Alienware for PC

[jkeele3]

Hello all,

I am thinking about getting/building a PC after I get back from my deployment since I will have a little extra cash and was wondering if anyone had experience with alienware. Is it worth it? Which is the best PC? What are the necessaries for a PC for gaming purposes, things like that would be useful for me. Thanks everyone.

[RighteousKil187]

Overrated over-priced. PM DocCupcake, he owns his own custom computer business and has even built a custom pc for one of our own (SteelHavok) and offers a military discount. His thread is under The Exchange-->Custom Laptop/Desktop or go here http://forums.usmilitarygamers.com/showthread.php?7340-Custom-desktops-laptops/page2

[roaland]

Alienware used to be decent, but something happened and not sure what, but the quality just doesn't seem to be there anymore. And I agree, PM Doc lol

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[ZuluNiner]

I think AlienWare got bought out by Dell.

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[jxspyder]

I think AlienWare got bought out by Dell.

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They did.

They're good computers, but unless you have some form of deal in place, it's cheaper to buy a custom built one that's not a brand. You miss out on the Alienware logo, but that's about it.

I'd suggest Doc as well, personally.

Sent from the muddy banks of the Wishkah

[iamthesgt]

I think AlienWare got bought out by Dell.

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It did. I don't have experience, but from what I've heard they're decent but overpriced with not great tech support. Falcon NW makes good stuff, but they're very expensive although they have great tech support. If you're a techie, building your own is the way to go. If not, or if you want the peace of mind that comes with a pro building it, PM DocCupcake like the others said.

[jkeele3]

Thank you for all the help, I appreciate it. I am not much of a techie, but I do enjoy all the techs and want to learn more about them. I need to peace of mind of a pro building the computer because I definitely do not trust myself to make a great computer. I will do some more research and check into DocCupCake as well.

[CrzyChinook]

I have 2 Alienwares.. one pre dell and one post dell.. both laptops.. now when takin best bang for yer buck with a gaming rig in mind.. they are a awesome deal!! but i would have to agree with everyone when it comes to desktops.. wayyyy over priced... getting a DIY is wayyy cheaper... or even having some one else build a desktop for you.. :aeek:

[DOCCUPCAKE]

Hey:) just let me know what your looking into and I'll send u some ideas and quotes! And don't buy Alienware or them other huge name brand companies comps you will pay 500-1500 just in product markup- for having a name-


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[jkeele3]

I am definately going to go to your when I am ready, I get back from my deployment around Nov/Dec, so I will be in the market then!

[DOCCUPCAKE]

Sounds good I'll be here stay froggy-


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[MARDIGRA21]

Been looking at the m17x r4 with amd 7970 upgrade. My other choice is the Asus g75vw. Any thoughts.?

[DOCCUPCAKE]

Been looking at the m17x r4 with amd 7970 upgrade. My other choice is the Asus g75vw. Any thoughts.?

Depends on if ur looking to game intensive? If so the 7970m is the way to go.... Budget wise the Asus w the 660m GTX it will give u mid range performance and more value!


Sent from the heliosphere.... And beyond

[MARDIGRA21]

The price difference is 500 bucks and the only difference is the gfx card, so I Might go with the g75 but the alienware lights intrigue me lol.

[DOCCUPCAKE]

Lol the lights huh.... Lol Alienware is always neat at that stuff..,.


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[ssandersjr]

Lol the lights huh.... Lol Alienware is always neat at that stuff..,.


Sent from the heliosphere.... And beyond


I have always like Alienware on the "Uniqueness" of the products. At CES in 2008 Amazon/Alienware showcased a Wraparound monitor. I'm not sure what happened to the idea.


http://youtu.be/FvI3WMYc6W4

[iamthesgt]

I have always like Alienware on the "Uniqueness" of the products. At CES in 2008 Amazon/Alienware showcased a Wraparound monitor. I'm not sure what happened to the idea.


http://youtu.be/FvI3WMYc6W4

They sold a curved monitor for years (but it was only like 24") and eventually discontinued it. I believe it had reliability problems and was prohibitively expensive.

[Port66]

I thought about the 3 screen set or this one really got me interested

http://amzn.com/B005TFUFXI

I havent seen as much angle since back in that show.

[Port66]

I thought about the 3 screen set or this one really got me interested

http://amzn.com/B005TFUFXI

I havent seen as much angle since back in that show.


oh and yes I have the HD projector already, work was throwing it out I put in a new fuse and it worked fine

[Bull3tBait]

I have an Alienware Laptop (for close to 4 years now). After 3 years one of my hard drives crashed which of course crashed the whole thing seeing as it uses RAID.

