Alienware Laptop

Man of the Waves

I'm on the market for a transportable desktop replacement. I've researched it down to two options, the Alienware M18x and the Origin EON17. The biggest differences between the two, would be the 18" screen (as opposed to the 17" on the Origin) for an extra $1k premium.

I don't have any experience with Alienware (pre- or post Dell), but I've heard they can be hit or miss. Origin PC sounds like it has better customer service, though.

I'm open to other suggestions for a good gaming laptop, but it needs to have optical or S/PDIF audio output.

What say you, Stupid Technology Tavernites?

Donovan Puppyfucker

ASUS make a few pretty sweet 'gaming' laptops.

Man of the Waves

I actually liked the Acer's 18.4" laptop better than the ASUS. Both are certainly much cheaper, if less powerful.

Unfortunately, neither have optical audio options. None of the off-the-shelf brand name laptops that I've looked at have that option.

Synthesis

I think if you're going with Alienware, you're going to be shopping in the price range of close to the speciality outlets like Falcon Northwest who also put out gaming laptops.

As such, ASUS or other more common brands would probably be a good way to go.

TOGSolid

Man of the Waves wrote:

I'm on the market for a transportable desktop replacement. I've researched it down to two options, the Alienware M18x and the Origin EON17. The biggest differences between the two, would be the 18" screen (as opposed to the 17" on the Origin) for an extra $1k premium.

I don't have any experience with Alienware (pre- or post Dell), but I've heard they can be hit or miss. Origin PC sounds like it has better customer service, though.

I'm open to other suggestions for a good gaming laptop, but it needs to have optical or S/PDIF audio output.

What say you, Stupid Technology Tavernites?

http://www.xoticpc.com

/thread

Seriously, the laptops you get off here are damn good and their customer support is fantastic. My laptop came from them and is still kicking after a few years of really hard use at sea.

Man of the Waves

Cool, they are a good deal cheaper for comparable performance. I might not mind paying that price for a higher-end laptop in an off-the-shelf Clevo chassis.

Thanks for the tip.

Inkyblots

Is alienware generally considered overpriced? I've been told you can build their desktops for less than half their price (Aurora is 2000 minimum)

Man of the Waves

Yeah, building a PC yourself is definitely the cheapest option. I haven't priced Alienware's offerings, but I wouldn't be surprised that you could make a comparable system for half the price or less.

I already have a good, albeit aged, desktop PC and I've never had a laptop, so this time I'm going with the latter.

floobie

My dad used to buy those kinds of laptops pretty frequently for his work. He always bought from the same manufacturer. Check out a company called Eurocom. They aren't specifically gaming oriented, but you can customize the shit out of everything they offer.

I'd check out those Asus gaming notebooks as well. Like this one: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX35908

A friend of mine bought one recently (the 15" version). He seems happy with it. The build quality is also really good.

Man of the Waves

After looking at laptops in person, I have to get an 18" screen. I didn't think it would make a difference before.

Also, the plastic bezels around the screen are a big turn off.

Stormwatcher

I use HDMI to pipe hd video and audio to my full HD tv, and then route the audio via optical to the Home Theater. Works pretty well, minimizes the number of cables and mostly any decent notebook has hdmi out.

And nice avatar

Man of the Waves

haha, that threw me off for a moment.

I ended up ordering the 18" Alienware. There were a few features, like HDMI in, that put it over the top. Once I figured out that I should start with the $1,999 version to start my customization, I got the price down to a more acceptable realm.

We'll see if I made the right choice at the end of the month.

Man of the Waves

Dell shipped my lappy top a week early, but I can't lay hands on it until tomorrow.

24 hours never seemed so long.

Man of the Waves

So yeah, the M18x is a beast. It's probably a good deal flashier than other boutique gaming rigs, but I feel comfortable with the price compared to the other places I was shopping around.

Everything out of the box worked flawlessly and the machine runs great.

Specs:
Alienware M18x - Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum
Intel Core i7 2860QM 2.5GHz (3.6GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M NVIDIA SLI Enabled
1TB RAID 0, 2x 500GB, 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Intel Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology

GnomeTank

That's quite the laptop. How hot does it run with those dual 580's?

Man of the Waves

The nVidia configuration program doesn't have the overclocking information (fan speed, gpu temp) like the ATI does on my desktop and I haven't loaded any monitoring software, so I don't know exact numbers yet.

I did play a bit of Dead Space 2 with the computer in my lap (until I started to get crushed) and it was definitely warm, but not unbearable so.

Fan noise isn't that bad either. It goes from barely audible (just under the sound of key clicks) to somewhat noticeable (under the sound of the game).



