Jim Lynch

Sometimes you see something that seems so absurd that you almost can’t believe it. Today I was checking the related products ads by Amazon that appear on one of my blogs, and I noticed a Dell Alienware Area-51 gaming computer that sells for more than $9,000!

So I clicked through to Amazon and then noticed that the full price is more than $10,000! So apparently it’s on sale and you can save money if you buy it for $9050. What a deal! Talk about saving some big bucks! Well not really but if you’re seriously considering paying $9,000 for a gaming rig, then what’s another few bucks, right?

All kidding aside, that’s a lot of money for a gaming computer. But is it worth it? Well here’s the list of tech specs for it so you can make up your mind:

Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E Processor (6-cores, 15MB Cache, Overclocked up to 3.8 GHz w/ Turbo Boost)

Alienware Area-51, Genuine Windows 7 Proffesional 64 bit

Alienware 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply

32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz, 2TB SSD (1TB x 2) SATA III
6.0Gb/s 2.5? Solid State Drive + 18TB (6TB x 3) Serial ATA 6Gb/s Hard Drives

Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD/CD Burner

Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics with 24GB total (2x 12GB) GDDR5 – NVIDIA SLI Enabled (2 x HDMI, 2xDisplay Port, 4 x DVI)

Keyboard and Mouse

Intel 7260 802.11ac 2×2 Wireless, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0

1 Year Limited Warranty

Is a $10,000 computer overkill for most games?

Now that’s not a bad gaming computer at all, but my goodness! Is there any game that has ever been created that’s worth paying $9000 for a computer on sale or $10,000 at full price? Certainly not in my experience, and I’ve been gaming for nigh on thirty years now. I can’t imagine paying so much money for a gaming computer.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for having the latest and greatest if you can afford it. But there comes a point where it starts to move into the realm of gratuitous excess, and this computer may have reached that level and gone beyond it.

Plus, I wonder if the additional cost brings that much better of an experience. Some of the best and most fun games don’t necessarily need mega-hardware to run well and give people a good time. And even the ones that can use such hardware still tend to look good on lower settings.

The Dell gaming computer is also a bit on the odd looking side. It looks like some sort of triangular pyramid thing with the edges chopped off. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it’s not something I’d like to have to look at every day, and certainly not for almost $9,000 on sale and more than $10,000 at full price.

How many $10,000 gaming computers has Amazon sold?

As I finish this post, it says that there are “only three left in stock” on Amazon’s page. That makes me wonder, how many did they stock to begin with? I’d love to know how many of these things have been sold on Amazon’s site. It’s too bad Amazon doesn’t disclose that information on the product’s page.

Perhaps I’m just not enough of a gamer these days to fully appreciate a computer like this. Or maybe I’m just sane enough to know how crazy it would be to buy it. Who knows? But if people out there want to pay that much for a computer – for gaming or anything else – then more power to them. I’m sure the folks at Dell and Alienware are quite happy to take their money.

What Amazon’s customers think of a $10,000 gaming computer

Of course, I just had to read the reviews of the Dell Area-51 gaming computer, and boy did I find some funny comments! There are more than 200, and most are not from anybody who’s bought the machine. But they sure are funny.

Here’s a sample of the comments:

Ill Sick: ”I purchased this for the country of Zimbabwe. It provides internet and power for the whole country. It is now the new symbol of hope for Zimbabwe. People from all over the country come to pray and glance and its awesomeness.”

Steve Ashman: ”Great space heater. Not really sure what all these plugs in it do, but it keeps me warm.”

Vladimir Torres: ”I got a loan just to get this beauty! Who needs to eat when you can spend your remaining days slaying n00bz.”

Anon: ”Terraria looks amazing at 17,500 FPS!”

Luis: ”I sold my kidneys, donated lots of blood, earned some money by selling my sperm, and I also sold everything I previously owned just to find out I didn’t have enough $$. So after I made all my family members do the same and after a few loans I was finally able to have enough, for half of it. But good thing I have the Amazon credit card. I owe you Amazon.com !! ( Literally ) …”

Jonny: ”Its Great! I’ve always wanted to play Doom 1 in 26K resolution, and after selling my house, car, my nans house, and my dog. I will never regret purchasing this beast! and runs really well on the McDonald Free Wifi #nolag on Unescape.”

MJ: ”My wife has finally agreed to whore for the installment of this PC. I now have the ultimate PC, ultimate keyboard and a wife with herpes.”

As you can see, there are more than a few jokesters posting reviews for this computer. But there were even a few that defended the price, which shocked me given how extravagant it is for gaming (and just about anything else I can think of at the moment). But then again if somebody has that kind of cash and wants to spend it, then good for them.

Hey, I thought Apple was insane for selling a gold watch for $12,000. But they’ve managed to sell enough of them to make it worthwhile. Then again, gold is a precious metal, so you sort of expect anything that contains it to cost a lot of money.

But I’ll pass on both the $12,000 Apple Watch and the $10,000 gaming computer.

Both are just a little too rich for my blood!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, you are welcome to buy me a coffee. Thank you in advance for your kindness and support.