Alienware laptops? Any good?

rudy said:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/11/17/reliability.study.has.apple.4th.place/

Of course the problem with this study is they do not separate lines of laptops, for instance dell precision laptops, ya never seen one break personally. In general the business laptops seem to be more durable, probably because they all of on site repair contracts and dell does not want to actually do that. On the other hand apple only makes 1 line now the pro which is basically similar to dell business, so is it fair to compare to say acer whom to my knowledge does not make any higher end line. Would be nice if they also took the average sale price and divided them to get a normalized to cost reliability.

You can see this in their break down where more expensive laptops seem to be more reliable, then again if you buy a $200 netbook you probably are not as careful with it as you are with a $2500 alienware....
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There are three other reasons that come to mind as to why AW laptops are "prone" to failure:

- They normally have hardware that runs at higher speeds and suck up more energy. GPUs, in particular -- something that most business-focused laptops don't have -- can break
- They need to run at or close to red-line levels to play games, run benches etc. Most other laptops don't need to operate under heavy load for long times
- AW users are, by nature, tinkerers which drives up the breakage volume
 
It pains me to say it, but it really seems to come down to HP Vs. Apple in the end for the most balanced performance based productivity laptop. So what's out? Lower performing models of course, but ultra decked out heavy as hell only lasting 2-3 hours on battery power stuff is out too (aka alienware, Asus's gamer series, and really probably any gamer series that is more like a desktop replacement in the end).

So yeah, those seem to be my options now. however, a nice update, I now DO have the option of getting an Apple again, due to the nasty Netgear router that was causing the company problems being switched out. Still, decisions decisions. The HP would be a little cheaper and likely have a tad more power, but I can't argue against the design asthetic of the Apple (not just "hey look at me I have an Apple", but smart weight distribution and design making it just more ergonomically pleasing to use and support). That plus the last Laptop I owned in college (2005) was a DTZ model, and it looks like they haven't changed a ton since....further flipside to that though is that I got it last minute on the fly as a prebuilt at Best Buy, so perhaps had I tweaked it some and configured it online it would have lasted a little better than it did.
 
Love mine, bought the 4th revision right when it released, with the 7970M and the Ivy Bridge chip. No complaints yet, but I did buy the warranty. Running smooth as hell.

Pricey? Sure. Worth it for the awesome looks and performance? Hell yes. Granted you could get a cheaper, powerful laptop from say Clevo/Sager, but it's just not the same to me.
 
I have two Alienware one m15x, one m17xr4, both are good no problem
it depends what you want to do with them. if it is gaming, go with alienware.
 
Also if you need something more professional go my router and get a Dell Precision M6700. I sold my alienware to my buddy (Was a great laptop) and got something more professional yet with the K5000M Quadro (on par with the GTX 680M) I play all my games. Also with an IPS screen!!
 
Mothakes said:
Alienware is too expensive, unless you can get a good deal on Dell Outlet. Asus makes some good gaming laptops, my brother has one. Really big and heavy, but I guess that's to be expected.
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yes, they are experience but they like apple products, even used ones have good quality.:D
 
Alienware isn't bad if you take advantage of their Sales/coupons and call in to negotiate with their sales people. Even more so if you work for the government or are in the military, calling in and price comparing to their already decent government discounts can get you some free upgrades or a good discount.
 
I think better options can be found for less, historically part of the deal w/ Alienware is you are buying a name, but that M17x looks to have the best video card option out of several available.

a comparison
 
Are they good? Yes. Are they worth the price? Maybe,maybe not. Dell/AW warranty is amazing but you are paying a huge premium for the brand.

I've had the M11x, M14X, M17X-R2, and M17X-R3 and the last 3 had problems which all involved needing parts to be replaced. Luckily I had extended warranties on all of them otherwise I'd be SOL. There are more reliable brands out there such as Sager/Clevo. They are much cheaper as well.
 
A buddy of mine has had a Area 51M (old P4 model), a M17x R1 and R3 and has had nothing but problems. I use to work for QualxServ (now WorldWide Tech) who is contracted by Dell for their "in-home/office" repairs. I didn't repair many Alienwares but when I did, it was always Video Cards and Motherboards. They just run too hot. Im my opinion, they are not built to the standards they should be and you are mostly paying for a flashly looking device. Take a look at Sager Notebooks, they have some decent options and are cheaper than Alienware.
 
