These guys used to be the shiznit for performance desktop and laptop PCs

http://www.voodoopc.com/#/productsenvy

But I guess they recently got bought out by HP....so I cant vouch for the quality now... (why do all the good PC makers get bought out by the likes of HP and Dell).


Dell....I wouldnt buy anything from them. The last product I bought from them was 3 years ago (a monitor) that had 7 dead pixels in a cluster. It was a cluster just trying to get a RMA number. I dont know how so many people in India can be named Bob or Mike (rumor has it Dell heard thru customer surveys that customers from the West were uncomfortable talking to someone in India, so they sent all of the Indians to training to sound more western and gave them names like Bob, mike, Joe... give me a break).

I'd agree with this. Check out ASUS, I've used several of their parts in computers I've built over the years and never had problems with any of them and their prices have always been reasonable. It is definitely worth it to shop around because you are likely to find something with a great price with similar specs by another manufacturer. Also Black Friday/Cyber Monday are coming up, you might be able to snag a hell of a deal somewhere.

You know Dell owns Alienware and the reps and servicemen that are sent round are the same people... right? Alienware doesn't even have it's own sales reps, it's all done through Dell. In Europe anyway.

Their PCs are overpriced but their tech support is top-notch.

Wow. Seeing some high-end specs on there for like 3000 dollars cheaper compared to their website. Unfortunately I am not a fan of scratches/dents because I take care of my systems like crazy. I would do myself a disservice if I shelled out for these type of laptops lol .

But I can't thank you enough for the link. It will definitely come in handy for people who don't mind blemishes.

There are no scratches and dents, at least not on either one I bought. Generally they are a reburb of some sort or an "open box". Both computers you could not tell them from the over priced counter parts. Get a little warranty time so if there is any issue you are covered. I had next day at home service and they would show up and fix my computer at my table in a couple hours every problem I had. I even had them upgrade my 2x 8800 GTX to 2x 9800 gtx cards for free. I know how to work CSR, talk to supervisors and they east Indians may not speak English well but they know when you start repeating their name to them and mention how you will make mention of their name, date and location in your complaint letter they start getting very co operative, they do not want to get fired... Managers included. Do not assume these items will have scratches or dents if it does call support and have them fix it or replace it.

EvolovE

Guess it is different in your neck of the woods. I had a monster XPS (true top of the line 5K rig at the time) Dell that went [censored] up while I was on the road. Dell customer service was outstanding and wound up replacing it with an AW Area 51 ALX. Once I had received the replacement and shipped back the original XPS (and they had taken ownership of the old rig) the same rep afterward reverted from providing any assistance whatsoever, informing me he could no longer help and I would have to now deal with AW support instead.

Also since all I mentioned was the support (or rather, the potential for support) issues with AW support but didn't actually mention equipment.

Their equipment is excellent. They don't use trash components, it's well built, designed and thought out in many ways. My issue has never been with the equipment. It's the potential for support issues but that may also be the exception not the rule depending on what the issue actually relates to.

I have purchased a scratched or dented machine from the outlet. The scratch was on some folding fins that were chrome, to make the tower stand up and not tip.... the scratch was barely noticeable... and they included brand new replacement fins when it shipped. I installed them in 10 seconds... 1 screw.

ASUS Laptop's are the best in my opinion. and they have the best Customers service(well In Australia they are the best) out of all the lapptop brands,
they are the only ones who have Australian Call center services all the others(HP/Acer/Toshiba/Dell) are base overseas and they charge you X amount
for the internation call. where as ASUS charge the same as a local call.

They also arrange for pickup and return of your laptop, should require rapairs.

For a top end laptop I'd definitely recommend Sager. Far better prices than Alienware. I'm actually thinking about selling my Asus G73SW and picking up a Sager NP8170 with a 6990M for a big power boost.

Asus is nice, but the even the G74 is too outdated to recommend at this point (dont make my mistake of getting a midrange mobile gaming GPU, only the best go more than a year without seeming a little out of their league trying to run modern games) and the Sager is only slightly more expensive.

