Dell is buying Alienware

[Boyd Ostroff]

http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/23/del...markets08.html

"Industrial design and hip branding are two important factors in the high-end consumer and gaming PC segments, and quite frankly, Dell lacks in both these areas," the analyst said in a report Thursday. "Alienware brings these qualities, along with a loyal customer base, to the table."

[Paulo Teixeira]

I guess Dell is feeling a little pressure from Apple, so they were forced to do something about it.

[Brendan Bhagan]

Dell is already jumping in the VERY high end market

http://www.dell.com/html/us/products.../renegade.html

Alienware will just add to it all but I hope Dell doesn't kill them off or change their great work.

[Giroud Francois]

it is not good for alienware.
As every big guy, Dell is coming into a new market (with Renegade) and start to eat (kill ?) the little competitor.
There is few doubt they will keep the Alienware name since they build the strong DELL already.
They will probably keep just few knowledge of them (from the marketing point of view) and get rid of the remains.

[Ron Evans]

Probably needed a way of using AMD processors without losing face!!!

Ron Evans

[Zack Birlew]

One word.... "AWESOME"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is going to be really good for us all. Alienware, though with shoddy tech support, does make great PC's. Dell is a little more mixed with its tech support, yet makes terrific PC's that are stable as heck. So, we should expect better PC construction overall and better hardware as Alienware has dealt in the modding side of computers with their custom cases and watercooling adoption.

I know some of you may not think either company is worth a dollar but that's not the point. Both companies have their pros and cons and as far as tech support goes, they have their good and bad people. Let's just hope they get all the good people from both camps and they combine the best features of each company's style of computers.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

Probably needed a way of using AMD processors without losing face!!!

Interesting article here: http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/24/tech...tune/index.htm

I pressed Dell in the interview on whether with Alienware in the fold, the company might be more inclined to use AMD chips in other parts of its product line. He wouldn't answer directly but several times pointedly repeated the phrase "We don't have an exclusive relationship with Intel."

And this is amusing:

Dell has not done many acquisitions, and Alienware is the largest thus far measured by revenues, the chairman said. But he said the purchase price (which the company has not revealed) was "less than one day's sales" for Dell.

[Glenn Chan]

"We don't have an exclusive relationship with Intel."

An exclusive relationship would likely go against antitrust laws... Intel has been in lawsuits about that lately.

2- Dell has built computers with AMD processors in the past for a few large customers that specifically requested.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/...opteron_1.html

Related story:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/fee...fx2347168.html (nov. 2005)


Anyways, more widespread use of AMD processors (and even VIA, powerPC) in PCs would be a good thing... competition would bring down prices and/or improve quality.

[Darrin McMillan]

Can't say I'm a huge Dell fan..At one time they put out an ok product. I worked at a college that had over 40 brand new dells..It was not a good experience to say the least. Should be interesting to see how they mess Alienware up.

[Gary Bettan]

I posted the following in the Avid Liquid user forum. Thought you guys may find it good reading as well.

I gotta tell you guys, I think this is exciting news.

Dell:
We've been sending customers to Dell for workstations since the DC1000 first shipped. Long time Pinnacle users may recall i actually scanned in my Dell reciept so that you could config and buy the exact same system I was using. At the time it weas my first experience running NT, and I gotta tell you, I learned so much. Back then Dell tech support for Precision workstations was amazing. My system came with a serial number that I would enter via the phone and immediately get into tech support. The guy ont he other end would have my exact config and a log of all my tech calls. It was funny, becasue after about 6 months hetold me during one tech call that he learned a bunch from me, and he had become the goto guy in Dell support for video capture card related issues.

Unfortunately Dell service and support are not at that level anymore. Ina ddition at times Dell has gotten very sloppy with their workstation builds and configs. We had a customer buy 3 Dell workstations for NLE and all 3 had different BIOS versions and graphics drivers. Over the lasat year this situation has improved, and we are giving Dell workstations our highest recommendations.

