Alienware, paying for the name

Hopefully moving soon and looking at swapping my desktop for a lappy. Looking at the Alienware M17X and the Overclockers UK Destroyer P170EM. I have included the specs for both below which are very similar give or take a bit of ram etc.

But the prices are near £875 different, is that really the price you pay for the Alienware name or am i missing some thing?

Alienware M17x Stealth Black

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3740QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

English Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M

12288MB 1600MHz Dual Channel DDR3 (2x2GB + 2x4GB )

256GB SSD + 1TB 5,400rpm SATA

LCD 17.3" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD

BluRay Combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write)


Price £2759



OcUK Destroyer P170EM

Display: 17.3" SuperBright LED True HD Display (1920x1080 Resolution)

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 4GB GDDR5

Intel Core i7-3740QM 2.70GHz (Ivybridge) Mobile Processor - OEM

Corsair Vengeance SODIMM 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz SODIMM Kit

Crucial V4 256GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

Samsung SpinPoint M8 1TB 5400RPM SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM HDD

Samsung Slimline 4x BluRay-ROM / 8x DVD-RW Drive - OEM

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-Bit - OEM

Price £1887

 

Didnt we give you enough guidance on OCUK's fourms?

Dont buy an SSD from dell, theyre super overpriced
Dont buy RAM from dell, super overpriced

The same spec but RAM and SSD bought from say OCUK comes to around £2200 - with say 10% = £2000. So there is now £200 difference, not 900
Now talk to Steve and youll probably get it even cheaper.

 

Lol yes you did mate but i need to build up my posts in order to send PMs

 

I think the European pricing is what's inflating it. The same configuration (except with 750GB 7,200 RPM Storage + 128GB mSATA Boot Drive) is $2,799 (£1,810) when ordered with the United States, and it'd be even less with adding the SSD and RAM yourself.

 

Ohhhh, why didnt I think of that..

 

Just thought I would get the views of another forum and its members. Got alot of good advice from OCUK guys and gals such as to avoid the over priced ram and drives. Built most of my prievous desktops myself so putting those upgrades in shouldnt be a issue.

One thing I am am wondering, can you upgrade the processor on a lappy? Thinking of going for the low end processor on the m17x to save money then upgrade it later. Is it just the same as upgrading a desktop processor or can it not be done?

 

Can be done but super expensive. Not worth the money honestly. Buy the one you can afford, 3630qm is good and 3740qm is better (can be overclocked).
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As for those prices, a bit skewed since you don't take into account the discounts Dell offer, 10% + cashback and sometimes there will be a sale for a certain model.

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Cost me £1500 roughly to get a 3630qm, 16gb ram, gtx 680m, 256 ssd. (ssd and ram bought aftermarket)

 

A lot of people buy a basic spec now, save up a bit, and then upgrade later on. It's quite common, and quite easily to do on most Alienwares (you do have to open it up though). GPU, CPU etc, pretty much everything is upgreadable, look through some topics in this m17x subsection, you will see a lot of people are constantly upgrading

People who don't own an Alienware, or can't afford one, will typically be the persons telling you you pay for the brand name and flashy lighting, and the rest is just crap.
People who do own an Alienware, know to ignore those people as they have no clue.

If you can't afford an alienware, or if you just don't want to spend that amount of money on a rig or simply have other priorities, by all means, look for a cheaper alternative (plenty around) with about the same specs, which will give you loads of fun and you will be able to pretty much do the same with it.

If you just want to own the best the Mobile Gaming scene has to offer, with superior build quality and top notch support (and if you're into flashy lights and the design, then also the wicked bad@ss looks of Alienwares), great Overclocking capabilities, simply put a system built for top notch performance, then just bite the bullet and get one, you will not regret it.

 

totally agree whit it ^^, i payed mine around € 2.000 with 3D 680m and im very happy for my choice and removing 2 screw u can upgrade laptop !

 

Well:

I bought an Alienware m17x a few days ago with a 3630qm, 7970m, 1080p screen, and Killer 1103 wireless card for less than $1700 after $300 in rebates, and my rep offered me $200 in freebies. If I had chosen to upgrade the wireless card myself, he would have sent me the Killer 1103 for free. No Sager or MSI reseller would do that as far as I know, and none of them offers Next Business Day service. Many say that Alienware laptops have better build quality than the alternatives. Only the warranty is overpriced if you haggle, and using some credit cards to purchase the laptop doubles the base warranty to two years.

If you live in the UK, you shouldn't have much trouble finding a rep.

 

It can be more cost effective down the road. I've had the 2630qm for almost two years now, and if I decided to snag a 7970m/680m and a 2920xm I could probably skip another generation. Still on the fence though. Guess we shall see if the R5 is that much better than my current rig or not.