Alienware quality

I know I am going to get flamed for posting here, but you are the guys that have the answers I need.

I am in the market for a new gaming laptop, and after being very disappointed by Asus twice in a row, G73JH and then a G73JW, I want a well built
reliable machine. Both the Asus machines were RMA multiple times, and never repaired properly.
Both lasted less than a year, and gave nothing but trouble, hardware and software.

I have wanted a 17" Alienware for a while, and this may be the time.

I don't care about weight, thickness,battery life or portability.

I do care about amazing graphics and speed.

So my question to you guys, who own these amazing looking laptops is:

Will my new purchase last more than a year, without having to RMA.?
Are they reliable, and as good as I have read.? I have also read some bad stuff.

Spent about $2000 on each Asus, and looking to spend about the same.

Thanks.

 

Every manufacturer has failure rates with computers, even Apple. It also doesn't matter about the amount of money you spend either. Parts go bad in the electronics world. I wouldn't say Alienware is any worse or better than your average OEM, however in the US, Alienware/Dell customer support is top notch, and that's what it boils down to. They have a 21 day return window, and after 3-4 repairs (even different repairs, unlike consumer protection lemon laws) you can inquire about a replacement laptop.

I've owned multiple Alienwares over the years, but my M17x R2 and M11x R1 most recent ones, I didn't really have issues with my Alienwares, my R2 had a defective WLAN card replaced a few months ago, but that was an Intel card. I haven't had a major failure like motherboard, GPU's.

 

Thank you for your excellent reply.
I think you said it all, and nothing lasts forever.

I am just going to buy one,and deal with whatever.
Glad to hear customer support is top notch, but hope I don't need it anytime soon.

 

Excellent quality - 9/10. Very reliable. Cooling is also quite well, considering the level of performance the AW 17 brings to the table. They've really done an excellent job with the AW 17 coming from the M17x R4.

EDIT: With your budget, I'd say you should grab the GTX 770M with the 1080p screen. You won't be disappointed. And if you need more power, go for the GTX 780M.

 

a laptop that breaks down is bad !
but it could happen..
the way they fix it, thats a whole different story..

i own m17x r4 for almost 2 years now (i bought it as r3, got it as r4), i did have major failure..
my graphics card burned, my ram broke, a keyboard broke, and they replaced motherboard..

my keyboard was a simple task of: calling dell, explaining keyboard was broken, next day a mechanic was at my house, replaced it, still is great.
my graphics card was a different story, the technician came to my house, twice.. and also changed the motherboard, but he failed twice.
i had to send my laptop to the depot for warranty (my @home service was expired, but still they came twice), it got picked up by ups on a monday, and next monday it was back..

this took me 1 week EXACTLY, with international shipping and all that good fun, there, they did a REAL good job, and they even changed the palmrest, making it look brandnew again..

this was the point (After having a failing backup msi gx70), i decided, if i ever change laptops, its gotta be alienware again!

 

Been happy with my r3 since I bought it almost 3 years ago I think it was... Time flies!!!

 

Mine is going strong since March 2012, I've had no hardware failures or issues. Dell have been good to me since 2004: Inspiron 5160 (I think), then XPS M1530, and now the M17xR3. Didn't have any problems with any of them.

 

Support in warranty here in the Netherlands is great, next day dell employee repairing.

About quality of the product, I guess that's with any high-end product, you need a little bit of luck.
Overall they are very good, strong, run pretty cool compared to other laptops.

Hardware failures you have with any device, and the more high-end something is, the more prone they are for it (in my experience).
Any company has it problems, hardware failures, it just happens, you just need the luck it doesn't happen to you.


I am very happy with my Alienware even with all the problems, I think I had a little bit bad luck but I know people that never had problems with there Alienware.