If you haven't gotten a laptop yet, check out a customer Sager or the Toshiba Qosmio. Another option may be the MSI GT70 with GTX 675MX GPU.
 
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I got my m14x on the Dell Outlet with a 25% off coupon cheap. I love it. I did upgrade the screen to 900p ($50 upgrade) and also swapped the dual core i5 to a quad core i7 ivy bridge ($50 price difference after selling the old CPU). Couldnt be happier.
 
I'm on my m11x right now. I can't say enough good things about it. First of all, I got it dirt cheap. My buddy bought it as a refurb, then he upgraded to a newer, more powerful Dell. He needed work done on his car, so I did that for free, then threw him like, $100 on top of it.

The battery life is awesome, even when playing games. And when you turn off the video card and use the onboard graphics, the battery lasts for ages.
 
My personal experiences with the Alienware M17xR3:

1. Defective 120 Hz LED screen right out the box. Blue line right down the left hand side. Luckily I bought the onsite warranty and had it swapped out in 48 hours.

2. Upgraded the GTX 460M to the 680M. Lost 3D support, but no big loss. The 680M died after six months due to insufficient cooling on Alienware's part. Yes, I used a notebook cooler and made sure it had sufficient airflow. If they certify their heatsinks to work with 100W GPU's, condensation shouldn't form on the RAM modules.

3. The aluminium touch panel is glued to the plastic bezel surrounding the keyboard. Provide enough heat and the glue will separate, causing the touch panel to lift up the from the rest of the bezel. Not a good design at all.

4. I hated the thermal restrictions placed on the GPU's. 70C isn't high enough for the more powerful GPU's. The patched BIOS' that I saw online didn't help to any effect.

5. Sometimes the unit would not power on properly, didn't matter what BIOS version I used. Powering it off and back on again fixed the problem.

My advice: Stay away from Alienware/Dell.
 
My biggest gripe with laptops in general is just the inability to check it out / fix it yourself (for the average person of course) should anything happen to it. This causes me to steer clear of expensive "extreme gaming" laptops.

Like Mothakes above me said, Asus makes some very decent laptops for up to half the price of an Alienware.
 
5. Sometimes the unit would not power on properly, didn't matter what BIOS version I used. Powering it off and back on again fixed the problem.
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My buddy with the M17xR3 has the same problem currently.
 
Alienware laptops are heavy and have mediocre battery life. If you really want gaming on the go, I suggest Asus g series because it has good specs and us extremely quiet. Otherwise if battery life and portability is more important to you, I suggest get a retina MacBook pro because it has aweso screen and battery life and you could potentially install a desktop gpu through thunderbolt port if you want to play games at home.
 
raclimj said:
Alienware laptops are heavy and have mediocre battery life. If you really want gaming on the go, I suggest Asus g series because it has good specs and us extremely quiet.
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Best Asus G series that I could find was the G75VW, and it has the older Fermi-based GTX 670M 3GB and runs about $1300-1400. For about that price, an MSI GT70 with the newer Kepler-based GTX 670MX 3GB can be had, and would provide about a 25% increase in GPU performance.
 
There are tests that show the Alienware M17x R4 gets up to 4-5 hours of battery life with web browsing. Gaming about 2 hours.

Asus G75VW AND VX gets HALF that in the same review. I wish I could find it now, but it showed a comparison between many gaming laptops and it was the best for battery life.
 
raclimj said:
Alienware laptops are heavy and have mediocre battery life. If you really want gaming on the go, I suggest Asus g series because it has good specs and us extremely quiet. Otherwise if battery life and portability is more important to you, I suggest get a retina MacBook pro because it has aweso screen and battery life and you could potentially install a desktop gpu through thunderbolt port if you want to play games at home.
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Based on what you are saying and having owned a M17x R4 and upgraded some of my buddies I can say you are full of shit. The battery life on the Alienware's are great and the weight an issue but that is the case for most top end gaming laptops. If you are in the market for one I would suggest snagging one from the outlet though. You get a great deal there.
 
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