Alienware or Asus? Convince me.

Okay. I have $2000 to $2500 to spend on a gaming laptop and I'm torn between the two brands. I've been studying both for months now.

I'm looking only at 17" models. It seems I can get more for my money with Asus but I worry about quality control issues with Asus and their support is described as truly horrible. Some Asus buyers are happy while others are constantly finding things that need tweaking and going through all kinds of grief getting all the components to work right.

I'm impressed by Alienware screens and this is a very big issue for me. I do not plan on using an external monitor. I want the laptop screen to be good enough for gaming and media and not have to pipe out the video.

So, what say you? I'd especially like to hear from those that have owned both brands.

I'm considering either the AW M17x or Asus G73JW.

(Sorry if a thread like this already exists elsewhere.... I didn't see one.)

 

If you want overheating issues and bad tech support get the Asus.

 

I'm hearing that the G73JW (Nvidia 460M) has a pretty good cooling system. But I do hear a lot of complaints about Asus tech support. However, the drivers for the 460M are still evolving and the newest one (just came out yesterday) apparently gives a LOWER 3dMark score. Not a good sign.

 

Main Alienware thing for me is the quality. A few Asus computers feel like they might fall apart any second, all that plastic. Us m17x owners have nothing to fear, with a mostly solid metal exterior

 

I had a G73JH for about a month and a half. It was a great laptop, and definitely had its benefits. It never overheat, and the unique cooling system meant that it stayed pretty darn cool and I could use it on my lap without issue.

However, I sold it and got myself a M17x-R2. One of the main reasons was build. It's all a matter of personal opinion and preference, but I found the rubbery feeling of the Asus a little cheapish. Once I held the metal heft of the M17x, I was in love and am never going back.

Since I don't travel very much, the heavy-arsed M17x is perfect for me - it just feels like a desktop replacement, and the quality is there to reinforce that feeling.

 

Depends entirely on your budget, If your willing to spend some more cash now go with the M17x. I bought my M17x a couple of weeks ago with the same choice of laptops in mind. The G73JW is a nice laptop itself too, but wont keep up with the two 5870's in crossfire in the M17x.

If you don't need the extra graphical processing power, go with the G73JW and save yourself some money.

 

The quality between the two is night and day. Not only with metal vs plastic but the way the notebooks are designed internally. Asus uses flimsy tape to secure it's keyboard and other components while Dell uses screws rather than tape. If you view a tear down video of a G73 vs M17x-R2 you will instantly see the difference in build between the two.

As for the screen differences, Asus employs a low candle (brightness) hanstarr WLED that is about 180-200 nits with a color gamut of around 60% vs Alienware's RGB LED made by Samsung (one of the biggest LCD manufacturers on earth if not the biggest) that has >100% color gamut and around 315-320 nit brightness. Although not the same, I did a comparison tonight of the RGB LED display vs the older CCFL display that Dell used in the M17x-R1 and early R2 models: M17x-R2 Wikia Forum • View topic - i7 720qm RGB LED vs i7 620m CCFL (non-RGB LED) The difference should pop out at you.

 

I know this doesn't sound very scientific, and stats/benchmarks be damned...hold an M17x in your hands, stare at it, boot it up...it just *feels* like a beast that means business. I haven't even booted up a game yet, and I already feel like I could go catch and eat a live Zebra just from owning one.

It's difficult to express properly...this laptop...it's the first time I've truly felt impressed by a computer.

 

Thanks to all for the respones. I've owned a LOT of laptops and yes, build quality is very important to me. I'm willing to spend extra for the build quality and good screen... so, presently I'm leaning toward the AW.

The only gaming laptop I've owned was the Lenovo Y560 and it went right back to the store. A real piece of junk.

Any problems with the Crossfire setup? I've heard some games simply won't benefit from it and others will. I've never used Crossfire (or SLI) on a laptop. Sounds like you'd be dealing with a lot of heat.

 

I'm in a similar boat, but I want to spend around $1,500. It's so difficult to find with a quad, RGB LED, and Crossfire 5870s for that kind of money, but I think it can be done. From what I've read, build quality on the Alienware is much better, cooling is efficient, and the support can't be beat.

 

Some games have issues with the Crossfirex setup, among them are wavy lines, flickering and occasionally, worse performance than a single GPU setup. It's nothing a new driver / application profile / tweaking can't fix though.

Takes a few weeks / months for them to be released so you might won't be able to play the latest games on the spot with the best in-game settings.

 

Not true at all. You shouldn't dispense bad advice to potential owners. If a game is not compatible with crossfire, all one has to do is disable crossfire via CCC and the system will only use a single GPU. There's absolutely no down time. Of all the games I've played, I have yet to come across a single one that has any serious issues with crossfire.

 

This is absolutely false information. There's 0 heating issues with the G73JW.

I know you might like your Alienware a little too much and want others to buy it, but that's no reason to create fictional stories about Alienware's competition.

Go with Asus. You get more for less and double the warranty.

Alienware is only good if you max it out with dual video cards. Other than that, the 15/17" are overpriced at base configuration.

The G73JW-3D (@ 1080p) is 1979$ and was just released.
(i7-740, 8gb, 1tb, blu ray, usb 3.0, 1080p, 460m)

Non 3-D version is 1749, and the downgraded version is 1479 (HD 320/-bluray).

The M17 is good @ 2299$+ since that's the starting price for dual-video cards (black friday/week). Below that, go with Asus.

Just my opinion. I think both companies are great.

 

He's right about the G73JH overheating and he's also right about Asus tech support being terrible. Nothing he said was false.

 

and with that... this thread is now closed. OP, this belongs here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/

Be sure to fill out the form - see sticky in linked section.

Thanks.