Bal

Hi peeps,

my MESH (bag of kak) laptop is on its final legs and I am in the market to by another desktop replacement.

Its got to have the latest nvidia 6800 GPU inside. On the market there only apper to be 3 companies that do this. Alienware, MV and RockDirect.
I'd prefer an Alienware cos of the rave reviews.

Has anyone had any experience with Alienware pc's? If so, what do you think?

Cheers
Bal

Iain Young

I've just changed from a 3.2Ghz P4 Alienware laptop. It was unreliable, got very hot (desktop processor), was cheaply / badly made, and the tech support was terrible. I wouldn't buy another one.

I've just recently bought a Dell XPS Gen 2 laptop to replace it. It's got the latest Nvidia 6800 ultra 256mb card in it, with pci-express etc, and despitre the centrino processor, it is MUCH quicker than the alienware laptop I replaced it with. Runs doom 3 at max res / detail settings at over 60fps, and although I haven't tried benchmarking it yet, HL2 runs very nicely indeed as well

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...&sbc=inspn_xps

Highly Recommended

Vonzack

I have an Alienware Area-51m (3.4GHz, ATI 9700 graphics card) and I have to disagree with Iain (sorry mate), the one I have hasn't been any trouble and it's far from looking cheap / badly made. It's got to be one of the best put together laptops I've owned.

Having said that, you've got to consider it's a desktop in a laptop case, so it will get hot when pushed, it won't last more than 1.5 hours on the battery and it's bloody heavy at around 6-7kgs with the power supply packed.

The ones that Alienware are selling now come with the PCI express chipsets, so you'll be able to get a version with the NVidia 6800 GPU.

Iain Young

Sounds like the same laptop I had Vonzack. Perhaps I was just unlucky then.

Had it just over a year, and I've worn the lettering of several of the keys on the keyboard, it keeps reseting itself or hanging after being on for more than half an hour, getting artifacts (dead pixels) on the screen, and the dvd rom drive has packed up. On top of that, their tech support is laughable and VERY slow.

Only had the Dell for a few weeks, but it's sooooo much better made, oozes quality, and is a great deal quicker, cooler, and quieter...

davedipster

Alienware are THE BEST.
Customer support is tops, the build quality is even better and look of the thing is to die for.
Best laptop I've ever had and my next one will also be Alienware.

You pay abit more for AW stuff, but hey I wanted the best.

dipster.

Barmyclown

I`ve got an an 2 year old 51-m, Ive had no problems with it at all. I`d definatly buy off them again. First thing that impressed me was 4 days after the order was placed the price of p4`s fell by 200 notes. They rang me up asked me whether I wanted a cheque or to up the spec. I opted to up the spec.. Yeah it`s heavy but it was bought as replacement for a desktop when i was away for long periods to play games on. Build quality is awesome compared to both my girlfriends laptops. only thing i`m not happy with at the moment, is the lack of any new upgradeable graphics cards for it. I didn`t think that the leap from radeon 9600 to gforce 5700 was a big enough leap to warrent the cash. But hopefully it will sorted out soon.


jase

Bal

Excellent.

Cheers chaps.
I'll probably plump for the Alienware and in the future upgrade the graphics card via the pci express slot. I'm guessing that this will be pretty easy to do?

Cheers
Bal

Iain Young

My new dell is faster, cheaper and better made.

No it's not.

• I rang them and got a call centre who didn't ring you back when they said they would.
• I subscribed to their Alien Autopsy programme (for fast response error tracking), but it took them 4 weeks to respond to the problem I raised.
• I sent email to their priority support address etc, and it took them over a week to respond to that as well.

Might be good support in your book, but it's not in mine.

They do look nice, but the build quality is not the best, (the Dell I have now is MUCH better made). For example, they seem to use pretty cheap components for the keyboard (at least they did in mine), which results in noisy / unresponsive keys after a while, and the lettering wears off. Sure I use it a lot (probably 8-9 hours a day) but I'd expect it to last longer than 12 months...

Good for you. I wouldn't buy another one if you paid me. Biggest waste of £2500 I've ever spent.

Iain

Hepy

Iain, have been considering the Dell xps gen 2. How's it performing? Any probs?
Cheers.

Iain Young

No problems at all so far (had it a couple of months).

Performance is very good indeed.

At work I use it for programming, mainly in Java and C++ (.net).

At home I use it for games, programming, photo manipulation (Photoshop CS2), and 3d modelling / rendering using Lightwave 8.

In all areas it has so far performed flawlessly, and is substantially quicker than the Alienware laptop it has replaced. Battery life is a lot better than the Alienware, it is quite a bit quieter, and it runs a lot cooler as well.

As far as games performance goes, it will happily play doom3, half life 2, GTR, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas etc in full res, high detail etc smoothly with no slowdown etc, and the 17" wide screen is very clear and responsive.

Also, don't forget that with a quick click of the mouse, you can change the colours of the leds inside the logos on the back / inside the fans etc

It's everything I hoped the Alienware would be but wasn't....

