Why is Alienware praised so much for gaming laptops?

When their average rating after thousands of reviews is 2.67?

Alienware Reviews - alienware.com Ratings at ResellerRatings

I don't get it.

 

How often have you gone on a website to post a positive review?

 

.....

 

Good point.

Online Reviews: Don't Trust Them | TIME.com

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'Nough said.

 

Only thing good about the Alienware is the extended warranties Dell offers. Since most of the time they don't last as long as the warranty you usually end up with a current replacement system at the end of the original systems life.

 

Why do you care? Why is this worth a new thread?

 

Resellerratings is more about the service than the product.

 

I want to know if I should consider them or not. I hear one thing here and another thing there and on yahoo answers. So who are the fanboys and who is real?

 

Alienware in general is pretty overpriced for what you get; some people love their aesthetics, I find most of their stuff to be cheesy and bulky looking. I'd rather save hundreds of dollars for upgrades on a system like a Sager or Asus.

 

Alienware owns systems like these. It's like a Bently to a Toyota.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

I bought my first Alienware after owning 3 different gaming lap-tops. I also believed they were over-priced and "flashy" but now after having it for 5 months now I
have to say it is the best gaming lap-top I have ever owned. It is fast, built solid and I have never had one single problem with it.

 

No, it's not at all like that. Alienware doesn't have magical powers. The internals are the same no matter who builds the machine.

 

Exactly - an i7 is an i7 regardless of its in an Alienware or a Sager; the biggest difference between an Alienware and a Sager is about $1000.

 

Alienware offer features(Other than aesthetic if that's what you thinking) and support other don't, pretty easy justify the extra cost.(and it is not that much, we are looking at 10-20% more w/o hardcore haggle.)

 

Sturdier chassis, better warranty, better cooling and firmware, manual GPU switching, BIOS overclocking, more upgrade options, and a few other bonuses. I don't know how much those are worth, because they come with poor quality control and clueless Dell employees, but if you live in the US, you can haggle the prices down to "competitive" amounts.

If I lived outside the US, I would avoid Alienware.

 

For Dell's support you need to pay a whole lot over base price for a warranty worth anything. Dell accident protection and extended warranty are worth every penny, when your system craps out towards the end of it they usually replace it with a current spec'd version of your original machine.

 

Can't we just have this thread closed? Please? Pretty Please? With sugar and a hard drive on top?

 

Seconded .

 

You mean, it allows overclocking the MQ chips? How? The multiplier is still locked right?

 

Oh yes. Before the rest of the gremlins post their rebuttal.

But in all fairness, it's not just Alienware. I have found that people tend to write reviews for negative products far more than for products which actually work. One thing I look for in a product is a small number in positive reviews, and almost no negative reviews. We rarely hear anything from people when a product is working as it should, but we always hear about it when it isn't.

 

Case in point... look at "what's bothering me now" thread in OT is like five times as large as "the happy thread". People love to complain.

 

..I don't know. At least in my experience, alienware has been like going into a sports-car reseller doing their own rebrand of an original car of unspecific origins. You run around and take in the shiny edges, the comfy seats, the nice rims, the price tag.. that sort of thing.

But hey, you like the look, and you get a free christmas-tree light set for the windows. So you go ahead and pay through the nose for it. Besides, the battery was awesome.

And then it turns out that you've actually bought a styled stock car with a new chassis, with parts built on the same factory as a fully functional toyota. And that they've kind of not really put in the kind of hours on custom tuning needed to raise the standard massively above what a stock car needs to be to pass normal certification.

I mean, Alienware used to have a unique offer in that they would build your computer from the ground and up with the best cooling and meanest looking bling. Now -- not that unique any more, and to stay competitive, specially in the laptop sphere, they have to keep the costs down rather than build something truly extravagant. Tuning on the laptops often isn't exactly geared for overclocks and custom parts fitted later on either, so ... they have a problem there with tech people. They don't really sell to us or rely on techie approval anymore.

High expectation has something to do with the low ratings, though. I mean, it's not a bad product. But is so much better than everything else it's worth the money..?

 

I agree.

Most people who buy laptops want as much performance as possible for a low price. Vendors cater to those people, and those with higher expectations for quality and quality control suffer for it. This phenomenon afflicts gaming laptops most, but it stifles innovation in the enterprise market too. Dell, Lenovo, and HP have not reworked their workstations for a while.

Alienware's only important advantage is its warranty now, but the support is often inadequate.

 

Cooling is second to none and the bios comes unlocked out the factory.

