Who offers better warranty support in the UK, EVGA or Alienware?

jammiedod93r · August 18, 2018

Hey everyone,

Been looking at 2 laptops with very similar specs (i7-7700hq, gtx 1060, 120Hz G-Sync screen) and at a similar price. One is an EVGA with a 2 year warranty and the other is an Alienware with a 3 year onsite warranty. I've heard good and bad experiences about both companies so wanted to get opinions from people here about which one might be better when it comes to the UK.

Thanks for reading.

kirashi · August 18, 2018

1 minute ago, jammiedod93r said:

Hey everyone,

Been looking at 2 laptops with very similar specs (i7-7700hq, gtx 1060, 120Hz G-Sync screen) and at a similar price. One is an EVGA with a 2 year warranty and the other is an Alienware with a 3 year onsite warranty. I've heard good and bad experiences about both companies so wanted to get opinions from people here about which one might be better when it comes to the UK.

Thanks for reading.

From a pure company perspective, both EVGA and Dell's business systems & higher-end gaming computers (Dell owns Alienware) have had excellent track records for myself and my clients. (Bear in mind this applies to Dell machines made after 2013/2014 when they went private.) Sure, I'm biased, as I own a Dell XPS 15, however, this has allowed me to experience great service myself, as Dell sent an on-site technician to replace the original SanDisk SSD replaced with a Samsung PM951 SSD, and I don't even have on-site warranty service.

I can't speak to EVGA's warranty service on their laptops, but I personally wouldn't buy one because they're just another company using rebranded laptops from Eurocom (Clevo, Sager, etc.) - I'd buy a Eurocom laptop instead of EVGA. Just keep in mind that even though Dell and HP's laptops are designed in-house, not every model series, or even production run, are designed or produced properly. For example, HP does make good laptops, but they got a very bad name for themselves when they decided to follow Microsoft and Sony's footsteps using shitty cooling designs and poor thermal paste on their dv6 and dv7 laptops running AMD processors. This is also why you'll find a lot of stories online about XPS 15 9560's thermal throttling, something I have no complaints about because my XPS 15 was made in Q3 or Q4 of 2017, after the initial production runs.

90% of the customer experience with any company is based entirely on the support rep you speak to though, as I've sent off water damaged laptops for repairs that would normally be out of warranty only to have them come back repaired under the warranty anyway, so be sure that the support rep you speak to (if you ever need service) fully understands your issue before sending it in.

jammiedod93r · August 18, 2018

37 minutes ago, kirashi said:

From a pure company perspective, both EVGA and Dell's business systems & higher-end gaming computers (Dell owns Alienware) have had excellent track records for myself and my clients. (Bear in mind this applies to Dell machines made after 2013/2014 when they went private.) Sure, I'm biased, as I own a Dell XPS 15, however, this has allowed me to experience great service myself, as Dell sent an on-site technician to replace the original SanDisk SSD replaced with a Samsung PM951 SSD, and I don't even have on-site warranty service.

I can't speak to EVGA's warranty service on their laptops, but I personally wouldn't buy one because they're just another company using rebranded laptops from Eurocom (Clevo, Sager, etc.) - I'd buy a Eurocom laptop instead of EVGA. Just keep in mind that even though Dell and HP's laptops are designed in-house, not every model series, or even production run, are designed or produced properly. For example, HP does make good laptops, but they got a very bad name for themselves when they decided to follow Microsoft and Sony's footsteps using shitty cooling designs and poor thermal paste on their dv6 and dv7 laptops running AMD processors. This is also why you'll find a lot of stories online about XPS 15 9560's thermal throttling, something I have no complaints about because my XPS 15 was made in Q3 or Q4 of 2017, after the initial production runs.

90% of the customer experience with any company is based entirely on the support rep you speak to though, as I've sent off water damaged laptops for repairs that would normally be out of warranty only to have them come back repaired under the warranty anyway, so be sure that the support rep you speak to (if you ever need service) fully understands your issue before sending it in.

I don't know about previous laptops by EVGA but their current SC17 and SC15 seem to have been designed in house though when I did a bit of research after I posted this thread I've seen people have some issues with it. Probably why it's being discounted everywhere.

