Direct2Dell : Gaming

ATI CrossFireX – Dual 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4870 with GDDR3 memory

DELL-John B — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:01:00 GMT

A few days ago I ran across an interesting thread on notebookreview.com, where Alienware customers noted some confusion regarding the graphics memory on the ATI HD 4870 in the Alienware M17x. Some folks were reporting that their invoices listed the memory as GDDR5 instead of GDDR3, and were wondering which memory was actually on the card.

Just to clear up any remaining confusion, the card definitely has GDDR3, *not* GDDR5. While we’ve taken steps to correct the invoicing error, I hit up some folks from our engineering team to provide more detailed information on the subject.

The Alienware engineering team evaluated both GDDR5 and GDDR3 with the 4870 card. Because of specific design constraints associated with notebooks and the 4870, they found that the GDDR3 memory provided the better overall user experience for gamers. There are no current plans to offer GDDR5 in combination with a 4870 in the M17x.

Alienware will honor full refund requests for customers with incorrect invoices. I do recommend testing the cards for yourself before opting to return your M17x, though. I think you may be pleased with the results

The Area-51 and Area-51 ALX : Now Available for Gaming Domination

DELL-John B — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard the hype surrounding the latest Alienware releases, the M15x and the Aurora. But not much has been circulated about their big brother, the Area-51 and the Area-51 ALX.

Gizmodo recently did an Area-51 ALX Alienware Autopsy (read: photo shoot), their intro paragraph summing up the machine fairly nicely:

It takes two people to lift. The Predator fins flare up as soon you mash the silver diamond on its head. Alienware's Area 51 ALX is a monster, and we've dissected it…

CNet UK also did a fairly complete write up on this beautiful machine, albeit without benchmarks, though they did a good job of listing out the specs and features available… save one.

Not only can you order this beast today, you can order it with Windows 7 factory installed… and as I noted in my last blog, Windows 7 is a must-have for gamers who want to squeeze every drop of performance from a high-end gaming system.

If you DO order it today, feel free to drop me a line. I’ll try to come out for a spontaneous LAN party. Heck… I’ll even bring the snacks.

No Fear, No Limits: Gaming With Windows 7

DELL-John B — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:00:00 GMT

As a gamer, I was initially unmoved when I first heard about Windows 7. Although I'm not a Windows XP hardliner like many of my gaming brothers and sisters, I've had my share of issues with upgrades, updates, and driver tweaks needed to make other operating systems match XP for gaming. I just wasn't ready to believe I would actually be eager for another change. When I was helping with the Alienware M17x beta earlier this year, I heard something about the Windows 7 beta that piqued my interest: all the engineers working on the Alienware product betas had already switched to Windows 7 on their gaming boxes, and loved it. I didn't quite believe them when they told me Windows 7 outperformed Vista, and even XP, on their favorite games. That couldn't be right. The OS was still in beta!

I tried it for myself recently, and I was dumbfounded.

The OS installation took less than half the time my last Vista installation did, and was even faster than the last installation of Windows XP I had done. From inserting the disk to usable desktop clocked in at just about 20 minutes on my XPS 730X, and the default drivers worked perfectly. Start up and shut downs were noticeably faster than before... and though I didn't pull out my stopwatch to double check, I dare say it was even faster than XP. The user interface was familiar and attractive, very reminiscent of Vista. I quickly noticed an improvement in the Windows Sidebar: the gadgets could now be moved anywhere on the desktop, a change I've felt was long overdue. After I installed a few games the fun and excitement really began.

Games launched noticeably quicker than in Vista or XP, and frame rates on my favorites were notably higher than I had expected... higher even than my streamlined XP gaming installation. Was this just my experience? I found a great comparison on driverheaven that confirmed my suspicions. Windows 7 is a must have for PC gamers. It simply performs better where gamers will notice it most: in-game performance.

It wasn't just me. Even back in January, while Windows 7 was in beta, it was still measuring up to XP in terms of gaming performance according to sites like FiringSquad. Other places like Anandtech have offered a more recent assessment back in May. Doubtless that there will be tons more written on the topic from Anandtech and elsewhere after Windows 7 ships.