Now as to the comment above about them not having good Tech support? I have to respectfully say that is definitely not true. I have several emails from tech Alienware tech support that prove otherwise. They basically assign one "techie" to you that follows your issue from start to conclusion. In my case it took 2 months to resolve but not on Dell's part, it was on mine because I was sent away on training twice, once for 1 week and a second time for 2 weeks (Dec and Jan) and Christmas fell between. The first set of Hard Drives I received didn't work out so they sent me a second even better (more capacity) set the second time around and it's been working beautifully. They walked me through the install, once I got the OS and network card driver installed they were able to remote in and they installed the rest of of the drivers and the Control software (that lets you change the fancy keyboard colors). Simple, quick, easy.

Considering the money I paid for this beast. The technology is still comparable to what's being sold out their, (i.e, the i7 processor). I do miss the option to be able to upgrade the desktop tho.

[iamthesgt]

I have an Alienware Laptop (for close to 4 years now). After 3 years one of my hard drives crashed which of course crashed the whole thing seeing as it uses RAID.

Now as to the comment above about them not having good Tech support? I have to respectfully say that is definitely not true. I have several emails from tech Alienware tech support that prove otherwise. They basically assign one "techie" to you that follows your issue from start to conclusion. In my case it took 2 months to resolve but not on Dell's part, it was on mine because I was sent away on training twice, once for 1 week and a second time for 2 weeks (Dec and Jan) and Christmas fell between. The first set of Hard Drives I received didn't work out so they sent me a second even better (more capacity) set the second time around and it's been working beautifully. They walked me through the install, once I got the OS and network card driver installed they were able to remote in and they installed the rest of of the drivers and the Control software (that lets you change the fancy keyboard colors). Simple, quick, easy.

Considering the money I paid for this beast. The technology is still comparable to what's being sold out their, (i.e, the i7 processor). I do miss the option to be able to upgrade the desktop tho.

Good to know. I've never used their tech support, so I'm just going off what I've heard. Probably just the few bad experiences being trumpeted louder than the good ones.

[MARDIGRA21]

I'm going with the alien ware m17x core i7 with the amd 7970 upgrade for 1700.00. I have researched all the laptops from sager, msi, Asus, and the Samsung gamer and I think I will thoroughly enjoy this pickup.

[Bull3tBait]

I'm going with the alien ware m17x core i7 with the amd 7970 upgrade for 1700.00. I have researched all the laptops from sager, msi, Asus, and the Samsung gamer and I think I will thoroughly enjoy this pickup.

I have the m17x core i7 I believe Chinook does too. His is the first release mine was the second


There Ain't no Rest for the Wicked.....

[CrzyChinook]

I have the m17x core i7 I believe Chinook does too. His is the first release mine was the second


There Ain't no Rest for the Wicked.....

Yup i got a M17xR1 Duo Core 2.8 cpu running Dual SLI GTX 260m . shes old and a beast.. gone thru 3 optical drives.. which i hardly used anyway .. opt to replaced it myself with a HD caddy for a 3rd HD.. running a 3TB laptop now!! but she still runs like a champ..

and as customer service goes... TOP NOTCH... ive called and the new alienware/dell IT dept is in Costa Rico.. but i can understand them all and i have have very long BS sessions with them .. trying to see how knowledgeable they truly were as a help desk.. i was surprised that most of them were pretty good techies and knew their stuff..

i want a new laptop... but really have no reason ... she still running strong and can play most of the games i throw at her..

[MARDIGRA21]

Got my computer today. This thing is a beast. I have played far cry 3, and sniper elite nazi zombies at ultra settings with no loss of frame rate whatsoever. Now for battlefield 3 to come back on sale.

[Twizted875]

Give crysis 3 a shot its amazing

[iamthesgt]

Got my computer today. This thing is a beast. I have played far cry 3, and sniper elite nazi zombies at ultra settings with no loss of frame rate whatsoever. Now for battlefield 3 to come back on sale.

Nice! Pics?

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[ssandersjr]

Nice! Pics?

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Yes, can't get new toys and not post pics.

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[MARDIGRA21]

Will post better pics later

[MARDIGRA21]

Tapatalk won't let me post pics. Will post pics when I get home.

[MARDIGRA21]

Add me on steam. Same username as this website. Mardigra21

[iamthesgt]

Tapatalk won't let me post pics. Will post pics when I get home.

Poop

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[MARDIGRA21]

Here's a couple pics of tomb raider running on ultra settings.

