Alienware laptops, are they worth it?

Ok so I'll start out by saying this is a purely hypothetical thread and currently I'm not looking at buying a new laptop as I've just spent nearly a £1000 (not including interest) on my Asus M70VM, which as suspected is starting to struggle where newer games are concerned...

...however I am thinking that once I've paid it off, and in a couple of years or so once I've saved some cash (assuming the world economy doesn't crash completely and I don't lose my job...) that I'd like to invest in an Alienware gaming laptop (mainly so I can be a flash git and say "I have an Alienware" ) although I would consider any other gaming laptop but I'd like to discuss in this thread Alienware as they seem to be one of the more well known and used gaming manufacturers around.

So are Alienware any good in terms of specs, forget the price, I already know they're overpriced to hell, but are the specs of even their low end notebooks before any upgrades are chosen any good for gaming and "future" gaming?

 

Well the M17 as starting price is £1,049 and comes with:
17-inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p)
512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 (8-9k 3dmark score)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1067MHz - 2 x 1024MB
160GB 7200 RPM SATA
inc fingerprint reader etc etc

How overpriced you find that ?

 

The m17 is the exception that proves the rule. Most Alienware is overpriced and comes with the muc maligned alienware support.

Over the years, Alienware has taken good machines available elsewhere and jacked up the price hundreds of dollars after slapping a neat shell that cost $10.

Not worth your time

 

Its mostly gfx problem to be honest. Two cards costing £1000+ alone is a bit silly... Main reason why M17 is so cheap is because of the price the ATI's have. I will agree on the customer service though. Had a few issues myself.

But at least ive got a working product without any issues, so as long my laptop works and i dont have to face the customer service im happy

But still you cant really say AW's products are overpriced since the 1/3 is not (m17)

 

just for example where else can you buy 4gb ram for the m15x/m17x in europe/ireland = £273 or america = $350
and just out of interest the AW usa.com website are offering 8gb ram for $650. are we in the uk/europe not worthy and arent offered this option.

taking the above prices of ram and then comparing it to lets say a sager Nexus/m860tu from Kobalt in the uk and the upgrade of ram to 4gb is £59

i think you can work out the price difference here.

ok i am slightly biased as i was a m15x owner for 19 nightmare days back in april. in that time i had to contact tech support 30 minutes after opening the box and then for a further 15 times. in that time it went back for a new mother board and when it returned i had someone elses second hand chassis and their nameplate.

in my opinion alienware = sager =
best move i ever made.

happy new year everyone

 

I agree. Most of the times, Alienware products have been overpriced. Thats a fact.

Now... they worth it? I think that the answer is only up to you. Do some research and you will find people who love the products, like me (and I think CoolMinE too), and people who hate AW.

I have spent about US$ 4500 in a M17 just a couple of days ago and I think that each dollar worth it. I do a lot of gaming and video editing and my system smokes all the desktops of my friends (1 year old in average). I used to play with my own desktop and for lan parties I had to take everything!

and of course there is something emotional... I mean to own an AW

so Im a happy AW costumer... but I cant recommend to everybody "buy an AW"

that is MY story

I think the question is not whether an AW syst worth it... but whether you really need it?

 

If you are buying a laptop for CS only then look elsewhere, I have however only had good experiences with them. If you are buying it for gaming grab an M17 and upgrade the ram and processor later, it is set at a great price.

As for being worth it…that is entirely up to your personal taste, there will always be a lower cost unit built with similar specs out there, be it a laptop or be it a new car.

I am completely happy with my AW, have a desktop and laptop from them!

 

Whether Alienware laptops are worth it or not is personal preference, I agree with Alienized. Alienware has a very powerful name amongst gamers; their name is everywhere in gaming magazines and almost always on the list of top gaming notebooks on mainstream sites like CNET. They are very good at marketing. If you want to carry that brand name with you and say 'gamer' everywhere, then Alienware is probably a good choice.

 

I have the Alienware M17
I like it
I have alreay config it to its max

Will it still be upgradble latter
to the 4870 cards & higher than the 2.5 Quad core ?
Wonder when that would be ?

