It's been a while since Dell's acquisition of Alienware, one of the best-known gaming-dedicated PC brands. Ever since the news hit the streets, local gamers have been salivating at the thought of getting their hands on Alienware's machines - high-end, purpose-built gaming rigs that are considered the Rolls Royces of computers. Fitting, for a company that has the slogan, 'Built by gamers, for gamers'.
With both gaming laptops and desktops on offer, gamers needn't be tethered to their desks, either. And, thankfully, it's with both form factors that Dell will enter the local market - just what its founder, Michael Dell, would want, as an avid gamer himself.
Local gamers, with deep pockets, can choose from a selection of three Alienware gaming laptops. The 11-inch M11x, the 15-inch M15x and the 17-inch M17X are on shelves at Incredible Connection stores, starting today.
The baby of the range is no slouch, though, boasting 1GB of video memory, Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, up to a 640GB hard drive and up to 8GB of RAM. The 15- and 17-inch models scale accordingly, with the latter laying claim to the title of “most powerful gaming laptop in the world”. At around R32 000 I'd expect nothing less.
Alternatively, R22 000 will net you a 15-incher and the M11X is a more palatable R15 000 - not bad for something the size of a netbook, but still capable of running games at high resolution and keeping the frame rate about 60 frames per second.
Desktop offerings are also on the cards, though none are currently in stores. But Dell's being clever about this and will let customers use the Dell or Alienware Web sites to configure the machine they want, and that quote can then be taken to an Incredible Connection store where they'll place the order and arrange delivery.
The Aurora ALX comes with integrated liquid cooling, room for two 1.5GB graphics cards (from either Nvidia or AMD), dual hard drives and, should the mood strike you, can be set up with 24GB of RAM. That's one way to make your IT manager think about why he's skimping on RAM in the mail server.
Built-to-order systems can be delivered in just 21 days - and Dell claims the landed prices should be pretty close to the converted dollar price.
Completing the Alienware experience is a full range of accessories such as keyboards, gaming mice and displays. All Alienware computers ship with a load of premium extra, including a leather-bound owner's manual, and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 come pre-installed. Another software extra is a hardware command centre, used for controlling temperature, fan speed, overclocking and other parameters.
Now it's just time to justify spending R50 000 on a purpose-built gaming machine, or renovating the kitchen and making do with your plain old R10 000 DIY upgrade job. Choices, choices.
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