Well i was really leary about buying an alienware mostly because of the price and less expensive laptops you could get for a lesser price with the same or higher specs. Well here's the reason this is so worth it, and much better. First off all parts on the inside are intel genuine parts, Nvidia genuine parts and the whole laptop is build from the ground up with super top notch components. Lots of computers such as Acers, Gateway, HP, and even Sony use other companies to manufacture there motherboards graphic cards, screens etc etc. This thing is an absolute sherman tank, and just looks and feels down right indestructible. When i pulled it out of the box (which looked like is cost about 100$ itself i was like wow impressive). It was wrapped in a velvet black Alienware sleeve which was pretty unique, upon opening it i couldn't believe the weight(could be a con for some people), and then i realized this thing has METAL components, on the sides, bottom and the back of the screen. How often do you see that, never? So yes this thing is well worth the money. Now onto the specs. What it doesnt tell you(i'm writing about the Best Buy model) is that this unit is equipted with two yes two GPU's. One is the main Nvidia GTX 260, the other an Nvidia 9400, so basically the more powerful GPU feeds off the lesser one to give you extra graphical and gaming ability, and yes it shows, big time. The resolution may not be full 1080p(its 1440x900) but who really cares? Check on Xbox and Ps3 and you'll find there are very very few games that even run at full 1080p resolution, even upscaled the games look noting like on this thing. I've played Bioshock, Red Faction Guerilla, Resident Evil 5, and Crysis so far all without a hitch, even Crysis you can play at very high setting with a playable frame rate. The glossy screen really brings out the details and vibrant colors especially with antialiasing, even though its not the brightest in the world, its great. The slot loading DVD-RW is great, loads very quickly, and runs quietly. Don't be fooled by all the hype of the new I series intel chipsets, the i7 did not make that much of an impression on me, this thing has the Quad 2 Core running at 2.0 ghz, and the system rating for calculations per second are 6.9. The i7 in most of the other gaming machines is about 7.0 or 7.2, whoopi do, who really cares?? Also the overall look of this machine is just beautiful, the keys are atomatically set to blue, but you can change them to about any color you want using the Alienware Utility Console.The battery can get up to 3 hours if you turn down the screen and don't really game TO heavy, so thats definitely a plus. I got fed up with Asus because of allll kinds of wireless issues, blue screens of death, disc read errors, squashed unresponsive keys, and just some overall major screwups with the machines themselves. So yes i payed the extra money figuring this would be better and it way surpassed my expectations, being that it blows the more modern but fading Asus G60 and G72 series laptops out of the water. The speakers in the front also glow the same color as the keys or a different variety if you want, which is really something. On another note i opened the box with the power adapter and its a flat box type shaped, not the usual box Xbox 360 type adapter you usually get with gaming machines. I will add another 2 gigs(to get 6) just to add it, but heck it doesnt even need it, this thing is still a multitasking beast. I think anything over 6 gigs is really uneeded sine most games require no more than 3 gigs anyways, and that would be a shock. So as i've praised this is the first REAL gaming laptop i've ever owned, all the rest were ok but nothing compared to this thing. When they say its made for heavy duty gaming and multitasking they weren't kidding. This beast will surely stand the test of time, and is also upgradable for any GPU out there, but i don't think i'll ever need anything more. If you have the cash don't waste your time with Asus, Cyperpower, or even Toshiba Qosmio, even it the specs are better this thing is specifically designed for heavy use. The sound quality is the loudest i've ever heard, and also has a subwoofer. The only one thing that is a slight small issue is when your playing games the fan is realllly loud, but i really could care less considering i know it will never overheat, umm thats what the fans and cooling system are for. I've had other laptops where the fan didn't even run, not good. So enough going on and on, if you have the cash or credit just get it, its not just for gamers its for anyone that ones a really awesome looking and performing laptop to last for many years. One last funny thing is you get an Alienware black hat, and a manual bound in leather that looks like a bible, and also an Alienware alienhead sticker for, well wherever you wanna stick it. HA.
