Want to share my Alienware Area 51ALX story.

[ItsTorolla]

*This is not a hating story but the hard facts and a story of what happened. I do not hate alienware but would not recommend it to anyone. I'm not english so spelling and grammar won't be close to perfect. 

So I bought a Alienware a few years back and this is me and the desktops story.  

The reason I decided to write this long story is basically because of the release of the new area 51, I hope this could help someone from buying the thing and stop them from doing the same mistake I did.

After working a full time job every day for 60 days (my whole summer vacation) I finally could afford buying myself a desktop. I had a budget on 6k USD. I spent my whole budget on a BEAST of a system on alienware, since my childhood dream was owning a alienware system. So stoked I started customizing it. 
What I got was a AMD HD 6990, i7 990x, 6gb ram, a 50$ motherboard, water cooling, 1000Watt powersupply, 750gb raid 0 storage, automated fins on the top, cool lighting, steam pre installed and some alienware gear. 
So after it being delayed and taking 3 months for dell to deliver the computer I was so stoked. Booting up the thing, ALL THIS POWER. Then I opened a game and realized it was sounding like I was having a leaf blower under my desk. But hey I could live with that, i'm just using headphones during gaming.

But on the fifth day of me owning the thing actually said boom and blew up, smoke and everything... So dell sent a repair guy who tried to fix it but didn't have any luck. So he needed to get back on his airplane so he could get me a new bulk of parts. 3 weeks it took. But it was working again, and I was happy. But after a few weeks I started getting a new problem. The system was shutting down when I was gaming. So I could not game on higher settings at all on the system because that resulted in a shutdown. It was livable in the beginning but the problem got worse and worse. So after a few months I called dell. They sent a new guy with new parts. That did not fix the problem. So they sent another guy with all new parts and cables it fixed the problem for a while. But after a while It just went back to the same old when gaming it shutdown. I had to send it back in. They replaced the whole thing and I got it back without OS..... So I had to wait for them to send a guy to install a OS on the damn thing.
But then it was working perfectly after over 1 year of constant service tickets and pain it was working. But in that year SSDs was released games was demanding more ram and  the whole thing felt outdated.  

1 year later (also a few months ago) I had enough of the noise lvls and thought I would put some fans or more cooling into the thing. Bought a pair of 140mm fans but soon realized that the case did not support anything more than 120mm. This was where I gave up. 
So I decided to change case to a Corsair 550D, this was a bad idea... I still dont know why but even tho I  wrote down took pictures and had all the cables on the same spots it never turned back on. Funny how this was the best thing that ever happened to me.  

I sold all my parts a and gave up on my 6k USD alienware. And decided to take the risk on building my own from scratch. 
Yes you get a decent amount of power from that system,but the looks of the thing from the inside is horrible, not even sleeving on the cables. The whole computers inside is just one huge mess. A area 51 alx, worst case I have ever seen. One  intake fan and one outtake fan that also was the cpu cooler radiator fan. All  that dust killing the components.  Worst cable management ever and when I took the whole thing apart the people who built the thing had to keep notes on the cables so they knew where things where going (It was still on the cables when I took it apart). After dissecting the thing I just  cant help but feeling that Alienware makes built to last 1-2 year maximum systems and if you try to change something it will die.
Dells service is great, I promise that they had to use more than I spent on plane tickets and service but thats about it. Once the dell guaranties are over you are screwed. 

Now I have built my own PC from scratch and haven't had a single problem (except one of the hard drives from the alienware died...) 

Build your own PC.  Use the linus tech tips build guide, follow it step by step like I did. Building my new PC took me 10 hours but its the best thing I have ever done. 
Thank you linus for getting me interested in proper PCs and PC building and saving me from my terrible pre built system. 

So if you know someone that are considering buying a Alienware desktop (I have not tried the laptops) please share my story, I tried to post a similar story on dells review system but it got deleted SO DAMN FAST.

 

[Manny Calavera]

6k Dollars?

 1k dollar that you gave for that system is that CEO of dell can buy a new Yacht and a plane haha

 

[The Crazed Child]

I think everyone on the forum knows this.

 

Whenever someone mentions "Alienware" in a good light around here, they are usually shut down straight away.

