Being doing a lot of research for a gaming laptop that will last me approximately 3 years before considering graphical upgrades and was wondering what some of your experiences were for people with Alienware. I particularly want to know if this machine is prone to overheating issues which could very well damage expensive hardware like the graphics card.

Thanks.

PS: Also curious how long you've had the machine for.

I'll get this out of the way first:
Yes, you do pay a premium for the brand.

I use the m11x as I travel a lot. I can't reccomend the m14x since there are better and cheaper alternatives out there, and the m18x and m17x models are huge, and way more expensive than desktops that blow their performance out of the water.

Dell's customer service is apparantly horrible, luckily I've never had to deal with them. I used the m11x r1 for 16 months without issue, it was in perfect condition when I sold it and due to my lifestyle I put it through a good amount of abuse, I even dropped it twice. I've since upgraded to a top specced r3 and again, havn't had any issues. The warranty is also nice in that it covers the parts, not the laptop as a whole, so you're free to take it apart, swap hard drives, swap thermal paste (they often do a shoddy job on TIM application).

Would I reccomend it? Yes, if you've got the money. However if you don't travel a lot just build your own desktop.

Gaming laptop in general is a bad idea as you either have issues with the cooling (= lower performance hardware) or you buy a 'laptop' at the size of a desktop PC. Unless you really need the portability, I strongly suggest to get a desktop PC, where you'll get a better performance at lower cost.

Alienware in general I wouldn't recommend. A friend of mine and myself once bought Alienware laptops and both were broken. After several days of talking with the support and getting nothing but nonsense answers (like "You can fix the (literally) broken charger if you install all Windows updates.") we both independently sent the laptops back and bought a faster PC with better components for half the price.

If you are looking for something with more power for a cheaper price I would just got to http://www.cyberpowerpc.com and build one from the ground up (they also have pre made gaming ones).

I can vouch for the fact that you can build any PC to match Alienware specs for 1/3 the cost you will pay for an Alienware product.

If you have to have a laptop rather than a desktop, then Alienware isn't so bad - but you do take a hit for the branding. If you don't need a laptop, just build the computer yourself for cheap.

Alienware is way over the top expensive for what you get, laptops especially so, I'd opt for assembling your own gaming pc, it's not that difficult really and there are plenty of sites with step by step instruction to build dirt cheap gaming rigs.

Origin PC or Maingear IMO.

Don't listen to those who say you should never play with a laptop. That is very untrue. yes, it is more expensive, but it also means that it is portable. I can play in any room in my house, if I visit my family across the country the notebook comes with me. They aren't going to bring their desktops on the plane. I am able to run all games at max without issue with this notebook I got in August:

MALIBAL Nine X7200 (7280) (Manufacturer is Sager/Clevo..retailer was Malibal).
Triple Channel 12GB 12288MB PC3-8500/1066 MHz| Intel Core i7 990X | Dual NVIDIA GTX 580M |250 GB Intel 510 Sata III 6GB/sec| 8X Multi DVD |WIndows 7 Home Premium |Intel 6300 Ultimate 802.11 | IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound

I do recommend the cooler though. They actually accidentally gave me a second one for free lol. I am playing Skyrim on Max with FPS 99.9% of the time between 30-60FPS.

I previous had a Dell XPS from 4-5 years ago when that was the top of the line with an Nvidia 7900GTX or something like that, but I hated my experience with Dell Tech Support and decided to give another manufacturer a try.

I never really understood gaming on laptops. I suppose If I traveled a lot then I'd invest in one. I definitely wouldn't get an Alienware laptop though.

I've used them many times in the past when I was too lazy to build my own. Never had any issues..the problem is that you can build the same system for half the price. I priced a PC like the one I just built for myself there and it was 3000-3500. Built it myself for 2500.

Laptop-wise..dunno. I as the above have never understood why a gamer would want to play on a laptop.

Asus makes quality gaming laptops at affordable prices. You just need to format them when you get them to get rid of all the bloatware and make sure you get a decent cooling system so you can open up the CPU and GPU without burning them out.

I can say without equivocation that I LOVE my m17x r3 newly arrived the 3rd of November. This little laptop rocks. It chews this game up and spits it out with ease. Granted mine is a $2800 laptop build, but oh so worth it.


Alexis
*smiles*

Dell's customer service is actually excellent. It's Alienware's customer service that blows [censored]. If you purchase the AW brand, Dell CS can't help you and you're routed to AW. Overall they're over priced, more-so because you can't say "but you also pay for service" when it comes to AW because they svck it. They're only goal will be to tell you No or Sorry as often as possible hoping you go away. Dell's CS on the other hand is outstanding. I've had to deal with both on a number of occasions because I too travel often so I have a large mix of equipment.

