Alienware. Worth it?

There are many reasons to buy a professionally built computer. Some people prefer a high end machine and others prefer the economic version to suit there minimal needs. For some of us who play video games though, the higher end personal computers are much more attractive. Whether it be the casing it is housed in or just the hardware inside, the high end machines like the Alienware ALX X58, a Falcon Northwest Mach V or the VoodooHP Blackbird are just what we need. There is one slight problem though, the cheapest one being the Blackbird cost $1,500 USD. Now, your paying for labor in these machines, but how much are you really being charged for said labor? As a forewarning, all numbers in the post are USD currency and are subject to change. Anyone looking to use these same parts should do the research themselves, as this is just a baseline.


Alienware ALX 58
The standard Alienware ALX X58 will cost you a staggering $3,699 USD. The most notable parts being the Intel® Core™ i7-940 running at 2.93 GHz with an 8MB Cache, one 1,792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295, and 3GB DDR3 SDRAM performing at 1600MHz. Since Dell acquired Alienware in 2006 they have been able to buy computer components in massive quantities, and rightfully so, prices have come down on these high end systems, believe it or not. The question is though, if you were to acquire all of these parts and assemble them yourself, how much would you save? Lets list them out.

"All parts are of equal performance to the ones inside said machine."

The XFX GTX 295 will run you $529.99, while the Intel Core i7-940 CPU will set you back $559.99. The set of 3 sticks of Patriot Viper SDRAM DDR3 will put you back only $79.99. Wow, so for the three main components, we've only been set back a third of the price. The ASUS Motherboard that seems to be a perfect fit cost $229.99 and the two hard drives adding up to 1TB of storage space will cost 139.98. A 1200W PSU from from Thermaltake cost $400.00, but in my opinion, this is way to much power needed for this system. Without Tri-SLI, this computer will never suck down enough power, but for the sake of being scientific, we'll go by the books and get exactly what you would with Alienware. Now funny thing here, Alienware requires you to purchase a gaming mouse and keyboard. Gone are the days when they just send you two pieces of junk and you bought your own separately. What I'm saying is, Alienware is requiring me to buy a peripheral that I haven't touched and isn't that the point of a peripheral? With the basic model of the X-58, A Logitech G-15 is included and costs about $80.00 and the RAZER Lachesis costs another $79.99. Now by this point, anyone with any knowledge of a computer is going, "What the Hell? What am I gonna put this thing in a shoebox?" Your right, but Alienware doesn't just sell there cases out to anyone. So a quick stop by eBay has them selling an Alienware P2 Full Tower(the commonly used and sold case for a ALX X-58) at $250.00. Now without tax or shipping(Alienware shows the retail price before both as well), this seriously only costs $2349.93. By ordering the parts, separately you save $1349.07, or enough to go out and buy a nice 1993 Ford Mustang with a 5 litre 8 cylinder engine, AND STILL HAVE MONEY LEFT OVER. This is a no brainer for anyone out there that doesn't have a trust fund. Go online, find a guide on how to build a computer step by step and save yourself the money.

Falcon Northwest Mach V
Falcon Northwest, known best for there amazing flash based website and rediculously cool hand painted cases, actually seem to be worth the cost. To the best of my knowledge, Falcon Northwest is privately owned, and this has drawbacks but at the same time had advantages. First, because they are privately owned, they provide better customer service, for example, they want to talk over the phone before you purchase the machine you built from their website to make sure your getting exactly what you want. There is only one drawback, as being privately owned, they can't tap into a massive pool of capital like Alienware can and buy massive amounts of part in bulk. This may, although not confirmed, drive up the price of their parts.

Now, to go over the prices again would bore you, the gist of this Machine is that it will cost you about $4,900.00, but that includes the custom paint job of your choice. Although, the case painting costs you near $1,000.00, but the main reason you buy a Falcon Northwest in my eyes is to get a custom paint job that looks bad ass that you can show off to your friends and brag about at local LAN tournaments. Obviously, you can't just order a case from them, that would hurt there sales. You end up saving about the same amount of money as you did with the Alienware and same with the VoodooHP Blackbird. It seems for these companies to stay in Business they must overcharge, which I guess is just business as usual these days.

My advice to anyone reading is to go out there, and seriously consider building your own personal computer. For myself, I did it, and I couldn't be happier. I've been using this computer I'm sitting on right now to game and I still haven't had any major problems. OK I switched to Vista, but other than that, no problems! Save yourself a ton of money if your going to purchase a high end machine and build it yourself.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing off.