ALienware 14 - Foreign Buyer - Alienware Staff Please Help me !

Greetings friends,

FinallyI could find somewhere to share my SAGA to buy the new Alienware 14.

I am a Foreigner, from Brazil, and sadly DELL won´t sell the Alienware laptops here. So, I scheduled a trip to the USA in April just to buy the new Alienware, but then some major issues started to happen, and sadly I started to figure out that DELL´s costumer´s support and selling area regarding Alienware computers are worthless. DELL´s phone representatives seem to have a FAQ manual beside them answering superficial questions with doubtfull answers, specially when it comes to talk about specs and modifications. So I finally found you guys here, who could help me out with some questions. Here goes nothing :

PURCHASING ISSUES :

1) I am a from overseas, and DELL people keep telling me that I can´t use my INTERNATIONAL CREDIT CARD to buy na Alienware laptop. Can you believe it? They say I am only allowed to buy the laptop using na USA issued credit or debit card. Pay Pal also does not connect since it recognizes that you are from other country. So just tell me, why include Pay-Pal on the game??? SAD... Does anybody here know if I can pay and retrieve the computer directly from their Headquarters at Orlando ( city I will be staying in )??

2) The majority of online selling websites ( wallmart, costco, Staples, best buy and so on ) will send a purchased product directly to the HOTEL you are staying. That´s a pretty common procedure in USA, but guess what??? DELL won´t !! They just won´t ship it to a Hotel,telling me that they need a physical address.... does anyone from DELL or ALienware are seeing this? Is that the credit you guys give from someone that is flying 9 hours just to buy your computer?

3) A DELL vendor told me that I could use my international credit card to buy GIFT CARDS from dell´s website and then consolidate them into a single card to buy the computer. Nice, but guess what? The maximum amount that you can consolidate is U$ 2,000,00, meaning it could be impossible to me to acquire the high-end U$ 3,000,00 state-of-art configuration of the ALienware 14 I want... another score for DELL !

 

CONFIGURATION QUESTIONS :

First of all, I would like to mention that I will be buying the most advanced model, meaning a I7 4900, GTX 765, 16 GB of RAM and the triple SSD drive in a total of 768 GB of ssd storage. Also, I will be buying it with Windows 7 ultimate, since people are scaring the hell outta me telling tales from the crypt about Windows 8.

1) Should I place and run my games on the Msata 256 SSD or in the remaning SSD drives? Does anybody here knows the important speed comparison between the msata included on the alienware 14 and the ssd drives? I mean, the OS should be in Msata because its who alienware configures it, but what about the games? Where should I get the best performance? I am doubtfull about the writing and Reading speeds of Msata relatively ¨new¨ tech-to-be-proven drives.

2) I saw you guys telling that it´s impossible to upgrade the vídeo card... that´s sad news to but I can live with that.

3) CPU upgrade : I would love to see alienware offering the I7 4930MX upgrade for this laptop. The benchmark tests are much better, and it can be much more overclocked than the 4900. Are you guys aware of any new options coming soon, meaning I could wait 2 or 3 months to buy it?

4) My Alienware 14 will cost me U$ 3,100,00 including taxes, but the Alienware 17 with the top configuration would cost me U$ 3,900,00 with taxes... I am na airliner pilot and I need mobility, of course, but adding a GTX 780m with 4 GB of memory wouldn´t be way better? What do you guys think? THe major purpose here , is to bring the laptop with me on layovers, but the 17 really caught my attention.

 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS :

I would like to congratulate ALienware for it´s impecable and outstanding technology, making it possible for gamers like me to have the best at home without having to count with big and rusty desktops... I am a professional Starcraft 2 player, and Alienware made it possible to me to practice even on my work layovers, and that is something to thank for.

I had all the M11x versions, and I would say that the computer was a must, but had a SERIOUS heating problem, being completely solved in the new format of the Alienware laptops. When you see reviews talking about the new frame, telling that it is old fashioned, that the computer is thick, ALWAYS remember that it is much better to have a thick computer that won´t slow its performance due to heating, than having a thin laptop that you could actually fry an egg on it ( all versions of M11xs). I had to buy the most powerfull cooling pads to make it operational, meaning it´s way better to have a thick laptop that is well architected to have a good heat dissipation.

I am jumping to the Alienware 14 and I expect much from it, seeing people playing Battlefield 4 in ultra, full HD... really promising.

There is absolutely nothing on the Market compared to the aliens.

Alienware, please talk to DELL about the sales department... when the online chat sales people realize you are just asking questions ( expecting they are aware of ALL the details from the equipment they are selling ), they just close the chat window, and the connection is lost, meaning that when they knew you were not going to purchase the computer through them ( they can finalize the sale in the chat session ), they just disconnect you and give the chance to another potential buyer, whom will profit from you.

Regarding DELL´s online selling people, I close my eyes and think I am at Brazil, the place I live, where sales people are rude and will only treat you right if they know you will buy something.... they don´t give a dam to the company flag.... sad sad...

Well, I hope someone can help me to make this buying experience a little bit less stressfull.

Sorry about the speeling erros...

THank you

 

No worries about the spelling errors, I can understand you just fine.

If you're going to spend $3000, I would strongly consider the 17 with the 780M instead. The 780M is significantly more powerful than the 765M and is upgradeable. The 17 is larger, but packs a lot more power. The 14 is no slouch, but the 17 is in another league. For the triple SSD setup, I would run them in RAID 0 to get a nice speed boost. You should be able to get 1.5GB/s read and 1GB/s write speeds if you do that.

I can't help you with the ordering process, hopefully somebody from Alienware can chime in and help you out with that.