Alienware - Pros And Cons Please

[Josh_TypeX]

I just bought a M17x R3. Being delivered tomorrow.

Got it for $2560 after a nice big discount from Dell

Core i7 2.2ghz

8gb 1333 ram

Radeon 6990m

2 X 750gb 7200rpm HDD (RAID 0)

blu ray slot load player

windows 7 ultimate

and lots of other goodies.

Dell does try and rip you off though! To upgrade to 16gb ram from 8gb was $330 if i bought the upgrade from Dell, so i just went out and bought 8gb 1333 DDR3 notebook ram for $64 and will install it myself.

That reminds me, spotted a tall bloke at MSY on Saturday in a SAU GTR jumper!

MSY Clayton?? Might have been me (can't remember what I was wearing...). Should have said hi

[WESTWD]

MSY Clayton?? Might have been me (can't remember what I was wearing...). Should have said hi

Yeah was MSY clayton. Cant remember what time though!

UPDATE: Laptop bag got delivered yesterday, turns out the laptop itself is being delivered tomorrow. Can't wait!!

[Birds]

How did you get it for that price and what is the RRP?

Been considering an Alienware lately. My old Dell from many years ago cost me ~$2500 because I upspecced it for gaming purposes. It's now obsolete. Good value though - I got a good 2-3 years out of it before the latest games became too demanding.

There's more to gaming laptops than your typical laptop advantages over a desktop. I don't buy into the "just buy a good desktop for half the price" argument. If you hit up LAN events/parties/nights, carrying a laptop bag versus your monitor/HDD/Keyboard/Mouse is KING. Also looks a lot neater on your desk when it's folded away, and you can easily play in different rooms of the house (used to go for hours without eating after getting way too involved in a game).

Just gotta be prepared for your $3k technology to become obsolete in 2-3 years...

[bozodos]

dude don't even try and troll here, even the best alienware 17" lappy is still no comparison to a similarly specced desktop and they tend to overheat. Mobile GPU chipsets are gimped, and even a high end sandy bridge i7 is only comparable to an i7 920.

Buying one is like getting an SS Commodore and expecting it to handle like a Porsche, not a good value family car.

[WESTWD]

How did you get it for that price and what is the RRP?

Been considering an Alienware lately. My old Dell from many years ago cost me ~$2500 because I upspecced it for gaming purposes. It's now obsolete. Good value though - I got a good 2-3 years out of it before the latest games became too demanding.

There's more to gaming laptops than your typical laptop advantages over a desktop. I don't buy into the "just buy a good desktop for half the price" argument. If you hit up LAN events/parties/nights, carrying a laptop bag versus your monitor/HDD/Keyboard/Mouse is KING. Also looks a lot neater on your desk when it's folded away, and you can easily play in different rooms of the house (used to go for hours without eating after getting way too involved in a game).

Just gotta be prepared for your $3k technology to become obsolete in 2-3 years...

The total RRP price after i customised it came to $3088 (including an alienware carry bag. ~$80).

I spoke to dell customer service and requested that i get a couple of my selected upgrades for free (windows 7 ultimate, blu ray slot load player), and they granted the free upgrades. On top of that i also got a 13-15% discount.

So after all discounts etc, the price went from $3088 to $2620(including the bag), which isn't too bad imo.

[Birds]

lol, you asked them for a discount for the hell of it? Never thought to try that...

Boz I don't give a shit how slow they are compared to a desktop, as long as they run the latest games and they do. You're still faster than anyone else's laptop.

[WESTWD]

lol, you asked them for a discount for the hell of it? Never thought to try that...

Boz I don't give a shit how slow they are compared to a desktop, as long as they run the latest games and they do. You're still faster than anyone else's laptop.

Yeah, when i first spoke to somone on dell online chat, i just requested some freebees and the agent emailed me a short time later with a custom quote.

If you like, i can pm you the email of the agent i dealt with and you can contact her direct.

just as a side note, i would never buy an alienware desktop as you can build the same specs for $$$$ less, i only went for the alienware laptop as it is one of the best out there and i got a beefy discount.