If the launch of Windows 7 shows this much promise, one can only think it will only get better as hardware becomes more advanced. I recently wrote a blog about the latest Alienware offerings where I mentioned the future benefits of DirectX 11. While this new technology won't be a Windows 7 exclusive, it certainly won't be supported for Windows XP, and Windows 7 improvements over Windows Vista are just too compelling to ignore.

If you are interested in tweaking Windows 7 for gaming, check out Extremetech's 10 Tips for Turbocharging Windows 7 Gaming. With hot DirectX 11cards like ATI's Radeon 5870 and the 5850 already available, it's clear that gaming on Windows 7 will be solid the day the OS ships on 10-22.

State of the LAN Party IV

ALIENWARE-Jose L — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Note from Lionel: For folks that haven't seen Jose's previous State of the LAN Party entries, check out part I, part II and part III.

We saw how the LAN party evolved with new technology and how it inspired Alienware and how Alienware helped change the look of many LAN parties. With faster, more portable systems we saw LAN parties rise. With high-speed internet and MMO’s we watched as membership diminished. Everyone grew older, but we were still gamers, the question was, what games will be played and how will that affect the LAN party.

When the XBOX360 was introduced, Microsoft realized with the success of XBOX Live on the XBOX that pushing forward with online community gaming was the future of console gaming. If there were a few gamers who still did not utilize the online universe of gamers beforehand, once the 360 hit the shelves even they joined in.

The 360 also brought a new type of LAN to gamers, the Console LAN or Local Play Lan was established where people would bring together multiple XBOX systems and connect them in order to multiplay. This allowed gamers to use separate television screens since for many the split screen was not a viable option.

What made XBOX live so successful was the variety it brought to gamers. You could play the hottest games like Halo 3 or classic favorites such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For better or worse you could chat online with fellow friends and gamers which gave console gamers pretty much all the tools a LAN member would use when gaming at a LAN party.

Software developers also realized the market created by the 360 and the Playstation 3. More computer titles were being ported over to the console. Not only that, but there were much more FPS and RTS games developed for consoles than ever before.

Many in the industry knew that computer gamers also owned a console and wanted the switch from the PC to the console to not be a shock to the system. Both 360 and PS3 were designed with top end processors and video cards. This allowed players to experience games on par and sometimes better than their PC counterparts.

Those looking for a lower cost gaming system turned to consoles to experience high end graphics and gaming without the high end price tag of computer gaming units. With online play complete with patches, demos and downloads, the console gamer had everything they needed.

By the time consoles invaded my LAN party we had reduced in size to just a few friends, but the new presence was noticed. Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero replaced the twitch action games we played before. It saddened me at first. I believed some of us were getting too old for fast paced FPS games. Honestly I thought it was a fad, but numbers don’t lie. Interactive party games are as hot now as FPS games were ten years ago.

I embraced the change. I enjoyed playing those games (even those on the Wii) and I remembered the point of the LAN was to have fun with friends which we did have. The connectivity we have today can bring us closer together if used correctly. Having access to your friends 24/7 through XBOX Live, IM programs, FaceBook and Ventrilo can be a wonderful thing even if it does lessen the need for LAN parties.

In the end those of us who grew up during the gaming revolution will continue to be gamers for a long time to come. The games may change and the way we play them. Friends come and go and places we play will change, but the main goal stays the same, have fun.

The future of the LAN party may be more virtual, larger groups of gamers playing from their home with others across the world. With gadgets such as the iPhone sporting multiplayer capabilities, we may find ourselves having impromptu LAN parties from our phones while waiting for our oil to be changed or at the doctor’s office.

The great thing about technology is it adapts and changes the landscape. More and more people will have access to the tools to allow them to play the games they want and with that will come a community to join and interact with. The LAN party is ever changing, but will never die. As long as there are gamers there will be games and a means to play them.

New Alienware Announcement: Just Hype, or No?

