3 Reasons why not to buy an Alienware Laptop
- Thread starter Vulcan445
- Start date
I've heard good things about Dell's business line of laptops. You might consider that.
I'm currently working on a Dell desktop. It has been flawless. Admittedly, not everyone has had such good luck with Dell, but aside from building your own machine (which is a pain if your hunting for a laptop) then I'd go Dell - they have excellent deals.
I'm currently working on a Dell desktop. It has been flawless. Admittedly, not everyone has had such good luck with Dell, but aside from building your own machine (which is a pain if your hunting for a laptop) then I'd go Dell - they have excellent deals.
YesMathew952 said:
Also, does anyone have the Alienware PC? If these same problums are coming up I may need to rethink some things.
Didn't Dell buy Alienware a little while ago?
Aren't they currently known worldwide as the technology company with the *worst* customer service and rapidly falling standards for hardware?
I have spotted your problem.
- J
Aren't they currently known worldwide as the technology company with the *worst* customer service and rapidly falling standards for hardware?
I have spotted your problem.
- J
I'm surprised Dell have such a bad reputation, both my desktop and my laptop (xps M1330) are from Dell, and I have been very happy both with the hardware and then service, but then again, I don't play games on my PC's, I just use photoshop/flash etc so maybe its not the same for us "console 'tards" 
4) Alienware are now owned by Dell.
I've never had an Alienware but I would have considered one until they were swallowed by Dell. I have a passionate hate for Dells, all of the PCs at my work are Dell and they're rubbish, on top of that, I bought a cheap(er) one for my Mum, so she could discover the internet. Filled with crap, unreliable and ugly. I should have had the sense to not buy one after the first minute onto the phone to the sales guy.
If you're not gaming and you can afford one, go for a macbook or a macbook pro, they've saved my belief in technology being progresive.
I've never had an Alienware but I would have considered one until they were swallowed by Dell. I have a passionate hate for Dells, all of the PCs at my work are Dell and they're rubbish, on top of that, I bought a cheap(er) one for my Mum, so she could discover the internet. Filled with crap, unreliable and ugly. I should have had the sense to not buy one after the first minute onto the phone to the sales guy.
If you're not gaming and you can afford one, go for a macbook or a macbook pro, they've saved my belief in technology being progresive.
if your UK then check www.pcspecialist.co.uk they custom build laptops - recently got minesenkobeast said:
15.4 inch screen 2gb ram (ddr2 667) 160gb HD 8600m gt with 512mb of ddr2 intergrated wireless abg and bluetooth intel core 2 duo t8300 2.4ghz with 3mb(?) l2 cache for 630 quid you can customize everything appart from the gfx i think but its pretty awesome.
Probably the only thing wrong with the design is that they tried to make the laptop too thin, and as such had to stick an underpowered fan and heatsink unit(s) in there. The high temperature of the internals thus causes part failures.
You aren't covering the cooling ports, are you? The heatsink isn't covered with dust?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because they where purchased by dell. Perhaps Dell is trying to use an undersized form-factor because they are already tooled up for that frame.
You aren't covering the cooling ports, are you? The heatsink isn't covered with dust?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because they where purchased by dell. Perhaps Dell is trying to use an undersized form-factor because they are already tooled up for that frame.
The other laptops are okay, I have one. It's an m15x and it rules. Yes, they are expensive, but I personally like it and I got it for college. With a few setting tweaks it's battery life goes up to 5 hours or so.
Edit: And yes, Dell owns Alienware now. No one hates Dell more than me, but to be fair the only thing that changed is that Dell uses Alienware tech for their XPS line, just with the durability chopped and bloatware installed. And to be fair, Alienware still uses their own tech support so you got a bad shake. If you look you can see horror stories dealing with tech support for any company. The only thing you can really go on is how often you see that sort of thing. Dell support stories you hear a bunch so it's safe to assume it's crap. But this is the first bad thing I heard about Alienware so maybe you just caught the person (or people) on a bad day(s) or something.
Edit v2: And also laptops of that power needs to have breathing room. Technically you shouldn't put your laptop across your legs. Weak laptops can get away with it because they don't produce as much heat, but a gaming/vid editing beast will burn you and your internal parts which will shorten their life, quickly.
