Myth Busters: Alienware Overpriced

The People and Moderator Team(plantiffs) v. Caladdon(defendant)

Caladdon is being charged with violation of forum rules, disturbing the peace and for verbally accosting a member of the moderation team.

Exhibits A - C:

Quotes from POSTER CALADDON to Mr. Fox:

A.

B.

C.

*Emphasis added.

ANALYSIS:

Every moderator here is a volunteer. As such, a moderator is free to post in any manner about any subject they choose so long as it falls within the bounds of forum rules. There are of course certain occasions when a moderator can post outside of the bounds of forum rules. Details of those occasions are outside the scope of the current charge(s) being brought against the defendant.

All moderators are to be afforded at least a modicum of respect. Additional respect above and beyond a mere modicum, moderators can and often do earn.

However, a poster demonstrating a lack of respect for a moderator is not well tolerated. Done enough times, it leads to a ban. Persist and it leads to permanent ban.

JUDGEMENT:

Poster Caladdon will be given an infraction for his blatant disregard of forum rules (insulting another member - using a non-politically correct and offensive term) and will have points added to that infraction to also reflect his blatant lack of respect for a moderator. He will not be banned presently. However, if another incident arises where he is found to be in violation of forum rules before the expiry of the current infraction (30days), he will face an temporary ban of a length of days to be determined at the time of the next infraction.

So ordered and adjudged.
Deuce dot Zero
NBR Macro Moderator.

Any appeal brought by the defendant will be dismissed with prejudice.

 

That's so formal. I loves it.

 

Well Mr. Fox you should be down right ashamed of your self and the way you act on this forum is any thing but fair and respectful... bwhahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I joke I joke !!!! I kid I kid!!!!!!! hahahah
Mr Fox is one of the best mods here.. overly friendly if you ask me.. takes to much Crap off of people as is...

I do not agree with the judgment however... I would have voted for Death...


virtual Toast to Mr.Fox and the rest of the NBR crew... HERE HERE!!!!!

 

This whole situation just made my entire day!!!! too funny sorry for the ruling against you caladdon maybe you were a bit too heavy and angry in your arguments which detracted from the logical debate whilst I acknowledge mr.fox is partial to his m18x but I'm just the forum scrub

off to get chinese foodz and beer

tata

 

You say he has a biased attitude against cheaper machines... well I can tell you i have that opinion as well..
Ill break it down for you..

When you buy a machine/laptop/notebook/ultra book and more importantly ALIENWARE there seems to be recurring problems..

1. every user that buys a lower end machine usually 99% of the time comes to the forum complaining that he or she is not happy with the performance.. and they look to the forum for guidance.
we get every thing from complaining about low bench mark scores to poor performance on max/ultra settings in games.. Some people seem to forget that yes these are top of the line gaming machines.. BUT! thats when you go top of the line..
When you slouch on certain componets of your system then come to the forums and blast alienware or complain that your machine with say a 3020qm is not doing as well as say the 2960xm or even your 460ms are not putting out like a higher tierd cards then it is a problem.. and hence the judgements.. why you ask? well let me explain that..

2.People seem to forget that Alienware is the best of the best all around.. Now there is an exception.. and that is when you choose to skimp on certain components .(see #1. for further details..) Alienware has made these machines in all price catagorys.. and I my self as well as other users have found out the hard way and having owned multiple years worth of alienware computer is that the way to go is top end only.. and that others mistakenly thing Alienware on the outside means you will blow every thing out of the water you throw at it!
Now this is true when you go top tier like ive repeated a few times in this reply.. but not so much when you by the low end components for your machine..

3. Another and big reason why we are so biased on this subject is this..( and this is probably the biggest reason of them all!!) When you buy an Alienware be it a 14 inch /17inch 18inch or what have you.. you save more money in the long run by getting high end parts when you first purchase the machine.. price to performance is there, as where when you go low end components and are not happy latter on and you try to upgrade thru dell
it will cost you about the same price as another whole laptop and people complain non stop about this.. will you get lucky every now and then..sure you will .. you will find that one rep that will go above and beyond the book there reading out of and give you that deal on the parts and the extra warranty you wanted..

but like ive said.. people seem to think that the performance of a low tier alienware will match that of a high end alienware and that is not the case.. and when users figure this out they get mad..


