Not like I have the attention span to listen to more than an couple hours of tunes...first woot for me and I am not likely to regret it (having dropped $300 on a friggen 30gb video iPod last Xmas for my fad-dazzled sister)
P.S. SD cards are damn cheap

It's not a bad woot. (I'm a sucker for an MP3 player with a speaker system, although my Virgin 5GB broke after a month....)

Overstock.com had it for $20 more for the combo, but it's out of stock (rather than overstocked....)
Alienware CE-IV 512MB MP3 Player with Bonus HUB Docking Sound System
List Price: $199.99
Today's Price: $99.99
You Save: $100.00 (50%)

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My WTD (Woots to Date)
2- Logitech Wireless Headphones for PC
3- Digital 2-Way FRS/GMRS Wristwatch Radios
3- Saitek Mephisto Jr Master Chess Computer
3- Logitech Bluetooth iPod Headphones
3- Field & Stream Men's Outdoor Watch Set
1- Mystery Brand 6 Piece 100 watt Speaker Set
3- PC Defender Wireless Screen Lock - 2 Pack
3- Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player w/Zcyber i3 Portable Speakers
3- iRiver T10 512MB MP3 Player w/FM Tuner and Voice Recorder
3- Lentek Eco-Trap Mosquito Trap
2- Razer Pro 1600dpi Gaming Mouse
1- RCA 200 watt 5.1 Channel Home Theater System w/5 DVD Changer
1- Western Digital Caviar 250GB Hard Drive
3- Minuteman 325VA Uninterruptible Power Supply
3- Boston Acoustics Three-Piece Multimedia Speaker System
3- Kensington SX2000 Speaker Dock for iPod
3- iGo EveryWhere Power 15 Universal Power Adapter
1- Nikko 1/14 Scale R/C Lamborghini Murcielago
1- Monster Big Screen TV Kit
3- Random Crap: 2006 Calendar Edition
3- Cook‘s Essentials Chocolate Treat Maker
1- Virgin Electronics 5GB MP3 Player w/FM Tuner and Boomtube Speakers

Keep in mind that this has an SD slot. I sell MP3 players all day and the one thing that puzzeled me is why almost none of them (especially iPods) have expansion slots. Sure you can buy a Nano @ $149.99 and have 1GB of storage but it's not expandable!

Have you priced speakers by themselves? My iPod docking speakers START at $79.99 by themselves so to me this seems like a really good deal.

In fact I'm getting 3.

Alienware? Hmmm... where have I heard that name before?

OH YEAH, I REMEMBER NOW.

they sold me the biggest pile of crap I've ever owned in 20 years of PC-owningness.

$3,500 for a machine that started crashing over and over immediately, won't restart unless all USB devices are taken out... the lightscribe thingy I bought burned exactly 4 crappy looking disks and then quit. um... oh yeah, tech support.

well, let's just say there's something a little scary about Dell and Alienware getting married. Matrimony between two such similar partners would be considered illegal north of the Mason-Dixon line.

alienware has really done one thing well: I've never been so astonished by such brazen, unaldurated doody.

trust me on this one: search "alienware sucks" and duck.

From looking around, most other sites are advertising the player separately from the boombox dock for around $100. buy.com has it with the boombox for $184. So as far as WOOT deals go, seems like a pretty good one. Probably would have jumped on it had i not gotten the lyra before....

well, I'm in the market for a MP3 player for my deployment out to the desert. this one looked nice until i read the reviews.

anyone have any suggestions? i want/need

rechargeable
lots of memory
file management (and random)
durable (lots of sand, heat, doing PT with it and survive a few drops)
non ipod


any suggestions?

hehe Well, us older folk who don't own 500 CDs and 60GB worth of music don't really need all of that space. I have a 512MB Zen and it holds all the music I care to listen to at the moment.

scottw2 wrote:The description states it has a SD card slot so stop with the 512 limitation complaints.

Thank you. I'm tired of reading those also.

Can I dock an iPod to the Boombox?

I dug around the Alienware Site and found the following link: http://audio.alienware.com/index.php

It will get you info on both items if you select the FAQ section.

