I know you purchased Alienware earlier this year. I sit here typing on an Alienware computer, purchased four years ago.  It is aging.  Call of Duty 2 slows to ten frames per second in certain situations. Granted, that is because of the high resolution I run and age of the video card.  But, any other resolution looks blurry on this screen.

Because of this dilemma I ordered another Alienware machine. I needed something a little faster; something that can handle 15,000 Outlook e-mail messages sitting in the inbox. Something a little more stable. A video card with 1024mb memory, and two gigs of ram. It arrived today, which made me very happy.  The last system was four weeks late.  Plus one for Dell ownership.

Sadly though, I have a bad first impression of the product. The computer case has only two USB slots on the front.  My old Alienware has four, all of which are currently being used. I’m going to have to buy a USB hub now. The new keyboard (black one at bottom) lacks volume and media controls. The new mouse (black) is crap. Unlike the nice color matched five button Microsoft mouse that came with my last system, this one is a simple black two button POS.  It is as cheap as it gets. I’d only expect that from a bargain $299 Dell system, not your higher-end CPU costing eight times as much without a monitor and speakers.

And the brand new black t-shirt needed to be screen-printed with white one more time.  The ink isn’t covering the black cotton. Cheaped out again with the flagship brand.

Dell, these were the details that kept Alienware fans happy.  They paid extra for the cool case and to know they were getting the best product possible. That meant finding top-notch peripherals. Cheaping out on USB ports, keyboards and mice is a bad, bad idea. It makes me assume the computer’s internal components are of the same lower quality. I know the computer industry is notoriously slim on profit, but the Alienware brand was one of the few that was able to thrive with healthy margins due to these brand details.

Hopefully the machine will be speedy when I start it up tomorrow.  I’ll post more then.

BTW - Yes I know I am missing my caps lock key.  I pry it off every keyboard I own.