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Disclaimer: I'm angry at some companies that you may like. Sorry.
A while ago - I think it was even before Alienware was acquired by Dell - their full-sized PCs were absurdly overpriced, with mark ups sometimes greater than 100%. People would happily pay literally double the value of what they were buying because it came in a nice box.
At the time, I already built PCs for myself, friends and family. Even though I understood the notion of profit and had much respect for people who manage to successfully run businesses, I thought it was absolutely disgusting how much profit Alienware made on each unit they sold. I was always a gamer/geek so people would tell me about their brand new Alienware and I would facepalm - and I was a little bit jealous. I was a kid and my parents knew better than to buy a $3,500 box with shiny lights on it (remember when computers cost $1,500+?).
The situation has been getting progressively better, from my understanding, as their laptops are occasionally priced very decently, although most still show a 20-30% mark up. Unfortunately, their PCs are still grossly overpriced, and to make it worse, they've been offering an "overclocking service" where they would charge $200 for a modest overclock for a $1000 processor. The outrage! My nerd conscience can't take it. I could do this in 5 minutes and pop open prime 95 for the night. That's $2400 an hour! Why did I not crack into the overclocking business?
I'll concede something - I understand that people are willing to pay extra for aesthetics - it makes sense. It's a computer, it'll be there for everyone to see. Especially for laptops, if you're going to carry something around, hopefully it's not an ugly POS. I won't talk about this for too long because everyone has heard it a thousand times, but Apple has convinced casual users that they need to buy their overpriced computers by marketing them, basically, as jewelry. (AKA useless "look at me" junk).
However, what triggered this blog post for me is Razer's latest "innovation". Before I go on, let me say something: I like some departments or Razer. I currently own (as a backup) a Razer Imperator and I *love* my Razer Black Widow. Their mice and mechanical keyboards are good - I haven't had luck with their audio devices.
Here's my problem: the Razer Blade. (What a ridiculous, ridiculous name.) This computer is a pandemic of futility. For $2800, it packs roughly $1200 of hardware (disregarding the LCD screen) - the other $1600 seems to go in the (admittedly very nice, but not $1600 nice) design. The graphics card is pretty weak, the processor is a rather unimpressive and the 320gb hard drive is absolutely pitiful, you would expect a SSD at that pricepoint. Note that it's not released yet and the parts are still aging.
Oh and the "LCD Trackpad", what the hell? It reminds me of this garbage of a mouse designed for newbies, the Razer Naga which offloads functions that were perfectly fine where they used to be! Let me draw a parallel...
-The Razer Naga is a mouse for MMOs. While good players will use their keyboard hand to perform basically any ability, noobs will offload keyboard functions to the mouse which has plenty of extra buttons - this is bad because that mouse should be used for "aiming", basically.
-The LCD Trackpad offers a similarly bad "solution". Why would you want to LOOK DOWN at your keyboard, AWAY from your screen. It's just another cheesy, unnecessary addition to a device that would be better off without it.
I have a to confess, I'm a hypocrite. The damn thing is beautiful and I would want something like that for myself, but I could never justify it, even though I can afford it. I figure that these are for people who have too much money, people who's parents have too much money or people who don't know what they're doing.
In conclusion, the fact that Razer is marketing this as some kind of savior of PC gaming is absolutely ridiculous. A $2800 device can never save PC gaming - which doesn't need to be saved anyway.
  
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If Alienware, Razer and other companies continue to support eSports I am willing to consider buying their stuff (within reasonable bounds and economy permitting) over other brands. On the very least I am inclined to give the large amounts of good will.
Food for though certainly..
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No offense, but if you literally took the "PC gaming is not dead" phrase to heart, I feel bad for ya.
It screams fail because it wasn't dead to begin with lol.
I understand what you are saying - but to me I honestly believed it was a bit obvious or I wasn't expecting much..
PC building is a rite of passage =)
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Note how the Razer Blade looks like a Macbook in terms of form factor....
The only thing I really like about it is how they position the trackpad. It makes sense to me.
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They're pretty much reinforcing the stereotype that PC Gaming is dead. I see this product flopping like no other.
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On August 28 2011 05:56 ThePurist wrote:
No offense, but if you literally took the "PC gaming is not dead" phrase to heart, I feel bad for ya.
It screams fail because it wasn't dead to begin with lol.
I'm aware.
On August 28 2011 06:00 echO [W] wrote:
They're pretty much reinforcing the stereotype that PC Gaming is dead. I see this product flopping like no other.
That's why I made this post I guess. If it sells, I'll be disappointed in the humankind. Again.
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Well at least Razer isnt as bad of a company as Alienware...
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There's no hope for people who are buying these computers already. To make it worse, on TL you are probably preaching to the choir.
