Just bought an Alienware

xXaNaXx said:
but while i think that cases that have doors that cover up the optical/floppy drives do look cool most of the time, i can't stand having to open a damn door just to load/eject a CD, or stick a floppy in the drive.
Click to expand...

running a rackmount w\ a fanned door I can attest thats a pain in the ass
especially when you have autoburn sequences running like DVDShrink w\ Nero
but you can leave the door open (in my case decreasing the total airflow for that period)
or listen for the teltale tapping of the tray against the case door :p

Im ready for a remote USB optical drive I can switch between computers with a KVM switch now
 
Nice puter, but if I werre to spen that much money on a pre-built I would've went with FalconNW.
 
aironite said:
Here's the specs:

[1] Area-51® 5500

Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case - Cyborg Green
Power Supply: Alienware® 460 Watt Max Power Supply
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 560J w/ HT Technology 3.6GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware® PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 925XE Chipset 1066/800MHz FSB
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance Optimizer
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 160GB Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive One: Lite-On® 16x DVD-ROM Drive with Software DVD Decoder
Optical Drive Two: NEC® ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE® 1394)
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Display One: Alienware® 20.1" LCD Display
Display Two: No Monitor
Alienware Exclusive Offers: Gamespot Complete - Free 90-day Trial (a $20.85 value)
Alienware Exclusive Offers: 10% off your next EB Games online purchase
Hot Titles: Half Life 2
Free Alienware T-Shirt: Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!
AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - $99.99 Value - FREE!

[1] Free Shipping Mail-In Rebate; on Alienware systems excluding peripherals - Continental U.S. Only
[1] $400 Mail-In Rebate; On Desktop Systems
[1] $200 Instant Rebate; On Area-51 5500 Systems
[1] Special Financing Offer; 90 Days Same As Cash Financing with the Alienware Credit Card

SubTotal: $3,176.00

OUCH! :) price doesnt include $500 in MIRs.

****EDIT****
I decided to ditch the alienware brand monitor and go with the Dell 2405FPW.
Updated with pictures on page 9.
Click to expand...


You should have just bought a whole system from Dell and not that monitor... I got DUAL 64bit Xeons, 2GB of DDR2 ECC RAM and a Quadro FX3400 for less than that plus its got WinXP 64bit pre-installed, and you can get a Dell 9100 which is DUAL CORE P4 and a 6800 for HALF what you paid!!! Crap man, don't make that mistake twice! IBM intellistations with Opteron's or Xeons cost less than that and will blow it away to boot. You should REEEALLY send it back and tell them to shove thier prices. You got SERIOUSLY MAJORLY HUGELY ripped off. Oh and if you'd gotten the workstation, when it breaks, they come to you to fix it any day of the week, and guarantee that its fixed over night.
 
BossNoodleKaboodle said:
You should have just bought a whole system from Dell and not that monitor... I got DUAL 64bit Xeons, 2GB of DDR2 ECC RAM and a Quadro FX3400 for less than that plus its got WinXP 64bit pre-installed, and you can get a Dell 9100 which is DUAL CORE P4 and a 6800 for HALF what you paid!!! Crap man, don't make that mistake twice! IBM intellistations with Opteron's or Xeons cost less than that and will blow it away to boot. You should REEEALLY send it back and tell them to shove thier prices. You got SERIOUSLY MAJORLY HUGELY ripped off. Oh and if you'd gotten the workstation, when it breaks, they come to you to fix it any day of the week, and guarantee that its fixed over night.
Click to expand...

The price for my PC came out to 1800ish after rebates. I'm very happy with my current purchase thanks
 
aironite said:
The price for my PC came out to 1800ish after rebates. I'm very happy with my current purchase thanks
Click to expand...

Have you gotten all the rebates back yet?
 
aironite said:
The price for my PC came out to 1800ish after rebates. I'm very happy with my current purchase thanks
Click to expand...

from what i read i thought it was 3000 not including, meaning not including the price OVER the rebated price. you still could get a dual core Dell for about the same price and then spray it green or something lol.
 
Q: Do games currently take use of dual core / more then 1 proc?
A: No, I believe they dont

Q: Is aironite happy with his purchase?
A: Hell Yeah, That system is sweet.