The Alienware 15 is the one I'm looking at with the 3 year onsite warranty, what do you think about it?

As a side note, do you think it's a good time to buy a 1060?

kirashi · August 18, 2018

10 minutes ago, jammiedod93r said:

I don't know about previous laptops by EVGA but their current SC17 and SC15 seem to have been designed in house though when I did a bit of research after I posted this thread I've seen people have some issues with it. Probably why it's being discounted everywhere.

The Alienware 15 is the one I'm looking at with the 3 year onsite warranty, what do you think about it?

As a side note, do you think it's a good time to buy a 1060?

Oh, good to know - if they did indeed design these in-house, then maybe they're better, aside from the possible issues that might exist with them. (Although again, the threads people have with issues could be one-offs.)

Link me to the Dell website with the Alienware machine, or Amazon if you're looking to buy from there, and I'll take a look.

Asking me if it's a good time to buy computer hardware is a loaded question, as my answer will remain a hard no until retailers start selling products at MSRP in your region. I'm really not the right person to ask this question though, as I believe in a free market that is fair to consumers, but still allows manufacturers to make a little profit on things.

I'm all for the free market, as I wouldn't want my IT Consulting services regulated, but I'm also for a society where everyone has a decent quality of life, which you can't achieve when the bank accounts of individuals could pay for housing across all of Africa, let alone solve North America's homeless problem. No one person should be able to stockpile money in ANY form, as this removes it from the global economy, making it effectively useless.

jammiedod93r · August 18, 2018

7 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Oh, good to know - if they did indeed design these in-house, then maybe they're better, aside from the possible issues that might exist with them. (Although again, the threads people have with issues could be one-offs.)

Link me to the Dell website with the Alienware machine, or Amazon if you're looking to buy from there, and I'll take a look.

Asking me if it's a good time to buy computer hardware is a loaded question, as my answer will remain a hard no until retailers start selling products at MSRP in your region. I'm really not the right person to ask this question though, as I believe in a free market that is fair to consumers, but still allows manufacturers to make a little profit on things.

I'm all for the free market, as I wouldn't want my IT Consulting services regulated, but I'm also for a society where everyone has a decent quality of life, which you can't achieve when the bank accounts of individuals could pay for housing across all of Africa, let alone solve North America's homeless problem. No one person should be able to stockpile money in ANY form, as this removes it from the global economy, making it effectively useless.

I was excited about buying EVGA because they used to provide really good customer service but they seem to have become 'average' over the last year or two. It's one of the reasons I wanted some opinions.

I actually found the Alienware posted on eBay. It's refurbished but that doesn't bother me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alienware-15-R3-i7-7700HQ-3-80GHz-GTX-1060-6GB-15-6-FHD-8GB-1000GB/273407094528

kirashi · August 18, 2018

15 minutes ago, jammiedod93r said:

I was excited about buying EVGA because they used to provide really good customer service but they seem to have become 'average' over the last year or two. It's one of the reasons I wanted some opinions.

I actually found the Alienware posted on eBay. It's refurbished but that doesn't bother me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alienware-15-R3-i7-7700HQ-3-80GHz-GTX-1060-6GB-15-6-FHD-8GB-1000GB/273407094528

Ah, OK, so the first thing you'll want to verify is if there actually is still a warranty on the laptop, and then ensure that it's able to be transferred to your name if it's already been registered in someone else's name. You'll need to get the Express Service Tag / Code from the eBay seller for the exact laptop they're selling, then contact Dell to look into this. Buying refurbs is a really good way to save some money, but is a complete waste if a part turns out to be defective / worn out with no warranty.

Next, I'd replace the HDD in that Alienware with a SATA SSD, or adding what appears to be an NVMe SSD as per page 28 of the service manual for that laptop, since a 7200 rpm spinning rust disk will cripple the i7-7700HQ GPU & 1060 GPU in that machine. Otherwise it's not too bad a price, considering it's close to new condition having been a customer return. (assuming this to be true.)

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/alienware-15-laptop_Service-Manual_en-us.pdf