Potentially interested in another Alienware

Hey Guys.




I ordered an alienware back in 2011, and I loved the ownership experience. Had no problems. I ended up keeping it for about a year, and then gave it to my brother because his desktop was dying.



I'm interested in another machine, and I'm just kinda curious and looking for some honest opinions here. The last machine I bought was the M17R3 (I believe it had the latest/greatest ATI card at the time...6970ish or 7970?). Are the 17's today comparable by build standards?


If you were looking to purchase another 17 inch machine today, would alienware still be a good buying choice for you? Or would you look at alternatives like Asus? (I'm not really big on the whole MSI nos thing. I don't feel like the battery ever needs to be used if you're plugged in.)

 

Hi there,

For me I'm still sitting on the fence. I got the money for the new AW range but the limited and confusing options stopped me getting one. That and the new look with loss of some lighting zones, just a personal thing.

I'm still hopeful that the R2 will have something to overcome the build limitations.

Dell's support is usually managing to still give a high level of service despite obvious cost cutting, and is the only thing keeping me with them.

All-in-all, if this one curled up on me the new AW17 would be at the top of the list. I had the R3 previously

 

The Alienware 17 is built better than the M17xR3/R4. It's built on par with the 18 and has a metal chassis frame and lid instead of the plastic they were using on the M17xR3/R4. The new models have very powerful video cards if you go with the best option offered and as far as single-GPU laptops are concerned, I think the 17 is the best option you can buy compared to any other brands. The downsides are Haswell (all brands) and fewer features from Alienware. No ExpressCard, eSATAp, no VGA port and the new BIOS design sucks (no crisis recovery option, locked NVRAM, read-only registers and Secure Flash means no unlocked BIOS unless or until a hack can be identified). If you're not on a really tight budget, go with 4930MX and 780M/880M and grab a 330W AC adapter to use if you plan to do any heavy overclocking. Be advised that 880M will not perform well until a vBIOS mod is released for it. If you can find one at Dell Outlet with GTX 780M, go with that and the vBIOS mod is ready to go without a wait. Avoid the R9 M290X... it's a twice rebranded 7970M that delivers 2012 performance and is dwarfed by the performance potential of 780M/880M, not to mention that AMD driver support continues to be a lackluster affair.

 

WOW! They really have made a commitment to lock these things down and move away from the enthusiast buyer

Good to hear about the chassis and that is another tick in the box for my next purchase. If simplifying the build improves support then that is great for the ex-console gamer looking for an all-in-one gaming rig.

 

Yes, the locked-down BIOS aspect of the new machines is terribly discouraging. This makes all of the new machines undesirable for extreme performance enthusiasts... it essentially ruins them. But, for gamers and casual overclockers it is not a deal breaker at this point.

If my understanding is correct about the 330W AC adapter from the M18xR1/R2/18 working as a simple plug-in on the 17 (even the Alienware 14 can use the 330W AC adapter) this is an excellent step forward for the 17. A heavily overclocked 4930MX/4940MX and overclocked/over-volted 780M or 880M uses more power than a 240W AC adapter can muster, but the 330W AC adapter is just right for a system with only one of those GPUs.

 

Thanks again, huge plus. I've seen so many problems with people hooking up two units because the auto detect would fail and not charge. Just getting the 330w PSU for the 18 at the start is something else not to be concerned with. Then again I wouldn't be looking to run an Extreme CPU on top of the latest power hungry GPU so 240w should see me out and now I know the fix is quick :thumbsup:

 

Yes the adapter is plug n play. Tested on my 17 with a overclocked i7-4900mq and 780m. :thumbsup:

 

Thanks for all of your info, man.



Is Dell still allowing any room for haggling if you call in and speak to reps?

 

Haggling is hit or miss. I would still try it and work out the best deal you can. Don't cut any corners on the warranty. Go ahead and spend a few extra hundred on 3 to 4 years of advanced warranty. It's worth every dime.

Here is what you can expect to see as peak power output from a single 330W AC adapter... which is more than adequate for one GTX 680M/780M/880M, but woefully inadequate for two GTX 680M/780M/880M that are heavily overclocked.

 

I'm not hearing any success stories around coupons and discounts. I've always managed to get 10% off the full price but if Dell are hitting sales targets the special offers go down - and it is totally run in the country you are located...

I'd like to hear how that goes if you try it - I always start with a saved build before calling in and asking if they can help bring it in 10% lower, but use the cash figure as that is 'your max you can get together right now')? I would not expect much over 5% right now but as the R2 starts to produce traffic they will want to ship existing stock so it may change...

 

Will definitely keep you updated. Hopefully the "I'm a potential returning customer" might buy me some favors...Maybe not though. Haha.


Can't hurt to ask.

 

It sure can't especially if you talk about signing up there and then if the price is right, and I'm sure they get some form of compensation for sales figures

 

Personally, I find the new Alienwares atrocious. The website/configuration is garbage, limited options, the aesthetic design sucks compared to the M18x/M17x. I would find a M18x R2, upgrade the video cards and go from there, and wait for Alienware to get its stuff back together or wait for Skylake. Haswell is meh.

 

I like the older systems better as well, and for the reasons you mentioned... not the least of which is Haswell. But, as far as brand new systems are concerned, they're still better than any other brand option available... in a lesser of evils kind of way.