Alienware:
I've always been a huge fan of these guys. In fact, I would have to admit that our DIY2 Big Blue project was inspired by Aliewnware and their high end gaming systems. Their laptops are amazing and we've been recommending them for NLE for years. I think Dell is a very snmart company and they will keep the Alienware brand and leverage it. The high end gaming machines are 2 ir 3 times as profitable as the typival Dell home computer. WIth Dell buying muscle behind tham Alienware will be able to reduce costs and still make killer machines.

Dell also now gets an instant AMD relationship. By being a major partner for both, they'll be able to tap into all the latest & greatest technology first. They will also play Intel & AMD agaianst eachother, so you know they'll get better prices and even cooler integration/ tweaks / perfomance. Some of this should trickle down into benefits for video editing.

Liquid:
Liquid runs great on both Dell & Alienware machines. Now you'll be able to get it on either a hi-end gaming amchine, a workstaion, or a home computer. Or you can order a computer form these guys and still buy Liquid from your favorite NLE dealer.

Liquid & GPU is a big theme on this board. Dell makes a Quad GPU machine, Alienware tweaks GPU to a level few others can match, and they can also do it on a laptop. I think you're going to see some wild performance here. Maybee the Liquid team can even start using these killer machines as part of the testing and developement cycles.

Conclusion:
None really, just that I think it's a very exciting time for the industry, Liquid & Avid. We're seeing consolidation in all aspects of our industy. Avid bought Pinnacle, Dell buys Alienware, Adobe buys Macromedia, Seagate buys Maxtor. I'm of the mindset that this is good thing. We're in the midst of a major technology change to HD. We need strong healthy companies that invest the needed R&D and marketing to push things forward. Very intersting times ahead. I can't wait for NAB!

Gary

[Peter Jefferson]

great just what we need.. more BLOATWARE

I think i'll stick to my custom turnkey systems which are cheaper, more reliable and can handle anything and everything my clients throw at them...

[Gary Bettan]

Great point about the BLOATWARE.

I can't believe how much unnecessary, CPU hogging, performance hurting software comes pre-loaded on commercail computers today. It's down right ridiculous. For digital video - it's beyond frustrating because these stupid apps can and do create conflicts and performance issues.

Gary

[Chien Huey]

Originally Posted by Darrin McMillan

Can't say I'm a huge Dell fan..At one time they put out an ok product. I worked at a college that had over 40 brand new dells..It was not a good experience to say the least. Should be interesting to see how they mess Alienware up.

Dell is actually capable of building great products and providing excellent support... if you're they value your business. When I was a Windows/Linux System Admin for a large company, I found their enterprise server products to be among the best designed systems. Also, my company had their Silver support contract and the support was great. The tech stayed on the phone with me while I went back and forth bet. my desk and the data center (don't ask me why we didn't have a working phone in the DC). And he gave me his direct line and extension to call him back if the replacement part didn't work!

Granted, the Silver support contract and our servers cost way more than your $500 Celeron system. So you really can't blame Dell for not providing that level of support to most Home users. Incidentally, we ran Dell Optiplex workstations also and we didn't get that level of support.

What's likely to happen is that Alienware will stay the same in the short-term. Long-term best case scenario is Dell brings their economies of scale to Alienware (bringing costs down somewhat - but don't hold your breath, Alienware-class systems are still going to be 3-4x your "normal" system). Support-wise, Dell's capable providing excellent support, it's just a matter of whether or not they feel it's profitable to provide "enterprise-level" support to someone who bought a souped-up desktop/laptop.

[Peter Jefferson]

"Dell is actually capable of building great products and providing excellent support... "

keyword is CAPABLE... but do they?? as far as i see, their units are overpriced and underpowered.. here in aus anyway.. oh and another thing, their sales guys know jack about the systems their selling..

as for me, id like to know exactly what make of HDD im using, i want to know the type of ram, coz i sure as hell wont use that generic crap..
the PC industry (ie the commercially built PC industry) feeds off consumer ignorance.. sometimes i wonder whether i should jsut get into PC building.. lol