Are Alienware notebooks recommended?

ThalassicPrince

Hi, I'm currently relatively new to 3D modeling, but that's potentially what I wish to do further in my career after I get better at it. I'm in college for animation, and I'd like to get a notebook computer of sorts that I can model on when I'm on the go.

I was thinking about purchasing an alienware, but I've heard both good and bad about them. I figured this would be the place to ask for suggestions.

So, is Alienware recommended, or is there another company that I don't know about that would be better than the alienware?

Thanks.

sprunghunt

I don't reccomend alienware. I had one. It was overpriced compared to other laptops in it's performance range and the case was poorly designed and flimsy. After a few months the power plug broke inside the case.

I'd get a dell or a macbook or pretty much anything else.

EarthQuake

Alienware tends to be overpriced.

More important than anything, you need to find a laptop with a good screen, and a good video card. Most laptops have are shit when it comes to both. Generally the screen is only something you can tell by seeing it for yourself in person. As far as graphics cards go, most laptops have crippled cards, or terrible intel chipsets.

I would look for something atleast in the range of a nvidia 8600 or better.

Joao Sapiro

i have an aurora M9750 and am VERY happy with it , can run everything and is smooth :P super sturdy too , but yeah they are overpriced. and the blue alien light fucking annoys me.

oobersli

so what do you mean model on the go? like model while youre driving? taking a dump? alienware is overpriced usually and I've heard mixed stories for the customer support being good and bad.

Joao Sapiro

so far costumer support has been awesome, they usually when i have a problem they give me advice on the go and when it requires some hardware stuff like connecting cables or whatnot they give me links of articles they written that are quite good. But i also heard horror stories , so take what i said as an isolate case.


And i use the laptop to work since i also go to portugal and can take my work with me and games etc , since i dont have a good computer there.

just compare really, compare analisis to various lappies

Gav

I've got an Alienware notebook (can't remember the exact model, but it's fairly recent) and it works just fine. The only issue I really have with it is that Vista is a useless piece of shit. I haven't really been bothered enough to put XP or something on to it yet...but I think any complaint I have is pretty much regarding the OS.

|*BILLY$CLINT*|

ThalassicPrince wrote: »

Hi, I'm currently relatively new to 3D modeling, but that's potentially what I wish to do further in my career after I get better at it. I'm in college for animation, and I'd like to get a notebook computer of sorts that I can model on when I'm on the go.

I was thinking about purchasing an alienware, but I've heard both good and bad about them. I figured this would be the place to ask for suggestions.

So, is Alienware recommended, or is there another company that I don't know about that would be better than the alienware?

Thanks.

I personally would not as you are are mostly paying for the name Alien ware. I would get a dell XPS gaming note book as I have heard a lot of good things about them. Also Dell will literally bend over backwards to get you a new machine if yours breaks. I know as they just sent me 3 XPS 730x one of which was mine to keep the other two came by mistake as each time I called customer serveice to see what was going on with my replacment they sent me a new machine.

I was extreamly happy with the service I got and my new machine. They took my old top of the line 32bit DX9 box and turned it into a top of the line 64bit DX10 monster. This was mega upgrade and did not cost me any extra.

CrazyMatt

DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE!

It's my only and final warning for you and everyone.
I purchased a notebook for the same situation and ended up getting a george foreman grill that broke very very quickly.

Seriously, buy a Dell Inspiron notebook with an adaquate video card and a large screen.
Don't even think the 'out and overly advertised' products are going to be you're money's best interest and the best investment you can make.
Because they are not.

Not to mention Alienware has by far the meanest and worst support team ever!

PolyHertz

I've known a few people that had alienware notebooks, and most were not happy. If you want to waste money when getting a notebook go for a VoodooPC one instead, otherwise Sager, Dell, and Asus are good brands to go with I'd say.

Illusions

CrazyMatt wrote: »

Not to mention Alienware has by far the meanest and worst support team ever!