DELL-John B — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:55:00 GMT

Before the unveiling of the new Alienware Aurora and Aurora ALX systems at the Tokyo Game Show, we were told that the upcoming announcements would shake the very foundation of PC gaming. Did the announcements live up to the hype? Folks at Engadget, Joystiq and Crunchgear seem to think the new Alienware systems are as bada$$ as they come, certainly live up to the hype, and I’m here to tell you why.

My reasons rest on one particular piece of hardware only available on the two new Alienware desktop systems: the ATI 5870 graphics card. The card is getting all kinds of praise from sites like Tom's hardware for good reason. The new Alienwares’ bada$$itude centers upon this piece of hardware. Besides offering some of the best gaming performance ever, the card brings awesome technology forward with EyeFinity and DirectX 11.

EyeFinity is absolutely an astounding advancement. This technology allows a single GPU to support six independent displays simultaneously, and supports them in a variety of different physical configurations. Some examples taken from ATI’s website:

These configurations and others can be supported with the new Alienware desktop systems, and all of them require just a single graphics card. If that doesn’t knock your socks off, I really don’t know what will. For a good overview of what it's all about, I recommend this article at Anandtech.

Note from Lionel: Here's a demo of EyeFinity for those who want to see it in action:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Add to EyeFinity full DirectX 11 support, and you’ve got a showstopper. DirectX 11 is Microsoft’s latest DirectX API that showcases several features, including full tessellation support, support for multithreaded rendering, and compute shaders (read: general purpose processing on your GPU). Simply put, this technology makes your games look better and run faster at the same time. Here’s a video of same developers’ thoughts on the latest API:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Along with the new Alienware desktop announcements (as if they weren’t enough on their own), the most powerful 15 inch gaming laptop in the universe was also unveiled, the Alienware M15x. This little beauty can be configured with the most powerful mobile graphics card available, the NVIDIA GeForce GTC 260M, and like its desktop brethren, also features the latest Intel Core i7 technology.

For those of us that aren't lucky enough to be in Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, Chris Sutphen from the Alienware team gives the Gamespot crew a tour of our booth. It's a good time to be a gamer, indeed.

State of the LAN Party III

ALIENWARE-Jose L — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Welcome to part three of State of the LAN Party. If you missed them, take a look at part 1 and part 2 posts. Everyone thought that growing older, getting married and having kids would be the only thing to bring an end to the LAN party. While it was true that as we got older we did not have LAN parties every two weeks, we still had them once a month. What did risk putting ours and many LAN parties to an end was Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOs.

By the time the game Everquest had come out our LAN party was in full swing. We had met with many other LAN groups across Florida and made a name for ourselves. I personally found working at Alienware, that the growing attendance to LAN parties translated into more buzz around our products.

One effect was peoples request for a smaller more LAN friendly sized system. People were torn between the massive power and size of our Dragon case and the prospect of having a small portable case to take. Remember, at this time there really wasn’t a gaming laptop and smaller form factor cases were not widely known of or used.

In the midst of larger LAN’s and more attention to networked gaming, a new fully 3D massive multiplayer role playing game was being released to the public. Now Everquest was not the first MMO, but it was the first to do fully interactive three dimensional game play and it brought in gamers who loved Dungeons and Dragons and the other successful MMO at the time, Ultima Online.

Over the next few months hundreds of thousands of people began to play EQ. At first this did not change the attendance of our LAN parties, but it did change much of the conversation within them. Many of us got into EQ and spent much of the LAN talking about our characters. We did continue to play normal LAN games like FPS’s and RTS’s, but somehow we always came back to talking about Everquest.

This was not just an occurrence at my LAN group. All across the U.S. people were talking about how Everquest, or as it was soon to be known as, EverCrack, was taking away gamers from their normal LAN games.

In our LAN group there was actually a divide between those who played EQ and those who did not. The pure gamers, as they called themselves, hated the fact that we talked so much about EQ and one said our LAN party officially died the day we connected a DSL line and played EQ at the LAN.

From my and many other EQ players point of view nothing really changed. We still played other games and interacted. MMO’s were just a new part of the landscape that we enjoyed, but we did find some took to EQ more than others. On the EQ main boards there were daily discussions of people becoming less active in work, school, their social life and LAN parties due to EQ. However, I felt in the end we became even more social because of it.

