AlienWare

[Brian]

Does anyone have any experience with them? I love their boxes, both what's on the outside and inside, and it looked like they offered great customer support. But I have only heard negative things, i.e. their support is similiar to that of PartyPoker. Please include any positive or negative comments. Thanks,

-Brian

[siccjay]

I have a buddy that bought one and he something major go wrong with it. (cant remember what) He had TONS of trouble with support and I think it took him nearly a month just to get them to allow him to send it back to be fixed or replaced or whatever they did.

IMO not worth it at all.

[Dariel86]

They are truly great computers, don't know about support issues though.

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

Although I love their rigs, you can easily get a much cheaper computer with the same components for much cheaper (I'm talking a grand here). I bought my computer from some site advertising in PC Gamer (Cyberpower, I think) and I'm as happy, if not happier, with it. I had 2 Alienwares before this computer.

Seriously, Alienwares are hot, but be practical.

[Brian]

Hi Macdaddy,

The cost is practical for me, as long as they have good customer support for computer illiterates such as myself, and as long as the system is high-end and can support a 6-monitor display for lots of poker tables, as well as run high-end games like Doom 3 and World of WarCraft. So do you think AlienWare isn't for me?

I see that you said you had 2 AlienWares before your current PC. I'd love to get input from someone who has had AlienWare previously about the level of quality of their customer service, which is one of the two main deciding factors for me. Or did you not ever have to call customer service? Thanks,

-Brian

[ScottTheFish]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Macdaddy,

The cost is practical for me, as long as they have good customer support for computer illiterates such as myself, and as long as the system is high-end and can support a 6-monitor display for lots of poker tables, as well as run high-end games like Doom 3 and World of WarCraft. So do you think AlienWare isn't for me?


[/ QUOTE ]

If you're not into building your own rig and want a prebuilt, buy one of the higher end Dell gaming/multimedia systems. It will have more than enough horsepower to do whatever you want, for about 1/3 less than an Alienware box. Their tech support is very good.

Yeah you'll hear some horror stories just like with any company. If 0.5% of their customers have a bad experience, that is dozens a day, nobody's perfect. But they are better than most.

If money is no object and you are into the sexy cases and all, go for Alienware, they are good rigs, just overpriced, IMO.

[hate]

What a goddamn waste of money. I don't care how computer illiterate you are, pretty much every site out there has a how-to a quadriplegic ape could follow to put together your own box.

[fluxrad]

With AlienWare you're paying for a name and some green paint, and that's about it.

Their stuff is overpriced for what you're getting and I've heard numerous horror stories about their support. If you really want to get a "gamer's rig" then look at either Falcon Northwest (http://www.falcon-nw.com/index.asp) or one of the higher end Dell boxes.

Side Note: anyone else find it strange that Dell seems to be able to find so many Indian people with names like Joe, Steve, and Mary /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Nfinity]

Hi Brian,

I told you before I like Alienware, though I've only had limited experience w/ their customer service, and not for anything major. The experiences I have had with them has been alright though.

Dell has some great systems for the money, but I really can't stand their customer support. I have called them on numerous occasions, and each time that my problem is something major, I get passed around like the town whore at least twice, and have to re-explain all my issues and system configurations. I could just be one of the .5% though.

Falcon Northwest comes just about as highly recommended as Alienware in terms of performance, but I have never had any personal experience with their Rigs or CS.

[ZeeJustin]

I have an alienware. I hate how big and heavy the actual cpu is, but I guess that isn't relevant for most people.

I never called support, but I dealt with them through email, and they were pretty helpful. Although I do think I was having a problem that I should not be having given how much I paid for this. Other than that one extremely annoying problem, I am very happy with my Alienware.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

way over priced.

[Emmitt2222]

I assume you have looked at reviews and stuff online, but just incase you haven't here is a helpful link. I don't see Alienware in the top 10. I have heard a lot of good things about the Falcon Northwest though and thats one of Cnet's favorites.

link (http://reviews.cnet.com/Desktops/4521-6526_7-5021300-3.html?tag=subnav)

[AA suited]

best bang for buck machine= build it yourself (ie: Fry's cpu/mobo combo special= $70 total + $40 120gig hd + $50 1/2gig mem + $30 case + $20 video card from pricewatch= $210)

best buck commercial machine = dell ($399)

best buck gaming rig (ie: doom3) = upgrade the video card of either of the 2 above systems

alienware = overpriced hype

[ucfryan]

Alienware is the best of the best when it comes to gaming, but they jack up the price so high it's not even funny. When I built my PC almost 2 years ago I compared what I payed to an equal Alienware system, and the price difference was almost $2000. I'd suggest trying to learn to build one yourself, there's a ton of resources on the internet, and it's really not all that difficult. Do yourself a favor and save some money.

[BusterStacks]

they are not superior to any other rig, especially a custom one. gaylienware owners are the same people who buy $100 dollar Abercrombie jeans that come with holes in them.

[Blarg]

I bought an Alienware when the company was relatively new and had just started up. In working out the configuration and going through a question or two, I talked to Nelson, the president, who was putting the thing together for me himself. Great guy, and I had great respect for the company, and was happy about my purchase.

However, their reputation has really taken a beating lately. Their customer service, which used to be unbeatable, is now as miserable as anyone else's, and they're turned more into a big company with a boutique name left over from the good ole days. Poor build quality is now commonly spoken of on forums by Alienware owners, and their notebooks especially get taken to task.

Owners will usually defend their purchases at all costs, flying in the face of reason if necessary and sometimes even being dishonest, because of the inherently frustrating and embarassing nature of feeling you might have made a bad decision. That said, the general consensus I get from reading computer geek forums is that Alienware's quality has plunged and is no longer reflective of the company's great name.

[hate]

That's because their "notebooks" are desktop pentium 4s stuck into a 15 pound pseudo-laptop shape that gets hot enough to cook an egg and has to have so much active cooling that they are essentially small(er) form factor desktops with an LCD. Their designs are terrible, their desktops and gaming rigs are half-hearted expensive [censored] that any enthusiast could make faster, cheaper, and better. Mouthbreathers with too much money, line up.

[Terry]

The thing is, AlienWare has gone steadily downhill since they went mass market and started selling through Best Buy.

I used to be a built-it-yourself guy. I’d look at what AlienWare and Falcon Northwest were building and order the parts.

I tried the custom build service at monarchcomputer.com (http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv) several years ago and now I just configure what I want and let them build it. Their prices are some of the best around and their techs do a much nicer job than I am willing to take the time to do. The thing arrives ready to plug in and run.

As for support -- I ordered a part once for an upgrade. It didn’t work. They overnighted me a replacement and included prepaid return packaging for the bad part. Don’t know if that’s their standard procedure, but it sure made me a happy customer.

[mcb]

[ QUOTE ]
way over priced.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ucfryan]

[ QUOTE ]
gaylienware owners are the same people who buy $100 dollar Abercrombie jeans that come with holes in them.

[/ QUOTE ]

rofl /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Jack of Arcades]

Buster, you're quickly becoming my favorite poster here.

[Rick Nebiolo]

Look into ABS computers. Great reviews and bang for buck and you can select many of your own components.

~ Rick