I did find out that these players are limited to support up to 2GB SD cards. No more. Therefore, the max size for the player would be 2.5 GB.

2.5GB max? i go on half hour jogs which are definitely less time than it takes to get through 2.5 GIGS of music. AND for half price? you hear no complaints from over here.

Phil_D wrote:I dug around the Alienware Site and found the following link: http://audio.alienware.com/index.php

It will get you info on both items if you select the FAQ section.

I did find out that these players are limited to support up to 2GB SD cards. No more. Therefore, the max size for the player would be 2.5 GB.

Actually, I called up a friend who has one of these and he says they are only supposed to use up to 512MB SD cards, but that his works with a 4GB card. However, with no folder system, how useful would anything more than 1GB be? Am I going to be able to remember that "Won't Get Fooled Again" is song #372 on the SD card?

williamlee wrote:The show stoppers for me are as follows:

SD slot behind battery...
No folder management whatsoever (this was the killer)
and it sucks up juice like crazy...

I have the Sandisk 256 from the other day, and it's actually turned out to be a great w00t other than the capacity.

I agree 100% with this post.

Also, my cellphone used to be my MP3 player, and it had no folder management. What this meant for me (and could mean for this) is that your song filaname format could mess with the order you want the songs to play in.

All my songs are formatted " Track# - Artist - Songname.mp3 " This meant that when I put multiple CDs on the play order ended up being the first song from every CD, then the second song from every CD, etc.

I just looked at the manuals for both items:

Notes about player:
- Able to delete files directly from player
- Can control contrast
- Radio auto-scans but no mention of creating presets
- Acts like an iPod Shuffle. You can go from song-to-song or shuffle them all.

Notes about hub(boombox):
- Can work with other devices (the dock at top for the CE-IV is removable and exposes the alternate input ports)
- remote only contains: volume up/down, WOW HD button, mute. No controls to go to next song on remote.
- need to use device controls to move from song-to-song
- has an A/V out port (cable required)
- needs 8 D-Size Batteries for portability (must be heavy)

Overall, this might be a nice little player for a run or the gym. The "boombox" might not be bad if you are right on top of it so you can change songs.

Ok this may be a dumb question but I keep wondering if you can use a non-Ipod brand mp3 player with Itunes? I use itunes on my computer and have a bunch of music and podcasts on it. Could I put that on an Alienware player?

suzzysnet wrote:Ok this may be a dumb question but I keep wondering if you can use a non-Ipod brand mp3 player with Itunes? I use itunes on my computer and have a bunch of music and podcasts on it. Could I put that on an Alienware player?

As long as the files are MP3 format and not protected. However, iTunes itself won't copy the files to the device. You'd have better luck using Windows Media Player.

i could come up with all sorts of witty slams like alien WHERE and boombox and cork? but bottom line, too pricey for 512 megs of mp3 goodess. sansa on 1gb is cheaper at office depot sans dock of course, but who needs other people to hear their nerdy music anyways

Does anyone know the max capacity for the SD card? What it has to be...

because i bought a cell phone once and got a SD card for it, and it wouldnt work because it was too big. (2 gigs instead of 1gig)

Best....description....ever. <3 HG Wells, <3 Orson Welles. If you haven't heard the radio show that sent New England into hysteria, it's definitely worth checking out. There's a page online (Mercury Theater on the Air) where you can download the performances from way back when. Great stuff.

Oh yea, the product. I'm personally wary about buying an Alienware MP3 player. Although having a boombox for MP3 players is much mroe useful than you'd think. I got one with my iPod and use it all the time (It's a Monster Cable brand, it's the size of a CD Case and folds out; runs over 8 hours off 4 AA's.)

found this one amazon.com review...

