Left Alienware For Good

After selling my self repaired m15x to some poor sap on ebay, i am finally done! After I replaced the hinges myself twice and witnessing firsthand how poor the inner construction was, i knew i was through with this company. The CS was downright rude on many occasions and never were of any help (they had my laptop for 4 months and shipped it back unrepaired). I regret to inform those owners of the m15x that it is only a matter of time until your very expensive computer falls apart. The hinge is really held together by McDonald's grade plastic and a hot-glue esque material. As for me, i bought the newest generation MacBook, with the all the high end specs.
For $1599 I got a:
- 2.4 GHz Processor
- 2 GB of DDR3 RAM
- 320gb HD

And strangely, I get very similar performance as my m15x if not better. In photoshop and other multimedia tasks it is FAR superior to the performance of my m15x. As far as gaming, I can play CSS and TF2 with full settings and Crysis at a decent resolution and low-med setttings. The best part is that I can pick up my latop without feeling like it is going to snap in half . Best of luck to the rest of you!

 

Prepare to be flamed by blind consumers who never have personally opened their laptops.

 

Mac = overpriced

Alienware = Overpriced

DA HORROR!!!!!

 

Mac = Stable, but less customization

PC = Opposite

 

I take truth in the hinge problem, but no hinges are made out of plastic. They would be made out of a cast aluminum or magnesium alloy. Many hinges deal with a tremendous amount of force. You may not feel it, but that is only because when you open the lid, you are opening it say 10" away from the hinge, so the moment is much less.
Try opening it right next to the hinge and you will feel how much force is applied at the hinge. I for one realize I need to make cast iron hinges for my laptop so that it can support the lid of my system, which will weigh about 25lbs with the stainless steel cover

Good luck with the new macbook I hope it treats you well

K-TRON

 

Congrats hope you ll enjoy it-one question:are you using Mac OS or just running Win all of the time?

 

Though I don't agree with this post, that's not even what I am talking about. It's rare that an Alienware owner will admit to the follies in quality their product possesses.

 

The M7700 I had was less than perfect, but my M9750 has been solid through and through. It's far from being the perfect laptop (ever since I got it I've had a weird battery problem), but above and beyond what the competition was offering at the time.

 

Wow, yeah...

...look at those flames fly....

In all seriousness, yeah, if you had that kind of issue, leaving is the best option. I still like alienware, as I haven't had any of these issues. But I'm hoping that you have good luck with the mac!

 

What can I say, we're pompous people.

 

With Alienware, either you hate it to death or love it to death.

 

PC's by large are cheaper then their Mac counterparts and more customizable. I really see Mac's on the forefront of the computing world. Anyway by saying anyone who owns anything other then a Mac will start a flame war is a little pompous.

 

It's unfortunate that you weren't able to get the kind of experience you were hoping for with Alienware, but I wish you the best of luck with your new Macbook and I hope you enjoy it!

Our friends over at the NBR Mac Forum will help you should you run into any problems or need any questions answered about your new MacBook.

 

Ahem, Moment is defined as force times perpendicular distance, so the force applied to lid will be less the farther away from the hinges you are. The applied force will be greater the closer to the hinge you are. The moment stays the same through out.

It is my understanding that the material used for the hinges in the .M15x are a lot weaker than most other notebooks. Also important to note is that the hinges lie directly on top of the heatsinks, which get pretty toasty when the machine is under load. The hinges (or the material around them) yield a lot sooner due to the high temperatures they endure.

Duane

 

That's also not what I was saying... sigh...
It just seems that anyone who says something bad about a brand in that brand's subforum gets flamed, regardless of how legitimate their claims are. This is especially prominent in the subforums of botique brands, which tend to have a lot more brand loyalty than others.

 

A mac is a PC with OSXm lets not forget that. All same chicken hardware wise these days.

I really like my alienware, but it's reached the end of it's service life. If i could put a c2d in it and it used MXM video cards i'd hang on to it for a very long time. Unlike the m15x (i guess) it's very well built. Probably because Clevo, not alienware, built it.
Sadly p4's can only go so far and i've moved on to a desktop, a desktop far faster then the mac laptop mentioned here, and for only $379.
Course it's not very portable

 

I believe the same is true of Apple owners. Seriously, a list of differences between the average Mac user and that of the average cultist would be very short.

