Best Buy Offers Alienware's Flashy New PCs

Spacey colors and top-notch technologies come in pricey systems.

Tom Mainelli, PCWorld.com

Buyers seeking something flashier than standard retail PC fare may find a good match in direct-seller Alienware's newest pre-built systems, now available in Best Buy stores

Brightly colored cases, high-end processors, and top-notch graphics could make the PCs a popular choice with buyers looking for a serious gaming machine. However, they do carry a price premium.

Visitors to Alienware's Web site can configure their systems to order. Best Buy's retail stores and online store are offering two types of Windows XP home systems: the AMD Athlon-based Aurora-DDR and the Intel Pentium 4-based Area-51.

Pick Your Chip

Available now, four Aurora-DDR systems are being sold at Best Buy (they vary only by color, and not all colors are available in all stores). Each features an AMD Athlon XP 1900+ processor, 512MB of DDR memory, a 60GB hard drive, a 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, 16X DVD drive, and a 64MB NVidia GeForce3 video card. The black version sells for $2120; for $35 more, you can get the same system in a choice of "saucy silver," "cyborg green," or "conspiracy blue."

Best Buy is also offering several variations of Alienware's Area-51 system. The first includes a 1.7-GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256MB of RDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a 16X DVD drive, and a 64MB NVidia GeForce3 video card. The black version of the system is priced at $1760; a silver, green, or blue edition costs $1796.

The second Area-51 PC uses the 2-GHz P4, 512MB RDRAM, a 60GB hard drive, a 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, 16X DVD drive, and the NVidia GeForce3 64MB video card. The system costs $2500 in black, and $50 more in the other colors.

All of the systems also come with Sound Blaster's Audigy 5.1 Gamer sound card and Alienware's KoolMaxx Video Cooling System. However, to get a matching 19-inch Viewsonic monitor, you'll spend $370 on black or $430 on blue or silver. The recommended speakers--Klipsch's ProMedia 4.1 Personal Audio System--sell for an extra $300 in black or $330 in silver or blue.

Pricey Niche

Alienware has been around since 1996 and has targeted its systems at high-end gamers, offering top-shelf technology at premium prices through Web and phone sales only. PCWorld.com has reviewed Alienware systems in the past, generally giving them positive marks.

The company struck a deal with Best Buy at the end of last year, and the retailer began offering select pre-built Alienware systems at its stores and on its Web site. Another vendor who specialized in custom-built PCs, MicronPC, also cut a deal last year to offer custom systems through kiosks at Best Buy.

While Alienware's PCs certainly stand out in a crowd, at least one analyst isn't sure the premium prices will fly with retail buyers.

"The uniqueness of the color scheme, naming convention, as well as the entire marketing package will hold some appeal for the growing niche of gamers," analyst Toni Duboise says in her weekly ARS market report. However, that may not be enough, she says.

"While there is no doubt that these machines are pumped up with the prime components serious gamers are looking for, ARS finds the products comparatively overpriced," she says. "The majority of PC shoppers, however, will find it hard to overlook similarly configured systems by Sony and HP with more reasonable price tags."