ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by Tango

Am currently away and thinking of picking up an Alienware m17x,
aside from being quite expensive (though with the Dell discount, it brings it to an *almost* reasonable price), has anyone else on here had any positive/negative experiences with Alienware laptops?



-Tango

I have an M17x, got it kitted out with the full 12 GB RAM, reasonable HDD, 2 x 280 GTXs...paid 2.8k for it. Guess what? Its the biggest bag of shite I have ever known.

the model came out last May-ish, and was snapped up as the "most powerful laptop out there" Whilst I don't disagree the hardware is impressive, the configuration doesn't work very well.

There are stuttering issues, FPS rate drops and flickering in games, DVDs and music, which have been an issue since the thing came out.

Its a lovely looking bit of kit, but in hindsight, I would go for an Asus again, with the LED 3D screen.

I have collectively spent around 30 hours on the phone to Dell/AW support, and have nothing to show for it, as I still have a buggy machine. The party line at Tech Support is "There is a fix for your issue contained in the next driver roll out...."

Take a look at the Notebookreview website, the Direct to Dell website, and you will encounter thousands of people in the same situation as me...

Take a look here: Linky

Mate had one, spent more time on the phone to tech support than actually using it, piece of crap.

As has already been said stay away.

I had a laptop a few years back, was actually not to bad and came quite well spec'd out with all the flashing gadgets you could want for. I had major issues with the DVD burner after a year and also with it running hot. It ran so hot it fried the Graphics card, impossible to source a replacement unless i purchased a second hand machine off ebay and stripped it for parts. Apart from that for two years it did me well.

Purchased a desktop as well from them, based on how well the laptop performed in its first year. Utter pile of shite, the "50 point check" they drivel on about must have been performed by a blind man. Sent back to factory twice, multiple issues such as PSU randomly shutting down and multiple errors with Graphics and other issues. Spent more time on the phone to tech support with a screwdriver in one hand and the case opened than i did enjoying using the thing. In fairness though it did teach me how to build my own!

I do know certain issues were resolved after being bought over by Dell, but once bitten twice shy and all that.

I have found the top end Toshiba Satellite laptops to be just as good and reliable not to mention a lot cheaper and easier to replace parts and future proof.

I left the IT industry a month ago so am quite clued up.

Run, run far fucking away, as fast as your legs can carry you from AlienWare. Epic gash.

Dell XPS mobile and PC are quite good IME.

PCs regardless of who nailed them together are like kit cars .... if it';s good it's good if it'ds bad it's epically 5hit3

Originally Posted by Taita

I left the IT industry a month ago so am quite clued up.

Run, run far * away, as fast as your legs can carry you from AlienWare. Epic gash.

Dell XPS mobile and PC are quite good IME.

I've had a Dell XPS m1210 for 4 years and its done me proud, only fried motherboard once.

However, I was stupid enough to buy the top spec 27" iMac the other day. It didn't connect to the internet, and Mac support told me that it didn't have as powerful a wireless card as my Dell. They seemed not to understand my surprise that a brand spankers £2k+ machine wouldn't connect to the internet when a 4 year old Dell would. iMac has gone back to the shop and I will never buy Apple computers again.

Originally Posted by Jungelism

However, I was stupid enough to buy the top spec 27" iMac the other day. It didn't connect to the internet, and Mac support told me that it didn't have as powerful a wireless card as my Dell. They seemed not to understand my surprise that a brand spankers £2k+ machine wouldn't connect to the internet when a 4 year old Dell would. iMac has gone back to the shop and I will never buy Apple computers again.

Strange, I've never had a bad experience with Apple computers yet, but I really want a decent gaming laptop/desktop replacement, so have had to plump for windows this time.

Thanks for the info guys, I would also welcome more recommendations about brands to go for/avoid.

Overstyled overpriced and overhyped. Avoid.

Go to YoYoTec, Scan or similar, choose a model and spec to choice, overclocked if you fancy

Otherwise grab a copy of Custom PC mag , follow the suggested specs for basic, mid range and bonkers rigs and build yourself from bits or preconfigured and overclocked bundles

Really is quite easy. Would say that twin graphics cards can somtimes end up being a bit twitchy though