Edit: And yes, Dell owns Alienware now. No one hates Dell more than me, but to be fair the only thing that changed is that Dell uses Alienware tech for their XPS line, just with the durability chopped and bloatware installed. And to be fair, Alienware still uses their own tech support so you got a bad shake. If you look you can see horror stories dealing with tech support for any company. The only thing you can really go on is how often you see that sort of thing. Dell support stories you hear a bunch so it's safe to assume it's crap. But this is the first bad thing I heard about Alienware so maybe you just caught the person (or people) on a bad day(s) or something.
Edit v2: And also laptops of that power needs to have breathing room. Technically you shouldn't put your laptop across your legs. Weak laptops can get away with it because they don't produce as much heat, but a gaming/vid editing beast will burn you and your internal parts which will shorten their life, quickly.
There are 2 classes of laptops, work and play.
1. Work: Text docs, pdf, calculator. Computer: $600 XO Laptop Linux to be installed.
2. Gaming Laptop: High end games, everything to do on a computer. Computer: You know the price tabs for shopping sites like bestbuy and newegg? Click the 3,000+ tab. Otherwise get a desktop.
1. Work: Text docs, pdf, calculator. Computer: $600 XO Laptop Linux to be installed.
2. Gaming Laptop: High end games, everything to do on a computer. Computer: You know the price tabs for shopping sites like bestbuy and newegg? Click the 3,000+ tab. Otherwise get a desktop.
A gaming laptop has a shitload of stuff in it, that will make it hot (cpu/gpu/s if you have more then one, fast memory). Answers why you cant have it on your lap.
Hardware, cant answer that...
People already answered the Dell thingy
And someone said the battery life sucks...dude, im not sure what type stuff you have in your laptop, but the cpu, gpu/s and stuff take a crap load of power that a tiny battery cant support on its own for long. Common sense if you think about ti
Hardware, cant answer that...
People already answered the Dell thingy
And someone said the battery life sucks...dude, im not sure what type stuff you have in your laptop, but the cpu, gpu/s and stuff take a crap load of power that a tiny battery cant support on its own for long. Common sense if you think about ti
i got the Area 51 m15x about 2 months ago, and i am loving it. i get 50+fps average for every game i play on it, load up any webpage w/o any wait time over a wireless connection, and sometimes ill sit for hours talking to my friends with my notebook on my lap and never have any problems with heat. Also, I love the built in bluetooth, cuz i can have my bluetooth mouse connected w/o taking up any usb ports. Also the Alien FX light up keyboard is perfect for late night gaming/studying/essay writing. I do think that everything that lights up is unnessecary, but thankfully it is all customizeable so that you dont have to have it on. All in all i give my notebook a 4 1/2 out of 5.
Eh, I've gotta agree and disagree with the TC. I have an Alienware Aurora m9700, and it's pretty competent by my standards. It does get INCREDIBLY hot, and my hard drive has crashed once, and the tech support is about as useful as a lead wetsuit is for deep-sea diving, but it still performs alright. I've never had any trouble running any games, and I have quite a few on it(CoD 4, The Witcher, BF 2, etc. and a ton of MMO's), although I'll admit I haven't worked up the balls to try Crysis yet lol. Also, ever since I fixed my HDD issue, it doesn't have any noticeable slowdown problems.
Personally, I would opt for an Alienware desktop if I had the massive amounts of cash required to build a decent one, but so far my m9700 is doing pretty well, so until it turns into a pile of crap, I don't see much need to replace it.
Personally, I would opt for an Alienware desktop if I had the massive amounts of cash required to build a decent one, but so far my m9700 is doing pretty well, so until it turns into a pile of crap, I don't see much need to replace it.
I would probably recommend a Macbook Pro. Here's why:
Since last summer's release of the new Macbook Pro models, they've pretty much been well worth the money in hindsight and currently with the new models (though not as valuable as last year's release). Here's why I think so (lol I got some weird formatting going on):
1. Last year's models (specifically the 15" models) came in a $1999.99 and $2499.99 pricing variety, with the main difference being the GPU RAM coming with the laptop in a 128MB and 256MB variety (I believe the clock speeds were the same, and it's MB, not mb (megaBYTE vs. megabit memory--and as we all SHOULD know, video ram makes an insignificant difference if the textures (most games at the time and presently don't benefit the user through the difference in video ram, especially when dealing with screen resolution, which I will get to in another point)). They were the first, or if anything, one of the first laptops to come out with the nVidia Geforce 8xxxM series (M for mobile) GPUs for laptops, and that was huge value considering the price, what you get overall, and the condition of the market at the time.
