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Home / News / Dell’s got a sneaky shortcut to getting an Oculus Rift

Dell’s got a sneaky shortcut to getting an Oculus Rift

Oculus-ready Alienware PC bundle could be with you before Rift pre-orders ship

If you didn’t move fast and reserve your Oculus Rift when pre-orders went live yesterday, Dell has a way to make sure you don’t miss out.

Official Oculus pre-orders are stretching back from the original March launch date to well into June and July as demand heats up. If you pick up an Oculus-ready Dell or Alienware PC bundle, though, you can jump the queue. A deal between the two companies means you’ll get your headset around the same time as the first pre-orders go out.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey confirmed that some of the initial run of Rift headsets would be going to Dell at a CES Q&A session last night.

If that £499/US$599 asking price is leaving a bitter taste in the mouth, there’s more good news; Dell’s bundles effectively knock US$200 off the price of the Rift itself.

 

If you pick up an Alienware X51 R3 or Dell XPS 8900 desktop PC, which start from US$1199 and are both certified as Oculus-ready, you’ll qualify for the steep discount. Each machine will come with the full version of the Rift, complete with Xbox One controller, remote control, head-tracking sensor, and copies of Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale.

There’s no need to panic if you’ve already got your spot in line for a Rift, either. Anyone that’s already pre-ordered one will be getting a $200 money off coupon in February, to put towards an X51 or Dell XPS 8900 system.

Seeing as you’ll need a pretty beastly PC to run Oculus properly, any way to save some cash sounds like a good thing to us.

There’s no word on whether this is a US-only deal, though, or if an Oculus bundle will be coming across the pond as well, as there’s no mention on Alienware’s UK site.

Profile image of Tom Morgan-Freelander Tom Morgan-Freelander Deputy Editor

About

A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews.  When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.

Areas of expertise

Smartphones/tablets/computing, cameras, home cinema, automotive, virtual reality, gaming

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