Is Dell buying Alienware?

When we heard a couple of weeks ago that Dell might buy Alienware, we dismissed the rumors -- especially since one source was Alienware competitor VoodooPC. However, CNET is now reporting that the deal may already be done -- though they admit that they currently have no confirmation. CNET did speak to an Alienware PR exec, who provided a written statement that read, in part, "at this time, Alienware will not comment on any speculative stories or rumors concerning Dell and Alienware's association." Dell, of course, has spent heavily to build its XPS brand as a high-end alternative for gamers, and purchasing Alienware would automatically give Dell a major share of that market -- though it's unclear what would happen to the XPS brand under such circumstances. At this point, however, it's all guesswork -- though we wouldn't mind picking up a discontinued XPS Renegade in Dell's outlet if the deal goes through.

[hmurchison @ Mar 14th 2006 12:44PM]

What a lateral purchase.

Alienware doesn't offer anything that can't be built (desktop)

Adding them doesn't suddenly make Dulls any better. Alienware...LOL

[Robert @ Mar 14th 2006 12:48PM]

I hope to God Dell does not buy Alienware. I wanted to buy a high quality Alienware in a year or so, not a dirt level dell pc. I hate dell like I hate Gateway. It's like windows millenium edition all over again...UGH.

[TZK @ Mar 14th 2006 12:49PM]

Dell is considering buying ALIENWARE so they can have a stake in AMD CPUs without actually admitting their brand [DELL] is committing to using an alternate CPU to Intel in their PCs.

End of story.

[StammesOpfer @ Mar 14th 2006 12:57PM]

This makes sense for Dell they would instantly gain credibility among the gaming community assuming that they don't ruin the brand plus the margins on those high end computers is amazing I can build most of alienware systems for about 60% that is without any volume discounts just imagine the margins Dell could produce especially when the systems are going for $5k each

[DJ @ Mar 14th 2006 1:01PM]

Dell created XPS to be a higher end or "luxury" brand first, gaming alternative second. Goal number one was to make life miserable for Sony's Viao line. I have purchased an XPS 400 desktop for my kids and an M140 laptop for myself. Both were actually the best values anywhere and throw in the 18 month free financing, it was a no brainer.

[JD @ Mar 14th 2006 1:03PM]

I hope it is not true. I love alienware and hate dell. It really wouldn't make sense. it would be like honda buying ferrari.

[Ryboy @ Mar 14th 2006 1:06PM]

Maybe this is the first way for Dell to get into AMD.

That would be awesome, and with some of Dell's amazing deals and alienware style, this MIGHT be great for gamers.

If they stick with intel, then this will just be a slightly improved xps line, which doesn't interest me at all for about the next year, until maybe conroe.

[Galls @ Mar 14th 2006 1:08PM]

Great so now dell is going to ruin alienware by throwing there version of XP in it with all its "features" that slow down the machines ability to run at full speed.

[PJ @ Mar 14th 2006 1:10PM]

I think this is brilliant. Cheap Alienwre PCs. I love Alienware, and I like Dell. But if this is true.. I'll LOVE dell.

[Douglas @ Mar 14th 2006 1:10PM]

Alienware was certainly Dell's biggest competition in that market. Those that "poo-poo" Dell have other reasons than service/support or performance offerings.

[hj @ Mar 14th 2006 1:13PM]

What a waste. Alieanware systems are so overpriced they're a total waste of money and offer nothing that can't be built. What dell should do is start offering AMD CPU's in their XPS desktop line only.

[jonl @ Mar 14th 2006 1:14PM]

#5. Fiat owns Fararri. Most of the top car brands are owned by a larger 'duller' company. Dell owning Alienware wouldn't automatically make Alienware rubbish.
The fact that Dell might buy them shows they are leaders in what they do, why would Dell jeopardise that?

[DJ @ Mar 14th 2006 1:18PM]

"It really wouldn't make sense. it would be like honda buying ferrari. Posted at 1:03PM on Mar 14th 2006 by JD"

It almost happened. (This probably belongs over on AutoBlog)

At one point when Ferrari was under severe financial pressure, Honda tried to buy them, but the Italians said No Way! It could have been awesome...merging the top two engine builders in the world, along with two of the top F1 programs.

[OxyMormoN @ Mar 14th 2006 1:18PM]

#5, honda didn't buy ferrari.

