Alienware is a United States computer hardwaresubsidiary of Dell, Inc. It mainly assembles third party components into desktops and laptops with custom enclosures. Alienware also offers for sale rebadged computer peripherals, such as headsets, computer mic, monitors and keyboards. Their hardware has a distinctive "sci-fi" style, typically including decorative lighting. Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila.
Alienware's corporate headquarters is located in The Hammocks, unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, near Miami.
In 2002, Dell was considering buying Alienware, but did not take any action until March 22, 2006, when it agreed to purchase the company. The new subsidiary maintained its autonomy in terms of design and marketing. However, Alienware's access to Dell's supply chain, purchasing power, andeconomies of scale would lower its operating costs.
Initially, Dell maintained its competing XPS line of gaming PCs, often selling computers with the same specifications. The XPS line may have hurt Alienware's market share within its market segment. Due to corporate restructuring in the spring of 2008, the XPS brand was scaled down, and the Desktop line was eliminated leaving only the XPS Notebooks.Product development of gaming PCs was consolidated with Dell's gaming division, with Alienware becoming Dell's premier gaming brand. On June 2, 2009, The M17x was introduced as the First Alienware/Dell branded system. Alienware now represents the premium performance space in Dell’s consumer family of products.This launch also expands Alienware’s global reach from six to 45 countries.
On March 25, 2009, Alienware stated that it was considering closing its manufacturing bases inAthlone, County Westmeath, Ireland, and in Miami, Florida.
Laptops
18 Inch
- M18x - Introduced in 2011, it is considered a replacement for the original M17x design, but with a bigger chassis and screen up to 18.4 inches, and special keyboard macros. It features Dual-GPU Support, and up to 32 GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM.
- M18x-R2 - 2012 revision of the M18x; updated with Intel Ivybridge Processors, Double Nvidia 600 or AMD 7xxxM Series GPUs, and up to 32 GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM
17 Inch
- M17x (Discontinued) - Introduced in 2009, it is the first laptop released by Alienware after the company was bought by Dell. The name and some of the design is based on the Alienware 17 inch laptop, the Alienware M17.
- M17x-R2 (Discontinued) - 2010 Revision of the M17x, adding support for Intel i5 and i7 processors, double MXM3.0b graphic cards.
- M17x-R3 (Discontinued) - 2011 Revision of the M17x, changes from aluminium chassis to a simplified plastic design, 3D Ready through a 120 Hz screen. Removes Dual-GPU capability.
- M17x-R4 - 2012 Revision of the M17x, updated with Intel Ivybridge Processors and Nvidia 6 Series GPUs.
15 Inch
- M15x (Discontinued) - Introduced in 2009
- M15x-R2 (Discontinued) - 2010 Revision of the M15x, adding support for Intel i5 and i7 processors.
14 Inch
- M14x (Discontinued) - Introduced in 2011 as a replacement for the M15x, with single GPU and support for Intel i5 and i7 processors.
- M14x-R2 - 2012 revision of the M14x,updated with Intel Ivybridge Processors and Nvidia GeForce600 Series and Blu-ray slot drive.
11.6 Inch
- M11x (Discontinued) - First introduced in early 2010, it is the smallest-size gaming laptop from Alienware. It came equipped with two Penryn-core processors, a Pentium SU4100 at the entry-level and a Core 2 Duo SU7300 at the high-end. Driving the 11.6 inch screen are two video processors, a GMA 4500MHD integrated and NVIDIA's discrete GeForce GT 335M with its own 1GB of DDR3 RAM.
- M11x-R2 (Discontinued) - Late 2010 revision of the M11x; the first to use Intel's ultra-low-voltage Arrandale Core i5 and i7 processors. The revision also added a rubberized "soft-touch" exterior to the design. The same GT 335M is used for video; however, NVIDIA's Optimus technology has been added to automatically switch between it and the still-used GMA 4500MHD.
- M11x-R3 (Discontinued) - 2011 revision of the M11x; added support for the second generation of Intel's Mobility series Core i5 and i7 processors and was the first to include an i3 in its lineup. It also received a standardized 500GB 7200rpm hard drive as well as the standard-for-M11x-line dual-GPU setup combining NVIDIA's discrete GeForce GT 540M for higher-end gaming and Intel's integrated HD Graphics 3000 for older gaming and application use, by the end of 2011 a second revision of the motherboard design used on the R3 series was made available on a limited amount of laptops, this second version used the more powerful Nvidia GF108 chipset, the GT 550M with 1GB video memory.