As high speed internet became easier to come by many LAN goers opted instead to play online. Gaming clans regained much of their strength because of this and LAN parties grew smaller and less frequent. Some of this was also blamed on MMO’s, but also because many companies decision to hold massive yearly LAN parties. It was felt that there was no longer a need to have a LAN party ever month when you could play over the net and then go to the larger sponsored LAN events.

Oddly enough, the EQ players were the ones to stay in touch the most. Since we all played on the same server in the game guild, we would often meet outside of EQ to talk and hang out. We found that many of our non-MMO playing LAN members did not want to attend these social gatherings. Perhaps it was because we talked about EQ, but we were skeptical.

As time went on many EQ and MMO players found themselves going back to LAN parties to get away from MMO’s and to do something different. LAN parties became much more social and private, except for the company sponsored ones.

At Alienware, we knew what our customers wanted and launched several gaming laptops which helped many LAN party members return to their LAN’s now being able to quickly and easily transport their gaming system.

In part 4 of the series I will talk about the evolution of the console and the affect new technology has had on the LAN party and the future of the LAN and its place in computer history.

March of the Dell Core i7 Laptops

DELL-Anne C — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:15:00 GMT

For those of you who keep up with the technology industry, you may have caught some of the buzz from that Intel's annual round up known as Intel Developer's Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. One of today's highpoints is Intel serving notice they have raised the bar in mobile performance by releasing the mobile version of Core i7 quad core processors (a.k.a. Clarksfield).

Note from Lionel: I saw that some readers were giving Engadget a hard time because Dell.com wasn't updated with the mobile Core i7 goodness. Some of it is now. Click on the banner above to look at our i7-based laptop offerings. I'll add the Studio XPS 16 link when it's updated. Done.

Make no mistake, putting a quad core processor in a laptop does a lot for performance and there is an elite group of folks out there who always feel the need for speed: gamers. For these acceleration aficionados, Dell has delivered the new Alienware M15x—a 15-inch laptop that reinforces that nobody - but nobody - knows how to pack more into the 15-inch gaming laptop than the Dell/Alienware gaming engineers and designers.

But enough about the expected - let's talk about the unexpected - like the fact that Dell is actually offering these new high-powered processors as an option on three other laptop models, including a Studio 15 laptop powered by the new mobile Core i7 processors with a starting price of $999. The other news of the day is that we have significantly updated the Studio 17 laptop and have launched mobile Core i7 edition starting at $1,099. And just to make sure all the bases are covered, we've added a Core i7 processor option to the elegant Studio XPS 16 (more on that in a bit). Any one of these systems should definitely appeal to those of you who are "obsolescence paranoid" as well as the performance enthusiast who can't quite fit the aggressive Alienware design into their personal style.

Let's dive into some of the details around the new Studio 17 which frankly lands near the top of the entertainment powerhouse list - excelling at both creating and consuming multimedia content. First up, we have added a JBL-branded 2.1 audio solution with SRS Premium Sound - two 1.5-watt speakers in the palmrest and a 6-watt subwoofer in the base. The colossal 17.3-inch HD+ 16:9 display is great for watching HD content, and includes a 2.0MP webcam. A few other items of interest: this is the first Studio laptop to feature a 1GB graphic solution, and also supports dual hard drives. And while the engineers were upgrading just about every possible feature, the designers were trimming it down, the result being the new Studio 17 is slightly thinner and lighter than its predecessor. For $1,099 you get:

Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
17.3-inch HD+ (1600x900) WLED display with built-in 2.0MP webcam
JBL-branded 2.1 audio solution with subwoofer
Full-size keyboard with separate keypad
9-cell Battery
Black Chainlink exterior color

While the Studio 17 is primarily a desktop replacement than can be moved from room to room, there are those who need a laptop that balances performance with portability, and so the Studio 15 will also include a Core i7 option. For $999 you get:

Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 1066MHz
250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
15.6-inch HD (1366x768) WLED display with built-in 2.0MP webcam
6-cell Battery
Black Chainlink exterior color

Of course you can put your own personal mark on a new Studio 17 or Studio 15 with a choice of color options ($40) or one of more than 200 original designs ($85) found at www.dell.com/designstudio.

