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Games Entertainment Hardware

Gaming PC Makers Take Aim at Lucrative Niche 485

Posted by michael from the old-age-and-treachery-beats-youth-and-megahertz dept.
Cymage writes "Yahoo (Reuters) reports that gaming PCs are now a high profit area, and that the bigger players (Dell, HP) are trying to get into the market: 'In an age when a new PC can cost just a few hundred dollars, an adolescent need for speed is creating a profitable niche for souped-up gaming computers at the ultra-costly end of the market.' How many people really spend $5,000 on a gaming machine? Mine cost less than $2,000, and I can play UT2k4 and others on it just fine."
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Gaming PC Makers Take Aim at Lucrative Niche

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  • $2k huh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by ack154 ( 591432 ) * on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:06PM (#9337055)
    Well mine cost $1000 and will play UK2k4 just fine... so there! :p

    • Re:$2k huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by neiffer ( 698776 ) * on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:11PM (#9337140) Homepage
      Mine costs 500 and it plays UT2004 just fine as well. What it comes down to: there are always people out there that will pay for fancy hardware when something much more simple will due. Remember, there are lots of people who buy fancy sports cars and SUVs who drive to the store and soccer games.

    • Re:$2k huh? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by snuf23 ( 182335 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:16PM (#9337207)
      Truth is that Unreal 2004 doesn't require a monster gaming box to run decently. It runs just fine on my son's p3 850 with geforce4 4400.
      A better question is how Far Cry runs, as thats about the only current game out that brings machines to their "knees".
      • I'm running FarCry at 1280x1024 with everything set to max and feeling very comfortable. My box is this little baby [shuttle.com] with a gig of dual ddr, a 2.8Ghz 800fsb P4 overclocked to 3.2Ghz with an ATI AIW 9800pro and a WD 120gb 7200 with 8megs cache...total cost? Anyone who pays more than that for their PC is a fool.

        P.S. Its not just a gaming box, i do all my work on it too, just in case someone thinks i'd spend $1500 to play games.

      • I always wondered why people are using UT2004 as a benchmark. While the framework is, imho, the most advanced architecture out there right now, the actual rendering engine is just a holdover from 2k3, which wasn't the most spectacular thing either when it came out, but at least wasn't old news.

        On another vein - does this mean mobo manufacturer are gonna start putting decent chipsets in their onboard sound and video finally? I'm sick of having to have two video cards in my computer - one shitty Trident or

    • Re:$2k huh? (Score:3, Informative)

      by SphericalCrusher ( 739397 )
      Yeah, it doesn't really take that much. The computer I have is five years old, and although I've upgraded it over the years... just the thought of a five-year old PC running UT2004 a lot better than most stock store PCs makes me laugh.

  • No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thebra ( 707939 ) * on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:06PM (#9337065) Homepage Journal
    "With price tags from US$2,000 to $5,000, the market is luring heavyweights..."

    I can't see myself paying that much for a gaming machine. I can buy a PS2/XBOX/GAMECUBE for less than 200 dollars. I could even buy all three and a decent amount of games for each system for less than 2,000. I know, they can only play games but isn't that the point of a gaming pc? I wouldn't want to put my gaming pc on the internet, because then I would have to worry about viruses, which means I have to install a firewall, virus scanner etc which would just slow down my game play. A gaming system works like it should. I don't have to make sure I have the newest video card, all games will work. It plays games with no blue screens, drivers to intall, or patches. Not to mention its easy to stick in my car and play where ever I can find a tv.

    I just want my phantom console. [infiniumlabs.com] :)

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Informative)

      by nizo ( 81281 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:11PM (#9337138) Homepage Journal
      Yep, thats why I bought my PS2 when my old DVD player broke. I was sick of trying to get games to work under MS Windows, plus my daughter could now play while I got work done on my PC. And considering I have only had something like 3 crashes with the PS2 in the year and a half I have owned it, I am a pretty happy camper. Plus now they are selling the PS2 with a network adapter.......

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TrueBuckeye ( 675537 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:11PM (#9337143) Journal
      Yes and no...

      The gaming abilities of a pc still far outreach any console, except perhaps in sports games (NCAA Football 2004 > The only reason I bought an X-Box). I personally hate first person shooters on consoles, give me my mouse and keyboard any day.

