Attempting to preorder an Oculus Rift VR headset from the company's own website right now saddles you with an expected shipping window of June. But going through Dell's avenue — purchasing a Rift bundled together with either a Dell or Alienware Oculus Ready PC — might actually get you a Rift sooner. When I spoke with Alienware GM Frank Azor earlier today, he suggested that purchasers of such bundles would get their Rifts at the same time as people who initially preordered the headset: around the end of March or the beginning of April.
In a later Q&A session here at CES, Azor and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey confirmed this suggestion, saying that some Alienware / Dell bundle purchasers are likely to receive their rigs before preorder buyers ordering through Oculus' site now. In short: if you're desperate to get ahold of a Rift as soon as you can, Dell's bundle deal could let you obtain one sooner than ordering from Oculus itself.