Finally, we are also offering a Core i7 option on the award-winning Studio XPS 16, with a starting price of $1,249 and it should be available on dell.com by Thursday.

Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1067MHz
250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
15.6-inch HD+ (1600x900) edge-to-edge WLED display
Built-in 2.0MP webcam and facial recognition security software
7W audio solution with subwoofer
Full-size backlit keyboard
9-cell Battery
Obsidian Black high gloss finish exterior

The Studio 15 and Studio XPS 16 with Core i7 are available worldwide this week. The new Studio 17 is available in the U.S., Canada and Latin America now and expected to be available in the rest of the world next month.

What makes this processor family stand out is the fact that the appropriate number of cores kick into "turbo mode" as needed. (Warning -geek out section ahead). Here's how it was explained to me: If you are running a single-threaded application (word processing, web surfing) then a single core will ramp up to max "Turbo Boost" speed as needed. If, however, the application requires two or more threads, (Gaming, Photoshop, some Excel functions) then the appropriate number of cores ramp up to a higher speed, somewhere less that "max" but still enough to boost performance. Basically whatever you are doing, the processor will crank up the horsepower as needed to get things done, and then drop back down to a more battery-friendly level when you don't. There is no special action required, like fiddling in the BIOS or fussing with power management settings to make this happen, it's all done on the fly dynamically based on what the system needs at the time. If you want more insight on this, check out what the folks at Anandtech said about turbo mode in their Lynnfield review.

And let me end on this note - for those of you who are wondering if the new mobile Core i7 quad core processors are worth the additional coinage, following are some internal benchmarks hot off the line by the engineers in the performance lab. I think the results speak for themselves.

The Intel Core i7 720QM processor performs up to 151% faster than the Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 processor.
The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 137% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 processor.
The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 101% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor.
The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 74% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor.

(Fine Print: Based on 3DMark Vantage CPU overall score results by Dell Labs in August 2009. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage, and manufacturing variability.)

So there you have it - three laptop options that can handle the needs and deeds of any multi-media or entertainment enthusiast and one gaming laptop to rule them all. Fasten your seatbelts!

Power and Portability: Hands-on with the Alienware M15x

ALIENWARE-Jose L — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:00 GMT

If you're interested in gaming, I bet you're already reading about Intel's latest technology. You might have seen some of the buzz about new products from Alienware. Today, the Alienware M15x has landed for customers in the United States and many countries around the world. I wanted to spend a few minutes going over some of the details behind it and to share my thoughts about it after I’ve had some quality time with it over the last few days…. In the spirit of the M17x that John blogged about a while back, I give you the Alienware M15x.

When a statement is made about being the most powerful 15-inch gaming laptop in the universe, you better have the goods to prove it. After testing out the M17x I knew when the M15x was announced it would continue Alienware’s mobile domination, but I still had to see and experience it for myself.

First things first, when I held this laptop in my hands, I could feel the strength in the design. Not only is it the sturdiest laptop I have held in my hands, but one of the sleekest. With its thermal management system even when I was multitasking to the max, it kept cool and quiet.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the M15x can be configured with the Intel Core i7 920XM. This means from start-up to shut-down you have the best Intel has to offer for mobile units. Let me tell you, it makes all the difference when working on 3D animation or Hi-definition audio and video editing.

Now for the gamers like myself, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 1GB video card delivers the lighting-fast frames per second in old standbys like World of Warcraft to more demanding games like Crysis. It makes all the difference when you can crank up the details to max and still rock high FPS. It doesnt matter if you are a leisure gamer or a twitch monkey, you need to see everything as clear and clean as possible and with this video card and the HD widescreen the M15x has, you get both in spades.

If you download quite a few things, it supports up to 500GB hard drive space. As for sound, when I turned up some tunes, the built-in speakers pumped out crisp clear audio that made me want to retire my headphones. And don't forget some of the features. This rig comes with the Alienware Command Center which is an all exclusive software package that gives you access to AlienFX, AlienTouch, AlienSense, Facial Recognition and AlienFusion power management. With a slot-loading dual layer Blu-ray optical drive combo, up to 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory, an 8-in-1 Media card reader and express card slot and a starting weight of 9lbs, you have everything you need in a powerful portable package.

The bottom line is even with what I knew about the M15x getting my hands on it and trying it out impressed me. Sure wish I didn’t have to give it back.

More Alienware Products Coming Soon

ALIENWARE-Winnie W — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:30:00 GMT

This must be what it feels like to give birth. I personally have not given birth to a human, but I do feel I’ve given birth to past Alienware products and am really excited about the new products joining the family very soon. I’ve been seeing and hearing some amazing things about these units – not just performance-wise but the design mixed with functionality makes me proud to be part of this ever-loved brand culture. We did some really exciting things to support the M17x launch back in June with the all powerful campaign and we are continuing to message our upcoming launch. With the support of some interesting teasers images and a three-part video teaser, the mystery and lure of the Alienware’s brand continues. Below is the latest video, check out the Alienware YouTube channel for others.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

All the rumors and speculations will roll up to the big fireworks launch at the Tokyo Game show. At our booth we will showcase our entire new product line, with all the systems playing the latest PC games. There will be gaming tournaments on site, giveaways for our fans and a special promo they are running at the show to where customers can get a free Alienware TactX headset. For all of those die-hard Alienware fans, follow our Facebook page, we will have show updates including video, pictures and coverage from IGN.com and Gamespot.com. It’s going to get rowdy but in a good way. Stay tuned.

State of the LAN Party II

ALIENWARE-Jose L — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:30:00 GMT

In case you missed part 1, check it out here.

Thousands of led lights flashing and blinking illuminate the otherwise dark room at the LAN party. At first glance you might think everyone is playing on a uniformed system, but with a simple question; what kind of rig do you have, you will find out how special and unique LAN goers systems are.

Originally you were only cool if you had a self build custom computer. Still today many who build their own system will swear by it and turn their nose up at anyone with what they call a stock system. When Alienware came on the scene this all changed. It can be debated which one prefers, but once Alienware systems started showing up at LAN parties it became clear that you did not have to be a computer building whiz kid to have a sweet rig.

When I was introduced to Alienware I had already built a system with the help of my friends. I was proud of my system and it was pretty awesome. I have to be honest that when I saw the original hydraulic case in purple my jaw dropped. Here was a system just as powerful as mind in a custom color that looked like it was built by its owner. I later came to realize this was because Alienware employees did indeed hand build their own systems.

To be fair, there were those who compared prices and specs in an attempt to validate their own systems, but for the majority it was accepted as a LAN worthy rig. This may seem silly to those on the outside, but to the LAN member our PCs are as important to us as a powerful engine is to a mechanic.

A lot of time and effort was put into system building. Often one would spend days just building it and then do all sorts of tweaks and fixes to it to get it just right for game day. While it was a badge of honor when you did build your own system it was not for everyone. I never bothered anyone about having a store bought rig considering my first LAN system was store bought. This did not stop others who believed you had to build a gaming system and nothing else was good enough.

Today we have systems that can run most of the games we want to play. Many people still build, but with high performance options at reasonable prices like, Alienware this allows gamers of all ages and economic statuses to own a powerful system. Back in the late nineties this was still not the case. The 3D video card market was just taking off and newer games required quite the system resources.

The downside was that to keep up with the newer games and products you had to upgrade pretty frequently, but to the hardcore LAN and gamer this was all part of the process. Alienware allowed those who could not build or did not have time to troubleshoot the opportunity to have a system that had the power to play their games and the ability to upgrade whenever it was necessary. It was no wonder as time went on that you saw more and more Alienware rigs at LAN parties.

Many who built their own systems also owned an Alienware because of its unique look and upgradability. In the end some will always swear by their own hand built rig, but custom company systems have earned their place among gamers and LAN attendees alike.

In part three of the series we will explore how games and game play have affected the LAN party.