      And if your system is slowed by a virus scanner to the point where it effects your gaming, do what most gamers do...disable real-time protection while playing. A hardware firewall in no way shape or form effects gaming speeds online.

      So yes, you are right about the costs related to each, but it also matters more what you can do with the systems and what kind of games you want to play. Sports and platformers? Go console. Flight sims, First person shooters, Strategy, etc go for a PC.

      And I have build a very good gaming machine for less than $600, so the cost question falls even further.
      • Not to nitpick, but I think you probably have an unusual idea of what's "very good" if you could make it happen for under $600. I don't think it takes $5000, or even $2000, but I don't think I'd be able to play anything I'd want to play at resolutions and color depths I'm interested in seeing for so little green. Heck, just a "very good" (not the best) video card will run you most of $300. (Merely adequate ones can of course be had for less.)

    • Re:No thanks (Score:3, Funny)

      by Kenja ( 541830 )
      You can also get an Atari 2600 for around 10$. Whats your point?
      • You can also get an Atari 2600 for around 10$. Whats your point?

        Well I'm wondering what your point is... The parent is comparing the top of the line computer with a top of the line console, not a 20 year old console.

    • Independent games? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tepples ( 727027 ) * <tepples.gmail@com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:14PM (#9337173) Homepage Journal

      Console drawback #1: Closed bootloader. Without a modchip or a buffer-overflow exploit, the consoles cannot run games from studios that aren't yet big enough to attract a Major Licensed Publisher's attention. Imagine a CD player that can't play CDs from outside the RIAA [magnetbox.com]. Modchips violate the DMCA and foreign counterparts, and non-hackers would find it even harder to set up a buffer-overflow exploit (as seen in Phantasy Star Online for GameCube and MechAssault for Xbox) than to set up a dedicated gaming PC.

      Console drawback #2: No widespread support for keyboard and mouse. Many players prefer to use a keyboard and mouse for some game genres such as shooters and battlefield simulations, but console games tend not to try to read them, even if you have a keyboard and mouse hooked up through the PS2 or Xbox console's USB port.

      • ithout a modchip or a buffer-overflow exploit, the consoles cannot run games from studios that aren't yet big enough to attract a Major Licensed Publisher's attention.

        This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I know many of the wippersnappers here are too young to remember it, but Nintendo began this trend after their original NES system was spammed with tons of crap games. Just about every "game company" was building a boring rip-off game of some sort (anyone remember Karate Kid?) and selling it for $$$.

        Nintendo knew that poor quality of titles was what killed the Atari 2600 (E.T. anyone?). Thus they implemented a "Nintendo Seal of Quality" for their NES system. This worked well as a stop-gap measure. Then when Nintendo released the Super-NES, they used a combination of legal and technical tactics to make sure that only games that passed strict Nintendo quality standards were released to the public. This was mostly successful, so Nintendo tightened up again for the N64.

        The end result of all this is that there were very few "bad" games released for the Super-NES and N64. Sure, Nintendo pushed a family friendly, "cartoony" style, but the games really were fun. Many other console manufacturers decided that this was a worthwhile strategy and have followed Nintendo's lead with various degrees of success.

        • If the console makers tend to license only developers with an existing track record, then how can a new development firm bootstrap itself? And how can a console game use user-created modifications?

        • This mentality is leading to the death of 2D games on consoles.

          Once the vendors had the control you describe, they couldn't resist using it for more than guaranteeing the quality of games... They also used it to make it difficult to publish games that they percieved as making their systems look "old". Because of that the GBA is the last bastion of 2D games, and you can be sure they'll pull the same crap with the next generation of handhelds. Soon we'll live in a world where console games are either first p