 

This is true to a certain extent. I would say that most people on this particular subforum have gotten tired arguing for or against a claim someone makes about Alienware, regardless of whether they do or do not have brand loyalty to them.

I don't think we're going to see much flaming in this thread, especially in this case. The deed has already been done (he already sold his m15x for a MacBook), so the least we could do is wish him the best of luck and hope that he gets a more positive experience out of his MacBook.

 

And I fully agree with this. I only singled out Alienware because this is the Alienware subforum. I feel like only half of my posts are being read.

 

Only sometimes.

 

I'm reading them all, and I feel you're just disappointed because you came in with a bag of popcorn to watch a flame war develop, and we're too good natured to oblige...

Y SO SRS?

Macs vs PC, alienware vs other brands - at the end of the day, we're folks who love computer stuff, and really just want to get the best out of our experiences. Personally, I don't know enough to be able to say who is better than who on these issues - I know what I like, and if someone else likes something different, that's completely OK. As I said, I sincerely hope the OP has the best of luck and enjoys his new computer!

 

My popcorn won't go cold, all I have to do is go back to the index.

I spend lots and lots of time on this forum, I'm not posting what I want to see, I'm posting what I expected to see because I'm so used to seeing it. If I'd said nothing, I suspect results may have varied. If not, guess I'm just a cynic, but we'll never know now, will we?

 

lol... good point, there is rarely a need for popcorn to grow cold anywhere on the internet....

 

That was the word I was looking for, force.

I wish we had more structures classes at rpi

K-TRON

 

With all due respect to your scientific analysis, THAT SHOULDN'T BE AN EXCUSE. Hinges are not some mysterious mechanism that just recently came into use on laptops. Hinges of all sizes have been around and in use in a multitude of products for a very long time--and at this point, getting them to work without failing should be a no brainer.

If any laptop manufacturer cannot solve such a fundamental problem, then they need to scrap whatever their current body design is and start from scratch.

Hinges should be the last things to fail on any notebook. Least of all one as expensive as this brand!

 

....Do you even read this forum on a daily basis? This past month has been quiet but for the last 6 months before I even registered as a NBR member every day there was a complaint about the M15x build quality. As an owner of a M17 I have had no problems with it period except for an overheat 2 months ago and I posted on that and hasn't happened again, if I had complaints I would certainly air them here. At least stick to the topic about the M15x instead of bashing the company and AW owners as a whole who's other products in the M9750, the M17 and the M17x have had pretty solid reputations.

 

You are absolutely right to say this shouldn't be an excuse for any laptop/notebook manufacturer, but I don't think this was an issue Alienware foresaw. By the time someone actually reported the issue, it was already too late to do any major changes to the notebook in order to prevent the hinges from breaking. The only thing they were able to do was to reinforce it somehow.

I think the more sensible action at this point would be to learn from this issue and then "creatively destroy" ( see: creative destruction) the m15x with a newer 15.4" model.

Alternatively, they could always do a notebook refresh instead but in my opinion, I think it's less of a headache for everyone if they just produced a new 15.4" model that took into consideration the flaws that the m15x had ( I mean, just imagine what the current m15x consumer base--myself included--would demand from Alienware if they had a notebook refresh.)

 

I can understand how this person feels. Spending 3000+ dollars and having a horrible experience is not great. I too have had some horrible experiences with AW and am on the verge of going APPLE. BUT.... I will hang on a little longer and see how this new replacement laptop I just received pans out. If I could get a decent price for this new replacement I would sell it, but we all now what the market is like for used laptops, especially when you can't transfer the warranty... not good.

I am running my replacement through its paces right now, and so far I must say the second time around my user experience is much improved. I hope to post a review of the changes shortly once I'm back from this business trip.

Cheers and good luck with your MBP!

 

good for you, i hated my m15x, it was the worst machine i ever owned, and that includes a computer that took 10 hours to format for odd hardware reasons.

