Dell to Buy Alienware?

[metadigital]

Only when you've got a super-duper GPU, then the CPU can throttle the game performance.

[Fionavar]

So what it is the wisdom of the community around Alienware's desktop gaming replacement notebooks and what Dell may or may not do with this line?

[Bokishi]

Dell will make alienware the new XPS line, or something like that.

[Fionavar]

Dell will make alienware the new XPS line, or something like that.

 

I too was thinking that - my concern is does this mean Dell's attitude toward AMD will be an intro of alt cpu/mobos or will this option be limited owing to Dell's current relationship with Intel?

[metadigital]

If you read through the references, and I agree, the position Dell has found itself is quite a pickle. They have an exclusive relationship with Intel (why? can only be for better pricing: nothing else in it for Dell as far as I can see).

 

I think this is there segue into an AMD partnership and the boutique PC market. In the same way that Ford owns Bentley, I don't see them changing the business model in any way. With any luck they will use their economies of scale to invest in R&D to produce some very good kit (like their (US-only) XPS Quad-GPU machines, for example), and even bring some other added value to the table: doubtful it will be cheaper prices (this market being differentiated by performance, not cost).

[Archmonarch]

Rumor defeated days ago.

 

Didn't you hear the CEO of Voodoo started it? Probably wanted to drive business away from Alienware through the Dell stigma.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Archmonarch

[CoM_Solaufein]

Rumor defeated days ago.

 

Didn't you hear the CEO of Voodoo started it? Probably wanted to drive business away from Alienware through the Dell stigma.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It would work to. The purist who like professionally built game rigs would be horrified if a company like Dell or HP bought out Alienware or any other company like them.

[Hurlshort]

Hah, I was fooled! That Voodoo guy is tricky.

[metadigital]

Paul McKeon, Dell Australia and New Zealand spokesman ... questioned the reasons behind such an acquisition, stating that Dell has the potential to be seen as a "cool" company and is more than capable of building viable gaming machines without Alienware's help.

 

"Dell's XPS range already offers better performance and better value than Alienware's machines, and in the XPS mobile concept you've seen the potential of one of the cool new things Dell could do this year," McKeon added.

Nice product placement by the Dell suit. :D

 

I still don't think it is impossible: large companies aquire little ones when markets are rationalised (which they are periodically). Methinks he dost protest too much, but time will tell.

 

More interesting is why Dell hasn't solved its AMD issues, and (more importantly) what it will do to solve them ... maybe the new Intel dual core Conroe will save them from themselves:

Intel takes early lead with Core systems

Tom Krazit CNET News.com

March 15, 2006, 09:00 GMT

 

Chips based on the Core microarchitecture have beaten current equivalents from AMD, but some are sceptical of the Intel-led testing

 

Intel's Conroe desktop processor outperformed AMD's FX-60 in tests last week, but AMD supporters are conceding nothing until systems appear in the wild.

 

Independent hardware reviewers at this month's Intel Developer Forum were given a chance to compare PCs based on Conroe against PCs based on AMD's FX-60 processor, its most powerful chip for desktop PCs. But the tests were done on PCs set up by Intel and run by reviewers from popular hardware sites such as AnandTech, Hexus.net and The Tech Report. They showed Conroe outperforming AMD's chip by about 20 percent, which was in line with claims made by Intel before and during IDF.

...

 

This is going to be a good year for CPUs.

[Bokishi]

New intel cpus run hot!

[metadigital]

Bummer. Hadn't heard that ... strange that architecture based on the Pentium M runs hot, though ...

[Surreptishus]

So it turns out that Dell is buying Alienware.

 

Dell Computers has agreed to buy Alienware, the manufacturer of funky high performance computers and notebooks beloved of the gaming community. The deal, which has been doing the rounds of the blog rumour mill for the past week, was finally confirmed [on the 22nd of March 2006].

Edited March 23, 2006 by Surreptishus

[kumquatq3]

^ yeah, been all over the news today

 

nice "rumor"

[metadigital]

I still don't think it is impossible: large companies aquire little ones when markets are rationalised (which they are periodically). Methinks he dost protest too much, but time will tell.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Time tells!

[LoneWolf16]

One more quality company down...

[Gabrielle]

One more quality company down...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Got that right. Stupid American captialism.

[Bokishi]

We can bash, but truth is that if I was Dell I would prolly do the same thing.

[kalimeeri]

We can bash, but truth is that if I was Dell I would prolly do the same thing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sad, but true. Alienware was too small to be a real competitor, unworthy of a buy-out for that reason. Dell has a big corner of the business market, but are lacking on the gaming front.

 

But with their leanings toward making their own 'proprietary' versions of hardware and their lousy outsourced tech support, expect the quality to go way down while they trade on every ounce of Alienware's rep.

[metadigital]

That's some crystal ball you've got there ...

 

As Alienware are one of nVIDIA's strategic partners for SLI-on-a-chip and the consequent dual-card, quad-SLI machines, I would be a little less sombre. After all, Saab is owned by General Motors, Jaguar by Ford, Mercedes by Chrysler, etc etc.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Another great company bites the dust. Bow our heads in mourning.