        • Re:Independent games? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by miyako ( 632510 ) <miyako AT gmail DOT com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:19PM (#9338089) Homepage Journal
          Unfortunately, what worked oh-so well for the SNES was one of the major reasons for the ultimate lack of relevancy the N64 had, and now the relative obscurity of the GameCube.
          While Nintendo has focused on quality, Sony looked to sheer number of titles for sale, and it would seem Sonys approach worked.
          If you walk into a store and were to pick up any random game for the Game Cube, chances are that, assuming it was a genre you liked, it will be a good game. Not so with the PS2. The thing is, while games for nintendo systems, especially games produced by nintendo themselves, tend to be very refined and lots of fun, they are rarely revolutionary.
          Don't get me wrong, I love all my nintendo consoles dearly, but if they want to compete with Sony they need to loosen up on what titles they will release (though it looks to me like nintendo is not looking to compete directly with Sony and MS, and is instead seeking a niche market. The relationship between Nintendo and Sony is much like that between Microsoft and Apple I think, with Sony gladling pushing out gobs of mass market games, while nintendo caters to it's own niche of enthusiasts)

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tenebrious1 ( 530949 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:17PM (#9337223) Homepage
      I can't see myself paying that much for a gaming machine. I can buy a PS2/XBOX/GAMECUBE for less than 200 dollars.

      Yeah, but that PS2/XBOX/GAMECUBE isn't gonna do much for you at the big gaming convention. That's where I've seen the most expensive machines, and yeah some of them probably spend $2k-$4k customizing their systems. But there's the problem, they're spending big money on the customization, they probably don't want an HP or Dell 'solution'.

    • PCs are better gaming machins...sometimes (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gorbachev ( 512743 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:17PM (#9337227) Homepage
      PCs are better than video game consoles for certain types of games, mainly strategy and RPG games.

      Until video game consoles come up with good replacements for the keyboard and mouse, that fact will remain.

    • Re:No thanks (Score:3, Informative)

      by Alkaiser ( 114022 )
      Well...honestly the only people I can see doing this are people who aspire to be pro gamers, or people who have TOO much cash on their hands.

      The new Alienware ALX systems look really, really nice. Factory overclocked, factory water cooled, and they got some new graphic array where they're having one video card render the top half of the screen abd the other render the bottom, or quadrants or what have you.

      They looked great at E3...however...Paying upwards of $4,000 for a machine that's going to be outdat

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Travoltus ( 110240 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:17PM (#9337230) Journal
      Yes, but you can't download or create mods, no single player cheats, and you can't get online afterwards and post about it in forums (consoles don't have keyboards or mice to browse the web). You will never play UT2004 Jailbreak on a console. Due to the inherent architecture and draconian control console producers inflict upon their systems, superpopular mods like Counterstrike would have never been available on a console until the standalone was released.. have they even released the CS standalone for any console?

      Consoles are horrible for RTS and FPS games, and all games produced on consoles require a large amount of simplification (a severe reduction of complexity and therefore depth: see Deus Ex IW). Consoles are great for fight games like Tekken, though.

      PCs are flexible. The bugs take a lot away from it, but flexibility will always win in the end, and due to the console makers' need to control how the users use their products, they will never have flexibility.

    • Re:No thanks (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Patrik_AKA_RedX ( 624423 )

      I wouldn't want to put my gaming pc on the internet, because then I would have to worry about viruses, which means I have to install a firewall, virus scanner etc which would just slow down my game play. A gaming system works like it should. I don't have to make sure I have the newest video card, all games will work. It plays games with no blue screens, drivers to intall, or patches.

      I agree, consoles players really miss out on all the fun.
      Seriously, back when Doom was new, I had the most fun with messing

    • If you think the gameplay, resolution, and adaptability of regular console games are enough, then more power to you. All you need is a word processor.

      But for the rest of the gaming crowd, FPS tweaks, modifying textures, sounds, levels, physics, gameplay, and aftergame mods like video capturing, and pushing hardware to the limit rule the day.

  • About time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by netfool ( 623800 ) * on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:07PM (#9337072) Homepage
    Great, but why did it take them so long to figure out that people don't need new 3GHz Dells just to run word processors and internet explorer (at least until MS Longhorn comes out...)?

  • the people who buy these (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:07PM (#9337079) Homepage
    It's simple. The people that buy pre-tweaked gaming PCs are people that want to play games but don't want to build the machines themselves. Those people DO exist, you know.

  • $5K? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:08PM (#9337091)

    How many people really spend $5,000 on a gaming machine?

    It takes a lot of horsepower to run TuxRacer at full speed...

