Buying Alienware Laptop?

Question

Fellow Gamers,

I've been looking at purchasing an Alienwar Laptop for many years now. I was ready to make to purchase seveal years back prior to Dell buying out the brand. At the time of the buy out I wasn't huge fan of Dell or HP due to my exprienc in college. The Dell desktop I had at the time, the cd player was bad from day one, by the mid term while typing out a final paper, the CPU burned out of it. Didn't have time for a fix, and had to go out and buy a computer. I was talked into buying an HP and that was last time. NEVER EVER AGAIN. Needless to say about a couple month of dealing with Dell customer support, I was able to send the computer back and they transfer my hardrive on to a new computer and I was able to finish out the year.... 11 years later my mom is still uses that computer. Sounds like a small generator running, takes an hour boot but she can check her spam mail. Due to lack of customer support for the first month and half, having to buy an HP, lack of being able to replace parts/add from local computer store, not being able to update drivers from the sources, and all the extra Substitute character removed as per TOU>
that came with the computer I didn't need or ever used. That always had pop messages saying would you like to update now, just left a bad memories. I bought my frist kit computer and but it together, and finished out my college years. A few upgrades later down the road, I had my first gaming computer, taking names in Battlefield 1942 and Desert Combat Mod. The birth places of gamer words like, "frag tard", "Camper", 'Spawn Campers, and "Da Noob Tube". Last year prior to launch of the epic FAILURE of SWTOR I built my second rig using 990 FX AMD Sabetooth Motherboard, AMD FX* CPU, 16gigs of ram, iT Harddrive, 120g solid state driver, dual 660 TI Nivida Graphic cards all nicely placed into a water cool dark fleet tower. Enough to make any Gamer, look at it, smile and crack some knuckles and ready to go to work. Which is not a bad build for a red neck kid, that knew nothing about the insides of computer and how they worked. I checked out a few webpages on how to build computer, a few articles on what makes a gaming rig, a gaming rig. Looked at the top 5 leading gaming rigs on the market, went to NewEGG, bought what I figured I needed and few things that look cool. Had 3 days of Spring Christmas at my house, where everyday FedEx was Santa with a new computer part. Threw all the directions in a box, pulled up youtube and went to work. Three hours later, I was loading windows and updating drivers. That night at 1201 I got my email for early launch for SWTOR and off we went. Flawlessly stabbing, shocking, choking and shooting our way through the Star Wars Unvierse....

So SWTOR was bust and I was introduced to World of Tanks and the up coming game line that Wargaming is following the game up with. After my CD drive went in my first gen PS3 a couple of months ago, I joined a clan and started getting more and more involved with the game. My problem is my job. I'm not always home during the week and weekends for the tournment schedules, clan wars, and league play. I can't just pack up a full tower, keyboard, mouse, and screen everytime every week to go on road trips. I need something that will run the game, future updates, and move into the next two follow up games they are working on while I'm on the road. Now that I feel like I went all out on my rig at home, and maybe a little overboard... I'm not sure what I need and what I don't need. As with every family money is tight and this is just extra. I've read the reviews, I've read posting on forums, and I even talk to a few people that know something about a computers. Everyone tells me, Alienware is a monster, but get warranties they offer, your going to want them. I'm really worried about which monster I'm going to get when I open the box. The gaming monster that is attached to the Alienware name or its a Dell Monster, what did you except? To me its hard to judge, I found more bad review then good but I've been around the gaming world to know, nobody takes the time to give praise.

So if any of you guys/gals have an Alienware14 or 17 have any suggestions, comments, concerns, pro's and con's. Please by all means let me know. If you happen to be a WOT player and play it from desktop and Alienware laptop, let me know what you think and what your running. And if your some IT mad computer scientist with PHDs in fields I can't even say, let alone spell and you know what I need... you get the picture.

Specs for the game I'm currently playing can be found at WorldofTanks.com. I'm not sure if Wargaming has released what you need for the other two games yet. One is in Beta Testing and the other is Alpha Testing.

TheTechMaster · Accepted Answer

I have an Alienware M 17x that I didn't get from the website itself, so it has rainbow key lighting. The performance is amazing, and you should get at least a 1-year warranty. You also don't need to worry about the Dell part of it, as for Alienware was just bought by it, so the manufacturing is the same as before. Also, Alienware shouldn't be a problem with the update messages if you have CD-ROMS or the real game (Ex: Steam Community). If you play on your browser, then just make sure to keep your Java updates on track.