Thank you for recommending Sager and now I am even more intrigued.

Apparently word has gotten round that Sager uses Clevo parts and was wondering if this was true? And even more bizarre is the fact people claim Alienware have parts from Sager/Clevo. Anyone mind shedding some light on this? Thanks.

Came here to recommend Sager as well.

This. My G74 runs Skyrim on ultra at a steady 60 fps outdoors, dipping to 45 indoors or at lowest 30 if there is a [censored]load of light sources.



My response to this is that a good gaming laptop can be remarkably convenient and satisfying, allowing you to do things you would never be able to do with a desktop. For example, I routinely put myself to sleep by playing Skyrim in bed with a 360 controller. The g74's cooling is astounding and I never feel any heat emanating, it's surprisingly comfortable and playing while laying back in bed is pure win. I also routinely like to hook it up to my 55" plasma so I can play whilst lazing back in a leather recliner w/a controller. While the latter is doable with a desktop, constantly transferring it from my bedroom to my living room would be a huge pain and I probably just wouldn't do it. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could do it without attaining a massive hdmi extension cable since the only way it works now is because my laptop can slide into the only remaining cubby in my entertainment system setup, like a blu-ray player or console would.

Anyway, I just thought I should bring that up as I don't think some people grasp exactly why a gaming laptop is desirable for some people. I agree that cooling problems in the past have generally been so bad that actually sitting them on your lap was a recipe for sterility, but the most recent generation of gaming laptops have made huge strides in that regard. My laptop is not only not hot when running Skyrim, it's cool. Laptop graphics cards have also made a huge step up recently, it's no longer the case that you have to get a laptop with a graphics card comparable to a 4-5 year-old high-end desktop card.

If you don't plan on traveling much, hooking it up to your TV often, or playing in bed then it's probably better to go with the desktop. However, I felt it important to point out that there are finally gaming laptops available at affordable prices (mine cost me an even grand and runs Skyrim fluidly on ultra) that have transcended the former problems that made them unpractical.

As usual people are tailoring their responses to their circumstances and not yours. "Alienware's too expensive." "Gaming laptops are pointless." Etc. At the end of the day it's you who's considering buying a gaming laptop, so tell us your circumstances.

Do you travel a lot? Is money an issue? These would be the main two questions i'd ask.

I bought my M18x Alienware in August and am extremely happy with it. Below are the main specs:

CPU - i7 2720QM
GPU's - CrossFireX HD 6990M's
RAM - 8GB DDR3 @ 1600mhz
HDD's - 1.5TB Raid 0 (2 x 750GB, 7200RPM)
Blue-Ray Player, DVD-Writer

Every single game i've tried runs at a rock solid 60fps with Vsync on. Except Skyrim, which can spike lower but this is due to...issues that most of us are aware of i'm sure. It's still silky smooth. Most games fps would go into the hundreds if I turned Vsync off. Yes, it cost a lot more than an equal power Desktop PC would - but that doesn't suit my circumstances. I also have a Desktop PC that can run all modern games with great performance. I don't even use it anymore, even when at home.

Here go my answers to the two questions I asked you. I travel a lot. I'm away from home for 20 days and then home for 10 days. Money also is not an issue. That's why I bought an Alienware, and it does absolutely everything I wanted it to do and more.

At first i'd only intended to use it for gaming on my 20 days away. But I was so impressed with the performance that even when I get home now I just put it on the coffee table in my living room and plug it into my TV. Then I just plug in a keyboard and close the lid on the M18x. Now my only regret is not buying a 60" 120Hz Full HD TV . The same goes in my Hotels while i'm away. If there's a decent Full HD TV in the room, I use that. The M18x screen is great, but if there's a larger Full HD around, i'll use it.

Now in a backpack I can carry a beast of a PC (the M18x), a mouse, mousepad and a portable 3TB HDD full of Media. That's 4.5TB of games, movies etc that I can carry anywhere at a moments notice. It's a heavy backpack though, weighing about 9-10kg's (20-22lb's). It only just fits on a tray on planes and in High Performance mode it svcks that battery dry in less than an hour lol. You don't buy a gaming laptop for battery life though. Usually on planes I watch movies as then you can get 4+hrs out of the battery - the same as a normal laptop really. If you have access to computer power though, gaming on your flight is all good.

