Well, I still love my Alienware but there are a couple things that have been bugging me over the past couple of days. If this has been discussed before, I apologize. I did a search but did not find anything.
1. Video drivers. According to Alienware, one of the things that makes them stand out from the competition is that they use non-proprietary parts which means everything can be upgraded. If this is the case, why can't I go download the latest forceware drivers off of the NVIDIA website and have them work? I mean come on, every video card I have ever used has always worked with the reference drivers no matter who made the card. So why is it that we have to either wait for Aliwnware to release an "official" driver or hope someone hacks compatibility into it?
2. Display driver. WHY IN THE WORLD is there not a driver for the LCD. Plug and Play Monitor??? WTF!!! There is no driver provided with the laptop and no driver available on their website. And, you can't change the refresh rate from 61hz!! My Dell LCD that is almost three years old does 75hz!!!!! That is just plain ridiculous.
On the subject of propriatary, why does Alienware try so hard to keep the manufacturers of their parts a secret? Sandra lists hardly any information about the laptop. It will not list the manufacturer of the LCD, and it says Area-51m for the make and model of the motherboard. Hell, Sandra tells me that my Area-51m is a desktop!!!
One final thing. I cannot see why they did not include a CF reader providing there is space for one. Although Xd is starting to catch on, most Digital Cameras still use CF cards.
1. Video drivers. According to Alienware, one of the things that makes them stand out from the competition is that they use non-proprietary parts which means everything can be upgraded. If this is the case, why can't I go download the latest forceware drivers off of the NVIDIA website and have them work? I mean come on, every video card I have ever used has always worked with the reference drivers no matter who made the card. So why is it that we have to either wait for Aliwnware to release an "official" driver or hope someone hacks compatibility into it?
2. Display driver. WHY IN THE WORLD is there not a driver for the LCD. Plug and Play Monitor??? WTF!!! There is no driver provided with the laptop and no driver available on their website. And, you can't change the refresh rate from 61hz!! My Dell LCD that is almost three years old does 75hz!!!!! That is just plain ridiculous.
On the subject of propriatary, why does Alienware try so hard to keep the manufacturers of their parts a secret? Sandra lists hardly any information about the laptop. It will not list the manufacturer of the LCD, and it says Area-51m for the make and model of the motherboard. Hell, Sandra tells me that my Area-51m is a desktop!!!
One final thing. I cannot see why they did not include a CF reader providing there is space for one. Although Xd is starting to catch on, most Digital Cameras still use CF cards.