 

M17x R3/R4 all the way. Timeless design imho. R4 is still compatible with the latest GPUs needing a driver mod. R3 needs a few bios tweaks. Wait a while and see if Alienware release a thin MSI Ghost competitor.

 

I also am disappointed with the limited build configurations that Dell have always offered, at least in Oz, and I have never been able to buy an Alienware with the setup as I wanted it. I have always had to settle for the GPU /CPU / RAM I wanted and then when the computer turned up change the drives to what I really wanted.

Don't get me wrong because my next computer will also be an Alienware but it is disappointing to not be able to get what you want straight from the store.

I have not regretted getting rid of the R4. I had so much trouble with the soundcard.

 

Spent a good deal of time looking around the web yesterday. Saw a machine on amazon that was a 780 for about 1999, but didn't have any warranty, etc, so I figured I'd call Dell.

Priced out a fairly barebones system on the Alienware Website today (4710MQ, 880) and it came out to about 2600 after tax.


Called Dell and spoke to a rep in the US (will PM info if requested) and got the same machine out the door + 1 year of accidental warranty service for 2176. And there's still a 10% giftcard headed my way, so ultimately about 1958 after all the giftcards and discounts. About 600 dollars total discount (about 26% off).

Granted, there are some things I will probably look into, like potentially changing the hard drives...but that's all stuff that can definitely happen down the line.

About to be in the AW17 fold again.

 

Great to hear they still can give some back, looking on the UK site yesterday one of the 120hz models had 2 extra years warranty free knocking it down around 10%. They must still give the phone jockeys some 'sweeteners' to close the deal

IMO the easiest disk option is to go for a 1Tb drive with a SSD msata drive accelerating it. When you come to put in a standalone SSD (cheaper than dell) it is very easy to change the boot order and end up with a fully accelerated data drive as well as a boot SSD. The msata slot is a little more tricky to get to compared with the main drive bays. You might even find it's fast enough to consider other options .

Good Luck - go on, you know you want to

 

.....and that is exactly what I did , except when I bought mine the largest drive available was the 750Gb so I ended up inserting an SSD and changing the HDD as well.

 

So I may need to cancel my order and re-order.


Was psyched on my purchase, and then I was going through cart details and I realized that I made a mistake. When I made my last purchase, 1080p screens were standard. This one looks like it has a 900p screen.


Not sure I'm willing to deal with that, so I think I might need to give my rep a call back and tell them to cancel/re-order, which will change my price some (hopefully not much). Can't believe I didn't catch it until now.


It's "in production" so I hope they can do something about it.

 

Don't beat yourself up, when haggling a price they are not above slipping in something to bring the price down .

I'd be interested to hear what they say as you haven't paid for it yet, so they will probably cancel and you start again. I think you need to do whatever as starting with a lower res panel is not what you want...

 

Sorry I missed this thread. I love to encourage the purchase of Alienware systems. Mr. Fox, among many others, covered pretty much everything I would have mentioned one way or another. Great advice on the first page.

Good news, though! You may not have to cancel your order. If it's still in the first stage of production, you can call the "Order Modification Department" and they can alter your order to your liking. :thumbsup:

 

Any idea what the number is for that?

 

Just call 1800-ALIENWARE and ask to be transferred.

 

Calling this morning. It's apparently being built.


Have a rep telling me that he swears there's no restocking policy, but I honestly don't know if I want to deal with taking his word for it or not.


Edit: Called another rep. She cancelled it immediately.

Will replace the order this friday. Couldn't be happier. Bullet dodged.

 

Never had this happen. In most countries mail-order allows a seller up to a percentage of the sale for restocking. In reality - business suicide when you build your business on good customer relations. You would only need to say it does not work properly to disallow a restocking fee and full refund return anyway so they roll over very quickly if you're not happy.

If they do not have your money then you are in a more powerful position to start a new order right away. I had to wait a couple of weeks for the money to show up so I could order something different - You do loose out if you had any coupons or discounts no longer available though - you might just have to renegotiate - it's all worth it IMO

 

Yeah. I have another rep telling me she swears she can get me the machine I want for under 2k.


If that's the case, then waiting is going to give me a better deal. I have no complaints.

 

Glad they let you cancel it. 1080p is a must IMO! Hope everything gets worked out and you get the machine you want. And having never owned an older gen Alienware, I absolutely love mine and the R9 M290X lol

Sent from Tapatalk from an increasingly expensive smartphone

 

I'm sure they will handle that!! Good luck I just looked at mine to make sure it said 1900x

 

Called back. Same exact PC but with the 1080p screen for a couple bucks cheaper even.


Not even mad. I get it about a week later, but big deal.

 

Glad to hear it worked out!!!

 

Guys are your serious buying a Alienware. I think your need to do a little more research before even thinking of buying one. I've a brand new Alienware 14 that just came out less than one year ago and only use it several times and half of the keyboard die out on me and two weeks later the motherboard die out. Now I've been trying to reach someone from customer service for 3 days which is another nightmare. If you don't want a paperweight computer, get something else. Don't believe me? Google it up the issues with Alienware laptops. Better yet, go to falienware.com and alienware.pissedconsumer.com. Thousands of Alienware owners can't be liying at the same time. Save yourself time, trouble and your money.

 

Had the computer for nearly a month. Love it.