 

Except on the M14x / AW 14

 

Me and the 14 have an agreement that we just don't acknowledge the other exists

 

The only reason why I went for the M17x R4, was for the fact that Clevo last generation just had so many problems, the extra £300~ was well worth going Alienware, I'll cover some of the problems

UK keyboard layout is a JOKE
Inbuilt Microphone placement
Onboard sound (not speakers, the DAC)
Power brick size
7970M Enduro problems (at the time) (680M was more than 7970M Alienware)

The Alienware last generation did not have any of those problems, which for me meant that the extra cost of the Alienware was worth it.

Then comes 2013, Alienware and Clevo release their new line of products, Clevo still having many of the problems as last generation which is a shame, but Alienware decided to make their systems nearly 1k more than the equivalent from Clevo, so that is going to be my last purchase of an Alienware till they drop their prices back to something half reasonable

 

It is cool that Alienware allows HDMI-IN as well to the laptop monitor. Handy for consoles, smartphone, etc.

Does anyone else do that?

And how does an unlocked bios help on these when the cpu multiplier is locked? fsb overclocking?

 

I have frequently used the HDMI in when I need a second monitor at home for work.

Intel got rid of their FSB years ago. AMD soon followed suit (I forget what their equivalent NB communication bus was called; soemthing six). AFAIK, the core i series never had a FSB. That being said, the CPU frequency is still determined by how fast the on die north bridge (whatever it's called now) can be clocked. The unlocked bios allows increasing the external clock generated by the off chip PLL. As you may know, it is very difficult to generate a GHz clock by a PLL that can drive several billion transistors. Instead, it is done in stages. The actual analog clock generator generates about a 100 MHz or so. May be a bit more. A mult. of 33 in the CPU's die (usually a hybrid analog/digital circuit) would give you 3.3 GHz. It is the external 100 MHz that the unlocked BIOS can increase. So if you increase to 120 MHz you get almost 4 GHz. I am not sure you can increase it by that much. Also, there might be something else involved. Someone else more knowledgeable in this concept could give you more accurate information.

 

For me it's the build quality. I've never had a laptop built so well in my life. Sturdy, handles and game i throw at it and i have no issues with it since i bought it. Plus i liked that the R4 didn't have a chiclet keyboard.

 

To put it simply, one of the primary reasons they are popular is that Dell has invested significantly in raising awareness of this product line among gaming consumers. If you compare with the efforts of competing manufacturers who offer laptops with better graphics cards for gaming, only Razer has built up that level of brand awareness among gamers. MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and some smaller boutique custom builders have invested a bit in pursing this niche market segment, but not to the extent that Alienware has done (or Razer on the peripherals side).

 

Disparate reporting. I've seen Clevo resellers actively encouraging buyers to post reviews on sites like that and even had one person mention that a Clevo reseller offered them a coupon for posting a review on a site like that. So the Clevo reviews are getting vastly higher percentages of the "satisfied majority" that don't normally post reviews online. Alienware doesn't.

Why would I pay more for an Alienware? They're the same internals but there's more to a PC than just internals. It's like comparing a Honda Accord to an Acura TL. Same platform, different end-user experience. If you care about intangibles like case materials and fit and finish (and better warranty support), go Alienware. If you want the fastest internals for the lowest price, go Clevo. Both have their place.

 

If price was not an issue, I'd recommend Alienware laptops to everyone. Having owned an M17xR3, I would say that the product itself was very good, packing all features/quality I wanted into one convenient (albeit weighing 10 lbs. ) package. So if you could get a good deal on one, I say go for it.

 

So much complaining about how overpriced Alienware is... I negotiated nearly 15% off a new Alienware 17, with a $200 gift card on top of that. So much for "overpriced," huh?

Don't hate the playa; hate the game. (I don't even think this phrase works in this situation, but I felt like saying it anyway.)

You're paying for a premium product. What do you expect?

 

Well, that should kind of tell you something about how inflated the price is. If they can make money while giving you 15% off and a $200 gift card...

I'm not saying it's a waste of money, I'm just saying different people have different priorities.

 

I can respect that priorities are indeed different. To be honest, I assumed you were implying it is wasteful spending to choose Alienware. But you can't blame me, most people automatically think "overpriced" when Alienware is mentioned. It especially annoys me when they have nothing to back that misconception. I've had people rocking MacBook Pro's tell me Alienware is overpriced. I then proceed to compare hardware and performance to cost - turns out Apple is more overpriced in most cases. (I have nothing against Apple, by the way. I was just providing an example.)

Most people don't know you are capable of negotiating with Alienware. They gaze at the prices on the web and think, "way overpriced." It's a niche market - they will work with you.

