Ok, here is a quick review of my ALX. wont be as detailed as some of these reviews seem to be, but I will try my best.
The beginning. Had some issues with my salesman. Wrote so on reseller ratings, and immediately got great response from Alienware, or Lisa in particular. She is great. She assured me that she would make the rest of my process smooth as can be. That she did, as she gave me a new salesman. The new guy was pretty good. I was waiting along with the rest of the folk on this forum, which was turning out to look like a long wait. When Voodoo had listed their new PC coming, I was just about to jump on it. My salesman assured me if I stuck with Alienware, he would jump me to production. Sure enough he did, and I finally got my PC last Monday, which made the total wait about 25 days. Not too bad.
Ok, what you have awaited I am sure. The computer. The packaging was done really well. None of that styrophone, on the computer anyway, as it was all put in that pick and pluck foam, like you would find in a pelican case. The initial reaction my wife and I both had was, what the heck, this thing is HUGE. Easliy came to about 4 foot in hight, in the box anyway. The ALX experience, is mostly what they say. Very high qual metalic brief case, mousepad in a nice metal case of its own. Even had plastic covering all the ALX name plates on the case and the face of the temp guage. First thing I did was attempt to open the case to install a SATA controller card, so I could install a data drive. The manual here in this area is weak. It says to remove the screws on the back to remove the case door. Well, let me tell you, that is not all that is necessary. There is no where in any documentation that describes the process to acurately remove the side. There is a little panel that hides the case lock, and the latch. Unfortunately, the panel did not open which I assume required a push motion, as the front drive bay door does. Suffice it to say, that even before turning on my machine, that little panel door is now broke, on this system, and will no longer stay closed. Dissappointed here, to say the least. My builder at Alienware was kind enough to route a power cable down for me, so all I had to do was install the card and run the SATA cable to the drive. Nice slide in drave bays, didnt require any screws at all for my new drive. I notice that the CDRW power cable is disconnected. Easy enough to plug it back in, but hope it came lose in shipping, as I am not sure how they could have tested the system with it unhooked. Getting the door back on, that is another issue. I struggle each time I remove the thing, to get it back on. There is just no easy way to line it up. Really a terrible door, if I have not made that clear enough.
Now its time to boot the thing up. Ooops, wont work. The thing wants to boot to the new SATA drive, that is not formatted. Easy enough, I think, to go to BIOS and change the boot sequence. Prob is, ALX wireless keyboard does not initialize quick enough to get into the BIOS. I call their Tech Support, and make sure I am attempting process right, and though I get instantly connected to a tech guy, his answer, is to go buy another keyboard for accessing the BIOS. Now call me picky, but come on Alienware. This is a gamers rig. People are going to tinker with it, and you did not realize we cant get into the BIOS with the currently offered keyboard? I took the keyboard off my old PC. Another wireless, but was logitech, and not Microsoft, and was able to access the BIOS with that. Funny.
Finally get it all booted, and the thing is fantastic. 3 fans are a bit loud, and temp reads 80 degrees most constantly. Gets to about 83 when playing games. Have not done any benchmarks yet, but let me say, running EQ2, on the next to the highest graphics profile, is just georgeous to say the least. I can run it on the highest setting, but when seeing effects, such as a water fall, the thing chugs. I also had to turn powerstripe down to default settings, as overclocked, it crashes EQ2. Halflife 2, is running at its max settings, at resolutions I never could imagine in a game, and it is just unbelieveable. Smooth, no chuggyness what so ever.
Few bad points. When they installed my CD and DVD drives, they mapped them so the bottom drive is the D drive and the top drive is the E, the reverse of what it should be. Details, but this is an ALX that goes through, what, 4 quality control phases?
Powerstripe running, you cant upgrade graphics drivers. Their tech support did not know this, as we went through an hour on the phone trying to get ATI's new drivers going. CTRL ALT DEL to shut down powerstripe, and all is good. Powerstripe also locks the computer, when it goes into hibernation. Have to hard reset the thing to get it going.
Missing the 3d mark software, and missed my 100 dollar mail in rebate certificate. Lisa again came to the rescue, and made sure they mailed that CD right away, and was kind enough to just credit my card the 100 rather than making me wait on the rebate. All in all, not a bad experience. There is no wait, when trying to get tech support, and the follow up, has been great. Lisa keeps emailing me to make sure I have got all the answers I need, and that the experience went as smooth as possible. I will get some benchmarks when I figure out how to run them, and when I get the software to do so.
Would I go Alienware again? I think so. On a side note, the Targus Defcon Authenticator is awesome. No typing in passwords on web sites, or to log into my computer. Just use my fingerprint.
