The Sad Truth about Non-Alieners.... - Page 8

I second that! But... from the awful experience of having a Dell I can say they stink.... It was 1 1/2 years ago and my butt still hurts from those proprietary RAM prices....

It's true though.. they have a big fat biker with a pulled pork sandwich come over and rape you when you buy RAM! One of my 256 blew, and they charged me almost a dollar per MB.... Ouch...

So buy third party RAM.

Anyways booga, I think the problem may be that you are skipping the first page of the "Customize your Own 600m" pages. The is a pre-config page that is in there (for what reason I don't know), and if you skip upgrading the vidoe card on this page, you don't get the option when you get to the real customizing pages.

Also, are you looking in "Dell Home" or "Dell Small Business." When I did the config in my post, I didn't put the 3 year warranty on the 600m because I customized the Sebtia with only a 1 year warranty. I think if you go through the small business site, they only give you the option of a three year warranty.

Thanks for pointing out the difference in the home and business area. I have responded to a similar thread and could not find the option for a 64 MB ATI.

I selected the 3 year warranty because I wanted it to be as close to my Sentia as possible. The ATI option adds $50 to the 600m.

Oh, I see. You were configuring it to match yours. How much did you pay for your Sentia?

I just configured one with the specs in you signature for $1670.40 (with a 20% off coupon ) However, this is just for the system (no add-ons) with XP Home.

You've never owned a Dell... have you? Nothing works in a Dell but Dell parts. Dell RAM, Dell Procs, Heck, even Dell video cards on some models. It's like a plauge.

one fact: Alienware ownership IS an Elite membership. anyone care to debate? This is an Alienware forum. Everyone is very welcome to participate But this is a forum for the Elite owners of the Elite systems called Alienware. This is a community that welcoming to everyone. But its only truely understood by Alienware owners. step up. Its easy to talk otherwise but If you do not own Alienware then you don't really know. The owner of this thread has the right to have it closed or deleted. I respectfully request that it remains an open thread. The good and the bad. Its a better way.

Not entirely true. I just bought some ram from crucial for a friends Dell and it worked fine. Dont know where you got the idea that everything is proprietary.

Do to crucial.com , search dell dimension 8200. NOTHING works in my box. Now I know why they discontinued it....

Go talk to the guys on the Dell boards. At least 50% have third part RAM in theirs and they all work fine.

It's too late, I had to do it over 6 months ago... The truth is that both sticks blew, one 256 stick went, so I grabbed some RAM from a precison (It looked the same...) and put it in. One word. Boom. It fried the other stick AND the mobo! One big fat biker later and dell has $600 from me... Damn that stunk...

I believe the thing about dell, and only dell parts will work with a dell. I tried to put a new and better network card in my dell office pc, which was a cheap celeron, but hey its for work. First time it booted up and detected network card, doesn't work though. So i rebooted and then nothing!!! It wont even boot up with my new linksys nic. Reason is because there onboard nic was really screwing i get sluggish speeds, and got to reboot about 10 times before nic was up and running at full speed. All the other computers which run on the same network in the office has never had this problem, but what can you expect for this dell which my boss pretty much got for free from those dell promotions. I swear i think dell has set up their bios or hardware to malfunction without certified dell parts.

they do. Dell even has their own Intels. I'm never giving Dell another cent of my cash... unless this one breaks again...
Eventually I'll build a PC to replace this one... maybe as my free time project over the summer...

ive added RAM, hard drives, a new nic and a new cd rom drive to my dell dimension with no isues... io used kingston ram

What model? The 8300 supports alot, but the (discontinued) 8200 is a pain. It supports standard stuff like HD, Optical, and PCI cards though. RAM, the Proc, and certain stuff (don't remember) won't work though.

First off i'm not bashing alienware just because i have a DELL. I only bought my 600m, because it was the best for my needs. An Area 51m was my next choice.

1. You cannot save $500 just by building. Do what i did and go configure one to build, and an alienware with the same specs. The price difference is very small, and the support is worth the few extra $$.

2. Where are you going to find an ATX sized case with as many features, and as cool of a look, outside of alienware?

3. For a gaming desktop, go alienware. For a gaming, or portable/gaming laptop compare DELL/Alienware.

You might want to review my post on page 3. I configured an AMD64 system that used the exact same components except for the case. The difference was 500.00. The case is identical on the inside, you just don't get the alien skin that goes around the case.

As far as support goes, when you build your own computer, most of the parts have a 3 to 5 year warrenty standard. When you buy a pre built computer, you are getting OEM parts. Even though the hard drive says Western Digital, if you contact them about it, they will tell you to go to the company that manufactured the computer. And computers do not come with five year waranties...

Antec / Chenming / Chieftec make the EXACT same casse as ALienware. Infact the Alienware case is an Antec / Chenming / Chieftec with an alien skin over the top of it. And with a little work and some time, you can make a case look better than an Alienware. Turst me, a watercooled dual Xeon system with a window showing off all of the innards will turn more heads than an alienware case.

If you want a desktop, Alienware is an excellent choice, but you can build a computer yourself that is every bit as good. If you are talking notebooks go with Alienware / Sager. It is going to be awhile before Dell has a good gaming system.

Oh, and just out of curiosity Sterlin, what size screen did you get on your laptop?