Alienware... worth the money?

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Alienware... worth the money?

Has anyone brought one? and did you regret it or was it a good purchase?

Answers below please =]

I bought one quite a while ago (around 2005) - the machine was certainly well built and over-specked enough for its time period that it was a useful machine for about 4 years though it certainly wasn't playing cutting edge games on max settings 4 years later. When its hard drive died I gave up and decided it was time for a new machine. If I had it to do over again, though, I wouldn't buy one, but I guess that's just changing priorities - You can probably buy a machine with similar specs for substantially less money than Alienware, certainly if you're willing to buy the parts and assemble it yourself, and unless you want to play cutting edge games on max settings, you don't need a machine with such specs. That, plus the fact that a cutting edge machine isn't really cutting edge in a year or two, and you can buy the same machine for a lot less money in a year or two, and I just don't find it to be worth it, personally, any more. But, then, I'm no longer in my 20's and single with a lot of disposable money to spend on such things. If I still was, I might have a different outlook.

Definitely not worth the money if you're willing to build a custom PC. If you do it right (and I don't know a lot about it because I've never built one, but I have friends who have), you can build it in such a way that you can switch out the graphics card/motherboard/whatever for a new one without having to buy a whole new computer.

So for example an Alienware could be custom built for what kinda price?

Spec:
i7 CPU
16GB RAM
120GB SSD
1TB HDD
2GB GFX Card
USB 3.0 Mothebroard

Say £750?

I would check a site like www.tigerdirect.com or www.frys.com and price the components that you need. Compare to Alienware and if you're actually using the same components as they do, you should come out cheaper. The problem I always had is when I went to price the components, I'd try to buy the best of everything (which is more than you get from Alienware) and then the cost really did come out more or about the same than Alienware. If you can restrain yourself, you can do better building your own system.

What spec did you buy in 2005?

I'd avoid the Alienware. If you want a Dell, (which is what an Alienware is) go for the business grade Latitude series, as you will be getting a system that will be a bit more robust than the Alienware.

Also, If you want a gaming computer on the cheap, look up the 17.3" systems by RJTech. THese are generally Clevo systems that can be configured with a wide variety of Nvidia/ATI-AMD GPU's for substantially less cash than you would drop on an Alienware.

The systems that RJ Tech sells are essentially generic versions of the systems taht are branded as Sager, which is a fairly well respected line of computers.

Here's a link to some of their systems. They are available as either prebuilt systems, or barebones kits.

Which model Latitude would you recommend?

Probably what I like most about Alienware is it's custom hardware features with proprietary written programs to make use for it. It's not a must but it simplifies the computer and makes it more seem less. If you don't know how to build a computer then yes it is worth it. However if you can build a computer I'd recommend just building one.

Any of them preferably the most recent ones. You can't go wrong with them.

Good answers here -- with Alienware, a good chunk of the cost is just buying the label.

I believe It was Athlon 64-bit dual core, 4MB, and dual SLI video cards but I forget which chipset it was.

Whatever their current 17" model is, with an I7 CPU, max resolution display, and maxed out with the best GPU available, if your planning on gaming with it. Drive configs, RAID, Etc, are strictly whatever you feel is necessary for a system that you'll be using for gaming. Customise it to order on their website, and be prepared to shell out a good bunch of cash for your system, should you decide to buy.

Long answer: No.

Short answer: No, Dell sucks at life.

Build it yourself and save the branding cost and bloatware.

I thought about getting one because they look so awesome, but that's pretty much all you're getting according to friends who bought them.

Yeah this is true, how about the Dell XPS series? better than Alienware?

The XPS series consumer grade crap. You want a Latitude, which is a business grade system.

Although I realise thatthis is not a system that you eould want for gaming, I think that the Dell XFC shows what Dell is capable of producing when making a notebook system.