Alienware Question

xiaois

I was kind of wary about asking this question giving what I’ve seen about Alienware in this forum, although none of the threads have been too recent.

I currently have a decent desktop that I built myself for gaming and content creation but I wanted to add a laptop to my current setup that I can use to game occasionally on the go and also to aid in streams and recording my LP’s so that I won’t take a performance hit, no matter how small.

I was looking at some Alienware laptops and wanted to know if Alienware laptops are good, given you have the budget for them and if anyone here has any stories of their own.

What’s particularly appealing to me though, is the free on site repair service that comes with the warranty, that way I wouldn’t have to send my laptop off to be repaired unless it was a last resort.

I was either looking at the Alienware 17 or the Area-51m.

Thanks in advance.

ZeeGee

From what I understand, since Alienware was bought out by Dell their laptops are not as good quality as they used to be. I purchased an Alienware 17 and it was bad out of the box. It was a beautiful machine but every time I turned it on it blue screened then reset before it would boot up. Unfortunately I went on a trip right after I got it and let the 30 day return warranty expire. I went through a year of 'customer service' and endless waiting on the phone while watching people from afar try different things to fix it. I went through MANY factory resets. They eventually sent me a box to return it in. It was gone a couple of weeks, came back, same problems. They then sent a local person to try and fix it. Still had same problems. (blue screening). They finally caved and gave me a brand new one. But it did not have the disc drive cause they weren't making them with disc drives anymore. Anyway, brand new 17 inch Alienware. Didn't last even a month. They finally gave my money back.

So my experience is Alienware and Sims 3 don't mix. But there are others here who play on them just fine.

xiaois

ZeeGee wrote: »

From what I understand, since Alienware was bought out by Dell their laptops are not as good quality as they used to be. I purchased an Alienware 17 and it was bad out of the box. It was a beautiful machine but every time I turned it on it blue screened then reset before it would boot up. Unfortunately I went on a trip right after I got it and let the 30 day return warranty expire. I went through a year of 'customer service' and endless waiting on the phone while watching people from afar try different things to fix it. I went through MANY factory resets. They eventually sent me a box to return it in. It was gone a couple of weeks, came back, same problems. They then sent a local person to try and fix it. Still had same problems. (blue screening). They finally caved and gave me a brand new one. But it did not have the disc drive cause they weren't making them with disc drives anymore. Anyway, brand new 17 inch Alienware. Didn't last even a month. They finally gave my money back.

So my experience is Alienware and Sims 3 don't mix. But there are others here who play on them just fine.

The 17 was the one I was eyeing so that sucks to hear. I’ve also heard about their bad customer service which is why I wanted to ask here.

I’m stuck between that and the predator Helios 500 from acer. Same specs but cheaper and acer has a student discount.

ZeeGee

My understanding is that you can get just as good a laptop, if not better, for the money you would spend on an Alienware cause you're paying for the name. One of the experts will be along shortly to point you in the right direction.

puzzlezaddict

@ZeeGee is absolutely right that Alienware is overpriced for the hardware you get, and that Dell is not the best company to deal with either. Acers can be great, but some models are prone to overheating. You may be able to get a better computer and/or spend less money. Asus and MSI are popular brands for playing TS3, as is CyberpowerPC when it's not out of stock of almost everything (as it is now).

If you post your budget and country, as well as any other features you want, I can try to find something that works for you. I'm not sure who else offers a student discount, or how you get one—do you have to buy through the manufacturer? Sometimes those prices are inflated compared to what you'd see on Amazon or newegg. But if you let me know what you're looking for, I'll poke around and see what's available.

xiaois

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

@ZeeGee is absolutely right that Alienware is overpriced for the hardware you get, and that Dell is not the best company to deal with either. Acers can be great, but some models are prone to overheating. You may be able to get a better computer and/or spend less money. Asus and MSI are popular brands for playing TS3, as is CyberpowerPC when it's not out of stock of almost everything (as it is now).

If you post your budget and country, as well as any other features you want, I can try to find something that works for you. I'm not sure who else offers a student discount, or how you get one—do you have to buy through the manufacturer? Sometimes those prices are inflated compared to what you'd see on Amazon or newegg. But if you let me know what you're looking for, I'll poke around and see what's available.

I’m in the US and my budget is sub $3000 including any additional SSD I might want to buy to upgrade whatever storage the laptop comes with.

My current go-to is the Acer mainly because I get a student discount in addition to my work discount and the Helios 500 seems really good for its purposes. As far as ASUS I’ve been looking at their ASUS G703GI-XS71 with the the i7 which is kind of like a desktop replacement and is $2100 on Newegg.

I’d personally prefer something without the signature red and black, and I don’t mind the bulkiness if it equates to better cooling.

@puzzlezaddict

puzzlezaddict

For that budget, you can get whatever you want, and probably do better than the Alienware or the Acer. I can look for options later today, but it would help to know more of what you're looking for. Do you want a particular graphics card or processor? I'm guessing you'd like something better than a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, but would you prefer a preinstalled large SSD, or would you prefer to install it yourself? (If it's an issue of money, I can check prices too.) And how much RAM do you want? Again, would you prefer to pay extra for it to be preinstalled, or order it yourself? A 16 GB RAM kit might cost you $100-120, depending on what kind you want. And RAM is easy to install.

