Dell is taking steps to promote Alienware PCs on its Web site as the PC maker tries to collaborate more--rather than compete outright--with its Alienware unit.
Dell has added the Area-51 m9750 to its gaming laptop Web site, according to a Dell company blog.
Dell Web page features new Alienware game notebooks
(Credit: Dell)"The Alien invasion has continued, with the addition of the Area-51 m9750 to the Dell gaming laptop Web site lineup," according to the post. The 17-inch notebook offers two 512MB GeForce 8700m GT cards as an option.
The blog also notes: "It was never really in the cards to do away with the XPS gaming products early, but instead to integrate the development teams from both Alienware and XPS...The XPS isn't going away, though it may go in new directions as hinted by the XPS One and the slimline XPS m1330."
A Wall Street Journal report had stated that Dell would quickly kill off its XPS line, which Dell later denied.
The starting prices for two featured Dell XPS M1730 notebooks are about $600 and $1,100 more than the starting prices for two featured Alienware systems on Dell's notebook gaming page.
An Area-51 m9750, for example, starts at $1,399. But add a 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 screen, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz processor, another gigabyte of memory (for a total of 2GB), and a 160GB 7200 RPM hard disk drive, and the price jumps to $2,524.
This brings the Alienware notebook a lot closer to the Dell 17-inch XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition in price ($2,599) and features. Interestingly, the Alienware m9750 notebook is not available with 45-nanometer Intel T8300, T9300, T9500 (or X9000 Extreme) processors. Dell does offer these processors.
Fast silicon is hitting a wall in game PCs, according to Alienware, which is looking for ways to boost game PC performance.
Parent company Dell vowed on Tuesday to pour more resources into the game PC unit and invest in "product development, design, and engineering."
Alienware Area-51 m9750 notebook
(Credit: Alienware)Alienware's Marc Diana believes optimizing systems for the 64-bit world would allow game PCs to make big strides in performance. In effect, today's 32-bit environments are putting a crimp on PC-based gaming.
"So many people are caught up in this hardware race. Dual-core, quad-core this and that," said Diana, who is Alienware's product marketing manager for desktops. "If these companies--Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, ATI, and AMD--if they'd just sit down and realize the performance benefit of optimizing their drivers and software for 64-bit."
"I think that would make sense now," Diana said emphatically.
Much of the software in the PC world is still 32-bit, including most copies of Windows XP and Vista. In fact, Diana said Alienware doesn't offer 64-bit operating systems because "we don't feel comfortable shipping a system to a customer with the 64-bit driver support that's out there in the industry."
The most obvious limitation of 32-bit operating systems and applications is a cap--4GB--on how much memory an operating system can use. And some applications can't even use the entire 4GB. "Who cares about DDR3 memory? What about giving me 4GB?" Diana asked.
"They're building (software) for something that is inherently very old technology," he said. "We (need) drivers that are very healthy in the 64-bit space. I'm not saying that 64-bit drivers don't exist. I'm just saying there's not enough software development and support on that end to warrant companies like us to move to 64-bit operating systems."
He also talked about other factors--beyond faster processors and graphics chips--that affect system performance, particularly for consumers who have limited budgets. "If I was looking to invest in one component over another," Diana said, "I would probably invest in a really good motherboard," and after that, a dual-core processor and a midrange graphics card such as Nvidia's 8800GT or ATI's X2 card.
New DDR3 memory is also becoming more of a factor. DDR3 memory is offered in two Alienware platforms. "It is the highest-performing memory now on the market. But I'm not so sure it's quite there yet. The cost is very high," he said. "Six months from now it will start making a lot more sense (economically) than it does right now." Because of this, DDR2 memory is still widely used.
DDR3 memory modules use less power and double the data prefetch buffer to 8 bits from 4 bits per cycle. DDR3 also operates at higher clock rates (1600 MHz), among other improvements.
Dell issued a statement on Tuesday night, saying the XPS brand will live on but that more resources will go into Alienware.
Part of Dell's statement takes issue with a Wall Street Journal report.
"Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands...and both will live on," spokeswoman Anne Camden said in a blog. "But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design, and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future."
Camden emphasized that XPS is a premium, cutting-edge brand--beyond just a game PC label. "XPS remains an important Dell brand with its heritage of premium performance...In the last year, XPS has expanded well beyond a gaming brand--look at the XPS One, our first entry into the all-in-one market, the XPS M1330, an industry leading ultraportable or the XPS 420 desktop, designed for multimedia activities."
