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Just bit the bullet and paid $1260 for a factory refurbished alienware m17x r2.
-i5 520m
-ati 5870m
-4gb ddr3
-1920x1200 screen
-250gb hard drive
-win7ultimate
-nebula red
When you add that stuff up on the site it will cost like $2460 after taxes. Then you can subtract the useless upgrades($150 win7 ult, $100 nebula red) and I still saved at least a $1000 from buying new.
An i5 520m is more than fast enough for what I plan to do, the 5870m performs like a desktop 5770, never need more than 4gbs, nice screen, and can always upgrade hard drive myself. I did do a decent amount of research and this is pretty damn good for the price.
Also note that factory reburished items are pretty much "tested" products that are pretty much guaranteed to work. Sure it isn't brand new, but if it looks new, performs exactly the same, has the same warranty, and has already been tested, who cares?
Good deal? Bad deal? Thoughts? And to those of you interested in buying a reburb, you can currently get 20% off all laptops use coupon code 9RJ5SV0QB$$GTM at http://www.dell.com/outlet. Some good deals if you look around and buy newer products only(r2 m11x, m15x, m17x, inspirons, etc). Coupon expires on the 10th.
  
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On September 07 2010 04:38 Chesner wrote:
Advertisement? ...
Looking for opinions if this was a good deal or not.. gotta explain it to the parents somehow LOL.
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On September 07 2010 04:38 Chesner wrote:
Advertisement? ...
It's really hard to convince myself it isn't an advertisement - the only argument being he has 600+ posts.
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Edit: oh, well, nevermind then.
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i always think alienware are terrible, and overpriced almost in the way macs are, and ugly. But i'm probably biased
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That seems like a pretty good deal but then again US prices for laptops are way cheaper than they are here, but I can say that refurbished is fine because my laptop is too and it runs fine, basically only the packaging is different
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On September 07 2010 04:44 Divinek wrote:
i always think alienware are terrible, and overpriced almost in the way macs are, and ugly. But i'm probably biased
But for over $1000 off new(nearly 50%), can't really complain too much can I D: But I do agree that both alienware and macs are overpriced. Not sure about terrible since the specs are all there..
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I'm going to have to say that nothing Alienware will ever be a good deal.
I made almost the same mistake about three years ago. Hell ensued. I would advice against any further dealing with Alienware (or anything Dell for that matter).
They are overpriced, you're paying extra for a glowing alien head on your case. Sure it's a decent computer, but if anything ever goes wrong (and something will), god speed to you.
Find someone to help you build a desktop if you can't build one yourself, or if you need to have a gaming laptop, I would strongly suggest extensively reading customer reviews, and generally defaulting to a more reliable company. So far, the only worth-while, well priced gaming laptops I've seen have been sold from Asus.
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On September 07 2010 05:02 LokitAK wrote:
I'm going to have to say that nothing Alienware will ever be a good deal.
I made almost the same mistake about three years ago. Hell ensued. I would advice against any further dealing with Alienware (or anything Dell for that matter).
They are overpriced, you're paying extra for a glowing alien head on your case. Sure it's a decent computer, but if anything ever goes wrong (and something will), god speed to you.
Find someone to help you build a desktop if you can't build one yourself, or if you need to have a gaming laptop, I would strongly suggest extensively reading customer reviews, and generally defaulting to a more reliable company. So far, the only worth-while, well priced gaming laptops I've seen have been sold from Asus.
I get the overpriced part, an I 100% agree with it, but did you read the part where I paid over $1k less than new? O_o
I have decent computer knowledge and already have my own built desktop(i7 920, 6gb ridgebacks, cyclone 1gb 460, gigabyte ud3r, 850hx, h50).
I bought an Asus G73 when they were dirt cheap and sold it since I didn't really like the looks/shape of it(performance was awesome). The G73 was a great laptop for it's price but I feel I paid too much for unessential stock parts(i7 720qm, 8gb of ram). Resold it for easy profit, it was backordered like crazy when it first came out haha.
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Bet you, you could get someone to build that computer and the price of the parts minus the shiny case would be under a grand.
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That's a laptop good luck building it
I don't like refurbished computers in general I have enough problems with new hardware but congrats
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Why the shit would you buy a gaming LAPTOP?