Also how are you brown nosing? Having proper forum etiquette is to hard for you? I havent gone and looked at all of your posts and replies.. but i bet i can guess what it is going to be like..

ok I had to chime back in here.. i did go look at most of your replies.. and while some are helpful your wording makes you look like a pompous ...( Ill take the infraction thank you)

Brother you are frequently rude and obnoxious to others and thats saying it lightly.. you criticize more than any thing and you seem to think your the foremost authority on every thing you reply to and some of it just mind boggling..

here are some of your replys and while some are appropriate.. you come off like you want to fight..

1. I'm not here to debate opinion.
I'm here against the incorrect terminology and uncalled for slander against "lesser" systems by Fox & others and if it means opinions are either in the firing line or to be changed then all the better.

2. I highlighted this because of just how retarded a statement it is.
You are almost always throwing down every other machine when brought into comparison. It's getting tiresome and you're being found out by others in doing so.

3. Chip on the shoulder?
From what exactly? Has my laptop collection history in the signature just slipped past you?
Moving on....

4. No - You'd rather just dance about the Alienware section and fire criticisms about every other cheaper system like it's some sort of bragging right.
Every time another system is brought up you slate it just because it's not as expensive. It's ignorant and stupid, not to mention pointless.

5. One mans junk is another mans treasure.
You're beginning to put forth more comment rather than just criticism here - Keep it up, there's hope for you yet.

6. Complete nonsense.

The 720p screen on a relatives Sony Vaio CW is still sharp and perfectly usable even when compared to my M17x FHD screen.

7. (and this one.. You know i've had an incident similar to this.. and was treated worse.. then i was taken care of and i voiced my opinion.. and you responded like a typical troll..)

@ Arotished

Despite your issues with the M18x I've never come across such thanklessness.
You remind me of the millionaire bankers that complain about having to take a 1 million pay cut from their multi million salary or when they are prohibited on going on their 3rd holiday to Spain.

You've received several M18x systems that you didn't even drop a single cent into.

So you were out of a laptop for several months - What exactly stopped you from buying a cheap secondary machine for work?
Nothing.

Are you telling us that from February to December you just sat waiting for a replacement?
What do you take us for?

I'm with stevie on this.
You are unbelievably ungrateful despite your ideal circumstances of getting another free replacement system.

Or in fact two that should be...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
now theres more..lots more bro... Dude your trollin a bit to hard around the forums.. and from what i put below I see now your pretty good at putting a spin on your words and id suggest you calm it down abit..
you bad mouth people.. you call people out.. your rude.. your blatantly disrespectful towards others opinions that you do not agree with.. if it was me id ban you.. and give you time to cool your jets

And my Favorite! from all you tuff guy know it all attitude you throw around you cant figure this one out? but yet you just went off on Mr.Fox for no apparent reason other than you could..
When I read this reply (I'm here against the incorrect terminology and uncalled for slander against "lesser" systems by Fox & others and if it means opinions are either in the firing line or to be changed then all the better.) from you I was like ok..may be this guy has some point..let me see where this started.. then I read this on another post and I was like you got to be kidding me..
(what i found posted buy you)

Hello everyone.

Small issue but big bloody inconvenience.

Whenever a guest user switches from my main profile on the lock screen to my other account/ guest user I am then unable to log back in to the main profile after they have finished.

This is giving me a real headache as I'm then forced to shut down or restart to regain access.

Can anyone help?

The screen flickers black when I try to re-enter but then brings me back to the account selection.
I'm running Windows 7.