The beginning. Had some issues with my salesman. Wrote so on reseller ratings, and immediately got great response from Alienware, or Lisa in particular. She is great. She assured me that she would make the rest of my process smooth as can be. That she did, as she gave me a new salesman. The new guy was pretty good. I was waiting along with the rest of the folk on this forum, which was turning out to look like a long wait. When Voodoo had listed their new PC coming, I was just about to jump on it. My salesman assured me if I stuck with Alienware, he would jump me to production. Sure enough he did, and I finally got my PC last Monday, which made the total wait about 25 days. Not too bad.
Ok, what you have awaited I am sure. The computer. The packaging was done really well. None of that styrophone, on the computer anyway, as it was all put in that pick and pluck foam, like you would find in a pelican case. The initial reaction my wife and I both had was, what the heck, this thing is HUGE. Easliy came to about 4 foot in hight, in the box anyway. The ALX experience, is mostly what they say. Very high qual metalic brief case, mousepad in a nice metal case of its own. Even had plastic covering all the ALX name plates on the case and the face of the temp guage. First thing I did was attempt to open the case to install a SATA controller card, so I could install a data drive. The manual here in this area is weak. It says to remove the screws on the back to remove the case door. Well, let me tell you, that is not all that is necessary. There is no where in any documentation that describes the process to acurately remove the side. There is a little panel that hides the case lock, and the latch. Unfortunately, the panel did not open which I assume required a push motion, as the front drive bay door does. Suffice it to say, that even before turning on my machine, that little panel door is now broke, on this system, and will no longer stay closed. Dissappointed here, to say the least. My builder at Alienware was kind enough to route a power cable down for me, so all I had to do was install the card and run the SATA cable to the drive. Nice slide in drave bays, didnt require any screws at all for my new drive. I notice that the CDRW power cable is disconnected. Easy enough to plug it back in, but hope it came lose in shipping, as I am not sure how they could have tested the system with it unhooked. Getting the door back on, that is another issue. I struggle each time I remove the thing, to get it back on. There is just no easy way to line it up. Really a terrible door, if I have not made that clear enough.
Now its time to boot the thing up. Ooops, wont work. The thing wants to boot to the new SATA drive, that is not formatted. Easy enough, I think, to go to BIOS and change the boot sequence. Prob is, ALX wireless keyboard does not initialize quick enough to get into the BIOS. I call their Tech Support, and make sure I am attempting process right, and though I get instantly connected to a tech guy, his answer, is to go buy another keyboard for accessing the BIOS. Now call me picky, but come on Alienware. This is a gamers rig. People are going to tinker with it, and you did not realize we cant get into the BIOS with the currently offered keyboard? I took the keyboard off my old PC. Another wireless, but was logitech, and not Microsoft, and was able to access the BIOS with that. Funny.
Finally get it all booted, and the thing is fantastic. 3 fans are a bit loud, and temp reads 80 degrees most constantly. Gets to about 83 when playing games. Have not done any benchmarks yet, but let me say, running EQ2, on the next to the highest graphics profile, is just georgeous to say the least. I can run it on the highest setting, but when seeing effects, such as a water fall, the thing chugs. I also had to turn powerstripe down to default settings, as overclocked, it crashes EQ2. Halflife 2, is running at its max settings, at resolutions I never could imagine in a game, and it is just unbelieveable. Smooth, no chuggyness what so ever.
Few bad points. When they installed my CD and DVD drives, they mapped them so the bottom drive is the D drive and the top drive is the E, the reverse of what it should be. Details, but this is an ALX that goes through, what, 4 quality control phases?
Powerstripe running, you cant upgrade graphics drivers. Their tech support did not know this, as we went through an hour on the phone trying to get ATI's new drivers going. CTRL ALT DEL to shut down powerstripe, and all is good. Powerstripe also locks the computer, when it goes into hibernation. Have to hard reset the thing to get it going.
Missing the 3d mark software, and missed my 100 dollar mail in rebate certificate. Lisa again came to the rescue, and made sure they mailed that CD right away, and was kind enough to just credit my card the 100 rather than making me wait on the rebate. All in all, not a bad experience. There is no wait, when trying to get tech support, and the follow up, has been great. Lisa keeps emailing me to make sure I have got all the answers I need, and that the experience went as smooth as possible. I will get some benchmarks when I figure out how to run them, and when I get the software to do so.
Would I go Alienware again? I think so. On a side note, the Targus Defcon Authenticator is awesome. No typing in passwords on web sites, or to log into my computer. Just use my fingerprint.
However, it has 3 fans?! I thought it was totally watercooled with no fans at all...
SO you get to know the guy building your system personally? Can you communicate with them and find out the status of the build?