2. The new models that came out a couple months ago came with better CPUs (not a whole lot faster, but overall better CPUs without diving into the specs of it) and a vram difference of 256MB vs 512MB (the 512MB doesn't seem worth the $2499.99 since the card didn't really change that much, and that the vram most likely won't benefit much for gaming because of the limitations of the card itself. If one were photo/video editing with gaming as a hobby, then it may be worth it.) Despite the modest upgrades in specs from the previous 9-month old release, it's still not a bad buy taking all things into consideration.
3. OS X should be a casual user's best friend because of the low maintenance and software it provides. If one doesn't like using it much, just use bootcamp (if you're only doing this now but don't have OS X 10.5+ (Leopard), then roll back your clock in OS X to 2007 before using a bootcamp beta meant for Tiger to save yourself the extra cash from upgrading to Leopard), install XP or Vista (whatever your flavor is), and use that as your primary boot.
4. Problems with drivers for Windows? For XP (Home, Pro, Media Center), the only problem I've come across were some blue screens related to some sound drivers in older games (primarily Warcraft III), but a simple change in settings or having the latest version of bootcamp (that came with Leopard) will remedy this problem (or changes in settings for other games if it were to occur). Other than that, bluetooth and everything works perfectly, and if anything, very fast compared to traditional PC-laptops. The apple drivers for the hardware are very reliable and well made (I can vouch for this with many more technical reasons).
5. The native-resolution-to-GPU combination is perfect. You can max out your resolution at 1440x900 (It's not the largest resolution one can get out there), but considering the card is only a 8600M GT, 1440x900's perfect for running many games and applications at this resolution while keeping other quality settings high.
I know I was quite unorganized in this post, but when you look at the market and what it offers, the macbook pro's actually a good buy (less now than before, but it's still good). Apple's tech support has recently been rated (I don't have my source now, but you can find it on your own) the best out of all there is out there, and is very easy to deal with. As far as hardware reliability, there's still roughly a 1 in 5 (20%) chance that something will go wrong in it's lifetime (shared within the 20-25% chance that all manufacturers face--this statistic can be found in the same source that rated Apple's tech support), Apple's customer service should be able to take care of that with the proper pre-purchase planning (I don't think they offer hardware service plans, but they're very lenient) and care when handling.
For a mid-to-high end GPU (despite the 9xxx and 10xxx series currently out) and great CPU option, the performance in gaming is outstanding, while not defeating the purpose of having a mobile computer at the same time (battery life's above 2.5 hours when pushed, on average 3.5 hours, and the overall product's awesome). If you want an SLI set up, get a desktop. SLI, RAID (multiple hard drivers overall actually), and even quad-core CPUs can't provide good battery life or heat ratings at the moment, and usually cost a fortune.
Well, that's just my opinion lol. If anything, I talk about this stuff for a part-time job (CA position at Best Buy) and plan to move to Apple p/t while maintaining my business that requires similar thinking and going to school (2nd year now lol). Lots of people/customers have liked what I said, so I decided to share it here.
meow~
Since last summer's release of the new Macbook Pro models, they've pretty much been well worth the money in hindsight and currently with the new models (though not as valuable as last year's release). Here's why I think so (lol I got some weird formatting going on):
1. Last year's models (specifically the 15" models) came in a $1999.99 and $2499.99 pricing variety, with the main difference being the GPU RAM coming with the laptop in a 128MB and 256MB variety (I believe the clock speeds were the same, and it's MB, not mb (megaBYTE vs. megabit memory--and as we all SHOULD know, video ram makes an insignificant difference if the textures (most games at the time and presently don't benefit the user through the difference in video ram, especially when dealing with screen resolution, which I will get to in another point)). They were the first, or if anything, one of the first laptops to come out with the nVidia Geforce 8xxxM series (M for mobile) GPUs for laptops, and that was huge value considering the price, what you get overall, and the condition of the market at the time.
2. The new models that came out a couple months ago came with better CPUs (not a whole lot faster, but overall better CPUs without diving into the specs of it) and a vram difference of 256MB vs 512MB (the 512MB doesn't seem worth the $2499.99 since the card didn't really change that much, and that the vram most likely won't benefit much for gaming because of the limitations of the card itself. If one were photo/video editing with gaming as a hobby, then it may be worth it.) Despite the modest upgrades in specs from the previous 9-month old release, it's still not a bad buy taking all things into consideration.
3. OS X should be a casual user's best friend because of the low maintenance and software it provides. If one doesn't like using it much, just use bootcamp (if you're only doing this now but don't have OS X 10.5+ (Leopard), then roll back your clock in OS X to 2007 before using a bootcamp beta meant for Tiger to save yourself the extra cash from upgrading to Leopard), install XP or Vista (whatever your flavor is), and use that as your primary boot.