(This post sent from my laptop connected to my cell phone)

surrealitycheck

yeah just beware

i once bought the $4000 alienware laptop, whatever that was, in 2006 and it was probably the biggest mistake i ever made

thing broke 3 times within the first year, ran so hot it burned your wrist, and ended up having to be declared abandoned goods after they tried to charge me £1200 to fix it

i would never buy from them again, especially after experiencing their customer support

minor incident

surrealitycheck wrote:

yeah just beware

i once bought the $4000 alienware laptop, whatever that was, in 2006 and it was probably the biggest mistake i ever made

thing broke 3 times within the first year, ran so hot it burned your wrist, and ended up having to be declared abandoned goods after they tried to charge me £1200 to fix it

i would never buy from them again, especially after experiencing their customer support

On the upside, modern CPUs and GPUs are much more heat-efficient than they were 6 years ago, so most modern "gaming" laptops don't have anywhere near the overheating problems they did back then. I mean, some are still shitty, but if you do a bit of research, it's not hard to find a much more reliable one nowadays.

Juanthekoreandon

I would never spend 4k on any tech it will be obsolete way before that 4k mark and you can probably only see it for 1k. Stick with the niche brands or go asus. Customer service and warranties are generally better in the US go with the alien ware if your going to travel a lot I have my dell xps serviced in NZ and japan pretty easily.

Lucky Cynic

I'm actually looking at getting the M14x and beefing up the monitor and cpu some. A 1500 laptop, yes, but it would sure beat the pants off of any mac laptop equivalent.

Mulletude

If I can ask a question here too...What is the best mobile gaming vid card out there? I keep seeing the Nvidia 555M in a lot of the newer gaming laptops. Is there a cheaper high performance alternative? Short of laptops that use desktop cards anyways.

Foomy

Mulletude wrote:

If I can ask a question here too...What is the best mobile gaming vid card out there? I keep seeing the Nvidia 555M in a lot of the newer gaming laptops. Is there a cheaper high performance alternative? Short of laptops that use desktop cards anyways.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html is a good list of mobile gfx cards, and how they rank in power.

Man of the Waves

Juanthekoreandon wrote:

I would never spend 4k on any tech it will be obsolete way before that 4k mark and you can probably only see it for 1k. Stick with the niche brands or go asus. Customer service and warranties are generally better in the US go with the alien ware if your going to travel a lot I have my dell xps serviced in NZ and japan pretty easily.

I built a PC 4 years ago for under $4k, complete with 40" LCD TV for a monitor. I upgraded the mobo, cpu and ram last year (the previous mobo died) for a few hundred and it still keeps up with the latest games respectably, with it's old 4860x2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution chugged very infrequently with the settings on medium to high.

I spent just over 3k for my new computer and I don't see it going obsolete for a while. In a few years, it might only hold up as well as my 4 year old computer does now, but it'll still be more than enough. I think the SLI is key to longevity, since CPU's are still hovering below the 4gHz benchmark.

As for heat concerns, I chose Intel and nVidia for that reason, since ATI runs a bit hot. At full tilt, the CPU cores never broke 75ºc. The GPU got to 90ºc when I accidentally turned off SLI and blocked the vent. Properly set up on a table, it rarely reaches 80º.

Lucky Cynic wrote:

I'm actually looking at getting the M14x and beefing up the monitor and cpu some. A 1500 laptop, yes, but it would sure beat the pants off of any mac laptop equivalent.

The M14x would be great, too, especially if you can squeeze a beefy video card in it and hook it up to a big monitor. I'm going to be using mine away from home a lot, so I didn't want to compromise on the big screen.

Mulletude wrote:

If I can ask a question here too...What is the best mobile gaming vid card out there? I keep seeing the Nvidia 555M in a lot of the newer gaming laptops. Is there a cheaper high performance alternative? Short of laptops that use desktop cards anyways.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M does really well with games all the way up to Skyrim and Metro 2033 with settings all the way up, even before the SLI.

mojojoeo

TOGSolid wrote:

Man of the Waves wrote:

I'm on the market for a transportable desktop replacement. I've researched it down to two options, the Alienware M18x and the Origin EON17. The biggest differences between the two, would be the 18" screen (as opposed to the 17" on the Origin) for an extra $1k premium.

I don't have any experience with Alienware (pre- or post Dell), but I've heard they can be hit or miss. Origin PC sounds like it has better customer service, though.

I'm open to other suggestions for a good gaming laptop, but it needs to have optical or S/PDIF audio output.