LOLOLOL I about pissed my pants from laughing so hard.. having read this after you just went Dummy stupid on Mr. Fox using all those big words and fancy terminologys i was just dumb founded..

now the mods here cant be rude to you and I know for a fact that 99.9% of the time all the staff here are very very respectful/helpful.. and they help members in any which way they can with in the forum rules..
Now with that said buddy.. I don't have to.. and after having been helped on this forum for years and years.. I can and will be a if need be and take what ever infractions are tossed my way.. 2 wrongs don't make a right but man your like right there on the line.. and frankly I just don't give a crap when it comes to high strung members like you.. that are here it seems to just troll and take there frustration out on other members just because they have nothing better to do..

p.s. I kick your Troll Wizard!

 

Alright, let's let bygones be bygones. (I'll let the remaining posts stay - no worries dumbdumb, you're just pointing out what a lot have complained about)

No one else is getting any infractions since there's no more infractions to hand out today. They were all spent already.

Back to the topic. The original one, I mean.

 

Not a problem 2.0 ...

 

Rotflmao!
All I can say is WOW!

 

I've made many valid points but I'm guessing 2.0 can't handle them or is just abusing mod power.

 

This one I'm going to let remain so the inflated sense of self is evident for all to see.

BTW, the post deletions were a collaborative effort. Dumbdumb had you pegged when he referred to you as a "know it all" type.

If any mod has to delete yet another post of yours, you're likely to go with it. Savvy?

 

Let the instigations begin!

So, if i were to say...My alienware M18x R2 is the fastest laptop on the face of the planet...Would I be lying? Or is that an overly active opinion? Or is it in fact a true fact?

 

Wowsers, looks like I'm kinda late to the "show". Unbelievable. All I am gonna say is this:

Mr. Fox, you rock! - keep up the good work Brother, don't go changing......simples.

 

I'm reminded why I left this forum for so long now...

 

One of the things that attracted me to this forum was how the brothers here do their best to help each other out and enjoy themselves. I love that fact that most people here try and lift each other up rather than put each other down. That doesn't mean to say people shouldn't have negative things to speak of regarding hardware etc, that would be unrealistic, besides, difference in opinion can also breed higher knowledge and strength.
There's a million other forums out there where people can go sniping at each other with personal attacks and derogatory remarks. I'm glad NBR members do their best to take the moral high-ground.

 

Members that become moderators retain their ability to express personal opinions; I doubt we'd have anyone volunteering for the job otherwise. Statements made by moderators are not representative of TechTarget/NotebookReview.

Regarding this situation; the line is drawn once the original argument breaches its constraints. It turned personal; I'm waiting for the day someone presents good evidence as to why that is helpful. Another mistake, which I warned the person in question about before, is attacking an argument vs. arguing the points. You lost credibility automatically when you started the "quote every line and take it out of context" charade.

Carry on.

 

I was building desktops the other day and I don't understand people when they accuse Alienware of being overpriced. Depending on the specifications, Alienware was sometimes $200 more, sometimes exactly the same, and sometimes even cheaper. However, since Alienware negotiates with customers on their prices, even if it was $200 more, we can bring it way down to be cheaper than building one - it's covered by a warranty, we get a 5% gift card, we get free shipping, and support is available 24/7...even if it isn't superb, it's there.

I'm sticking with Alienware for the foreseeable future.

 

Alienware's desktops are only competitive at much lower prices than those of competitors and "homebuilts" because they do not come with choices of cases, RAM, hard drives, GPUs, and long default warranties.

I hope that the same fate doesn't befall its laptops.

 

I'd rather have the ALX case than any other. It has theatre lighting, vents, etc. and is very aesthetically pleasing. As for memory, they use three different kinds, including but not limited to Kingston, the SSD's are Samsung, the HDD's are Western Digital, the 690 I ordered is EVGA, and the CPU is liquid cooled.

Seems fine to me for a desktop computer.