Isn't Alienware owned by Dell?

fiveways

You can model on the go with pretty much anything nowadays (depending on what software you're using) I currently own a dell latitude d620 which is their business class of laptops (ie. they aren't made for people like us) but I still use max, photoshop, and zbrush on it pretty easily. If anything, i'd recommend getting something with a good laptop like EQ said. Right now I can't use zmapper in zbrush or directx shaders in my max viewport because my video is ass

sprunghunt

Illusions wrote: »

Isn't Alienware owned by Dell? :

Yes they are now owned by dell. So you really are only paying for the name since the XPS is much cheaper.

ThalassicPrince

Wow. Thanks. I wasn't expecting that much anger towards alienware. I'm glad I decided to ask.

Thank you guys so much.

|*BILLY$CLINT*|

sprunghunt wrote: »

Yes they are now owned by dell. So you really are only paying for the name since the XPS is much cheaper.

Yeah that's what I am saying go XPS you can even get an XPS that has SLI. If you go Alienware you are paying for the name and they used to be good computers but now they suck.

Oh did you look at Falcon? I hear they are pretty good.

ThalassicPrince

No, but since you mentioned it, I decided to check them out. Falcon had been suggested to me by someone from my school, but I hadn't really looked into it not knowing if it was any good until someone else mentioned it. After looking at the options suggested, I actually think I like the falcon better. It's definitely more pricey, but I'm thinking it's worth it to get a good quality notebook that will do what I want really, extremely well.

|*BILLY$CLINT*|

ThalassicPrince wrote: »

No, but since you mentioned it, I decided to check them out. Falcon had been suggested to me by someone from my school, but I hadn't really looked into it not knowing if it was any good until someone else mentioned it. After looking at the options suggested, I actually think I like the falcon better. It's definitely more pricey, but I'm thinking it's worth it to get a good quality notebook that will do what I want really, extremely well.

If its for school and you really, really want to become a developer then do it. It will end up being the best money you ever spent. When the first unreal 3.0 editor came out(roboblitz) I went out the very next day and got a $4,000 desktop to run it (yeah I know that was a little over kill) and that was the greatest investments of my life as now I work for a game studio.

Joshua Stubbles

Over the years I've owned 3 alienwares. Two PCs and 1 laptop. All top quality, no issues. Customer support was absolutely fantastic. Overpriced? hell yes. But they weren't cheap quality in the least. My ex still uses my Aurora laptop I bought almost 3yrs ago, still runs like a champ (one of the first laptops that ever used RAID).
I recommend alienware completely, but there are other similar quality solutions out there that are cheaper. So if AW costs too much, try Dell or one of the other's listed here.

toren3d

I would highly recommend ibuypower.com. Some of their notebooks are from Sager (the first laptop I had was a Sager, and it was actually the same model Alienware used for its first gaming notebook, which you could buy without the alienware sticker branding....for about $900 less)

As long as you upgrade to for 4 gigs of ram, and go no lower than the 8600gt card, your good to go.

You could get a Dell, but youll need to get an XPS to match the specs, and then your pushing $2000. IMO there is no need to spend more than $1400 on a notebook...

MagicSugar

Did my research on this and I also thought at first alienware or xps would be the ones to choose from.

But if you got dough for this and want to do hardcore 3d I'd check out high end hp laptops. They use certified cards for the major apps.

But from what I heard, Mudbox 2009 at least can run okay on a laptop with geforce 9800 card (but you'll need a workaround).

Apps like Zbrush and Modo don't require hi end specs though, 2 gigs and dual core at the minimum are okay.

MALicivs

If you have easy access to buying stuff from the UK which I doubt, you can try the Rock http://www.rockdirect.com/ website, they have very good laptops, just don't know about the quality.
I have a Toshiba X300 and its a dual core 2.8mhz, with 4gb ddr3 and a 9800gtx 1gb, and I can work perfectly with both zbrush and max. Have not tryed mudbox yet though, and considering the specs its a very cheap laptop in comparison with others, you can probably look for local prices in toshiba's website.

JohnnyRaptor

Id say alienware is way too overpriced, check out pctorque.com for powerfull laptops and still resonable pricetag..