Well folks, I thought I would share some good stuff that is happening on my end of the ‘net. After using my last computer for about 3 1/2 years, I decided it was time to upgrade. This is no small task for me, mainly because I am picky as hell but what can I say. For starters, I have always built my computers, again because I am picky and I want them my way. I have been doing this for more than a decade and this time I wanted to simply buy one. This meant that I had to do a lot of research to find a good quality machine that was going to live up to my expectations and also not break the bank. After lots of reading and digging I finally settled on Alienware. Now, Alienware has always had a reputation for building top notch machines and I must confess I have always wanted one. Even though the HP Blackbird looked like a mighty fine machine, I just couldn’t justify the cost. That plus did I mention I really wanted an Alienware???

Anyway, I decided to get the Alienware Aurora 7500 since I wanted to go with the AMD platform. It was cheaper than the Intel to boot, bonus! Most of the specs are not important as they are pretty much like any other machine as well as variable. The ones that are the most important in my mind are:

• AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+
• 2GB Corsair XMS2 Memory
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB memory running SLI
• 1000 Watt Power Supply

Those are the big items, and the ones that affect the cost the most, that and the monitor. I only mention those to give you an idea of not only what I got for your reference in this post, but to see what kind of good stuff you can get from Alienware. I was suitably impressed that I could find a pre-built machine that satisfied even my demanding standards, but nothing could have prepared me for my experience when the machine actually arrived.

In short, I was blown away. This machine is freakin’ awesome. Very nice, very beautiful and very fast. It is aesthetically pleasing and it leaves me in awe at how fast it is. I have been using it for a couple days now and so far I am only impressed. At the risk of losing my “geek cred”, I have to say that I even like Windows Vista (Home Premium). I was going to get it with Windows XP (they have that option), but that was an extra $100 and I decided to stick with Vista. I figured it would be good for me to play with it for a little bit and then I could format and install XP. In the end, I think I am going to keep Vista, at least for now, until it does something to make me want to remove it.

So, why write this up? Am I simply bragging? No! I wanted to share this with everyone because I know how hard it is to find a good PC out there. I will now recommend Alienware computers to anyone who asks and isn’t just looking for the cheapest thing they can find. I wanted to pass this on so others could check them out as well and hopefully have a nice computing experience with them as I am. One thing to note is that Dell bought Alienware a while back (last year maybe) and that was a worry for me. However, Dell said at the time of the acquisition that they were going to let Alienware stay Alienware and not go in and change them. So far, that still seems to be the case. I’ll continue to share my walk with this new computer when something worth sharing crops up, but for now I can say I think I have found a good computer brand to stay with. Thanks!