*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 Ranger (2013) Owner's Lounge Thread

Since I'm on the tech support side of the things I wouldn't be able to confirm that, I would need order numbers and check each one of them to look for a trend

 

Even though I've escalated my case, I still have these jerks from the sales team emailing me and arguing with me. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope. If it's this bad now, what's it going to be like after I receive the laptop.

At least you are being compensated for your head-ache. Your order was what? Around 4-5K, you get a 10% discount, that's $400 or $500 plus you just received another $200. We're talking $600-$700 off and they won't budge an inch with me at all. I'm starting to think I may just cancel my order, go get a line of credit and buy a different brand. It would be cheaper in the long run and I wouldn't have to deal with these jerk-offs.

 

I try not to take the delay so harshly because I understand the supply chain side of things and realize time is essential for Alienware and the production process. It's probably not going to be as long as the order status page is saying it will, it usually never is...

Considering they build and ship hundreds, maybe even thousands of orders (at certain times of the year), all within the same few week period, a stock shortage isn't surprising. On the other hand, if it was delayed further, I would be concerned, at which time the anger may begin to present itself.

No, I don't appreciate being lied to. And no, I don't appreciate the 'bait-and-switch' thing that happened in the beginning. That actually makes me very upset. But I do understand why the delay exists...it's not like they're just being lazy.

You will be better off waiting and putting up with Alienware's delay. Switching to an entirely different company is probably not a good idea, especially long-term.

Edit: I may call and ask to speak with a supervisor about the bait-and-switch ordeal. I think the representative did this in attempts to sneakily lower the price, and that's unacceptable... I may even go as far as canceling the order because it's not even what I originally thought I ordered. However, I'll need to get the same deal again, and that was a pain.

 

I've just received an email now from the verification department telling me my order has been placed on hold and I need to call the fraud verification department to release the hold.

This will be call number 4 to them....

This has gone beyond the delay. From having cut down my order from what I originally wanted, the rep refusing to double-check with the finance department, being lied to every step of the way, the constant bumbling, finding out they can heavily discount an item--to the point where I would have been able to include just about everything I wanted on my original order, I have not had a good experience in the least.

Now for the last 2 days I've had the sales department badgering me, even though they've been told the issue has been escalated multiple times and now to the point where they are just arguing with me, though I've seemed to have stopped that now by including the Executive Customer Service Rep in on the last reply, I"m pretty much fed up.

This has been the absolute worst experience I've ever had buying anything and I've bought a few cars in my lifetime.

EDIT: Nope didn't dis-suade the sales department at all, still emailing me and arguing.

 

That is quite frustrating. Hopefully you can resolve the fraud issue because they may cancel your order and the process will start all over at that point.

 

for me, it's so that I get more FPS. Destroying your GPU depends on how careful you are with OC, that's why I repasted and currently monitoring temps. I did overclock my 560m from my MSI GT683r and there were no issues for 2 years, it still works great up to now. warranty isn't necessarily gone forever. It depends if your flashed your vbios or not. I'm still using dell's Bios and using EVGA precision X. was able to clock it at 950/2800. temps are still at 75c, 780m's thermal limit is at 92c.

Anyway, warranty wouldn't be an issue since it's a software overclock. and with GPU boost 2.0, this thing practically overclocks itself.

if you're wondering how far I went to overclock my 560m, it's now clocked at 880mhz from the stock 774 mhz.

 

Hi everyone,

I placed an order on the weekend for an Alienware 17. I was a bit shocked to see the estimated delivery date once I'd placed the order.

Anyway, the question I wanted to ask was, has anyone entered a password during placing an order to create a Dell.com account? This was my first order, and I didn't have an account -- so I thought it'd be easy to look at the order status through there... except after I placed the order I couldn't log into it (I even cut and pasted the password the 'forgot password' link emailed me) and it locked me out.

Just got support to unlock it for me, but the account basically has no details in it apart from my name, and what really concerns me is, no details of the order I placed. And I tried to add the order via the 'add lost order' feature but that didn't seem to work either.

Is this the same experience other people have had? Is the system just universally bad? Should I just give up? I'm worried that somehow my order is/might get messed up since my Dell.com account seems screwy.

I just want my shiny new toy The most expensive laptop I've ever ordered, and I'm not instilled with confidence by the Dell website so far.