 

upgrade to HD4870s seems likely. IIRC they're supposed to come out in a few months. as for faster quadcores, it seems to me that Intel is pumping out new processors at random, so no prediction there

 

Its primarily about branding/styling and for me it made sense. If it does for you then go for it.

 

I felt they were, I wanted cutting edge and was willing to pay for it. after my experiance with AW I would not recomend them to anyone. very sad I sooo wanted to be impressed with my m17x the machine looks cool but cs is the worst I have seen. my hasn't worked for 3 month's gl on your purchase but I would look elsware.

 

alienware is brand that if you have the extra money get it, if you want the same computer with out that flash go else where. Its all about brandname ---yea we get matte finish and skull cap and a differnt illuminated keyboard but hey i like to think i paid for something

 

I picked up an AW, because I like my paper weights to look nice... j/k lol. But seriously, the M17 is a great offer at a great price. Best one i've found, plus I've only had good things to say about their Customer support so far.

 

Yes Alienware is worth it
Its a Great Brand i say

Love my m17

 

I've got 3 Alienwares and the few problems that I had were solved quickly and efficiently.

If you really did your homework, you will discover that ALL PC Vendors have nightmare CS problems...I should know because I've owned MANY laptops over the past 12 years...from HP's, Dells, Compaq Presario's, Toshiba's, Acers, Mac's and now I've finally settled for Alienware...

Alienware comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED in my eyes!

 

XRod's point is one we tend to forget - ALL PC makers have bad CS for someone. The tendency to come to the forums and vent means we may hear more of the downside than the upside, as very few people stop by the forums just to say "all is well, thanks!" - they're too busy enjoying their new machines! (I will say, though, this forum seems to be an exception, as there really are forum threads and reviews where folks post that everything is going well... )

Anyway, yeah - it depends on what you want. I wanted a laptop that would serve as a desktop replacement, that I would be able to game with for years in its current state, and that I had the opportunity to upgrade as newer stuff became available (my master plan is to have this laptop for a long time!) so, for me, a tricked out M17 made sense.

But value is in the eye of the consumer... It really does come down to - is it worth it for YOU?

 

My M9750 has been a workhorse, surviving while I was deployed over in Kyrgyzstan and through my travels across the Eastern Seaboard in the U.S. My ol' M7700 lived for quite a while until the motherboard literally split in /two/. But it was subject to some harsh conditions among Asia and Europe, so I consider it to have been highly abused.

I only wish I could get a customer loyalty discount for buying another Alienware. Alas.

 

They used to have an exchange program, where you could get credit towards a new system by turning your old one back into them. I haven't seen it for a while - not sure if it's still there...

EDIT: I just looked, and can't find it anymore... of course, i may not have been looking in the right place, but it's also possibl;e (maybe even probable) that they don't do that anymore...

 

i just checked, and i can't find it either. seems like they dropped it.

 

Yeah, I remember that. Alienware was using the eztradein.com program (same program Toshiba uses), but their trade-in values were rediculously low. At the time, they were offering $350 for a brand new, fully decked out M9750 a year ago. Buy a laptop for $2.5K, get a $350 trade-in?

I know used computers don't command that much re-sale value, but that was just *TOO* low.

 

I've had my M17 for 3 months now and I gotta say I don't regret buying it. It has been everything they promised it would be and it has been a perfect desktop replacement. I don't mind it looking different than regular lappys either. I'm very pleased with the performance and matte finish.

Only thing that annoys me a little, is the ATI driver support for various resolutions. Thanks to you guys for solving this problem. (You know who you are)

 

They're not worth it if you can find an alternative that can do the same thing (or come very close...90%?) and costs less. Ask yourself this, does such a machine exist? If the answer is yes, then the answer is yes!

 

Hm ... sry but I can't follow you

A alternative that can 90% and costs les? May be a "Asus W something" ...

But I think even if you can find an alternative! It will never be one! The style and the name of Alienware is unique , in my opinion

Greetings
Julian

 

I doubt they got many exchanges, they were offering about 25% of market value.

