grimskull89 wrote:Has anyone had any experience with Alienware since Dell bought them out?

I am kind of weary of Dell...

You have good reason to be. The consumer watchdog blog "The Consumerist" has several posts of poor quality Alienware products/customer service.

http://consumerist.com/?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&s=alienware

Be sure to read some of the comments of those articles too.

If you want an expensive and overpriced laptop, go get you a Razer Blade. The thing has a touchscreen instead of a trackpad. What will they think of next?

My two cents - Pros: it's pretty, nice keyboard layout (backlit!) and the dual hybrid drive setup is nice.
Cons: previous generation processor and it's the base model. DVD, not blu-ray player. Last year's graphics card.

I paid less at ibuypower for a 17", i7 ivy bridge 2.6 processor, with blu-ray, 650M graphics card, and a solid state drive.

It's not as much of a deal as I would have hoped...

alienware was bought by dell a while ago and quality dropped a ton. hmm that sounds like some other place that was recently bought out by big corpazon, I SMELL A CONSPIRACY

DaveInSoCal wrote:Is this the most expensive item ever sold on woot?

Close, but the most expensive item I have seen is the 65" Olevia tv they sold four years ago for $2,299.99 + $5 shipping

I see that is comes with a cloth bag, but does anyone know of a better computer bag in which this thing will fit? Preferably something with a shoulder strap.

Typing this from my m14x!!!!

I was skeptical at first before I got my Alienware, and I actually got the m14x for a better price and with better specs, but I digress...

I've been nothing but happy with my Alienware. No issues at all. The fact that dell has their paws on the operation made me pause for a moment, but after having owned this machine for almost a year now, it has made no difference in quality. I did put a SSD Hybrid Drive in mine, and bootup times along with other popular program run times are even better. Just be ready, because this thing will BAKE your lap, chill mats are almost a must depending on what you are using this for.

Great quality, fun equipment, IMO you get what you pay for. It's just hard to see that until you have it infront of you.

When you spend $1500 on a gaming rig, you're in it for serious gaming.

A laptop isn't used for serious gaming.

This is a waste of both money and gaming time.

teamman wrote:Typing this from my m14x!!!!

I was skeptical at first before I got my Alienware, and I actually got the m14x for a better price and with better specs, but I digress...

I've been nothing but happy with my Alienware. No issues at all. The fact that dell has their paws on the operation made me pause for a moment, but after having owned this machine for almost a year now, it has made no difference in quality. I did put a SSD Hybrid Drive in mine, and bootup times along with other popular program run times are even better. Just be ready, because this thing will BAKE your lap, chill mats are almost a must depending on what you are using this for.

Great quality, fun equipment, IMO you get what you pay for. It's just hard to see that until you have it infront of you.

You're paying for more than you get. Take any Alienware specs, price it out at another builder, and you'll always come out cheaper.

There is absolutely no reason to buy an Alienware unless you just want the name and don't mind paying hundreds of dollars extra for the name.

this is what you get when you incessantly complain about the quality of products on woot: a product that isn't even in the same league and what they normally hawk.

and yeah, you compromise a little performance by getting the LT, but a gaming laptop is a great thing to have if you're a gamer who's on the road a lot or if you're going to bring your own computer conventions like quake-con where you have to wait in line for hours and hours and move 4-5 feet every few minutes. I'll never bring a desktop with me to one of those ever again.

and it isn't the name you're paying the extra dough for with AW, it's the LEDs and such built into the case. it's not free to do that you know. If you want a portable computer with decent performance and a 'oooooh, ahhh' factor, and you've got the money to shell out some big cash, go for it. This price is out of my league though.

on a side note, I work with dells at the store every day, they are mainly what we deal with, and while mostly it's not the consumer products but the ones intended for businesses we deal with, I can personally attest to the durability and accessibility of the hardware in them. You can completely disassemble any latitude d, e, and m series with a little Phillips-head and put it back together in a few minutes with only minimal experience with laptops. Much more accessable than some others like HPs, acers, and Lenovos, though i do have to give kudos to Asus as well.

Schlingfo wrote:You're paying for more than you get. Take any Alienware specs, price it out at another builder, and you'll always come out cheaper.

There is absolutely no reason to buy an Alienware unless you just want the name and don't mind paying hundreds of dollars extra for the name.

this. It's obvious that this is the kind of crowd they're selling to, evidenced by the hat, shirt, and other logoed stuff that comes with it. They know that you know you'll want people to know you've got an alienware.

Schlingfo wrote:You're paying for more than you get. Take any Alienware specs, price it out at another builder, and you'll always come out cheaper.

There is absolutely no reason to buy an Alienware unless you just want the name and don't mind paying hundreds of dollars extra for the name.

Or you can do it like me and most of the gaming community, and get a much better spec'd Alienware at a lower price than on here, not hard to do and not a mystery....