 

I agree, in my experience I have never had problems arise as a result of overclocking the GPU of my laptops. The only end result was large increases in free GPU performance: 78% overclock on 8600M GT (still working since 2008), 16% overclock on GTX 560M, 68% overclock on GTX 670MX. Just need to keep an eye on temperatures (and current draw), and be somewhat careful with any voltage increases.

 

Apparently this was due to one of the additional orders that sales had me place when building the config and nothing to do with my original order that is already in progress.....I can't believe the level of incompetence.

 

If you're really pissed off at them, I'd be tempted to just vote with my feet and buy from a competitor if you know you can get one ASAP. There are other notebooks out there with the same performance level for less money. They might not have the same aesthetic look, but how important is that to you.

 

I'm strongly leaning towards that avenue, however I'll wait and see what the escalation department has to say.

 

The build quality of the new Alienware 17 exceeds pretty much any other 17" notebook on the market, for now. It's definitely not the cheapest, but it's worth every penny... And no, I'm not just saying this because I'm some "fanboy." I've owned MSI and ASUS, and they're nothing compared to this laptop. I'm sure, performance wise, they're quite similar. But in terms of build quality and cooling, Alienware takes the lead. I think it would be a mistake to venture off to some other company. You'll likely regret making that decision later.

@Red: I would contact one of the representatives here and speak with them. Most of them are tech support respresentatives, but they likely know someone in sales who can assist you. Just keep your cool and be as polite as possible, while still making a point. I found this to be the best way to get things done. If things don't turn out well for you, still, then I would consider cancelling the order and moving on.

 

(Ahem.)

Dell Precision M6800 Workstation Details | Dell
HP Mobile Workstation- ZBook 17 | HP® Official Site

I see your point though. It certainly beats the other gaming laptops. Not in QC though.

 

I was referring to gaming notebooks... Specifically those within the $1499 - $2299 price range.

 

there is just one laptop i never find (except Macbook pro) who have better build quality......and thats Precision M6400 or M6800 !

its another ballgame in terms of robust design, etc.........but AW 17 is very close...its very well made

@archerarchie.............so what if you playing BF3 with 84 FPS or 90 FPS (GTX780M will hardly give you Lags in 2013/2014 games )

 

Depends what game he wants to play. The 780M won't max out all games with high fps at 1080p, especially not the more modern ones - Metro Last Light for instance. More fps is always good! Overclocking helps in this endeavour.

 

You should be able to play this year's and next year's games on the highest settings at reasonable FPS, at least playable (30~35). Toward the end of next year I bet the 780M will be struggling to max out settings on newer games. With Maxwell (880M), I think we will see a good 25% - 35% performance boost over the 780M.

Hopefully we can upgrade...

 

That's not wholly accurate, the 780M can't play some of the latest games (and not so latest) at maximum settings at consistent frame rates above 30 fps. Here are the ones that it will struggle with at max settings: Crysis 3, Metro Last Light, Far Cry 3, Company of Heroes 2, Hitman Absolution, The Witcher 2. So, I don't see that trend getting any better for next years games either. Of course though, it's the best single card you can get in a laptop, so that does kind of put it into perspective!

 

Mine handled Crysis 3 at 29-33 FPS. Tomb Raider was about 35 FPS on average. The games you mentioned are poorly optimized. As said before, they're playable.

 

Haven't tried those myself, I would also like to say that it'll run most games on high settings but it will not be accurate because of different tweaks and misconfiguration. I would say that the 780m should run all latest games in medium-high settings for at least a year from now.

 

For sure, the next two years on high. We were talking about Ultra (maxed). Looks like the 780M is struggling...

 

I agree, some of them might be poorly optimised, I just mentioned the facts about the 780M performance so that when people read this thread they aren't given the false impression that the 780M can run everything maxed out on all games and deliver a constant minimum frame rate of over 30 fps. But sure, it's a great card, and can run all games maxed or close to maxed out.

 

On the topic of GPU's, there's a live feed from Hawaii, where AMD are unveiling their next generation GPU's, it'll start in 30mins (has been delayed 30mins due to YouTube issues!):

Aloha from Hawaii - AMD GPU14 Product Showcase Livestream

EDIT: Live stream now back up and running, although start of conference still delayed as mentioned!

