Alienware?

[JMecc]

I have to go with celewign - Dell has some sweet laptops. The XPS systems also have a dedicated tech support line (much faster and they are the ones that get promoted a few levels up from regular tech support).

I have an Inspiron 6400 (C2D T7200 4M cache, 2GB ram, 120GB drive) and it sure performs well and my friend has the XPS M1710 which although having the same processor and ram runs a much finer screen with a GeForce 7950 and hit 9118 3DMark05 which is very good for a stock laptop. The M1710 can also power TWO EXTERNAL monitors which is what I have been wanting a laptop to do for a while. It is a full desktop replacement by being powerful in every category as well as being good looking and having tons of options (ex: change the outside LED's to any color along a spectrum in windows) - it just covers all the little things that you would never expect.

Jo

 

[celewign]

Forum guys also tend to approach Dell from the "overclocker DIY freak" point of view. From the point of view of someone who just wants to type letters a surf the internet, even the entry level Dell machines are easy, affordable, and convienent. Many people don't have the time or don't want to build some gaming monster, and purchase computers like Dell packages, HP packages, etc. In fact, looking at sales records, TONS of people choose to do this, because Dell is not going out of buisness by a long shot.
-cm

 

[nh484000]

Hey, Have you ever of Hypersonic PC. They make some of the best, most powerful laptops ever. You can get them with SLi, Raid 0 or Raid 1, and even two dvd burners. I dont know how moble they are, but they are in a laptop form. I would guess that they weigh close to 15 pounds. Hope this helps.

 

[Gneisenau]

My experiance with Alienware has been 50/50. My good experiances were really good, and my bad experiances were bottom of the heap bad. That's in 4 purchaces. (3 laptops and 1 desktop) What I have discovered is Alienware is not the place to go to for a new model. After they sell the model for about 6 months then they are a great place to go to. My last purchase ended in a cancellation after 4 months and no delivery (I ordered a machine 1 hour after it became available to order) and being lied to about it being shipped or ready to ship 4 times. When I canceled the order, then they got off their butts and were willing to walk my build through. I asked why they didn't offer that before and of course they really couldn't answer.
With that, I went to Falcon-NW. My machine shipped 3 days earlier than quoted, arrived completly set up with windows activated. After connecting all the components together and turning on the power for the very first time, the machine settled to the desktop in about 8 sec. There was absolutely NO bloatware on the machine and nothing loaded at start-up that wasn't necessary. The machine came with both a restore disk (Made after they activated windows) and a seperate windows xp pro cd.
It did however, cost me about $1000.00 more than the alienware, but Alienware was offering about a $600.00 discount at the time I ordered it.

My first laptop with Alienware took over 6 months to arrive, my second and third took about 10 days to ship. My first one was ordered shortly after their new gaming laptop became available, my second was a replacement to the first when the first was stolen in transit by someone at Fed-Ex, and the 3rd was a newer version. I still use that newer version today. It's fast but runs so hot it can strip paint. It is actually a clone that several manufactuers sell so I'm not sure AW's would be any better than the others. Their new stuff looks pretty cool though and I'm sure won't raise blisters on any unprotected skin that touches the case during gaming.

However, I believe if I were to buy another gaming laptop today, I would probably go with Falcon's. Their service was just that good.

 

[slim142]

My roommate also has a new XPS M1710 or whatever the gaming laptop is. It is psycho. It freakes me out to see a laptop run games my gaming PC can't run. It is a beast.
For the anti-Dell people: Yes, Dell generally sucks. NOT WITH THE XPS LINE THOUGH. My roommate had to call them for techie support with drivers, and the XPS folks were awfully good to him. I know, because the call was speakerphoned and I was helping him fix it. They are GOOD COMPUTERS. Furthermore, I have a friend in another dorm that he hated and he would leave his computer in our room and game to the wee hours (not this semester though, he's on academic probation, lol). He had the Dell XPS deskbook thing with the 20 inch screen. That is also the coolest computer, despite the fact that it cost him three times the cost of my car.

THE XPS LINE OF DELLS ARE GOOD. DON'T RAG ON THEM. JUST BECAUSE DELL MAKES SOME REALLY SHITTY CHEAP PCS DOESN'T MEAN XPS IS BAD.



Fanboys... There is such a thing as a "Custom-built-system-DIY fanboy". Still a fanboy, still lame.
-cm

Well I like the XPS's, but I prefer to build the pc's myself. But there is something I hate, Dell Super-Fans (Not fans, but super-fans) yes, those people that say THE XPS IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING OUT RIGHT NOW...

 

[celewign]

Well, yeah, I think home built is the best too. But the XPS line is some of the best manufacturer lines.
-cm

 

[newsong]

Alienware m9700

Is there a suitable replacement for the DVD Burning Drive in this laptop?

 

[Greg_77]

What about Asus or Gateway? They have some good deals on gaming laptops at cheaper prices than Alienware, Dell, and FN. They usually skimp on the processor, however, so be selective.

 

[newsong]

I already own the Alienware 9750, but need a dvd burning drive for it, since it did not come with a dvd burner, only rom drive. It has a slim atapi connector.