What say you, Stupid Technology Tavernites?

http://www.xoticpc.com

/thread

Seriously, the laptops you get off here are damn good and their customer support is fantastic. My laptop came from them and is still kicking after a few years of really hard use at sea.

THIS MAN SPEAKS TRUTH.

I got a sager there for like 1200 that had parts at the time better than alienware for like 800 less than alienware.
No problems, beast laptop is beast. Heat is laughable as its designed to handle it.

Dont pay the alienware markup.

~~1500 gets you this beast from there.

Sager NP8150 / Clevo P150HM
- FREE!! Continental (U.S. Lower 48 - UPS Ground Only) Ground Shipping on ALL Sager Laptops (Enter Coupon Code: "SAGERFREESHIP" during order process)
- SAGER Sale!!! - $100 OFF When you spend $1500* or more! (*excludes non-sager parts, accessories, shipping, & taxes)
Confirmation of discount will be provided after Order Processing.
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen (SKU - S1P318)
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM, 2.4-3.5GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2R202)
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6990M 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 $100 OFF (SKU - S3R151)
- 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R365)- 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) - Default (SKU - S5R207)
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
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Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)

minor incident

My god, a 6990 in a notebook? The desktop card costs half as much as that entire computer.

GnomeTank

I had a Sager/Clevo for a few years, and it was a beasty laptop. I spent about 3k on it uhhh, 2004? 2005? Something like that, but it's still going today. The video card is starting to go, and artifacts quite a bit, but still, six or seven years I got out of the thing.

Tef

minor incident wrote:

My god, a 6990 in a notebook? The desktop card costs half as much as that entire computer.

The notebook naming scheme is all kinds of fucked up. A 6990m is more along the lines of a 6870/6850 I believe.

mojojoeo

Tef wrote:

minor incident wrote:

My god, a 6990 in a notebook? The desktop card costs half as much as that entire computer.

The notebook naming scheme is all kinds of fucked up. A 6990m is more along the lines of a 6870/6850 I believe.

Maybe even 1 card lower than that. Still very very fast. Its(6990m) like 10% slower (worst case, many games it keeps pace) than a nvida 590m but hundreds cheaper.

Tef

mojojoeo wrote:

Tef wrote:

minor incident wrote:

My god, a 6990 in a notebook? The desktop card costs half as much as that entire computer.

The notebook naming scheme is all kinds of fucked up. A 6990m is more along the lines of a 6870/6850 I believe.

Maybe even 1 card lower than that. Still very very fast. Its like 10% slower (worst case, many games it keeps pace) than a 590 but hundreds cheaper.

See, I'm confused myself now. Do you mean the 590m? Because there is no way that card could be less powerful than a 6850(desktop) and only be 10% slower than a desktop 590. What do we mean by slower, anyway? FPS?

mojojoeo

Tef wrote:

mojojoeo wrote:

Tef wrote:

minor incident wrote:

My god, a 6990 in a notebook? The desktop card costs half as much as that entire computer.

The notebook naming scheme is all kinds of fucked up. A 6990m is more along the lines of a 6870/6850 I believe.

Maybe even 1 card lower than that. Still very very fast. Its like 10% slower (worst case, many games it keeps pace) than a 590 but hundreds cheaper.

See, I'm confused myself now. Do you mean the 590m? Because there is no way that card could be less powerful than a 6850(desktop) and only be 10% slower than a desktop 590. What do we mean by slower, anyway? FPS?

i corrected! My mistake. Comparison of mobile cards here, not desktop

minor incident

Ah, that makes sense. I don't keep up much with mobile graphics cards, but that still sounds like a beast of a notebook.

mojojoeo

minor incident wrote:

Ah, that makes sense. I don't keep up much with mobile graphics cards, but that still sounds like a beast of a notebook.

Tis.

Either getting that or 1000$ sli absolute monster desktop in 3 months.

Mulletude

I can get the following ASUS laptop for under $900

Can someone tell me if this is worth the price? Only including the parts I think are important as they pertain to performance. There are many options for upgrading the RAM, HD and Processor if one of those is significantly worse than the rest of the machine.

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache
nVidia 610M 2048MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technolog
6GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB + 1x2GB SODIMMS)
750GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s -- there's a 7200 RPM option of the same drive
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive

[edit]I'm not a huge graphics whore...My first order of business with something like this will be to go back and play the Company of Heroes games and some older stuff that ran absolutely like shit on my old PC at their max settings. I don't mind playing newer games at medium settings or whatnot. Just saying all that so to help the judgement of the above. I am way out of the loop on PC hardware these days.

