Alienware's new Digital Home Systems

Alienware is a high-end PC company known mostly for sleek, powerful gaming PCs. Last year they used to sell some pretty cool Shuttle PCs that shipped with Windows Media Center, but pulled them off the market months ago.

Today they re-entered the space with new cutting edge Windows Media Center systems. Their entire line of Digital Home Systems range form featureless black boxes at around 2 grand to integrated 30" LCD TVs for almost $9k.

Alienware has always been a high-end, high priced custom PC outfitter, but their Shuttle PC line of MCE boxes reportedly didn't sell well, at price points around $1500-2500. Now they've moved their entertainment line to price points in the range of $2,000 to $9,000. I know there are a lot of big ticket items bought by the HDTV early adopter crowd, but there are a lot of cheaper MCE devices than Alienware's line of new products that they have to compete with. For the budget-conscious home theater PC user, it might make more sense to buy an uglier, less powerful HP or Sony MCE box for half the price of Alienware's lowest end box, saving the remainder for LCD and plasma displays. But for those looking for high-end gaming power, tons of memory, speed, and storage, nothing beats the Alienware boxes.