Perhaps I should start with a rebuttal to the bad reviews I've read. The player is very lightweight. This doesn't necessarily mean cheap. What do you expect? It's made of plastic with a few small integrated circuits. The supposed metal band is actually chrome plated plastic. It is not advertised as made of metal so why complain. It doesn't have a built-in rechargeable battery. Good, when the single AAA cell runs down I can chuck it and put another in. At four for a buck that's better than waiting three to five hours for a non-replaceable battery to charge. If you want a rechargeable battery then go buy one for a couple of bucks and buy the optional charger. You have to remove the battery cover to access the SD card slot. Good, it keeps the dirt out of the slot. The instructions say it can only use a 512 MB SD card but my 1GB card works fine. The earphones stay in my ears just fine. That said, here's my review. I'll focus on what was important to me. You can read about some other features in other reviews.

The good:

1. Lightweight.
2. Replaceable AAA battery or optional rechargeable battery and charger.
3. Excellent sound (no funny background noise like some other players.
4. Excellent noise blocking earphones.
5. SD card expansion slot good for at least 1 GB.

The Bad:

1. The display is virtually unreadable when the backlight is off. You should have the option of changing the white on black display to black on white. It would be readable without the backlight then.
2. No folder management in the menus. You have to step through every track to find the one you want (except you can switch from internal memory to the SD card as a shortcut). Careful use of file names and ID3 tags helps to find things.
3. No case. I got an adequate very inexpensive case made by Case Logic.
4. Eats batteries like a demon. When I use it regularly I can easily go through two batteries a day. Well, that's fifty cents a day under heavy use. I may think about getting the charger and some rechargable batteries but alkaline batteries are cheap and convenient.

Overall it's an excellent player.

If I didn't have an ipod i'd be so tempted by this woot. I love the docking station and it looks soooooooooooooooooo cool. I'm so tempted, but I'd never use it really. Also the 512 is way to small. Even a full gig isn't enough. The lack of folder management doesn't bother me, I still can't figure out how to do it on my ipod and I have 5 gigs on it.

They are after us... aliens!!!

Strange they don't mention it anywhere on their site. Had to google for this link. They don't seem to be pushing these things...

http://www.alienware.com/intro_pages/alienware_ceiv.aspx

hi there,
i am from germnay and i joined woot only two weeks ago.
i was wondering if there are no web sites in the us that we call price-searching-machines over here. i am sure there must be.
can you not find there all the relevant information about any technical product sold on the us market including the best price offered on the web ???

thanks for your replies and please excuse my bad english

Well... I popped my w00t cherry... One mp3 player on its way : ) thanks woot!

If this doesnt come with software, how are you supposed to add music to it? anyone know?

dundiditi wrote:If this doesnt come with software, how are you supposed to add music to it? anyone know?

I would imagine it just shows up as a removable usb drive on your system...drag and drop.

MacrameOwl wrote:Alienware? Hmmm... where have I heard that name before?

OH YEAH, I REMEMBER NOW.

they sold me the biggest pile of crap I've ever owned in 20 years of PC-owningness.

$3,500 for a machine that started crashing over and over immediately, won't restart unless all USB devices are taken out... the lightscribe thingy I bought burned exactly 4 crappy looking disks and then quit. um... oh yeah, tech support.

well, let's just say there's something a little scary about Dell and Alienware getting married. Matrimony between two such similar partners would be considered illegal north of the Mason-Dixon line.

alienware has really done one thing well: I've never been so astonished by such brazen, unaldurated doody.

trust me on this one: search "alienware sucks" and duck.

you ACTUALLY paid for an alienware computer lol

buy the exact same parts and build it yourself, price for a 3500 dollar alienware will be around 1100 bucks.

don't know how to build a computer? get a friend, buy a book.

well on the topic of this MP3, i've never had the dieing urge for an ipod mostly because the price is unreal...and still is, i've been waiting for a day i could just get a simple 1-2 gb ipod mini for under 100 bucks, for this, i can get half a gig, upgrade it to 1.5 with the gig card i use (or don't use) for my digital camera. theres the 1.5 i've wanted, and i got a docking station for 20 bucks less than what i'm spending.

i'm willing to sacrifice the fact that there isn't any real organization with folders and playlists on this mp3, not a big deal for me.

first woot for me, haha, after a little over 365 days checking on woot.com.

devcon wrote:

I would imagine it just shows up as a removable usb drive on your system...drag and drop.

good point... thanks!

First time buyer, long time stroker.

I saw this deal, and I had to get 3, Christmas is coming up. I think it's a great deal.

jmcachran wrote:I always wonder how people with these smaller players decide what to load.

My Ipod is still being loaded and it's at least 7GB already.

Dec-2005: 60gb video ipod. Video features seldom used, although I burned DVD's to it to check it out. 28gb filled so far with podcasts, CDs and vinyl albulms. Pretty much got what I want on it now and while you never want to say never, there's a good chance I'll never fill it. Downside is how it stores the files on it. Anyways, I agree, only a couple gig is too small. Solid state is a plus, whereas my ipod is a hard drive and dropping it would be a baaad thing.

ThemThereWootGuys wrote:Uses 8 D batteries (not included)

Exactly how much does that weigh in milli-tonnes?

Gack! 8 D's. I'll stay with my BoomTube.

I bit. This is my second purchase at woot--I refuse to use the term "my X woot". Just too campy for me.

Reasons for purchase: reasonably priced just for the speaker/woofer dock. I'm actually not interested in the player at all... I'm kind of hoping I can get rid of it eventually. This should work nicely with my sandisk e260... I'm just hoping the cord doesn't make it look ridiculous like I'm expecting.

zozzles wrote:

Exactly how much does that weigh in milli-tonnes?

Gack! 8 D's. I'll stay with my BoomTube.

An ac adapter is included. The batteries are only for portable use.

I don't have a review of this product, but I can definitely, with all seriousness, advise any and all wooters to avoid the company called Alienware with a purple passion. I bought their flagship laptop about two years back and had nothing but trouble from the onset. ( Double billed the credit card for the purchase price, laptop showed up with less equipment than was ordered, took three months to get the hard drive that I paid extra for, the pre-programmed software in the laptop is proprietary to double blink those two ridiculious eyes on every start up, etc. ) There is nothing passing for customer service from this company and if you attempt to get some "help" or make a call there to do anything other than order, I would suggest a couple of glasses of the famous woot wine to ease the stress that will come with the call. ( Non PC comment ahead ) The inbound call center reps for warranty / repair / "customer we don't care" are recent additions to the US there in south Florida where the company is located and the English language is a bit of challenge for them. As the good folks at Woot recommend contacting the manufacturer directly with any issues, I would only say "Good luck" on that if you purchase this item and find you have any difficulty with it. On that note... Happy Wooting.

Does this thing actually use 8 d Cell batteries? So its TWICE the weight of the largest MAG LIGHT available. WOW.
Can't wait to clip this thing to my sweat pants and try to go for a walk HA! I guess I can buy a shoulder holster for it.

Yes, the batteries are for portable use. If I wanted a stationary MP3 player, I would use my desktop computer using winamp. It has an AC adapter, speakers, and everything.

So what's with the 90-day warranty on a new item? Is that a typo or are they just not at all willing to stand bebhind their craftsmanship?

jmcachran wrote:I always wonder how people with these smaller players decide what to load.

My Ipod is still being loaded and it's at least 7GB already.

I have a 512 Rio Sport mp3 player. And a 512 SD Card. I have yet to use the card.
I rip at 64 mps instead of 192 and fit 10+ CDs at a time on it. When I download, I use my rip software to compress to 64 mps. When I feel like adding more music, I take some off.
Some people say that the quality is poor at that mps. I am not an audiophile. I think it sounds better than radio and, through the little $14.98 ear buds, it's probably as good as CD's. Some purists need 192 or better, if you can tell the difference, then you probably need more storage capacity.

Does any one know if this is mac compatible and which software it will use to sync with your PC/Mac?

On the positive side, the portable is really smaller than WOOT's published dimensions. It's actually 2" x 3.2", NOT 3" x 3.2" as Woot says.
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So... IF the portable had a line input, and was capable of direct MP3 encoding, I'd certainly buy one for $39.95. But $79.95..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.