 

The biggest problem is not being able to hand pick each individual component. When I purchased my GPU for my home built rig, I wanted a Sapphire 7970 Dual X with unlocked voltage. It was the best cooler at the time for the 7970, and I wanted the unlocked voltage for overclocking. Good luck getting Alienware to install one of those for me. I also wanted a modular PSU with a quiet fan that isn't a piece of junk (as many PSUs are). Cheap PSUs are time bombs waiting to go off inside your case, taking everything with them, and I've yet to see a quality unit come out of any major name brand prebuilt gaming PC. I'm not saying their PSUs are bad, but buying one on my own ensures that I know exactly what I'm buying and I don't have to gamble on it.

Alienware is great for those that are willing to pay more for prebuilts, but I'd rather build it myself anyways. Even if the prices and components were identical, I'd opt to assemble it myself, because that's half of the fun.

 

Yeah, I agree with the PSU part, but this can be easily swapped. I think they use a mid-grade PSU... I don't know. The motherboard is also something I wish we could decide on (brand wise).

I suppose it all comes down to personal preference: build or not build.

 

Last time I was pricing them out, if I priced aggressively vs a competitor that price matched, including installation from the competitor, I ended up $600 ahead buy doing parts+install.

Show me a config and I'll try to match it.

 

Guys .. you a failing to see the big picture here!
When you buy an alienware.. you get there world famous warranty service.. the ability to swap parts at will with out voiding your warranty..
Ill give the nay sayers this.. Customer service can be lacking at times.. but with that said the warranty and user friendly upgrades is better than any other company out there...

if im wrong im wrong.. prove it.. name any company that will let you do what Alienware does.. name any company that a user can claim some thing is wrong and get parts next dayed to them..
Name another company that you can completely take apart your system and not void the warranty..
Just saying.. If there is a mark up.. I see why and I feel it is justified..

 

If my GPU fails, I can have one 2 day shipped from Newegg for free, and install it while waiting for the RMA with the manufacturer. It's still cheaper than paying the Alienware markeup. Once I receive my GPU back from RMA, I now have a crossfire 7970 setup for less than paying the Alienware markup for a single GPU. I've yet to have a single piece of hardware fail on my PC in 1 year of heavy gaming, and if a part does fail, I can replace it with something superior.

Alienware serves a purpose, but for the enthusiasts, a home build is by far the better option.

For laptops, it's a completely different situation and nothing I've said applies (in case there's any confusion).

 

Yea I'll agree for the most part on the desktop front. Its much more fun and cheaper to build your own system than buy a pre-built system.

 

Hummmm, Lets see. My last home build...
Intel 3930k=500.00
Asus Rampage 4 Extreme=450.00
EVGA Titan Video Card = 1100.00
16 gigs of 2666 memory=220.00
Water Cooling= 1000.00

Yep, just shy of the cost of my laptop, but the laptop is still faster (GPU intensified stuff) in most cases and it portable.

Desktops have their own place in the world. Usually not in the laptop forums though.

And all this talk about over priced Alienwares is pretty funny considering....If you go in all the other threads where no one spends more than about 700 bucks, (About 80 percent of this forum) You would be considered the laughing stock of all time for spending that. And that is not limited to Alienware.... And no amount of justification will sway any of those users to see it differently.

And this last part which I really like the most.....Is the fact that there is in fact no other machine made that can out over clock (Specifically the M18X series) Alienwares. (If you can prove it please post links so we can disprove it. )

I'm just saying....

 

Uhhh... Sager NP9570 with either hexa or high clocked quad should beat the 3940XM.

 

That could be because you specced a horribly unoptimised desktop. You could have got an ASRock board for half the price with all of the same features, bar quad-SLI support, which you're not using anyway. 2666MHz memory would have cost an arm and a leg and impact less than 1-2% in games. I also haven't a clue how you managed to spend a grand on water cooling.

 

Really....
I also stated a M18x So unless you have a Sager hexa core doing 5.2 ghz around here that I missed?
Sure, It does well in stuff optimized for more cores, but if the highest you can go is... lets say 4.0 ghz as an example...then it's pretty much not that optimal at the end of the day. And since most programs people use are geared for dual cores, it lose's pretty bad here, but gains on all hexcore operations. Would I like one in here? Sure. But will it be the fastest over all...No, i'm afraid. The field of play is pretty big in that respect.

