M17X R4 Sucks! or not?

Sorry guys dont know what the heck happened, i clicked post once it posted three times and without what I wrote :S below is the actual post:-

Now that I got your attention thank you for coming

ok honestly after months of thinking and researching, and after Alienware jumped and closed up the M11x line ( I still wont forgive them for that )

I have decided on getting The Asus G75 3D, or the AW M17X R4 also 3D (before you start, i know the ATI card is way better, I am just a 3D person )

anyways to cut it short, there has been a crazy amount of people who keep telling me the M17X is crap, it over heats a lot, crashes, dead pixels all over the screen, lots of problems, horror stories of people having it returned 8 times and everytime it comes back yet another lemony flavored treat.

and since I dont live in the states, and probably will buy from powernotebooks.com (how are they btw?) since they dont charge tax, it will be such a hassle to send it back and forth if it is such a defective model.

so how has your experience with M17X been this far? and how is dealing with AW/Dell? are the rumors true?

MOD NOTE: THERE'S A REASON WHY 'THAT WORD DIDN'T SHOW UP RIGHT', IT WAS FILTERED BY THE FORUM'S SOFTWARE. PLEASE DO NOT BYPASS IT. REVIEW THE FORUM RULES.

 

powernotebooks.com are very strict on the whole tax charging deal. Who did you speak with in order to take care of it? I've tried getting them to price a parcel below it's actual value multiple times, but they have refused (Hope it's okay to talk about this on the forum). The M17x is awesome, haven't had any prolems with it so far, haven't had my hands on an R4 system yet tho. powernotebooks.com are very professional, if they can take care of taxes aswell, hmm... I might order something from them in the near future

 

Yeah, I have seen this post several hundred times in this and many forums. I dont know what everyone else will say, but I'll say this:

For the most part AW is not any different then any other manufacturer out there for build quality. Doesnt matter who makes it...sometimes you are gonna get a lemon and other times you get a perfect machine from the get go. Seriously, the build quality can be all over the place...even within different machines made by the same manufacturer.

My first m17x R2 was a lemon...I kept on the phone with AW and they sent me a new one. My second one I bricked by not flashing my video card BIOS correctly...and AW still replaced that one as well.

My third one has been going strong since then. I have now ordered an R4 and look forward to getting it and seeing how things go. My point? AW is fine, so are many other great manufacturers. Pick one, and if something is wrong with it (even a little thing...dont let sit there for 6 months with some little nagging problem) CALL THEM ASAP AND DEMAND THEY FIX IT. If you yell loud enough and often enough, they'll send you a new one. But I really believe that your chances of getting a lemon from AW are no greater then Sager, or Xotic PC or Newegg or wherever else you get a new laptop from.

One thing I will say, however, is that AW sometimes doesnt provide you with as good as a value as some other manufacturers. However, if you are patient and wait for sales/coupons you will get a better deal.

One other note: When I got my R2 and unboxed it, it was probably the only time in my life where I felt, "Damm, this is truely a superior product from packaging all the way up to design. I have really bought an elite piece of hardware here."

When my brother opened up his Sager laptop, neither of us got that same feeling. It was just a powerful notebook, not an ALL POWERFUL M17X!!!

 

it sucks $$$ out of ur bank account but other than that i'm completely happy so far (knocking on the wood)

 

Mine is perfect and it only cost me $1800 for 256 SSD, 3820 i7, 7970m and 8gb ram.

 

I used an ASUS G51VX for 2.5 years before getting an R3 (which I returned for an R4). I had to take the ASUS back to the repair terminal (only an hour away) about 4 times over the 2.5 years I owned it. While ASUS was great with their service, I was disappointed by way of the product at first as it came with it's flaws also.

When my R3 arrived, I had expected more in terms of quality (for the price I paid), and my first R3 arrived with a few minor flaws. That being said, I called Dell and they gave me no hassles in replacing it. ASUS was a little more of a hassle when I had issues (by way of supporting my claims over the phone). When my replacement R3 arrived, it was flawless and preformed like a dream!

I ended up returning it (again without issue) for the newer R4; while I am a little nervous about opening the box (hoping to find a mint R4), I am confident that Dell will stand behind this laptop as well. I took the 3 year warranty, so I suspect that it doesn't really matter what problems might arise as Dell seems to be very customer friendly (from my experience).