4. Problems with drivers for Windows? For XP (Home, Pro, Media Center), the only problem I've come across were some blue screens related to some sound drivers in older games (primarily Warcraft III), but a simple change in settings or having the latest version of bootcamp (that came with Leopard) will remedy this problem (or changes in settings for other games if it were to occur). Other than that, bluetooth and everything works perfectly, and if anything, very fast compared to traditional PC-laptops. The apple drivers for the hardware are very reliable and well made (I can vouch for this with many more technical reasons).
5. The native-resolution-to-GPU combination is perfect. You can max out your resolution at 1440x900 (It's not the largest resolution one can get out there), but considering the card is only a 8600M GT, 1440x900's perfect for running many games and applications at this resolution while keeping other quality settings high.
I know I was quite unorganized in this post, but when you look at the market and what it offers, the macbook pro's actually a good buy (less now than before, but it's still good). Apple's tech support has recently been rated (I don't have my source now, but you can find it on your own) the best out of all there is out there, and is very easy to deal with. As far as hardware reliability, there's still roughly a 1 in 5 (20%) chance that something will go wrong in it's lifetime (shared within the 20-25% chance that all manufacturers face--this statistic can be found in the same source that rated Apple's tech support), Apple's customer service should be able to take care of that with the proper pre-purchase planning (I don't think they offer hardware service plans, but they're very lenient) and care when handling.
For a mid-to-high end GPU (despite the 9xxx and 10xxx series currently out) and great CPU option, the performance in gaming is outstanding, while not defeating the purpose of having a mobile computer at the same time (battery life's above 2.5 hours when pushed, on average 3.5 hours, and the overall product's awesome). If you want an SLI set up, get a desktop. SLI, RAID (multiple hard drivers overall actually), and even quad-core CPUs can't provide good battery life or heat ratings at the moment, and usually cost a fortune.
Well, that's just my opinion lol. If anything, I talk about this stuff for a part-time job (CA position at Best Buy) and plan to move to Apple p/t while maintaining my business that requires similar thinking and going to school (2nd year now lol). Lots of people/customers have liked what I said, so I decided to share it here.
meow~
I own an M9700. I have had to replace heatsinks/fans 3 times, and I've reinstalled windows 3 times. Heat is a major problem, and performance doesn't match the hardware put into it. I should at this point note that I trouble shoot computers and fix them for a living. This computer has hardware lock ups where it will frieze and not respond. This usually happens when I'm downloading something to my external HD overnight, or when I leave the computer idle, or when I'm playing a game. Sometimes when I'm on the internet... Pretty much anytime the power is on is free game for friezing. My favorite glitch that happens with this computer is that I get the most amazing array of small horizontal lines when I tab through windows. This doesn't frieze the computer, it still accepts commands, you just can't see them. Another thing to mention, it's all alienware customized drivers, so normally with an issue like this, I'd update drivers. But nVidia drivers won't work for this. Even with working heatsinks in, it runs too hot. Since everything is alienware customized, you really can't put any sort of 3rd party cooling in it to help without major modifications.
Things to note: The random friezes and horizontal lines are random; they don't follow ANY pattern, and a full OS restore didn't get rid of them. They don't happen often, but it's still a pain. They are also not related to anything on the computer other than the OS, because I left the computer on for 24 hours after the 3rd reinstall and it froze. The fans and heatsinks that I have work now, as long as it's reasonably cool. Some of my heat issues are location/humidity related; but others are insufficient sinks for a dual GPU setup. As well as AMD chips just running hotter than intel chips. In game, the gameplay is excellent and the performance is good for a single core chip. But a desktop can do better cheaper.
Build your own desktop instead of getting this; it's cheaper and you get more for your money.
Things to note: The random friezes and horizontal lines are random; they don't follow ANY pattern, and a full OS restore didn't get rid of them. They don't happen often, but it's still a pain. They are also not related to anything on the computer other than the OS, because I left the computer on for 24 hours after the 3rd reinstall and it froze. The fans and heatsinks that I have work now, as long as it's reasonably cool. Some of my heat issues are location/humidity related; but others are insufficient sinks for a dual GPU setup. As well as AMD chips just running hotter than intel chips. In game, the gameplay is excellent and the performance is good for a single core chip. But a desktop can do better cheaper.
Build your own desktop instead of getting this; it's cheaper and you get more for your money.