When the Oculus Rift debuted earlier this week, people were disappointed that its $600 price tag was more than its expected $300-400 range. According to Oculus, the plan was always to make sure that it fit within the $1,500 bracket for PC and headset. While Dell and Alienware haven’t quite hit that target, their new bundled systems are pretty close.
Although technically under the same umbrella, Dell and Alienware have distinct audiences to target. While the former is more professionally focused, the latter is linked more with gaming. Despite the different approach, both systems announced by the firms at CES 2016 cost $1,600, and they come packing the same hardware too.
The official list of internals for both the Alienware X51 R3 and Dell XPS 8900 Special Edition are (as per Toms):
- CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 3.3GHz
- Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 4GB
- RAM: 8GB DDR4 2,133Mhz
- Storage: 1TB 7200 HDD
- OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit
Related: The Oculus Rift is $600: Here’s what you need before pre-ordering
Along with those systems and specific chassis, you also get yourself a brand new Oculus Rift CV1 headset, though when you’ll actually receive it is anyone’s guess. Even those who were quite quick to pre-order a Rift when they went on sale on Wednesday found themselves facing some delays. Although the earliest of birds are slated to have theirs arrive in March, others won’t get a look until June.
There is some suggestion that a few units were allocated for retailers like Dell/Alienware, so you may be able to get one much sooner if you buy it as part of a bundle.
Either way, this is a solid deal. Both of those systems are already available without the Rift for $1,200, so you’re saving a couple of hundred bucks by buying it with the Rift. There’s also talk that those who order an Oculus Rift before buying one of these machines will get a $200 discount on a PC; presumably so you can take advantage of the savings without having to buy the Rift later than you want.
This way, you can also get the free games and Xbox controller offer with the Rift, as well as reserve your spot for the Touch pre-orders.
More details about these systems will be released in the coming weeks, but if you want to buy one of them now, you’ll have to opt for the XPS 8900 as the X51 is still not quite ready.