 

i personally have had good conversation with AW only emails with roswell but the m17 really doen't count because its really a OCZ Whitebook, AW would really have to suck to screw up a whole laptop to put on a lid

only time will tell i guess

no comment on macs and PC's other then AW is over priced like Mac. AW your paying for UBER nerd and Mac for a legal OSX machine

 

Sorry to hear about your Alienware experience. Macs are nice machines too because I also own a Macbook. Perhaps one day down the line you will try Alienware again. Not all their products have issues...

Good Luck!

 

your m5550 was just a blunder ... i do not see how AW released that machine it was a oven no matter what

 

I think you're sterotyping people who purchase Alienware's for those who purchase game consoles and it struck a nerve with me. Why argue over xbox360 vs ps3 vs wii when you can have all three? Spending upwards of $2000 will make people much more objective in their purchases and anyone willing to lay down that kind of money will no doubt be looking at another model from another brand.

I mean really, a pc is a pc with the differences being the case styling, size, weight, price, and brand. I don't think anyone here would get flamed for being disappointed/angered by a particular model's issue, Alienware or otherwise.

 

I strike nerves with everyone. It's part of my job here at NBR.
Regarding the content of your post, that's not what I was doing at all, so I'm not going to bother arguing with your interpretation of my post.

 

Hep!

I agree with you on post I quoted you on but it was your assumption that we (Alienware forum lurkers) would start flamming the OP just because he had a bad experience with his laptop. That was not the case at all and I haven't seen any evidence of people acting like that since I joined this forum....

Well.. maybe one exception around someone named "Sir Travis D" but that disappeared rather quick and I didn't see much of it.

Lastly, I think those who post at the 'flame-war' level get their posts deleted rather quickly so who knows. =P

 

Oh for heaven sake! Would you care to include a list of problems and spare us the hyperbole.

I'd like to think this is something ALL notebebook manufactures do--although no builder (or consumer?) typically wants too rapid a turnover of product at this level.

New hinges for example, can be adopted with little or no noticable outward change. However, I get it that a laptop needs to maintain the impression of mobility (i.e. lightness), but there are times when structural rigidity/reliability cannot be ignored.

 

Did alienware even make the m15x themselves?

 

Good point! But I never really understood the relationship between the builder and the company that assembles the machine (OEM). Still, I don't think Alienware is owned by the manufacturer that makes their parts as Chevy is owned by GM? Doesn't the case come from OCZ?

 

Alienware is owned by Dell.

I don't believe Alienware "make" any of their machines, what they do is better described as "skinning" others' hardware.

 

True for the M17, not true for the M17x and M15x, how many times are you going to post in this section with only assumptions?

 

Well personally for my m15x, it shipped with the up arrow broken off of the keyboard, had the AC adaptor die within a week, one of the latches that hold the battery on did not engage (so the battery would fall half out).

When I sent it in for repair due to the last problem they kept my system for 3 months, replaced the keyboard with one where all the keys squeak (and the B key has since broken off under regular use).

My video card (8800M GTX) runs at 110 degrees under load and the GPU fan doesn't run at high speed, despite having the X36 bios installed. I just replaced the thermal module (which I suspected had nothing to do with the problem) and it (surprisingly enough) didn't resolve the problem.

Those are the problems I have been having with mine.

 

No assumptions. They are "made" by a Taiwanese company called Quanta.

 

Yes but AW actually designed the M15x/17x chassis that were produced by Quanta. Many of the U.S. laptop manufactors get their laptops "made" by Quanta or Compal, by your definition more then half the U.S. laptop market are skinners. EDIT probably more then just "half" of U.S. laptop producers "skin" another laptop, more like virtually all by that definition.

 

Well... that's true dude. Those companies don't make laptops, they market them. True manufacturers - Asus, MSI, Compal, Clevo, LG, etc.

 

See my sig. I have 2 "blunders" that have never run hot. One has been running virtually 24/7/365 since '06. I know some folks that did have over heating issues with their m5550. There are plenty of us that don't.

 

no the m15x was not a blunder the m5550 was ...... im not saying every one was but alot of peoples were. The m15x had its issues though wether you experenced it or not

 

I feel for ya Godhead,
I'm not in a position to say if the 15X was a blunder or not but it's sure obvious you got a lemon.

 

lol lemon... thats the whole tree right there at least you can make lemonade

 

Yeah,
I don't think I'd be able to walk straight after that!

 

I think we are all guilty of that