Man of the Waves

Hard to say how well it will run newer games, but the GPU longevity might be limited by DDR3. What size is the laptop?

It would be better to upgrade your PC, if you can reuse enough of the parts. I picked up a decent motherboard, a 3.4 GHz 6 core AMD CPU and 8 gig of pc1600 RAM last year for maybe a third of that price. If you have a good monitor, case and power supply already, your money would go much further in a desktop rig upgrade.

Dignified Pauper

I was looking at digital storm laptops for a while, but that sager looks pretty beast. Anyone have experience with digital storm?

worksintheory

This isn't specific to laptops but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on good businesses to buy a complete system from. I want to buy a new gaming system but I am opposed to building it myself. I saw http://www.xoticpc.com/ in this thread. I've also had http://www.doghousesystems.com/ and http://www.velocitymicro.com/ recommended to me by friends.

I've been told by multiple people not to buy Alienware.

Dignified Pauper

This is the laptop I'm looking at getting through digital storm, and I found its about 3-400 cheaper than anywhere else.

Chassis Model: Digital Storm x17 Laptop (Model: 8170)
Display: 17.3 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Glossy Surface) LED-Backlit Display
Processor: Intel Core i7 2860QM (2.5 GHz Turbo Mode to 3.6Ghz) (Quad Core) (8MB Cache)
Thermal Compound: Premium IC Diamond CPU and GPU Thermal Compound (Reduces Thermal & Laptop Noise)
Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz
Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)
Secondary Hard Drive: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player (Blu-Ray 6x) & DVD/CD Writer
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wireless LAN Module
Video Card(s): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M 2GB
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Man of the Waves

worksintheory wrote:

This isn't specific to laptops but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on good businesses to buy a complete system from. I want to buy a new gaming system but I am opposed to building it myself. I saw http://www.xoticpc.com/ in this thread. I've also had http://www.doghousesystems.com/ and http://www.velocitymicro.com/ recommended to me by friends.

I've been told by multiple people not to buy Alienware.

My laptop is so great, I haven't had to go to Alienware customer service for anything yet. I don't have any firsthand experience with them outside of them getting my computer to me a week before they said they would.

I've also never had the inclination to buy pre-built, since there's little risk to building it myself and I don't like transporting big PC systems for fear of things coming loose.

Dignified Pauper wrote:

This is the laptop I'm looking at getting through digital storm, and I found its about 3-400 cheaper than anywhere else.

Chassis Model: Digital Storm x17 Laptop (Model: 8170)
Display: 17.3 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Glossy Surface) LED-Backlit Display
Processor: Intel Core i7 2860QM (2.5 GHz Turbo Mode to 3.6Ghz) (Quad Core) (8MB Cache)
Thermal Compound: Premium IC Diamond CPU and GPU Thermal Compound (Reduces Thermal & Laptop Noise)
Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz
Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)
Secondary Hard Drive: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player (Blu-Ray 6x) & DVD/CD Writer
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wireless LAN Module
Video Card(s): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M 2GB
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Looks great and at a good price to boot.

Once I started going over board with components, there wasn't as big a difference in price so I went with a more distinct chassis and minor features for a couple hundred dollar premium.

CygnusZ

Maybe this was just my experience, but you should really blow compressed air through the vents weekly if you're using a gaming laptop. Those things run hot and the dust builds up quickly.

Synthesis

CygnusZ wrote:

Maybe this was just my experience, but you should really blow compressed air through the vents weekly if you're using a gaming laptop. Those things run hot and the dust builds up quickly.

Very much this.

DiannaoChong

I managed to get a M11x R2 for about 700$ like a year ago or so. It was a refurb + 25% off coupon(or some silly % off). I don't regret it. Normally I would avoid refurb at all costs, but Dell is actually like a market leader in this regard, their refurbs are highly recommended.

This thing still does everything I need to do with gaming. Depending on the game and engine it chokes up pretty hard. I can raid in wow with all the settings turned up, or play other high end games on it with ease, but its chokes to death on civ5, which I am guessing is because of engine optimization being bad.

edit: relevant experience, I have built my own desktops and computers for others for the last 10 years. If you need a desktop, for gods sakes build it yourself if you have the time to deal with parts when they break. I had a friend that worked for ibuypower, and he was actually surprised to find out they dont just slap components in a case, check to see if its starts up and ship it. They actually do very rigorous testing and let me know when he was hitting bad batches of hardware so I knew what brands of memory to avoid, etc. I dont recomend them necessarily because of price, but it was at least nice to know these places do stress test items before sending them out. The cash you are throwing at them isn't just a money hole.