Anyone here own an alienware PC?

Fraz

Hi guys, I'm writing an article about Alienware for a feature writing class, and I'd like to ask someone that has purchased an Alienware computer about their experience.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but I thought these forums would probably be the best place to look.

Thanks

Shurakai

If you can't find any answers in H/A, try the technology sub forum of Games and Technology.

Generally, from people that don't own one (and for good reason), you will find the general consensus to be that they are overpriced computers built for the uninformed upper middle class who desire a 'leet gaming computer' without going to the hassle of choosing your own components.

Most folks that own one will probably defend it with their life saying that it is the best piece of electronics they have ever purchased and you have a small penis for not owning one.

Whippy

Shurakai wrote: »

If you can't find any answers in H/A, try the technology sub forum of Games and Technology.

Generally, from people that don't own one (and for good reason), you will find the general consensus to be that they are overpriced computers built for the uninformed upper middle class who desire a 'leet gaming computer' without going to the hassle of choosing your own components.

I own one, and have absolutely no shame in admitting this is exactly the reason why. I got mine two-ish years ago, and don't regret it at all. I had come into a goodly amount of money, and decided to take a chunk of it and blow on something nice I've never had before. For me personally I feel it was totally worth it, but I definitely have the right amount of perspective about it.

Daemonion

I've owned two Alienware machines.

The first was purchased when I didn't know much about computers, so I can't so much about it other than I didn't really appreciate what it was capable of. I believe it was $3k. All I remember is it ran everything I threw at it swimmingly.

I bought my second Alienware 3.5 years ago for $5k. I fully understood what it was capable of and it was, in every sense of the term, 'bleeding edge' at the time.


I realized a few things about Alienware. I can't speak for their customer service now, but my most recent purchase gave me so much trouble that I am now an absolute whiz at troubleshooting pretty much anything in XP - networking, gaming, etc. etc.

It's not that the computer was a POS. It definitely wasn't. The case has great air flow, the wires are organized very well, and it ran great. After 2.8 years, though, my GPU literally fried and I still have no idea why. I voided my warranty and put in a new 500W (up from 350w) power supply myself and a Radeon 1950pro (I have an AGP motherboard). Terrible sound card issues, fixed myself. The computer is capable of (after 3.5 years) running nearly all games at 1920x1200 with a mix of medium-high settings. Just now I'm seeing that my processor (FX-53) is near the end of it's life when it comes to a few games, like Crysis and Supreme Commander.

So, to say the least, I've learned a lot from owning an Alienware. I've learned that, if you have the money, you can get a finely tuned PC that runs great but you will still inevitably have to troubleshoot as things will always go wrong. In my case, customer service wasn't all that great, so I did the troubleshooting myself and am glad I did. The RAM, CPU, HDDs, etc have all been great. My next plan, though, within the next few months, is to build a semi-bleeding edge PC from scratch. I have no intention of ever purchasing a pre-built high-end gaming computer ever again, as it is just so much cheaper to build your own and I've come to enjoy that feeling when you spend an hour trouble shooting something incredibly random and vague yet finally get it working.

Derrick

Daemonion wrote: »

I've owned two Alienware machines.

The first was purchased when I didn't know much about computers, so I can't so much about it other than I didn't really appreciate what it was capable of. I believe it was $3k. All I remember is it ran everything I threw at it swimmingly.

I bought my second Alienware 3.5 years ago for $5k. I fully understood what it was capable of and it was, in every sense of the term, 'bleeding edge' at the time.


I realized a few things about Alienware. I can't speak for their customer service now, but my most recent purchase gave me so much trouble that I am now an absolute whiz at troubleshooting pretty much anything in XP - networking, gaming, etc. etc.

