Reuters Looks at Rigs

PluggedIn: for PC Power Gamers, Money Is No Object
Sat July 12, 2003 07:14 AM ET
By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - There are personal computers, there are powerful personal computers, and then there are the rigs.

For the dedicated PC gamer who spends more time playing games than sleeping and working combined, nothing is more important than having a computer souped up with the latest and greatest technology.

Whether it's a central processor modified to run at speeds its manufacturer never dreamed of, a graphics processor that can produce images unimaginable a year before, or a see-through case with blinking neon lights that expose all the circuits inside, the price tag is no deterrent for dedicated fans.

No surprise, then, that there are a number of companies across the country willing help those gamers part with significant chunks of cash.

And while such super-machines have traditionally been the province of small companies that build each unit by hand and can literally trace their origins to someone's garage, the field has changed quickly now that Dell Computer Corp. DELL.O has stepped aggressively into the market with the Dimension XPS.

"They've had a very good impact actually," said Nelson Gonzalez, the chief executive of Alienware, a Florida-based heavyweight in the gaming PC industry. "They've validated the space by announcing that they're getting into the space."

Alienware, which has distribution through the Web site of Best Buy Co. Inc. BBY.N ; and Voodoo Entertainment Systems, a Canadian operation known for its eccentric machine cases, are among the best-known companies in a small but significant industry.

Alienware's "Custom" system starts at $2,679 in a base configuration, but a few quick upgrades add $1,000 to the price, while fully tricked-out Voodoo systems can easily top $8,000.

Conveniently, for those gamers who don't keep so much cash handy, Alienware now offers a black credit card, in keeping with the company's desire for stylishness.

Voodoo's F-Class F-550 system, featuring an all-aluminum case and the capacity to support up to 2 gigabytes of RAM, is billed as a "personal dream machine" and features what the company claims is the highest quality gloss finish on any PC available today.

Another player in the industry, Falcon Northwest, offers a high-end system called the "Mach V" that tops $5,800 in one sample configuration with amenities like dual 160 gigabyte hard drives and a 21-inch monitor.

DELL HAPPY WITH SALES

For their part, Dell executives say they are pleased with how the XPS is doing among the often-finicky enthusiast market, though they admit there has been some nit-picking, particularly in the area of expansion options.

"From a product feature standpoint we probably got to about 95 percent of where we wanted to be," Mark Vena, a director of product marketing at Dell, told Reuters.

While Dell does not discuss sales for individual product lines, Vena said the XPS is "performing to business expectations" and is not taking any business away from what had previously been Dell's top products, the Dimension 8300 line.

Dell, Alienware and the rest of the companies in the small-but-growing industry are also counting on a happy holiday season, driven by the planned releases of two of the most anticipated PC games of all time, the first-person shooters "Doom III" and "Half-Life 2."

Both games are intensive users of system resources, requiring the most powerful graphics processors possible, an abundance of memory and a central processor that can quickly handle the various computational demands the games will make on the system.

The games drew massive crowds in May at the video game convention in Los Angeles, and the hype around both games has extended into the hardware world, where graphics card companies and computer manufacturers are slowly preparing to duel over whose systems are best suited to play the new games.

"We definitely feel there will be a surge in sales once these game titles are released," Alienware's Gonzalez said. "We've always seen it, we've seen it when 'Quake 2' was released, when 'Half-Life' was released."