OK, I did a half-***, but decent, estimate and price comparision between the Alienware Area-51 7500 and a build-it-yourself PC with all parts and quotes from TigerDirect.com
Alienware Area-51 7500
Total: $3,950 (not including tax/shipping)
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Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
Windows Xp Pro (with free upgrade to Vista)
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
2GB DDR2 Performance SDRAM at 800MHz
2 x 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM on RAID 0
18x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
768MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTX
700 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio (not SB)
Alienware mouse, keyboard, etc
3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
CUSTOM BUILD PC using the above components
Total: $3,500 (not including tax/shipping)
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Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
2-year On-Site Extended Waranty on CPU (total 3 years warrnty)
Windows Vista
EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 Mobo
OCZ DFI 2GB DDR2 Performance SDRAM at 800MHz
2 x 250GB WD Caviar SE 16 SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM on RAID 0
2 x PPA 2-Port SATA PCI Controller Card
Plextor Premium 18x8x16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
EVGA nVidia 8800 GTX
Thermaltake Toughpower 750-Watt PowerSupply
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse
No sound card
Case, cables, cords, etc
The main advantage of the AW system over the custom build PC is the 3-year warranty on all components. At least with that I deal with Alienware customer service in the event any part needs to be replaced. With a custom build PC, I can potentially deal with 12 different manufactures, all with their own warranty policies and crapola. Also, a Vista upgrade is included, whereas with the custom build system I included $270 for Vista Business full version retail (approximate pricing from Zdnet).
The main advantage of the custom build PC over the AW system is clearly the price savings of about $400. For me, paying this extra $400 while getting the benefit of full coverage for 3 years on the entire system is more than worth it.
With the exception of those differences, the two systems are identical in terms of mobo, cpu, memory, hd, dvd, and GPU.
SAFX