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But for over $1000 off new(nearly 50%), can't really complain too much can I D: But I do agree that both alienware and macs are overpriced. Not sure about terrible since the specs are all there..
I get the overpriced part, an I 100% agree with it, but did you read the part where I paid over $1k less than new? O_o
Look, it is clear that you are convinced that the purchase was justifiable and you probably won't change your mind. Instead of wasting your time convincing others that your $1000-off laptop is so cool, how about you spend more time using it? Either your parents are very easy going and will accept a rather weak reason to spend all that money, or your parents are going to be very disappointed in you. Asking around here will not help you.
It is a well held consensus on these forums that laptops are bad for gaming and that Alienware laptops are even worst. I have no clue why you would buy an inferior laptop when you already have a desktop. Don't tell me why you did it because I am 90% sure you are going to say something like "I like to game on the go" or something as trivial as that, and no, I believe your purchase is 100% unjustifiable for all the reasons already stated.
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I still wouldn't touch Alienware with a 10 foot pole. Maybe I'm just unlucky.
Gather 'round children, it's story time.
A few years back I bought some model of the Area-51 laptop. I was just a stupid kid (I'm still just a stupid kid, but at least I know more than I did then), and I thought Alien Ware was cool, and I heard they made good laptops. Most likely from their own advertisements. I did absolutely no research on this laptop, or production company.
First, there was some issue with the delivery that they never specified, and it took a month for the computer to arrive. It arrived with a broken DVD drive.
First, I tried to call their tech support. The account information they sent me in their stupid leather binder was, of course, somebody else's, and we had to go through a whole big process to find out what mine was.
Eventually, I actually spoke to their tech support (india), who had no Idea what they were doing. They suggested that maybe I had accidentally broken it taking it out of the box.
What? Seriously? Two Things: Never suggest that somebody calling tech support is at fault without knowing what happened, and second, if your disk drive can break from being taken out of a box, I don't want to know how fragile the rest of the computer is.
So they mailed me the disk drive, I installed the new one myself and was "good to go".
For about a week. Then the graphics card shorted. Another 5 hours on the phone with India, where they again tried to repeatedly tell me it was my fault (it wasn't), and eventually come to the genius solution of --- you guessed it, mail me a new graphics card for me to fix it myself.
So, graphics card fixed, I'm good to go. For a few months. The keyboard decides to not work one morning when I turn it on. Calling tech support they say "Your warranty doesn't cover accidents". I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean. Perhaps they though I had spilled something (I hadn't).
In fury, I hang up the phone, take out the keyboard and fiddle around with it, put some parts back together with thermal paste, and we're good to go again-ish. Unfortunately, the following keys never worked:
' [ ] - = \
I had to learn the Alt. codes for those characters in order to type things, such as Essays for school. Admittedly, after this, I didn't run in to a problem for about a year. About two weeks after my warranty dies, the MOTHERBOARD fries. Call them up, sit in tech support, they mail me some replacement parts just to find out what's wrong. Eventually, after 3 months of mailing me parts and having me mail them back, they agree with me that the motherboard has fried.
Replacement motherboards are expensive, and I was tired of Dell and Alienware. I borrowed my GRANDMA's Dell Inspiron (Yes, it's still Dell, but at least it worked). Needless to say, It couldn't run AIM and Firefox at the same time, but I needed something to do my school work on. After about 5 or 6 months, I scrounged together enough money for an HP Mini 311, a netbook that has proven to be a great asset in college.
This past summer, I built my own desktop, similar to the one you specified, actually. Of course, it's a desktop, so it would be cheaper than a laptop, but it is easily four times better than the area 51, and managed to be 1/3rd the cost. Just in time for Starcraft II <3.
And that is why I don't suggest Alienware. Again, maybe I'm just unlucky, but their horrendous customer support and poor management and production quality sure as hell didn't help much.
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On September 07 2010 05:25 LokitAK wrote:
I still wouldn't touch Alienware with a 10 foot pole. Maybe I'm just unlucky.
Gather 'round children, it's story time.
A few years back I bought some model of the Area-51 laptop. I was just a stupid kid (I'm still just a stupid kid, but at least I know more than I did then), and I thought Alien Ware was cool, and I heard they made good laptops. Most likely from their own advertisements. I did absolutely no research on this laptop, or production company.
First, there was some issue with the delivery that they never specified, and it took a month for the computer to arrive. It arrived with a broken DVD drive.