  • Hurray for Fatwallet and overclocking... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Andorion ( 526481 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:09PM (#9337105)
    I bought my Athlon XP 2200+ and ECS motherboard for $70 from fry's, 1 gig of ram for $200 after rebates, and a Radeon 9800 non-pro for $150. Overclocked the cpu to 3200+ speed and flashed the 9800 to a pro. A new large hard drive will cost you about $100, a decent case + power supply $50, and all the "other stuff" maybe $100 total.

    That's under $800 for a top-of-the-line system, when I got it.

    People who spend $400 on a 512 meg ram module because it does 2-2-2 timing are just dumb, and have money to burn.

    ~Berj

    • Re:Hurray for Fatwallet and overclocking... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hawkbug ( 94280 ) <psxNO@SPAMfimble.com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:05PM (#9337915) Homepage
      Ok, a few things..... First, you said decent case and power supply. Yes, you can get a case and power supply for $35 - $50 using sites like www.mwave.com. However, if you give a crap about your system and plan on putting in a kick ass video card later, don't ever use the power supplies that come with these cases. They will underpower your whole rig, and then you'll be sorry when you have to replace the motherboard due to bad power. Read this article, and you'll understand a lot more about power supplies and why free ones with cases are bad:

      Power [firingsquad.com]

      Second, I agree with you that memory is not as important as some people pay for it, but still, 2-2-2 memory is faster than the standard stuff you get, and does indeed improve performance if the rest of your rig is able to keep up already.
    • I was about to go to a big anual LAN party in my area when my second 256 stick of DDR died. Having had just got a new Dell workstation in the office with 2GB ram I figured nobody would notice over the weekend if I borrowed 2 512 sticks (to run in dual on my nForce2 of course). My 2 256'ers were CAS 2.5, the 512'ers were CAS 3. I actually lost 20 FPS in UT2003 because of the ram. I figured that doubling the ammount of ram would equal out the "minor" speed difference.

      Long story short I went to the lan par

    • Re:Hurray for Fatwallet and overclocking... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In other words, for $800 you bought a bargain basement motherboard that might be untrustworthy (leaky capacitors?), half the CPU performance, 1 GB of unreliable no-name RAM (does it even pass memtest86?), overclocked it (is this thing stable at *all*?), and a PSU that probably drops voltage when doing anything 3D. If you aren't paying $80 or more for a PSU alone you aren't spending enough.
    • You are either genuine in your beliefs and a bit naive or you are master at the subtle troll message and are in fact mocking the clueless among DIY builders (of the type who might make a career of selling at Future Shop/Best Buy).

      I bought my Athlon XP 2200+ and ECS motherboard for $70 from fry's

      An Athlon XP 2200+ is certainly an adequate performer and an ECS motherboard will do the job, but the old adage "you get what you pay for" still applies. Buying most ECS boards is like buyng generic at the groce

  • How many, indeed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Atario ( 673917 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:09PM (#9337106) Homepage
    How many people really spend $5,000 on a gaming machine?
    You don't need to sell very many $5,000 machines to make a load more profit than selling N $500 machines.

  • Why pay so much (Score:2, Insightful)

    by xzanthar ( 543209 )
    About a year ago, I built my own system that was quite comperable for one of the high end Alienware computers of the time, and my cost was about 2000$ less than what Alienware was charging at the time, I don't see why one would pay 5000 for a system they can get for significantly less if they find someone who can put togeather parts for them.

  • Speed freaks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fig, formerly A.C. ( 543042 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:09PM (#9337111)
    The graphics and CPU supremacy races have really gotten the hardware ahead of the software. If you want all the bells and whistles, you'll need an uber rig, but even 2 year old components will run new games just fine. UT2K4 still runs great on my 2600XP and original GF3 card...

    Of course, most premade systems are still "lacking" for serious gaming, and not everyone can "roll their own" computer.

  • Hardware that is free (Score:3, Funny)

    by darkCanuck ( 751748 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:10PM (#9337130)

    Perfect timing for that "Hardware will be free" rhetoric of Bill and Scott to take form.

    :)

  • it's about insecurity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:10PM (#9337131) Homepage
    I almost started a business doing this once. Then I saw Falcon Northwest and Alienware and realized that there wasn't room in the market for another one.

    I figured that as PCs became commoditized and as commonplace as your average toaster that the elitists of the world would want some way to stratify PC ownership. Same reason that there are Kias, and there are Porsches. The small-penis crowd needs to validate itself through what it owns.

