Is Alienware worth it?

[lostzombies.com]

Going to University and looking for a decent gaming laptop to take.
I've been considering the Alienware Mx15 model, but the more I look into it the less likely I seem to get one. I can't help but feel on top of the 1000 pound price for basic, with the decent parts upping it closer to £1500-2000, it's just not going to be worth it in the end. Especially since I really just want to play games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion with high specs.

Can anyone give me any information one way or the other on whether it would be worth shelling out for one of these?

It pretty much boils down to can you build yourself a machine. If not then you have to pay for someone else to do it for you. If you know how to do it then you save money by building your own.

 

[Substance-E]

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Overall as an AleinWare owner I am totally satisfied with my purchase and I think the hate for them is a little exaggerated. Yes you will pay a bit more but its not like their machines are garbage.

I don't think it's so much that they are underpowered for the price, it's the overall attitude of superiority that they created for themselves that bit them in the ass when people figured out you could buy from a wholesaler and build an exact copy for a fraction of the cost.

@ OP

As far as a gaming laptop, Id say look at the parts and decide if it's worth it then. Alienware doesn't use any magic components, its all the same you just pay for brand and assembly.

 

[Ildecia]

Going to University and looking for a decent gaming laptop to take.
I've been considering the Alienware Mx15 model, but the more I look into it the less likely I seem to get one. I can't help but feel on top of the 1000 pound price for basic, with the decent parts upping it closer to £1500-2000, it's just not going to be worth it in the end. Especially since I really just want to play games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion with high specs.

Can anyone give me any information one way or the other on whether it would be worth shelling out for one of these?

1. you're paying 1000 for the name alone
2. Alienware run really REALLY hot whenever doing anything more strenuous than microsoft word.
3. with that kind of money, you'll be better off building your own for half as much, or buying a different brand (dell...asus...etc) and again, 1/2 the price.

 

[spicydaruma]

Alienware is like fashion, looks pretty, costs a bomb but is poor at what it's meant to do.

That depends. Diesel cost a lot, but the quality is worth it, as is Dolce&Gabbana and John Paul Gaultier. Christian Dior is another story.

 

[spicydaruma]

I was looking at computers from other companies and usually I could get about an equivalent for about 500 cheaper, but the thing is when I was looking at these other companies I noticed that the warranties, payment plans, and customer services we're a lot less.

Except if you will read my post above, the service you get from their tech support is shit, so in reality, it really ISN'T worth that much.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

You don't need such an expensive PC to rub Oblivion on high settings, you should just build your own for 800 euros...
[sup]Damn my keyboard not having a euro sign...[/sup]

 

[thahat]

dont buy alienware, not worth it, you pay for the bragging rights...
just compile stuff on a site like dell, or buy any other brand what so ever at all xD
google gaming laptop maybe? my friend has something that surpasses an alienware laptop for 700-750 euro's and yeah. pounds are worth more so thats -guestimates here, no conversions- 500-600 pounds?

 

[Googenstien]

ASUS make some great laptops.. the GX72 series is sweet when you get a decent video card with it. But, gaming laptops are heavy and are lucky to las 2 hours unplugged.

Also cyberpower is a solid company to pay a little extra to have them build you a nice computer, and they do not use proprietary hardware so you get name brand components you pick and down the line you can add in whichever item you want without worry.

 

[Jake the Snake]

My brother ordered his own custom Gaming PC on this website: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ it cost a fifth of what Alienware charged for a similar computer.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Well this depends. Do you want a laptop that will play games successfully for a solid period of time, and if in that time you should have any problems they should be sorted out ASAP. If this is the case, don't go with Alienware and dodge a bullet. If however you want a Laptop that looks like a roller disco and will run smoothly for four or five months, then will crash and burn, with ignorant and patronising customer service. Alienware is for you.

Short version: Alienware is not worth the price. If you're only going to be running things on the level of Oblivion, go for ASUS. Or if you want, you can build a nice MATX PC which will perform as good as anything Alienware has to offer, for around half the price (if not less).

 

[Valiance]

People buy Alienware for the service. They try to keep their customers who all have disposable incomes happy.

I recently bought an ASUS UL50VT, or maybe it was an UL50Vg...

I got it for roughly 500 USD after taxes and shipping and such, and it's been a great buy. Not trying to advertise here, but seriously, it has a dedicated video card and has been able to play anything I throw at it on medium or higher - Starcraft II, TF2, World of Tanks, whatever. It auto-overclocks to 1.73 from 1.30 core2duo, which doesn't sound like much, but clockspeed isn't as important as the 4GB of DDR3 and the 512MB geforce210m.