First, I tried to call their tech support. The account information they sent me in their stupid leather binder was, of course, somebody else's, and we had to go through a whole big process to find out what mine was.
Eventually, I actually spoke to their tech support (india), who had no Idea what they were doing. They suggested that maybe I had accidentally broken it taking it out of the box.
What? Seriously? Two Things: Never suggest that somebody calling tech support is at fault without knowing what happened, and second, if your disk drive can break from being taken out of a box, I don't want to know how fragile the rest of the computer is.
So they mailed me the disk drive, I installed the new one myself and was "good to go".
For about a week. Then the graphics card shorted. Another 5 hours on the phone with India, where they again tried to repeatedly tell me it was my fault (it wasn't), and eventually come to the genius solution of --- you guessed it, mail me a new graphics card for me to fix it myself.
So, graphics card fixed, I'm good to go. For a few months. The keyboard decides to not work one morning when I turn it on. Calling tech support they say "Your warranty doesn't cover accidents". I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean. Perhaps they though I had spilled something (I hadn't).
In fury, I hang up the phone, take out the keyboard and fiddle around with it, put some parts back together with thermal paste, and we're good to go again-ish. Unfortunately, the following keys never worked:
' [ ] - = \
I had to learn the Alt. codes for those characters in order to type things, such as Essays for school. Admittedly, after this, I didn't run in to a problem for about a year. About two weeks after my warranty dies, the MOTHERBOARD fries. Call them up, sit in tech support, they mail me some replacement parts just to find out what's wrong. Eventually, after 3 months of mailing me parts and having me mail them back, they agree with me that the motherboard has fried.
Replacement motherboards are expensive, and I was tired of Dell and Alienware. I borrowed my GRANDMA's Dell Inspiron (Yes, it's still Dell, but at least it worked). Needless to say, It couldn't run AIM and Firefox at the same time, but I needed something to do my school work on. After about 5 or 6 months, I scrounged together enough money for an HP Mini 311, a netbook that has proven to be a great asset in college.
This past summer, I built my own desktop, similar to the one you specified, actually. Of course, it's a desktop, so it would be cheaper than a laptop, but it is easily four times better than the area 51, and managed to be 1/3rd the cost. Just in time for Starcraft II <3.
And that is why I don't suggest Alienware. Again, maybe I'm just unlucky, but their horrendous customer support and poor management and production quality sure as hell didn't help much.
Hmm, I always thought Dell had good customer support since they are such a huge company. This does worry me a bit since I have a "1 year limited" warranty D: The support process you had to go through makes me cringe.
On September 07 2010 05:24 vindKtiv wrote:Show nested quote +But for over $1000 off new(nearly 50%), can't really complain too much can I D: But I do agree that both alienware and macs are overpriced. Not sure about terrible since the specs are all there.. Show nested quote +I get the overpriced part, an I 100% agree with it, but did you read the part where I paid over $1k less than new? O_o Look, it is clear that you are convinced that the purchase was justifiable and you probably won't change your mind. Instead of wasting your time convincing others that your $1000-off laptop is so cool, how about you spend more time using it? Either your parents are very easy going and will accept a rather weak reason to spend all that money, or your parents are going to be very disappointed in you. Asking around here will not help you. It is a well held consensus on these forums that laptops are bad for gaming and that Alienware laptops are even worst. I have no clue why you would buy an inferior laptop when you already have a desktop. Don't tell me why you did it because I am 90% sure you are going to say something like "I like to game on the go" or something as trivial as that, and no, I believe your purchase is 100% unjustifiable for all the reasons already stated.
$1260 isn't too much money(for what I am going to use it for, pretty much everything) seeing as how I am going to college anyways and needed some sort of mobile computing. Much better than all the kids getting $2000+ macbookpros these days, not to mention this is my own money through working, rather than my parents.
I do agree that laptops in general are bad for gaming, but really all you need is a screen, keyboard, and mouse with the specs that can support the games. I am not justifying my purchase, seeing as how I already made a craigslist ad to sell it just to see how many people are interested in case I want to resell for no profit if I am unsatisfied(which is what I did with the Asus G73). I am just trying to say that I got a good deal and wondered what others thought/if they would have done the same. I guess that's a pretty big fat no haha.
