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Average troublefree lifetime of an alienware

post #1 of 18
6/24/08 at 10:07pm
Thread Starter 
It's been a long time since i've poked around in this forum. I want to find out what is the average trouble free period you can expect from an alienware laptop.

I've now have had about 3.5 years exposure to Dells and from what I see, as soon as the warranty was up on my inspiron 6000 the hard drive died (before that i got dead pixels on the screen). my sister's insp 6000 saw some trouble with the screen and the battery died but i think the battery was deffective so she got a replacement.

my m1710 is going strong but i lose the bluetooth keyboard when playing games i suspect it might be because of heat when gaming, the battery has gone dead though $300 for a new battery?? ).

so is it a similar story for alienware? what is your experience?

P.S. I'm not trying to start a fight, i'm just shopping for a new laptop so i wanted to find out what you've experienced with Alienware.
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post #2 of 18
6/24/08 at 10:20pm
I have owned 4 alienware computers: with my alienware desktops I have never had an issue with them... one of mine that I still use is still going strong after 5 years... my laptop m9750 is going strong i had to replace my GPU heatsink because my fans stopped working right but no big issue my problem is fixed.... with laptops you have to do regular maintance by cleaning the dust in heatsinks...I use a laptop cooler to cool my GPU and CPU to keep temps down which help with longevity of the video card because they do get hot since they are in a confined space...when you pack alot of power in a small space heat will be your biggest issue...
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post #3 of 18
6/25/08 at 6:06am
I've had six AW's, two laptops. I had an Area-51 m5500(766), and now have an m9700. Gave away the 766 when I got the m9700. Had the m9700 since Sept. 2006 and it's been problem free, but I do clean it out often, and have applied AS5 a couple times to the cpu, and once to the gpus.
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post #4 of 18
6/25/08 at 8:31am
I bought an Area-51m 766 in 2004 and had no issues with batteries or anything. I work for a freight railroad and traveled with the m766 tens of thousands of miles on rough-riding freight trains, stored it in temperatures below 10 degrees Fahrenheit or over 100 degrees at times, and generally treated it rough.

It still works great and I only speak of it in the past-tense because yesterday I received my new m15x and retired the old m766 : )

I'm going to turn the m766 back in to Alienware and get about $450 for it.

Oh, I should say that every once in a while I have also cleaned the heatsinks to keep this laptop from overheating, and for a while I used a laptop cooler with it (until the cooler got lost).
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post #5 of 18
6/25/08 at 1:41pm
I've owned 4 AW notebooks now and they all have one thing in common, you have to baby these high performance notebooks.

If you baby any notebook you should get a long lifespan out of them, but the AW “have” to be babied or they are not going to last long.
Dell builds a higher durability, but lesser powered notebook. They don’t require as much maintenance…

The average life expectancy of a notebook PC is 3-5 years, just like any modern HDTV. Would you really use a 5 year old PC anyway? that would be a Pentium M processor (released march 03) and something along the lines of a GeForce FX GPU...
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post #6 of 18
6/25/08 at 10:14pm
I have six Alienware systems and they all are working great still.

As far as their notebooks are concerned, it really depends on who the ODM is. Meaning, who the real manufacturer is. Alienware does not manufacture their own notebooks. Older Alienware lines were based on systems that other companies like Falcon, Voodoo, and Hyper sold as well. The m15x and m17x are custom made for Alienware, so there is no other remarketer to compare against. It's too early to tell teh long-term reliability of the latest model lineup.
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post #7 of 18
6/25/08 at 10:33pm
so far with the arima line the m9750 is holding up really good...
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post #8 of 18
6/30/08 at 3:03pm
Thread Starter 
the next question is should i risk buying the alienware cause if anything goes wrong i have to ship to the US and that will be a high cost for me whereas if i buy dell they will come home and fix it. as much as i dont want to buy dell it scares me to think of having to ship the laptop a couple times if there were any failure
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post #9 of 18
6/30/08 at 9:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by almmohd View Post
the next question is should i risk buying the alienware cause if anything goes wrong i have to ship to the US and that will be a high cost for me whereas if i buy dell they will come home and fix it. as much as i dont want to buy dell it scares me to think of having to ship the laptop a couple times if there were any failure
Alienware isn't as big as Dell, so that's just the way it is... If an issue with your system will cause major issues if you have to depot it, Alienware may not be the company for you.