Go thread crap somewhere else.

BTW in his sig it says his 3.6 is a dual core.
 
Nice computer, only thing is the alienwares are really really expensive, for 3g's im going to build something thats better. Thats good for a prebuild though.
 
Ah, well then I guess it was a better buy. However, thats still alot for those specs. Plus what fun is just buying a prebuilt? Wheres the moddage? Wheres the customization? he has a sweet looking green pc, that probably 10,000 other people have as well.
 
I3roknI3ottle said:
Q: Do games currently take use of dual core / more then 1 proc?
A: No, I believe they dont

Q: Is aironite happy with his purchase?
A: Hell Yeah, That system is sweet.

Go thread crap somewhere else.

BTW in his sig it says his 3.6 is a dual core.
Click to expand...

Actually no it doesnt... and it isn't. they don't make J processors with dual cores. thats pentium D processors. and they dont make them faster than 3.2Ghz, learn how to read carefully. his is the decent hyperthreaded prescott core. not the dual core. only 2 logical processors and one physical, where as the D is two physical cores and 4 logical processors with HT enabled.
 
BossNoodleKaboodle said:
Actually no it doesnt... and it isn't. they don't make J processors with dual cores. thats pentium D processors. and they dont make them faster than 3.2Ghz, learn how to read carefully. his is the decent hyperthreaded prescott core. not the dual core. only 2 logical processors and one physical, where as the D is two physical cores and 4 logical processors with HT enabled.
Click to expand...

just to avoid confusion here I think he was addressing your earlier workstation post ;)

and of course leaving big muddy admin tracks in this thread does tend to be easier that whackin people with my clue by four after the fact :p


I3roknI3ottle
as far as thread crapping goes, that doesnt qualify,
the OP asked for opinions (simply by posting this thread),
the opinion BossNoodleKaboodle expressed was based on misunderstanding the price paid and that was addressed,
besides trying to limit a thread only to ataboy agreeing opinions doesnt work, you open the can expect both positive and negative.

so everyone play nice ;)

I know it hard in a thread this long to keep track of context, but everyone do try ;)
 
i am posting this cuz i recently went through the motions choosing bw buying dell or alienware, btw i bought a dell but haven't kept it for myself :(
i know alienware's are better than dell's in many areas but in Germany Dell's seem to be very reasonably priced if you actually like their choice of hardware (ie intel and ati - usually their top choice for gpx is ati and i hate them for their crappy linux drivers) and Alienware costs too much for any sane person to buy (i am not one of them, that's why i considered buying one): for 1300€ish you get a dell 8400 with p4 640, 1gig ddr2-533 ram, x850xt pe and 320Gig HDD, DVD-+RW + DVD-ROM and for 1500€s you get a p4-630, 512mb ddr2-533 ram, x700pro, 160gig hdd...
So the price/performance difference is kinda huge whet it comes to gaming apps, my point is alienware is good quality and most probably is a very good choice considering it's easier to upgrade plus it has better quality case and psu compared to dell, however dell is a very viable option for people who want stable computers but don't want to dish out a fortune. Congrats on your Alienware, wish i could get some rebates like that when i was in the market.
also i have a question, how good is the alienware watercooling setup compared to complete kits from asetek and the likes??
 
ufster8 said:
i am posting this cuz i recently went through the motions choosing bw buying dell or alienware, btw i bought a dell but haven't kept it for myself :(
i know alienware's are better than dell's in many areas but in Germany Dell's seem to be very reasonably priced if you actually like their choice of hardware (ie intel and ati - usually their top choice for gpx is ati and i hate them for their crappy linux drivers) and Alienware costs too much for any sane person to buy (i am not one of them, that's why i considered buying one): for 1300€ish you get a dell 8400 with p4 640, 1gig ddr2-533 ram, x850xt pe and 320Gig HDD, DVD-+RW + DVD-ROM and for 1500€s you get a p4-630, 512mb ddr2-533 ram, x700pro, 160gig hdd...
So the price/performance difference is kinda huge whet it comes to gaming apps, my point is alienware is good quality and most probably is a very good choice considering it's easier to upgrade plus it has better quality case and psu compared to dell, however dell is a very viable option for people who want stable computers but don't want to dish out a fortune. Congrats on your Alienware, wish i could get some rebates like that when i was in the market.
also i have a question, how good is the alienware watercooling setup compared to complete kits from asetek and the likes??
Click to expand...

he didnt buy the ALX system from alienware, that starts at 5grand a system. the ALX is the only system from alienware with watercooling.
 