[Venusia]

tl;dr - alienware are bad and overpriced

everyone knew that anyway

[ShadowCaptain]

Literally do now know what to say about this, pretty much the case with any PC, I have known people build their own PC and have endless problems, I have known people buy an Alienware and have it for like 6 years with no issue

 

Some of the issues do sound like your own fault..ordering the wrong fans, it broke when you changed case etc - Also you cannot blame alienware for the hardware ageing, they do not control what new hardware comes out or how demanding games are 2 years down the line

 

Sucks that you had a lot of issues but at least they looked after you most of the time

 

That said, I would not ever dream of buying an alienware desktop, no matter how much money you have, there are better bespoke systems (Falcon, Origin PC, PC Specialist etc etc etc)

 

But I dunno

 

Whenever someone mentions "Alienware" in a good light around here, they are usually shut down straight away.

 

*cough* do not look at my sig *cough*

[Venusia]

Literally do now know what to say about this, pretty much the case with any PC, I have known people build their own PC and have endless problems, I have known people buy an Alienware and have it for like 6 years with no issue

 

Some of the issues do sound like your own fault..ordering the wrong fans, it broke when you changed case etc - Also you cannot blame alienware for the hardware ageing, they do not control what new hardware comes out or how demanding games are 2 years down the line

 

Sucks that you had a lot of issues but at least they looked after you most of the time

 

That said, I would not ever dream of buying an alienware desktop, no matter how much money you have, there are better bespoke systems (Falcon, Origin PC, PC Specialist etc etc etc)

 

But I dunno

 

 

*cough* do not look at my sig *cough*

 

Alienware laptops are a bit different. Buying a desktop is just plain stupid though, you can get the same specs for literally 1/3 of the price.

[KemoKa]

*Alienware Horror Story*

I'm sorry, but am I the only one here who knew the outcome of this story before I clicked on the post?

This being LTT forums, I would be highly surprised if no one else did...

[ShadowCaptain]

Alienware laptops are a bit different. Buying a desktop is just plain stupid though, you can get the same specs for literally 1/3 of the price.

 

1/3 is a LITTLE harsh haha but I agree, its never a good idea regardless,mostly because you have no control over the quality of components or cooling 

 

yeah I have always liked their laptops (except for the current sub 17" models)

[Sauron]

a 50$ motherboard

 

Aside from alienware pcs being bad in general, that right there might be the major cause of your problems. 50$ for alienware is probably 25$ on amazon, meaning I wouldn't touch that motherboard with a 10m stick ^^

 

I feel for you, it must suck to blow 6k$ on a bad machine and have it die in a few days. But as others pointed out, it is generally well known to the people in this forum that it's better to stay away from alienware.

[Venusia]

 

I feel for you, it must suck to blow 6k$ on a bad machine and have it die in a few days. But as others pointed out, it is generally well known to everyone that it's better to stay away from alienware.

 

fixed

[VMaxMuffin]

I have to say I was close to getting an alienware, it was a friend (who'd already built a system himself) who persuaded me into building myself. Boy I'm glad I did, have had almost no problems at all (well except for some self-inflicted ones, which of course I was then able to solve myself because I knew what I was doing ).

[ShadowCaptain]

Aside from alienware pcs being bad in general, that right there might be the major cause of your problems. 50$ for alienware is probably 25$ on amazon, meaning I wouldn't touch that motherboard with a 10m stick ^^

 

I feel for you, it must suck to blow 6k$ on a bad machine and have it die in a few days. But as others pointed out, it is generally well known to the people in this forum that it's better to stay away from alienware.

 

AFAIK alienware use Dell motherboards which are made by Foxconn, who pretty much make components for all the Major players, Apple, Sony, Playstation, Xbox, Microsoft, Acer, Blackberry etc

 

They are not necessarily bad boards and cannot be bought outside of being dell OEM

[Sauron]

fixed

 

op didn't know when he bought it, so there you go

[Sauron]

AFAIK alienware use Dell motherboards which are made by Foxconn, who pretty much make components for all the Major players, Apple, Sony, Playstation, Xbox, Microsoft, Acer, Blackberry etc

 

They are not necessarily bad boards and cannot be bought outside of being dell OEM

 

Still, the 50$ variant can't be very good ^^ bare in mind apple (for example) uses low power components to keep their whole ultraslim aio thing going so the motherboard isn't stressed in the way it would be in a system with an extreme edition i7 and a dual gpu card.

[KemoKa]

Alienware laptops are a bit different. Buying a desktop is just plain stupid though, you can get the same specs for literally 1/3 of the price.

That $6k price tag these days would get you a 900D, CL7 RAM, a 4790K, a Z97 Deluxe, 256GB MX100 SSD + 2TB Hitachi HDD, 3-way crossfire r9 290Xs, 80+Pt PSU, a 4K monitor and a full-blown custom water loop.

