***EDIT: I have decided to replace my previous review with the following one that i used for the ZDNet review of the Alienware Area-51 system***
I ordered my Area-51 5500 in mid December 05 and received it in mid January 06.
Please note, Alienware makes systems for computer literate people looking for a custom built high performance machine. If you are not knowledgeable about computers, consider getting a Dell or something less expensive, If you are new to computers completely, consider getting an Apple; as they are very new-user friendly.
To start off, the Ordering system was a breeze, Alienware has an extremely helpful website that lets you build any system you want with any parts; once this is done you can save your setup on your free Alienware account and either order online, or call their phone ordering number. Either way ordering produced no problems for me.
Financing was also very nice with alienware, offering to let me pay with any form of payment, or apply for the Alienware credit card. I opted for the Credit and my application was processed and approved within a few days.
Once i had all the financing set up, i was able to check the status of my order as it moved down the various steps of production, there was a slight delay because one of the parts i had ordered was out of stock, but that only held it back for a few days.
Once production was completed, it was shipped and arrived at my house in 4 days using Fed-Ex ground shipping.
When the package arrived at my house, it was completely undamaged, i opened it up and lo-and-behold there was my system waiting for me. I promptly plugged it in and connected all of my peripherals, and it booted up without a flaw.
Out of the box, without any tweaking or major program installation, it offered amazing results on the benchmarking program 3DMark05, scoring an Impressive 7,546 3DMarks.
Following is the setup for my Area-51 5500
Pentium 4 3.4GHz w/ Hyper-Threading
2GB DDR2 PC4300 RAM
1x NVidia Ge Force 7800GTX 256MB DDR3
1x Seagate 160GB SATA II HDD
1x 16x DVD-ROM
1x 52/32/52 CD-R/RW
If you feel that this review is just to make Alienware look good, or have questions or comments, feel free to email me and i will speak with you personally:
JHMcMillin@gmail.com
I ordered my Area-51 5500 in mid December 05 and received it in mid January 06.
Please note, Alienware makes systems for computer literate people looking for a custom built high performance machine. If you are not knowledgeable about computers, consider getting a Dell or something less expensive, If you are new to computers completely, consider getting an Apple; as they are very new-user friendly.
To start off, the Ordering system was a breeze, Alienware has an extremely helpful website that lets you build any system you want with any parts; once this is done you can save your setup on your free Alienware account and either order online, or call their phone ordering number. Either way ordering produced no problems for me.
Financing was also very nice with alienware, offering to let me pay with any form of payment, or apply for the Alienware credit card. I opted for the Credit and my application was processed and approved within a few days.
Once i had all the financing set up, i was able to check the status of my order as it moved down the various steps of production, there was a slight delay because one of the parts i had ordered was out of stock, but that only held it back for a few days.
Once production was completed, it was shipped and arrived at my house in 4 days using Fed-Ex ground shipping.
When the package arrived at my house, it was completely undamaged, i opened it up and lo-and-behold there was my system waiting for me. I promptly plugged it in and connected all of my peripherals, and it booted up without a flaw.
Out of the box, without any tweaking or major program installation, it offered amazing results on the benchmarking program 3DMark05, scoring an Impressive 7,546 3DMarks.
Following is the setup for my Area-51 5500
Pentium 4 3.4GHz w/ Hyper-Threading
2GB DDR2 PC4300 RAM
1x NVidia Ge Force 7800GTX 256MB DDR3
1x Seagate 160GB SATA II HDD
1x 16x DVD-ROM
1x 52/32/52 CD-R/RW
If you feel that this review is just to make Alienware look good, or have questions or comments, feel free to email me and i will speak with you personally:
JHMcMillin@gmail.com