I saw a few people mentioning Sager and I did look into them for a while. The main appeal for me was the extra HDD bay if you removed the disk bay. This made a SSD a possibility while still having a decent amount of storage with two other 750GB's. You know what killed Sager for me though? The only reason? No backlit keyboard. What the sh!t at no backlit keyboard. In this day and age? I simply cannot live without one after years of gaming in low lighting with nice visible keys on a Logitech G15. Anything less is totally unacceptable.

I will end on a negative to somewhat balance my post. The one issue I had with my M18x was that the CrossFireX cable between the two HD 6990's was not properly connected. I had to open it up using the Users Manual, take most everything out and connect the cable. That infuriated me at the time that they could forget or neglect something so simple. I secured it with some tape so that it wouldn't happen again, incase it had somehow unplugged itself. But I can't see how that'd be possible really. I could of just shipped it back to them at their expense and had them do it, but from what i've read of their customer service I did not want to go with that option. The average seems to be getting it back months later with the problem(s) unresolved. I don't know if Alienware were always like this, but they're owned by Dell now so are probably well on their way to sh!tness.

Anyway I hope this helps in your decision, and let us know why you're thinking about a gaming laptop.

You don't need to be a computer engineering major to build your own Desktop. A monkey could almost do it. Ever played with lego? That's about as complex as it gets, lol. Where does this bit go? Hmmm, it only fits here. Bingo!

I forgot to answer one of your original questions in my previous post. Overheating is absolutely not an issue at all. Not on the M18x anyway. There are a lot of fans inside this thing, and the airflow is very well designed. You can feel the hot air blowing out the back, and those fans can really crank when needed. The problem with a lot of laptops is a large portion of the heat seems to be directed downwards onto the table, and a flat surface can become a problem. Never had a problem playing on any flat surface with this, be it glass, metal or even ceramic. It can get quite warm to the touch on the top of the base near the screen, but it peaks and stays at that temperature even after hours. I've run it for 20 days straight without turning it off before and gamed on it most nights. I consider it more a portable Desktop than anything .

After visiting the Alienware site just now you don't seem to have as many options as when I ordered. Gone are the HD 6990M's which were a great deal for like half the cost of the 580M's and similar performance. Just all Nvidia there now which is a bit disappointing. This is the first AMD card i've ever bought and i've been very impressed. I didn't care about money when designing my M18x but twice the price for a 10% increase in performance is just silly . They also only seem to offer 500GB HDD's in Raid 0 now, what's up with that?

Maybe take a look at some of the Alienware resellers and see if they offer more options. HIDEvolution was who I was forced to use since I don't live in the USA and Alienware wont ship internationally. Their service really svcked but it got here in the end. From what i've read their service couldn't of possibly been worse than Alienwares anyway. There's another popular reseller but I can't think of their name right now - they do Sagers and Asus etc as well.

I have been building computers since the early 90's when people began to setup at home for real, while alienware is very expencive most people dont realize that you are paying for a warranty and Windows that is not optionable and they have to build it for you, things like that cost money and thats some of the reasons why Alienware will always be more expencive.

Today i would recommend most buying a complete PC from a hardware shop instead, for the price of a Alienware you can get this included with3 years warrranty and support, shipping, Windows and they build it for you.

Ahead Nero 10 Essentials OEM
CyberLink DVD Suite 7, 6Channel, OEM CD
PC BOX LARGE
QPAD FH Komplett L.E.
Corsair Obsidian 800D Big Tower Sort
Corsair TX V2 850W PSU
Intel? Core i7-2600K Processor
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z, Socket-1155
Corsair H80 Hydro Series CPU K?ler
Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 16GB
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 590 3072MB PhysX CUDA
Corsair SSD Force Series 3, 120GB
Seagate Barracuda? XT 2TB
Plextor Blu-Ray Writer PX-LB950SA
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro
Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Keyboard
Logitech G400 Gaming Mouse (MX518)
Logitech G35 Gaming headset
MS COA Label Windows Ultimate 7
MS DVD Win H.P/Pro/Ultimate 7 DK 64bit
MS ROYALTY Win Ultimate 7 Nordic
Battlefield 3
Gamer Extreme Standard

this is much less than a area 51 from alienware.

