Opinion Request: Alienware and Sager, a forbidden romance.

Greetings everyone,

Simply put, I am looking for everyone's opinion on Alienware V Sager. I would love to hear from anyone who has/does own(ed) both. I am in the market to buy a well equipped M18x or NP8170-S1 for forensic use, and spec wise both would perform equally well, and cost is similar.

So what it really comes down to is a matter of perspective, and before I make a large purchase like this I like to attempt to look at things from every possible angle.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

Edit: I haven't owned both machines yet, just Dell XPS's and about to own a Clevo, so I'll remove my comment.

 

Don't know if it would help to compare these, but I have an M11x and a NP8150. For build quality, I def prefer the Sager. The M11x feels cheaper, screen is meh, and the hinge design sucks. Don't get me wrong though, it's a great gaming machine for it's size, but feels like corners were cut in quality to offer good performance/price. Don't really know if M18x is comparable. I do like the flashy lights though

Having tried both, I'm sticking with Sager . The NP8150 rocks overall, and I prefer the quality and price. My only gripes are the meh mousepad, no back-lit keyboard, and nothing flashy. But those are just minor things.

 

of course i refer sager more less in price with high specs with good quality , but plain design , no light keyboard

alienware overprice ,really nice design , good quality with light keyboard

go with sager 8170-s1 with gtx485

 

If you like the look of Alienware, buy it. It's that simple.

 

Another reason to choose the Alienware 18x over the Clevo 8170 (as an example) would be to take advantage of the switcheable graphics feature that Clevo SB notebooks are not equipped to utilise. Everything else between the two comes down to a matter of price, notebook design and warranty.

 

Well Alienware's are great if you don't have any problems and don't have to deal with the crappy tech support.

You can read about many horror stories like this one in the Alienware forum and I also explained my story in that thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...omer-care-experience-ever-not-first-time.html

I'm not buying another Alienware again because it took hours on the phone with morons at tech support and months for them to solve an issue on the M17x that shouldn't have been there in the first place. At the end they replaced my laptop but I was exasperated.

So if you don't have a problem then Alienwares are good too.

 

I heard alienware has HDMI in so you can connect your ps3, xbox 360 and use it has a tv/monitor. I

 

also bought a m15x when they were first released and it was the worst experience ive ever had with a computer company.
19 days seemed like a lifetime and i was lied too on numerous occasions.

thanks to this forum i then found kobalt computers in the uk and bought a nexus/m860tu and it blows the aw away.

conclusion. if you want a christmas tree then buy alienware but if you want a tank that looks plain but professional then go for clevo.

 

I appreciate everyone's thoughts. Many times we focus too much on specs and not enough on the overall package / human element.

 

I've owned four Alienware systems...

Area51-m15x, M17x, M17xR2, and M11x

My experience with each of them has been less than stellar. The Area51-m15x went back twice for motherboard replacements and my M17x had to be replaced with the M17xR2 due to nVidia chipset DCP latency issues. I still use the M11x when I don't want to get out my Origin.

Driver support for the M17xR2 and M11x is terrible! As soon as they launch a new model consider all support goodbye. They stop driver updates, cease releasing BIOS updates for known issues, etc.

Dell basically killed everything about Alienware that attracted me to them in the first place.

My Origin EON (essentially the same unit as the Sager NP8170) is the BEST and most reliable laptop I've ever had... bar none.

I'm not familiar with Sager support, but that which I've received from Origin is fantastic. Also since both units are really Clevo P170hm chassis rebranded, driver support is there directly from Clevo.

If you're considering Sager vs Alienware... it's no contest. Go with Sager, Origin or whatever Clevo reseller you choose... you'll be much happier.

 

I just ordered the NP8170 from XoticPC moments ago. Ultimately everything side by side there didn't seem to be too much of a contest.

Again I appreciate everyone's thoughts.

 

congrats. Justin and the guys from xoticpc will look after you.

 

congratz and see you in the owners forum

 

Congrats man! i ordered mine about a week ago and the estimate for it to come out of production is june 7th!! so yeah it does take a bit of time for it to get to you, unless of course you ordered the expedited production and shipping.

Just sit tight and read a bit about your new awesome computer and different experiences from users here in NBR, im sure you can find plenty of them!

 

What about the M14x?