 

the dutch support is bad..
u need to call uk support in order to help u out..

they rejected my warranty claim on my gpu, while, 2 days later, the uk support send a guy to my house with new gpu and cpu..

also, the technicians in holland are in experienced, and dont have a clue about what they are doing..

i had 4 different technicians at my house, and all 4 where dumb, breaking even more than they fix..

okay, small replacements they can do, but the 3 idiots that changed my motherboard where all stupid as hell. this is why i decided to send it to the depot in germany

 

Thank you all for the replies. I feel a lot more confident about buying an Alienware now.
I have always liked Dell, and have a Inspiron E1705 with XP that is still running after 8 years.(Not a gaming machine of course.)
I am definitely going to buy one, and just have to decide on the configuration.

With a community like this, I look forward to joining you soon, as an new owner.

 

These machines are amazing!! You won't be disappointed

 

I more than likely still run the oldest m17x (R1)... (for gaming i use the R4) on this site for daily use. My R1 just recently within the past week needed a HDD upgrade to a SDD. Prior to that i had to replace the battery about 1.3 years ago because it no longer held a charge, originally purchased Aug 09. I even took her on a deployment with me to Iraq... so she is a war veteran now!!!

I played a few games on the R1 about 6 months ago using SLi and she still ran great. As for the R4, i have had no issues other than AMD driver support, and i have had her since, Jul 2012.

Saying that i skip about 3 gens before each upgrade, but we will see what the new 2014 Alien 17 (R2) brings to the table, and ill just add another to the collection.

 

Despite what a lot of haters whine about online, aw does have the best quality.

I have had asus laptops crack hinges and LCD covers, hp laptops burn themselves out and hp refusing to fix, Pretty much every brand few issues.

Only issue I had with aw when it comes to quality was hinges with m11xr1, which was recalled and dell replaced whole LCD assembly for free even after warranty ran out.

Other than that, I have had almost every single alienware laptop (since dell took over), except m14 series and aw17. My favourite being m17xr4, love that red beast.

I am sure you will not have any problems wi alienware, just remember, for laptops we are pushing thermal envelope quite a bit, so make sure your warranty never runs out, 1 failed gpu when warranty runs out, will be more expensive than keeping warranty going.

 

Alienware 11 had a problem with the hinge. Dell confirmed it.
I know a case of a guy that lives in holland, he didnt know it, and came to a dutch forum with this problem..
He got a full screen and hinge replacement, after 5 years of purchase, warranty ran out 3 years. And still they replaced everything.

That level of service.. Not a single other Company will offer same level of service

 

I'd like to add my two cents from the UK.

I'm on my third Alienware (long story and im not trying to put you off) but even now I still can't fault the service, each time they've been professional, answered all my question's and would always be out in a matter of days to replace the faulty part (even on weekends to work around my work schedule) Now I'm on my third Alienware which replaces the M17x R4 I had. I now have the latest Alienware 17, and to match my previous spec I now have a newer laptop, better CPU, GPU & Ram etc etc. Whilst it took awhile to get to this stage their customer service is excellent and I haven't found a company that has come close to matching it yet.

 

I have an m17x R3 that I purchased in April 2011. I bought a 3-year warranty and have never used it. For anything. I added more RAM and an SSD on my own, but everything else is original. HIGHLY recommended.

 

I can't make any comparisons to Asus (Not having ever owned any of there Laptops), but I have had an m17x r3 and M17x (as well as an older Dell XPS M1710).

The R3 (would guess apply for the R 1 through to r4 also,) feels very plastic and flimsy to me, for such a heavy laptop. The M17 is a vast improvement on that (though I don't know why they don't make the base from metal, rather than plastic, they always feel really flimsy to me, especially as the whole panel slides for access...). The 17x feels solid in terms of physical build quality, though only a concern if your moving it around, if sat on a desk all it's life that makes no difference (personally my old Dell XPS M1710 has been around Europe and the world with me when i've been away working, and now still going strong sitting on the desk as my "office pc" now it's very long in the tooth for gaming... so is my benchmark for a well built and durable gaming laptop...!). I'm not actually sure what the M17x is made of, the product info mentions a magnesium alloy case, from memory, but it feels like plastic..

