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Why is Alienware the best gaming notebook maker on the planet? Tell us!


Brian

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Well a thread on another forum questioned people why they are AW fanatics which prompted a reply from me. Then I thought, "hey why not create a thread where AW owners can give feedback as to why they love Alienware notebooks?!" so here it is! Give us your reason as to why you love Alienware and keep coming back for more...here's mine:

Let me chime in on why Alienware is by far the best notebook gaming brand in the universe:

  1. Next business day service (I'll expand on this more below)
  2. Excellent build quality
  3. Top of the line cooling (will discuss this further)
  4. Bios Overclocking (M17x + M18x)
  5. Design Appeal
  6. Extras (e.g. alienfx, wireless hdmi, msata drive, hdmi in)

NBD Service

As far as NBD service I'll give you an example of how Dell recently helped me out: My palm rest's touchpad was malfunctioning, I e-mailed one of the several excellent AW reps that are available on the T|I forums, told him my problem and the next day my new palm rest was waiting for me at home. Few days later, I noticed my media panel lights were having issues and again, Dell overnighted a new media panel cover. However, it turns out the panel was perfectly fine, the ribbon cable was the culprit, so again I e-mailed the Dell rep and the next day a replacement ribbon cable was there and my system is good as new.

That's one story, another is that I previously had AMD 6990M Xfire in my M18x and was extremely frustrated with the AMD drivers. I pinged a Dell rep. about it and 2 weeks later had a brand new M18x + 580M SLI delivered to my doorstep WITH a return label to send back the other system.

I have a challenge for everyone out there: Find me a gaming notebook maker that can match this level of service. I can back up my claims with screenshots of the work orders so if you claim you got the same service from another gaming notebook maker, back it up. I'm sure there's tons of other Alienware users that have similar stories as mine.

Cooling

As I mentioned, Alienware has exceedingly good cooling design built into their notebooks. While some other brand notebook owners are seeing high temperatures on their GPUs and resorting to modding their systems, Alienware owners don't have to bother. As another personal anecdote, I have a 4 GB 680M in my system and can run it at 1200+ core and 2500+ mhz memory and the hottest it gets is 84C at 100% utilization and that's in super hot Phoenix, AZ weather!

As with any brand, Alienware also has its down sides and the biggest one is their GPU throttling scheme. With their recent 680M release, they have an algorithm built in that throttles the GPU after a certain power/temp threshold is crossed and thus overclocking is limited with the Dell 680M. IMO this sort of aggressive throttling is unnecessary given the excellent cooling built into their systems. But with everything taken into account, I'd still pick an Alienware system over any of its competitors.

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Excellent points. The MSRP for Alienwares is a bit higher than the competition, but those are some compelling reasons to cough up a little extra on your next machine. If you can get some sort of discounts, i.e.: student, military, EEP, or simply haggling etc, then Alienwares are no brainers.

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Build quality (especially M17x) simply does not compare to competition, unless we're talking about business class machines (Thinkpad, Elitebook...). I bought M17x-R2 2-2.5 years ago and it still looks pretty much brand new even though I use it daily. NBD Home service is quite nice in terms of getting parts, but I'd regularly get incompetent contracted tech coming by. (That said, my experience with the depot repair has been even worse, so...) The design is a little subjective thing, but I have to say I love it. :)

That said, I haven't seen most recent gaming notebooks from Acer, Asus, Clevo... so I guess I'm wondering how much they advanced from last time I've checked their stuff?

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Well Brian your post is very thought out and concise but that not why Alienware is the best, those are adjectives and buzzwords people tend to use.

The reality is simple, They the best because most of the time their gaming laptops do what they suppose to do and they do have a lot of room to grow, but they not without sin, I am not a blind cheerleader.

1. Next day business service? Yes it pretty good as long as you get someone in the network that knows what their doing(I have found AW and Dell techs they never seen an M18x-R1 in their service life)

2. Quality is good, but not great, they tend to overlook common sense details, is like sometimes bright designers have tunnel vision. Example the M18x-R1 has design issues.(bottom latch anyone, I upgrade my Ram memory to 16 gigs and I ended up with a busted bottom cover, and that is after I follow the post how to open the latch.!!!?)

3.Top of the line cooling? yes and no. In the m17x R-1 video cards fans tend to run hard and usually one of them is 20 degrees hotter. (when I called support they told me this was normal, which i completely disagree) M18x-R1? so so, is good but not optimal. M14x_r2? is yet to be seem i get mine on august 27 if I am lucky.