But the statement also takes issue with aspects of The Wall Street Journal report. "XPS gaming systems will remain an important part of our gaming product portfolio. We don't plan an early phase-out of these systems, as the WSJ incorrectly stated, and in fact will continue to refresh them to keep them on the front edge of gaming," Camden said.
"We want to lead in this market. Simple, really. So that's why we're investing so much in the gaming systems of the future--we want those on an Alienware or XPS to reign supreme."
So Dell appears committed to XPS laptops, even those that excel at gaming.
The new face of Dell gaming.
(Credit: CNET)The Wall Street Journal reported this morning on Dell's plan to stop competing with itself. Rather than selling both high-end XPS gaming PCs as well as similar products from Alienware (which it acquired in 2006), Dell will shift all of its gaming energies at Alienware, including providing Dell R&D resources. As the Journal also noted, this shift will mirror the move that Hewlett-Packard made when it acquired Voodoo, although in that case HP immediately involved Voodoo in developing HP's BlackBird 002. The Dell-Alienware relationship has seen each brand operate under its own silo, with little product development cooperation thus far.
We're told that Q1 of next year is when we finally see the fruit of Dell and Alienware's first full collaboration, so think CES 2009 or thereabouts. As for what happens with XPS, Dell told us that it will retain the brand as a luxury line, but it won't be tailored to gaming. Its XPS One all-in-one desktop is a good example of what Dell has in mind for XPS moving forward.
Dell's Alienware unit is slated to put AMD-ATI front and center. The Dell subsidiary will bring out a relatively low-cost game PC with dual ATI graphics chips within the next two weeks.
This comes in the wake of a report that Dell will phase out its XPS game PC line in favor of Alienware systems.
Alienware will ship a system with 4GB of memory, two ATI graphics chips, and a quad-core AMD processor for less than $1,700, dirt cheap in the gaming PC world.
(Credit: Alienware)The $1,699 system--cheap by game PC standards--will come with 4GB (DDR2 800MHz) memory, a quad-core 9550 (2.2GHz) Phenom X4 processor, and a 3870 X2 board with two ATI HD 3870 graphics chips, said Marc Diana, Alienware product marketing manager for desktops. The system will ship within 48 hours, he said.
It will also sport an Asus high-end motherboard based on the AMD 790FX chipset, Diana said.
Systems configured with a quad-core processor and dual graphics chips are typically well over $2,000.
Overall, Alienware is seeing respectable demand for AMD-based systems. "AMD is a good entry point," according to Diana.
Alienware is already offering a relatively high-end system for less than $3,000 with a quad-core Phenom X4 9850 (2.5GHz) "Black Edition" (Black Edition indicates that the processor can be overclocked) and two ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics boards (each with two 3870 graphics chips).
"It's not your granddaddy's AMD system. We're talking top-of-the-line quad core," he said.
This not the sentiment at all game PC makers, however. Falcon Northwest is seeing virtually no demand for AMD-based systems, according to a spokesperson at that company. Falcon Northwest sells Intel-based systems almost exclusively. The company attributes this to the fact that customers are spending big bucks for its systems and that they will invariably opt for higher-performing Intel chips.
Diana concedes that AMD will not take the performance crown--this goes to Intel. And in graphics, Nvidia typically performs better in games than ATI, he said. "(Nvidia is) able to refine their drivers more for the most popular games," he said.
And in the laptop gaming space, Intel-Nvidia rules too. Currently, Alienware offers no AMD-based gaming laptops, though this may change in the future when AMD brings out its Puma mobile platform later this quarter.
Alienware recently began selling a gaming laptop, the Area-51 m17x, with two Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chips and the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, starting at about $3,200.
UPDATE: Dell Inc. will begin phasing out its line of XPS desktop game machines, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Alienware gaming system: Dell XPS game PC line ate into Alienware sales
(Credit: Alienware)(Note: Dell made a statement Tuesday night--after this article was posted--explaining how Dell's XPS line and Alienware systems will coexist.)
This will effectively leave Alienware as the sole high-end PC game offering from Dell which acquired the Miami-based game system maker in 2006.
Dell's XPS game PC line "ate into" Alienware sales, according to the report.
Alienware competes with brands such as Hewlett-Packard's Vodoo PC line and Falcon Northwest.
Alienware is also expected to bring out redesigned systems based on new materials that go beyond the longstanding Alienware design (photo), according to the report.
Game PCs can cost as little as $1,000 but typically range from $2,000 to $5,000 and feature high-end Intel and AMD quad-core processors and graphics chips from Nvidia and ATI Technologies.
