Originally posted on December 4, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
World of Warcraft players are an obsessive bunch. I’ve never attempted to play MMORPGs precisely because of what I’ve been hearing about WOW obsessives who take the game so seriously to the detriment of their social and family lives.
Well, blame Dell for fueling the WOW bloodlust of its nine million players by announcing the release of laptop systems that are specifically geared towards World of Warcraft fans.
This genius in merchandising comes in the form of Dell’s very cool XPS M1730 chassis that has a very formidable spec sheet:
* Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 CPU at 2.8GHz
* 2GB dual channel DDR-667 memory
* 2 x 200GB hard drives, set up as a 400GB RAID 0 array
* 2 x Nvidia 8700M GT GPUs in SLI configuration (each with 512MB of video memory)
* AGEIA PhysX 100M physics processor
* Integrated HD audio with Creative Labs Audigy software stack
* Intel 802.11 a/g/n wireless networking plus integrated gigabit Ethernet for wired connections
* Windows Vista Ultimate Edition preinstalled
But what makes this a truly WOW product is not the specs but the sundry items that Dell has put into the system. First, it will come in customized World of Warcraft box. You can then customize the laptop based on your WOW preference — the Alliance or the Horde. The laptops will ship with customized wallpapers, too. But the merchandising does not end there. the box will also come with the following:
* World of Warcraft & Burning Crusade, in retail boxes
* Strategy guides
* A “making of WoW” DVD
* Fantasy novels set in the World of Warcraft universe
* WoW soundtrack
And not only that you get to receive a beta key card with five keys that can be used for upcoming betas of WOW. Now that is one impressive package. Now, if only I have $4,499 to spare.