NovaShine said:
1. The average Joe wont really mess with watercooling and setting it up can be risky, or so most of them think. This is already done for you by Alienware and carries a warranty too, so any spills or accidents are all insured by Alienware for their peace of mind.
That was done by Koolance already, and some smaller shops, especially in Germany where it's commonplace.
NovaShine said:
2. This is some special technology that nobody other than Alienware has. I dont see any motherboard manufacturer getting their hands on this technology for a while because Alienware can and will patent it and monopolize on it for a while.
No. Several manufacturers announced their twin PCI-Express mobos, IIRC it was last week. (it was covered around the news sites)
And i don't remember Alienware as a mobo manufacturer. I don't think they have any semiconductor facility. They have good OEM deals with some first-tier actors though.
NovaShine said:
3. Face it guys, even the best premodded case cant beat the contours, shapes and paint job that Alienware offers on their cases.
This is debatable.. Again either small shops or some good retailers in EU carry nice eye-candy cases. After that which is more beautiful is a matter of taste.. But surely not worth an inflated price tag.
NovaShine said:
4. No crap like weak custom PSUs from Dell. Mainly uses off the shelf components cept for the motherboard. Completely modular and upgradable, nothing daunting for an inexperianced computer user.
Again, many shops in EU do that already.
NovaShine said:
5. The last and most important point. Alienware offers customer support to all customers.
And another time, this is what every shop around here does already. Arguably the quality of support is quite random, but so is Alienware's.
NovaShine said:
Alienware markets these computers to your average gamer without much knowledge of hardware. If something goes wrong with their hardware, they have to take it to a repair shop somewhere and pay the guys there to fix it. Alienware can provide some excellent customer support, may it be technical, hardware related, software related or even sales related.
"excellent" ? That's again debatable. I know people who had to use Alienware support.. no better than Dell.. A good point for them, they replace the whole comp when something fishy is going on.
NovaShine said:
they have, what is called a First Mover's Advantage, meaning that they were the first to develop this dual graphics card technology.
OK for the "first mover", but i doubt THEY developed the SLI tech. The fact that it was in PCI Express spec sheets, and that some rumors around mobo mfgers were running about 16x or dual 8x, implies that R&D labs were already at work.
NovaShine said:
It allows them to brand their name on it and pretty much immortalize their company if that goes mainstream. They priced it high to attract the premium performance crowd, the rich gamers who dont have much hardware knowledge. Gives the product a sort of prestigue feel.
Absolutely.
NovaShine said:
(...)
In short, Alienware's making a very good move in developing this dual graphics card technology, not only for itself, but for the PC community as a whole. The whole high price thing is very understandable, considering the points i made further up this post.
I think they'll sell some units indeed. But again, the watercooling setup is far from eye-widening.
For instance i was very impressed by Apple with their new dual-G5 thingie. THIS was innovation, even if their watercooling loop is not top-notch performance, it's very well made, and made to last. And run silently. The airflow design, the positioning of each element, all are well thought.
NovaShine said:
For the whole watercooling thing being crap.
1st, Alienware wont include an expensive watercooling system if they could just use a stock heatsink to prevent overheating. Why not keep cooling cheap to keep prices low and profits high?
2nd, Alienware rarely overclocks their system (i beleive they use Intel boards most of the time so, they cant be overclocked) so the most important thing for them is to keep the heat levels in check to prevent crashes. That usually allows thresholds of up to mid 50's to 60s celcius on load temps. This is someting that the Koolance system should be able to do with flying colours. The second most important issue is noise. Alienware needs to keep noise down to reduce the cons to their products. Maybe the stock cooling solution was too loud and any aftermarket air cooled heatsinks for it were too?
3rd, your average Joe dosnt give a damn about how high the temps are. As long as the computer kicks *** in games and runs stably without crashing, the customer will be happy. so load temps in the mid 50's are very much acceptable.
Absolutely ! Still, what runs into the mind of people who pay $10000 for a single computer...
NovaShine said:
If you use some even better cooling systems, Alienware may have to buy their own components, have their own technicians put it together. The extra man hours spent on that may cost even more than the koolance system for minimal gain (may be great temp wise, but not company wise). Plus, production time of the computer will take even longer, which can make for an impatient customer.
This is more debatable. Is a Koolance kit really easier to integrate than say, a Danger Den kit ? Or even easier, a Swiftech kit ? I always applaude at Swiftech products for their user-friendliness: their watercooling hardware is maybe the most newbie-friendly (and thus, the easier to integrate in a PC case). I'm not certain that a full Swifty kit would be harder to put in.
NovaShine said:
Im sure Alienware is full of smart talented people who know exactly what their doing. They have to strike a balance between the interests of the company and the interests of the customer. The customer is typically a slightly computer literate gamer with a good amount of dough on them. They wont have the ability to critically analize the system like we do and point out the individual flaws, such as high temps and a cheap watercooling system. As long as the system performs well in games and benchmarks, the end customer will be happy. There is no room for us overclockers for Alienware to sell to. If they start catering to our community, they are in the wrong market.
Yeah i think so as well.
That won't prevent me from thinking that the watercooling loop is less than stellar. And that any tech-savvy would-be buyer will cringe at the price tag...
I have them set at fairly standard 2-3-2-8 at 2.7v. 