    • Re:it's about insecurity (Score:5, Funny)

      by Dutchmaan ( 442553 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:16PM (#9337215) Homepage
      The small-penis crowd needs to validate itself through what it owns.

      Well I have a small penis and I don't care what kind of car *I* drive, so THERE!
    • And the small-minded crowd needs to validate itself by bragging about dick size. That's something little kids do. Who's more immature?

    • Re:it's about insecurity (Score:5, Insightful)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:55PM (#9337756) Journal
      ...the elitists of the world would want some way to stratify PC ownership. Same reason that there are Kias, and there are Porsches. The small-penis crowd needs to validate itself through what it owns.

      Maybe you could squeeze a little more blatant envy in there, but I doubt it. Unless you're willing to contend that driving a Kia is the same experience as driving a Porsche, that's a pretty meaningless statement.

      Look, the difference between a Kia and a Porsche is about $50,000 (give or take).
      If $50,000 is a smaller % of my income than the "fun factor" I'd get out of driving it, then I'd buy a Porsche. Yes, for *some* people that fun-factor has to do with gratuitous exhibition of wealth, I suppose. But I know quite a few guys that have Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc. that DON'T drive them around daily but only for fun on closed circuits or on rallies. How is this explained in your penis-exhibition theory?

      Likewise, I have a good system - not cutting edge but top of the line when I built it 18 months ago. I don't put my system specs in my .sig, I don't share this info around anywhere generally (or here specifically in case you'd think I'm metaphorically waving my member around). Why do I have it? Because I play some games (WW2OL is a good example) that really do play better with high-end machines and the horsepower = better graphics, higher screen resolutions, fewer stutters, etc. Simply put: more fun. And the fact that it's a high end machine doesn't mean I want to flaunt it, it means that I can afford it within my budget of discretionary $$, at least equivalent to the fun I get out of it.

      Sorry, but I'm just so sick of this class envy crap. I know it's a political year and we're all getting class-war propaganda dumped on us by one party 24/7, but still....
  • My gaming rig is also excellent at video editing -- two hobbies of mine.

  • Like any industry... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by l33t-gu3lph1t3 ( 567059 ) <arch_angel16.hotmail@com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:13PM (#9337166) Homepage
    Like in any industry, there will be the ultra-highend enthusiast niche. Alienware, VoodooPC, Falcon NW, and others have been catering to these kind of users for years. Any commentary about pricing is pointless: these people pay big bucks to get bragging rights to the fastest, most tricked out, and beautiful (damn, that alienware case is gorgeous) machines money can buy.

    It's the same in many industries, especially the automotive industry. Any commentary about how "it's different with cars, they aren't obselete in 3 years" is pointless: the automotive industry's pace of improvement and innovation is much, much slower than the PC industry's.

    And just like with cars, we have nerds who buy honda civics and rice them up with neon lights, big, loud heatsink fans, awesome paintjobs, spoilers, etc etc. (case modders if you're dense).

    • One difference being: this industry is young (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:20PM (#9338096)
      Any commentary about how "it's different with cars, they aren't obselete in 3 years" is pointless: the automotive industry's pace of improvement and innovation is much, much slower than the PC industry's.

      A big, simple reason innovation in cars (or airplanes, or coffee makers) is slower than that in computers: computers are still a young industry. Bill Gates likes to use this sort of comparison by way of arguing that MS hasn't stifled innovation: "If airplanes had changed as much between 1980 and today as computers, they'd fly us cross-country for 50 cents in ten minutes," that kind of thing. But all those other industries changed at a vastly higher rate when they were young too. Flying machines changed an awful lot from Santos-Dumont's balloons to World War I to the German jets at the end of WWII, in every imaginable way, right?

      But back to your point: Cars won't be obsolete in 3 or 5 years, and that difference really isn't "pointless." If I trick up my Civic, it'll be out-of-style in three years, but it'll get me there on the gas they sell at SA. With a gaming computer, I can spend through the nose and be below box specs for some of the games that come out next year. Partly that's just the young industry again. But you know, you can still find places to land your biplane.

