a special deal wit them.
there is a place in cork called area51 (was discussed in another thread) that has alienware setups and they r always packed even tho there is a place just down the road that has just as good computer in a standard DIY case. ppl just c the alienware and think better

...or u cud get a load of cheap alienware cases off of ebay and use them fool the lot of them

po0k

Alienware are nothing more than cute plastic fascias on Antec/Chieftec OEM chassis.
Other than that they're bog-standard PCs.
I guarantee you you could build better looking PCs for cheaper.
If the joe-soap tardsumer is swayed by such rubbish, an extra 20-50 quid added to the budget of the case/window mod is a worthwhile investment.

Dathaigh

All,

Cheers so far for your input. We are going to be based in Athlone so being supplied by a local vendor (Alienware) has some advantages (Know who's door to knock on if they jerk me around!!). I also think I am going to get in on the gaming end of things in a pretty serious way - I am designing a separate 'zone' for gamers - total amount of PC's will be 22. I hear y'all when you say it wouold be a bummer if I am looking at an Alienware PC and somebody only doing hotmail on it. But i thinkfolks will travel to see and play them if they are cool enough and have the juice for an excellant LAN gaming tournament. What do you think- would people travel to Athlone to play gaming tournaments?

whyulittle

Dathaigh wrote:

All,

Cheers so far for your input. We are going to be based in Athlone so being supplied by a local vendor (Alienware) has some advantages (Know who's door to knock on if they jerk me around!!). I also think I am going to get in on the gaming end of things in a pretty serious way - I am designing a separate 'zone' for gamers - total amount of PC's will be 22. I hear y'all when you say it wouold be a bummer if I am looking at an Alienware PC and somebody only doing hotmail on it. But i thinkfolks will travel to see and play them if they are cool enough and have the juice for an excellant LAN gaming tournament. What do you think- would people travel to Athlone to play gaming tournaments?

Might be an idea to have a look at this to answer your last question? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=296042&page=1

mar|<

im seriously depressed now, this thread set me up for the fall and once again dublin is left with no area51 standard netcafe. have to stick to spider now,
thier 20xps machines are great but they handle their business a little unprofessionally (their battlefeild is patched with same cd key for one) the price i suppose can justify this. please dathaigh if your successful(im sure you will be) set up in dublin

smeggle

heh first Internet cafs - now Gaming Cafs good one!

G'Luck to ye anyway Dathaigh

budrick

Dathaigh wrote:

All,

Cheers so far for your input. We are going to be based in Athlone so being supplied by a local vendor (Alienware) has some advantages (Know who's door to knock on if they jerk me around!!). I also think I am going to get in on the gaming end of things in a pretty serious way - I am designing a separate 'zone' for gamers - total amount of PC's will be 22. I hear y'all when you say it wouold be a bummer if I am looking at an Alienware PC and somebody only doing hotmail on it. But i thinkfolks will travel to see and play them if they are cool enough and have the juice for an excellant LAN gaming tournament. What do you think- would people travel to Athlone to play gaming tournaments?

there are a couple of reasons to go for alienware and i would say do so,i fix alot of pc's and about 50% of them are dell , not dissin dell or nothing but from what i have seen it seems that dell go for quanity over quality, dell may be cheaper but they won't last (not from what i have seen),they seem to crash quicker ,personally i would go for the alienware ,it might be a little more expensive but an alien pc has yet to cross my path and i have been repairing pc's for 6 yrs,from what i here ,if you give alien the required specs for your pc's ,they will build them to those you require,. as for a gaming tournament cafe ,ireland desperatly needs one ,all you can do is try ,and if you succeed even better , good luck to you ,hope you do well

rogue-entity

Dell will cut you a better deal, because they are so big. What you need are low end machines, machines that dont cost a small fortune. Remember these machines are only being used to surf the net, check email, and office stuff like word and excel. So for the moment assume that you choose to use dell, and bear in mind they are cheaper, you will need to decide on how to secure your machines so that they dont become infested with internet nasties.
My suggestion to you is:
Install Linux on all of your machines, then install firfox and openoffice. These wonderful programs are free. This way you have a solid stable system that wont fall victim to microsoft problems. Linux is more secure, and is perfect for internet cafe systems. Then you have Firefox, light and fast and it does not have the flaws of IE, and finaly using Openoffice is free, so you save a fortune on MS licencing costs.
As for your network, an internet cafe allows people who you dont know to use your internet connection for there own porpouses, the same as if they (your customers) freeloaded on other peoples wifi broadband connections. You will need some sort of logging system, I recommend DansGuardian, you can use it to log all activity as well as blocking access to illegal material.

