Dell's World of Warcraft Laptop

Psychor writes "Dell has released a high specification new laptop complete with World of Warcraft branding (Horde and Alliance versions available). With a starting price of $4,499 it's not cheap, but does feature SLI graphics and AGEIA PhysX technology (a laptop first). RAID and solid state storage are also options." Unfortunately for purchasers, the laptop won't boot on tuesday mornings until early afternoon, and some days you just won't be able to log in.

Is this really needed?

[RogueyWon (735973)]

Given that World of Warcraft used to run just fine on my old P4 2.0ghz with 512 RAM and a Geforce 4, why on earth would I want to spend such a ludicrous sum of money on a laptop to play it with? I know that Burning Crusade was a little harder on systems than the original game and that Lich King is likely to be slightly more so, but we're still not talking about a game on the cutting edge of technology here. Even cheap, off-the-peg PCs bought in the last two or three years should be able to run it just fine. World of Warcraft relies more on design than technology for its visual appeal.

Crysis? Sure, I can see that people could need an expensive upgrade to play that (I know I would - although after playing the first 2 hours, I'm not convinced the game is worth it)... but not World of Warcraft.

That said, I can see some redeeming value here, provided they design it so that the Horde laptop randomly crashes and reboots, mysteriously formats your hard drive at regular intervals, sends filthy e-mails to your mother and electrocutes your dog.

Re:Is this really needed?

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

Would the Alliance laptop not be able to boot unless it outnumbered the Horde laptops 2 to 1? ;)

Re:Is this really needed?

[RedACE7500 (904963)]

The Alliance laptop would need a higher level laptop to help it boot up.

Re:Is this really needed?

[antifoidulus (807088)]

So you can watch the resale value of it plummet as it is superseded both by new technologies and new trends in MMOs?

Re:Is this really needed?

[rucs_hack (784150)]

When you get to the step 4, the parts are of no worth to anyone.

I disagree, they have a use. For example, I've still got my old ZX Spectrum. I showed it to my son last year, and he asked me in all seriousness where the dvd's went in. Then I mentioned the memory capacity (oh how awesome 48k was back then..) and he looked at me like it was time for me to visit the 'special' home.

Ok so the use was to make me feel old and look silly, but it's still a use..

Re:Is this really needed?

[mgblst (80109)]

One of the reasons I keep my son locked in the basement until he can learn to program 6510 chip. Maybe in a couple of years I will let him on to the 386 (come on, I am not heartless, no 286 for him).

Re:

[twistedsymphony (956982)]

I know how you feel... "but... I spent $500 on that 4meg hard drive!"

Maybe us /. posters should pool all our old equipment together and open a chain of computer museums.

Re:

[AnotherUsername (966110)]

Do you really think that getting all these slashdotters together in the real world is healthy? I mean, online is one thing...but think of the children...

Re:Is this really needed?

[by Anonymous Coward]

That said, I can see some redeeming value here, provided they design it so that the Horde laptop randomly crashes and reboots, mysteriously formats your hard drive at regular intervals, sends filthy e-mails to your mother and electrocutes your dog.

A $100 copy of Windows XP on any computer will do that just fine.

Re:

[Blakey Rat (99501)]

"Is it needed?" - that's a really stupid question about any article in the video games topic.

No, it's not needed. It's designed to play a video game. Duh. And for the record, you're right, the hardware in this laptop isn't needed to play the current version of World of Warcraft effectively.

However, if you read the article, it also comes with a lot of WOW-related merchandise and swag and for many people I think it'll be worth the cost. Hell, you have WOW players who'll spend $4500 on monopoly money, why not

Re:

[corifornia2 (1158503)]

It comes with a Golden Ticket to get a FigurePrint of your character, a WoW backpack, novels, trading cards, an LCD stat screen(!!!) and a little guillotine to castrate yourself with to ensure you never get laid!!!

Re:Is this really needed?

[RedACE7500 (904963)]

Is your 1.5 GHz Ram running a 1.21 Jigawatts?

Re:

[RogueyWon (735973)]

Or perhaps a Crysis/CoD4/anything-that-might-actually-challenge-a-modern-PC branded uber-laptop, mmm?

It's no secret that its the fps market that drives the top-end gaming PCs market. MMORPGs such as WoW are generally designed to be relatively undemanding, to maximise the player-base. A cynic might suggest that it is those who are time-rich but cash-poor (to put it euphemistically) who are the most reliable market for these games, so forcing an expensive upgrade doesn't make sense.

Re:Um...EVE, anyone?