      Between the gaming wonks trying to one-up each other and the game studios whose idea of innovation is better texture effects in FPS titles, the lack of imagination is pretty amazing. You'd think this would be such a creative thing, games, but instead we get the equivalent of U.S. blockbuster movies over and over again. You'd think the wonks would at least show some individuality in their tastes... Car geeks and EAA airplane kit builders are a lot more interesting, for my two cents.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:14PM (#9337171)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • No kidding. I wish I could find some of these people. I keep a running list on several different models of PC's I build for friends/relatives. Unfortunately, everyone wants the el-cheapo, minimum RAM, 15" Monitor, pirated Windows, free-labor, $500 special, and NO ONE wants the nice, 1GB RAM, 19" Flat Panel, RAID-ed, $2000+ models, where I could at least make a few buck off them. *sigh* Maybe I should advertise or something.
  • The people that would plunk down the coin for one of these boxes are not interested in "just fine"...a lot of these same people probably spend thousands of dollars on aftermarket parts for their '98 Honda Civic to squeeze 5-10 more HP out of the engine, not because they actually need it to win races or anything semi-practical like that, but so they can win the pissing contest after class with the rest of the guys at their high school.

    Why do you think that AlienWare PCs ship with benchmarking software prein
  • well http://falcon-nw.com/ [falcon-nw.com] are the guys who originally did the gaming pc.
    I have done the tour when I lived there in Ashland and worked at project-a and those guys do make them right..

  • Alienware Overkill (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zygote-IC- ( 512412 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:17PM (#9337225) Homepage
    I admit, I've bought two Alienware computers in recent years. They're stylish and after years of building and tweaking, I just wanted something cool out of the box.

    But I got a link [alienware.com] to their new ALX line in my mailbox yesterday and about fainted when I got to the bottom line.
    Price: $4,799.00
    As low as $144 per month!

    For that price it should not only run games well, it should go ahead and finish Half Life 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Doom III and go ahead and port over Halo 2 all while I sleep.

    • Re:Alienware Overkill (Score:5, Insightful)

      by skiflyer ( 716312 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:30PM (#9337414)
      Including their $48 "heavy duty" power cable, and their $21 10-foot ethernet cable.

      As cool as some of the features on that box look, those two details make me think rip-off.

      Any builders out there able to tell us an estimated cost of building this one themselves?

      • I didn't try to get through the flash-soaked link, but my sig has my latest (April) journal entry for my dream desktop PC. It's a Dual Opteron, 1 GB ram, 9800 Pro, RAID-ed, 3-flat panel monitor setup for under $6K.

        Now, it's about time to update it again, since the next generation of video cards are out, and 2GB RAM might actually make a noticeable difference. These things will add a few hundered dollors to the price, but you still have to keep in mind that this also includes $2K worth of monitors.

        So bas

    • Re:Alienware Overkill (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Zed2K ( 313037 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:48PM (#9337663)
      "As low as $144 per month!"

      Ok, if you have to apply for credit to buy a PC you don't need to buy that PC. Computers are one of those things that if you can't afford to pay for it all at once then you shouldn't be buying it. This isn't a car or a house.

  • Good comparison: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kissing Crimson ( 197314 ) <jonesy&crimsonshade,com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:18PM (#9337241) Homepage
    Admittedly, comparing computers to cars is usually pretty weak. However...

    There is a good comparison here. A (new) US$15000 will drive on any road the same as just about any other car.

    There are people who just want a car.

    There are people who will, as another poster commented, buy Honda Civics and modify them to the point where you can no longer recognize them.

    There are also plenty of people who will buy very expensive sports cars that have already been modified. Not every driver who wants to go fast is a mechanic.

    Not every teenager who wants a fast gaming machine is a geek either.
  • I don't think most people buy a new PC when they want to play the next bleeding edge hardware requiring game. I atleast, upgrade one component at a time. One month I get a new video card, the next month I get a better motherboard (with CPU and memory for it if my old ones won't work on it), etc. I upgrade a little at a time to stay current.