VeVeX

budrick wrote:

there are a couple of reasons to go for alienware and i would say do so,i fix alot of pc's and about 50% of them are dell , not dissin dell or nothing but from what i have seen it seems that dell go for quanity over quality, dell may be cheaper but they won't last (not from what i have seen),they seem to crash quicker ,personally i would go for the alienware ,it might be a little more expensive but an alien pc has yet to cross my path and i have been repairing pc's for 6 yrs

The Dell / Alienware ratio is probably something like 5000:1 respectively or even more. Belive it or not Ferraris do have mechanical brake downs occasionally but because or their rarity it may seem to your average grease monkey that they are without fault (not to compare aleinware as the Ferrari of computers but you know what I'm getting at .

Its fair enough to say that alienware use better hardware, but this is reflected in the price obviously. As I've said in a previous post a decent Dell will serve your venture as a gaming machine perfectly well for less money.

Why buy a 40 ft truck when you would have only needed a 30 ft ?? Overkill in my honest opinion.

jacksie

meh just go Komplett.ie and do it yourself.. or else Dell.

chump

TBH go Alienware...

You'll need the wow-factor as a new setup.
The kiddies will go wow, look at these stylish pcs in stylish cafe and come on in
Ya have to remember a lot of the users, be they gamers, will be yung-uns and not quite as up on the pc side of things as the guys here
Also it would make a -lot- of sense for alienware to cut you a very good deal, as the place will be an advertisement for them. You could even call it the Alienware Cafe or something. Shure they might even rig you out for free.
You could become a reseller of their machines as well...

Think business buddy

Altheus

Get the Dell XPS system, good service coverage, and spend the difference on getting the 24" widesceen LCD screen.

Altheus

i would go for the alienware ,it might be a little more expensive but an alien pc has yet to cross my path and i have been repairing pc's for 6 yrsl

Well, then you know Dell outsell every other brand of PC in Ireland 9 to 1, and Alienware have only been here for 3 year. You don't need to work that one out.

Dell run a tight ship, and their build quality is second to none, especially with the XPS systems. They aren't particularily upgradeable, but nothing is these days.

Mr.75

Maybe you could drop an email to these guys to see how their Alienware equipment is working out : www.area51.ie

Personally, I wouldn't go for AW stuff, but I have to admit, it looks pretty great to see all those machines in one room.

Skud

area 51 is pretty popular in Cork alright, they cater for everyones tastes. You got the front end pcs for net surfing and the likes which are not the big feck off alienware pcs, laptop station, xbox with giant tv screen and then the alienware pcs themselves. It's the only way to do a net cafe and I've been in alot of them :P

rsynnott

Dathaigh wrote:

All,

Cheers so far for your input. We are going to be based in Athlone so being supplied by a local vendor (Alienware) has some advantages (Know who's door to knock on if they jerk me around!!).

Bear in mind that that company has extremely serious quality control and support issues (google it). They are, of course, also fabulously overpriceced, and very stupid-looking.

blahblah06

Hi mate how much does it cost to set up something like this.. I`ve been wanting to do it for a whle

BloodBath

All,

Cheers so far for your input. We are going to be based in Athlone so being supplied by a local vendor (Alienware) has some advantages (Know who's door to knock on if they jerk me around!!). I also think I am going to get in on the gaming end of things in a pretty serious way - I am designing a separate 'zone' for gamers - total amount of PC's will be 22. I hear y'all when you say it wouold be a bummer if I am looking at an Alienware PC and somebody only doing hotmail on it. But i thinkfolks will travel to see and play them if they are cool enough and have the juice for an excellant LAN gaming tournament. What do you think- would people travel to Athlone to play gaming tournaments?

Athlone eh? I can tell you now not to bother with too many gaming pc's. At least keep them to the gaming area. For lan's a lot of people will have their own pc's. I know athlone well and the gaming community around the area. Anyone with the money to pay for extended periods of play in a cafe already has a pc. The ones that don't won't have the cash to stay long in a cafe. I used to be a regular in techstore, the long running net cafe in athlone. We had a big enough community in there but since the advent of broadband we have all got set up at home. The majority of customers there in the last 2 years have been tourists and regular net users. The fact that most of the pc's in there are **** contributed to the decrease in gamers in there though. Don't let me put too big a downer on it though. I'm sure you could attract a new community with decent pc's and games with good prices. Maybe have a weekly gamers pass for a reasonable fixed price. Remember you will have to buy multiple copies of games for each pc. You will get inspected from time to time. I'd advise you to stear clear of alienware unless they offer you a very good deal for buying in bulk. I'd recomend self build as well tbh. You will keep costs to a minimum, they are easily upgradable and fixable. If you lack the knowledge in the area I could help you pick parts and actually build the machines for you for a small fee. You will have powerful machines for a comparably small price. Beleive me, people won't care what machines you have as long as they run the games well. You can get far more attractive cases than an xps or an alienware these days too. I live just a few miles from athlone.

