Is Alienware really THAT bad??

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 20, 2014

I have a custom built PC, and not an Alienware just to be clear. But, since I considered Alienware before I decided to build my own rig, I've always been curious towards the pricing of the computers and why people think they're so overpriced. I checked the cheapest Alienware Aurora default option today, and saw it came in at about $1500. I then used PCPartPicker to design a PC with all the same specs (since Alienware doesn't really say the motherboard or power supplies, I just used ones that would work and had decently low price tags. and the case is just something big, since the Aurora is supposed to be...well, big) and I was legit surprised at the pricing of a self built Alienware alternative. Here's the link http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2EyFE and you'll see that Alienware doesn't appear to be very overpriced at all. You of course get better quality power supplies and motherboards from custom built PC's, but paying such a small amount extra to have someone build the computer and have a really cool looking case...I just don't see the reason for people saying Alienware is so bad. A $1500 Alienware that costs $1468.87 to build doesn't seem insanely overpriced to ME, at least.

rgd1101 · Jan 20, 2014

Personally, I don't have problem buying from them, but their selection is kind of out of date or limited, e.g. on the gpu side. 680? I want a 770. or even a 780 ti.

Portuguesetechie · Jan 20, 2014

Mate they are bad, people dont say they are bad, but when i was going to build mine i thought about ordering from them, if i built my own idd get 200-500euros off the price, and those 200 euros would give me what? Tec support on the phone? Lol
They arent badly built but their GPU choice is bad, theyll force an i7 on u with a GTX 760 at most and call it gaming.......so u end up with a pc that can render well and is fast but has a bottleneck on your GPU, again they arent badly built, its just overpriced and poor choice
For someone that doesnt know what a CPU or someone that knows computers adn has money to spend and doesnt wanna waste time idd advise an alienware or originpc desktop, but i wouldnt tell anyone on a budget or anyone that wants a serious gaming desktop to get one
besides if u build your own pc u know exactly where u put stuff and exactly what u need to move where to upgrade, when u ask for a custom pc someone else put it together for you and some people have a problem with that

MrJohnnyLy · Jan 20, 2014

Dell bought Alienware a few years ago, so if you don't like Dell, you won't like Alienware.

ssddx · Jan 20, 2014

yes, dell bought alienware. so you are buying a dell. and we all know that dells blow.

the original people at alienware moved on to form origin. origin is very expensive but respected

so they arent overpriced? the base aurora gives you an i7 but only a gtx680 video card. ok so how much to upgrade to something like a 770? $400 EXTRA (keep in mind you can buy this card for $330). so they are adding $400 more than what they charged you for the original card (gtx680). how is that not a complete rip off?

also they put money where it shouldnt be. its a gaming machine. an i7 extreme is absolutely pointless for all but the highest end systems, not an average gaming build.

also you will note that they dont list what parts you get. not all vendors and parts are created equal.

for $1500 any of us could put together a system which would completely trounce that aurora in gaming.

also... for the price of the machine they made you could probably even fit a 780ti in budget. or 290x. talk about running circles around a so called gaming machine.

realchaos · Jan 20, 2014

Alienware aren't necessarily bad performing, but they are extremely overpriced just for the name. You're paying for the brand name, not performance. Looking at the build you posted, a lot of the things are over-priced and un-necessary for gaming. A $1000 computer can perform the same, if not better, than that computer that you listed.
Of course not everyone could build their own computer, but using something like cyberpowerpc.com or NCIX.com to build it for you is still much better than getting an alienware.

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 20, 2014

Portuguesetechie :

ssddx :

realchaos :

I realize that an I7 of any kind is completely unnecessary (I tired convincing a friend of mine to get the I5 3570K for their build but they insisted that they wanted the I7 3770 Non-K because it was better in other things outside of gaming, so "obviously it's better than the I5 in gaming if it's better elsewhere" was his logic. Sigh.) Regardless, even if the money is put in the wrong places for useless items, for the parts that were chosen, the computer isn't overpriced if you look at it that way. I personally would have probably went with an i5 4670K and a 780 instead of an extreme series CPU, but the Alienware decided processing power was more important. For all the parts that WERE chosen, I'm saying that it isn't really overpriced at all. In general, though, I already realized that Alienware is a waste of time and money

realchaos · Jan 20, 2014

That's because the parts you chose are over-priced as well. Like GTX 680 for $500? You can get the better performing GTX 770 for only $320. Instead of 4x2gb for $90, you can get the same performance out of a 2x4gb for ~$70.

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 20, 2014

realchaos :

I know what I designed was overpriced, but that's because it's supposed to be exactly the same as the Aurora, more or less. I was showing that if someone bought the exact same parts to build the PC manually that it would be pretty much a waste of time and easier to buy from Alienware. If someone was smart, though, and put money in the right places, a better build can easily be build for cheaper

ssddx · Jan 20, 2014

except the fact that its marketed as a "gaming desktop" which indicates that for the money it should be best for "gaming" or is that not true?

it doesnt matter if it would be better for number crunching, photoshop, cad, etcetera. its not marketed as such.

its like buying a broom to sweep and having it be more useful as a mop. while it still might work to sweep for the same price you could have bought a broom which actually works like it should.

