History / Origins / First releases of ALIENWARE computers

Hi all! Ive been reading these forums for a while as Ive been eagerly waiting like a child for my first Alienware of awesomeness purchase to arrive (M17X R4).. And whilst reading all this time Ive become really intrigued with how passionately many of you talk about the brand. And Im starting to feel proud I ordered one

And in my quest to absorb everything Alienware related, I went searching for origins of the company only to come up empty!

They are mentioned in several places to have started in 1998 and purchased by dell in 2006.. but every resource online about PRE DELL systems and information is either a dead link or nonexistent. Even wikipedia only has a section on POST DELL aquisition which is rare in its incompleteness.

Do any of you have information, pictures etc of their early products pre dell?? Im so fascinated by this brand.

Enjoy all!

-Tristan

 

i remember seeing some older portable alienware laptops ... i think they were called alienware sentia..

thought they were pretty neat, seems like the prequel to the m11x:

Alienware Sentia Overview & User Reviews - Laptops - CNET Reviews

i also have an old pc mag, and it has a two page alienware advert from like 2000! i could post a pic if you want.

 

Thanks! If you wouldnt mind, I'd be really keen to see those pics

 

alright, once i get home, i'll snap some pics, wont be for another 8 or so hours though.
also just found this thread, kind of neat

http://arena.cevo.com/forums/topic/13904/general-discussion/old-alienware-ad/1/
mine is a different ad though

 

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry over that.

So many business, like my own, have such humble and potentially embarassing beginnings

-Tristan

 

My system circa 2003:

 

Looks great , I was aged 14 in 2003 , I have no idea what is alienware lol.

 

Alienware desktop, circa 1999:

Spoiler

 

Hilarious how my smart phone is now more powerful lol.

 

lol , what is floppy drive? P3 CPU with 0.5ghz(500mhz) haha!

22GB HDD is just cool enough for window 7.

 

I always wanted these keyboards/mice with the systems back in the day. Were they good versus the competition?

 

Sometimes I like to go to the last page of threads in this forum and read the old alienware threads from years back. Then I chuckle when I think of there system compared to mine

 

That seems like only yesterday, LOL. I remember feeling like I had arrived at the pinnacle of performance with the Intel 440BX mobo, 500Mhz P-III proc, and Rage 128 Pro GPU. Then just a few years later, a P4 3.0GHz with HT and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with 512MB of VRAM, 4GB of RAM and 2 80GB 7200RPM HDD in RAID0 would be "all I could ever possibly need" in a computer. (That roughly 7 year old system is still in use to this day, and it's faster than a lot of the cheesy low end systems you can buy from the store.) I spent roughly the same amount building that system as what a maxed out M18x costs today. It's so worth it to pay for the most horsepower your wallet will allow. It's so much "cooler" (to me) having a high performance laptop that goes everywhere I go.

 

heres the pics i promised, sorry it was from pc gamer in 2002
CLICK

 

Ha ha ha ha, thanks, man. That's the exact same full tower case that I used in the P4 system mentioned in the above post. I still like the case a whole lot. It's build like a tank and cools great.

 

The one thing that was better in the old days was color selection. I wish we had more than just "red or black" options now... Green like the guy made in that one paint thread, or blue or purple, would all be excellent additions imo. That could even open up a new cash cow for them because for like 100-200 extra dollars you could order your laptop in the color of your school if it wasn't already a stock color (like maroon or even several colors at once).

 

Thanks all! My history lesson feels more complete now.

And yeah I was assembling PCs for an independent retailer in 1999... I remember so much from around then.. the misplaced hype around voodoo3, overclocking celeron 300s.. and companies having comparatively no idea what they were doing, coming out with just as many horrible ideas as great ones and constantly leap frogging in terms of performance. Probably the most fun era of my computing career!

 

This weird al yankovic song from 1999 still rings true today .
"Weird Al" Yankovic - It's All About The Pentiums - YouTube

 

Same here. I'd love a sky blue or toxic green choice.

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I totally remember those Alienware desktops! I used to dream of getting one back then, but could never afford it.

 

Probably good you didn't, today you would just have a three thousand dollar papperweight capable of playing doom

 

lol nope ur smart has no Floppy Drive

btw its good to see that back in 1999 itself, Alienware had dedicated GPU and 7200RPM HD !

 

They werent called a GPU back then Actually I remember my first Geforce 256 in 2000.. the first GPU. Sounded like a dumb catch phrase at the time..

 

lol ya me too..... i used see this nVidia Logo rotate and get excited !

 

holy @!#$ 21" monitor is a thousand buck!!!!

 

Middle of the road quality wise. The color put them over the top though!

 

Kinda on subjet with this thread.....

Wondering what kind of alienware accessories you guys have?

I have.
tactx keyboard, mouse and headset.
original alienware cleaning cloth
and a alienware window media center remote.


I am always looking for other cool things to go with my aliens.
I really want to find some of the older stuff, usb drive, pen, mug, stuff like that

 

Lets go off on a tangent... Still relates to the origins/history of Alienware...

Who here has heard about the Caret Documents shinanigan?

About Alienware supposedly taking the typefont from alien space-craft...

I can't find all the "documents", but here's something to check out... Alienware Behind 'Drone' UFOs? | TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History