After the System 76 thread a couple of days ago where I kind of diverged into Falcon Northwest, the whole topic of these types of businesses came to mind.
Boutique PC builders are very much a niche cottage industry. Basically they specialize in custom hand built PCs that typically are extreme bleeding edge. While the number of them rises and falls over the years there never are a lot, as really the market is pretty small for this sort of thing. But here are some thoughts I have on some of them....
Alienware: Yes I know they went corporate and sold out to Dell. And to me they "died" that day. But before that they were a boutique and indeed together with Falcon Northwest they were the "dynamic duo" of boutiques. They were noteworthy in their day not just for the funky alien motif cases but for pushing hardware further than even good sense would indicate.
Today's Alienware still looks funky but lost its soul to Dell. Sad, but I'll still lift a toast to the old Alienware.
Voodoo: In its way this is more tragic than Alienware. Voodoo did some awesome stuff back in the day (like the Rage) but sold out to HP and nowadays it is completely gone. Alienware at least sort of lives on but Voodoo is dead. Still and all a toast to when it was good!
Velocity Micro: This one is still around and they have done good stuff and still do good stuff. A lot of their stuff has its roots in machines designed for extreme CAD work. They are a bit more "mainstream" than your typical boutique but respect nonetheless.
Origin PC: These guys excite me some because to a lot of the enthusiast market this is the True Alienware. That is because Origin PC was founded by a group of Alienware system designers and builders who were not willing to go to Dell when Alienware was acquired in 2009. And like they used to do at Alienware they are pushing the envelope - for example in 2014 they designed new tower cases that allow the motherboard to be mounted at multiple different angles to promote the best possible component fit and airflow. Keep an eye on this group because they are making good sounds!
And, of course there is the granddaddy of the bunch....
Falcon Northwest: The oldest of the boutiques and still the best. They actually started out in 1992 designing and building flight simulators for pilot training alongside their gamer enthusiast PCs. Like Origin and Alienware they are compulsive at pushing the limits and indeed have worked with manufacturers like ASUS, Intel and NVidia and helped them evolve their own offerings. They are also known for innovative cooling systems, case designs and their distinctive high grade paint jobs. They also have an extremely high end service experience.
Have to toast them too....like fine wine they have gotten better with age!
It's a small industry but in a world where even the "quality" products in tech tend to come off robot operated assembly lines and just lack that "human" feel the little houses like these warm my heart - they remind me why I was a bit of a geek in my misspent youth!
Boutique PC builders are very much a niche cottage industry. Basically they specialize in custom hand built PCs that typically are extreme bleeding edge. While the number of them rises and falls over the years there never are a lot, as really the market is pretty small for this sort of thing. But here are some thoughts I have on some of them....
Alienware: Yes I know they went corporate and sold out to Dell. And to me they "died" that day. But before that they were a boutique and indeed together with Falcon Northwest they were the "dynamic duo" of boutiques. They were noteworthy in their day not just for the funky alien motif cases but for pushing hardware further than even good sense would indicate.
Today's Alienware still looks funky but lost its soul to Dell. Sad, but I'll still lift a toast to the old Alienware.
Voodoo: In its way this is more tragic than Alienware. Voodoo did some awesome stuff back in the day (like the Rage) but sold out to HP and nowadays it is completely gone. Alienware at least sort of lives on but Voodoo is dead. Still and all a toast to when it was good!
Velocity Micro: This one is still around and they have done good stuff and still do good stuff. A lot of their stuff has its roots in machines designed for extreme CAD work. They are a bit more "mainstream" than your typical boutique but respect nonetheless.
Origin PC: These guys excite me some because to a lot of the enthusiast market this is the True Alienware. That is because Origin PC was founded by a group of Alienware system designers and builders who were not willing to go to Dell when Alienware was acquired in 2009. And like they used to do at Alienware they are pushing the envelope - for example in 2014 they designed new tower cases that allow the motherboard to be mounted at multiple different angles to promote the best possible component fit and airflow. Keep an eye on this group because they are making good sounds!
And, of course there is the granddaddy of the bunch....
Falcon Northwest: The oldest of the boutiques and still the best. They actually started out in 1992 designing and building flight simulators for pilot training alongside their gamer enthusiast PCs. Like Origin and Alienware they are compulsive at pushing the limits and indeed have worked with manufacturers like ASUS, Intel and NVidia and helped them evolve their own offerings. They are also known for innovative cooling systems, case designs and their distinctive high grade paint jobs. They also have an extremely high end service experience.
Have to toast them too....like fine wine they have gotten better with age!
It's a small industry but in a world where even the "quality" products in tech tend to come off robot operated assembly lines and just lack that "human" feel the little houses like these warm my heart - they remind me why I was a bit of a geek in my misspent youth!
I play all my games on it.