[murdocj (543661)]

Yeah, sometimes we're playing with friends and they have to take a break because one of their kids had a nightmare or some such.

Of course, the kids come in handy, apparently one of our friends is upping her fishing skill by "letting" her child fish.

Re:

[geminidomino (614729)]

The last challenge after getting any number of characters to level 70 for an old school RPG/CRPG/MMORPGer like myself is multiboxing. For the most part WOW is pretty dead easy. Its designed to be that way, very much like the original CRPGs.

Five'll get you ten that that it was a Bizzard marketroid in disguise who started that trend... When you're finished with the game, instead of letting your 'scription lapse, you BUY ANOTHER ONE!

The Ferengi would be proud...

Re:

[gknoy (899301)]

.... and once again I misclick the Submit button instead of Preview. Can I get a -1 mod on the parent, and I'll re-post with better formatting? :D

---- what I meant to say was ... -----

Given that World of Warcraft used to run just fine on my old P4 2.0ghz with 512 RAM and a Geforce 4, why on earth would I want to spend such a ludicrous sum of money on a laptop to play it with?

Native laptop resolutions, I suspect.

My home system is an Athlonxp 2200, with a 6600GT. It's somewhat old, but was pretty much Just

$4500?

[RandoX (828285)]

For that price it should come with a lifetime subscription. Actually, it might just be cheaper to switch to meth.

Re:$4500?

[securityfolk (906041)]

Nah, $4500 in meth-dollars is ~1 year (or substantially less), and you'll only *think* you're a level 70 warlock ;)

Re:

[PlatyPaul (690601)]

Well, assuming you take one hit per day, and using the numbers found here [kci.org], you'd be looking at a cost of $5640 per year for your meth enjoyment.

Hmm - new laptop, internet connection, subscription fees, expansion packs... it's a toss-up, really.

Re:$4500?

[Peter Cooper (660482)]

You mean, as opposed to the millions of fat, bearded slobs on WOW who are "level 70 warlocks" for real? :)

Re:$4500?

[hackus (159037)]

As a Non Fat, Local bearded slob Level 70 Warlock, I find myself offended.

Siphon Life, Curse of Agony, Corruption and Immolation on you!

Your going to die any minute now....

-Hack

Re:

[cecil36 (104730)]

I'd rather spend this amount and trade in my car for FOUR WHEELS OF FURY!!!!!

Yikes!

[slap20 (168152)]

Wow plays fine on my current machine, and it would be nice to play it on a laptop, but for $4500.00 I can pay a sherpa to carry my desktop where ever I go.

Oh, wow...

[PlatyPaul (690601)]

LEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY'S laptop!

(click here [wikipedia.org] if you didn't get it)

This laptop makes a real statement...

[by Anonymous Coward]

"I'm going to die broke, and a virgin!"

Re:This laptop makes a real statement...

[192939495969798999 (58312)]

Q: What kind of hooker you can get for 4500 dollars?
A: The kind that will make you wonder why anyone would spend that much money on a WOW-branded computer.

PS: that's 1 4500-dollar hooker, or 4500 1-dollar hookers...

Re:This laptop makes a real statement...

[TommydCat (791543)]

PS: that's 1 4500-dollar hooker, or 4500 1-dollar hookers...

Or 2250 Two Dollar Hordes?

Hmmm

[scubamage (727538)]

Given that it basically comes with both collectors editions (either of which can fetch upwards of 1200-1500$ on ebay), as well as a beta ticket for upcoming betas, this is a pretty good deal. I wish I could afford it. Not just for WoW either, with a physics accelerator and the SLI'd graphics this a pretty beastly desktop replacement.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

ermm... why would the CE edition of Burning Crusade fetch upwards of $1200-1500 on eBay? Last I checked, my local Fry's still had stacks of the things for standard retail price.

Re:Hmmm

[scubamage (727538)]

*shrug* I see people spending tens of thousands of dollars "pimping their rides" when a gremlin or a pinto can do the job. I enjoy what I enjoy, and its not really important what anyone else thinks about it. Crackheads spend their money on crack, audiophiles spend their money on audio, movie buffs spend money on movies, I'm a gamer and I choose to spend my money on a game. To each his own.

Battery life?

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Anyone know what sort of battery life this thing gets? : p

Re:Battery life?

[beavis88 (25983)]

It has a battery?

Re:Battery life?

[navygeek (1044768)]

Doesn't really matter. Once it dies you just have to wait for it to respawn at a graveyard and run back to your desk.