50765077

[CrzyChinook]

Sweet rig... just remember a Alienware isnt just a laptop..SHE'S A BEAST!!! you have to treat her like a lady...

i have have my R1 for a long time.. and i LOVE IT.. with proper maintenance and care it will last a long time!.. if you need any tips on tear down or links just ask.. and there are some great forums out there .. but the best for tech support wise is http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/ .... there is a dude from Europe named Katlin .. hes awesome tech guy has help me every time i ran in to a prob .. he would help out NP.... great guy

also i would suggest at least once every 7-9 months.. do a fresh load with your OS and drivers... it keeps it fast and all the garbage out of your system...plus i keep all my games in the second drive bay... didn't wanna pay out the ass for a SSD so i went with the 750 SSD hybrid that sea-gate has.. plus i keep all my games on a 640 hd ..and everything else in a 1tb in my optical drive.. pulled out my drive never use it and it was constantly breaking

plus i maxed out my ram as soon as it was priced reasonable...

other than that my baby runs like a beast except for a few games.. but im sure i can turn down the settings if i really needed to

[Rickety Rob]

A buddy of mine got one and that thing was a P.O.S. He paid 4 grand for it as well

[CrzyChinook]

A buddy of mine got one and that thing was a P.O.S. He paid 4 grand for it as well

After owning a couple of Gaming Laptops... They are not for NOOBS... they do require a bit of a minimal IT experience to keep them in top running order... can be a pain in the ass sometimes.. lots of people think they can just plop one open and expect it to preform like their Toshiba 15 inch laptop did for 4 years... doesnt work like that.. but sometimes you get lucky enough and get one or two stories of people that had to do nothing with theirs and it always runs like a champ but then their is the flip side.. and you get the worst POS, Lemon, or Customer service on the planet.. it happens.. to say it doesnt is a lie... "the cake is a lie"...

most of the time ive seen.. at least 75-80% of the time its the user that doesn't understand the hardware he has just bought.. this coming from a IT perspective ..

[Rickety Rob]

at least 75-80% of the time its the user that doesn't understand the hardware he has just bought.

You're 100 percent correct. He's an idiot when it comes to electronics and he bought it for personal use only. No gaming was involved. Something he used for shits and giggles

[ssandersjr]

Sweet rig... just remember a Alienware isnt just a laptop..SHE'S A BEAST!!! you have to treat her like a lady...

also i would suggest at least once every 7-9 months.. do a fresh load with your OS and drivers... it keeps it fast and all the garbage out of your system...plus i keep all my games in the second drive bay... didn't wanna pay out the ass for a SSD so i went with the 750 SSD hybrid that sea-gate has.. plus i keep all my games on a 640 hd ..and everything else in a 1tb in my optical drive.. pulled out my drive never use it and it was constantly breaking




Excellent advice. It is amazing how many people out there think Their machine that has had WinXP installed on it sice it was released 11 years ago should run as fast as it did the day they bought it. I primarily use Linux or a BSD variant at home on all but one machine, that one does dual boot Debian and Windows 7 Ultimate. I keep a DVD backup image and at least twice a year do a fresh install on that machine. My stepson learned a long time ago, if he comes to me and says there is a computer problem that he better have documents on his profile backed up, because I am not going to attempt to clean the system or do registry repairs, the back up image is going in and everything will be gone.

[MARDIGRA21]

Yeah I might need a little advice when I buy an ssd so I can get windows 7 installed on it. And use the tb for backup and storage.

[MARDIGRA21]

Crysis 3 looks amazing on pc.

[Twizted875]

Crysis 3 looks amazing on pc.

Ya it is extremely bad ass

[MARDIGRA21]

I updated my gfx card to a beta driver from amd and I saw a signicant fps Improvement on max settings in crysis 3, tomb raider and far cry 3

[CrzyChinook]

I updated my gfx card to a beta driver from amd and I saw a signicant fps Improvement on max settings in crysis 3, tomb raider and far cry 3

yeah always get the latest video drivers from the manufacturer web site.. dell has a horrible time of keeping up... i like NVida's new optimizer software.. it let me know when a new driver comes out and usually downloads for me automatically ... beta can be tricky but usally a WHQL will come out soon enough

[MARDIGRA21]

yeah always get the latest video drivers from the manufacturer web site.. dell has a horrible time of keeping up... i like NVida's new optimizer software.. it let me know when a new driver comes out and usually downloads for me automatically ... beta can be tricky but usally a WHQL will come out soon enough

Yeah it took me a while to figure out because it wouldn't let me install the catalyst from amd. Finally, I just thought to un install the whole driver and reinstall. Voila it works great. Crysis 3's fps had a difference between night and day.