DELL ALIENWORKS LAPTOPS

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Does anyone have any experience with this machines...Mate is after a high end gaming laptop for .....Err gaming - but he also wants a full on photo editing and video editing machine for on the go work...I think its more for games though...I got a decent laptop from dell or so I thought until it arrives and the twin HDDS the spec said it had was none exsistant and the thing had a pair of 250gig sata 2 drives raided - sent it back under distance selling rules - but it was a little touch and go on the phone with Dell.....until I said the words Distance Selling regs......I dont need to give a reason. So I wont buy from Dell again as I'm not sure what it would be like if there was ever an issue....

But Mate is smitten with Alienware - so what the experience here if any? Plenty of horror stories on line but most seem to be from the States....
 
ive had a few laptops from Dell outlet. never had any problems, customer support was always great, full warranty even on the refurbs fromthe outlet and when i did have an issue they sent engineer out and replaced all the internals just to be safe. and the laptop was a 1/3 of the price too and had only had a replacement external power brick.
they have the alienware machines crop up on there outlet quite oftn so you can pick up a bargain
they update daily so always worth checking back as ive seen the alienware ones go for under £700 on there
http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh
 
Had a friend with one - it was fast and went through the battery quickly. Seemed basically a ecent machine with a few brand characteristics to make it stand out.
 
gaming and laptops should not go together, full of compremises. i.e powerful to a degree (although mobile chipsets are never as good as desktop), poor battery (due to the more hefty gpu mainly), heavy (mainly to cool the things down).

i wouldnt get too hung up over the alienware name personally.

like any expensive machine like this (e.g. if you got apple youd be sensible to get applecare) its worth spending for the on site support, dells higher end support services are fantasic.
 
Thanks for replies - It seems the additional dell care package is a must.....After an additional conversation it seems its more for work stuff than gaming - so for the weight of the Alienware offerings they are not that portable....a few Kg's plus.

He does not want apple at all after bad experience and also wants windows 7 64 pro - I cant see any new laptops with recent spec with the older OS on unless you look at DELL professional series laptops but they are more £££ than the Alienware offerings.

Do you think win 7 64 pro on one of these machines will be ok for drivers and compatibility........
 
yes i have the dell xps 1702 and run win 7 64 bit.
17.3" RGB LED screen 8gb ram ( upgradable to 32 ) 1TB hdd, gt 555 nvidia gfx, i7 cpu. and cost me 420 from dell outlet.
just a case of checking back each day as the higher end quality ones get snapped up very quickly. they normally update around 2pm weekday
 
Alienware were a brand in their own right until they were purchased by Dell. Their machines were always well received by critics and they had their own fanbois. I am not sure how the Dell machines compare.

However, a laptop as a gaming PC is always going to be a compromise, as pointed out upthread. Alienware, it seems, are developing a solution for this - an external GPU. Basically an external chassis that houses a fans, a 350 watt PSU and a high end graphics card. The best part is, that the GPU can be used to drive both external displays and the laptops built in panel.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8653/alienware-graphics-amplifier
 
never had any problems gaming on my dell xps.. the nvdiia gt 555 though not the highest spec allows me to play most games without any issues. but yes a laptop isnt designed for gaming but a decent sped one is certainly good enough for it as well as other applications such as photo editing.
you will always get that compromise, portability over performance but the gap in recent years thanks to the likes of alienware to name one of many has closed considerably.
 
dean messenger said:
yes i have the dell xps 1702 and run win 7 64 bit.
17.3" RGB LED screen 8gb ram ( upgradable to 32 ) 1TB hdd, gt 555 nvidia gfx, i7 cpu. and cost me 420 from dell outlet.
just a case of checking back each day as the higher end quality ones get snapped up very quickly. they normally update around 2pm weekday
Click to expand...


This is more like price / spec I would recommend to him even on the outlet the Alienware are not cheap!

May I ask when you found this on the outlet? as everything other than some very low spec machines have had win7 on
 
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as i mentioned its luck of the draw. i waited over 3 weeks for that to crop up. just a case of checking in each day and looking and as soon as one appears grab it.. saw one about a week ago , slightly higher spec than mine as it had an SSD HDD included and it was £510.
think the biggest difficulty is getting win 7 one. but i think id rather get a higher spec with win 8 then just do a clean install of win 7 on it.
also if you can accept a 15.6" screen then you'll have much wider range available . though as i say its juts a case of keep looking keep trying and be prepared to jump in as soon as one comes available as you tend to find them getting snapped up then appearing on ebay an hour later marked up by a couple of hundred pounds
 
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dean messenger said:
as i mentioned its luck of the draw. i waited over 3 weeks for that to crop up. just a case of checking in each day and looking and as soon as one appears grab it.. saw one about a week ago , slightly higher spec than mine as it had an SSD HDD included and it was £510.
think the biggest difficulty is getting win 7 one. but i think id rather get a higher spec with win 8 then just do a clean install of win 7 on it.
also if you can accept a 15.6" screen then you'll have much wider range available . though as i say its juts a case of keep looking keep trying and be prepared to jump in as soon as one comes available as you tend to find them getting snapped up then appearing on ebay an hour later marked up by a couple of hundred pounds
Click to expand...

Cheers! on it...
 
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