4. Design Appeal? I give you that Alienware laptops a pure eye candy and they have the best aesthetic appeal, but let me ask you something, would you take your m18x-R1 everyday to school? what about your m17x? the AW profile is heavy and thick and remind me of the old school Toshiba laptops of the 90's,and they seem they not interested in making their laptops portable anytime soon, unless you willing to take a M11x with 2 gigs of Ram max(good luck playing BF3 Armored Kill maps in one of those, never mind the 1200+price tag for entry level unit)

5. And we come to the extra department, A department that is controversial at best. Yes they do have a lot of extras but the premium price for them is not justifiable. Example memory for my m18x-R1, a 8 gig upgrade was price at 400 us dollars when I wanted to add more memory, same upgrade at crucial was 90 US.

Now i know what you thinking this is a flame post and I probably have an agenda, but it ain't, I own 3 alienware laptops and their are my choice in the future (I just forked 1400 US for a 14 inch laptop) All I am saying is they good because they do what they supposed to do and they are a modder wet dream, something that souless companies(like HP and Gateway) Cannot understand or replicate.

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i just baught my 1st mx17 r4 and love it. the reason i went with this one was because dell are a reputible company in the uk and there is not many other options for a true gameing laptop at the price they offer in the uk. The next step would be to purchase the msi gt70 at £1600 for not much better specs than what i got from dell.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The alien design is great and good quality,the next bussines day service yes is a good service but I have an alien to play high performance games and I can´t do it comfortably because throttling problems with my gtx580m....

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The alien design is great and good quality,the next bussines day service yes is a good service but I have an alien to play high performance games and I can´t do it comfortably because throttling problems with my gtx580m....

That's a vbios and nvinspector tweak that will fix that.

Sent from my GT-N7000

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  • 2 weeks later...

Easily all of the above plus when you finally get a good rep to work with, THEY TAKE CARE OF YOU! Support of Alienware goes above and beyond any warranty service I have ever seen. it may not be right from the gate but will be once you reach out to the right people.

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  • 2 months later...

My mum laptop broke down so i brought her to a shop to buy a normal notebook. On the desk we saw asus g75 and alienware m17xr4. So i ask my mum to consider the asus due to the price which is a lot cheaper.She only stream drama on laptop never even game. Instead she wanted the m17xr4 next to the asus g75 coz of the flashy lights on the keyboard nice screen and awesome build quality. The asus just pale in comparison. Alienware 1 Asus 0

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Don't know about the best maker on the planet but this year's lineup offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Just last week I had to replace my mainboard due to bios flashing going wrong, the day after the guy came by to replace the mobo.

So yea that's a first for me, even though it's a one time thing the support has been top notch!

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  • 4 months later...

I love my alienwares M17x R4, M14x R2 M11x R1 BUT!! Technical support is TERRIBLE!!! It took a month to get a working M17x R4. After I received my system with a blown speaker they sent out a non dell tech that forgot to put screws back in. I know my way around computers but I figured since I just bought the thing they should fix it... Bad Idea! They sent me a replacement system That wouldn't even boot and was scratched and dented to all heck... (do they check these things?). So I fixed my original myself. They never did pay me for my work like they promised... 30 plus hours on the phone with tech support (mostly on hold). I kept a record after the first week.

I only found 1 guy that wasn't rude.

I will never buy a alienware directly from dell again. I ended up selling my M17x after I fixed it up.

That being said All of my alienwares have been of good quality besides some complaints (non matching ram, grill flex) little things.

As long as the price is right my next upgrade after my m14x R2 become obsolete will be a alienware.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I love my alienwares M17x R4, M14x R2 M11x R1 BUT!! Technical support is TERRIBLE!!! It took a month to get a working M17x R4. After I received my system with a blown speaker they sent out a non dell tech that forgot to put screws back in. I know my way around computers but I figured since I just bought the thing they should fix it... Bad Idea! They sent me a replacement system That wouldn't even boot and was scratched and dented to all heck... (do they check these things?). So I fixed my original myself. They never did pay me for my work like they promised... 30 plus hours on the phone with tech support (mostly on hold). I kept a record after the first week.

I only found 1 guy that wasn't rude.

I will never buy a alienware directly from dell again. I ended up selling my M17x after I fixed it up.

That being said All of my alienwares have been of good quality besides some complaints (non matching ram, grill flex) little things.

As long as the price is right my next upgrade after my m14x R2 become obsolete will be a alienware.

I hear these stories all the time but my experience has been the opposite. my m18xr2 came with a little keyboard issue... guy came over fixed it and tech support has been way cool to me. I'm lucky I guess?

I feel bad for all the bad experiences!

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They are good without a doubt, but i prefer Clevo machines but its personal preference tbh. Saying something is the "best" is a BIG call when it comes to computer

technology. I have both brands so im not bias! ;)

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