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Why is everyone so down on Alienware?

superbassman2000

superbassman2000

Dec 20, 2000
11,338
56
Minnesota
#1
I've been looking at laptops lately because i am going to buy one. One laptop that fits my budget is and Alienware area 51 M5500, which starts at $859...granted i have heard that celeron isn't that great, so i would go for the next processor up which is a Pentium® M 740 1.73GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB. so that adds another 140 dollars, so that comes to about a grand...which is as much as i want to spend.
anyways, i remember seeing a thread on TB that was about an alienware rebate gone wrong, so i did a search, and i found a lot of people saying that alienware is pretty rotten...

so my question is, what is wrong with alienware?


Charlie
 
#10
The company was originally founded, by catering to gamers... & building hardcore gaming rigs. They charged a premium for the product. They still maintain that premise, thing is, its alot easier to build your own for much cheaper these days.
 
#11
superbassman2000 said:
so what do people think about the laptops?
for the specs/price, the area 51M 5500 is comparable to HP/compaq, etc

maybe i'm wrong?
Click to expand...
Their laptops used to be made by a company called Clevo. Most laptops aren't actually made by the company who's name is on it, just re-branded from a few manufacturers. If you want a rugged laptop for carrying around etc.. I would recomend an IBM/Lenovo. If you're looking for a desktop replacement that will be stationary for the most part the Alienware would probably be OK.
 
#12
Good luck getting the promised rebate, if any. I paid $500 more for my Area 51 than I expected to. They gave me two excuses for denying the $500 rebate:

1) You provided the wrong documentation
2) You provided none of the required documentation

The sad thing is, why do I have to provide them with proof of purchase or whatever? It's not like I bought the Alienware PC from Best Buy. I bought it direct from the Alienware website, the money went direct to Alienware, and they sent the PC direct to my home shipping address. They know exactly who I am and how much I paid for that PC. They've just decided to stealmy rebate. I'm sure they know full well how many customers they can screw without the FTC taking notice (I did file an FTC complaint).

To be fair, it's a good PC. But IMO it would be overpriced even if they *didn't* screw me out of the rebate.
 
#17
Tsal said:
If you feel like dishing out the cash for a Alienware product, you might as well get a Mac - cheaper, more reliable AND you are actually paying for engineership rather than a fancy case.
Click to expand...

Well, I feel the Mac cases are pretty fancy too, so yeah, I'd say you'd be getting a better computer, with a fully realized working system, vs. a bunch of parts you hope play nice together. :D
 
#18
Trevorus said:
Now they have intel chips, too.
Click to expand...

That is true - in fact the IBM chips were the only thing that were not very well engineered in their machines, speedwise. I don't know if the Intel stuff is the best around, but at least now Apple is in bed with one of the major players on the field.

I hope the x86 base means there are going to be a few more game titles on Macs, too :)
 
#19
Tsal said:
That is true - in fact the IBM chips were the only thing that were not very well engineered in their machines, speedwise. I don't know if the Intel stuff is the best around, but at least now Apple is in bed with one of the major players on the field.

I hope the x86 base means there are going to be a few more game titles on Macs, too :)
Click to expand...

I didn't think of that. The game makers could probably write stuff for them pretty easily, now; since the processors and hardware are much more similar now. I'm not sure about the OS, though...
 
#20
Trevorus said:
I didn't think of that. The game makers could probably write stuff for them pretty easily, now; since the processors and hardware are much more similar now. I'm not sure about the OS, though...
Click to expand...

I don't know that that was ever the problem. I mean, look at Linux. Most of the numbers I've seen for personal use is usually WinXP ~72%, Mac ~3.5% and Linux ~3.3% and the Windows family at around 90% (Invalid Link Removed. I think that it is more of a market share issue than an issue of hardware/software compatability. I could be wrong though.
 

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