Considering an Alienware m17x as a gaming laptop

Well I've been researching which laptop to buy for quite a bit, and with my budget being around 1200 dollars or so Im tempted to buy a used r2 m17x through the dell outlet store.

My only concern is that since I'll have a refurbished laptop on my hands I might run into issues with it breaking. Im buying this laptop with the hope of it lasting me 3 years or so before I upgrade, and I dont want to end up with a brick.

What do you guys think? How reliable are these alienwares, and realistically do you think buying a used one is safe?

Thanks

Mike

 

They're very reliable and you can get a warranty on the refurbished laptop that's just as good as buying new. In fact if I were to buy an R2 right now I'd definitely either buy it here used, or at the Dell Outlet. I would only buy directly from alienware if I was buying a product that was extremely new like the m17x-R3.

 

You'll have to scrape up another couple of hundred bucks to get an R2 off of the Outlet it looks like. I would highly encourage it though. I'm so happy with mine. I would encourage you to get whatever CPU that you can, as it can be easily upgraded to the i7-920XM. Get the single 5870, and you can also grab another card, cable, heatsink, and fan to complete the setup sometime down the road. Even a lower-end i-core CPU with a single GPU is capable of handling whatever you throw at it.

 

the dell outlet store isnt that cheap at all, they are very expensive actually. look on ebay, i found a great deal look in my sig, i got that for $1600 and it has an advance care warranty. they have m17x r2 in your price range whereas the dell outlet only have m17x r1 and they are over $2000 from what i see. i got a really good seller i bought mine from last week that sells many dell computers and he has many m17x's, if you want to know his contact info PM me

 

Yeah, Kid, I don't think you can beat 'em with a stick, at least for now. There is nothing with the case and build quality of an Alien, that's for sure. Expensive? Well, I'm not an expert on getting the best deals, and I kind of believe that there is really no such thing anyway; the price is the price, since no one is in business to lose money (I sometimes think a lot of people forget that. Dell doesn't "love" Aliens, they sell them, and as soon as they aren't profitable, they will stop. It's just a business, selling computers, and that's okay. I actually do get a little neurotic and irrational over mine, but I have to always catch myself and remember that it's just a box full of electronics, and someday I'll get rid of it!)

The R2 model is very mature now, with pretty darn good drivers, and it will hold up very well. If you need three years out of it, and you want three good years, an Alien will do you right. In three years, we'll see, but we aren't there yet.