Back when a M7700 was worth ~$600 intact on ebay, or $200-250 dead for parts, alienware was offering $170 trade in for it.

 

Hell yes they're worth it!

 

My way of saying, the answer can be quantified, but is typically a subjective one.

Lets say you can find a cheaper laptop that does nearly everything an Alienware does but doesn't offer quite as fast a cpu. Or one that has no Smart Bay or some other propietary system or part. In that case, the answer would be no!

On the other hand, if these are things that you don't use or care about then the opposite would be true.

 

It's really an individual thing. If you want an M17 with the alienware lid and such, then sure it's worth it.

If you want a 17" laptop with a quad core and massive gaming potential, then you should buy the ocz whitebook barebones and get the same specs for less money.

Alienware is about style.

 

Its like saying a Kia will take you from one place to the other
sam way a Mercedes-Benz wil

Im Happy for you driving a Kia

 

Not a good analogy. The Kia won't offer the same performance and material quality as the Mercedes, while there are notebook options that will offer the performance and material quality of the M17 at a better price.

A better analogy would be to ask why someone would pay extra for an AMG if they could get near, or the same performance from a better priced ///M, RS, or V.

The answer? Badging. Some people will pay extra for a tristar (or alien head as the case may be).

 

The New Sager is better then anything the M17 or Alienware has atm.

 

OK, I'll chime in.

For me, I did a careful price comparison between the available notebooks that I wanted, looking at Dell XPS, Sager, Alienware, and a couple of others.

The Dells didn't really have any options to upgrade, and were a little lower on the tech ladder. The sagers used desktop processors, and I was worried about overheating - and, in the end, weren't all that much less expensive for what I wanted.

The alienware M17 I liked, because I had room to upgrade (newer architecture, so some future compatability) and I had a direct upgrade path in that I could send it in to AW and let them do it.

The bare bones option wasn't an option for me - I'm not comfortable with it yet. (which is also the reason I like the send-it-to-AW-for-upgrades thing...) Someday I will be more comfortable, as I grow in my understanding of my computer hobby, but for now I don't want to practice on my $4K toy...

So, yeah, for me AW was worth it. Great specs now, upgradeable, and fits my comfort zone.

(For the truly curious, I made a post comparing the top 5 contenders when I was notebook shopping over in another game forum; I can't get to it now as that site is blocked at work. Maybe if I'm not too lazy I'll cut and paste the short comparison in here...)

 

Really?
Better how? On a spec sheet? Do you own the new Sager? Do you own an Alienware?

A laptop is far too complicated for anyone to declare a victor unless you're talking about an opinion. Some people would but a lapyop in a cardboard box if it got 20% better performance. There is always a "ratio". Looks, quality, performance, what you plan to use it for, price etc. and everyone has a different ratio.

I have not seen what the new Sager can do but as for my ratio, for me, it's not better than my M17. I know the build quality is excellent, I love the looks of the A.W. and it performs very, very well.

 

To add my 2p, I own a fully loaded M17X (review's in my sig). I have played loads of games and used I have used the respawn over Christmas to clean out Windows and so far no problems at all. It doesn't overheat, normally runs at 81DegC with 4 - 6 hours of Oblivion at 1920 x 1200 and full everything (including adding tiles that effectively quadruple the image quality of the game, the Quarl pack 3). She never used all of the RAM and ticks over just fine.

Yes i may be a little liased (",) but, from my experiance they do make some errors but, they also make some fine notebooks as well. both the M17X & M17 are good machines.

By the same token Sager make some awsome machines as well, they also keep up with current technology and are resonably priced too. I don't think my M17X was overpriced too much, you always pay more for a brand name... and also because mine works great, so I got what i paid for really lol

To be honest it's all down to personal choice.I chose AW because i've always wanted one and it looks way better then the best Sager model at the time. It cost more but, i think it was worth if for the cool lighting and of course, no one can ever forget the awsomness of that is....... The Alienware Mug!!!

