Dude, you bought a $10k Dell!

Nadyne Richmond

23 Mar 2006 8:42 PM

Comments 5

The folks over at Dell are releasing a new gaming computer, the limited edition XPS 600 Renegade. Sporting what is quite possibly the ugliest case I've ever seen, it also has the most egregious price tag I've seen for a personal computer off-the-shelf. The case is red with flames, and with several Dell-related logos all over it. I'd be willing to overlook the ugly case if the price tag weren't quite so jaw-dropping. It's $9930.

Now, you get a lot of power for your ten grand. It comes overclocked from the factory, at 4.26 GHz. It has four (four!) NVidia GeForce 7900 cards. That paint job that I whinged about is custom -- it's hand-painted using some kind of trademarked technique. The rest of the specs aren't really anything out-of-the-ordinary, at least for a gaming computer: a pair of hard drives (one of which is 160GB and 10,000 RPM, a couple of gig of RAM, a SoundBlaster sound card.

I'm just really curious to know who's gonna shell out ten grand to Dell to send them a gaming computer. I don't doubt that there are people out there who sink that much into their gaming computer, I just think that they're more likely to build their own instead of buying a pre-made one from Dell.

Just in case you hadn't guessed, it won't be me. If I had an extra ten grand earmarked for a computer, there would be one hell of a powerful PowerMac (or the next generation, whenever that gets transitioned to a MacTel) in my future.

Comments

Uli Kusterer

24 Mar 2006 12:29 AM

Ten grand? You mean, as in, 20 Mac Minis? :-D Imagine the little critters all stacked across your desk, with several KVM switches in several levels to have them share a keyboard and screen ...
Marcus Peaston

24 Mar 2006 7:23 AM

I don't think Dell has ever been seen in the past as somewhere to buy a fast computer from. I have Dell workstation and ageing laptop and both I would consider to be very poor products, albeit ones that are designed for running Word rather than Doom. The acquisition of Alienware, however, may go some way to changing the perception of Dell in some people's eyes despite the statement that Alienware would continue as a separate brand. Regardless, there's no chance that I would be interested in spending $10,000 on a computer. Despite the power of this computer I would be put off by past experience with Dell and the knowledge that it is unlikely to be a long time before its performance is exceeded by other computers that cost a lot less. At the end of the day, how much difference does it really make?
Rosyna

24 Mar 2006 9:05 PM

Well, it seems quite a few people bought one. They're sold out. Although I wonder what's the point of having Michael Dell sign it.
Nadyne Richmond

24 Mar 2006 10:03 PM

They never said how many they made, did they? If they made four, selling out isn't that much of a feat.
Rosyna

25 Mar 2006 12:32 AM

I dunno. Even if they did make just 4, I'd consider selling out a huge feat in the PC market. Especially since Alienware (which Dell now owns) sells something very similar that looks a lot better. http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Aurora_ALX/alx_features.aspx?SysCode=PC-AURORA-ALX-R4&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

But then again, the XPS series from Dell was created to compete in the market Alienware dominated. Guess that's over now. Wonder if Apple will ever create such a wacky machine. Wonder if Apple will ever design a case again.

go ahead, mac my day

Dude, you bought a $10k Dell!

Dude, you bought a $10k Dell!