Only two things, no blu ray, which i could care less since i have it on my PS3, and i wish in these units they would put a 16x or 18x DVD burner, instead of just 8x.
No, it doesn't have the newer Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, but it IS a Quad Core Q9000! The rest of the components list is a dream come true...DUAL nVidia GTX 260m graphics cards (1 GB memory per) with SLI enabled, slot loading DVD burner, bluetooth, wifi n, 4gb of DDR3 1333 ram... all the qualities I needed for a serious gaming rig. Sound quality is much better than average. I'll probably still end up using a headset while gaming. It's also built like a tank with a full aluminum case. Customizable lighting system is pretty cool too. I could've done without all the extra lights, but the backlit keyboard is awesome and was a "must have" on my list.
Alienware is definitely worth the extra money if you can afford it, and if you're looking for a quality built computer and a reliable portable gaming system. As for the price, Amazon is selling it for a fantastic savings! I built the exact same computer on the Alienware site using the exact same components, and it came out over $350 more expensive than it did from Amazon! You won't be disappointed...I haven't been!
Buy Alienware M17x-2857DSB 17-Inch Laptop (Black) Now
I purchased this laptop a year and three months ago. Both the video card and the motherboard failed one month after the waranty expired. I sent it in to Dell and for about $600 they replaced the failed components. Just over 30 days after this, the video card failed again. Interestingly, this was just after the 30 day waranty on their maintenance expired! Further, Dell no longer supports the computer and referred me to Z-Tronics to have the video card replaced. Z-Tronics just told me that they don't have the video card and have no idea when they will get them again. So, now I have a $2k+ brick.My advice? Don't by an Alienware. Dell is supporting these computers very poorly.
Read Best Reviews of Alienware M17x-2857DSB 17-Inch Laptop (Black) Here
First off let me say my 1 star approval rating is based on my 1st Alienware system.The first night I got my Alienware M17x I had to call technical support because the Cyberlink Power DVD 8 software produced a series of horizontal lines across the middle of the screen. I was on the phone with tech support from 8:00pm-12:00 midnight the first night. Alienware Technical Support was very helpful and got this problem resolved but the bottom line; I was on the phone all night. The next day I went to a friends house to watch a couple of videos and before we finished watching them, all of my desk top icons had changed to a generic Windows format and were inoperable. This issue took over 8 hours on the phone with technical support to resolve. These system/software problems continued to persist and "evolve", as quoted by tech support, for almost two weeks. After two weeks of nothing but problems I had spent a total of about 40 hours on the phone with technical support. The last day of ownership of this system I spent 13 hours on the phone with Alienware technical support and customer service. One time that day after being on hold for almost an hour Alienware customer service hung up on me.
After all these problems, and I've only mentioned a small portion of them, I finally got smart and contacted Amazon's five star customer service. Amazon gave me the option of a refund or replacement! I opted for a replacement because I believe this is atypical of what Alienware produces. I wanted to give them another chance.
Just a little more detail about the excellent Amazon Customer Service.... I contacted them 4 March 2010. This was a Thursday, and it was mid afternoon. By Friday, 5 March 2010, they had a new Alienware system on it's way to me via Federal Express. By Saturday, 6 March 2010, before 12:00 noon I had received my new Alienware M17x. The Amazon customer service represenative I spoke with, 4 March 2010, even seemed genuinely concerned that I get some sleep after I explained to her I had been up 13 hours on the phone with Alienware tech and customer service. Amazon even gave me a refund for the return shipping after I called them and gave them the return tracking number. This was something that was totally unexpected. I checked with my credit card company online and the refund has already posted as of, 8 March 2010. Outstanding job Amazon!
I've had my second new Alienware M17x system, Amazon shipped to me, for two days and I've done everything I could to check it for faults. So far this system seems to be totally problem free. I'll come back in two weeks or so and if it's still problem free I think I'll rerate it four or five stars.
Alienware/Dell Customer service could learn something for Amazon.
If you want to buy something from a company who will stand behind the products they sell Amazon is the best choice. I think they're better than Wal-Mart. Thank you so much Amazon. Your up there with the stars. You're stellar!!!