Fiat did.

[Joe Smith @ Mar 14th 2006 1:21PM]

Hehe, maybe I won't buy a MacRosoft after all:). Maybe it would be great to get a $4000 Alienware PC, but with a 40% off coupon code.

[Ant @ Mar 14th 2006 1:22PM]

How about this. It would be like Kia buying Ferrari.

[dylan @ Mar 14th 2006 1:24PM]

i thought that they did because their websites look an awful lot alike.

[MrHoju @ Mar 14th 2006 1:30PM]

I would hope that, if Dell is purchasing Alienware, that they do a couple of things...

1. Make sure that the two brands have their own unique identities. I don't want to see a Dell Alienware or something like that... that will kill the brand equitey Alienware has.

2. Not load Alienware with the Dell OS... that kills performance and hurts #1.

Still... it isn't the end of the world and actually might be good for the two companies. That is, if they can keep the two brands separate.

[TEB @ Mar 14th 2006 1:32PM]

atleast honda makes reliable cars... unlike dell with thier pc's!

[Joe Smith @ Mar 14th 2006 1:38PM]

Hey, Mike Dell. I know you're reading this, so I have something to say: I second Mr. Hoju's opinions. You gotta keep the two brands completely separate (but then, add some of those nice coupons to the Alienware PCs on a site such as ecoupons.com). With this move, you've proven to be a smart guy, and I hope you keep being intelligent.

[The Mole @ Mar 14th 2006 1:42PM]

I blogged about this a week ago. It makes a lot of sense. The computer market has become a mature market in the same way that the car market has. In the U.S. there is heavy saturation and there won't be a lot of growth in the consumer PC line anytime soon. For Dell to continue to grow they need to start buying up niche computer companies like Alienware and maybe some high-end media PC vendors if that ever catches on. Dell is going to be the first of the Ford Motors or GM'esque supercorporations to really change the PC industry from a fairly competitive business to an estabilshed ologopily(just like we have with car manufacturing). Sure, there will be some small competition, but Dell/HP/Gateway will probably end up being the 3 PC manufactures that control 90% of the market.

[Scott @ Mar 14th 2006 1:43PM]

While the deal would absolutely help Dell in the high-end gaming PC niche market, this deal just doesn't make sense in terms of Dell's business model. Dell has always been a budget, direct to consumer business. They often wait for techologies to become commoditized, get deep discounts on that hardware, and benefit from the direct to consumer model (and subsequent lean supply chain). Alienware, on the other hand, is on the fore-front of new technology.

If they were going to go ahead with the deal, they would probably leave Alienware alone to operate as it always has and under the Alienware brand - but then take advantage of whatever synergies that might exist...who knows

[Till @ Mar 14th 2006 1:53PM]

This might not be all bad as we could see some of the advances that Alienware has made appearing in some of Dell�s cheaper desktops/notebooks, also this acquisition could mean further Alienware developments.

At the end of the day who knows what will happen, but what I do know is that condemning the idea before anyone actually knows what Dell�s plans for Alienware are (e.g. as stated above this could purely be about gaining a stake in AMD CPUs without changing/effecting Dell�s current deal with Intel) is dumb.

Also a merger at the luxury/gaming end of the market, making one brand/company stronger than others could result in the other competition (such as Sony) innovating more which can only mean a winning situation for consumers.

Till

[SRD @ Mar 14th 2006 1:56PM]

All your people praising alienware are funny. They have some of the most shoddy products on the market. Their laptops are horrible and their technical support is one of the worst in the industry. Go over reseller ratings and read some of the reviews. You pay for extended warrantys from them and a year later you need a part replaced they say we no longer have that in stock we cant help you. They make dells customer support look like gods.

[SmartA @ Mar 14th 2006 2:10PM]

Agreed with SRD. If the two would continue to market under diffent names and it'll bring prices down I'm all for it. Most importantly would be to improve on Alienware's horrible customer support.

[XGM @ Mar 14th 2006 2:21PM]

I think im gonna shoot my self now... Relly i was gonna buy a Alienware laptop soon, Athlon FX-60 with dual SLI 7800's. But now with Dell i guess a good laptop would be impossible, alienware you dissapointe me very much :(

[jcg @ Mar 14th 2006 2:28PM]

Dude, dell is getting Alienware

[MrHoju @ Mar 14th 2006 2:29PM]

The Mole

Agreed. Dell needs to find ways to grow their business and buying Alienware would be the way to take a major chunk of the ultra high-end gaming market.

