Does Alienware still suck?

Im not trying to start a flame thread or anything but I have bought 2 alienware computers in the past. a desktop and a laptop.

First, the desktop was configured with raid 0 and the hard drive failed less than a week after arrival, I had to send it back and they replaced the hard drives... which then again failed a week after it arrived and costumer support was lame as their ultimate solution for everything was ¨use the alienware respawn dvd¨

year or so later, i decide to try alienware again, this time I want a gaming laptop, so I buy the 17 incher monster at the time, the area 51 with the desktop processor, it had a Pentium 4, 3.8 desktop processor.. 2 hard drives, the works... also, the worst notebook in the history of computers. this thing overheated so badly it ended up simply dying.. I had to send it to alienware and they replaced my videocard and sent it back and it died again... this computer was a freaking mess.

2 years after that or so and now I want a 15 inch powerfull laptop for gaming and everyday use..and again, after looking online, every after researching macs, which I hate, the best 15 incher I saw was the alienware M15x. the ASUS seems nice and so does dell but it seems that if your budget is unlimited, the best way to go, again, is the alienware. it also looks really cool and has all that sweetness like the customizable lights in the keyboard and such.

This computer does use a procesor intended for laptops unlike their past mistakes and this time I wont make the mistake of configuring a machine in raid 0 ever again (I have a dell desktop right now in which raid 0 also failed)

The laptop im intending to buy will have one solid state drive and I will have a 500gb hard drive for extra storage in one of those smart bays the alienware have.

So I guess, my question is, is alienware any better now? does their customer support work now that dell purchased them? or is it still in the gutter.... is bying a 15 inch alienware gaming laptop with the highest specs a good purchase? or will it die a week after I get it?


sorry for the rant.

By the way, one last question, the other machine that seems to compare to the alienware in power is the ASUS 15 inch laptop. which one do you prefer between those two?

thanks for your help, I cant deny the beauty and coolness of the M15x... it seems to be about the badest mofo as far as 15 inch laptops in the market, it even seems to trump the newly released macbook pros.. which are pretty beefy themselves but alienware has the smart bay option and bluray burner,, not to mention the badass keyboard lights and look... but as you guys say, its expensive and Asus does seem pretty good as well, maybe not as ¨look at me¨as you said but.... bah I dont know anymore...


Problems had with alienware were RAID related and overheating related. overheating thanks to the fact that some genious said ¨hey lets put a desktop procesor in a laptop!!!¨ that thing nearly burned my table.

the 15 incher I would get from alienware would have a single solid state drive, no more raid problems there and it also has a mobile computer processor, so I am guessing not much overheating problems, at least not more than normal.

it also looks pretty damn sweet.... its basicaly the best 15 inch laptop in the market. Im typing this on my moms macbook pro, she bought it less thn a month ago and its built up to the highest specs, its quite a badass machine but honestly I just cant find myself in MAC OS, im too used to windows and windows keyboard shortcuts to ever change to mac... but this baby can run vista pretty well, still, I dont like the design that much, it looks like a boring metal square, I guess its elegant and it looks cool on my mom but I cant see myself using one of these.

Anyways, thanks for your help guys!