General Questions

So, I'm considering an Alienware Laptop. I currently have an Acer Aspire 5740 and I by no means NEED to upgrade. First, I'll say that I like the Alienware bling. Truthfully, that's what drew me to the brand in the first place. I'm not much of a gamer but I own a few. I travel a LOT for work and I stay in hotel rooms quite a bit. It would be nice to have Bluray and some processing/graphics ability that go beyond an i5 430M and on board Intel Media Accelerator HD .

I have a couple of concerns:
1) It's a Dell. I've owned Dells in the past, mainly when they were known as being a reputable company. I never had any problems. When I bought my Acer I did so because Dell's reputation was in the dumper and Acer's was on the rise. I've been really pleased with my current laptop.

2) The number of complaints. For a 2K+ setup, I'd expect better. Are there an abnormal amount of issues, or is it simply a case of the only vocal people tend to be the one that have problems?

I'm NOT a fan of extended warranties. Statistically, they're a waste and on a system that's already so expensive, it seems like it should be unnecessary (and a year warranty seems a bit to short in my opinion, but I guess it is what it is).

3) Dell seems to always love their own proprietary stuff. Every time you need a replacement battery/charger it has to be Dell OEM and they price the crap like it's gold plated.

Thoughts on things I need:
1) Full Number Pad on the right
2) Bluray
3) SSD, but I will do that on my own, at a later date, and something other than a $600 unit.

I ASSume that M17x and M18x are the only two that have a full keyboard + a number pad?

In short, are these systems really worth it from a dollar standpoint? The majority of the time my laptop gets used for word processing, internet browsing and basic video editing from a camcorder. It would be really nice to have a system that should suite my purposes for 3 or 4 years and will play the occasional game for an hour or two in a hotel room a few nights a week.

Also, is the 1080P screen worth it? It's a pricey upgrade, and watching bluray .iso's on an emulater on my Acer's 720P screen looks great for a laptop IMO.

 

Somebody has to have something to say.

 

1) It's Alienware. Owned by Dell but it's still premium. I haven't handled the M17x R3 and M18x so far, but the M15x and M17x are the two best built laptops I've ever put my hands on so far.
Each Alienware system comes with the best laptop warranty I've ever heard of or experienced.


2) People usually only post when they have a problem... or would you post things like "second day and my Alienware still runs perfectly"?

3) The PSUs for example are really pricey, yes... but they're top quality imo. I can draw about 180W from my 150W PSU... a lot other adapters would've died already a long time ago. You can still get cheap parts from other manufacturers on ebay or similar... but don't expect the same results.


1080p screen is worth every cent imo. Maybe you'll need to increase the font dpi a little bit, but once you have a fHD screen you'll never want to go back.

 

If you do a lot of traveling, I would advise against a 17-inch or larger laptop. The size and screen real estate are terrific, but having to lug a monster system + power brick around airports and to and from hotels sucks. I did that fan dance with a 17-inch MSI that weighed less than the comparable Alienware, and I hated it.

Buying an Alienware based on its aesthetics is not a good reason. The machines are geared toward gaming and are spec'ed accordingly. It doesn't mean they're not capable of multimedia. They are and are very good at it. In your travels, would you use your notebook in front of clients? In that regard, Alienware is probably not the best choice. Appearances do matter, and showing up to a meeting with a monolith of a machine that has all kinds of crazy lighting doesn't come off very well.

In all honesty, for the road warrior who occasionally games, a Dell XPS 15 (or similarly spec'ed machine from another company) would be a better choice.

 

Well, when I do play games, my system seems grossly inadequate. For example, trying to play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is impossible on all of the lowest settings. It's way to FPS intense for my system. I'd prefer the 14". I could even live with buying a USB/BT Numpad, but the lack of Bluray kills me. If I'm gonna spend that much for a system, then that's a feature that I want. 17" is definitely HUGE. Why Alienware killed the 15" is beyond me because it's the perfect mix of screen size and keyboard real estate.

I don't deal with clients in the course of my work. My laptops are purely for writing work related reports and entertainment and ever since I built my Desktop, I find myself playing more games (I've never had a system capable of it before).

To some degree, price isn't a issue, it just worries me when seemingly every complaint I read about is something HUGE and a decent amount of time involves fighting Dell to make it right. But, wanting clarification is why I asked. Thanks for the input guys!

 

m17x R3 is smaller than m15x

 

look at hidevolution.com, i believe they have the option for blueray on the m14's.. Idk if it'll suit your gaming needs for the next 3-4 years though. depends on you detail requirements and the type of games i suppose. it should provide you decent fps for the next few years though, just dont expect to max everything out.

idk about alienware batteries, but i bought an aftermarket 9-cell for my inspiron for like $80 3 years ago. worked perfectly fines, and still holds a solid 4.5-5 hour charge. I will agree that many, many of the components on the dell laptops are way over priced. that's why many users will be adding their own ram/hd's aftermarket.

It seems that many of the people that have problems are getting them fixed fairly easily. some people are being sent a second laptop to mess around with/take parts from. that means dell is sending them an additional $2k+ laptop to screw around with at no additional cost. of course they have to send one of them back eventually, but still. how many other manufacturers will mail you a second laptop without so much as a hold on your credit card?

and i've found that it's all a matter of talking to the right person. sure, you could sit on the phone for hours getting nowhere with someone, or you could end the conversation after 15 mins, call back and see if you a get a more helpful rep. I've never had them deny any of my requests for parts. Sometimes they've replaced other parts on my laptop just because. plus they overnight everything to either me or a local tech. then the techs come at your convenience. can't ask for better service than that imo.

 

>>In your travels, would you use your notebook in front of clients? In that regard, Alienware is probably not the best choice<<

No disrespect intended, I disagree with this. I would not hesitate to take it out in a meeting. I would be sure the "fancy lights" are disabled. In reality, it really is no different than taking out an HP Envy.

As far as the extended warranty goes...I agree with the thought that they are typically a waste of money. But it sounds like you are me, in that you travel all the time. I travel every week. It is in and out of the trunk 4 times a day, rolled around everywhere I go, and will occasionally go under the seat of an airplane (yes it will fit with the right bag). For me the extended warranty was a no brainer given how I use it. If it was sitting on a desk most of the time, and only moving from there once in a while, I would probably opt to not get it.

YMMV

 

So which warranty did you go for? I noticed that they are tiered weird in pricing (like 1 year vs 2 year for example). In 8 years of traveling with laptops, I've only creamed one. In my defense, it was a work issued POS and I was young and dumb with no regard for equipment. It took a nice dip into asphalt screen side down.

Edit: Nevermind, I see it in your sig.

 

no if you got a 1 year accidental and then when the year is up and they call fo you to extend..............could you talk them down to where its cheaper then it would be when you first bought it??!?!?!?

 

Travel with mine every day, yes on the heavy side but the power and screen are worth it. Lot of money yes, over priced not when nothing else compares and nothing really has as much. You can find some aftermarket parts on ebay. I have bought psu, wifi, bluetoothcards there are cpu's, gpu's and much more you can purchase as replacement or upgrades. As far as complaints, well after being on here for a year you would not believe the number of people that have been helped with a problem big or small, never to be heard from again once their issue is resolved. The choice to buy can only be yours, but I will say one thing. I have never ever felt pride in owning a laptop or desktop before.

 

No, the price actually goes way up on renewals.. The best time to buy the warranty is when purchasing.

 

From all the stuff I have read here on this board, it is never cheaper to buy it later.