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So you can watch the resale value of it plummet as it is superseded both by new technologies and new trends in MMOs?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

[RedACE7500 (904963)]

Is your 1.5 GHz Ram running a 1.21 Jigawatts?

$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:$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

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...

[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: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.

For the Horde!

[Ogive17 (691899)]

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

bye bye karma!

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

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:Ever wonder why it's nicknamed Warcrack?

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

You'll never see Warcraft suntan lotion though.

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.