If your looking at the Alienware. Pay the $50 more for the current offering. much better processor graphics Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M in SLI. for about the same $ OOOOH it does not have a failure prone raid 0 but you will have open drive bays to put in a SSD for real performance.
the one here would be worth it for about $1500. Or just get a HP ENVY 17t-j100 fully loaded with the same specs for $1550
Is there any documentation available for exactly what these laptop manufacturers mean by “refurbished”? Are these 2 y/o laptops that have come off lease and have new plastic bezels? Meanwhile they have 2 y/o hard drives, keyboards, etc? Or are these DOA units that are still new and were repaired and resold? Obviously a big difference between those two.
I agree (on the HP) but for the price of this laptop, I would expect a blue ray and a MUCH better hard drive. First thing to go would be the 5200rpm drives. Really? I’d settle for 1 hybrid drive (or two) and pay the extra. It’s like putting a 4cyl engine in a Jeep Rubicon. pass
Going to weigh in here. I will NEVER EVER buy another Alienware! I bought the Area 51 17 inch with the cool Ripley case several years back. Left hinge broke, the upper case just slowly fell apart, and I BABY my laptops. Customer service did nothing for me, and I was resigned to it’s loss. The upper part was no longer available to buy. It couldn’t be fixed.
But I loved the multi color lit keyboard and the fact that it could play all my games, so about a year and a half ago I bought another one, the M14x. Knowing what happened to the 17 I was even more careful this time around. The laptop almost never traveled with me, just stayed on my lap at home. 4 months ago I’m sitting on the couch, I open the laptop just like always, and I hear a grating crunch and snapping sound. THE LEFT HINGE BROKE!!! I dealt with Dell customer service, and they deny that there is a issue, that it was MY fault. Even though their M11x had the same problem and they agreed to fix it after 100’s of complaints.
GOOGLE alienware left hinge (or hinge ) problem and see the myriad of complaints.
And stay away!
i just returned Asus S550CARF-ESI5T20 . after having it for 3 days the edge to edge glass gave away from the adhesive holding it to the bezel.
there was then a 2mm size gap between the screen and bezel and the touch functionality stopped working.
the display’s color reproduction was terrible and washed out.
the hard drive also was occasionally loud for being so “new/refurbished”
[QUOTE=carlcampbelljr, post:2, topic:402033]
If your looking at the Alienware. Pay the $50 more for the current offering. much better processor graphics Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M in SLI. for about the same $ OOOOH it does not have a failure prone raid 0 but you will have open drive bays to put in a SSD for real performance.
the one here would be worth it for about $1500. Or just get a HP ENVY 17t-j100 fully loaded with the same specs for $1550
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You’re only speaking from a gaming perspective where you want milliseconds of extra speed for your teams or whatever you do. Instead of knocking 1 laptop on here can you help out with other things like which laptops are good for the average person, are well priced and worth purchasing? It appears you know a lot about computers in general or is it just gaming items? Thanks.
I got a refubbed M18X similar to the current offering, replaced the factory HDD with a RAID 0 pair of 240GB SATA6 SSDs. It starts fast. I run StarCraft 2 in max. I also have a frame to mount the old HDD in the optical bay (and an external DVD-RW drive). Haven’t done that yet, though.
I’m not sure I would RAID 0 spinning hard drives; faster to replace one with a big SSD. Also, might be worth it to upgrade Windows to Pro so you can experience all 32GB installable of RAM.
A note to those doing RAID 0 for speed; it's more prone to failure. I back up to a RAID 1 NAS every now and again.
I bought my first Alienware machine about 5 years ago, and I have a 2 year old one sitting here right now. Neither one has had an issue with the hinges. The build quality on these machines is quite good. The only issue I’ve had in 5 years is the older one has a dodgy USB port. I abused the heck out of that thing, though. Lots and lots of travel.
I wouldn’t spend the money for a top of the line Alienware, but the mid range laptops are great for the price. Yeah, they’re expensive, but they work and they work well. Plus, the design and some of the extra lights promotes our sense of ostentation.