Regarldess of reviews of Alienware... ALienware commands the money-is-no-object gaming niche. Of course you can build a computer for cheaper that is comprable to Alienware... but Alienware isn't after that market. They are after people who want a high end gaming rig out of the box... Dell doesn't really have a lot of footing in that market.

Besides... where else can Dell innovate? They have already streamlined their inventory and manufacturing process... they have a great low to mid range offering. Whats missing? The high end.

[C.J. @ Mar 14th 2006 2:31PM]

*Barfs*

[djd @ Mar 14th 2006 2:42PM]

....I sure hope Dell keeps it's reciept! (or buys the EXTENDED warrenty)

DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE.
My first PC tower was from Dell way back in �99, and it NEVER failed me. And had I not scavenged its hardware for another tower, it would probably still be working to this day.
But Alienware� Oh man�
Admittedly, I kinda brought it upon myself because while doing my review research, I kinds ignored the MASSIVE number of bad reviews of Alienware, and their Customer Support, and wished to just listen to the paid-off raves, and company propaganda.
I bought an area51m laptop, in Oct '03, and by Sept (after it arrived a month later) it took a week for the video card to die. Luckily I bought the 3-year warranty.
The second vid card took a month to die, which they replaced.
Then the third video card lasted 6 months, which died and took the laptop with it. When I sent it back again, they replaced the mobo & vid card, and sent it back to me with the speakers NOT PLUGGED IN! (And yet somehow on their 'quality checklist' they said sound worked...right...
So back it went. They plugged the speakers in and sent it back....WITH A CRACK IN THE SCREEN!!
So it went back YET AGAIN, and this time it came back and the lid wouldn't latch shut without excessive pressure on the edge, and the laptop would blue-screen after being on for 30 minutes and shut the laptop down. (And I don't mean a nice windows shutdown...I mean like someone pulled the power cord and battery...all of a sudden just DEAD.) After which the laptop would REFUSE to boot unless you removed the battery & AC power, let it sit for 3 minutes and THEN boot it up (rinse & repeat adnauseum).
Finally the latest problem that I've been putting up with is that the vid card overheats if the laptop is on for more than 45 minutes.
.... I�m not talking hardcore 3D games either... I'm talking using FIREFOX, or just WORD! (With the graphics settings set to the absolute LOWEST setting!)
Alienware is NOT worth the money, and hopefully if Dell DOES buy Alienware before October, I'll actually get some good service when I give them a call.

Till then...buy yourself a can of spray-paint and some sand-paper if you want a shiny paint job, because that's EXACTLY what you�ll be paying for with AW. Crap components with an overpriced paint job.
Oh and did I mention the 45 minute battery life (TOPS)? Yeah�
I don't know about Dell's XPS, but I can�t see it being worse than AW's steaming coiled piles of ..... yeah.
STEAR CLEAR and go with the SAFE bet...Dell.

...Or be sure you are WELL VERSED with your state's LEMON-LAWS, and DOCUMENT ALL returns/repairs/replaces/problems etc.


(VERY) Unsatisfied Customer.

[fischju @ Mar 14th 2006 2:59PM]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[AW DELL @ Mar 14th 2006 3:00PM]

Alienware... what a joke. I got a laptop from them in Feb 03. one year later to the day the display just stopped working. Turned out a flash to the bios fixed it, which I found no thanks to customer support. I find it highly suspect that a bios issue arises the day after the warranty lapses.

THEN more recently The jack where you plug in the power supply is broken! Something came loose allowing the cord to wiggle around while still plugged in... the worst part is it sparks up. Anyway this has caused the battery to not charge and unless the cord is in the exact right spot the laptop shuts down.

Shoddy construction on the laptop thank goodness I know how to sodder.

Alienware's construction sucks right along with their customer support. Save yourself the trouble and just build your own desktop, it's about 2 grand cheaper.

[SRD @ Mar 14th 2006 3:12PM]

As far as laptops go you can buy one of many other Uniwills or clevos from much better resellers than alienware for hundreds cheaper. and just for you people that dont know uniwill and clevo are the latops that alienware just rebadges.