It's not that the computer was a POS. It definitely wasn't. The case has great air flow, the wires are organized very well, and it ran great. After 2.8 years, though, my GPU literally fried and I still have no idea why. I voided my warranty and put in a new 500W (up from 350w) power supply myself and a Radeon 1950pro (I have an AGP motherboard). Terrible sound card issues, fixed myself. The computer is capable of (after 3.5 years) running nearly all games at 1920x1200 with a mix of medium-high settings. Just now I'm seeing that my processor (FX-53) is near the end of it's life when it comes to a few games, like Crysis and Supreme Commander.

So, to say the least, I've learned a lot from owning an Alienware. I've learned that, if you have the money, you can get a finely tuned PC that runs great but you will still inevitably have to troubleshoot as things will always go wrong. In my case, customer service wasn't all that great, so I did the troubleshooting myself and am glad I did. The RAM, CPU, HDDs, etc have all been great. My next plan, though, within the next few months, is to build a semi-bleeding edge PC from scratch. I have no intention of ever purchasing a pre-built high-end gaming computer ever again, as it is just so much cheaper to build your own and I've come to enjoy that feeling when you spend an hour trouble shooting something incredibly random and vague yet finally get it working.

You will end up learning a great deal more from building it yourself. Also, *knock on wood* the computer I built myself is still running strong 2ish years later, with no hardware trouble aside from an ancient CD drive that was passed down from my prebuilt computer I owned before that.

Fraz

I've never really had the means to buy an Alienware PC until recently since I've come into a good deal of money not unlike Whipstich. But I've been building PCs for years.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'd like to follow-up with some more questions through private messages.

Would anyone else like to share their experiences with Alienware? Did anyone have good customer service experiences?

Thanatos

I can't speak to their customer service, but I bought a three-year-old Alienware used from a friend about four years ago. I replaced the mobo, processor, RAM, and video card a couple of years ago and I just replaced the power source about a month ago, and only because my new video card required a 500W source (the old one was 350W). To my knowledge, the old one is still perfectly fine. The thing has phenomenal cooling: I have yet to see my processor hit 30 degrees celsius even after overclocking it 25%. My only complaint would be that a couple of the screws in the mobo were badly stripped, but if you don't plan on rebuilding the computer on your own, there's no reason to worry about that.

Fraz

Thanatos wrote: »

I can't speak to their customer service, but I bought a three-year-old Alienware used from a friend about four years ago. I replaced the mobo, processor, RAM, and video card a couple of years ago and I just replaced the power source about a month ago, and only because my new video card required a 500W source (the old one was 350W). To my knowledge, the old one is still perfectly fine. The thing has phenomenal cooling: I have yet to see my processor hit 30 degrees celsius even after overclocking it 25%. My only complaint would be that a couple of the screws in the mobo were badly stripped, but if you don't plan on rebuilding the computer on your own, there's no reason to worry about that.

I'm trying to understand why they're so damn expensive. Those cases and quality components seem to be a pretty big part of it.

Thanatos

Fraz wrote: »

Thanatos wrote: »

I can't speak to their customer service, but I bought a three-year-old Alienware used from a friend about four years ago. I replaced the mobo, processor, RAM, and video card a couple of years ago and I just replaced the power source about a month ago, and only because my new video card required a 500W source (the old one was 350W). To my knowledge, the old one is still perfectly fine. The thing has phenomenal cooling: I have yet to see my processor hit 30 degrees celsius even after overclocking it 25%. My only complaint would be that a couple of the screws in the mobo were badly stripped, but if you don't plan on rebuilding the computer on your own, there's no reason to worry about that.

I'm trying to understand why they're so damn expensive. Those cases and quality components seem to be a pretty big part of it.

I'm fairly sure that power source was underrated. I had what was 2 years ago a medium-high end video card, the mobo, two hard drives, five fans, and a DVD-RW drive all running off that thing. I actually had expected it to fail the first time I turned it on after upgrading, but it never had a problem.

jkylefulton

I bought a gaming laptop from them in 2001, and it still works, though it occassionaly has heat issues. I'm assuming that they worked the kinks out to some extent, but you'll probably always have heat issues in a laptop. Too much hardware in too little space.