HP announced on Sept 28, 2006 that it has signed a final agreement to acquire VoodooPC. VoodooPC, founded in 1991 a leading producer a high-performance and personalized gaming computer systems, is the closest rival to Alienware which was recently bought by Dell, a rival of HP.

"HP is already a market leader in two of the three major segments in the gaming market by providing industry-leading workstation solutions for game development and powering the largest online game services," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP.

HP's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion.

Analysis of Customized PC's 

First let me start off by saying that my Brother has a Alienware Desktop. At the time of purchase it was a $4,000 machine (hard gulping sound). It looks really slick in its case and has a really cool themed version of Windows installed to match its Alienware logo. 

But here's the thing about 'custom' notebooks and even desktop PCs by the likes of VoodooPC or Alienware, they are just not that 'custom'. Just a slab of special paint and a pretty decal placed on a product ultimately made by Sager or Clevo. I don't find that to be very customized gaming. That's just one step beyond calling Dell and asking for their regular purchasing process. All you are getting is a fancy case with a few gadgets trendier gadgets. You can buy many of the same specs and often the same product for a much cheaper price. Now I do see an advantage in buying a 'gaming' PC from one of the big vendors like HP, a larger support and maintenance organization...

Unfortunately that doesn't always hold true either... I bought a Dell laptop about 3 years ago ($1800 worth so it was fairly decent model) and Dell's support was horrid. The 'Techs' on tech support knew about as much as they could read off of their monitor screen (I don't waste my time for an idiot to read me scripted list of solutions - I can do that.)

Its kind of like Ford selling the GT40 to show that they 'can' build a racecar even if 99% of their product line is not intended for racing (trucks, sedans etc). People want to fell that they are buying from the best, so these 'gaming' divisions of HP and Dell are like the GT40 or the Corvette.

I build my own desktops and I even replaced my laptop's motherboard when Dell refused to do it for me. I realize that many people cannot build their own systems, but then those people usually (yes usually) don’t have to have that kind of product and can easily purchase a traditional box with their desired specs.