Exactly my point. Every part you listed is bottom of the barrel or budgeted parts. Which I would never ever buy for my personal use. For building client machines for people who are on a budget, I might consider it.

ASRock X79 Extreme11 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com - This is the only board from asrock that might be in the same class as an R4E which is considered the Buggatti of motherboards.

First, you would need to know what I'm building my setups for before assuming you have the right answer for the question.... Assumptions tend to lead to drama....

Mine
Asus MVG | I7 3770K | Team Xtreem LV-2666 Mhz (16GB) | Maxiops 120GB | GTX Titan
Your's

i5 3570K @ 4.6GHz | ASRock Z77 Extreme4 | 16GB Corsair Vengeance | GTX 670 <---​

If I was on a budget, I still wouldn't buy this setup!

But again...that is just me....
​

​

 

You haven't told me what you do with what you got, all you did was try to take a shot at me for my "budget" system. It costs less money, yes, but (and this might be news to you) Price != Performance.

You shop assuming something must be more expensive for a reason. I shop based on actual performance. If you'd actually looked at reviews before buying some of those parts (which I'll wager you didn't) you'd know that 2666MHz memory offers, at absolute most, a 5% inscrease over 1333MHz memory in everything but synthetic memory bandwidth benchmarks, for instance. Don't believe me? Here.

 

I have a strong feeling that Brother John knows a little bit about computing - after all, look at his signature for evidence that he knows how to build a machine and get the best performance from it. Does it matter that he spent more on his setup than you did on yours? - nope. He bought what he bought to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish.

To kind of relate back to the title of the thread, about stuff being over-priced, I'm kinda left wondering one thing. Would your argument about price/performance stack up? - I mean, can you match John in benchmarks with your machine? - if so, that's probably when I'd take my proverbial hat off and eat it.

One thing that I get constantly fed up of is hearing from people who operate on a budget, but yet slate those who do not. It's kinda like the old AMD vs Nvidia argument. I'm sure there are a LOT of people out there who bought 7970m's because of their attractive price, only to be confronted with a world of pain. Okay, some people don't have problems but they would be in the minority, otherwise we wouldn't see so many threads about AMD headaches, driver problems, stuttering etc etc etc.......you get what yu pay for in my book.

Great. If you guys wanna operate on a budget, go ahead....knock yourselves out. For those who don't follow the same ethos, regardless of the reason why, it's their choice - just like it was your choice to go budget.

What I hate hearing is the constant whinging about "heck, that's over-priced - my cheap kit cost me far less!" - good for you guys. Can it do the same as the expensive kit? - well, that's up to you guys with the budget stuff to prove.

Either put up or shut up - in a polite way, of course, to be courteous towards those who might view this as a tyranncial, elitist post.

 

Buddy let me tell you.. where do you think EVERY one else gets there settings from??????? lol you guys are aruguing with the 3 most people on here that tell you what can be done and what cant ... why??? because we are the first to do it..
and Brother John there is the wrong person to argue with.. just saying .. if you ever needed help he would be there for you.. trust me on that.. but if you burn that bridge early..well you just lost 3 of the people that set what can and cannot be done here

 

Problem number 1
I don't need to tell you what I'm shopping for because it's pretty big and shows up on every single post I post. My signature. That pretty much says I know what i'm looking for (Not everyone else) and what it's capable of doing.

You're right about one thing....I am assuming your budget shopping because of what you bought. Why? Because it's what I would have bought for my budget clients. Who don't plex up because they are buying budget.

 

I'm sorry, but both of your posts make no sense. John hasn't once told me what he does, or the reasons behind why he bought the components he did, other than the generic cop-out of "because I can". As for "knowing a little bit about computers" because he built his own machine? A monkey with a screwdriver can put a computer together.

