My perspective on the topic is this; Alienware makes very good points if you are an inexperienced DIYer or are simply essaying your first attempt vs prebuilt. Honestly, I can't imagine most of us seriously perusing AW for a purchase, and I doubt AW does either, so I don't believe we are intended to be a segment of the target audience/market focus.
There are waves of n00bs pouring in to the message boards every month that have questions about what they should buy, rate their intended build specs, and the thousands of pleas for help because they are unable to troubleshoot issues with the new build due to lack of experience. Look, a monkey can build their own PC, it is when things go awry *which is quite often judging from post on tech forums around the net* when experience along with knowledge of platform and product specific issues becomes invaluable. A n00b could spend weeks trying to get a problem resolved through posting for help, searching, and installing and reinstalling software and hardware, and if all else fails, RMA time and shipping costs. It is enough to make these poor souls wish they just ordered that AW system to begin with.
In the end, for our crowd it amounts to satire and a cause for derisive laughter, but for the inexperienced, I believe it is a good check list of items that need to be evaluated and weighed. If time=money for the prospective buyer, and they have little to no experience with building and upgrading PCs, then the process of acquiring the knowledge about the hard&software that they will need, how to integrate all of it properly, and the potential for a time consuming and fustrating troubleshooting adventure, should all be carefully considered before going DIY over OEM. I think that is exactly what that AW propaganda attempts to do, albeit with a very proAW slant, and that the points are all valid for the n00b.
And we haven't even gotten to the DIY factors of using overclocking to enhance value, the many nuances involved with an overclock depending on the particular components or which to choose for that matter, bios flashing/editing, how to evaluate the stability of the overclock, the risks involved from voiding the warranty and being out the money spent on the hardware, ect. We all take it for granted because it is practically 2nd nature now, but when you started out was it that way?
I'd go so far as to submit spending more on the AW is a better investment for the aforementioned crowd, why? Because they won't get caught up in this highly infectuous DIY game of constant costly upgrades and fads that drain their wallets through out the year after year after year Instead they will have an expensive one time cost system that since they are blissfully unaware isn't up to our crowds snooty standards, will likely satisfy their computing needs for years to come