 

Sweet. I'm going to watch it. I think AMD is going to make quite an impact on the gaming market next year.

 

New GPU will be be supposedly faster than Titan, and rest of AMD's lineup (eg the 7970's) will get price drops, so lots of competition - good for the consumer!

Will be interesting to see how & when the new mobile line-up will fare too. (no idea if that's part of the conference or not)

EDIT: conference starting in 10 mins: about 21:00 BST.

 

It looks like it will be a 2 hour event. Unfortunately, I don't have two hours to kill, and they haven't even started yet... I guess I'll just watch the highlights on YouTube tonight.

I bet Alienware will offer AMD cards again. And since Michael Dell is buying Dell again and taking it private, I bet a lot more things will change next year. I'm kind of excited!

 

I'm gonna watch it now, unless it turns out really boring! It's the evening here in the UK, so I have some time!

EDIT: Started this very second!

EDIT2: After 5 mins in, don't think I can stick 2 hours of this!

EDIT3: Managed nearly an hour of it, got bored after they'd been talking about the new sound innovations after a while.

 

damn right..........exactly what i mean............overclocking brand new $1000 gpu (780m) is just unnecessary......

if you want higher FPS..........buy a desktop with real cooling system....THEN you can OC your gpu so its last for years.


ps...AMD SUXS....(when they make a decent CPU (or mobile gpu)...i take it back )

 

For you yes, for some others perhaps not.

 

Hello guys.i need help with my alienware m17x gtx780.whenever my sceen background turns blue or dark i see clearly visible horizontal flickering lines.i even reinstalled nvidia drivers.this happens only when i swich to nvidia gpu.on intel gpu it dosent occurs.this is my first alienware.PLZ HELP ME.i dont know what to do

 

While I might agree with you on the CPU side of things (Intel just has too huge of a process advantage for AMD to compete there), AMD gpus can be much faster than nVidia for some tasks - like gpgpu compute operations. I think my 6970m pretty much tied a GTX770 for some things. Part of why I'll be eagerly awaiting a R9 290m or whatever they decide to call it

 

Dell called me today and told me that my order hasn't even moved into production because there is a part shortage. That's not good... I'll wait until Friday. It better be in production!

 

When did you order yours J.Dre?

I ordered mine on the 21st -- so I'm guessing I will be making at least one credit card payment before I even get my hands on mine

 

I ordered mine on the 14th, but it was messed up and then reordered on the 17th.

 

Looks like I have a long wait then! Reminds me of when I was a kid and I'd send off for things that take 6 - 8 weeks to arrive... you just gotta try not to think about it.

Still waiting for dell support to get back to me about my messed up dell account. I really hope I don't have to redo my order

 

The problem is, I'm without a PC. I'm currently using my iPhone for pretty much everything. I've barely survived using computers at my school for homework, which I hate to do, because everything is so tedious with the programs I use. The settings reset every 24 hours on my university's computers.

I've tried to make it very clear that I need an expedited order, but they can't seem to do anything, or won't. I'm about to just cancel and buy some cheap laptop to get me by.

I'm sure some viewers or members who saw my posts think I'm very impatient, well, now you know why - I need a PC, not only want one.

 

As someone who had to "endure" the first semester of college without a laptop, I'll recommend that you look for alternatives. I don't think Dell will ship this batch out soon.

 

I probably will. It can be brutal...

I figure I'll give them a few more business days, perhaps until the 30th, and then see what stage it is in. At which time I'll decide whether or not to cancel and grab some cheap alternative. Maybe I'll goto eBay and find something...ready to ship.

I'm not sure if you read my earlier posts, but the main reason I went through with this purchase is because the representative who handled my order claimed to have called the manufacturing department and confirmed that all components were in stock and the build would be done within 7 business days. Obviously that was a lie...

 

Just a quick question .
I ordered my 17 on 9/2/13 and edd is 10/7/13. My order said I get a 300 dollar promo gift card wich should come between 10 and 20 days. Well it's been 23 days already and nothing. I know I being rediculously impatient. I was just wondering how the gift cards worked out for you guys did they come with your laptops or did they come separate within the 10-20 days like they say. I would like to get a laptop bag and a mouse hopping it would be here about the same time as my laptop.
Thanks

 

Hi
You should get your gift card by email. Call customer care and they will tell you if and when they sent it.