Sincerely, Paul Orand
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First of all, let me say in plain english, Do Not Buy an M17x or any other Alienware PC.I remember that once upon a time, dell was a great company. They built quality consoles, they had the warranty that set the industry standard, they cared about their customer support. It is clear to me that these things no longer matter to Dell. A big name and customer loyalty brings us back time after time. Over the past decade, I have given them dozens of referrals and direct purchases, but in the year since I purchased my dell M17x 8GB with dual Nvidia 260M graphics in SLI and an Intel i7 processor, I have actively scuttled just as many purchases by telling all about my personal experience.
Its unstable. Out of the box, brand spanking new, it barely even qualifies as a paper weight. It took me 3 days, and probably 30 hours to get through simply downloading and installing window's updates, firmware mismatches all kinds of errors and stuff that i'll get into later caused me so many problems that its not even funny. If your top of the line(or at least above average) gaming PC can't even run Mcaffee or your own on-board Aliensense programs, then how the hell are you going to run dragon age, fallout, league of legends, even counterstrike or NES Emus?
So, what kinds of problems did I experience? The laptop will power down completely without even attempting to shutdown windows and completely without warning. The screen goes solid white with a streak of random pixels near the bottom. The computer freezes... FREEZES. I haven't seen that since High-school and Pentium 3. and these errors can occur with or without an obnoxiously loud tone blasting me in the face for a minimum of 3 seconds while i try to hard off the PC.
The obvious issues. Well, first of all there was an obvious NVIDIA driver conflict with something on-board. since alien-sense is the only non-standard program that comes pre-installed, i choose to blame that, however it doesn't really matter. after trying 5-6 other Nvidia drivers I find one that doesn't crash my computer every 30 mins like clockwork. Issue two. Poor design. The screen is too far back, the external shell gets too hot, too fast thanks to poor internal cooling, mother-board has no internal sensors on-board, inferior components like the SSD that they charged me to install but has a SLOWER read/write speed than my last HDD. Also the "break me" button at the top right has no tactile response, no toggle and no "oh i didn't mean to break my pc, UNDO" button. see below.
Less obvious problems. the "break me" button also called "stealth mode" instantly insures that you will not have a moment's rest until you figure out what exactly stealth mode is and why you never-ever want to graze that button. Stealth mode is dell's commitment to green in action. when you touch that button, it will instantly shut off all graphics cards except for the one built into the i7(which cant handle much) underclock your CPU, shut down anything that is drawing power from a USB port, kill your wifi, bluetooth, even your keyboard lighting. anything to conserve power, except of course toggle down the brightness on your monitor. you need to use window's settings to do that. and before you ask, no. you can neither disable, nor change the settings of the "break me" button, and no. once "break me" mode is initiated, you can't turn it off. you must unplug the pc, power down the pc restart the pc, go into the Bios for the PC, mess with the settings re-enabling all the stuff that is disabled(like your USB port and hybrid graphics), plug in your pc and restart it. first of all, the creation of such a button on a GAMING PC is just dumb. next everything it does, you can do through settings or by unplugging your externals, windows calls this "power management." third, there is no way to make this setup stable. i need at least one GPU to run windows for more than 5 minutes without it crashing, period. hence the "break me" button.
also if the laptop comes unplugged, perhaps you foolishly wanted to present a project or surf the web while watching TV you must restart your computer in order to re-enable hybrid graphics, i guess the battery just can't provide that much power. I do get an NVIDIA GPU though which is handy if i'm not interested in gaming or doing anything processor intensive. it should be noted that i needed an alienware patch before, under some circumstances, the power supply that came with the PC was recognized as "the proper" power supply. as if i happened to have a compatible low-watt version hanging out at home and i thought "gee, all computer parts are interchangeable" derp.
presently, my alienware pc is more or less stable. but, needless to say, i came very very close to sending it back before everything clicked. i say more or less because it can still glitch out when i push it and every once in a while when i don't. so i say it again. Don't buy an Alienware M17x. I hear good things about ASUS, Lenovo, and even HP if you aren't obsessive about high end graphics.
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