eXPerience said:
Good for gamers .... with lots of money ! =)
eXp
Yes, Alienware does build good systems, but you definitely pay a premium for the hardware. Their support is pretty good though.
I owned an Alienware many years ago. I don't know if they still do this, but part of the 'service' they would provide is to strip the OS of un-needed fluff to streamline your system towards gaming. Apparently one of the things they deemed necessary was dial-up networking.
(Told you this was many years ago)
So I called tech-support to complain that out-of-the-box, this system could not connect to the internet. (So much for quality control xx-point testing...) Attempts to re-install dial-up networking failed, (they apparently
really streamlined the OS...) so the only option the tech had was to reinstall Windows fresh from the OS CD. (The backup provided was obviously flawed as it had no networking installed) I wasn't very happy about this, as part of the reason I went with an Alienware system was for their 'streamlining'. The tech apparently had no idea what I was talking about, as they were outsourced and just general Windows tech support people. So my initial experience with the company was less than happy.
However, after owning the system for about 4 years, and after it was out of warranty, it stopped POSTing. After a few unsuccessful calls to tech support with various troubleshooting methods, I was doing some research and found that the mobo my system had a flawed chipset that was known to cause the exact issue I was experiencing. When I called and mentioned this, they told me to send the system in.
I wasn't expecting much because the system was out of warranty, but since it was built with the faulty mobo, they considered that to be covered.
So, they replaced the mobo, and in doing so, replaced and in fact, upgraded(!) my processor, RAM, modem, and HD! Basically everything except the case, free of charge! (They even paid shipping)
So I went from a somewhat hopelessly out of date 4 year old system, to a brand new system, that while not quite top of the line, was definitely competitive to current systems, and considerably better than what I had initially purchased! I was more than pleased with this.
So while I've never purchased another Alienware, I do feel they really stand behind the product they produce.