For those of us who travel and still like to game, this is a great compromise. Plus you get the perks of customer service and warranty protection. Sure you could make some hulking water-cooled beast (which needless to say is not portable), but for some that doesn't fit the bill. Just because it may not fit your needs doesn't make this a bad computer by any means. It's actually pretty good for a small laptop. Different strokes for different folks.

PriNT wrote:I see that is comes with a cloth bag, but does anyone know of a better computer bag in which this thing will fit? Preferably something with a shoulder strap.

The cloth bag is a static protector. You may want to check Dell's site to see what type of bag they sell with this laptop.

teamman wrote:Or you can do it like me and most of the gaming community, and get a much better spec'd Alienware at a lower price than on here, not hard to do and not a mystery....

For those of us who travel and still like to game, this is a great compromise. Plus you get the perks of customer service and warranty protection. Sure you could make some hulking water-cooled beast (which needless to say is not portable), but for some that doesn't fit the bill. Just because it may not fit your needs doesn't make this a bad computer by any means. It's actually pretty good for a small laptop. Different strokes for different folks.

Any Alienware computer you buy is going to be significantly more expensive than a non-Alienware computer with the same specs.

There is no getting around that fact. When you buy Alienware, you're paying more for the same hardware.

The Lenovo Ideapad y580 is 1080p, 8gb DDR3, i7-3610 (the newer Ivy Bridge model), 1TB+32gb SSD, and an Nvidia GEForce GTX 660M, and 2x USB 3.0 slots for $1100.

Just strictly better than this Alienware name brand in every category that's relevant.

Source: Lenovo y580 sales page

ganome wrote:alienware was bought by dell a while ago and quality dropped a ton. hmm that sounds like some other place that was recently bought out by big corpazon, I SMELL A CONSPIRACY

hogwash

ganome wrote:alienware was bought by dell a while ago and quality dropped a ton. hmm that sounds like some other place that was recently bought out by big corpazon, I SMELL A CONSPIRACY

That smell may be your breath because your talking through your bum.

I reviewed one of these a couple of years ago. Nice machine, if I had the scratch to buy one I would definitely pick it up.

My main reason for considering this laptop is not for gaming, but for the dual hard drive option. I currently have a Dell Vostro 1700 (nearly 5 years old) with dual HD bays. I have a 120Gb SSD boot drive and a 1TB data drive for all my documents, movies, music, etc. The performance boost of the SSD is amazing, and I have plenty of room to store everything on the second drive. Dell is the only manufacturer I've found that offers dual drive laptops (in Alienware, XPS, and Precision lines).

If someone can find another brand that offers this option (and a 17" or higher screen), I'd consider it.

EDIT: I stand (or sit, really) corrected. ASUS now offers a dual HD model with a 17"screen.

tljx wrote:I have to disagree. With Alienware computers, you're paying for a name. There are usually much cheaper options that offer the same or better performance. For example, the ASUS G75VW-AS71 has hardware superior in most aspects to the laptop being offered here and can be found new on Amazon for $1,349.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH YOU. I BOUGHT MY M14X ALIENWARE THRU DELL FOR 699 SHIPPED TO MY DOOR. ALIENWARE IS NO DIFFERENT THAN PRODUCT YOU JUST HAVE TO SHOP AROUND.

Love my Alienware M17X. It's fully upgraded and plays Crysis 2 on ultra just fine with no heat problems. Have tried over 20 games on it and have been able to do ultra settings every time with no lag.

PriNT wrote:I see that is comes with a cloth bag, but does anyone know of a better computer bag in which this thing will fit? Preferably something with a shoulder strap.

I have a very similar ASUS laptop I bought a month ago, and I had a hard time finding a bag big enough to hold a gaming rig of this size. I dorked out a bit, and went to the local Army surplus store and bought a Medium ALICE pack. It fits the laptop pretty much perfectly, has 3 nice size pouches that hold my mouse and power adapter, and all of those DayZ fans out there will tell you they love it! I mean, if the thing can hold 2 AS50's, surely it'll hold an your new Alienware

Just for S&Gs, I went to ibuypower to price out their build.

For a current gen i7 (2.3gHz), 2GB GTX 675M, and a screen size of 17.3", it's $1459

That's including a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.

That's $150 cheaper for better memory, processor, and drives at ibuypower.

Unless you absolutely have to that extra inch of screen real estate, this woot is not any kind of good deal.

To get the $1459 laptop at ibuypower from Alienware with comparable specs will run you $1949.

That's $500 more for the exact same laptop.

I keep myself mentally behind by a few years and simply buy computers like this used at a fraction of the cost to play older games. In this self-created bubble, I don't really know what I'm missing. The same goes for movies. I can't remember the last time I went to the theater; I'd rather buy DVDs for a few bucks and watch in a home-theater, with all the pause-breaks and beer I wish. LED screens? What the heck is that?

DaveInSoCal wrote:Is this the most expensive item ever sold on woot?

No, I bought a 65" TV for $2000.

Schlingfo wrote:When you spend $1500 on a gaming rig, you're in it for serious gaming.

A laptop isn't used for serious gaming.