Re:Battery life?

[Pop69 (700500)]

It's not actually that ba

Ever wonder why it's nicknamed Warcrack?

[downix (84795)]

Egads, this is getting rediculous. Eventually they'll start selling the Warcraft car, the Warcraft home, and even the Warcraft refrigerator, so you never have to give up your Warcraft addition for pesky things like driving to the grocery store or having a life.

Re:Ever wonder why it's nicknamed Warcrack?

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

You'll never see Warcraft suntan lotion though.

wow..

[seheart (1137717)]

Are you kidding me? I like Dell's cheap machines and love Warcraft, but if you wanted to sell a lot of them, they wouldn't price them so high. You're trying to sell these to gamers not investment bankers. Way overpriced.

WOW mouse?

[threaded (89367)]

Does it come with a WOW mouse? I guess it would look something like a hedgehog on steroids...

Raid Options

[QuantumRiff (120817)]

Rather than just raid 0 drives, they also have an option for a 64GB Flash drive, and 200GB second hard drive. This looks like an interesting idea. Get the speed and power savings of a flash drive, and the second drive can spin up and store more when you need it to, then go back to sleep.

The rell Dell WoW laptop

[ACMENEWSLLC (940904)]

Dell has a Vostro for around $800 US right now which would play WoW very well.

Go here;
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1500?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab [dell.com]

Select the smart buy unit and customize the video card & select the 8600GT with 256MB of RAM. Bare in mind this is the DDR2 and not the DDR3 version, so it's not a super quick 8600GT but it's plenty fast for WoW.

The normal site has it for $729 right now. Corporate customers can get a better deal.

Take it to a 2.0Ghz dual core, 2GB RAM standard, the 7200 120MB HD, BlueTooth and the webcam -- a better gaming build, and you are just under $1000.

That's one hell of a deal for decent casual (not extreme) gaming machine..

Re:

[ACMENEWSLLC (940904)]

Yea, that's the point. If you just want a decent laptop which plays WoW, and don't want to pay insane amount of money then that's your laptop. Throw some WoW stickers on it and viola.

SLI Video?

[tji (74570)]

I have never actually played WoW, but I have seen others playing it, and the graphics didn't look like they were all that intensive.. Does WoW really need the high end SLI graphics capabilities?

On that Dell laptop, what accounts for the ridiculous cost? The basic specs didn't look like anything exotic.. 160GB 7200RPM drive, 2GB RAM, 2.2GHz Core2Duo, not exactly pushing the limits with that.

The only exotic pieces were the SLI video, and the "physics accelerator". Would those two things really add $2,500 on to the price of a laptop?

For the Horde!

[Ogive17 (691899)]

So for Horde fans in this thread, is getting modded Troll a complement?

bye bye karma!

Good call!

[hemorex (1013427)]

Right! We need physics acceleration for a game that doesn't even have hit-box collision... I think I'll keep playing on my dinosaur PC, thank you very much.

FigurePrint

[uigrad_2000 (398500)]

The best part of the deal is not described well on the Dell site. You get a figurine of your character in a snow-globish type of thing. Still overpriced by my estimation, but important none-the-less. Here's a video showing the FigurePrint:

FigurePrint Demo [youtube.com]

This blog [wired.com] says that you'll also get a special in-game pet. Those who don't play WoW don't understand how much value people put on such things. Many people buy blizzcon tickets ($100) each year just to collect the in-game pet from that year.

Re:Best summary ever?

[SevenHands (984677)]

How can you tell a WoW addict apart from the rest of the geeks? They don't bother calling in sick on Tuesdays!

Re:Hmph..

[faloi (738831)]

I think it boils down to which battery was used. Sony batteries are obviously from the goblins.

Re:Huh?

[Evangelion (2145)]

It's not that arcane. All the WoW realms go down most tuesdays for regular maintenance.

Re:Huh?

[KeatonMill (566621)]

Tuesday mornings (US time) are when Blizzard does weekly maintenance on its servers. As for the logging in, the authentication server occasionally crashes meaning that while players who are already logged in can continue playing, no one else can start.

Re:

[Chi Hsuan Men (767453)]

There's no reason other than bragging rights and honestly in computer games, It doesn't matter at all

Last time I checked the entire WoW community revolves around the concept of possessing the biggest, shiniest, chock-full-of-stats l00tz. Furthermore, WoW players will pay hundreds of dollars for a card containing an unlock code so an purple monkey with wings and horns that serve no purpose other than to follow their character around.

While there may not be any reason other than bragging rights to own