 

i think sager was right not include igp support for a performance laptop.
from what i have read in this forums, in order to enable igp on a laptop, you would have to connect the discrete gpu to the igp which has the direct connection to the screen. it is similar to the igpu setup in desktops.
this kind of connection is showing 2-8% degradation on performance and as much as 20% for specific titles. im not sure if it shows in benchmarks though, which is the favorite game of some aw owners

 

I wish they had gone the way of optimus. I personally would be happy to take a 5 - 8% performance hit for the added battery life provided. It's the only thing holding me back from pulling the trigger on a 8150...

For the OP, I've dealt with Dell support twice in the past, and thought them to be outstanding. Next day onsite tech to fix issues. They even sent me a free remote when I changed my mind after receiving the order. Didn't get charged.

Everyone will have mixed opinions on how there support experience has gone. It is a bit of a potshot. But I do like the Dell/Alienware premium support you get. Something to think about.

 

fair enough. i personally would take the performance, and the battery life of an 8150 isnt bad imho.

 

In my case the Optimus didn't really affect me. This laptop will be used for forensic processing primarily, with a side of gaming when I'm at home. So when it's being used for work the battery acts as more of a battery backup than portability. I actually have an Alienware M11x that I love and use for anything I need portability on.

 

TBH...

I hate Dell's notebooks and alienware notebooks never improve their quality of notebooks... and there customer service can be great... or it can be horrible.

I've had the m15x (the ones before the new design) the silver one and the m11x... I've had to call dell atleast 5 times on the m11x and on the m15x, I had to completely replace because of a malfunctioning part/case. In either cases I've probably had 4 great representitives and 2 HORRIBLE ones. The customer service representitives have to do alot of paper work and all of them whether good or bad spend a minimum of 30 minutes just to get the part ordered and sent with their questionable "Technicians" to repair a part. Their keyboards also flex depending on what sort of typer you are.

 

Optimus, in its current form, is a technical hassle.

 

I have to admit my M11x is solidly built. And own two Dell monitors and also owned a Dell Vostro 1500 and Dell Mini. All were actually well built and solid. But in several cases, had to do one, two, or even three exchanges (my 24" IPS, one with horrible light bleed, one with a big blotch of dead pixels, another that wouldn't scale properly). But once you get a good one, it's good. And same thing with customer service. Sometimes you get someone that is half-way intelligent and reasonable, or it takes days to even get through, get put through to a wrong department, etc. But once you finally do, you get top notch service.

Regarding Optimus, I dunno, I've always wanted to manage my technical details manually because anything automatic rarely works well, unless it's been tried and true for a long time. I'd avoid Optimus like the plague.

 

I'll rephrase what I said in my previous post! Manually switchable graphics would be excellent

My HP Envy is starting to give me issues, so once I can suss out the actual size of the 8150, I'll probably go ahead with one.

 

The realistic difference between an Envy 15 and NP8150 is minor. NP8150 is bit wider, thicker, and heavier, but what can you expect from a 15" that can house the most powerful consumer mobile GPU's available today.

 

You can't expect unbiased opinion between Alienware and Sager when asking in a Sager forum and unless compare m11x or m14x to np8170 is like compare orange to apple.

I owned a m17x for two years and a dozen of other laptops during last five years. In my opinion, Sager definitely improved it's quality with new np8150 and 8170. However, their chassis, hinge and paint quality is still weak compare to m17x due to material used. Aluminum vs Plastic. Also, Sager lack fw support of many valuable features such as switchable graphic, battery disable and etc.

Sager's advantage is it's price, cheap extend warranty, and easy switchable components if I favor build quality instead of pricing and can bear with horrible bling of Alienware, I would go for m17x or m18x.

 

well, I have basically used Optimus for some 6 months now, and my only complaints were alleviated with newer driver versions. Otherwise, the only real issues still stnading with Optimus are related to 3D animation and workstation/CAD programs... [detecting bias from me here] For gaming, I have yet to hit an issue, even with older OpenGL games like KOTOR or JKJA (well.... other than Dell's choice of ULV CPU in the m11x, meaning useless underclocked Intel IGP that cannot even drive basic games well....).

The new m17x R3 is no longer Alumi, like the m17x you remember It doesn't even have the RGBLED display the R2 variant had, which set the m17xr2 apart at one point . The m17x R3 & m14x are, more or less, the replacements for the m15x's old position. The m18x is nicely clad in Alumi, but it's still saddled with a so-so display.





EDIT: IMO, this does belong in the Sager forum. Just IMO.