An Alienware for mom? - Page 3

Originally Posted by Xenoxide

Alienware uses aftermarket components. Dell uses their own. Want reasons?

1. Dell's motherboards are built by themselves. They are built by monkeys. Slow bus speeds, slow transfer speeds, limited upgradeability due to most addons built onto the mobo. Earlier models had the graphics chipset INTEGRATED onto the motherboard. Ever seen a 5800 FX chipset built onto a mobo? Not a pretty sight.

2. Dell's graphics cards are rubbish. The reason? Dell uses the graphics card chipset and builds their own card. Again, slow speeds. Alienware uses cards from reputable sources (Asus, Gainward, and cards built by the chipset manufacturers themselves such as ATi and nVidia). Sometimes Dell integrates the graphics with the chipset. See reasons above.

3. Memory. Dell uses cheap memory sticks bought in from cheap taiwanese/chinese companies. Alienware uses Corsair (A VERY reputable RAM manufacturer) RAM. Low latency RAM = High performance.

4. Customer service. No matter what you say about Alienware's customer service, Dell's is much worse. Having owned two Dell computers the only good customer service I had is when they agreed to take them back and offer me refunds.

5. Oh yeah, they just plain suck.

/me crawls back into his cave.

Originally Posted by slapthemonkey55

I've got another good reason. There is nothing like turning on an AW for the first time and getting a blessedly unloaded computer. No free trials, no uselss software, no hours spent uninstalling all the crap that other companies put on there, and no spyware. Just a computer as God intended it. That's worth a lot.

So is having people walk by my office and glance in, keep going, then stop, back up, point to my computer and say "What the hell is THAT?"

Originally Posted by Astu222

k, its wrath time.

1. wrong, Dell uses modified intel boards, the only difference is that the clock speeds are locked so you cant overclock.

2. dell uses the cards made by ATi or Nvidia, not from BFG or saphire, what have you. they dont have their own brand of cards. and you cannot tell me that ATi makes bad cards, and even though nVidia doesnt release their cards (they have others make them) they are still equal in performance with other ones on the market.

3. the first half is true but no, low latency doesnt equal high perfromance. AW uses corsair value select which is not low latency, it is 2.5-3-3-6, not bad, but certainly not low latency.

4. dells warrenty plan is better and covers more than alienwares does. accidental coverage is great, especialy for laptops. but their customer service is supposedly worse.

5. thats not a reason, sorry.

k so number 3 was half true and so was number 4, that equals 1 valid point. you still need 4 more, try again.

Originally Posted by Xenoxide

Sorry? Let's have another look.

1. Perhaps they use modified Intel boards, but there's a reason that hardly any other companies use them. Other brands are far better, far more featured, and far faster.

2. You completely contradicted yourself here. You say they use nVidia and ATi boards...then you go on to say they do not make boards, they get other companies to make them. And where did I say ATi makes bad cards? For the same reasons as #1, boards by other companies are better as they are faster, more full featured.

3. Corsair value select or not, it's certainly better RAM than the RAM than Dell uses. Corsair's manufacturing process is reknown, and just cause it has the word "Value" branded on it does not make it crap.

4. What use is a warranty plan if they wont live up to it? You need a good customer service system in order to cover warranties.

5. It is a reason, for the reasons stated above.