    No one with half a brain will want to spend $3k on a Dell with a non standard motherboard foot print (LPX or NPX or whatever its called where the daughercards all go

  • 5k? ummmm no. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by TheHonestTruth ( 759975 )
    I spent $3,500 on a "gaming" PC from gateway back in 1998. It wasn't marketed as one, but I got the high end graphics card and speakers, and tricked it out with the fastest processor and maxed out the RAM. It took 4 years to pay it off and when I had, I had a beat up PC that crawled along and couldn't run crap. That's when I learned my lesson. I could have taken the 3.5k and spent ~$1200 each year and a half and be better off. I will NEVER pay for a "high end" PC again. Unless I win the lottery. And even th

  • Here's an alternative plan. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:20PM (#9337274)
    About 5 years ago, I built a 233 Mhz Pentium II machine for about $500. Each year, I put $100 - $200 into hardware upgrades and I have a machine that will very comfortably play today's games (ex. Tron 2.0, Vice City, UT2K4) and I still haven't spent more than $1500. On top of that, I was able to Frankenstein some parts from the old computer and buy a $30 case/power supply and I now have a spare computer that can read e-mail, surf the net, and play games along the age of RA2, Quake 3, and UT.
  • ' How many people really spend $5,000 on a gaming machine? Mine cost less than $2,000, and I can play UT2k4 and others on it just fine."

    I could see how it could happen. Just yesterday I saw on another forum a bunch of gamer geeks with more money than sense who wanted to rush to buy "on-sale" (but not even out yet) ATI X800XT Platimum Edition video cards for $450 to replace their $450 to $500 top end ATI 9800XT cards they bought a month or two ago! And with that mindset you just know that come Septembe

  • My new gaming RIG (Score:5, Funny)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 ( 718736 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:21PM (#9337289)
    Boy, nothing beats my new gaming rig. I'm kicking ass with my new Plantronics 16 color card. My new 1200 Baud modem [cyberroach.com], with Smartcom I and Y Modem error correction- it realy screams, as I just upgraded from the 300 version.

    My new 10MB hard drive sure beats the hell out of my Tape Drive, and the 64K ram upgrade should be all I ever need, especially since my 8088 comes in at a whopping 4.77 MHz - kick ass! I get 2 FPS on Ultima I, and I just found the EXOTIC ARMOR. Not to mention Zork is as smooth as silk.

  • Who needs a $50,000 luxury car?
    Who needs a hummer?
    Who needs a sports car that can do 150 mph?
    Who needs to spend $25,000 on aftermarket parts?

    Cars make the best parallels here but you can do this for a lot of other industries. Some people want the biggest, best, fastest, and most powerful. For some people its about material possessions, others its about showing off, others its insecurity.

    The bottom line is that people with money are willing to part with it by buying hugely expensive things that they don'

  • Can the brain percieve the differences? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by forgetmenot ( 467513 ) <atsjewell.gmail@com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:45PM (#9337623) Homepage
    I just a bought a new graphics card and ended up choosing a low end card that seems to work great.

    Part of my decision to not buy something better was basic psychology.. It's like how the average human brain can't percieve the difference between a 90watt and a 100watt light bulb.

    Sure the high end card can pump out a shit load more FPS - BUT.. can my brain detect that difference? While the difference might be apparent between a really low-end vs. a really high-end, what about between two cards toward the high-end? Is it really worth the extra $100 for the best card on the market if a cheaper card differs by less than 10% FPS and consequently you don't notice that difference?

    I've always stayed toward the lower end because I don't think the performance gains in a high end machine are worth the extra $$$ especially at the current rate of obsolescence. I upgrade when the cost of doing so falls to less than a $100.

    I'm not a psychologist though and my understanding is really limited to the classroom discussion of lightbulbs. I would be really interested if a more knowledge person replied and explained if I'm on the right track or pulling thoughts out of my ass.
    • I would be really interested if a more knowledge person replied and explained if I'm on the right track or pulling thoughts out of my ass.

      Depends on your definition of a "low end" graphics card. Without saying what card/chipset you bought, it's impossible to make a realistic judgement call.

      If it's an ATI Radeon 9500 or better, or an Nvidia FX-anything then you're somewhat ok. They have virtually all the features of the latest and greatest cards, but are slower. The slower bit will bite you sooner or late

  • I see a dangerous conflict of interest (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zaqattack911 ( 532040 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:47PM (#9337649) Journal
    Lets say Dell actually started funding video game development. IT would be a friggin disaster.