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If you have a desktop with you, then all you really want to for mobile computing is a netbook, at least that's what my college experience taught me.
If not, AW is overrated and overpriced, even if you "saved" the money.
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AW stopped being worth the extra money when Dell bought them. The only reason to get them back in the day was because of the fact that they would support not only the computer but any game you tried to run on it. I would suggest checking out these guys. http://www.ibuypower.com/
They have a labor day sale happening right now too it seems.
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Osaka27139 Posts
On September 07 2010 05:23 sob3k wrote:
Why the shit would you buy a gaming LAPTOP?
I have gamed on a laptop for 7 years. For some people, it fits their space / lifestyle. Who are you to judge?
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On September 07 2010 05:55 Manifesto7 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2010 05:23 sob3k wrote:
Why the shit would you buy a gaming LAPTOP? I have gamed on a laptop for 7 years. For some people, it fits their space / lifestyle. Who are you to judge?
My brother had a gaming laptop for 3 years. It cost him a bit more, but still less than two computers, and he needed to have one he could carry around with him. When he was home, he rigged it up with a normal screen, keyboard, mouse, sound and used it like any normal computer.
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Awesome deal, I bought an M11X a few months back and it works flawlessly.
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On September 07 2010 05:59 Excludos wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2010 05:55 Manifesto7 wrote:On September 07 2010 05:23 sob3k wrote:
Why the shit would you buy a gaming LAPTOP? I have gamed on a laptop for 7 years. For some people, it fits their space / lifestyle. Who are you to judge? My brother had a gaming laptop for 3 years. It cost him a bit more, but still less than two computers, and he needed to have one he could carry around with him. When he was home, he rigged it up with a normal screen, keyboard, mouse, sound and used it like any normal computer.
I guess it depends what you buy. My gaming laptop cost significantly more than my netbook and desktop combined.
I think with tax and shipping, it evened out to around 2000 dollars. My netbook was $450, and my desktop was difficult to keep track of since I collected parts on sale for about a year, but I think it came around to around $800 or $900.
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My ASUS G73 Gaming laptop ended up around under 2G's.
I'm a satisfied customer, an for some reason its less bulky than the Alienware's.
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On September 07 2010 06:29 zZygote wrote:
My ASUS G73 Gaming laptop ended up around under 2G's.
I'm a satisfied customer, an for some reason its less bulky than the Alienware's.
It is a great laptop but I didn't like the huge vents and the looks at all really, plus mine had a dead pixel so I had to get rid of it 
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On September 07 2010 04:36 superbabosheki wrote:
saved at least a $1000 from buying new.
Too bad Alienwares are usually more than $1000 extra for the brand!
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On September 07 2010 04:42 superbabosheki wrote:Looking for opinions if this was a good deal or not.. gotta explain it to the parents somehow LOL.
Explain it to the parents? So you didn't buy it with your money?
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On September 07 2010 04:36 superbabosheki wrote:
Sure it isn't brand new, but if it looks new, performs exactly the same, has the same warranty, and has already been tested, who cares?
Shorter longevity is the general issue.
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pretty good deal though i try stayin away from refurbished computers/laptops seeing they were either returned for a problem/malfunction or were damaged and returned.
about a month ago i bought a lenovo y560 with an 1.6ghz i7, radeon 5730m, 4gb ram, 500gb hd for $849. It was probably the best deal I could get for a laptop for that price with those specs.
This laptop is really strong and i recommend to others as it isn't a "gaming" laptop but it can handle lots of 1-2 yr old games on med/high settings easy.
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On September 07 2010 13:27 Sadistx wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2010 04:42 superbabosheki wrote:On September 07 2010 04:38 Chesner wrote:
Advertisement? ... Looking for opinions if this was a good deal or not.. gotta explain it to the parents somehow LOL. Explain it to the parents? So you didn't buy it with your money?
My money, but asian parents don't really like the idea of an 18 year old buying electronics rather than textbooks.
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On September 07 2010 06:29 zZygote wrote:
My ASUS G73 Gaming laptop ended up around under 2G's.
I'm a satisfied customer, an for some reason its less bulky than the Alienware's.
I was REALLYLYYYYYY close to buying an Alienware M11x or M15x or the Asus G73 last week.
I studied all 3 intensely and to be honesty... they all have their ups and downs.