As for the lan aspect i'd say you could pull in a few for a lan if it was reasonable length and price. One of Ireland's biggest lan's is hosted in athlone though. www.midlans.net The organisers are friends of mine from college. They are starting to pull in over 100 from around the country for their lans. This shouldn't affect you having good local lans with 12-20 people or so. Once you get to know some of the local gamers you will get your regulars. I might be one of them. Good luck with the store anyway. If you need any help give me a shout.

Oh and 1 more thing, get the fastest net connection that you can, especially as much upload speed as you can. This is another aspect that killed online gaming in techstore. Maybe even consider 2 connections. One for the gaming area nad one for the net area as downloaders in the net area will destroy any online gamers and is beyond frustrating.

rogue-entity

Altheus wrote:

Get the Dell XPS system, good service coverage, and spend the difference on getting the 24" widesceen LCD screen.

Dont even consider it. Dell CANNOT build a gaming PC, not while Intel has a strangle-hold on them.

What you could do is:
Get a number of low end Dell computers with flatscreens for internet access, install linux, firefox and OpenOffice on them.
Then get a few high end computers with AMD Athlon processors for the Games, any decent gamer will have an AMD-based computer as it is a well known fact that AMD's chips can outperform an equivilent Intel offering.

the_syco

Place in Leixlip called "Mila" which had decent PC's. Had games nights (9pm till 5am'ish) every 2 or 3 weeks, which had a regular attendance. It was a case of the same gamers turning up. We mostly all had PC's at home, and bb, but LAN's are still fun. Due to a slow connection (fast only for net usage), only one person could play CS at a time online. Only saw a few customers there during the day, tho. There was 11 PC's there. Was good while it lasted (it went out of business. Dunno why).

=-=

Do a minimum charge. Alot of people only use the net for 5 minutes, so do it at least €1 minimum charge, or about 15 or 20 minutes.

Your cafe should be accesible, but not mainstreet. Off a side street is good, far away from the town is bad, but so is on the mainstreet. Also, off the mainstreet is cheaper, thus cheaper charges (maybe €3 an hour instead of €6), so you get more customers.

Games nights every 2 weeks. Once a week is too much, and also a night free of gaming allows people to book it (eg: TCD used to book a cafe in Dublin for an overnight session every month). Games nights can be profitable if done right. Also, drinks & munchies go quickly at games nights

Get Norton ghost, and do an image of your PC. A reinstall of Windows XP takes 35 minutes, and then you have to reinstall everything else. An image takes about 15 minutes to go onto a PC.

Get some internet cafe software, such as MPSoft. Great software. Customers disputes they were on for 3 hours, and not just 45minutes, show them where it shows the time being counted.

For the internet machine's, try to get XP (XP home, cos its cheaper), as XP handles the memory sticks nicely.

Also, get the cheap €200 Dells for internet browsing. 10 of these, or one high end machine. Thats how I'd look at it.

Space. If you have lots, use CRT's (bulky monitors), if not, get TFT's (slim monitors). Its the difference between €200 and €800+.

Cooling. Gaming systems need cool air, or they turn themselves off. So shoved against the wall, under a desk... make sure they have ventalation, or you get unhappy gamers.

=-=

Start off with 15 gaming machines. 15 is a good group of machine's. No need to have machine's standing idle. Get another 5 if you need them. Not enough PC's is better than 10 idle ones. Esp when each idle machine cost you the guts of €2000

As it was said before, get machine's without graphics, and then buy 10 yourself of Komplett.ie Saves you a few bob. Best to buy a system, and cheaply upgrade it, than to have someone else charge you to do it at the factory.

Don't know sh|t about PC's? Look it up, or prepared to get ripped off, as since your running a net cafe, alot of stuff will involve PC's.