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and alienware is still way overpriced.

did you not even see my +$400 note (which is ontop of the cash they already charged you for the included gpu!) price tag for a part which only costs $330. even if they only charged you $100 for the included gpu (yeah right) that would be $500 for a $330 part. a complete joke.

also keep in mind that they very likely use budget brand components wherever possible. we are talking about dell after all.

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for the same price of $1500 i could build a gaming machine which performs 50% better if not more. if that isnt overpriced for performance i dont know what is.

what they charge you for the components is overpriced and also for the actual gaming performance you will get it is ovepriced.

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basically junk.

g-unit1111 · Jan 20, 2014

ssddx :

Dells do blow, I won't lie there. But I just got their new Windows 8 Bay Trail tablet for Christmas and this thing rocks. But yeah for the price you could be paying for an Alienware rig you could build your own with no bloatware. There's lots of factors that make Alienware rigs not worth it - the limited upgrade factor, etc, but what really makes them suck is the bloated drivers that make Windows nearly unusable. All the major OEMs do it and that's why I don't reccommend their systems.

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 23, 2014

g-unit1111 :

I hadn't considered the bloatware, so that does play a part here. But let's say somebody wanted the drivers and extra software for some stupid reason. Now, for the same price basically, someone just got free programs and the same computer. Oh, and to make things extra clear, I'm not defending Alienware exactly, I recommend custom building to anyone who asks

ssddx · Jan 23, 2014

in most cases such bloatware actually slows down your pc. not such an advantage then is it?

i'm not sure why you keep defending alienware. (yes this is exactly what you seem to be doing)

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 23, 2014

ssddx :

I still strongly believe in just building a PC, but i was just saying that some people like extra software. For example, people who love their Samsung smartphones put up with stupid bloat all day, and I'm fully aware that bloat ware slows things down. I also only defend Alienware because I haven't heard any deal breaking reasons why someone with the money shouldn't buy from them, but at the same time I don't like Dell so I wouldn't buy one personally

jaykimf · Jan 23, 2014

ssddx :

No, I don't think it's true. To me, a gaming desktop is one that can be used for gaming. It doesn't have to be best for gaming at the exclusion of everything else. Just because it can do other things besides gaming well, doesn't mean it can't be used for gaming. Obviously you don't need a blue ray player for gaming, but does having Blue ray mean it can't be a gaming desktop? I think not. You seem hung up on the gaming desktop label. It is what it is. I'm sure you could easily configure a system that is optimized for your preferences and strip out all the features which you don't need or want. But what you would choose or prefer obviously might not match what I would choose.

ssddx · Jan 24, 2014

@jay

they branded it a gaming computer not me. therefore wouldnt you think it would be good at you know... gaming?

i wouldnt buy a broom to mop the floor so why would i buy a gaming pc not optimized for gaming?

the i7e and x79 is not a good fit for a $1500 gaming build. too much cash is used up which results in a weak gpu and limitations on the other components resulting in less than stellar performance for the money.

now... if you took the gaming moniker away how does it fare? better... as the i7e could be taken advantage of by such things as video editing, 3d modeling and photoshop however the lack of 16gb of ram is a limiting factor for those tasks as well. the weaker video card isnt as limiting in some tasks and in some cases is sufficient. its still a bad choice of parts for the money but its at least not terrible.

yes, i think we all know gaming computers can be used for other tasks and those other tasks may influence what parts we want. that is why i use an i7 not an i5 in mine and why i have a blueray drive and 2 dvd drives. some people may definitely want an i7e however if they want to play on any sort of decent graphics the gpu would need to be upgraded which means a higher budget hence my original point.

jaykimf · Jan 24, 2014

ssddx :

Are you suggesting that the GTX 680 is not good for gaming? It may not be the best bang for your buck, but as far as I know it's a very good card.

ssddx · Jan 24, 2014

you are right... it is not a terrible card... however, for a system that price you could be looking at a 780ti or sli 770

consider for a moment that the gtx680 goes for about $480-500 retail.
consider that the gtx770 goes for $340 at lowest, gtx 780ti at about $700, 290x at about $630 and 280x at about $420

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/11/27/battlefield-4-performance-analysis/3
both the 770 and 280 come ahead slightly for less money. granted this is just one benchmark but i think you see the point.

so to reitterate... yes you are correct its not a terrible card for gaming however for the same price as that build you could have far better.

i just think their choice of components is rather poor considering the price. they (dell) are also well known for using cheap components. i wouldnt be suprised to see a proprietary motherboard, slow timing ram, a budget level psu and other such lackluster components.