I'd recommend a laptop with a Radeon Mobility 4650, but those cost a lot more. This thing is fine for gaming on the go and has, I shit you not, up to like 11 hours of battery life if you turn off the dedicated graphics card (it has a switch to go between the two to save power when you're NOT gaming.)

I'd say it's a great overall laptop that you could get 3 of for the price of an alienware. And I looked into the M11x, and it didn't have a DVD burner built-in, and didn't have a numpad keyboard. This thing has a 15.6" screen, too...

I really love this ASUS, as you can see, and even though it's not the most high-powered gaming machine, it does anything I need it to do. I doubt I could run a 2010 release on high graphics, but I can run 2010 releases on medium in 720p (1280x720), or low to medium in the native resolution of 1366x768.

 

[Dexiro]

Probably been said a zillion times but Alienware seems to be more about aesthetics. You can probably get a computer with the same amount of power for much cheaper, but it won't look as shiny :3

 

[bam13302]

not any more, if your gona get an alienware, you might as well just go for origin PC
if your looking at a desktop, custom build it every time

 

[omega 616]

Alienware is like fashion, looks pretty, costs a bomb but is poor at what it's meant to do.

That depends. Diesel cost a lot, but the quality is worth it, as is Dolce&Gabbana and John Paul Gaultier. Christian Dior is another story.

You just named a whole host of expensive smelly stuff, not fashion. Look up Jimmy choo shoes ,as an example, there about £300-500 and are usually hard to walk in or uncomfortable yet girly girls would kill for them.

I think those smelly things are over priced aswell, how much for a tiny bottle that makes others struggle to breathe? And whats wrong with deodorant?

 

[Srdjan]

No, you can build better PC yourself, if you don't know how ask some of your friends or consult someone who works in PC shop.

 

[efeat]

A lot of people are jumping the gun after reading "Alienware" and are missing one very important detail in the OP...

Going to University and looking for a decent gaming laptop to take.

Proposing that he build his own laptop is not going to work very well, so please stop suggesting it. Yes, we all know that the best deal for desktops is to build your own (whether it be a gaming one or not,) but he's not looking for a desktop.

.

Back on topic, gaming laptops are kind of a niche market and it's doubtful that you'd find a review of the exact configuration of the Mx15 that you were interested in. If you can find someone who's had experience with gaming laptops, definitely hit them up for advice and information, but I get the feeling you're kind of out on your own here.

IMHO, your best bet would be to look at a few different tech reviews and then piece the data together yourself. The two basic things you'll need to examine are the processor and graphics chip.
First, find some reviews of the graphics chip you were interested in, and then see if that's the kind of performance you're looking for. If you find that the GPU you had in mind performs way over what you need, you can save a few bucks by going down to a lesser part.

One you've decided on a GPU, find a processor that can keep up. Essentially, you'll be looking at reviews of processors to find which one slightly exceeds the numbers you found for your GPU. Most modern processors nowadays can handle just about anything, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

Lastly, check out a few different websites/stores to see where the combination of CPU/GPU you want is being sold. You might be able to find a good deal somewhere that you didn't originally look.

 

[Ganthrinor]

No. Build your own with the same specs for half the price.

 

[spicydaruma]

Alienware is like fashion, looks pretty, costs a bomb but is poor at what it's meant to do.

That depends. Diesel cost a lot, but the quality is worth it, as is Dolce&Gabbana and John Paul Gaultier. Christian Dior is another story.

You just named a whole host of expensive smelly stuff, not fashion. Look up Jimmy choo shoes ,as an example, there about £300-500 and are usually hard to walk in or uncomfortable yet girly girls would kill for them.

I think those smelly things are over priced aswell, how much for a tiny bottle that makes others struggle to breathe? And whats wrong with deodorant?

Uh, no I didn't. You are saying fashion is expensive and does not do what its supposed to do. I named brands that are expensive yet they are good at what they're supposed to do because their quality in fabric is worth the money. Diesel jeans last for years and years, that's why people keep buying their jeans. Dolce&Gabbana and JPG use quality fabrics and silks as well. Not every single expensive brand fashion is not worth the price.

For example, Christian Dior uses crap quality fabrics and materials, which is the reason why their shoe heels break on the runway. As for Jimmy Choo's, the ones I had seemed mediocre and I wouldn't buy them because Jimmy Choo sold his brand and doesn't even design his shoes anymore, so I can agree with you on that since its the same as Dell buying Alienware and their stuff sucks.

 

[Altorin]

If you know what you're doing or have friends that can help you, you can get much more performance for your buck out of your own system

If you're lazy, or don't care about that sort of stuff, or have the extra money to burn on image (that most hardcore PC gamers would laugh at you over), then go ahead.

 

[Cronq]

9/10 people didn't see the OP wanted a laptop for school.

If you need gaming and laptop, the only two sensible choices are Clevo/Sager or Asus.