Bal

Iain,

how quiet is the Dell fan?

Cheers
Bal

Iain Young

You can't really hear it at all most of the time. When you're doing intensive 3d stuff it speeds up a bit, but it's still not intrusive at all, (about a 10th of the volume of the Alienware - which incidentally also has a fan in the AC power adapter!!!)..

HOUSEQUAKE

Glad to hear some positives for the Area 51m as I'm waiting for mine being delivered.

Myself and my mate both have the Alienware Aurora's at work and use them as dev boxes, we run them as testing servers, they throw graphics around superbly, we build websites on them and use photoshop heavily............but they both run Counter strike source amazingly well too

I opted for the geforce 6800 and my mate the Radeon, the geforce wins on frame rate so I opted for this in my area 51, can't wait.

As for getting hot, I'm sat writing this on my works laptop, a Sony Vaio-Z1, and I've gotta say, this thing gets damn hot, my mate uses a Dell D800, that gets hot and I expect it's the same for just about every manufacturer.

I looked at the XPS but as for processing power, you can only get them with the Centrino up to about 2.13GHz, I felt happier having a 3.6GHz P4 chip.

Anyways, from my experience of Alienware, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

davedipster

Top choice m8 you won't regret it.
Alienware make the BEST laptops.

Iain Young

No they dont !!!

Perhaps my one was just a rogue one then, and I was just unlucky the several times I called tech support.

Hope you all have better luck than I did...

Bal

Hmmmmmm.

I wanted an Alienware 51M.
But the dell has swung it due to the quiet fan (cheers Iain).
The only snag is that they want approc £300 for another 512MB of RAM.
Which is VERY dear. But you get what you pay for.


Cheers for your advice peeps.
Bal

Hepy

Bal don't get the ram from Dell, simple as that.
I'm thinking of getting the XPS also, but I will install my own ram. I had a quick search and found this. clicky
probably find cheaper stuff if I look into it further.
Think I'll go for two 1gb sticks, and bin the 512mb it comes with.

Bal

Flipping Heck thats cheap.
Shows you how much Dell try to rip you off.
Cheers.

Iain Young

Blimey, I wish I'd seen that before I got mine (I paid the full whack for 1gb)...

Oh well, at least I've very happy with the laptop

Bal

Cheers Iain.

I've just ordered the DELL.

Bal

Iain Young

Good choice

EvilKyote

Had a look at the dell XSP gen 2 but not very impressed with the features you get for the rediculous price.

I myself recently bought a HP Pavilion ZD8157E which I think is much much better, excellect build quality and packed with features for the lovin price of £1250 inc vat. to get even a remotely similar spec dell xsp gen 2 is £2500 and thats still with a processor half the speed!!!!

Processor, Operating System and Memory
Operating System Installed
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Processor
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 630

Processor technology
with Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel® SpeedStep® technology

Processor speed
3.0GHz

System bus
800MHz Bus speed

Cache
Level 2 cache 2MB

Standard memory
1024MB

Memory type
DDR2 400MHz

memory layout
(2x512MB)

Maximum memory
Supports up to 2GB DDR2 memory

Internal drives
Internal hard disk drive
100GB

Hard disk controller
EIDE hard drive, ATA 100

Hard disk drive speed
4200 rpm

Optical drive type
DVD Writer dual format (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support

System features
Memory card device
Digital Media Reader (6 in 1) (xD, SD, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Multimedia Card)

External drive bays
HP USB Digital Drive

Modem
High speed 56K modem

Network interface
10/100 LAN Ethernet integrated

Wireless Technologies
54g™ 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM / SpeedBooster™ support

Wireless capability
Bluetooth® wireless networking

External I/O ports
1 VGA port; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 IEEE-1394; 1 RJ 11 modem connector; 1 RJ 45 Ethernet connector; S-video TV out; Remote control infrared port; 1 Headphone-out, 1 Microphone-in ports; Cable docking connector

Video capture interface
IEEE 1394 Interface

Expansion slots
One type I or II PC card slot. CardBus-enabled One ExpressCard/54 slot

Display size
17" WXGA+ High Definition BrightView Widescreen

Display resolution
1440x900

Video adapter
ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 graphics

Video RAM
128MB dedicated video memory

Video adapter, bus
PCI Express®

Handheld remote control
HP Mobile Remote Control

Internal audio
3D Sound Blaster Pro compatible sound 16 bit integrated

Speakers and microphone
Harman/Kardon® speakers

Keyboard
Full size desktop keyboard (with separate numeric keypad layout)

Mouse/Pointing Device
Touch pad with on/off and scroll up/down zone, volume and mute buttons, 2 quick launch buttons, 1 wireless on/off button

power supply type
180W AC Power Adapter

Battery Type
12-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery

Software
Software - productivity & finance
Microsoft® Works Suite 2005: Microsoft® Word 2002; Microsoft® Works 8.0; Microsoft® AutoRoute 2005; Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia Standard 2005; Microsoft® Money Standard 2005; Microsoft® Picture It!® Photo Premium 10

