Planning to buy a gaming alienware laptop.

• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-14 23:59
  I'm planning to buy this alienware laptop from the dell website. It's basically 999$. And besides gaming, I would love it if it can do other things too. Here's the one I'm planning to buy but I would love other opinions first.
  
  http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m14x-r2/pd
  
  Can it do other things like recording and such, since I do voice acting. Does it have microsoft words already built in? Because I do a lot of writing as well as some college essays and such. I also know things like Ram, GHz, processors, and everything too. So buying a Alienware, I'm not really concerned about it.
  
  Well, please let me know your opinions and what you think or what you think I should suggest buying. My budget is actually.. lower than 1k, in fact, it's at 600, but I could always plan to save up a little bit but I don't want to spend over 1k.
  
  My friend told me that when buying something electronic, it's always better to buy something really above average so you won't have problems later. And since Dell owns Alienware, I figure the warranty and support would help if anything comes up. Especially since they're the most reliable compared to others. Thank you!
• Excalibur wrote on 2012-09-15 00:17
  These all seem really overpriced, I guess that's the value of aesthetics these days, though you can try looking at the suggestions posted here: http://mabination.com/threads/60966-Yet-another-laptop-thread!
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-09-15 00:18
  Are you dead set on Alienware?
  If you put the word Alienware on anything the price will spike way up, and with negligible benefits. You can get computers of the same quality (if not better) with a way lower price tag.
• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-15 00:20

  Quote from Kazuni;951577:

  Are you dead set on Alienware?
  If you put the word Alienware on anything the price will spike way up, and with negligible benefits. You can get computers of the same quality (if not better) with a way lower price tag.

  
  
  I read that too but I'm not really that experienced with knowing which "laptop" is better. And I'm buying a laptop btw, not a computer. This is why I'm asking for opinions and such. If you know any, please let me know.
  
  

  Quote from Excalibur;951575:

  These all seem really overpriced, I guess that's the value of aesthetics these days, though you can try looking at the suggestions posted here: http://mabination.com/threads/60966-Yet-another-laptop-thread!

  
  
  Thanks. I checked. xD It helped somewhat.
• Excalibur wrote on 2012-09-15 00:27

  Quote from abc33kr;951121:

  Woah, it's a reply.

  
  
  Yes, the acer on there has better GPU and CPU while having a lower price. Also has more HDD space if that matters.
  
  Cucumber is lurking.
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-09-15 00:28

  Quote from Noxctis;951578:

  I read that too but I'm not really that experienced with knowing which "laptop" is better. And I'm buying a laptop btw, not a computer. This is why I'm asking for opinions and such. If you know any, please let me know.
  
  
  
  Thanks. I checked. xD It helped somewhat.

  
  
  Me neither, really, but regardless of whether it's a laptop or not, Alienware will overcharge you for fancy aesthetics.
  
  You could check newegg or the regular dell computers, or even amazon. I found my last laptop on newegg and got a very good deal on amazon for the exact same computer, and the laptop before that was just from dell. I'm using a desktop now, but I also got it from dell during the Canada day sale. It was $300 off.
  
  But yeah, if you're looking to save money at all, Alienware isn't what you want. It's like buying Razer accessories. Pretty, but not that substantial, and definitely not warranting its price.
  
  *edit
  Also I wouldn't recommend buying anything from Acer. At all. I've just had terrible computers and terrible service from them. It's cheap and it looks like a bargain, but with them you get what you pay for.
  Oh and, try NCIX, if you want. I was planning on getting something from them but I got a great deal on this one, so..
• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-15 00:34

  Quote from Kazuni;951580:

  Me neither, really, but regardless of whether it's a laptop or not, Alienware will overcharge you for fancy aesthetics.
  
  You could check newegg or the regular dell computers, or even amazon. I found my last laptop on newegg and got a very good deal on amazon for the exact same computer, and the laptop before that was just from dell. I'm using a desktop now, but I also got it from dell during the Canada day sale. It was $300 off.
  
  But yeah, if you're looking to save money at all, Alienware isn't what you want. It's like buying Razer accessories. Pretty, but not that substantial, and definitely not warranting its price.
  
  *edit
  Also I wouldn't recommend buying anything from Acer. At all. I've just had terrible computers and terrible service from them. It's cheap and it looks like a bargain, but with them you get what you pay for.
  Oh and, try NCIX, if you want. I was planning on getting something from them but I got a great deal on this one, so..

  
  
  
  I see. And I do want to save money, especially since I'll buy other things, like a cooling pad. Well what kind of specs should I look for if I want to play Vindictus for best quality and such? I don't play vindicitus but in the future, I would play other games and I just would like to know and such. I'm not really good at this whole laptop gaming thing.. yeah. :x
• Excalibur wrote on 2012-09-15 00:42

  Quote from Kazuni;951580:

  Me neither, really, but regardless of whether it's a laptop or not, Alienware will overcharge you for fancy aesthetics.
  
  You could check newegg or the regular dell computers, or even amazon. I found my last laptop on newegg and got a very good deal on amazon for the exact same computer, and the laptop before that was just from dell. I'm using a desktop now, but I also got it from dell during the Canada day sale. It was $300 off.
  