[Rick @ Mar 14th 2006 3:16PM]

anyone notice the creepy similarity between the layout of the dell website and the alienware website?

[Frankenstein Black @ Mar 14th 2006 4:23PM]

Sup Dellienware?! Not sure if you saw my comments in the "Alienware announces Aurora ALX with quad SLI" post. I'm your "MILLION DOLAR BABY". You know how I do ;^)...

�Check the technique!�
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/ldm_master_builder!.jpg

[Kevin @ Mar 14th 2006 4:51PM]

Yep, don't buy alienware laptops as all the complaints say.

What is the point of buying a laptop with a removable video card? You basically paid for a full tower, so why cut yourself short and buy a laptop? The video cards for them are going to be more anyway.

I for one own both the M51 and an Aurora machine and both kick arse and have for the past 2+ years. Maybe I just got lucky?

And Dell, it's not like their customer support is anything to cheer about. try talking to someone technical, yea. Fun times there...

It won't make on bit of difference if Dell owns them or not, all the hardware is out there and for sale. Well, not the 4 video card having monster Alienware is offering right now.

But stop bashing Alienware, your just jealous our cases kick your cases ass :p

[Echo_ @ Mar 14th 2006 4:55PM]

anyone who is like omg this is stupid

alienwares are so awesome

those are retarded consumers

anyone who knows anything knows alienware blows and if you are gonna spend that much money might as well make you own for half the price.

alienwares quality is also shitty because i knew someone who worked their and they use sometimes refurbished items in their NEW desktops and laptops

[John Doe @ Mar 14th 2006 5:25PM]

As someone who does warrantee work on Dells I can tell you that this is BAD. This is really bad. I see Dell "quality" all the time from the complete **** solder joints on the mainboard itself (Why do you think so many system boards are replaced in Latitudes and Inspirons after a year or so? To craptastic "shortcuts" being used in build quality. There is a reason that 80% of the people on our staff don't own Dell's.
Best case scenario is that Dell buys Alienware and they have a virtual hands off approach to it and only sells it through their site and does warrantee work for it. Joy more systems to learn.

[Kiteless Dragon @ Mar 14th 2006 5:55PM]

I for one eventually plan on buying an Alien Ware. I am waiting for them to stick a half decent video card into something like the (think & light) Sentia (maybe an X600 or X700). My friend owns a $3000 Dell XPS Gen 2. He had to send it back for repairs after 1 week of owning it. After that it has been a firly solid machine, but he had lots of strange game incompatabilities with it. He tried reimaging the HDD, same problem. So he bought SP Pro and threw that on without all that extra crap, installed drivers and it works fairly well. Still had the odd issue, but over all, not bad.

Also, Alienwares proces (for laptops at least) has gotten waaaaay more competitive. I still build my own desktops though.

In a final word, I hope that Dell does not buy Alienware. I fear they will just ruin the brand.

- Kiteless
S.F. Bay Area, CA. USA

[SRD @ Mar 14th 2006 7:01PM]

How would dell ruin alienware? alienware is a crappy brand by itsself. good luck buying one go over to notebookreview and to the alienware forum. might want to read about em before becoming a fanboy.

[dAMG @ Mar 14th 2006 9:37PM]

#30...I had extremely similar issues with my Dell
XPS laptop. Got it and right out of the box it would
shut itself down...went back and forth with customer
service and finally got a bright guy who had me re-seat
the RAM module. Battery life is similarly crap, and I
had the *exact* same problem with the power supply, my
original died before a year was up.

Maybe they already bought Alienware and just didn't
tell us!

[Joel @ Mar 14th 2006 10:43PM]

I have had an Alienware PC for about 3 years now and I can say that it's been perfect in every way. Never had a SINGLE problem with it (apart from some software i had installed but that doesn't count).

On the OTHER hand... some of my relatives purchased dell desktops because they were "cheap" for about 800 i think at the time. One runs on like 2.0 ghz but it feels twice as slow. Besides slow, my relatives call me every 4 months or so beacause their computers are not working and i find out its because of a faulty hardware component. (ive counted one faulty videocard, one motherboard, two soundcards, and a dell branded printer that just locked up and wouldnt work no matter what after that)

Alienware desktops are solid, I purchased one when i was first getting into gaming and didnt know enough to build my own, you cant beat their desktop quality and attention to little details like "cleaning" the OS of services and things that u dont need.

