PocketMatrix

Ok, here my alienware saga with my laptop. If you don't like long, drawn out posts, here is the moral, DON'T BUY THEIR SYSTEMS!

Ok, so when I first ordered my laptop, I specificly asked the sales rep if it would include hyper threading. She kindly told me yes, but when it came, that feature was not avalible. I then wrote in on the alienware forum, and was told that the bios update would be out shortly, just wait a week. Hmm, Red Flag. Next, when it didn't come out, and my 30 days were almost up, I wrote again, and they garanteed that it would be avalible soon. Another delay Red Flag. After about 2 months of no real updates besides "soon." I gave a call and asked what the status was. And, after a 20 minute debate, he assured me that it would be out in two weeks. Well, I wrote to clevo, sagernotebooks, and pctorque to ask them (clevo actually made the refrence design to my knowledge) and all three said that it was impossible to get this feature without a mobo upgrade Red Flag. So, over the course of a week I must have made about 6 calls to them asking about how to upgrade (for free) or return my laptop. All of the reps said that they were checking with their support people, and they would have an answer soon. They also assured me that all of this was being written down in my file Red Flag(should have gotten them to email it to me, but did not ) So, today I found out that none of this had been written down, and my file was empty. Furthermore, since I had not sent it back within 30 days, I can no longer return this laptop. Also, the tech support guy assured me that alienware had no plans of upgrading the laptops or adding hyperthreading to a future laptop any time soon. Now, that really bites, and I am on hold right now demanding that they must take back my laptop, or else I will have to summon them to magistrate court (sp). Well, lets see what happens.

In conclusion, alienware is just a waste of time and money. Do yourself a favor and get something else.

[edit]I have now been escilated, what ever that means (and then was placed back on hold).

Actually, I am planning on buying one of their notebooks unless I can find an equivilant gaming laptop for less money. If so, then I'll buy the cheaper one.
Hyperthreading.. Hmmm.. I really wouldn't care. Most applications have to be optimised for it anyway, right?

Ok, we have agreed to let me send back my laptop. Hyper threading is required by some graphics applications, such as one popular vcle design app, and it won't run without it (which is why I needed it). As for a cheaper gaming laptop, pctorque.com sells the same laptops (they generally have the newer versions in fact), so I would go through them. It will save you about $500 minimum (for all of the configurations I checked)

BUT TEH IS SO SECXY LOOKIN!!!!!

Yes it is. Just looking at the sleek, smooth exterior, and those soft curves, and the triangular logo that appears to go on forever...*slaps himself.


Just remember, you can do what I did and get one, but just be warned. That, and alienware knows nothing about laptops. All technical work is done by an outside company, that is very hard for them to get a hold of. One tech actually didn't even know what hyper threading was . PCTorque, on the other hand, actually appears to have a clue about what is going on, and they give you straight forword answers on different issues. The alienware tech actually told me I had to send him my invoivce, just so he could circle where I was wrong, and then was probably planning to hang up. I am very upset with them. Cool laptop, yes. Good customer service ... NO! So, I see no reason to pay an extra 500 for a paint job (I had thought part of that went to great tech support, but I was wrong).

Well, I am just giving you my opinion. And yes, when there is a problem, you go to the tech support. So, if they can't help you, then you are kind of stuck. As for the laptop. Here are the pros and cons.

Pros(An A will denote alienware specific)
-Nice pain job(A)
-Damn fast (heck a 3.06 ghz proc better be fast)
-beautiful screen
-Nice Sounding Speakers
-Good expandability

Cons (An A will denote alieware specific)
-Not too heavy, but not for someone who is always on the go, unless you get a bookbag for it
-Gets very hot if not properly elevated (smalls supports are not always enough)
-Harddrive came corrupt (finally died on me a month after I had it. I originally thought it was a problem with the spare battey, but that was just a fluke.)(A)
-Promised a feature that it did not include(A)
-Poor battery life (not a concern for me, but may be for others, so get a spare battery)
-Can get noisy when all fans are running
-The dvd/cd-rw combo is very picky about the disks it reads, and does not support overburning (it took 10 coasters to convince me of this)(This includes nearly all toshiba combo drives for laptops)


Also, if you notice, it always takes alienware about a month or two more to get the latest hardware for their laptops.

In conclusion, I see no reason to spend 500 more on a laptop, when you get the identical laptop (the Area-51m = 5660 sager) from other companies, with better support.

And I am not alone, here are the ratings for the two companies at resellerrattings.com





As you will notice, pctorque has a perfect 10 overall and alienware has a 7.75, not bad, but for less money you can get better.

Wow, they lied to you to get a sale? I was looking at AlienWare because I just found out that I can't upgrade my laptop's graphics card any more and it's feeling it's age just a little. I personally hate everything about the way AlienWare looks, it's just that their fast. Now I'm convinced to stay away from them. I never did like them.

I'm sure you'll think differently about tech support making or breaking a company when YOUR on the receiving end of the screwjob.

I went 3 months without my RioVolt because the now defunct SonicBLUE had horrible tech support. (I ended up with 4 CD players. One was sent back to them, and another I gave to a friend. Keeping one as a spare)

Meh, it seems as though all these large, fast laptops are almost the same anyway.