Good gaming laptops are hard to come by and I’ve never been disappointed with this brand.
Desktops, however… If you are able to, piece the stuff out yourself and put it together. You’ll save gobs of cash (as usual).
The ASUS VivoBook S400CA-RSI5T18 is the exact same price on Amazon (http://goo.gl/DqieYa), new, with free Prime shipping. At $380 - $400 it would be a deal, but not like this.
M18X is a good laptop, that’s what I use. Price is decent, I paid a lot more for the dual 7970 a year ago.
Also have an Alienware laptop here. Got it last Christmas. I had never heard of this ‘left hinge’ problem, but it makes sense since mine is also broken even though I pay particular attention to care for my laptop. It is just cracked and doesn’t seem to affect the ability to open and close it at all.
The alienware is kind of absurd at 12 pounds and 17 by 13 inches. It will never fit in most bags, or even a reasonably sized backpack. Besides that even the 12 cell battery is only going to power this thing for 90 minutes of gaming. Maybe they should bundle it with a wheelbarrow and a small generator? 
If you’re really interested in buying a top end laptop, head over to Sager @ http://www.sagernotebook.com/
Most of the “custom” laptops on the market are Sager built and rebranded. For the same $1,999 you can customize one of their 9300 series, no tax, no shipping, and best of all no incredibly tacky alienware laptop…
[QUOTE=thecorrectline, post:14, topic:402033]
Besides that even the 12 cell battery is only going to power this thing for 90 minutes of gaming.
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I seriously hope no one buying an 18’’ gaming laptop will be expecting to use it unplugged.
[QUOTE=LordBling, post:15, topic:402033]
I seriously hope no one buying an 18’’ gaming laptop will be expecting to use it unplugged.
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Or traveling with it any further than the nearest LAN party.
[QUOTE=thecorrectline, post:14, topic:402033]
The alienware is kind of absurd at 12 pounds and 17 by 13 inches. It will never fit in most bags, or even a reasonably sized backpack. Besides that even the 12 cell battery is only going to power this thing for 90 minutes of gaming. Maybe they should bundle it with a wheelbarrow and a small generator?
If you’re really interested in buying a top end laptop, head over to Sager @ http://www.sagernotebook.com/
Most of the “custom” laptops on the market are Sager built and rebranded. For the same $1,999 you can customize one of their 9300 series, no tax, no shipping, and best of all no incredibly tacky alienware laptop…
[/quote]
There’s also Digital Storm. 5 year warranty included during their Black Friday sale.
MSi Makes those same keybords but designed by Steelseries. I have a GT60. No complaints here. take a look, audio is SPDIF (optical) if you need that fix too
Have an alienware too. Got mine 2.5 years ago. Great machine, but when I had some problems with the video cards, I took advantage of the upgraded warranty I purchased- you get to speak to Americans, with accidental damage protection. That is the way to go, as dealing with “standard” service often leads to a lot of frustration with incompetent customer reps. I really like the new 2013 AW models, my 2011 AW was replaced when the “depot” really messed it up and although the new ones have a some of disadvantages with the overhaul, the new look is a lot less flashy and noticeable in a public place if you turn the lights on it off.
Edit: note: the one being sold seems to be a 2012 model, with the 3rd gen “old” style
Are you serious? I am not buying a factory reconditioned anything. It has already been broken once. If the “Factory did not make it right the first time, what could possibly make you think they could do it right the second time and get me to but it?” This especially goes out to HP and Dell who make nothing but junk. Lets get serious folks! And speaking of interminable shipping delays, where the hell is my Kaloric Meat Slicer I ordered over 30 days ago Woot? I am tired of excuses from you. I want the product I paid for! You guys are owned by Amazon but yet not held to the same quality standards. I am a huge Amazon buyer and an Amazon Seller. Amazon needs to step up to the plate and make you guys do your job. Am I pissed off? Yea, I hate shitty service and you “WOOT Guy’s” need to do a better job of taking care of your customers. If I did as good a job as you guys do I would be kicked off of eBay and Amazon. Have something to say, contact me!