Just my 2p...

OB

 

The M17 is good no doubt, but for the same config rougly 100 dollars more grants you a better screen, bigger HDD, and a 280. The 280 outperforms the 3870 CF, you can't deny that. Granted it hasn't even begun shipping yet, the new sager is leading the way. Now if they could only do the 280 in SLi... mmmm lol

 

Nah, the best car related analogy i can think of is a firebird vs a camero. Same exact car with different body work. You have to pretend that the camero costs 20-50% more though, then it fits well as alienware.

If the camero badges are important to you then sure it's worth lots extra. If you just want a rwd v8 then you ought to buy the firebird (aka ocz barebones).

 

See, it's the "20-50% more" part of that I don't see - I think that's an exaggeration. I did see higher prices, yes, for the alienware systems for the name, but no where near that!

 

This is where the Clevo M980 comes in, which is 280m SLI capable, a notebook while it's probably going to be extremely expensive it's a laptop I'd consider getting unless AW starts to move on it's supposed 4870's with DDR5 and release some official announcement soon -_- But basically in a month or so your Sagar you claim as king will be run over by 2 Clevo's coming out, future Asus W90 models and the possible 4870x2 with DDR5 in the Whitebook/M17. Be happy if what you get can compete at the top when the top shifts every 2 weeks or so!

 

Compare a barebones filled from newegg or ebay to a m17.


In other news, that sager with the desktop chips would likely run circles around the alienware. My desktop has a 45nm 2.5ghz 800fsb chip in it (think T9300), it cost me $71, and it outperforms the $369 T9300 nicely.
For $369 you can get a 1066 or 1333fsb core2quad desktop chip for that sager. Hell that's more money then a core i7.

Alienware laptops DO look very cool, and are typically towards the top of the pile performance wise, but you pay for that rather badly.

50% is an overstatement, but 20 seems about right to me. Even 10$ of a $3000 is a lot of money IMO.

 

But what if, like me, you don't WANT a barebones? You want a system that you can pull out of the box, plug in, and immediately play on, with no extra installing of hardware or software?

I'm not saying barebones is bad - I think it's a great idea, if you have the knowhow and comfort level. But if barebones isn't what you're looking for, and you want top-end performance anyway...

...well, I guess it comes back to what's already been said - "value" is a judgement, and totally dependent on who is doing the valuing. (Wow, is "valuing" a word? that looks funny when I type it... )

 

Then you want an Asus W90Vp.
Price? $2199 from Newegg.
Performance? 4870 in SLi and everything from Core2Duos to the QX9300 available (and will factory overclock by 17% without voiding your warranty).
Material quality? Brushed aluminum and chrome.
Style? It doesn't look like it's ribs are sticking out.

 

lol - touche. For what it's worth, my incoming M17 has the plainer Ripley case... However, I think there's no winners in this thread, just people with different priorities and desires.

EDIT: Oh, and for my recent purchase, the Asus wasn't in the running. See, I was laptop shopping to replace the G1S-X1 that needed a new motherboard/graphics card after extreme overheating issues... so, after the experience with that particular Asus product, I wasn't eager to try them again. No bashing, really - that seems to be a great looking system and the W90Vp seems to be getting great reviews. It's just that I personally was kind of angry with Asus, so I went a different route.

 

Then it's totally worth it

 

And the gamble of compatablity. You can always save money putting together a unit on your own, but there's never any guarantee of compatability. In addition, you're solely resonsible should anything go horribly wrong.

This analogy is even more apt considering Mercedes abismal reliablity record. Nevertheless, people still value them

 

First let me say I like the idea of the Whitebook but........When I upgrade my 3870's to the new 4870 series I know they are only a phone call away. Is that also true with the Whitebook? Does OCZ help with the upgrade path?

I would have considered a Whitebook instead of my M17 but hey, I've got a 3yr warranty, sweet A.W. motif's and a laptop that's ready to rock out of the box, with a few modded drivers of course.

I do hope the DIY trend continues.

 

Very well said buddy
I agree