This is a waste of both money and gaming time.

That doesn't hold true of people who still wish to play their games on travel, or are in situations where they need a laptop more than a desktop and cannot afford both.

vladistov wrote:That doesn't hold true of people who still wish to play their games on travel, or are in situations where they need a laptop more than a desktop and cannot afford both.

Those people (myself included) are casual gamers. We don't have to have the absolute ultra high settings for gameplay. We don't put all of our priority and money into gaming rigs.

Given that, there's no reason for a casual gamer to spend $1500 on a gaming laptop when they could get an experience that would suit them just fine by purchasing a $750 dollar desktop and a $750 laptop.

With all of that aside, a serious gamer who's going to spend $1500 on a laptop should be smart enough to spend that $1500 on a current gen rig instead of an outdated rig.

Schlingfo wrote:Those people (myself included) are casual gamers. We don't have to have the absolute ultra high settings for gameplay. We don't put all of our priority and money into gaming rigs.

Given that, there's no reason for a casual gamer to spend $1500 on a gaming laptop when they could get an experience that would suit them just fine by purchasing a $750 dollar desktop and a $750 laptop.

With all of that aside, a serious gamer who's going to spend $1500 on a laptop should be smart enough to spend that $1500 on a current gen rig instead of an outdated rig.

I know truckers and contractors who spend months on the road and in camps who would generally disagree with you.

I've been buying Dells for several years. All their support is out of India. They're good but there's that language problem and the hard sell efforts in every call. Dealing with Dell has become a misery in other ways. Beware. They're not what they once were. Im never buying anything from them again.

BIGsinner wrote:You have good reason to be. The consumer watchdog blog "The Consumerist" has several posts of poor quality Alienware products/customer service.

http://consumerist.com/?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&s=alienware

Be sure to read some of the comments of those articles too.

vladistov wrote:I know truckers and contractors who spend months on the road and in camps who would generally disagree with you.

Then, those serious gamers can go buy a more powerful laptop for the same amount of money over at ibuypower.

If you're a serious enough gamer to be spending $1500 on a laptop, then you should be getting the most bang for your buck, no?

What about the Wikipedia? Will I be able to get to that on this thing?

Schlingfo wrote:Then, those serious gamers can go buy a more powerful laptop for the same amount of money over at ibuypower.

If you're a serious enough gamer to be spending $1500 on a laptop, then you should be getting the most bang for your buck, no?

But you're building straw-men. The comment I initially addressed was this:

"When you spend $1500 on a gaming rig, you're in it for serious gaming.

A laptop isn't used for serious gaming.

This is a waste of both money and gaming time."

vladistov wrote:But you're building straw-men. The comment I initially addressed was this:

"When you spend $1500 on a gaming rig, you're in it for serious gaming.

A laptop isn't used for serious gaming.

This is a waste of both money and gaming time."

I had two points in this thread:

1)Laptops aren't used for serious gaming. And, it's true. They're not. They will never compare to desktops.

2)Alienware is horribly overpriced. This is also true.

I compromised by saying that, if there is a serious gamer who absolutely has to have an expensive laptop to game on (albeit not at the quality of a desktop), they should save themselves money and not buy Alienware.

Does anyone make a usb 3.0 grill so I can use this cook my bacon?

I got this laptop two months ago from woot. It has the same processor and ram, but a different video and larger battery. Aside from that, they're rather similar. Is it really worth the extra thousand dollars?

http://www.woot.com/offers/hp-pavilion-17-3-core-i7-notebook

I have the same laptop but with an ATI card, and I must say, highly disappointed. Alienware computers look awesome, however, the quality lacks a ton.

Don't bring this out of your house other than to LAN parties, or you'll be screaming "look everybody, please beat me up!"

jiggersgreen wrote:Does anyone make a usb 3.0 grill so I can use this cook my bacon?

Just put it on top of the bacon while you're gaming. It'll cook quick enough.

ganderindan wrote:The Lenovo Ideapad y580 is 1080p, 8gb DDR3, i7-3610 (the newer Ivy Bridge model), 1TB+32gb SSD, and an Nvidia GEForce GTX 660M, and 2x USB 3.0 slots for $1100.

Just strictly better than this Alienware name brand in every category that's relevant.

Source: Lenovo y580 sales page

Much smaller display size on the Lenovo, 15.6" vs. 18.4", about 72% the area, the Alienware is about 39% larger. Some would say this is relevant. I wonder if there is more expandability (actually, the AW has dual 500GB RAID-0 hybrids, so yeah). Of course, Ivy Bridge will require less power to run, so the smaller battery on the Lenovo will likely power that and its smaller display for longer. Alienware shoppers don't often concern themselves much with battery life, however, they just want an easily portable badass gaming laptop.

tljx wrote:Indeed they do but they're rarely the best bang for your buck and this particular laptop is no exception at this price. I'm not saying Alienware doesn't make good computers but, in most cases, you can find equal or superior performance for less.

and all you have to do is name one... waiting...