Alienware Laptops - Worth The Cost?

[T_Yamamoto]

Alienware is overpriced and their machines are ugly. I'd rather buy a gaming laptop from Xotic/Sager/Malibal, which is precisely what I did.

Yes.

Overpriced pos

 

[Meaker10]

Lol, they are some of the highest performance machines around, the M18X R2 has been the market leader for months while sager try to release a dual card ivy bridge model.

Their cooling systems tend to be a notch above sager's.

 

[Remobz]

Alienware = overpriced and not worth it

 

[kalster]

love my m11x r3

 

[terpsy]

Love my M14X

 

[lakedude]

To be fair, why not post the specs and price of the Alienware you are interested in. Also post what the bling and status of having an Alienware is worth to you. For example if 2 computers were exactly the same except one was an Alienware with extra LED coolness and cost $300 more would you still want the Alienware or no? At what price difference would you rather have the identically spec-ed non-Alienware.

Personally I'm not a big fan of the bling so if the Alienware cost one dollar more I'd get the plain Jane, but that is me.

 

[Meaker10]

If you are going with the 7970M then the alienware is the only one that lets you turn enduro off.

That in itself is worth a chunk.

 

[Jonjaken]

I have the m17x and it runs very hot, so hot it stripped the dinner table of the finish/laquer. Over time of course, and now for no apparent reason the a/c connection on the motherboard which is solder on is cracked on the motherboard and the only way to replace is to replace the mother board CHA CHING CHA CHING.......I should have gotten something else. It is over priced in my opinion, but when it was working it ran great besides the heavieness and the leg burning heat. I play diablo 3 and eve online and a few others....

 

[GTRagnarok]

IMO, Alienware laptops are best gaming laptops you can buy. Talking about the M17x specifically, they have the best cooling out of all the high end laptops that I've seen. I have never seen my 7970M go past 75C. Yet I often see Sager laptops get in the 80s, even 90 sometimes. Here's a Furmark run:

They have a much better keyboard and trackpad than Sagers (it's pretty ridiculous that Clevo uses the same keyboard for their 15" and 17" laptops). You can manually disable the integrated graphics, therefore bypassing any switchable graphics issues so that you know you're getting the full performance of the dedicated GPU. As a nice bonus, there's also an HDMI input so you can use the screen as monitor (why isn't this a more common feature).

 

[Rubycon]

IMO, Alienware laptops are best gaming laptops you can buy. Talking about the M17x specifically, they have the best cooling out of all the high end laptops that I've seen. I have never seen my 7970M go past 75C. Yet I often see Sager laptops get in the 80s, even 90 sometimes. Here's a Furmark run:



They have a much better keyboard and trackpad than Sagers (it's pretty ridiculous that Clevo uses the same keyboard for their 15" and 17" laptops). You can manually disable the integrated graphics, therefore bypassing any switchable graphics issues so that you know you're getting the full performance of the dedicated GPU. As a nice bonus, there's also an HDMI input so you can use the screen as monitor (why isn't this a more common feature).

:biggrin:

If you really want to torture your hardware like that why not make it count? Install BOINC on that, sign up for WCG and assign n number of GPU tasks to match number of logical processor cores. Helping find a cure for cancer makes a lot more sense to me than staring at what looks like a doughnut covered in carpet made of bloody wolf fur spin around. (and making the disc in the electric meter spin faster too as well.)

 

[GTRagnarok]

I was actually using it to fold 24 hours a day (I live in a university dorm with "free" electricity) until about a month ago. I'll definitely check that out though.

 

[blankslate]

For the specs both Alienware and Macbooks are overpriced.

for Macbooks you either fall into one of two categories
a....person pays more money to be cool.
b....Person who knows unix, works with it regularly and wants a well made chassis for extra cost.

As for Alienware they too are overpriced. However, they do have the on of the best performing small factor gaming laptops on the market. You're paying a premium but generally their internal hardware specs are better than Apple for the price.

As for the OS. personal preference. They are probably more or less equally secure with the typical users who aren't security experts.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Depends on the use. I was very well considering an Alienware M18x as a desktop is out of the question for me (rural area = no wired internet, can't exactly haul a desktop into a Starbucks can I?), however, I cannot in the right mind justify spending 2K+ for a gaming machine at this time. Probably a year or two in the future as there is little option if I want lots of GPU power and multiplayer gaming, but the price is really a tough pill to swallow.

I did look at some Clevo based dual GPU laptops, but the lack of any switchable function is a deal breaker as I don't fancy maintaining (or hauling around for that matter) more than a single laptop away from home. The M18x at least, has physical muxes so the battery is actually useful.

 

[djDoubleP]

A friend of mine owns one..pretty cool!