I just like the looks of the case. Other than that, its too much money. Even if I had the money I wouldnt buy one, I would just spend it and get 2 Computers instaed of 1
 
The two best reasons to buy an Alienware are:

1) Brag to your friends.
2) The case.

The one best reason not to buy an Alienware is:

1) How much money you're going to spend.

Overall, I am jealous, and that was the point, right?
 
Im sorry aironite. But that has got to be THE ugliest case in the history of computer existance.


IMO...

The parts are ok though............but incredibly overpriced. :eek:
 
J-M-E said:
Im sorry aironite. But that has got to be THE ugliest case in the history of computer existance.
Click to expand...

LMAO :p You need to get out and see more cases! Cuz they got alot that are WAAAAAY uglier than Alienware. You think Alienware is uglier than an X-alien :rolleyes: or a diablo?
 
JL_Audio_User said:
LMAO :p You need to get out and see more cases! Cuz they got alot that are WAAAAAY uglier than Alienware. You think Alienware is uglier than an X-alien :rolleyes: or a diablo?
Click to expand...


indeed:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811162004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811201003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811213001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811123073
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811166002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811150063
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811213005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811162031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811146004

and those are just the ones on newegg, and i only browsed quickly over the first 20 pages, out of 41 pages total.....
 
Himmler said:
I currently own 2 Alienwares. Yes thats right I said TWO. They are by far the best computer building company, or whatever you want to call them. They're computers are so well built inside, I couldn't find any wires when I looked inside the case for the first time except for a few. I do not see what you people have against Alienwares, when some people have the money to buy them, and some do not. Also some people don't want to build they're own, as I didn't want to but I have in the past and I prefer a prebuilt.
My system cost me about $3500, and my laptop was about $2700. I went to pretty much every other computer manufacuter I could find, and they either didn't have the same parts for the laptop, or were more expensive. Dells XPS at its stock price is more expensive then mine.
I find this kind of funny, as I posted in another forum I frequently visit about what I got, and I ended up with 10 pages of bashing against me for buying this. What is the big deal? People are different, some people might want to get an Alienware, while others do not. You dont have to make that person feel bad just because he wanted one.
I tell you this - I do not regret my purchase one bit at all. One of the best investments I've ever made.
Oh and one more thing - I didn't read this whole thread, but if anyone said anything about about their support/tech support, I have to say this: They have some of the best techs I have EVER dealt with. They have helped me with whatever problem I had, walked me through a format of windows when my windows disc wouldn't work, helped me get RAID 0 on my two hard drivers after I upgraded it myself. They are top notch tech support, best I've ever used, as I said already.
Click to expand...

QFT. You guys really can't argue. Everyone does have variating experiences though. It depends who you talk to.

-J.
 
Himmler said:
I currently own 2 Alienwares. Yes thats right I said TWO. They are by far the best computer building company, or whatever you want to call them. They're computers are so well built inside, I couldn't find any wires when I looked inside the case for the first time except for a few. I do not see what you people have against Alienwares, when some people have the money to buy them, and some do not. Also some people don't want to build they're own, as I didn't want to but I have in the past and I prefer a prebuilt.
My system cost me about $3500, and my laptop was about $2700. I went to pretty much every other computer manufacuter I could find, and they either didn't have the same parts for the laptop, or were more expensive. Dells XPS at its stock price is more expensive then mine.
I find this kind of funny, as I posted in another forum I frequently visit about what I got, and I ended up with 10 pages of bashing against me for buying this. What is the big deal? People are different, some people might want to get an Alienware, while others do not. You dont have to make that person feel bad just because he wanted one.
I tell you this - I do not regret my purchase one bit at all. One of the best investments I've ever made.
Oh and one more thing - I didn't read this whole thread, but if anyone said anything about about their support/tech support, I have to say this: They have some of the best techs I have EVER dealt with. They have helped me with whatever problem I had, walked me through a format of windows when my windows disc wouldn't work, helped me get RAID 0 on my two hard drivers after I upgraded it myself. They are top notch tech support, best I've ever used, as I said already.
Click to expand...

