Your Alienware PC, a disposable?

replaced many, time for newer better...  upgrading modifying is half the fun , but has in consequences like I found out with my m18x R2 ..   but also was 3 years old.. and parted/ sold off rest complete recouped most of   my money..

M17x R1 (dual Nvidia 260's Core 2 duo ) didn't change anything

M17x R1 (dual Nvidia 280's core 2 quad ) left stock

M17X R2(dual amd  5870 First gen i7   )left stock

M18x R2 (dual 7970's then replaced with 680's(warranty replacement)  added solid states, added a i7 Extreme  modded bios, modded dual psu  and so on ,  then 980M's on my own ,  then fried board) but I paid more for this laptop then I did my truck, so after 3 years it still didn't even have a smudge mark on it.. it was 11/10 condition  so I sold it with known and was sold as such with person knowing board was fried..

X51 R3 .. small desktop .. ram from 8 gig to 16 .. modded  4 pin power cable for extra sata power plug..  added sata SSD , then swapped the  970 for a 1070 gpu.. who knows next..

so  ive gone from replacing to upgrading  it  just depends on what you want to do and what you got as a basis  to deal with.

appearance is  nice, but to be   honest I rather have a functioning system then  one that looks good and dosent  even power on..

to each thier' own but for the small fortune you pay for a high end Alienware.. or a high end anything system you tend to baby it a bit better , like my M18X was cleaned every 3-4 weeks of  dust  and kept pristine..  my m17x's I never had longer then a year. 

if you  buy a lower ended your looking at the option to  upgrade later which with laptops is hard with everything solder to the board now :(  or maybe higher end version just isn't in the budget.. 

That's an interesting question.  For me, a lot of the systems I have bought from different OEM's have used one or more proprietary components.  One system that comes to mind had a small wattage PSU and while I could technically install a new graphics card, the PSU wouldn't be able to handle it and because the wires in the PSU motherboard connection were in a different order or some such, I couldn't just swap it out with something better.  Other things I have seen on forums would be the BIOS not supporting this graphics card or that CPU even though they 'should'.  

In terms of when I decide to scrap something and get something new, I think it depends on what I want to do with my computer in the near future.  Most of the time when I'm buying a computer its because I wanted something newer than what I had an didn't want to mess with upgrades and/or I couldn't upgrade due to compatibility issues.  The way a device looks doesn't normally factor into my decision to replace it but may factor into what I buy next.  

Interesting and important question, and one that I happen to have fairly strong opinions on.

My own background has been in electronics and product design, though both somewhat historical.

Repair: I think that repairability almost needs to be mandated, as manufacturers are increasingly showing that they have no qualms about reducing product life cycles, and as a planet as a whole, we can't afford it. Some few can, but not the whole world's population. Manufacturers do not make repair a viable option since many charge exorbitant prices for parts, or keep low inventory so they are unavailable; which is why we are reduced to scavenging wrecked machines on ebay for parts.

Aligned to repairability is the issue of software licensing, which is often a factor in early (and maybe technically unnecessary) replacement. So many people I know will upgrade hardware because the cost of software by itself is so relatively high, or impossible to obtain - phones and tablets are a very good example of this, but also applies to PCs

Upgradability:  I think this is effectively a mythical concept. Many people here will disagree but this forum is far from being a representative slice of the general technology using population. Sure, a fraction of a percent might consider a CPU or GPU upgrade, but even then, a fraction of those people will ever actually upgrade; and by the time they do, everything else in the system is starting to show its age. And by upgrading early, you won't get significant benefits. If you are not technical and have to pay somebody else to research and upgrade for you, the economics make upgrades almost impossible, even assuming that the owners consider the possibility of an upgrade in the first place.

Better to spend the resources on reliability, repairability and recyclability.

Having said that, there is of course benefit in having upgradable memory and for replacement of HDDs; USB 3 and USB-C should extend the life of current products since it allows significant external upgrades.

Recyclability: Why the *** is Alienware messing about with so-called "carbon fibre" products? These are not recyclable and there are alternatives, like aluminium, which would be as acceptable - they certainly look great on the XPS series laptops.

I'd say I'm reasonably attached to my 17r3, not because I like the device particularly (though it has a great keyboard and display) but because I've invested so much time in configuring it; PCs really are personal, over time and during normal use, they evolve to suit how you use them. I don't think this affects how I care for it, since I treat everything reasonably well.

I'd consider the 17r3 (despite its compromised design choices and connectivity) to have legs, it is going to be usable for several years, even though newer systems may be faster. I'd replace it if it died, or if it no longer is able to run the software I want to run on it; but to put that in context, the system this replaces is about 10 years old, so I don't upgrade very often.