Alienware

**Kekvit Irae** · 02-09-2008, 01:35

Alienware is extremely overpriced. The best high-powered computer you can get for cheap is one you build for yourself.

**KukriKhan** · 02-09-2008, 04:27

Alienware notebook's claim to fame (in addition to top-notch gamer graphics) was upgradability. An unheard-of concept at the time (and still today, actually). AMD, Intel, ATI and nVidia cooperated for awhile, making 'modular' cpu's and gpu's, so that 2-3 years after purchase, the user could spend $300 or so to replace the vid card and CPU, instead of dropping $3,000 for a whole new machine.

Hooray for the user/buyer! But the "modular-replacement/upgrade" business model was doomed, and ultimately abandoned after 2 generations. The hardware moguls decided pci-e was the way forward, and dual-, quad-, and octo-layer processors. Heat became a problem. Compatible, affordable chinese motherboards became a problem. Vendor cooperation became a problem.

The owners farmed out their previously excellent customer service to call-centers, slashed wages for their assemblers, cut manpower, and adopted the UPS/FedEx "just in time" warehousing plan... then sold out to Dell when financial times got really rough.

Don't buy Alienware, Dude. The brand won't exist in two years, IMO, and you'll be left holding a 10-pound paperweight/doorstop that can barely display the org forums, much less the hottest 2008 game.

**TevashSzat** · 02-09-2008, 14:10

If you really want some high end stuff, Games for Windows Magazine just released an article called the Ultimate Gaming Machine in which they called the top ten vendors and asked them for the highest machine they have to send.

Judging from your reaction to the 10K price range, I guess you're not too fond of their $12,000 machines, but there were some 5K-8K ones that you might be interested in

**edyzmedieval** · 02-09-2008, 15:50

I have a question for all of you:

Would you ever pay 12-14-16K on a computer even if you had money and didn't know what to do with it?

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 02-09-2008, 16:00

Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I have a question for all of you:

Would you ever pay 12-14-16K on a computer even if you had money and didn't know what to do with it?

Yes, I would, but that computer would still be home-built - I'd just have a 64-bit OS with three nVidia's on SLI, a Quad Core Extreme, and 16 GB of RAM (the maximum my current motherboard can support, to my knowledge). After that, I'd probably invest the money for later upgrades.

**Ramses II CP** · 02-09-2008, 17:37

No. The price to performance ratio curves to miniscule at around the 3k home built range IMHO (Excluding monitor costs). You'll be spending twice as much for essentially invisible performance gains.

The better course, I would think, is spending that 3k on your box and throwing the rest at a pair of very large monitors.

**Whacker** · 02-10-2008, 02:41

I found Kukri's post to sum up my views very well. Alienware is essentially Dell now, and they were overpriced to begin with.

At the OP: If you want a really nice computer, try the two companies others have mentioned, Falcon Northwest and Voodoo. Both still have good reputations.

Of course, this all still pales in comparison to what you could do yourself. I used to have a 3k budget every 3 years for getting a new PC, and I could always put together a monster for that budget.

Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I have a question for all of you:

Would you ever pay 12-14-16K on a computer even if you had money and didn't know what to do with it?

I'm taking this to mean "you have more money than you know what to do with", and my answer is certainly "Hell yeah".

**Meldarion** · 02-12-2008, 10:39

I am going to agree with the custom build option. If you don't know how to do it then learn, its really not that difficult and will save you a lot of money.

**edyzmedieval** · 05-15-2008, 12:45

Thread necromancy...

I have an insane friend who wants to spend his cash on an expensive laptop, and he came to me because everyone considers me the computer geek. I recommended him Falcon Northwest and he said its ok but he wants more information.

Are they worth it? He says he just wants it already built.
He made it and its worth 7000 euros, but he wants to know insider info like is the screen good, how is the power overall bla bla bla...