 

Plz help guys

 

I had horizontal lines on my alienware17 gtx780.they were clearly visible when the screen background was blue or dark and were flickering.i reinstalled drivers but dint worked.it only happened when i switched to nvidia gpu and was fine when i was on intel gpu.called dell & they told me to reinstall BIOS.i reinstalled again bois A04 and now its ok.no more horizontal lines.just wanna know is it normal or not.can it be related to bios or it was an hardware issue.plz help me guys as am a newbie.i think evertyhung is ok now.plz share some views.

 

It's not 10-20 days after you order. It's after it ships.

 

I remember reading somewhere that the A04 bios fixed a lot of issues with the 780, so it's probably normal. Just keep an eye on it and if you start noticing more issues, call in again. Keep a record of how many times you've had to call in about the issue (date, time and length of call) in case you have to escalate the issue.

Dude, that really sucks. The Executive Customer Service Rep working on my case was of no help whatsoever. He just re-iterated what sales has been telling me and didn't even bother looking into the issues at all. Some kind sole in the sales department though decided to actually go back to the Finance department for me, that's the reason we got the call from the Verification Department. We had to send in a whole bunch more paperwork and should hear back from them today.

Problem is now, with this situation, is that we'll probably have to re-order which means it will take even longer to receive the laptop, but at least it will be built to what we actually want in it, instead of cutting corners. I've got a crappy HP G6 that I'm using right now, so I do have a laptop in the meantime while we wait, though the screen is cracked and it's a slow POS, but it gets me by.

I'm really sorry to hear about your issue. Hopefully it gets sorted. I'll give you the same advice you gave me--hold out for it. As you said, you won't find another laptop of this quality. There are cheaper options out there, but they won't be Alienware. You said you have alternatives to use, even though it's a PIA, stick it out. Good things come to those who wait!!

 

I'm not going to wait beyond the 30th. I was lied to several times and do not appreciate that. I gave you that advice based upon your system being in production. Mine hasn't even entered production, so, I'm not going to follow my own advice on that.

If it comes down to canceling, I'll reorder later.

 

Yeah, I was being facetious. I cannot even tell which laptop is better-built from looking at their manuals.

I'll agree with the sentiment that you should look for something else if the order does not ship in a few days. What if you wait a month and get a lemon?

 

Ah I see. It's not always easy to tell what one means through these forum posts.

And about waiting, I guess that's just the risk I will have to take. It is not so much the delay that is causing me to sway towards canceling the order, as much as it is all of the false information provided to me by these sales representatives. And not to mention the fact that my original order was different than what was placed, because the representative did a little bait and switch on me (see earlier posts, 2 or 3 pages back), so, I'm not even getting what I wanted.

 

Ya I don't blame you. I'm fed up with the lies as well. After speaking with Finance I was told no one, up until this point, went back to them for the extra approval I was looking for despite what both sales and the escalation team had told me. I don't know if we'll get approved or not for the extra financing, but at least someone has tried for us. That is all we were looking for. We knew they were lying because not once were we asked to provide any additional paperwork for the additional approval.

Then you add the lying about delivery/shipping dates, the refusal to give any discounts whatsoever because of all the lies and deceit had me really close to cancelling the order and going somewhere else. If I didn't like the looks and the build of the Alienware so much I probably would have. I have done research and from the chasis to the cooling, you are correct, no one else comes close.

However I will say, I will not put up with any more hijinks from Dell. If there are any more lies, any more delays, anything wrong at all with the laptop once it's eventually received, there will be hell to pay....

 

Hi guys.

A friend of mine managed to get an Alienware 17 with a 256gb SSD and 750gb HDD off the outlet. Great! Except when he received the system on Monday, he's noticed the OS of Windows 8 is on the 750gb drive and the 256gb is just an additional drive. Isn't this the wrong way round? The problem is you don't get any W8 discs and so he's absolutely stuck on how to put W8 over on to the SSD, then wipe the 750gb HDD. What were Dell thinking?!?!

Anyway, is a call to Dell necessary or is there a way of reinstalling the OS of W8 on to the SSD?

Thanks for any and all assistance.

 

horizontal lines (or artifacts) is nearly often bad gpu..................but in this case it went away after a bios update....never heard before. (lucky you it wasnt bad gpu then)