Now with Penryn: Alienware's Area-51 m15x
(Credit: CNET Networks Inc.)Dell updated its XPS line of laptops earlier this month with Penryn CPU offerings, and now it's sharing Intel's latest mobile processors with its wholly owned subsidiary, Alienware. The Area-51 m15x now offers three Penryn chips, the Core 2 Duo T9300 and the T9500 and the Core 2 Extreme X9000. Pricing starts at $2,149. If you're scoring at home, Dell's 13-inch and 17-inch XPS laptops have received a Penryn update, skipping over the XPS M1530. Meanwhile, Alienware's 15-inch laptop has the Penryn and its 17-inch model does not.
Also with Penryn: Gateway P-171X FX
(Credit: CNET Networks Inc.)Elsewhere, Gateway has made its first Penryn update. The 17-inch P-171X FX is a $2,000 fixed configuration that includes the Core 2 Duo T8300. For more on this laptop, read our recent review of the $3,000 P-171XL FX model, which includes a last-generation Core 2 Extreme X7900 and a suddenly outdated HD DVD drive. Gateway tell us it will be adding Penryn to an M-series laptop "in a few weeks."
For more on Penryn, read our coverage from CES.
The Area-51 m15x's cool backlit keyboard.
A couple of weeks ago, we brought you some exclusive pics of Alienware's two new laptops, the high-end Area-51 m15x and Area-51 m17x, which impressed us with their updated designs, cutting-edge components, and imaginative lighting systems (seriously--lots of lights on these things).
While these two laptops probably won't be shipping until mid-January, we just got our hands on a preproduction unit, which, while not exactly final shipping hardware, has both the lighting control system and an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX video card--the first laptop we've gotten our hands on with one of those.
We're in a green mood today.
Using the lighting control panel, you can assign different colors to the backlit keyboard, keyboard tray indicators, touch pad outline, skull logo, and sides of the display panel. The touch pad itself is just a touch-sensitive section of the wrist rest and made of the same material as the rest of the keyboard tray--and with the internal lights off, you see only the keyboard and a power button--no touch pad, no status lights. With the lights turned on, the touch pad is outlined by a colored light--a very cool effect, but one that might take a little getting used to, as we kept running our fingers off the side of the touch pad accidentally, because of the lack of any tactile feedback.
We're currently loading up some games to put the m15x through its paces, and we'll let you know how the new Nvidia 8800 handles the current crop of system-crushing games, including Crysis and Unreal Tournament III.
Hot on the heels of the exclusive sneak peek photos we brought you last week, boutique computer maker Alienware finally let the press and public see its new creations in person Monday at a preview event. We call it that rather than a launch event, as the new Area-51 m15x and Area-51 m17x likely won't be available until the beginning of 2008.
The Skullcap and Ripley designs
We did, however, get to see these new systems in action, and as expected, both the 15- and 17-inch models will offer some hardcore hardware, including Core 2 Duo Extreme processors and the latest Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics. Part of the reason Alienware unveiled the new systems today was to coincide with Nvidia's 8800M launch (that's their latest and greatest graphics chip for laptops).
But those parts will be available in many laptops--what Alienware is really selling is not the steak, but the sizzle. The company has taken lumps for not redesigning its systems enough between generations, but parts of these two new laptops represent a major (for Alienware) design overhaul.
A custom app controls the keyboard color.
Two chassis designs are available: Skullcap has the familiar ridges we've seen on systems such as the m9750, but the new Ripley design keeps just the iconic alien head, against a glossy (and very reflective), flat lid. A backlit keyboard can be programmed to run any variety of colors, similar to the vent and fan lights in Dell's XPS laptops, but the light-up keyboard makes a huge difference, as does the totally flat touch pad, demarcated only by its backlit border.
No pricing or shipping dates yet, but expect to see these available sometime in January.
Boutique PC maker Alienware has been flooding in-boxes recently with secretive messages about its upcoming unveiling of two new gaming laptops. E-mails to members of the company's mailing list are filled with cryptic notes about "increased extraterrestrial activity" and links to a Web site with an "alien" message to decipher.
If you've cracked the code, you probably already know some of this, but Alienware has confirmed for CNET that the two new laptops are going to be called the Area-51 m15x and Area-51 m17x, and both will be officially shown off for the first time on Monday here in New York.
Backlit red keys. We've also seen a blue version.
We won't see these new 15- and 17-inch systems in full until next week, but Alienware says they have a whole new look, designed from the ground up, and will be available with a choice of two case designs called Skullcap and Ripley. The exclusive teaser shots here--the first photos of the new systems Alienware has released--give you a small idea of the new direction. Check back Monday for full details on these new laptops. More pics after the break... ... Read more