[Ron Amadeo @ Mar 15th 2006 3:25AM]

oh please, an alienware will get you laughed out of a room of real gamers just as bad as a dell.

Alienware (and xps for that matter) is a RIPOFF. They usually tack an extra $1000 to the price and alot of these computer were designed by total retards (like a p4EE powering a quad sli rig, an fx60 can MAYBE power 2 cards at capacity i've only tried an fx57)
Alienware mattered when they made cases, now its just the same crap as dell weither they are bought by them or not. Build your own or get someone to do it for you.

[Marzouq @ Mar 15th 2006 3:32AM]

Nooo.. I this is horrible news! I wouldnt want alienware bought out by Dell! It would mean that everything will go to crap! Im an alienware fan and I have two alienware desktops and one laptop! I love their stuff, and they have good support! that has been my first hand experience and I dont want it to change!! Damn it!

[Joshua @ Mar 15th 2006 4:45AM]

Dell is the best when it comes to customer service.

Alienware is just overpriced overhyped pieces of junk. think of alienware as a dell with a paint job that costs some 300 bucks.

[SRD @ Mar 15th 2006 11:36AM]

Marzouq you have two alien ware desktops and a laptop. Man you love to waste money. Their tech support is great then howcome they are rated so poorly by so many. their only solution format the disk and start over. Not to mention they used refurbished parts in their laptops.

[idl3mind @ Mar 15th 2006 3:01PM]

I asked my enterprise sales rep at Dell (I work for a large law firm that buys A LOT of Dell). My rep said from what he's heard, that it isn't true.

[groggle @ Mar 19th 2006 9:14AM]

If you mix Dell support with AW technology, I might buy another Alienware machine. But dealing with this largely Hispanic company over the phone is maddening! Until they are one, I'm sticking with Dell, or building my own!

[pfarrell @ Mar 20th 2006 10:37PM]

I owned an Alienware 51m for 2 1/2 years. It was the best computer I ever had until I started having problems. Alienware's customer service is terrible.

1 year after I bought it I tried to upgrade the video card which was the whole reason I bought the extended warranty. They had decided to stop offering upgrades, but never told me or gave me a chance to get one before that time.

Then, when it broke about a year later, not only did they no longer carry the parts I needed to fix the laptop only 2 years into my 3 year warranty, but they told me to get them from the supplier at my own cost. Then I e-mailed them to have them install the part like they said they would, and I was told I could do it myself. When I ran into a problem, I called in and was told I had just voided my warranty. When I gave them the incident # and they read the e-mail their tech sent me, they said he shouldn't have told me to do it myself, but that my warranty was still voided.

Bottom line, if you buy one, don't buy any warranty and plan on fixing it yourself if anything happens. I now have an XPS Gen2 and it rocks. Dell let me upgrade the 6800 Ultra to a 7800 GTX with their permission for me to do it myself in writing (hopefully they'll honor it) and I benchmark over 6500 on 3Dmark05 and 14500 on 3Dmark03. The alienware from 2003 never scored above 2200 on 3Dmark03. I may sacrifice a tiny bit with Dell over the very top of the line $5000 51m config, but I'm getting much better value, good tech support (from the XPS department), and a pretty awesome laptop.

If Dell does buy Alienware, I hope they fix Alienware's broken and corrupt culture and don't get corrupted by it themselves.

[pnevai @ Mar 23rd 2006 12:35PM]

Oh well all owners of Alienware machines have great things to look forward to. NOT!. Dell customer support that was once at the top of the class has gone with the wind.

Now you will be paying big bucks for customer support from people you can barely understand and will not know a damned thing about your problem outside what is written on a procedure manual.

Alienware employees can kiss thier job good bye as they are slowly outsourced to third world nations. And performance trade offs are made to maximize profit as the number one goal.

Welcome to the world of "Please reboot your system" as the first Customer service suggestion to any and every technical problem. Be ready to be without your machine for weeks or longer when warrenty repairs have to be done. And as commonality of components is a key way to control costs expect the Alienware to start using standard dell parts even some of those infuriating proprietary components that you can not get anywhere else.

My suggestion to all those alienware owners, find a reputable small computer shop in your neighborhood and let them build you the ultimate gaming platform. You will get better service, usually a better warrenty at a cheaper price than even dell can crank a true top end machine out for.