to buy or not to buy?

seriously now dont buy alienware, from the first day i bought it full of problems

just depends on your luck i guess ...

- whether you get a perfectly fine machine or a slightly defective one (mine had several defects)

- whether you get an experienced support staff or a total noob (i got a noob the first few times i called, but eventually my case was escalated to a really good support team that sorted all my issues)

so, bottom line, if you tough it out with Dell, my experience is they will do right by you ... sometimes it can be a long hard road (like most of the complaints here) ... or if you are lucky, it will be smooth sailing... and unfortunately, when things go right, not many people post compliments or thanks on the forums =)

Look at the Asus g73sw. for the price point it owns Alienware. I got one. its flawless.

I say to buy the Alienware, BUT, also buy the extended warranty! I have had issues with mine since the R1 days. If it wasn't for my extended warranty, I would not of had 5 motherboards replaced,  6 sets of ATI video cards replaced, and 2 processors replaced. Even through out all of the problems, Alienware has been the best to me! Their tech support agents are very very helpful! My issue has currently been resolved with a replacement upgrade to a new laptop.

BIG thumbs up (even thought the constant issues)! It's an awesome machine once you get to know it's attitude.

-M

The first thing you should take into consideration is that happy customers don't need to visit this forum. If their machine works perfectly they just get on with using it. Dell sell tens of thousands of these machines so the amount of complaints you see on this forum are negligable in comparison with the amount of happy customers.

I'm on my 2nd M17x R2. After plenty of parts replaced and 2 Windows reinstalls mine now works almost flawlessly. I say "almost" because the video quality is not good but Dell, having tried everything possible including changing both video cards, seem to have given up on me. :(

I will say this though... I've had plenty of Dell's since I first began with computers. I've also had an Asus and an HP. Dell has always been the most reliable with the best extended warranty service, consequently I prefer to stick with Dell. I regret having purchased this Alienware because I find that apart from its pretty lights, which Dell ruined with their current version of the Command Center anyway, it performs no better than a Dell XPS. When I finally have to change this machine I will go back to an XPS, provided they still exist. Alienware's are simply too expensive for what you get.

That many issues is not a good selling point

I have a m17x r3 and regret it, 3D not worth the price and the Asus nearly same spec but priced way less. Wish i would saved the cash, I hate dell support, hard to understand what their saying with heavy middle east accents. Took what seemed forever to get my m11x hinges replaced and dell took almost 6 months to reckify the defective parts keeping owners in the dark if they were gonna update the hinges or just keep replaceing with defective parts. I must say they look great and have have nice features, but is it worth the over pricing only you can decide and everyone has their own unique experience. Me im just sick of dealing with support services. Best of luck with which ever you decide to go with.