    They would force they programmers to ensure that new games don't run on old hardware, so DELL could bundle crap, and cram $4000 dollar PCs down peoples throats who are intested in playing the awesome new game.

    Pretty much what MS did with Halo.

  • Real gamers build their own (Score:4, Informative)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:15PM (#9338052) Journal
    And they are a LOT less expensive. You can build a SOTA machine for $2000. Only a moron buys these machines that have 2-3-4x markup on parts. Want to know how to build a machine?

    First, decide what parts to use by looking at Tom's hardware or some other site you trust that builds extreme machines for testing the latest components. This is where you get your template.

    Then go to Pricewatch [pricewatch.com] and maybe froogle [froogle.com] to find the lowest prices on the components while double checking the vendors reputation on Reseller Ratings [resellerratings.com].

    Finally, have a friend who has a little experience come over and put that beauty together.

    I spec'ed out a top of the line Alienware machine against building my own with the same or better components and cut the price by more than half.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:20PM (#9338110)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • The Fact Is (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bannerman ( 60282 ) <curdie@gmail.com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:34PM (#9338248)
    A high powered rig *will* make you perform better in a resource intensive game such as Dark Age of Camelot, where the computer must render hundreds of characters and effects simultaniously at a high framerate to keep you in the battle. I play on a 3GHz P4 with a gig of ram and a Radeon 9800 pro, and I still have some trouble in certain situations with a large number of players. And yes, my system is *very* clean.

  • Consumers don't understand hardware (Score:3, Interesting)

    by miyako ( 632510 ) <miyako AT gmail DOT com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:34PM (#9338253) Homepage Journal
    I think the reason that companies can get so much out of pre-fab gaming machines is that people don't understand what hardware does what.
    While many hard core gamers and definitely the slashdot crowd knows how to put together a good gaming PC on the cheap, the majority of the people who are going to be buying these machines really don't understand the difference between a hard drive and a video card.
    My cousin bought an hp pavillion about a year ago (against my recommendation, but that's irrelevant now) the specs on it were:
    • 1.2gz celeron
    • 128meg PC100 SDRAM
    • 56k v90 modem
    • 20gb hard drive
    • some sort of non-3d accellerated 8mb video card
    • yadda yadda yadda
    well the other day he went and got Final Fantasy XI and couldn't understand why it wouldn't run. Instead of calling me, they decided that they needed a faster "modem" and "more hard drive" so they went and paid some exorbant amount of money to have a v.92 modem and a 250gb hard drive installed.
    When the game still wouldn't install, they finally called me because someone had told them to go buy a new Alienware machine so they could play final fantasy on it, and they wanted to know which one to buy.
    I ended up going over and just upgrading the ram to 512meg and trading them the GeForce 4 I had in one of my machines that is now a server for the cheapo video card.
    The point is, I suspect that a lot of high end gaming rig sales come from consumers who really have no idea what they need.

  • My Friend's $10K PC (Score:5, Funny)

    by cl0secall ( 449952 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @03:41PM (#9338342) Homepage
    A friend of mine spent closer to $10K on his gaming rig, buying not only a completely new system from the ground up using only the newest and highest-end (read: most pricey) hardware, but also the highest end set of 7.1 surround speakers he could get.

    I believe he's running an Athlon 64 FX processor but other than that I don't know too much about his system.

    Here's the best part:

    We're having a LAN party at his place this weekend and he's not even going to be playing. He very rarely uses his PC at all, let alone to play games.
  • Just yesterday I priced out a very high end gaming machine for $3k (the CPU alone, no monitor / keyboard / mouse etc -- sweet p4 3.4 EE / 2 GB corsair / 2x200GB SATA Raid 0 / heatsink etc. / sweet case / 550 Power / ATI x800 256MB)

    That $3k computer worth of parts can only be made possible by knowledge of the system and optimized for performance by mastery of hardware tweaking and overclocking.

    The $400 machines for sale on Dell take relatively little knowledge to put together. The expensive machiens by vendors such as Alienware include much more knowledge about the interworkings and optimizations of the individual parts.

    Since duplicating this knowledge is free, that is where the profit to be made is.

    The only problem I would have with this is the people who will be wasting their money buying these high end gaming machines when they only need the mid range Dell machines.

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