It should be arriving at my work between 12pm-5pm today.

[Birds]

Yes please! Can you also include the specs of your laptop? I need something to spend my tax return on

Same, I don't see the value in the desktops...besides looking friggen cool and having some nice features. Can easily do it for nearly half the cost. Laptops I can't build, so I do see the value in them.

[WESTWD]

Yes please! Can you also include the specs of your laptop? I need something to spend my tax return on

Same, I don't see the value in the desktops...besides looking friggen cool and having some nice features. Can easily do it for nearly half the cost. Laptops I can't build, so I do see the value in them.

Sure. I will pm you her email soon and will post full specs after work tonight!

EDIT: PM'd

[oweban]

But my desktop is hella quiet sure it's not portable but it's quiet and cool

[bozodos]

yeah no point buying a prebuilt desktop unless you're a total noob.

tbh I'd rather have a light, portable laptop with good battery life for laptopping (think 14" w/SSD) and a proper desktop for gaming, not some gimped out compromise that costs 3k and still has to play everything on low with zero upgradeability or expansion / overclocking potential.

[oweban]

oh true that, my pc is custom, but i see your point.

however, i'm looking at the vaio z; with the external vidya card. i'll be playing with one of those bad boys tonight. basically sony's response to the macbook air; 2.7Ghz i7 (probably only dualcore but ohwell), 4gb ram, 2x128Gb SSD in raid 0. (0? striping.) 1080p screen on 13", external bluray + radeon 6650 via lightpeak.

http://www.sony.com.au/productcategory/it-pc-series-z

[WESTWD]

oh true that, my pc is custom, but i see your point.

however, i'm looking at the vaio z; with the external vidya card. i'll be playing with one of those bad boys tonight. basically sony's response to the macbook air; 2.7Ghz i7 (probably only dualcore but ohwell), 4gb ram, 2x128Gb SSD in raid 0. (0? striping.) 1080p screen on 13", external bluray + radeon 6650 via lightpeak.

http://www.sony.com..../it-pc-series-z

Totally off topic here, but just noticed your real name is Owen. We share the same name and a rare name at that! LOL!

So my alienware arrived yesterday. First thing i did was install the extra ram i bought. This required total removal of the keyboard etc as the 3rd and 4th RAM slots are a pain to get to.

Runs fantastic and first impressions are very good. Only other thing im considering changing are the hard drives from 2 X 750GB 7200rpm HDD's (RAID 0) to a SSD primary and HDD secondary.

Will be posting a review topic in the next couple of weeks.

PS: My only complaint is that i didn't receive the alienware mousepad that should of come in the accessory pack. Have emailed dell and will get them to ship one.

[Birds]

Awesome, give us the lowdown in framerate etc. with one of the more graphically demanding games.

[oweban]

Totally off topic here, but just noticed your real name is Owen. We share the same name and a rare name at that! LOL!

AAAWWW YEAHHHHH!!!!

Runs fantastic and first impressions are very good. Only other thing im considering changing are the hard drives from 2 X 750GB 7200rpm HDD's (RAID 0) to a SSD primary and HDD secondary.

60 or 120Gb Vertex 3!

[teinbits]

Congratz on the Alienware M17x!! .....Envious here >.< haha

Have you guys had a look at the new ASUS G74 Laptop? it sports a 560m gpu

and its only worth $1700 tops.....I think it kills the alienware in looks and specs!

my tax dollars are going in that as soon as the funds clear muahahahha

[Birds]

Tax refund is here...

Save vs Alienware?

FML

[SoFreshSoClean]

Tax refund is here...

Save vs Alienware?

FML

But that's what tax refunds are for!! Spending on extravagant luxuries you really don't need/can't afford

[WESTWD]

Tax refund is here...

Save vs Alienware?

FML

Alienware...you gotta treat yourself sometime!

[Birds]

Yo WESTWD, what were your specs in the end?