If do you need to go this route I definitely suggest you also purchase the max warranty / full service, mitigating as many issues you may have in dealing with them as possible since you'll be covered for a lot more.

I have used alienware for years, I have also built computers. I have worked in the IT industry (helped install the 911 network along the east coast, have a degree in fine arts majoring in game design and have done contract work in that industry, and have owned my own IT consulting company). Just wanted to give you a little background so you know I am not speaking with no experience to back it up. That being said I recommend Alienware.... however do it the smart way. Go to the Outlet store for Dell (outlet.dell.com) and buy one there.

One of the things people do not realize is a top of the line XPS or Alienware PC use a seperate customer support. When you call you get good support. Also if you buy parts from a company and build your own, you will generally have a 30 day warrenty. When you buy a prebuilt machine from companies like Dell you get anywhere from 1 to 3 years support, not to mention my support promises to replace or fix my computer within 4 hours. I have used the support, and yes a truck arrived with a tech at my house within 4 hours of my call.

I got a top of the line PC from Dell's outlet a few years back before i7s existed. I paid $2500 for it. I priced it out on Newegg and it came to $4200. If I would have bought it from Dell and not the outlet... i would have paid over 5 grand.

My current PC is an Alienware, I paid $2500 for it as well. It is 2 years old and smokes games still.

My conclusion.... Alienware's price is justified and the product is solid. To get an equal machine from another company you will pay close or even more... and that is with only a 30 day warrenty.

I don't get why people say AW customer service is crap while Dell is better. Didn't Dell buy out AW not too long ago? Interesting.

Since I tend to travel a lot a desktop isn't going to help me out too much which is why I speculated on getting a top of the line gaming laptop. I also have a big budget and figured it would come down to Alienware or Origin like a poster above me said. I guess I have to do more homework lol.

i would say they are pretty good. i have m14x. i probably would fine something cheaper but out of lazyiness i just went with this.
it runs everything ive thrown at it, deus ex bf3 and skyrim. (apart from the fps loss in cities but thats a known issue) it does get warm but max temp ive had is 70ish with a cooler. laptop for is ideal for gaming and general use. laptop is quick. never had problem and had mine for 6 months. i have heard that dell customer services are bad and hoping not to come across them.
i would 100% go with alienware again for future. if i had the money i would love a maxed m18x dual sli gpu. but my missis would go ape if i spent that money

Very good response here and thank you for the detailed recount of your experience.

I do plan on not buying it off straight from their site like you suggested. Based on research I have done its way better to actually order through phone and HAGGLE prices for some items. I have seen recounts of people saving over $500 by doing this in forums. The problem for me now is patience. I'd rather not get the latest m18x because I am most definitely sure of a m19x that will debut either late this year or early 2012. We'll see.

Thanks again.

the m1710?

Strange mate Ive had very good experiences with dell support.

Originally had the xps gen 2, which eventually got stolen from my car. Had insurance through dell, but seeing as they no longer made the laptop, they sent me a m1710 in its place (got to thank the guy who stole from me, got a free upgrade. So cheers for that lol).

The m1710 suffered from overheating issues on both the cpu and the gpu (was hitting 105 c). Rang dell who sent a technician the day after with a new cpu, fans, and gpu. Both the cpu and gpu were upgrades to what I had. So went from the 7800m, to the 7950 gtx. cant remember the cpu i received.

So really not a bad experience for me.

From my original laptop I had a free upgrade when it was stolen, and then another free upgrade when it overheated

Alienware is a quality brand, but you're paying ridiculous sums of cash for their rigs. I bought an insanely expensive PC from PCSpecialist.co.uk for just over ￡2000. I price-checked at several different websites before buying with this company, and Alienware was one of them. For a similar PC (it actually had less RAM and a smaller SSD) I was quoted ￡3800 on the Alienware website. Almost double! For less! Alienware was the most expensive of all the websites I checked. PCSpecialist was the cheapest, and the forums are so active over there that I was able to ask people about both their customer service, build quality, and whether they had any suggestions for my PC with the parts I had chosen.