IcemanX

I would advise you to go for the Dell. I think alienware are rediculously overpriced. You got some good advice from people here, but bear in mind there are people on this site that give dell an unfair bad rep. Ok their lower end machines may not be amazing but they are good value. The XPS's are really nice and get very good reviews online. If you go for an XPS - especially the new Gen 6, you will not regret it. A mate of mine was considering buying an alienware but opted for a Dell in the end as there was little difference in spec but the Dell was far better value. Its a savage machine and in my opinion looks batter then the Alienware anyway.

Surely if you are buying lots of the you'll get a good discount with Dell. When starting a new business you have to be able to justify your spending. Would spending more on Alienware pc's actaully get you more business? Maybe a little but I doubt it would recoup the difference in price for that many machines. If you have a set budget you could get a better spec'ed dells for the same money as the alienwares. Go for nice 20" screens, they look great and will attract more normal customers.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Endurance Man

IcemanX wrote:

I would advise you to go for the Dell. I think alienware are rediculously overpriced. You got some good advice from people here, but bear in mind there are people on this site that give dell an unfair bad rep. Ok their lower end machines may not be amazing but they are good value. The XPS's are really nice and get very good reviews online. If you go for an XPS - especially the new Gen 6, you will not regret it. A mate of mine was considering buying an alienware but opted for a Dell in the end as there was little difference in spec but the Dell was far better value. Its a savage machine and in my opinion looks batter then the Alienware anyway.

Surely if you are buying lots of the you'll get a good discount with Dell. When starting a new business you have to be able to justify your spending. Would spending more on Alienware pc's actaully get you more business? Maybe a little but I doubt it would recoup the difference in price for that many machines. If you have a set budget you could get a better spec'ed dells for the same money as the alienwares. Go for nice 20" screens, they look great and will attract more normal customers.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

The cruel hand of reason .

po0k

smeggle wrote:

heh first Internet cafs - now Gaming Cafs good one!

G'Luck to ye anyway Dathaigh

????

They've been around for years and years and years. Twas circa 1998 when I stepped into one in Galway, and I was a relative late-comer to the place at that stage.

OP: Unless you get a rather large discount off Alienware, don't buy them. Personally, I think they look cack. There is no performance advantage from getting them. You should be able to negotiate a 20-30% discount on say 30-40 machines for all the free advertising they'd get in their backyard.

po0k

blahblah06 wrote:

Hi mate how much does it cost to set up something like this.. I`ve been wanting to do it for a whle

Property Lease.
Furniture.
Business documents etc.
Machines.
network (equipment, patching, net connection).
Staff.
Heat, light, power.
Food etc.
Decor.

It's pretty expensive if you want to do it right.

po0k

Alienware and Dell "gaming systems" are the equivalent of the Opel Tigra. They're all bought by muppets who want to look flash without knowing what the fúck they're at.

If you really want to "wow" the kiddies, get some nice intimidatingly lit black cases with colour-matched everything. Nothing garish - that'll be a novelty for the first week and bright flashing lights will kill business. Lian-Li or Coolermaster do some really savage cases. Pre-set subtle UV/pale blue/red lighting spilling through the black anodised mesh in the bottom of the case looks alot better than a stupid lump of curvy green plastic on the front of a bog standard **** ATX case.
It's all about the atmosphere. You'll find alot of older gamers will come out of the woodwork too.

Have a word with a few manufacturers around Ireland. If you're serious about a business like this, something to distinguish yourself from the herd isn't a bad idea, and I guarantee there are some system builders who'd sort you out, just give them some specs and ask for 20 of them.

Best bit of advice I saw in this thread was the recommendation for high-quality 20" screens.

StRiKeR

I've seen a internet cafe with all alienware systems, i think its call alien cafe or something, its great attraction I think, but yes it costs, looks good though
i have to say.

ofcos, I build my own, even my own car is rebuild, I dont think the Tigra looks flash or anything special either

but anyhow, its your own decision!

Gonzo

Ive just noticed that komplett.ie can now ship you a computer just like dell or alienware and you can choose different setups....
they seemed well priced compared to Dell with amd specs similar to Alienware

http://www.komplett.ie/k/cc.asp?bn=10306

Dundhoone

SyxPak wrote:

It's all about the atmosphere. You'll find alot of older gamers will come out of the woodwork too.

just reading down through this thread.....I remember a company which setup a few gaming shops around the country , they had a pay for play section with super nintendo and megadrive and used to rent games , must have been circa 1995, cant remember the name though

They had a completely dark room , a few red and blue lights and used to pump in a bit of stage smoke every so often. ridiculous and class at the same time! at least they made the effort on the atmosphere front.

StRiKeR

yea there used to be alot of them in the UK years ago! thats actually before Internet cafes was around