What you seem to not get is that I have the money to buy the setup you have. I also have the money to buy an M18x or two. I choose not too. Why? Reviews, and actual user experience.

Answer me this question if you would then: Why is any ASRock board other than the Extreme11 a budget board?

 

John is a serious overclocker, I'd imagine he'd say the reasons he bought what he has bought was to achieve the best possible performance from his machines, desktop or laptop. God, just look at the man's signature for proof. He's a legend in performance computing, and as such, he knows a fair bit about what bit of kit provides best results - money not even in the picture.

Not every "monkey with a screwdriver" can push a setup to it's very limits like John can (and does) on a regular basis. I'd quit trying to compare what you have with what he has until you post up some real proof that it's even remotely close to being able to do what John does with his.

Not having a go at you, but c'mon......

 

If he's benching on LN2 or something, then that board is a perfectly reasonable investment. If on the other hand is CPU is at 4.5GHz on water or something, then pretty much any socket 2011 board would get him there as well. That's my point: These days motherboards are all pretty much the same, bar SLI support, and overclockability. Even then though, mostly that only comes in when you're looking at very high overclocks. My "budget" board will happily run my 3570K at 4.8, at which point I get heat limited as I was quite unlucky with my particular chip.

 

Answer:
The board you bought is budget. And when I say budget. There is nothing wrong with that. I did in no way say its garbage, because it's not. So ease up on the defence mechanism.

What I said was the board I posted would be in the same class of as an R4E.

Asrock only recently started getting serious about overclocking boards (last few years). And they were always know as budget board builders, where have you been? I have been building office systems with these boards since the p4 days. All these manufacturers make budget boards. Including asus, but when you're going all out, thats when you find out who is top of the line.

i5 vs i7 vs i7-E (I went budget here and bought a 3930K at the time)
670 vs 680
asrock vs asus


Come on now...That pretty much shows the different routes....

My budget board will run your same chip at 5.5 ghz

My cpu is at 5.2 to 5.4 ghz on water...

PS: That's where the 1k water cooling came in at.... I have a water chiller in my water cooling loop....

 

Aha, now we're getting to the meat of things.

Apologies if it came across that way.

I'm well aware that ASRock have been known as a budget brand. That doesn't make their products budget however. Rosewill for example are known by many as the bargain-basement Newegg brand, but in fact, they sell (mostly crap, I'll admit, but) a few really good PSU's from very high-end OEMs here in Europe. It's only the name that's "budget".

Again, all you've done here is compare names. The 3930K is a different platform, and class of processor to my 3570K, I won't deny that. I bought a 3570K rather than a socket 2011 system because it showed virtually no gains at all over 1155 for games at the time. (Though that's starting to change now)

The 670 vs. the 680? They perform within 5% of one and other in most cases. I bought the 670 as a stop-gap over my 580, with the intention of stepping-up to what at the time was known as "Big Kepler" Now Titan/GTX 780.

ASRock vs. ASUS. Ok, they're different brands. If you had included the model numbers there, that might have been more applicable, but the fact that you've named only the brands, and posited that the name in and of itself is enough to discern quality and performance, shows that you place inherent value in the name, where this is absolutely none. If I call my board an ASUS Extreme4, does that make it better? No. Likewise, if I called yours an ASRock Rampage Extreme, does that make it worse? Not at all. What does determine whether a board is better or worse is how it performs. Reviews have shown time and time again that motherboards perform within margin of error, differentiated only by their overclocking ability in the majority of cases.

You've missed the point here it seems. I said my board lets my chip run at 4.8GHz, at which point I become heat limited. This would not change if your board was swapped in. Should I de-lid my processor, and continue to overclock, and hit another wall, then it is possible your board would pull ahead. As it stands, there's no difference between the two. Hence, my buying a top-tier Rampage board is pointless.

This is what I've been trying to get across. I don't care in the slightest how you spend your money. I do however take slight with you calling every single ASRock board (bar their server board) budget, simply because of their perception in media.

 

Your slowly starting to understand so now that we got the first part square, lets see if we can get the rest done....