in any case... my three main gripes about alienware is that price per performance they arent that great, the upgrade prices are crazy and they use proprietary/low end parts wherever they can. if you can swallow all of that then i suppose its not a terrible pc. not as good as a few cyberpower or other branded computers but not terrible.

jaykimf · Jan 24, 2014

ssddx :

The 280x is about 1% better than the gtx680. http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=1860&gid2=576&compare=radeon-r9-280x-vs-geforce-gtx-680 The 770 is about 5% better. So substituting one of those in the OP's build suggests you could build a hardly any better PC for about 10% less than Alien's price. That doesn't see to unreasonable to me. I do agree that the prices they charge for upgrading are way out of line- if I wanted to upgrade I wouldn't pay those ridiculous prices either. Some of their configurations are quite bad for the price , some are reasonable. As far as the components they use, all I can say is that I have 4 Dell desktops- the oldest about 7 years old, and I have never had a single hardware or component failure or problem of any kind. If you wouldn't be surprised to see them use lackluster components, doesn't that mean you are assuming rather than actually knowing what they use?

ssddx · Jan 24, 2014

while definitely true that the gtx680 isnt too far behind the 280x and 770 its also at a higher price point as well. wouldnt it be smarter to go with a newer cheaper card at the same performance or better?

havent you ever popped off a side panel before? if not, you might be suprised what you find under there. even the alienwares leave alot to be desired when compared against the competition.

please note: just because they dont use top of the line hardware doesnt mean they are going to fail. it just means that for the price they are charging you are getting less performance or might have upgrade troubles in the future. one of my biggest gripes is the fact that they use proprietary motherboards. the second is the psus generally have almost zero headroom. while not ideal the system could theoretically run for 10 years without issue.

lackluster =/= unreliable. it just means that performance isnt the same as comparable parts for the budget level.

jaykimf · Jan 24, 2014

ssddx :

Of course it would be smarter to go with the cheaper card if you are building it yourself, but if the choice is going with what alienware has to offer or building it yourself so you can save $60 on the GPU, it's not too unreasonable to pay a little extra to save yourself all the time and effort. Anyway I'm sure Dell/alienware don't pay retail for their parts. It wouldn't surprise me if they get a much better price on the 680.

Have I ever popped the side panel off? As a matter of fact I once added 16 mgbs of ram to my pentium 133 pc. (it was only $100). And several times I have done some interior vacuuming. And a couple of weeks ago I actually installed a SSD. I'm not a tweaker and I don't especially think it would be fun to build my own PC. As for Dell's lackluster parts, I doubt I would be able to tell the difference if my lackluster dell RAM was replaced with whatever better ram.

jfkeenan · Jan 27, 2014

Alienware WAS an excellent PC builder for enthusiasts many years ago. Specifically, before they were bought by Dell. Now, the parts are cheap, outdated and many times NON-STANDARD/proprietary.

I have an Area51. I can't upgrade the PSU, the case is non-standard, the mobo is non-standard blah blah blah. I was very disappointed.

I paid extra ($$$) for premium alienware tech support too. I had trouble getting my GTX Titan working (insufficient amps) and called tech support. I got routed around and ended up with a tech who accent was thicker than Apu's from the Simsons. He that didn't know what he was talking about and the phone quality sucked (obviously a VoIP solution to India).

I resolved myself by using power connectors from two separate rails.

If you want a good machine build it yourself or use someone like Falcon Northwest or any other company that tells you exactly what components they use.

USAFRet · Jan 27, 2014

2 considerations:
specific parts for price
or
performance for price

Trying to get the exact same parts as an AW will be mostly the same price
But can you get the exact same (or better) performance, for less money? Yes you can.

TehCaucasianAsian · Jan 27, 2014

USAFRet :

I've said multiple times that I get that, you can build something better for the same price. my point that I've been trying to make is that with the EXACT SAME parts that Dell would use (whether they are lackluster or not) would cost more or less the same price to build on your own, and that it seemed a bit ridiculous to call that overpriced when viewed from that perspective. I completely understand how much better custom built computers are, I'm using my own custom rig as I type this message. I was just saying, the entire point of this thread, is that as an Alienware Aurora stands normally, it is not overpriced with what is by default inside of it.

realchaos · Jan 27, 2014

Except it's not. You can get the GTX 680 for $350, which is $150 than what you had in your build: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/galaxy-video-card-68nph6dt6exz
That's instantly heaps cheaper than Alienware with the same parts.
Also, what is inside the Alienware computer? They don't list the brands. Chances are that you're getting a shitty quality motherboard and psu right off the bat. So you're instantly getting a better quality motherboard and psu as well.

Aside from the component area, by building your own you gain knowledge of computers and potential ways to troubleshoot the components should something fail. This is a lot better than talking to their customer service and trying to figure out what's wrong, only to realize you've wasted a lot of time and have to send it in for repair.

Is Alienware really THAT bad??

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