Yeah they're way better than IBM, Cray, and SGI aren't they. Thats why everyone who launches the Space Shuttle and who has mission critical reliability issues uses them... NOT! as for being an investment, you made money FROM BUYING IT???
 
Ok. Heres the big thing between alienware and custom built.



ALIENWARE:

[1] Aurora™ ALX

Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Chassis: Alienware® ALX Full-Tower Case - Saucer Silver
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 510 Express
Thermal Management System: Alienware® ALX Active Liquid Cooling System
Performance-Enhancement: Alienware® ALX Graphics Performance-Enhancement
Motherboard: Alienware® nForce™4 SLI™ Chipset Motherboard PCI Express
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-55 Processor with HyperTransport Technology
Memory: 1GB Corsair™ XMS Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at up to 550MHz - 2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: Dual NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 Ultra PCI Express 256MB DDR3 with NVIDIA SLI Technology
Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance Optimizer
Chassis Upgrades: AlienIce™ 2.0 Video Cooling System - Astral Blue
System Drive: Extreme Performance - Serial ATA RAID 0 - 73.4GB (36.7GB x 2) Serial ATA 10,000 RPM w/16MB Cache
Optical Drive One: Lite-On® 16x DVD / 52x36x52x CD-RW Drive
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE® 1394)
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Automated Support: AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System
Power Protection: Tripp Lite LC1200
Display One: No Monitor
Display Two: No Monitor
ALX Out Of Box Experience: Exclusive Alienware® ALX Items
Alienware Exclusive Offers: Gamespot Complete - Free 90-day Trial (a $20.85 value)
Alienware Exclusive Offers: 10% off your next EB Games online purchase
Free Alienware T-Shirt: Free Alienware® ALX T-Shirt - Black
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® ALX Mousepad (a $19.99 Value!)
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!



TOTAL: $5,227.00



exact same specs building it myself: $3,600.00

A price difference of $1,627.00.

Being totally right about over priced big company brand name computers: Priceless


Now who the hell wants to pay that much more for the exact same thing?
 
Homer said:
Now who the hell wants to pay that much more for the exact same thing?
Click to expand...


anyone making say $25 an hour
anyone not able to crosspart components to other rigs to isolate a bad part
anyone that doesnt want to troubleshoot different components from different vendors
(the finger pointing game)

dont under value your own time just because we consider building computers a form of twisted entertainment doesnt mean everyone does :p
 
That's very true Ice Czar. I can't be bothered building a computer at the moment, but I needed a powerful workstation, so I ordered Dual 3,0HT 64bit Opterons, 2GB ECC DDR2, Quadro FX 3400, SATA w/data burst 250GB, dual optical drives (DVD-ROM and DVD+/-RW), 550W PSU, enterprise level service pack where they come and fix it day or night for you, all for less than that Aurora system he bought. Not only that but it has 64bit Windows XP Pro on it already, so I won't have to reformat AFTER I send my disc back to Microsoft like he will. Value value value. Oh yeah, my case may be matte black, but its also about the size of a Micro ATX and its got all those goodies in it, where as the Alien head, which I really can't imagine anyone considering an objet d' art is monstrous. Anway the cost value ratio for that computer is terrible considering mission critical reliability and double the processing power can be had for less money. But he's got the green head.
 
Hmmm...... I was pwned by the admin. You have very good points. If you dont have the experience to know how to build a computer, dont have the time to do it, or dont want to, then a prebuilt is good in some cases.
 
Homer said:
Hmmm...... I was pwned by the admin. .
Click to expand...

