so they advertise them selves now...well done

I have not seen how the 8700gt rates on the scales... are there any benchies for it yet?

Id definitly choose an Alienware lappy over an dell xps one anyday.

When Dell bought Alienware, I wondered why they bothered. They already have their Dell XPS line of performance computers. Why are they competing with themselves? Rumors of them dropping the XPS line only made sense. Now it seems they're keeping it, but dumbing down the XPS?
Why are they taking their former performance series and turning it in to their "Midrange"? It doesn't make sense.

A lot of companies actually compete with themselves. Take GM for example, they have a number of competing products going after the same market.

I'm checking out XPS vs Alienware on their website now. It seems that they purposely gimp the XPS slightly. They offer the latest Core 2 Quad Extreme processor, but don't offer any video cards above a 3870. It seems the LED light case is gone too and has been replaced with a less flashy more generic one.

They're also not letting me unselect things like the "McAfee SecurityCenter" and don't give you a discount for removing Adobe Elements Studio. I'm starting to remember why I build my own.

Edit: Managed to keep it under $5,000

Second edit: Nevermind. That was an XPS 420.

It's actually getting easier and easier to build your own laptop now. The problem is that manufacturers usually have much better prices. I'd get a Thinkpad over an XPS or Alienware any day just because Thinkpads are much more resistant to wear and tear. My friend got a $2500 Alienware laptop a year ago, and a couple weeks later the dvd drive latch broke. :wtf:

A couple of years back (4-5years ago), my sister bought an alienware area 51 laptop...
back then it was top of the range and she totally kitted it out... P4 3ghz, ATI 9800pro, 2gb ram... cost here around £2000!!!

Anyways, the case of the laptop couldnt handle the heat generated and it would reboot itself and show video corruption after a couple of minutes.

She sent it back twice to get fixed and it would come back in the same condition..
eventually she was carrying it down the stairs at her house in the laptop bag... the she stepped on the shoulderstrap on the case, tripped and fell down the stairs "bowling" the laptop in the case into the concrete at the bottom of the stairs, totaly craking the case and shaking all of the components loose... that was her mistake i guess, but it still dosent make up for the fact that the parts in the laptop diddnt actually work in that chassis... they diddnt have enough ventilation and the design was fatally flawwed... A complete waste of £2000
I wouldnt trust any of their "top-end" systems really as some parts just wont work inside a small laptop case... they just generate far too much heat and require too much power for a small enclosed space.

my step dad on the other hand has a fantastic XPS laptop... granted it only has a geforce 8400 inside... but it works flawlessly and has great build quality, fantastic crisp screen and desktop keyboard so you dont feel like you typing on a flat board.

PVTCaboose1337I have not seen how the 8700gt rates on the scales... are there any benchies for it yet?

8700GT = 8600GT OC.