Alienware

[ninevalleys]

now here's a topic.. ALIENWARE, a few months ago i went through the alienware phase, i mean DAMN IT they make awsome computers, i mean absolute beasts.. though they can be a bit pricey. they have just comem to Australia (this year), has anyone used one or owns one? if i had the cash i would buy one, but what about all you guys? any thoughts ?

NV

[Jean Lafitte]

Alienware computers are very good. They are also thee or four times what you should be paying, and their customer service is awful.

[Cartz]

better off buying a protec computer...(cheap aussie brand), they make all the alienware motherboards.

[andrewf87]

Whilst i must admit they look rad and have some pretty funky hardware they are way overpriced and would be much cheaper to go to a swap meet and build you own one from scratch.

[Archangel]

They're overhyped. As Andrew said, it's a lot cheaper to put one together yourself - you don't get the crazy case, but IMO they're a bit over the top.

Don't get me wrong, they're not bad machines, but all the components in them are the same ones you could get elsewhere for a lot cheaper.
And anyway, they've been taken over by Dell now...

[StevenB]

other than the 19" laptop with SLI I wouldn't look twice at them. Build my own systems and can build them for less

[Archangel]

other than the 19" laptop with SLI I wouldn't look twice at them. Build my own systems and can build them for less
That'd be pushing the definition of 'laptop' a bit wouldn't it? :-o

[primal]

they were of excellen quality and had some value to hardcore gamers.

they have however been bought out by dell some time ago. so my guess is.... the quality will drop and the support time will increase

[Jean Lafitte]

they were of excellen quality and had some value to hardcore gamers.

Very few hardcore gamers I knew cared about Alienware. They had been making their own supercomputers for years, and Alienware was far too pricey. So they ignored it.

AW is really geared towards people who want to be hardcore gamers, but find building computers to be too arcane. They are the same people who buy cases with friggin LED lights in them.

they have however been bought out by dell some time ago. so my guess is.... the quality will drop and the support time will increase

What's wrong with Dell? Why does the merge imply a drop in quality and an increase in support time (I'm tempted to add (sic) here)?

[Archangel]

What's wrong with Dell? Why does the merge imply a drop in quality and an increase in support time (I'm tempted to add (sic) here)?
Because Dell have been known to have pretty low build quality?
I think they've improved a bit recently, and some of their laptops are quite good ('specially the ones that they only rebadge :-P) but there's still way too much plastic in the desktops :mad:

I can't complain about the support time though, they replaced a battery for me in about 16 hours a while back.

[Jean Lafitte]

I see a lot of contempt for companies that aren't that bad all the time.

Think of the kids you occasionally see shooting their parents' old Yamahas and not realizing how awesome they are.

Dell isn't amazing, but then Alienware wasn't amazing as an independent company either.

[StevenB]

dells support is ok, try HP some time (for there servers that is). We have our own line and help desk with them, yet they still seem to !@#$ around all the time.

Supposedly we can log a call with the hardwares nodename, but they always want a serial number.

The last tape drive I had them replace, they wanted the serial number, gave them the one on the back of the unit, sorry thats wrong. Well the serial number is !@#$ing on the drive that is in a case that if we remove it voids the service agreement.
Finally get some one out to fix the drive, and tell them I want the serial number from the drive, got told that they don't do that. !@##@%#$%@$@#@##

[Jean Lafitte]

My brother worked at HP for a while, and what I heard from him is enough to make me not consider HP computers.

[Pat Mole]

Very few hardcore gamers I knew cared about Alienware. They had been making their own supercomputers for years, and Alienware was far too pricey. So they ignored it.

AW is really geared towards people who want to be hardcore gamers, but find building computers to be too arcane. They are the same people who buy cases with friggin LED lights in them.


agree'd. one of my mates doesnt have a complete keyboard (he has replaced letters with keys from the six pack.). he's the best gamer i ever seen. that said, he spent more school days at home playing CS and WoW than he spent at school. but when we played at school, he was 60 or 70 kills in the lead.

[ninevalleys]

yeah, after the whole alienware craze i realised i oculd easily get a custom compute made for me:D.. which incedently is what im doing.. but still awsome looking PC's

[andrewf87]

Very few hardcore gamers I knew cared about Alienware. They had been making their own supercomputers for years, and Alienware was far too pricey. So they ignored it.

AW is really geared towards people who want to be hardcore gamers, but find building computers to be too arcane. They are the same people who buy cases with friggin LED lights in them.


Yeh i would agree, from what i have seen of lans, not many people at all have them they are just using a normal PC.

[primal]

dells support is ok, try HP some time (for there servers that is). We have our own line and help desk with them, yet they still seem to !@#$ around all the time.

Supposedly we can log a call with the hardwares nodename, but they always want a serial number.

The last tape drive I had them replace, they wanted the serial number, gave them the one on the back of the unit, sorry thats wrong. Well the serial number is !@#$ing on the drive that is in a case that if we remove it voids the service agreement.
Finally get some one out to fix the drive, and tell them I want the serial number from the drive, got told that they don't do that. !@##@%#$%@$@#@##
i have 10 hp dl's in my 2 racks and 6 ml's - never a problem with support?

[StevenB]

i have 10 hp dl's in my 2 racks and 6 ml's - never a problem with support?

I used to work for HP in the current postion I'm in now (they had the contract with Optus, lost it to NCSI), even at HP we had the ssame problems and we were the same bloody company.

One of the engineers told me if I couldn't give them a serial number of the tape drive they wouldn't come out straight away. Bloody thing had a 2hour 24/7 SLA.

now XSI/EDATA, they are easy to deal with

[2Dogs]

I've got 2 x DD36's in my racks and never had trouble with support either ;)


Geeks!

[StevenB]

I thought they were CC48's ?