LOL dont feel bad
a thread like this needs big muddy mod\admin tracks to keep it inline
and your question was a perfect foil :p

welcome to the forums, the vast majority here would agree with you ;)
 
Thank you :) . I just joined here and I'm loving the number of people that are on the network. Very helpful if you need questions answered fast. However I want to be able to put in an avatar and sig :p
 
sorry no avatars and only text sigs
(UserCP > Settings and options > Edit Signiture)
with some +30,000 posts a week (and more views) serving up all the extra graphics is something we avoid ;)
 
Have you guys ever thought of at least allowing off-site linking to avatars? That won't waste HardForum's bandwidth since it's not hosted there. Even a tiny 50x50 image or less... please... ;)
 
Homer said:
Thank you :) . I just joined here and I'm loving the number of people that are on the network. Very helpful if you need questions answered fast. However I want to be able to put in an avatar and sig :p
Click to expand...

You can add sig .. no avatars though

Since you just joined, you might wanna tone down your rampage before getting caught by an admin again.
 
1c3d0g said:
Have you guys ever thought of at least allowing off-site linking to avatars? That won't waste HardForum's bandwidth since it's not hosted there. Even a tiny 50x50 image or less... please...
Click to expand...


well aside from the bandwidth issue
the policy answer has always been the added distraction level,
(the dramatic increase in thread length, additional CPU usage for animation, ect.)
and while our bandwidth is one thing, the people veiwing it's bandwidth is another
plus the additional linkage overhead even if it is offsite to us.

Its very unlikely that [H]ardForums will change that policy
short of you tossing a half dozen virgins into a volcano :p

Papa-Ming said:
We seem to be straying here to avatar land. That's so, well, Alien :p
Click to expand...

very true, but it might be the lesser of two evils

"When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never tried before." - Mae West :p

however in this case back on topic is best ;)
 
Not too bad, but I would rather have 2 systems than one that costs that much.
The 2 systems in my sig ran me about $1500 or so for both.
 
If I had that much money for a comp. I would get my rig but instead get a 6800. Also I would get a nice LCD, 5.1 speakers, nicer sound card, MX1000, Logitech Elite, and then I would still have money for some games.
 
we'll just sweep those last three under the rug :p

boss best not to "lend your account" ;)
especially to someone with a PG17 > R rated vocabulary :p
USMC2Hard4U & JL_Audio_User sorry easier to make those go bye bye than edit out the quotes ;)

while we arent exactly prudish, we also have underage kids and members viewing from work
explict language needs to be kept to a dull roar and that was just a bit too colorful for the public forum
 
Wow this thread has gone done hill. I think there is a place for Alienware bashing and discussing the benefits of building your own vs prebuilt when someone is thinking of buying a computer or has just placed an order. When this thread started the OP was still able to cancel or change his order. Infact he switched to a dell LCD. (By the way that was a good choice :) )

But now he has gotten his system and is using it. He says he is happy with it and since he has had actual experiance with it; that should be good enough. He has an Alienware, he likes it, get over it. What effect do you think you are going to have on him by saying how you could have bought a cheaper system? I got a great idea, how about you add a bunch of swearing to your post to help prove your point. :mad:

After he posted his pictures the discussion should have changed to how to improve is computing experiance. (Like by getting a UPS. :p) I personally would like to see how fast he can OC his system and what the temps/benchmarks are. But I see this thread just continuing to go downhill, the OP should just lock this thread before one of the mods is forced to. :(

Just my $.02
 
brom42 said:
Wow this thread has gone done hill. I think there is a place for Alienware bashing and discussing the benefits of building your own vs prebuilt when someone is thinking of buying a computer or has just placed an order. When this thread started the OP was still able to cancel or change his order. Infact he switched to a dell LCD. (By the way that was a good choice :) )

But now he has gotten his system and is using it. He says he is happy with it and since he has had actual experiance with it; that should be good enough. He has an Alienware, he likes it, get over it. What effect do you think you are going to have on him by saying how you could have bought a cheaper system? I got a great idea, how about you add a bunch of swearing to your post to help prove your point. :mad:

After he posted his pictures the discussion should have changed to how to improve is computing experiance. (Like by getting a UPS. :p) I personally would like to see how fast he can OC his system and what the temps/benchmarks are. But I see this thread just continuing to go downhill, the OP should just lock this thread before one of the mods is forced to. :(

Just my $.02
Click to expand...

Whats the point? So other people don't make the same mistake...
 
I don't care what anyone says if I could get an Alienware Laptop I darn right would! My mate has one and it's just lucious, and I've built a couple barebone laptops so I most definetly know what I'm talking about :).
 
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