Included/Pre-installed software
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0; Microsoft® Outlook® Express; Adobe® Reader 6.0

Optical drive driver software
InterVideo WinDVD; InterVideo WinDVD Creator; Sonic™ RecordNow; HP Image Zone; Microsoft® Windows® Media Player 9; Apple iTunes

Software - education / reference / entertainment
InterVideo Home Theater™ 2

Software - internet & online
Easy Internet Signup with leading Internet Service Providers

Software included
Symantec™ Norton AntiVirus™ 2005 (60 day liveupdates); Notebook Help & Support

Dimensions / weight / warranty
Weight
4.22kg (9.3lb)

Dimensions (w x d x h)
398 x 288 x 42 (max 47mm rear)

Package dimensions (W x D x H)
465 x 190 x 365 mm

Warranty Statement
1 year, pick-up and return, parts and labour.

Limited warranty coverage and exceptions
A +2 years warranty extension is available, for more information: UK: www.hp.com/uk/warranty-extension, Ireland: www.hp.com/ie/warranty-extension




http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...-39844385.html

Iain Young

Erm, it's got a vastly slower graphics card for a start (with only half the memory of the Dell), the screen is lower resolution, it has a slower hard disc, not as many ports, and it's certainly not twice the speed.

Centrino processors are actually pretty quick. A 2.1Ghz Centrino is equivilent to nearly a 3ghz P4, and it gets nowhere near as hot or uses as much power. For raw speed, my desktop 3ghz P4 is really not very much quicker than my centrino 2.13ghz at all (the gfx is wehere most of the bottleneck is).

Iain Young

Plus, I've had hp laptops before. The phrase "you get what you pay for" springs to mind. We used to buy them at work, but gave up because they were so unreliable and cheaply made.

Oh, and the Dell comes with 3 years next day on-site warranty as well

Bal

I agree Iain.

The Dell is much superior, espicially in the gfx dept.
I prefer the Nvidia as to the ATI rubbish. ATI notebook drivers are appalling.
I've got a Mesh with a 64Mb Radeon 9000 - hopeless when it comes to drivers.

Bal

EvilKyote

Think you've just had a bad experience then, believe me they can take one hell of a beating and keep on going (proven by a mate with older HP laptop). Ian you seem to disagree with everyone

Dont need silly resolutions etc etc, dont need a million and one ports, seriously, you ever gonna use all those ports at one?!?!?!?!?!

As far as gfx, it's well up to the job, plays games like halflife etc no problems at a decent resolution with anti aliasing on.

Mate has a 2.1 centrino with an apparently better gfx card than mine and it performes poorly at games and 3D, and i'm not rubbing it in but his is a dell!!!

As far as build quality is concerned there is not much in it between dell and HP TBH.

Also by many tests at the moment 256mb on gfx card does not give any vast improvements over 128mb, maybe 2 or 3 extra frames per sec,

As far as drivers are concerned (bal) maybe your just not very good or lucky when it comes to them, i've used loads of laptops with ATI gfx cards and never had any problems at all.

Iain Young

Nope. I could show you numerous people who have had bad experiences with HP / Compaq laptops (same company now), and also the iPaq range. Add to that, they are expensive. Just try buying any of their spare parts...

I do. Comes in very handy when programming or doing 3d modelling (you can fit more on the screen at one time).

Yes, especially when I hook it up to my computer controlled telescope, cameras etc...

Very possibly, but mine will be faster. The 6800 Ultra is a lot faster than the ati chipset in the laptop you mention. I would bet money that I can play at a higher resolution and higher detail levels.

So what. What spec is it? Without details of the system that statement means nothing. Dell make lots of laptops with Centrino processors that are not geared up for gaming purposes, (the XPS Gen2 is the only one that is). I know my dell performs significantly faster than the 3.2ghx p4 alienware machine it's replaced...

Perhaps hp have improved in the last year then. Our IT dept were always having problems with them.

What tests? It's got nothing to do with frame rate, it's the amount of texture memory. This allows you to display at higher resolutions etc with a much smaller hit on performance.

The ATI drivers that came with the Alienware were just plain bad, cumbersome, and buggy. The Nvidia software blows it away in terms of quality.

At the end of the day, it all depends on what you want. The machine you mention is a reasonably well specced machine which will do a good job of running the current crop of games. The Dell is faster, and closer to the cutting edge, and so you pay more, (although when you look at the prices of adding the optional 3 year support etc to the hp, the price difference is a lot smaller). It all depends on whether you are willing to pay that premium for a superior machine. I am

gregjd

Do any of the high end laptops offer DVI/HDMI output? Thinking of getting into Hi-Def Home Theatre PC stuff after buying a sexy new HDTV ready LCD Telly..

TopBanana

I haven't seen one with HDMI yet, but plenty with DVI