Anyway, let me know what you're looking for, and I'll post back tonight.

xiaois

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

For that budget, you can get whatever you want, and probably do better than the Alienware or the Acer. I can look for options later today, but it would help to know more of what you're looking for. Do you want a particular graphics card or processor? I'm guessing you'd like something better than a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, but would you prefer a preinstalled large SSD, or would you prefer to install it yourself? (If it's an issue of money, I can check prices too.) And how much RAM do you want? Again, would you prefer to pay extra for it to be preinstalled, or order it yourself? A 16 GB RAM kit might cost you $100-120, depending on what kind you want. And RAM is easy to install.

Anyway, let me know what you're looking for, and I'll post back tonight.

Sorry for the late reply, it’s 1 am where I am, and I just got home from work.

I’d prefer gtx 1070 at least and I’m not too particular about the processor, but i do know that I don’t want an i9 - I’ve heard they have terrible cooling in laptops. I don’t mind installing RAM or an SSD, just as long as it has a good storage capacity overall.

@puzzlezaddict

puzzlezaddict

No worries about the late reply. (And, uh, it's now almost 1 am for me too.) It's better to take your time and make sure you're getting exactly what you want, anyway. On that note, since you're not interested in anything less than an Nvidia 1070, I take it that a 2060 is also off the table? There are plenty of laptops with that card, but you can certainly do better if you want.

Given the options available, I think the next important question is screen size. All the laptops linked below have IPS screens, which are the highest quality, but a larger screen, higher resolution, or higher refresh rate may matter to you.

If you're fine with a 15.6" screen, the best option is to customize a CyberpowerPC laptop. You could get 16 GB RAM preinstalled; or, if you wanted 32 GB, order the laptop with 8 GB and then get a 2x16 GB RAM kit separately. You could choose from a long list of storage options, getting the second SSD of your choice installed for you instead of having to add it yourself (and potentially voiding the warranty). To give you an idea, a bare bones version of the model below, with a single 500 GB NVMe SSD (the fastest kind) and 8 GB RAM would cost about $1,500.

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Tracer-III-15R-Slim-VR-300

If you're looking for a 17.3" screen, newegg is offering a few good options. This MSI is $1,600, with an Nvidia 1070. It has a 512 GB SSD, although it doesn't say whether it's a SATA or NVMe, and a 2 TB HDD. It has 4k resolution, if you're into that kind of thing, but the refresh rate is only 60 Hz. Of course, if you wanted to play games in 4k at 144 Hz, you'd need a 2080 ti, which you can't get in a laptop. And this model has an RGB keyboard, so you wouldn't be stuck with the black and red theme.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834154800

If you'd prefer a 144 Hz refresh rate—many people can't tell the difference, but it matters very much to some—this $2100 Asus has a 2070, a 512 GB NVMe SSD (plus a 1 TB hybrid drive, which will be a bit slower than a SATA SSD), and an RGB keyboard as well. It comes with a single 16 GB RAM stick, so it would be easy to add a second identical one yourself.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834235125&ignorebbr=1

Upgrading the graphics card to a 2080 can get very pricey, and I have no idea if you'd have any use for all that power, anyway. But if you're curious, this model is very impressive, and no more expensive than any other laptop with a 2080:

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE75-Raider-023-i7-8750H-Aluminum/dp/B07MM2TSFB

And in case you wondered why people say you can get just about anything with a $3000 budget, check out this behemoth:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154827&ignorebbr=1

xiaois

All of those seem amazing. I like the 17 in Asus you mentioned and the 17 inch MSI as well.

And wow that last one is definitely a beast. SLI means it has two graphics card right? I don’t think I need that much power, especially since I do have a desktop as well

@puzzlezaddict

puzzlezaddict

Yes, SLI means the two cards work in tandem; in this case, the two 2080s together probably match or exceed the performance of a 2080 ti. Honestly, I can't understand why anyone would need that kind of power in a laptop—a single 2070 can run any current game at 144 Hz on ultra settings at 1080p, and probably just about in QHD (2560x1440). I'm with you—if you need more power than that, get a desktop. But some people really love their toys.

The default configurations for almost all laptops, even the high end ones, almost never offer an SSD larger than 500 GB. If you're thinking you want more SSD storage, your only other option is a third-party upgrade. This usually voids the warranty, whether you do it yourself or order it preinstalled, so you'd be taking a risk. It's a smaller risk if you buy from a well-respected company, and smaller still if you order through Amazon and get the "Fulfilled by Amazon" tag on the purchase—that means Amazon will take responsibility for replacing a defective product. If you're interested, I can look more, but a quick search turned up a couple of options that will give you an idea of what's out there:

https://www.amazon.com/d/Traditional-Laptops/Notebook-i7-8750H-NVIDIA-Windows-Computer/B074JH4PTG?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/GP73-Leopard-i7-8750H-Notebook-Computer/dp/B07K2FYZ2C

And if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

xiaois

Thank you so much for your suggestions! A couple of them are on display at two of my local Best Buy’s so I’m going to try to go in today to get a look at them. I feel like you get a better idea of whether you’d truly like something if you see it in person.

Again thanks so much, I definitely won’t be getting an Alienware since I can get much ore value for my money.

@puzzlezaddict