For those of you that bought the alienware 17... Any regrets?

For those that purchased the alienware 17 ...any regrets?
I am looking to buy a new gaming laptop within the next few days. For those of you that have had a chance to play around with the Aw 17, Would you recommend it? Any buyers remorse?
At this point I'm debating between asus and alienware.

Thanks for any input!

 

I will say this, for the love of all that is holy don't let your warranty run out. It's been one hell of a headache trying to deal with getting replacement components on a system that isn't even 2 years old yet. Customer service has been more about what they can't do than what they can. Can't say I would make the same purchase again...too many issues with dell not updating drivers and build quality that feels too easily compromised. However this is just my experience.

 

Hmm, no regrets, nope. The system performs as expected. The battery life is somewhat disappointing, but it isn't horrible. I am running an HDD, so, I presume with an SSD I would see more consistent battery life.

 

You've got to go into it knowing that the performance is not going to be incredible because it's a laptop. At most, the highest end gaming laptops are around the same level as a mid range desktop which is perfectly fine if you do know that and are fine with that. They can play any game at 1080p but you will need to lower settings on many newer games depending on the one you get. And if you game any higher (1440p+) consider a desktop.

I personally built a real gaming desktop with a GTX 780 to use with my 2560x1440 monitor but I have an Alienware m17x with a 7970m for lan parties and I'm quite pleased with that combination. But do keep in mind that the highest end m17x will perform much less than a desktop and be much more expensive than a desktop. But if you do need a laptop for whatever reason, Alienware is the way to go.

 

Any regrets? no love this thing, find myself on it and gaming much more than my Area 51. It is quick in all aspects. Asus? well let me tell you, I purchased a few months ago a tf700t 32g tablet well over 500.00 I purchased from Amazon a power plug the Asus plug stopped working. Next day after I got the plug unit would not wake up. Called Asus they said send it to Houston. I pay shipping..they send email warranty voided you used a non Asus plug 329.00 for repair and you pay shipping. I pay, a month later Iam still with out the tablet waiting for it to ship and I paid for 3 day Fedex on top. Anyway Dell/Alienware is 1000% better than Asus I will never ever , ever buy anything with their name on it. Regrets? NO!! :thumbsup:

 

I'll just add that I never went for the new one purely on a bunch of little things they have dropped, IMO, not an AW any more and choosing the competition is now an option. BUT Dell's warranty is still the best around. Dedicated support line, dedicated engineers, still very much the 'boutique' brand. I'll still probably go for one, but I still have a small way to go before I max this one out and want something better.

Good Luck

 

If someone would take my R2 from me, i would be chasing him like Smeagol was chasing the Ring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-8CSa9xj8This

 

Yeah exact same reason why I wont buy a new one ... I have the R4, but I wouldn't mind having the newer model. Check the reviews and see what you think. There is always a return policy as well if your too worried. No regrets with my machine, especially after all of the discounts I had attained.

Hope you make the choice thats best for you, obviously in the alienware forum we are going to praise the alienware, but same thing would go with the asus forum I think.

 

This is actually a great suggestion. Try to extend the warranty as much as you can so you can get all the support that you may require with the time.

 

Do you know if there is a way to extend the standard issued 1-year warranty after you have bought the laptop? Mine is in the "work in progress" state but after these posts I maybe want to extend it to 2 or 3 years.

 

Once you get the machine you can go online with the service tag and do it from there (dell.com) or call 1-800-www-DELL

 

Just check with the local sales. In the Uk you cannot renew complete care (the accidental bit) after the initial purchase. My advice is to call now. They will not want to change an order but you should be able to get a better price buying it with the machine new. Also you have the ultimate sanction over them - stick it and I'll order again and save some money

 

And in the US you may update the CC before 31 days after you receive it. Micky's advice is great, better just to call now and try to update it.

 

I had an M17, sold it for an MSI GT70 and had immediate regrets, I missed my AW.

The MSI isn't bad by any stretch of the immagination but the AW was something else, it's different, and IMO better then then the competition. The build quality can't be compared to other similar laptops.

So I went out and bought another M17, and now I'm happy again

 

Thanks guys! You both are very helpful

 

Alienware for sure! But DO NOT buy a laptop if you are a (lazy) novice @troubleshooting driver/hardware problems etc. It goes without saying that a laptop needs maintenance once in a while.
Expect some driver problems, some cooling problems (dust, repaste etc.) and maybe some other weird things. If you are too lazy to google it/make threads and fix it yourself, I advice you to stay away from any gaming laptop on the market.

Also I just facepalm HARD any time someone talks about extending warranty. Warranty is something that is in place to guard you from any obvious defects that fail prematurely, 1 year is plenty for that defect to show itself.
Extending warranty is actually taking an insurance and as you guys should know never EVER insure something that you can pay yourself. That's why a life insurance is so important, if you need the insurance it can be for tens of thousands of dollars/euros something you can't pay. It has been proven that insuring things that you can pay yourself will actually lose you more money. Just be careful with your Alienware and it will live through everything, if it doesn't it's probably your own fault. My 2 year old Alienware had 1 year basic warranty, still looks like new (use it as main pc @home and take it with me everywhere). Think about it... if Alienware offers extended warranty it's profiting from it. This means more people end up not profiting from the extended warranty than the amount that are.

But if you are going to do things like putting your laptop on your legs or putting it on the bed. I would definitely extend the warranty, because it's going to break hands down.


Edit: and oh, the only company that can come close to Alienware (and incidentally is way cheaper) is clevo/sager . I would advice you, unless you know what you know what you're doing, to stay away from them. They had in my opinion less than optimal cooling and also more driver issues. I had one for 1 year with an 6970M and 2630QM.

 

One year warranty for high-performance parts in an enclosed space with questionable motherboard quality? I'm tempted to agree with you, but the hosts of people who have had AWs die soon after their warranties expired and will never let the Internet forget about it make me uncertain. Granted, most of those people do not know how to service and maintain gaming laptops...

 

I got my M17x R3 in December 2011. I had no problems with it for the first year. I decided to extend my one year warranty another year right before Christmas. I am so glad I did, I have had non-stop issues since summer began, including the 580 going out on me. Without the extension I would of been in trouble. I've now had 2 cards not work and hard drive issues. I think I would've been screwed without the extension. I am one of those people who feel one year is not enough for high performance machines like these.

 

Tend to agree, get as long as you can afford. Renewed mine about 3 months ago, 675 just died and replaced, cost+ recovered. Also I see a lot of people with old models getting full replacements when the problems pile up. I had a problematic R3 which was replaced with this R4. Can't fault dell support and it's the only reason I would consider a new model (since I just don't like them).

 

Had mine 3 years got new replacement this month saved me a lot of money.

 

I was quite surprised I only had 1 year warranty and I agree with you. Luckily, I know for a fact 2 year warranty is the law in Europe. If it breaks before October this year Alienware will be forced to repair it Dell warranty or not. Doesn't matter if I agreed to their "Terms and conditions". Those are not valid if they don't follow standard European law anyway.


an example (scroll down: The 2-year guarantee): ECC-Net: advice on EU distance selling rules, cooling-off periods, more


edit: It almost sounds like I hate Alienware. Just to be clear, I absolutely love AW. Would buy again.