AMD strictly moderated (AMD)

[rlweitz]

Having Dell buy Alienware (which now sells AMD machines) and selling Conroe to these influential customers can get a chunk of that high end consumer market back from AMD.

Dell already sells (or at least attempts to) into the high end workstation\gamer market. IMO, the Alienware acquisition was a backup plan allowing them to fill customer demand for Athlon 64 rigs in the event Conroe failed to deliver in a timely manner. Outside of this I don't see the Dell\Alienware acquisition providing that much value.