Poll: Alienware or Republic of Gamers?

[AldirTK]

I've been thinking of buying a gaming laptop for years now. As a college student, it's taken me a LOT of work getting a fund together to buy a laptop. However, googling I find hundreds of complaints about Dell and Asus. Dell seems to have the biggest number of complaints but I don't know how common it is for an Alienware laptop to break. I also don't know if the problem with both companies is that their American customer service is terrible (the complaints I read all came from America) or that their products are just bad. I live in Japan, so I have to buy from the Japanese branch and a different customer service, so that wouldn't be much of a problem. Also they are both extremely expensive, so I wouldn't risk a brand with faulty parts. What does The Escapist recommend?

 

[Kabutos]

If you absolutely have to, go with Asus.

Otherwise it's better to just build a gaming PC.

 

[AldirTK]

Thing is, I live in a dorm. I don't know if I'm gonna keep living in this country after I graduate so having a desktop would be a massive drag even if I started renting an apartment after 3 more years.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

When it comes to gaming laptops, I only ever recommend Asus G series or Sager laptops... although I don't know if Sager have a reseller in Japan. They certainly don't have one in Australia, much to my annoyance.

As for Asus customer service... honestly, it scores pretty high in all but one very critical area - time. Turn around time (time from send to again receiving your kit) for Asus is notoriously looooong. Upside is that Asus gear has a lower than average fault rate... and so it should for the price they charge.

OTOH... if you're looking for something that's not a hassle to move when you need to rather than something that requires day-to-day portability, you could always look into some specialised LANning cases and mods, including the case mod that attaches a swing out monitor on the side of the case. Costwise that sort of thing will run up a cost starting to approach what a gaming laptop would but much, MUCH more powerful if a lot less portable.

 

[Hyperrhombus]

Dell PCs are generally well built. However, their tech support is notoriously bad, whic is probably why all the complaints. Alienware also tends to be overpriced for the hardware that you`re getting, although that could also be said for republic of gamers. Personally, i would avoid Alienware, in case anything goes wrong.

 

[Dissolve]

The "gaming laptop" should be put to death. If you're a college student, use your current laptop as a netbook, and purchase a desktop. You'll be glad you did so in three years. If you know what boolean algebra is, build your own desktop.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

If you're curious, there's always this little beauty made by Razer.

http://www.razerzone.com/blade

 

[Lorens Edic]

hmmmm... Razer Blade has a sleek and thin design but I think its over rated because the VC is not that good compared to what AlienWare and ROG is using.

 

[Zerstiren]

The "gaming laptop" should be put to death. If you're a college student, use your current laptop as a netbook, and purchase a desktop. You'll be glad you did so in three years. If you know what boolean algebra is, build your own desktop.

this, a thousand times fold.

I bought a gaming laptop once, and it did very well . . . for 3 years. The games quickly overwhelmed its graphics and processing capacities. I built my very first gaming rig last year, and have been satisfied immensely with it. As well as far surpassing any "gaming laptop," I can upgrade my rig in any way imaginable, for however long I want, for many years to come, before it puffs its last breath.

The laptop has been sitting in my closet for months.