Anyways, this was not a bash to ASUS, but I was more impressed with my Alienware hence I decided that I would get an R4 over the ASUS. Hope this helps a little!

 

ZK85, just an FYI...alienware has the best cooling of all the laptops...The sagers can't run temps like i can. What is a major complaint is the stock paste job which you can redo easily. For example, look at my 7970 or CPU install guides for an idea how easy it is to get the heatsink off and repaste.

As far as I'm concerned, after owning the Asus G73 and eventually giving it to my wife, the Alienware is head and shoulders better than the asus. i found that Asus like to use mid tier vid cards and CPU's. You just don't have a choice and taking the g73 apart to clean was a major hassle

PS...my laptop has been trouble free, and is blazing fast

 

I think I'm the only person to have gotten a bad M17x R4 so far and it has the ATI card, your odds are pretty good with the nVidia stuff as it's old rebadged tech IMO.

 

What you'll tend to find is that the people who buy high-end premium tech are the same people who are active online, and they're extremely vocal. But just because you hear more complaints about x brand than you do about y brand doesn't mean the failure rates are any higher. For example, you wouldn't expect to find as many people complaining about problems or issues arising with their Advent/Acer/Gateway laptops, because the kind of people who buy them aren't as active in places like this, and yet the failure rates are likely much higher.

I've had several laptops from Dell, most notably the XPS M1730 and original M15x with the Ripley lid. The XPS machine was superb, virtually flawless, with outstanding build quality despite being completely plastic, whereas the M15x was plagued by all kinds of problems and felt a little cheap. Before those I had a Toshiba Qosimo that was utterly superb in every respect, and since I killed my M1730 by pouring cider onto the keyboard early last year I've been running a 15" MacBook Pro which while extremely well built has had a range of display, motherboard and ram issues.

My M17x R4 is in production now an I'm confident it'll be fine. I don't plan on abusing it or fiddling with clock speeds, so chances are I won't have any problems. I suspect the failure rate is less than 10% and my experience of Dell's/Alienware support (I've also had 3 desktops from them) thus far has been excellent. There are just as many stories of engineers coming out the next day and fixing or replacing people's machines, and in some cases effectively giving them a free upgrade of some sort as there are stories of people having real difficulties and a horrible experience.

Bottom line is that some machines will undoubtedly fail. It happens with every vendor. But Alienware is a premium brand with e reputation to maintain, particularly given the increase in gaming notebook competitors. It isn't in their interest to mess people about or to ship faulty gear. If there are practical limitations to you accessing proper Dell support after purchase, and you're still genuinely concerned or apprehensive about buying an Alienware, perhaps it would just be better to go with another brand who's support network is more directly accessible!?

 

Simply put:

Pros:

Laptop is amazing. (At least the M18x)
Support is great.
Deals are great.

Cons:

Quality control sucks balls.

If you don't mind going through a lemon or two possibly, then go for the AW.

 

How did you get that awesome deal? omg!!

 

who the hell says m17x is a piece of crap?

 

forum trolls?
ppl wanting but don't have the budget?
kids whom parents won't buy them?
professionals wannabe?
MAC fanbois?!?!?!?!? who actually pays a lot more for a lot more craps ?!?!?!?

 

^^ good answer

 

Thanks everyone for the answers, I REALLLLLLY would love to buy the M17X, but i guess like some said the quality control issue is what is stopping me.

I mean I will be spending hundreds of dollars to ship out side of the US to my country and I dont mind that, but the idea that i might open that box and get a lemon freaks me out, especially that the local Dell dealer is still selling the M17X r2

I guess I should ask powernotebooks.com if they are willing to inspect it for me before shipping for any problems? (what are the common problems I should look out for guys?)

thanks again all

 

We are in the same boat ZK85, I'm from Asia and I will be ordering an m17x from powernotebooks soon.

I think they will properly test it before shipping it out. I ordered my clevo x7200 from them before and there have been 0 problems, so I am pretty confident and hopeful that the alienware I will be ordering can be as reliable as my clevo.

 

Let me know how that experience goes for you @mrjoezobud why do we in the rest of the world get the crummy laptops with over inflated prices?

it is just not fare is it?

 

I




If out of usa I would go with HidEvolution they are great!!
Alienware M17x R4 2GB AMD 7970M Starter for $1,814.00