The M 17x is amazing. It has absolutely flawless performance with the NVIDIA gaming processor. NVIDIA is a major gaming company and made the NVIDIA shield (If you don't know it look it up). I don't know about the other models, but on the M 17x you can change the key lighting to your preference. It is the ultimate gaming computer.

The only con is that the price is a little to high for the M 17x . It cost $2100 for me, and if you want to settle for a decent price get the Alienware 14. But I personally think the price was worth it for the performance and the design/looks.

That's about it and I hope this review helped. Good luck on your decision!

An apple laptop is for surfing/productivity, so it would absolutely stink for gaming.

NJEnjineer · Answer

Hey PowerStroke!

I've got an Alienware m17x (-R2), about 3 years old.   Before that, I was using an XPS-Gen1 Portable.   ( I also have self-built full-size and Dell rigs at home, but between work, college @ night, and gaming, I like the high-end portable rigs). I'm running Win7Ultimatex64, dual boot to Ubuntu, plenty of gaming - (lesser-end) and a bit of graphics/ web work for school.   Mostly work, web, mail, games.

Pros about the Alienware line in general:
.. because you pay a premium price up front, you get excellent system documentation, plus much better service & support than standard lines.
.. most of the hardware has not been tweaked by Dell so far that you can't get replacement parts at your average shop (if still in lifecycle).
.. solid, name-brand parts inside, not some back-alley garage in South Nowhereistan flashing copper traces on recycled chips.
.. usually standard options include dual HDD and dual video, plus lots of memory slots.
Cons:
.. generally heavy - so I call it "portable" not notebook/laptop. Especially the 17" or 18".
.. tough to find bags/knapsacks/cases to fit any machine larger than 15"- if you do, make sure the corners have adequate padding and support. Hinges are known for stress fractures because of the size/weight.
.. solid-name-brand parts cost $$ to replace out of pocket.   Get the longest service you can, and if you are a heavy user, bet that in 3-4 years, you will be replacing at least a hard drive, or overheated video card. ( adds $$ up front)
   .. with 2 drives, fast processor, larger screen and such,   battery is heavy enough to be uncomfortable, but not really meant for long ops.   I think I was able to squeeze nearly 2 hrs out when new- watching a DVD, and powering off everything else.

Neutral: definitely unique looks.. can be a discussion point, or draw unwanted attention. Same for the customizable nameplate and led lighting systems. Uses power, looks cool, but do I really care about all that flash?

I've upgraded this monster with hard drives and more memory, but the ATI crossfire video had haunted me since day 1. After a while I gave up.. I was only playing games like StarCraft ( even SCII), Command&Conquer, or watching movies. I never got around to installing CoD, (yet) or any serious FPS action to stress the video.

OTOH, I have loaded the DVDs with my own (and some others') MRI or CAT scans, and the video quality on the Alienware screen made the brand-new desktop Sonys and HP all-in-ones at the doctor's office look like they were "Etch-a-Sketch" machines. Screen resolution was much better than standard monitors, and helped pick out a bone fragment that was "inconclusive" on a lesser resolution, but much larger 24" monitor.

My issue was always with power.. the cards overheated easy, but my Mrs. has cats.. so I learned to clean it more frequently. Last year I reflowed the solder connections on the power control board, but I still have an issue when AC power cuts out, or if I trip/ pull out AC adapter. Battery takes over just fine, but in a min or three, or if I connect AC again.. everything freezes. Requires full power down, restart in safe mode, system restore, restart.. every time. I recently found discussions.. after warranty expired.. allegedly this is fixed with a vbios update to ATI cards, but I can't get cards recognized. Adding 3rd & 4th year to warranty would be required.. which now costs about 1/4 original price tag including 2 yrs full service.