Again, that assuming you know something keeps you under the gun.
I said your board and not all asrocks board. When compared to lets say...A M5G which is in the same class as yours.
A little less word adding please..Thank you.

But now back on topic.
Is alienware over priced? Heck yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is that going to stop me from buying? Heck no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they go the clevo route....Heck yes ill quit buying then.

 

Interesting. I would have to say you do sort of care. This isn't the first time you've started a heated argument over material items one has purchased, either initially, or eventually questioning their reasoning for doing so.

 

John, respectfully, I'm not going to try and convince you. You're obviously entrenched in your views, and you appear to take facts as opinion, so my "word adding" is obviously wasted.

J.Dre, I really don't, as I stated. I have a problem with the vast majority of an entire company's products as budget, simply because of their perception, rather than their products.

 

My views are more base off of real people pushing these components to their limits, not some reviewer who has a system for a few days and then post some results.
Laptop Reviews - Notebook Reviews and Computer News - benchmarking thread
Overclocking, overclocking, and much more! Like overclocking.
Setting the standard
EXTREME Overclocking Forums - Learn To Overclock Your PC Hardware
XtremeSystems Forums
http://evga.com/


A Lot of information can be obtained from some of the top overclockers around the world about your components. You only need to take the the time to go find out about them.

PS:
Everyone knows what I mean by word adding

 

I see it and read it all the time, "Alienware's are overpriced". I'd argue that the word overpriced is being loosely used to instead of "expensive". Yes they are expensive. In the context of performance they are in fact priced accordingly.

I'd add to that, that you lucky US residents have access to some mad bargains at this time of the cycle. Not possible where I am, so quit winging

 

Elaborate on that point. Why does it matter?

As for example, I own and have owned a lot of HP and Dell products. I owned a TX2500 tablet PC a while back. Definitely a budget tablet. For most, due to the AMD chipset and improper cooling design, it died about 1 year after purchase. Being tech savvy, I got mine to last for almost 2 years before it gave up the ghost (and that's after a GPU bake). But it was... "crap." I also own an Elitebook 2760P tablet. It's mil-spec and shows. Wasn't budget as business notebooks tend not to be. But I can safely say in this case, I got what I paid for.

I also bought a HP DV5 which I've had for over 3 years now. Budget? Certainly. Mainstream budget 15" 16:10 1280 x 800 screen. I've had the BIOS modified to remove the wifi whitelist, enabled Dual IDA bit, and enabled more options. Upgraded the CPU to a T9800 o/c'd to 3.06ghz, dropped in 8GB RAM and beefed up the cooling system. Is it "crap?" Sure could be but I wouldn't know since I'm meticulous about maintenance. But many other people's have died and have had screen issues. Comes with budget territory.

I also own HP's old flagship HDX Dragon 20" notebook. Not budget of course (though I bought mine at a ~50% discount late in the model's cycle). Had both of mine for almost 5 years now. Still going on strong since the day I bought it. In fact, typing this post with it. Biggest criticism back then? One could get a desktop with twice the power for the price. Guess what? They were right. So? I like that it can run almost 2 hours on battery. My desktop can't do 10 mins on an UPS.

Just a few examples. But if someone posts, "hey the DV5 is crap." So what? What difference does it make? I like mine and take care of it and it's served me well. I use it to stream movies and music and it sits on a podium so I can stand and compute. But it's just a tool. If someone posts, "HP notebooks are garbage!" Again, so what? For a lot of people they sure are. And they've got some stats to back that up. For me, not so much. I like what I got and take care of it.

I've never owned an Alienware. I suppose if I did get one, I'd do so for gaming. No time for gaming much these days, but money not being an object, I'd probably opt to get the most powerful or the most bang for the buck. I'd also check out what Sager/Clevo is offering and compare. Might even consider an iMac 27". *Shrug* The least amount of compromise the better. The iMac's screen is lovely but there's a lot of compromise that comes with it. Alienware, from what I've read, seems to have the least amount of compromise with the most amount of options/customizations. Though Sager (which I owned about 15 years ago) seems to be ideal for the tweaker set, which I like to think of myself as belonging to. If and when the day comes to buy a gaming system, I'll do more research in earnest - weighing the pros and cons. It may turn out that I can get away with a 15" Alienware hooked up to an external monitor and keyboard as being the best choice. Dunno?