When you squish cutting edge components in to a slim (laptop, not desktop) package, your going to be far closer to the thermal limit's of components so some failures are inevitable (an more so than main stream stuff), especially when the systems are built by the cheapest labor (assumption based on experiencet, but, most business will try and do things as cost effectively as possible). So no line is going to be completely problem free from the factory..

In my case the GPU (780m) heat sink wasn't assembled/installed correctly.... Y A W N....

The BIG benefit with the Dell's is the Next Day On Site warranty, that is worth it's weight in gold imo (and the main reason I still buy Dell's).

Though the warranty is not as good as it used to be, XPS system used to be someone out the next day (no fuss, no software fiddling) or as soon as the local agent had the parts in stock. Last month it took over a week (busy time of year working on my part, no time to sit in front of it) to get some one out to fix the GPU heatsink on the new 17x as they wanted to got through several hours of remote "support" and re-installing the O/S to confirm my original diagnosis of "GPU hardware issue" (appreciate they probably deal with more clueless punters than not, but they can't seem to use any discretion any more to determine that the client knows what the f*(k they are talking about....). But they are good at replacing parts and trying to make the systems work (had a 580m in the R3 and suffered the GPU over heating issues and they eventually got that working properly with the updated heatsink).

Bottom line: My M17x is a fantastic laptop, seems well built, runs the latest games really well!, but I have had an engineer out once to fix a factory fault on mine, but it was fixed at home, with no sending away, so happy gaming! Just don not EVER buy a Dell without a NBDoS warranty!

Cheers,

Matt

 

I know mine may not be a 17" but the thread is called Alienware Quality not 17" Quality....

Never had many if not any problems with this machine and if I have it's been repaired very quickly and never happens again these are well built machines within the first year I had mine I dropped it (slipped off a slippery surface and it was laying face down as in upside down closed the maid put it like that) it fell straight to the hardwood floor....picked it up and it was completely fine....never dropped it again though XD and the first year I had it I lacked a cooling mat so of course it almost be suffocating (had some ventilation but very little)....never complained just did as it was told...it has never died for no apparent reason I absolutely love it and I prefer it over all other gaming laptop brands cause unlike the others you have a accidental damage warranty for longer then a year as a option and on top of that as long as u get a hold of the Costa rica branch your allowed to open it and change parts without voiding the warranty and the warranty will even cover if u break something inside.....never had a problem with it...just suspicions when I'm playing Simscity the left nvidia 780 gets really really hot like if you put your hand to the fan the air nearly burns you so I suspect it isn't using the other card what so ever at least for that game. However I see no frame drop and the hotter the air the more heat Your cooling system is throwing out do that's good ...however sometimes when it's doing that the heat leaks up to the keyboard (ignorable) so I whip out HWINFO and blast the fans till it goes away normaly leaves 5 mins of blasting I can ignore the sound of the fans it's real quiet at least to me.... It might just be how I think of it "it's working it's gotta do it leave it be turn up your volume and stop whining" plus I always have my stereo to get over it XD but it's ignorable to me overall

My alien is about to turn 3 and because of the 780Ms it still runs all games on max

10/10 for Alienware absolutely love them I hope your "planned" 17" is good as well I prefer the 18" but a 17" is a lot better then those ASUSes that died on you

 

Thanks Matt.

I have noted your recommendation, and will be sure to get the NBDoS warranty.
Having someone come out and fix your laptop at home is amazing, and I really don't want to go through the whole RMA thing, and wait weeks for it to return.
Went through 5 RMA's with Asus, and they had my laptops more than I did. (repairs were poor at best)

Looking forward to having another Dell in the family.

 

Thank you Trickster29.

This is the kind of information I am looking for, and with all the responses here, I am very confident I am going to buy the right product. AW17 for sure.

 

If you ever egt any issues you can feel free to contact me directly or e-mail us @ [email protected]

 

Wow.!! Thank you. Now that is what I call customer service.

 

No problem! We are here to help on whatever we can. :thumbsup: