Alienware P2 barebones on offer

In an unusual move for a company known to cram cases full of bleeding-edge components for hardware overachievers, Alienware is offering their wildly popular (and expensive) P2 ATX case barebones style. What will the $399 price tag get you? A black or silver case, "Astral Blue" lighting, a 700-watt power-supply, and... not much else. Hey, with the money you have left you can load this bad-boy up with a 486 and 64MB of RAM.

[Basketcase456 @ Jun 19th 2007 9:26PM]

I don't think there were many 486s that handled 64MB of RAM. Maybe 16MB if it was a really good motherboard.

[tyler @ Jun 19th 2007 10:24PM]

Interesting, my 486 which now sits in the closet as a apache web server on linux has 128mb of RAM... maybe it's the 386 that you were thinking of that can't handle more than 16MB... just a thought.

[Scott Schuster @ Jun 19th 2007 9:28PM]

My theory... Alienware is about to debut a new case and this is their method of getting rid of current model stock.

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 9:38PM]

That's probably right.

[Mike @ Jun 19th 2007 9:58PM]

That's probably it. Not long ago, they had a case listed on woot.com as a 'woot exclusive', and now this.

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 9:32PM]

Basketcase456 is right, my 486's HDD is smaller than that.
Why do people care so much about the case? That doesn't matter anything close to what's inside. I'm perfectly content with a beige box, just as long as what's inside is good. This is a serious case of the "oooooh! Shiny!" syndrome.

[Peter @ Jun 19th 2007 9:35PM]

I agree. Every dollar spent on the case is a dollar NOT spent on improving performance.

[Bob @ Jun 19th 2007 9:38PM]

But I like shiny things!!

[Andrei Vassiliev @ Jun 19th 2007 10:22PM]

I'd have to disagree, to a point. I do like to have a nice looking case, to finish off my investment. I mean, hey, I've spent X amount of bucks already, why not spend a few more to show off my handiwork? On the flip side, there is nothing better than having everyone laugh at your beige box at a LAN and then showing them the specs to make theme open their mouths and cry, ha ha.

[nikster @ Jun 20th 2007 7:14AM]

... and thanks to people like you, Sir, the world is crammed full with ugly things. Thanks a lot!

;)

[Steven Feng @ Jun 19th 2007 9:50PM]

That case is seriously, completely overpriced, along with the rest of Alienware's systems. For example, check out their laptops... getting a new Santa Rosa laptop w/ Vista Premium, 2gigs of ram and a geforce 7300 costs $1900. If you get an HP dv2500t, you can get the EXACT same specs + 8600GT instead of 7300 for $1200. That's 50% cheaper.

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 9:59PM]

People Buy AlienWare hardware because its a well-known company, the hardware is almost always bleeding-edge, and everything looks pretty. A Dell laptop can have similar specs to an Alienware one, and even have a significantly lover price, but sales of that will be lower than that of an Alienware product just because the case looks better and it sounds more bleeding-edge

[Steven Feng @ Jun 19th 2007 10:06PM]

I know. I'm just saying it's overpriced when in all likelihood the $1200 HP will have as good system and better graphics performance as the $1900 alienware. I personally don't think $700 is really worth a name gaming brand (HP is also very well known and reliable) when the performance is the same.

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 10:15PM]

I agree.

[BoZs13 @ Jun 19th 2007 10:06PM]

Dellianware...FTL!

[Luigi193 @ Jun 19th 2007 10:06PM]

If it is bleeding so much, shouldn't we get it a bandage?

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 10:15PM]

10 PRINT "HA"
20 GOTO 10
30 END

[Paul @ Jun 19th 2007 10:29PM]

@HaX80r Your program is going to get stuck in an infinite loop, thats a lot of HA's

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 10:36PM]

Ok fine, no infinite loop.
laughing program revision B

10 INPUT "Number of luaghs?" , L
20 X = 1
30 print "HA"
40 X = X + 1
50 IF X < L GOTO 70
60 GOTO 20
70 END

happy now?

[Circuitsoft @ Jun 19th 2007 11:44PM]

50 IF X > L GOTO 70

[pranman @ Jun 20th 2007 10:33AM]

Circuitsoft, your program is going to get stuck in a loop as well.

Try this.

50 IF X < L GOTO 30
60 END

P.S: I'd also correct the spelling of 'luaghs'in 10 :-)

[HaX80r @ Jun 20th 2007 8:11AM]

oops, a 1 character error. thanks for noticing that. If this was FORTRAN IV, I would have just set the mainframe on fire.

[Chris ][ @ Jun 20th 2007 10:25PM]

You all missed the fact that the program keeps going back to line 20, where it reinitializes X to 1.

[Chris Moroz @ Jun 19th 2007 10:07PM]

Looks like Dell found a way to make an easy $400.

[HaX80r @ Jun 19th 2007 10:54PM]

How so?

[Shibathedog @ Jun 19th 2007 10:45PM]

When i build PCs, One of the first rules i set is to never spend more than 50 dollars on a case, sometimes ill want something really flashy and break that rule, but i think the most i spend on a case was 80 or 90?

My point is, There are far better looking/performing(airflow) cases out their for WAY less. Of course i usually buy cases that dont come with a PSU so that cuts the cost, But this is still far from a good deal.

[Circuitsoft.alex @ Jun 20th 2007 1:31AM]

I've found very few good cases for under $50. There are many in the $70-$100 that aren't too garish.

[Pablo @ Jun 19th 2007 10:59PM]

you can get a *MUCH* nicer case for a lot less...long live newegg!

[Frankenstein Black @ Jun 20th 2007 12:01PM]

Here here...

[chadow @ Jun 19th 2007 11:54PM]

These aren't really MY style, but they are well made cases. I think its funny how many other cases TRY to look like the Alienware case. As far as the price, I think it should be about $100 less before I would consider it.

I remember seeing these on Ebay years ago. They were going for more than this price used, and without a PS.

[Karim @ Jun 20th 2007 12:02AM]

Wow! If I pay MORE money, can they make it even UGLIER? Like paint some flames on the side? Make the eyes in the Alienware logo alternately BLINK at some seizure-inducing frequency instead of just lighting up? Maybe put a picture of Hello Kitty on the side using neon pink Swarovski crystals? Gold trim? Woodgrain panels? "Reserve Edition" faux leatherette trim?

And does it come with a supply of Dramamine for when looking at it makes you want to throw up?

[Paul @ Jun 20th 2007 12:19AM]

I'd take the Antec 900 case over an Alienware case any day. This case is just shiny

[jptech @ Jun 20th 2007 12:44AM]

not that out of the realm of possibility. Though, I'd rather spend my money on a Lian-Li case and a Seasonic psu.

Those will run you $400 together also. But they're much higher quality imo.

[Dave @ Jun 20th 2007 12:51AM]

I really don't see how this case is worth anywhere near $400. You can get a full aluminum Lian-Li for like half that still, right? I built a PC in one of those a few years ago... looked like a G5 and that case was super SUPER easy to work inside of.

[Sterling @ Jun 20th 2007 2:28AM]

Don't underestimate the value of a good case. While $400 might be a bit excessive, going super cheap, especially for who like to tweek with their boxen, can be a drag further down the road. It's the little things that really help like big knobby tool-less screws or nice smooth edges that won't strip you or your wires of much needed insulation. It's all about having mounts for nice, big whispery fans with great layouts for say a RAID 5 array behind said fans. So, like I said, don't underestimate the value of a good case. They tend to have a longer life-cycle than everything else in them.

[Taylor @ Jun 20th 2007 2:37AM]

Hmm, my Gigabyte Poseidon was 150 (australian) dollars with a 430W PSU, and it's pretty decent. It's got the inside lighting, and a logo projector at the front. Not as fancy as this beast, but it does what I need it to do.

399 bucks USD is about 473 Australian. I would never spend THAT much on a case, but I know people who would

[artifex @ Jun 20th 2007 4:09AM]

Woot dumped a bunch of one of their cases a few weeks ago. Problem is, they absolutely won't support the case by itself to end users. Not to mention it all being overpriced junk anyway :) If I'm going to spend money on form over function, it'll be on another Mac.

[broli @ Jun 20th 2007 8:13AM]

Or if you like the style and want to seriously save some money you could go for the Recom case which costs around 70 bucks without the PSU.

http://www.bytesatwork.be/shop/files/master/images/thumbs/t_21013.jpg

[spinny21 @ Jun 20th 2007 12:03PM]

i love alienware.. don't get me wrong.. i've had this area 51-m for 4 years now and its still faster than the average person's desktop.. but i have to say that the build quality has gone way down since dell bought it over. We bought an alienware sentia this past Christmas for my little sister, and within a month, the monitor broke and even though it was still under warranty it still cost $100 in shipping because we live in Canada and they wouldn't pay for shipping.. boo urns

before i didn't mind paying the price premium, but now the build quality has gone downhill and really don't think i'll buy another alienware.. it was fun while it lasted alienware

[jaywarrietto @ Jun 20th 2007 6:14PM]

I'd rather spend $300 on a good Lian Li case....

[Shad @ Jun 20th 2007 8:55PM]

@HaX80r... He shouldn't be happy now, he just might not have ever had a Commodore64...

Wouldn't you want to say:

50 IF X > L GOTO 70

For each HA printed X grows by one.. You said:

50 IF X < L GOTO 70

So if X=1, it's less than L (which is the number of HA's you wanted to print...) You'll only get one HA, no matter what number you would type in.

You could simplify this program with this:

10 print "HA"

Just thought I would point that out... I'm no programmer, but I did have a Commodore64 =)

[System48 @ Jul 20th 2007 4:38PM]

To those people advocating spending $50 on case, you are doing a lot of noob's that may read this a real injustice. I have built several pc's for friends and family and up until recently I had always just pointed them to a few websites and let them pick out whatever case they wanted. So of course I have ended up with the $50 thin as a piece of paper "steel" cases with "350W" power supplies that feel like they could be just empty shells. If you want a quality case and a quality power supply then you're looking at spending about $125+ for the case and anywhere from $100-250, depending on needs, on the power supply. And there is nothing uglier than a beige case.