In short, don't! below this follows a tale of woe and pain.
I bought my sentia just over a year ago. It's a 1.7Ghz with 1Gb RAM, 40Gb HDD.
I had problems from day 1, firstly the sentia arrived with the wrong keyboard, this I could put up with as a quick switch would be possible if the correct keyboard was sent to me. Next I noticed that the screen would not always power up, I'd get an output on an external screen but not on the internal LCD panel .... nice panel when it works. So, I sent it back to the depot but the machine came back with exactly the same fault (although the keyboard was correct). I decided that I'd call it quits and get my money back which, understanably perhaps, Alienware were less than enthuiastic about. Eventually after taking advice from Lawyers alienware agreed to replace all the system components. The laptop then worked fine for a while until one day (perhaps an omen of things to come) the screen started to scramble, again I phoned up Alienware support who dispatched a CMOS battery (a battery in under a year? not a good sign). But all was well for another couple of months. Now, onto the last chapter of this story. Last night I was working away on my laptop when it blue screened and refused to boot. The screen now scrambles when powered up (if it powers up), it hangs at the BIOS screen, basically will/does/has hang/hung at any part of the bootup process rendering the laptop useless. Now of course my laptop is out of warranty and Alienwares daignosis is that the mainboard is faulty (I can't help but think that it has been faulty since the CMOS battery was replaced as the symptoms are similar) and have quoted me £650 ($US1,100) which it is not worth.
So I'm left with a very expensive door stop.
I conclusion, If you want a machine which might only last a year, and have to spend at least 1 month of that out of your hands then consider a sentia.
Now, don't think that this is just sour grapes. I will concede that when running the laptop was very quick with decent functionality. There is also the possibilty that these bugs (if thats what they are) have been ironed out in the latest version, but there is also the possibility that they have not.
Right, off to a store that sells Toshiba Laptops.
Stu
One final word to Alienware, In supplying what in my opinion was a very poor quality product Alienware have lost a customer who would have bought a gaming machine and probably replaced the laptop within another year. I would also never recomend Alienware (and working in IT people do ask you for recomendations).
I bought my sentia just over a year ago. It's a 1.7Ghz with 1Gb RAM, 40Gb HDD.
I had problems from day 1, firstly the sentia arrived with the wrong keyboard, this I could put up with as a quick switch would be possible if the correct keyboard was sent to me. Next I noticed that the screen would not always power up, I'd get an output on an external screen but not on the internal LCD panel .... nice panel when it works. So, I sent it back to the depot but the machine came back with exactly the same fault (although the keyboard was correct). I decided that I'd call it quits and get my money back which, understanably perhaps, Alienware were less than enthuiastic about. Eventually after taking advice from Lawyers alienware agreed to replace all the system components. The laptop then worked fine for a while until one day (perhaps an omen of things to come) the screen started to scramble, again I phoned up Alienware support who dispatched a CMOS battery (a battery in under a year? not a good sign). But all was well for another couple of months. Now, onto the last chapter of this story. Last night I was working away on my laptop when it blue screened and refused to boot. The screen now scrambles when powered up (if it powers up), it hangs at the BIOS screen, basically will/does/has hang/hung at any part of the bootup process rendering the laptop useless. Now of course my laptop is out of warranty and Alienwares daignosis is that the mainboard is faulty (I can't help but think that it has been faulty since the CMOS battery was replaced as the symptoms are similar) and have quoted me £650 ($US1,100) which it is not worth.
So I'm left with a very expensive door stop.
I conclusion, If you want a machine which might only last a year, and have to spend at least 1 month of that out of your hands then consider a sentia.
Now, don't think that this is just sour grapes. I will concede that when running the laptop was very quick with decent functionality. There is also the possibilty that these bugs (if thats what they are) have been ironed out in the latest version, but there is also the possibility that they have not.
Right, off to a store that sells Toshiba Laptops.
Stu
One final word to Alienware, In supplying what in my opinion was a very poor quality product Alienware have lost a customer who would have bought a gaming machine and probably replaced the laptop within another year. I would also never recomend Alienware (and working in IT people do ask you for recomendations).
