As you may have seen, Oculus posted a blog providing some additional detail around what it takes to get Oculus Ready. Alienware has been collaborating with Oculus on their certification program from the start and together we’ve been able to establish the best configuration requirements to drive the ideal VR experience.
“Rest your head, jaded traveller. Slip on your goggles and feel the fleshy shackles of your life-that-was fall away with a gentle click,” wrote Rich Wordsworth on the RedBull blog. “Reality is dead.”
VR is such a new and exciting frontier and choosing the right amount of performance to power your experience is paramount at this early stage; customers will want to be sure the configurations that power their headsets are tested and proven. With the Oculus Ready program, we hope to indicate to our community that through the rigor applied in our mutual quality testing we have delivered the right solutions with the right performance and at the best price. Pre-orders continue for the Oculus Rift and now, as the Oculus Ready program comes to fruition we’re excited to offer official Oculus Ready configurations beginning today!
- XPS 8900 SE: Intel Core i5 6400, Windows 10, 8 GB DDR4 Memory, 1 TB Hard Drive, NVIDIA® GTX 970
- Alienware X51: Intel Core i5 6400, Windows 10, 8 GB DDR4 Memory, 1 TB Hard Drive, NVIDIA® GTX 970
- Alienware X51: Intel Core i5 6400, Windows 10, 16 GB DDR4 Memory, 256GB SSD, NVIDIA® GTX 970
- Alienware Area 51: Intel i7-5820K, Windows 10, 16 GB DDR4 Memory, 128GB SSD + 2 TB 7200RPM , NVIDIA® GTX 980
Not only are the Oculus Ready certified configurations uniquely developed and configured for impressive VR performance, we’ve teamed up with Oculus to deliver these systems, when bundled with an Oculus Rift, at a discount. By going through the Oculus Rift pre-order process you’ll automatically receive a coupon for $200 off one of the Oculus Ready Alienware & XPS solutions. The coupons can apply to any of the Oculus Ready desktops and enable the ability to get yourself a sweet VR desktop for less than $1000. To redeem, look for updates in your Oculus Rift Order History; down the page you’ll see the Special Offers section (as seen below) which will include a link and promo code for your Oculus Ready PC.
For Alienware, we’re just as excited to start the VR revolution as anyone, and doing it with our community is what makes it that much sweeter. As we all countdown to product availability and track our pre-order shipments, Alienware will be encouraging the community to speak up on your initial experiences. With an industry transition as big as this, opinions and experiences are sure to vary widely. We hope to drive the conversation around how to get the most from your Alienware VR set-up and facilitate an honest dialogue around the community’s insight and input. After all, we’ve been innovating for PC gamers for nearly 20 years and that would never be possible without the honest and active feedback from our community.
So get geared up, get Oculus Ready and let’s all speak up. If you aren’t a member of Alienware Arena, sign up and make sure you don’t miss anything! Follow us on Twitter @Alienware and keep an eye out for us on Facebook. In the immediate near turn, please sign on and watch our Twitter stream as we’ll have the latest updates and information during this awesome, exciting time.
Frank Azor, an Alienware co-founder, now oversees XPS, Dell’s premium consumer brand and Dell gaming, which includes Alienware and Inspiron Gaming. Celebrating 20 years as the leader in PC gaming systems, Alienware sets the standard for premium gaming PCs and innovation, and Inspiron Gaming provides high performance gaming systems at an affordable cost that give gamers a competitive advantage at every level of play. Under his leadership, Dell’s XPS brand has risen to the top in innovation, design and performance, while becoming the most-award winning product-line in Dell history.
Frank joined Alienware as a quality engineer and later held executive roles in sales and marketing before creating the Alienware Product Group organization in 2003-after helping to pioneer the industry’s first high-performance gaming notebook, the Area-51M. Later that year, he was credited with the successful launch of Alienware’s first self-designed desktop case (Predator) which immediately made industry headlines and has defined the look of Alienware’s products ever since. Prior to Dell’s acquisition of Alienware in 2006, Frank held the positions of Senior Vice-President of Product Group and Marketing and Executive Vice-President managing the global executive leadership team and reporting directly to the President and CEO. Shortly after helping lead Alienware’s successful integration into Dell, Frank assumed the role of worldwide general manager for the Alienware business unit. Under Frank’s leadership, Alienware’s brand has become the worldwide leader in its industry and has earned hundreds of awards for its products including multiple best of CES product awards. As of 2017, Frank holds 16 patents granted under his name and has been named a milestone inventor by Dell.
In 2014, Frank’s role was expanded to include global responsibility for Dell’s XPS business unit, one of the company’s most innovative and valued brands. Since assuming responsibility for the XPS business unit for Dell, Frank instituted a new product and business strategy that led to the successful introduction of the highly acclaimed XPS 13 notebook which has won more than 300 awards since its introduction at CES 2015 and has been deemed the best notebook on the market from numerous outlets including Forbes, Wall Street Journal and CNET. On top of the product accomplishments, Frank’s leadership has reinstated rapid growth for Dell’s XPS business.
In 2017, Frank assumed responsibility for launching and managing Dell’s Inspiron Gaming line of powerful yet budget friendly gaming PCs. Inspiron Gaming systems have quickly become a favorite among players and reviewers desiring top graphics performance under $1000 USD. The systems have received many awards including a Computex d&i Gold winner and several Best Gaming PCs of CES awards.
Frank sits on the advisory board for Miami Dade College’s MAGIC program where he has led the creation of a Dell-backed scholarship fund to help both high school and college students learn skills and earn degrees in computer graphics design, animation and game development. Frank has also served as a volunteer judge for the FIRST robotics south Florida regional competition since 2013 (www.usfirst.org) an organization founded by Dean Kamen that has provided students with more than $50 million in college scholarships in 2017 alone.
Frank lives in Palmetto Bay, FL USA near Alienware’s headquarters with his wife, their 2 sons and their pet dachshund. Frank is currently playing Overwatch with his oldest son who is also an avid Minecraft player. Frank’s most anticipated games for 2017 exist in Virtual Reality where Frank has been immersed for years – and of course – powered by award-winning VR-ready PCs from Alienware and XPS.