  But yeah, if you're looking to save money at all, Alienware isn't what you want. It's like buying Razer accessories. Pretty, but not that substantial, and definitely not warranting its price.
  
  *edit
  Also I wouldn't recommend buying anything from Acer. At all. I've just had terrible computers and terrible service from them. It's cheap and it looks like a bargain, but with them you get what you pay for.
  Oh and, try NCIX, if you want. I was planning on getting something from them but I got a great deal on this one, so..

  
  
  Really? What kind of experience did you get with Acer computers?
• Halfslashed wrote on 2012-09-15 00:50
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246491
  Wonderful laptop for your needs, and much closer to your original price tag.
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-09-15 00:57

  Quote from Noxctis;951583:

  I see. And I do want to save money, especially since I'll buy other things, like a cooling pad. Well what kind of specs should I look for if I want to play Vindictus for best quality and such? I don't play vindicitus but in the future, I would play other games and I just would like to know and such. I'm not really good at this whole laptop gaming thing.. yeah. :x

  
  
  I'm not an expert on computers by a long shot, lol. Look for a decent bit of ram, go for at least i5, imo, no intel graphics cards, get dedicated video memory. Most computers come with this in the 700 range now anyway..
  Also don't search "gaming computer". If you put gaming on it it also adds moola no matter the specs.
  
  

  Quote from Excalibur;951585:

  Really? What kind of experience did you get with Acer computers?

  
  
  Okay, so, we got an Acer laptop first. It was from like futureshop or bestbuy or something or other. My dad was using it. A while after that the keyboard started having major issues. Some keys stopped working entirely. For example sometimes the L key wouldn't have any effect. Or space bar. That was the worst. We tried to return it but they wouldn't let us (14 day return policy etc), and my dad just bought an external keyboard and dealt with it. That's not a big thing though. We figured it was a one time thing.
  
  Next we got an Acer monitor. It was a fabulous deal, from amazon (I think..?), and it worked fine. Then one day a few months after we got it it just died. Like, it wasn't a connection issue, or a power issue, I think, but it would just shut down randomly.
  
  After that (you'd think we'd learn our lesson at this point), we got an Acer desktop, which had these nice blue LED lights and it was pretty small so it fit on my dad's desk. It had random shut down issues and restart issues. Windows update and anything like that were disabled (at least auto restarts were). He'd turn it off or hibernate it for the night and come back in the morning and it would've been running for hours already. No updates. And then it started shutting down randomly with no errors, and no "improper shutdown" screen after.
  
  Afffftterrrrr that. We got another Acer monitor and my dad's still using it, but it has a nasty habit of going black. Every couple of minutes it would turn black for a couple of seconds and go back to normal.
  
  Anyway we called various companies for customer support. Amazon was nice. They couldn't fix the problem but we could get an exchange or a return or whatever. Futureshop and Best buy were pricks as usual. They told us to call Acer directly, and we did, and we got shit advice that was no help at all. They spun us in circles, essentially.
  
  I used to always find Acer computers on my random searches because they had the best specs for each price range, at least on paper, but I've had way too many issues with them and so has my dad.
  
  And that's why we're completely finished with Acer.
  
  I mean if you want to save money Acer will save you a lot but I wouldn't recommend it at all.
• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-15 00:58

  Quote from Halfslashed;951588:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246491
  Wonderful laptop for your needs, and much closer to your original price tag.

  
  
  It does look nice but it's integrated. I'm looking for something I can customized just in case. And isn't that a notebook? I heard they're different from laptops and such. Unless they're the same? @.@ Sorry I are newb..
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-09-15 01:02

  Quote from Noxctis;951599:

  It does look nice but it's integrated. I'm looking for something I can customized just in case. And isn't that a notebook? I heard they're different from laptops and such. Unless they're the same? @.@ Sorry I are newb..

  
  
  What do you mean integrated? ._.
  
  And notebooks and laptops are essentially the same thing now.
  I think you were thinking of a netbook. That's different.
• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-15 01:11

  Quote from Kazuni;951602:

  What do you mean integrated? ._.
  
  And notebooks and laptops are essentially the same thing now.
  I think you were thinking of a netbook. That's different.

  
  
  
  Integrated means that the graphic card and/plus some of the specs are connected directly to the mother board, so you can't customize it at all.
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-09-15 01:12

  Quote from Noxctis;951608:

  Integrated means that the graphic card and/plus some of the specs are connected directly to the mother board, so you can't customize it at all.

  
  
  You can't customize the vast majority of laptops, you know. I mean you can change the hard drive and the RAM, but not much else. If you want complete customization even after you've purchased it then you'll need either money or a desktop, lol.
• Noxctis wrote on 2012-09-15 01:19

  Quote from Kazuni;951609:

  You can't customize the vast majority of laptops, you know. I mean you can change the hard drive and the RAM, but not much else. If you want complete customization even after you've purchased it then you'll need either money or a desktop, lol.

  
  
  This is why I'm leaning towards alienware. xD Complete customization.. and portable.