I've had a couple issues with my AW systems, but they've been solved by parts FedExed to me. One time I did send my desktop to depot as the system wasn't recognizing the hd's. Turned out to be a bad memory stick. AW replaced the memory stick, replaced a scratched side panel, and put new lighted fans in all the slots, so it was basically refreshed and sent back to me in new condition. It took two weeks with shipping and all, but like I said AW isn't big enough to have techs available across the country like Dell.

I'd hoped that Dell buying Alienware might lead to them being able to share techs for the home servicing, but it hasn't happened yet anyway...
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post #10 of 18
6/30/08 at 10:22pm
i know alienware was going to send a dell tech to my house to install my GPU heatsink the other day but I told them that I didnt need anyone to help me install it...
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post #11 of 18
7/1/08 at 12:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
i know alienware was going to send a dell tech to my house to install my GPU heatsink the other day but I told them that I didnt need anyone to help me install it...
Really? So maybe things are in the works.
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post #12 of 18
7/1/08 at 12:49am
thats what they guy said from alienware that they would install my heatsink but told them no thanks got it done after they answered my question...hopefully they are using Dells influence to expand out...
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post #13 of 18
7/1/08 at 3:25pm
Just to add to this thread, i've owned 6 Alienwares.

Area-51 Desktop - worked fine for when I owned it, sold it for my first AW notebook
Area-51m back in 2002, ended up frying about 2.5 years later.
Area-51m 14 inch SENTIA, worked great for my time with it. I traded it on the forums.
Area-51m 12 inch SENTIA, had problems overheating, shutting off, terrible ventilation issues, still working today
Area-51 m5750 still working perfectly since Day 1
Aurora Dekstop - Worked Perfectly for the time I owned it from Nov 04, disassembled it in 06
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post #14 of 18
7/1/08 at 10:21pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
i know alienware was going to send a dell tech to my house to install my GPU heatsink the other day but I told them that I didnt need anyone to help me install it...

whoa... the day that happens is the day i buy an AW without batting an eyelid. i asked the local dell sales rep if they would do that and he said no not as yet
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post #15 of 18
7/1/08 at 10:46pm
all i know is that they were going to send one out to put my heatsink in...unless he was mistaken...
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post #16 of 18
7/2/08 at 5:22am
1. Alienware M7700 - worked great for a year then the mobo fried. They replaced it and gave me a free graphics card upgrade withour any issues. This was a Clevo defect, so Sager, Falcon, and numerous other companies had the same issue...

2. Alienware 14inch Sentia 3450 - worked great but exchanged it for a m5550i because I needed more power. No return fee was charged...GREAT SERVICE!

3. Alienware m5550i, exchanged for Sentia 3450, I use it every day and it's on mostly for 24 hours. That's why I got a 2 year warranty. Still going great after one year of usage.

4. Purchased the m3200 12 inch Sentia second hand a month ago because I need a portable. So far so good! Even for a second hand machine.

5. Now I'm currently looking at the m15x and the m17x to replace my m5550i.

As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with Alienware! But remember they do need maintenance and cleaning quite often to keep the ventilation going...
...
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post #17 of 18
7/4/08 at 12:59pm
I bought my m5500 back in Apr 2006 and I have yet to have a problem with it. I have done lots of things to it and it still runs like a champ!
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post #18 of 18
7/4/08 at 8:44pm
Thread Starter 
hearing stuff like this really makes me feel like getting an AW. but looks like i got to put the brakes on spending for now, the guy who was interested in my current laptop got cold feet.
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