What I don't understand and I see it in every section of the forum, is why some people take criticism or opinion of notebooks so seriously as to seemingly be a reflection of themselves. I like my budget "crap" just fine. I like my top shelf stuff just fine also. Obviously not everyone is going to have the same opinion of the things I own. But I couldn't care less. I didn't buy it for praise. I bought it because it appealed to me somehow and had what I wanted/needed at the time for a price I was willing to pay. And when they no longer serve me well enough, I'll go get something else that does. Hopefully I won't get a dud. Duds happen in budget lines as well as top shelf lines. Though if you get a dud in a top of the line product, you tend to get better terms of service (as you should considering the price paid). Even so, I've been quite fortunate for years buying and maintaining my electronic gear.

Is ASrock a company that caters to the budget minded consumer? Probably given their pricing. So? That's their niche. Is everything they make "crap?" If it were, they'd be out of business.

So at the end of the day, does "budget" equal "crap?" Depends. The axiom "you get what you pay for" holds true more often than it doesn't. That's not to say a Mercedes is more reliable than a Honda. Every axiom has its exception to the rule. And there are metrics one can quote to support the exception to the axiom. And then there's just some who are born lucky/unlucky and defy conventional wisdom and stats who are at the far end of the bell curve.

All that matters is, "was it good for you?"

 

Yeah right, i'll still take the benz. lol. Problems and all. If I can get it at a "budget" price!
On topic.

Someone said Alienware was "expensive"
Answer, yes it is, but with a very big but at the end of that....
With what we have accomplished with it...That takes the bite out of the "expensiveness"
Still would rather have it "not so expensive", but oh well.

 

i want i want!!!! i want i want i want!!!!!! what do you want for this lol.. i know why do i want it.. well because i Want it lol!!!!

 

I have one of those sitting here right now, but the video card is bad.

 

and i want it lol... along with your r1 board hahaha

 

I agree with everything you've said there. The simple answer is that it doesn't matter, not in the slightest. Does someone's views about my budget hardware affect how I view it? No. Does it make me feel bad about myself, or, god-forbid, that I have a smaller... appendage? No. It is off-putting though. A few years ago this forum wasn't quite as bad, but recently it's started becoming quite elitist. It's a friendly place, as long as you don't question Alienware's unparalleled superiority. This then leads to false assumptions, and arguments, like the one above.

The original point of that whole thing was that J.Dre's point that his desktop cost almost as much as his laptop, and wasn't as powerful, therefore the laptop was good value. I was making the point that the same performance can be had for far less, there-by disproving his theory. He chose to take issue with this, and it turned into the giant mess above.

Also: What the hell is "word adding" anyway? Everyone here might know, I haven't a clue. I assume it's something like making things "wordy" for the sake of it?

 

Where you start adding words to what is actually stated to come up with a completely different meaning than what is actually proposed. (The very very short version of the story)

And it was the same exact way in the Clevo/Sager forums where if you don't have that brand then you overpaid and blah blah blah. I owned both.
I go with what is hot and not what is not. So if today it's alienware then so be it. If tomorrow it's Clevo then so be it. Same goes for gpu's and cpu's, But from my experiences in this, Alienware is sitting on top. And will continue to do so till Clevo decides to loosen it's grip on the bios. Just my 2 cents.

 

I don't understand why people act as if no other forum has such problems. All forums on this website have more than their fair share of "trolls" who insist that those who buy Alienwares pay a premium only for flash and lights (including some Alienware resellers--XoticPC). Does that make people who say that Alienware is superior in all regards right? No. But Alienware owners are not particularly bad.