I'm off warranty ( hence my advice to take a longer one).. and trade-in after 3 years is 1/7th purchase price if perfect.
I still use mine every day, using Velcro and tape to prevent AC cord pulls.. and begging here and there for an answer from service.
Probably another 12-18 months, I'll be in the market for new. Alienware is on my short list, though I wish they offered a 15+ <17.5 " touch screen that I could flip back on the keyboard to use with a stylus for notes, or like a touchscreen tablet. Any system I do purchase is going to see a lot of travel with me - even if just to/from work and occasional classes, so I'm looking for a 4-5 year full warranty ( including accidental damage). I'll definitely be shopping around from many sources to get the best prices, even if I have to pick up some parts from one vendor, and add warranty from another.

NJEnjineer · Answer

@Avenger5B3:

Obviously you feel strongly about this. But, did you read the first post? We're looking for gaming machines. If you have some personal experience in great games on that other platform - share that. If you have a specific gripe about the computer you were unhappy with, please share it.

Ranting in all negatives, without any specifics.. and especially when we know that less than 1/2 (I'm being very generous).. of all personal-computer (non-console, and not web-based) games will work on that operating system.

I agree - that company makes a very good, very stable machine. If I had the money for either that or an alienware - or any other windows-based personal computing device.. and I had to choose between being able to buy any game -or any software- I wanted ( trade-off = sometimes unstable after a change), or I have great stability (trade-off = I can't really install much in the way of games or other software that changes the machine, so that keeps it stable.).. I've made my choice.

I have owned, upgraded, dual-booted and VM'd on both platforms. I prefer to put my money into flexibility.
Still.. I like your passion, and the fact that you participate on a board that has no help for you.

Keep posting, my friend.. but please include information we can use to help us!

89fordprobee · Answer

..to say not to buy is irrelevant... when doing any change a person should be aware and should check before doing so...

I worked for HP support, trust me you think dell is bad try dealing with HP.... I knew more then the damn IT dept. did if you lucky enough to get me I always got your problem fixed... unfortunately made them less money and I laid off due to cutbacks :O anyway

I had my fair share of bad dealing with dell all the way back to 2001/2002.. then 2008 then 2010 then 2011 ... I keep buying dell products but make sure to get warranty.. as for repair/replace parts I choose to do it myself now why, cause in all this process I learnt a lot about computers and how to dismantle/assemble so even tho all the bad and repairs the good parts was I learnt how to repair laptop physically even my most recent system being M18x R2 in april .... had its issue out of the box but I expected and dealt with it why.. cause its dell :O

as for alienfx value = $0.00 to me.. why.. I never have it on, got external steel series keyboard that has same lighting and more configurable then the laptop is :O, same as webcam ect... I purchased strictly for power consumption/performace since desktop I had tripped breakers cause of power it needed..

... not many places will help outside warranty without cost.. so extend warranty past the original 1 year on purchase... again Chrysler Canada with my SUV I had enough issues with warranty repairs.. right down to them blaming me for using the 4x4 in a blizzard as reason the Transfer case fail.. if I didn't use it.. it wouldn't have happened.. , I damn near slapped the service guy.. told HIM LOOK OUTSIDE .. THIS IS REASON I GOT 4x4!

Avenger5b3 · Answer

I respect your decision and choices, alienware was a very very very good laptop, but dell messed it all up. Now all we have with dell is problems! I've tried several dell products, say laptops. They work fine but what I feel is that dell couldn't handle the complexity of alienware, being dell is a big corporation with a lot of money managed to tweek and fix its own way and the result is an unstable product. The system seems stable and flexible but there are awfully lot of unstablities in the system.

For example the flashy leds on the laptop, if you reinstall your operating system or update the bios or install command center from the disk for any reason the leds don't work and you have to manually reprogram the chip or get your motherboard replaced. And if you are out of warranty dell WILL NOT help you in any kind of way even though you are a "VALUED CUSTOMER".

I gave that example because I had the same problem and I called dell and they tried to find all kinds of reasons not to help me. Not to say I did not ask them to replace my motherboard or replace my laptop, iust asked them why this was an on going issue in any alienware laptop.

And the worst of all the representative from dell corporation (not tech support team) treated me soo bad! And he even called me a thief!! And he didn't want to help me any more!!(what a customer survise).

I am a software engineer so I got a couple of more laptops with same problems and found a solution and now I'm helping people to fix this dreadful problem.

NOTE: without a working alienfx lighting the laptop is not even half the value it actually worths.

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Buying Alienware Laptop?

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