The amount of people posting about what Desktops he could get for the same price is staggering.

Please note, he did NOT ask, "Hi guys, i'm thinking of buying a Gaming Laptop! But what sort of Desktop PC could I get for the same price?"

ASUS ZENBOOK

asus all the way

Alienware even sounds like its trying to steel little boys Christmas money ....

Sager does indeed use Clevo parts. Nothing wrong with that though.

I recently purchased a Clevo P170HM3D from a reseller: http://malibal.com/ I have a 2 year old with another on the way so the third bedroom went from being an office to a baby room. That means no real room for a big desk with office setup (there would have to be enough room for both me and my wife). So instead we both picked up laptops and put the desktops into retirement.

Here's my specs. The laptop runs Skyrim on Ultra upwards of 60FPS. And the 120Hz 75% NTSC screen is absolutely gorgeous.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/LGGYn.jpg[/img]

Check the http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/ which has an active, very knowledgeable community.

Right. I am not considering a desktop because of my situation (I move around the US frequently). Just like how I'm currently in NYC for 3 days and will be heading back to DC soon so its tough lol.

All the same I read your detailed account Koven and that is awesome. I smirked a bit with the loose AMD video cables. Can't believe they overlooked that.

Anyway as to why I considered PC gaming out the blue? Well I have basically had it with my favorite RPGs getting the shaft thanks to Bethesda. The unresolved bugs on the consoles have taken a toll. These guys are really incompetent and most especially ruined Fallout New Vegas for me (game breaking lag and freezes). Seeing the sheer amount of bug reports for Skyrim on the PS3 (my choice console), I have decided not to take anymore chances and finally invest on a solid gaming PC. You made remarks about portable PC gaming coming a long way and you are correct. I remember way back when I considered it and shut down that idea immediately because of overheating issues being prevalent in that period. Guess growing technology fixed that.

Anyway I digress, I just feel that PC gaming is on a more stable ground when it comes to my choice RPGs at the moment. Since its normal for Bethesda to be incompetent, I have noticed that the modding community always pulls through and fixes a lot of the buggy mess. I also see stuff like optimizations and graphical improvements on Steam. Simply incredible stuff indeed. About time I took advantage of all these tools but I am not naive because I am aware of the numerous problems I may come across with PC gaming. The good news is that such problems won't likely be excessive on a brand new high end machine. Bad news being the obvious, the more outdated the hardware is, the more problems I will come across and that's a gamble I am willing to take.

Will definitely check it out. Thanks bro.

EDIT: LED on a [censored] laptop?!?! 120Hz?! I am so jealous lmao!!! Just wow... really surprising. Laptops have really come a long way to have LED screens with 120Hz refresh rates. Comparable to high-end TVs in the market. Impressive.

I would never buy a prebuilt PC from a small shop or a local shop. Who knows if they will be in business in three years, much less next month. The computer business is so hard to succeed in against the mammoth companies. What good is a 3 year warranty when the company shut down a month or two after you bought it.

Alienware is just expensive for what it is. You are just paying for the brand.

You could build yourself a PC for less money. Its fairly simple to do, for components its either colour coded or can only be plugged in one way.
Also if you need help there is plenty of online guides and forums.

If you getting a laptop, I would be keen on warranty.

First of all I would like to thank Hyrule for suggesting Sager. Its very easily upgradeable and the price point compared to Alienware is way better for slightly better performance. Man. Patience pays off because I would hate to have Buyer's Remorse. I have also decided to research for a whole month on each individual part before making my destined purchase .

Its the journey that counts afterall. Would like to once again thank everyone for the extensive feedback (even those still insisting on desktops lol).