Alienwares are overpriced. There are no questions.

[ShadowCaptain]

Still, the 50$ variant can't be very good ^^ bare in mind apple (for example) uses low power components to keep their whole ultraslim aio thing going so the motherboard isn't stressed in the way it would be in a system with an extreme edition i7 and a dual gpu card.

 

You do not pick a motherboard you pick CPU and GPU and they just pick whatever board supports your configuration.... and the price is not shown at all anywhere neither is the model or spec

[ShadowCaptain]

That $6k price tag these days would get you a 900D, CL7 RAM, a 4790K, a Z97 Deluxe, 256GB MX100 SSD + 2TB Hitachi HDD, 3-way crossfire r9 290Xs, 80+Pt PSU, a 4K monitor and a full-blown custom water loop.

Alienwares are overpriced. There are no questions.

 

Well if you look on their website

 

for $3500 you  can get an i7 4820k, liquid cooling, a titan z, 16gb of ram, a 512gb ssd and 1tb drive, (or about $3000 for dual 780s)

 

Their pcs are not cheap, and are 99% of the time a lot more expensive than the cost of self building, but 6k seems extreme....even for alienware

[Sauron]

You do not pick a motherboard you pick CPU and GPU and they just pick whatever board supports your configuration.... and the price is not shown at all anywhere neither is the model or spec

 

Oh. Then how did @ItsTorolla know it was 50$?

[ShadowCaptain]

Oh. Then how did @ItsTorolla know it was 50$?

 

how did he order 140mm fans for 120mm slots 

[ItsTorolla]

Oh. Then how did @ItsTorolla know it was 50$?

I checked it on the interwebz, could buy factory new for 50USD. 

[ItsTorolla]

how did he order 140mm fans for 120mm slots 

I had no idea what I was doing, and really thought since it was the biggest desktop case ever it would support that. 

[ItsTorolla]

Literally do now know what to say about this, pretty much the case with any PC, I have known people build their own PC and have endless problems, I have known people buy an Alienware and have it for like 6 years with no issue

 

Some of the issues do sound like your own fault..ordering the wrong fans, it broke when you changed case etc - Also you cannot blame alienware for the hardware ageing, they do not control what new hardware comes out or how demanding games are 2 years down the line

 

Sucks that you had a lot of issues but at least they looked after you most of the time

 

That said, I would not ever dream of buying an alienware desktop, no matter how much money you have, there are better bespoke systems (Falcon, Origin PC, PC Specialist etc etc etc)

 

But I dunno

 

 

*cough* do not look at my sig *cough*

Absolutely, the fan thing was my fault and the breaking the thing in the end too. But thats a part of the story.

The aging I kinda disagree tho because of the fact It went months before receiving the thing and after getting it 6 months with constant trouble (9 months before I could play propper games at all). This is not completely Dells fault, but when I finally had a working computer It wasn't the 6k USD BEAST I was paying them for. And thats the real bummer.  

But yes the support was pretty good and the one thing I like about dell. 

[ruitti99]

That $6k price tag these days would get you a 900D, CL7 RAM, a 4790K, a Z97 Deluxe, 256GB MX100 SSD + 2TB WD or Seagate (not Hitachi) HDD, 3-way crossfire r9 290Xs, 80+Pt PSU, a 4K monitor and a full-blown custom water loop.

Alienwares are overpriced. There are no questions.

Fixed  

[ItsTorolla]

Well if you look on their website

 

for $3500 you  can get an i7 4820k, liquid cooling, a titan z, 16gb of ram, a 512gb ssd and 1tb drive, (or about $3000 for dual 780s)

 

Their pcs are not cheap, and are 99% of the time a lot more expensive than the cost of self building, but 6k seems extreme....even for alienware

I live in Norway and the prices here are a little bit higher on everything so for example the system you are talking about costs 5797.52USD right now (I checked). So the same system I'm talking about wouldn't have the same price where you live. 

[ItsTorolla]

Aside from alienware pcs being bad in general, that right there might be the major cause of your problems. 50$ for alienware is probably 25$ on amazon, meaning I wouldn't touch that motherboard with a 10m stick ^^

I was kinda making that conclusion myself. Fun fact: I bought the system with 6gb ram because I thought I could just upgrade that when I had to. Later I found out that the mobo did not support anything more than 6gb unless it was 1333. Then it could support as much as 12gb.... 

"But as others pointed out, it is generally well known to the people in this forum that it's better to stay away from alienware."

^^ If I only knew that back then:p