The only thing that gets me.. + Show Spoiler +the name lol wtf get it it's a razer blade because it's just like the thing you use to shave which is a razor-blade hahaha
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When I first discovered Razer, I think I told my friend "so how long until they make a Razer...Blade? LOlolololOLOL"
-________-
I've always built my own computers, for way cheaper than what I'd have paid if I got a prebuild. The worst part is, usually, when buying a "performance" modded PC from a manufacturer, they usually go OH HEY LOOK AT THE FANCY NEW GRAPHICS CARD WE PUT IN HERE!!! *sneaks off with a bunch of other useful stuff, like SSD, DVD drive*
They prune their other stuff so they make the same profit off of all their products. Dell is probably the least "bad" about this now, with Alienware being their "pay for the name" brand, most Dell PCs are reasonably priced, however...it's a Dell. Not really the Flagship PC out there, but they're good at what they do.
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I just hate bloatware with a passion
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
Can you build a portable 17 inch laptop? I bet you can't. So I don't know why you're getting mad about a laptop.
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only noobs buy laptops for gaming, they are crap and the good ones cost a fortune.
just build your PCs yourself and grin at the cheap prices. especially in germany!
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I am happy they do it this way, because they profit more from retards and make our prices most likely lower.
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On August 28 2011 06:26 T.O.P. wrote:
Can you build a portable 17 inch laptop? I bet you can't. So I don't know why you're getting mad about a laptop.
That's a wonderful argument. The logic is astounding. I can't build this laptop so it's perfectly fine to charge a ridiculous amount for it.
Do I look like a freaking manufacturer? Genius. Give me resources and I will, but don't ask me to build electronics and housing with a screwdriver.
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Apparently people who can't build portable 17 inch laptops aren't allowed to feel emotions >_< lolol
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On August 28 2011 05:47 Djzapz wrote:
-The Razer Naga is a mouse for MMOs. While good players will use their keyboard hand to perform basically any ability, noobs will offload keyboard functions to the mouse which has plenty of extra buttons - this is bad because that mouse should be used for "aiming", basically.
I can agree with you about a big portion of what you said but not this. As you said it is a mouse for mmo's, and for example wow pvp requires A LOT of keybinds, eventually you might run out of comfortable keybinds even with shift modifiers and such. Having played a healer in wow arena i can imagine the mouse buttons being very useful for target macros and such, easy to reach buttons which will decrease need to drag your mouse pointer across your ui.
That being said i havnt actually used it myself, but it kinda fills a purpose for those who needs it.
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Why are we paying 10x as much for diamonds than we should?
It's because companies have monopolies over it, and it's the same with other markets. Regardless of who you are, you will try and maximize your profits, and therefore, they make mutual agreements between each other to make the most money.
On that note though, HP was making $40 per computer (so I read)... And if it's true, they aren't overcharging nearly as much as you say. In the case of something like Alienware or Razer, you are paying for the shininess rather than for practicality and performance. Much like buying a Ferrari or Lamborghini.
Edit: Smarter people will pay less. For example, I bought a beautiful Toshiba laptop for $480 dollars. i3 2100, 6GB ram, 750GB HD, great warranty. As for my PC I built, $1100 dollars for a i7 2600k + GTX 570 with very quality parts.
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It's not a ridiculous amount. I don't understand people who think a product is worth the sum of its components. It's called supply and demand, not supply and supply.
A 17 in macbook pro is around 2500. If they got rid of the weird LCD thing and sold it for a couple hundred less, it would be a nice macbook pro competitor. It's actually thinner than the macbook pro iirc and is running Windows which is bound to appeal to some people.
Admittedly, I wouldn't buy one because I don't see the point in 17in laptops. I like the 15 in macbook pro though. Even though I could buy a laptop with about the same power for nearly 1000 less, I would rather have the macbook pro, for the same reason I would rather have a BMW than a Honda. (Ironically, I drive a Honda and have a plastic Dell laptop.)
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On August 28 2011 06:44 FiWiFaKi wrote:
Why are we paying 10x as much for diamonds than we should?
It's because companies have monopolies over it, and it's the same with other markets. Regardless of who you are, you will try and maximize your profits, and therefore, they make mutual agreements between each other to make the most money.
On that note though, HP was making $40 per computer (so I read)... And if it's true, they aren't overcharging nearly as much as you say. In the case of something like Alienware or Razer, you are paying for the shininess rather than for practicality and performance. Much like buying a Ferrari or Lamborghini.
Edit: Smarter people will pay less. For example, I bought a beautiful Toshiba laptop for $480 dollars. i3 2100, 6GB ram, 750GB HD, great warranty. As for my PC I built, $1100 dollars for a i7 2600k + GTX 570 with very quality parts.
That's what smart consumers do. 
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On August 28 2011 06:35 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On August 28 2011 06:26 T.O.P. wrote:
Can you build a portable 17 inch laptop? I bet you can't. So I don't know why you're getting mad about a laptop. That's a wonderful argument. The logic is astounding. I can't build this laptop so it's perfectly fine to charge a ridiculous amount for it. Do I look like a freaking manufacturer? Genius. Give me resources and I will, but don't ask me to build electronics and housing with a screwdriver.
They don't charge a ridiculous amount. You can't just take the cost of the parts and add it up. What about Research and Development? Support? Marketing? PC Manufacturers aren't making any money and that's why HP is quitting on it.
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EPT