Seems Alienware is where you buy a gaming PC if you know nothing at all about gaming PCs. A little time spent web-browsing will get you far better deals. Check out PCSpecialist.co.uk if you're from Great Britain. Otherwise, I'm sure you'll have an equivalent where you're from. Just look around before you commit to buy

Basically what everyone else said, they are overpriced by far for what you actually get. I've been through hell with Dell customer support, just trying to get the laptop I ordered in the past. Seriously no mention whatsoever of the thing being backordered when I ordered it. Get a call 3 days later, "Oh that color is backordered, if you switch to black you'll get it early next week." So I switch, a month goes by and I still don't have the laptop I just spent 600 bucks on. I call them and get "Oh all but the white color are backordered and have been for weeks." Needless to say I cancelled my order and made them refund me my money that very day. Honestly if you really want a gaming laptop search around on other sites before you buy an Alienware, I can almost bet you'll find something similar, if not better, somewhere else. That or build an actual tower yourself for a fraction of what you'll spend on a store-bought model, it really isn't very hard.

I have heard many good things about the m14x. Very nice. I also find it pretty cool that old models still run the newer games at high settings at the very least.

How long do you guys think a Dual 2GB GeForce Nvidia GTX 580M card will last me before an upgrade? I think this is one of the latest cards but I'm not sure.

the m14x isnt that old!
the dual gpu would last a while

Anyone who says Alienware is too expensive, I challenge you to find a pre-built LAPTOP with the same specs as this and post a link showing you can get it cheaper!

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
Video Card: NVIDIA? GeForce? GT540M graphics with 2.0GB Video Memory and Optimus
Processor: Intel? Core? i7 2617M 1.5GHz(2.6GHz w/Turbo Boost, 4MB Cache)
External Optics Drive (for CDs): Dell 8X External Optical Drive: Super Multi DVD±RW Drive
Personalized Laptop color
Built in LED lights to light up keyboard at night

This all comes out to $1,249.00 for a M11x Alienware laptop, what I'm currently using to play Skyrim and many other games.

Alienware is simply the best you can get unless you are really into computers and are willing to buy the parts, make sure they are all compatible together, get a case that will fit everything inside of it, and put it all together.

I wouldn't buy a "pre-made" computer from ANYWHERE -but- Alienware. Simply because almost every pre-made gaming computer with "almost" the same specs as an Alienware brand PC/Laptop has a horrible power supply in it causing the computer to just go out, or horrible cooling systems.

My two cents, Alienware makes a great machine, but they are a bit overpriced. Depending on your situation, you might be better off looking elsewhere. I won't labor over the points that others already have, that laptops obviously dollar for dollar will severely underperform desktops, that's a given, but I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting a gaming laptop.

I highly recommend the ASUS RoG series. My laptop only cost 800 dollars and is on par gaming performance wise with a 1600 dollar laptop. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230021

I am able to play Skyrim on Ultra with shadows set to high along with shadowed land, shadowed trees, and increased tree draw distance, and I get 60 FPS in dungeons/caves, 35-45 FPS outside and in towns, with occasional in town drops into the 20's (the well-known 'bad' spots in Markath for example). The laptop has some issues which you may need to fix (when I first purchased it, the first game I fired up immediately GSoD'd (grey screen of death), but I knew this was a possibility. A simple VBios update and I've never had a single problem with stability since. The GPU comes stock at 700/1000MHz core/memory clocks and I was easily able to OC it to 800/1000MHz core/memory and am rock stable. The laptop also has a subwoofer, which while obviously laptop speakers will always underperform good headphones, the 2.1 speakers on this laptop are better than any other laptop speakers I've ever used.

IMHO, this 800 dollar laptop will outperform all but the most extreme gaming laptops, only downside is 1600x900 monitor instead of 1080p, but in some regards that could be viewed as a positive, since you always want to play games on LCD at their native resolution because LCD panels have a fixed raster. So if you got a 1080p laptop, and then ended up being forced to run games at a lower res anyway, you'd actually be getting a worse image quality. I can't sing high enough praises about this laptop at that price point. If you compare the performance of the mobility 5870 with other mobile GPU's, here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html you'll see that it's almost on par with the GTX 560M, which is pretty incredible.

TL;DR: You can find laptops with slightly better performance than the one I linked, but not at that price point. 800 dollars gets you a laptop as fast (gaming-wise) as most 1500+ builds. For desktop performance, not having a sandybridge might slow you down just a tad, but if you look at benchmarks, clock for clock, sandybridges don't really outperform equally clocked non-sandy counterparts. For non-gaming, clock for clock, the sandybridges are almost twice as fast as an equally clocked non-sandy, but honestly the i7 740m is a plenty powerful processor for desktop use. I regularly transcode video while watching HD video and lots of other taxing things without any issues.

ninja edit: If you do go with this model, I recommend formatting it and reinstalling Windows to get rid of the bloatware. I got significantly better performance after doing a clean install compared to just trying to stop all the bloat-services and uninstall all the bloatware.