In the end: it's personal preference (or priorities, as you mentioned). But don't be so quick to judge a book by its cover - you never know what lies within.

 

Apple is way overpriced.

 

Way, way overpriced. I have vowed never to own, let alone purchase another Apple product.

 

Some Apples are overpriced; some are not. The non-Retina MBP 13 is a horrific offender ($1200 for a low-res screen, an i5, no dedicated GPU, and an HDD?). The iMac lineup is very reasonable when compared to similarly-specced all-in-one PCs. The rMBP 15? Hard to tell whether it's "overpriced" when there's not anything quite like it (including the ultra-high-res screen) being offered on the PC OEM side. But the closest competitor, the Razer Blade Pro, is similarly priced. If you don't value it's thinness and high-res screen, of course it's overpriced, but that's the machine's raison d'etre.

 

You're right, the iMac and, I think, the MBA lines are reasonably priced. I don't feel like the MBP is worth the money, especially with the regular display.

 

What *I* don't understand is how to make an alienware choose what internals I want. Like, if I go with the 4800MQ CPU model (there's only one for the M18x if I remember correctly), I can't say.. take two SSDs and a mechanical hard drive. I can't take a 512GB SSD either. I can't choose only one 780M GPU. I can't choose the dvd/blu-ray drive I get.

Is there some way I'm missing? I get their cooling and performance is top notch, but I don't get how people are fine without being able to properly mix/match their hardware before buying.

 

An 4 year old M15X can run a 7970M, while a 2 year old P150HM Clevo must run a modded version of the 7970M in order to work, and that was after a large petition from users in the Clevo Forum. So Alienware seem to be less restrictive than Clevo in allowing GPU upgrades. Last years generation 150EM can't take the new 780M, although our bios guru Prema is working on it to work. So Alienware seems more futureproof.

 

How can a machine designed for a GPU with a 38W TDP possibly keep up with the heat generated from the 7970M which has a TDP of 100W?

 

You can't use that as an example or even as the normal. It's like me telling people I got a 512GB SSD for $200. It's not too expensive, I got it cheap, so it's not expensive. Of course it's expensive, it costs $400+ for everyone else. Your reasoning does not apply unless they consistently give everyone at least 15% off and a $200 gift card. And without having to haggle. To me that reminds me of a flea market to have to haggle, and for a "premium" product yet. Part of premium to me is that you get the best possible cost for everyone.

I'm not against Alienware or any other brand product, but this is the attitude I can't deal with, similar with Apple. It's a nice product, we get it. You don't need to justify your purchase to me and everyone else.

For me, and many others, they look for the best bang for the buck. And I don't ever expect to be able to upgrade the hardware except for what was originally supported because anything else is just gravy. Alienware does have a more robust BIOS, and is usually compatible with new gen GPUs in the machines. I give them that much, but beyond that they are same components in a different shell. I've owned a couple Alienwares in distant past and was none too impressed with the warranty services despite paying a substantial sum for them. I even had an on-site repair guy threaten me because I wasn't home when he showed up of his own accord without discussing a time with me first, and after reporting to AW they didn't care at all.

 

Dell is locking down configurations for its business laptops too. It's on Apple's trail.

Most large vendors do this. It's egregious for enterprise laptops. HP gives few discounts and charges ~35% more for its CTO Elitebooks than Dell and Lenovo do for their workstations; I have not seen anyone complain about that. Dell and Lenovo charge high retail prices and give high discounts. One could say that gaming laptops are about bang-for-the-buck and workstations are not, but that answer is arbitrary.

 

They offer the discounts for everyone though, not through haggling. They may charge $1500 for a laptop but then have coupons that everyone can use to knock the price down to $1200 or whatever. Not by calling up for 30-60 minutes and trying to convince the person on the other end why you should get a discount.

 

I'm with wingnut on this. Most people won't bother to haggle, they often believe the prices are set in stone.

 

The prices for workstations are still high with discounts, so people haggle for those too. Especially for HP's workstations. I'm not defending the practice--it almost drove me away from Alienware--but I can see why Alienware does it: those who think the prices are fixed will feed Dell's margins, savvier customers will look for discounts, and Alienware's products will seem premium.

I prefer higher prices to the pre-configured bundles Alienware has started to use.

 

Where is OP? Did they get the answer they were looking for?

 

Everyone can can get discounts, not just me.

And I'm not justifying anything by sharing this information. I'm trying to inform people about Alienware, at least in some sense.

Edit: A lot has changed over the past few years with Alienware. I'm not sure when you owned an Alienware last, but holding grudges over a single incident doesn't help anyone, and it is unfortunate you do not seem to be willing to give them another chance.