alienware

The wacky Web 2.0 train has just collided with the computer hardware industry.

The idea of user-generated PCs isn't groundbreaking, but the level of creative control that buyers have is broadening. Take NVousPC, for instance (after you've figured out how to pronounce it, of course. Take your time). The new company, launched today, hopes to cash in on consumers who want to exercise complete control over the appearance of their notebooks.

The president and co-founder of NVousPC is former Alienware product development engineer Oscar Zapata. He escaped from his former employer a week before the company was snapped up by Dell. … Read more

You may be asking, "Whatever happened to that laptop that won CNET's Best of CES award in the Gaming category back in January?" Like you, we've been waiting for the Alienware Area 51 m9750 ever since. With high-end options including dual video cards, a Blu-ray drive, and even a TV tuner, this massive black box impressed with a starting price around $2,000 (minus all those cool extras, of course).

After bugging Alienware on a seemingly weekly basis for months, the Area 51 m9750 was finally released this week, and our favorite Dell subsidiary even managed … Read more

It isn't just laptops at Macy's this morning. Dell also has a handful of desktops to unveil. But before you let the hype wash over you like the afterglow of a Steve Jobs keynote, today is also a little bittersweet for us PC enthusiasts, since it marks the demise of Dell's Dimension home desktops. In Dimension's place, we get four new Inspiron desktops, which, along with the Inspiron laptops, will represent the mainstream half of Dell's product lineup. XPS will take up the high-end space.

And so will Alienware (ahem).

The new Inspiron desktops come … Read more

Alienware made an interesting announcement today with the news that, "for a limited time," you can order a bare-bones Alienware case directly from the Dell-owned boutique. Just $400 will get you the classic P2 Alienware chassis in either silver or black, complete with an electric-blue lighting kit. It does not come with the custom lighting software that lets you tie the light behavior to various applications, as found on its full-fledged systems. At $400, Alienware's case becomes one of, if not the single most expensive bare-bones kits on the market. Of course, few others look like an … Read more

Alienware's new Hangar18: HD Entertainment Center (announced at CES) fires a direct shot at Sony, Velocity Micro, and the other PC vendors still hanging on in the home theater PC game. Equipped with a built-in 200-watt surround sound amplifier, an HDMI output, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi, and a Gyration Media Center remote (the keyboard costs $50 extra), the Hangar18 looks about as well-stocked as the competition. It even trumps both Sony and Velocity Micro by giving you the option to upgrade to two over-the-air HD tuners and two analog tuners, for a total of four cable streams … Read more

Laptops are all about cramming the most stuff into the least amount of space, so the Interwebs are rightfully buzzing about the latest offerings found in the Dell and Alienware online system configurators.

With no prerelease hype, you can now order an Alienware m9700or Dell XPS M2010 with a gigantic 250GB 2.5-inch hard drive (running at 5,400rpm)--or even pair two drives up for half a terabyte of ripped DVDs data storage.

That's better than the 160GB drives most laptops topped out at until now, but what's all that extra capacity going to cost you? For … Read more

When a computer manufacturer has a name like "Alienware," you can easily get the idea that they're marketing to the "World of Warcraft"-playing, Asimov-quoting, ThinkGeek-shopping demographic--and rightfully so. But for those of you who don't do the role-playing game or sci-fi thing, Alienware wants to let you know that it still thinks you'd be interested in its laptops. But I'm not sold.

Let me explain. Last week, as I've mentioned here before, I went to New York's DigitalLife festivities. While I was there, I met with Alienware product … Read more