(To the OP) For the price you paid, it's good compared to the retail price but it's refurbished and I'm not really into those things. But hey, maybe you'll get a lot of life out of it, who knows.
Anyway. I didn't end up getting a laptop. Not because they suck but because I wanted a very specific laptop that just didn't exist in today's market. Maybe in 4-5 years, it'll come out.
I was looking for something smaller than 15inches. Smaller... not 15 but smaller. So 11-14 would have been awesome. I wanted a decent processor and a good GPU which the M11x didn't have in my opinion. So that left me with the M15x and the Asus G73 but they were huge and heavy as shit. About 10lbs. That's nothing really but I wanted it to be portable. I wanted to walk with ease around my campus without cramping my back since I would've been carrying other stuff like books.
The big ones I just mentioned are obviously meant to just be desktop replacements but still..
I hope one day, they'll be able to put all that powerful shit into a smaller laptop that is LIGHT, portable, is quiet and cool and weighs less than 4lbs.
That would be my dream laptop and I would gladly "overpay" for it.
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I think its a pretty good deal, should last you quite a few years.
Just make sure to take care of the laptop, most aren't meant for continuous gaming.
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Bought a Dell M13X before they started putting alienware on them, works like a charm, i like dell, their support is great.
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I think buying a refurb laptop is a nightmare waiting to happen.
I am fundamentally opposed to gaming laptops in general since they are large, bulky monsters that are more expensive and less reliable than a desktop, while performing worse.
So I can not endorse your decision to buy this. You could probably build a comparable desktop with a larger monitor for $300 less
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On September 07 2010 22:22 floor exercise wrote:
I think buying a refurb laptop is a nightmare waiting to happen.
I am fundamentally opposed to gaming laptops in general since they are large, bulky monsters that are more expensive and less reliable than a desktop, while performing worse.
So I can not endorse your decision to buy this. You could probably build a comparable desktop with a larger monitor for $300 less
Lol $300 no. A 5770 alone is about $130 for cheap versions, up to about $180 for the hawks. You would need a cpu, mobo, psu, hdd, disk drive, monitor, and case. Oh and a legitimate version of Windows 7 will also be over $100. I'd say at least $700-$800 is needed to match this laptops performance including a 1080/1200 monitor, if you don't skimp on parts.
I buy almost all of my electronics reburb/used, same performance for a significantly cheaper price and it's going to get out dated in a year anyways. My desktop has an open box 460, a used i7 920/mobo, a craigslisted h50, reburd mouse, dented box keyboard, craigslisted haf 922, the rest of it is new, basically very little of it(psu, hdd). Performs just like it would if all the parts are brand new, and I can resell them for nearly the same value I paid for since I paid so little in the first place($180 for i7, $120 for ud3r, $155 for 1gb gtx 460, $40 for h50, $40 for 922).
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For around the same price you can get a better Asus G73 i7 gaming laptop.
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On September 07 2010 05:23 sob3k wrote:
Why the shit would you buy a gaming LAPTOP?
Because some of us do other things than game and need a laptop. I have an ASUS laptop and it is great. Runs SC2 perfectly fine. <3 it.
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Even though you got it like 50% off, it's still not good for its price. I would expect to pay $800 for brand new laptop with those specs.
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On September 08 2010 03:20 superbabosheki wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2010 22:22 floor exercise wrote:
I think buying a refurb laptop is a nightmare waiting to happen.
I am fundamentally opposed to gaming laptops in general since they are large, bulky monsters that are more expensive and less reliable than a desktop, while performing worse.
So I can not endorse your decision to buy this. You could probably build a comparable desktop with a larger monitor for $300 less Lol $300 no. A 5770 alone is about $130 for cheap versions, up to about $180 for the hawks. You would need a cpu, mobo, psu, hdd, disk drive, monitor, and case. Oh and a legitimate version of Windows 7 will also be over $100. I'd say at least $700-$800 is needed to match this laptops performance including a 1080/1200 monitor, if you don't skimp on parts. I buy almost all of my electronics reburb/used, same performance for a significantly cheaper price and it's going to get out dated in a year anyways. My desktop has an open box 460, a used i7 920/mobo, a craigslisted h50, reburd mouse, dented box keyboard, craigslisted haf 922, the rest of it is new, basically very little of it(psu, hdd). Performs just like it would if all the parts are brand new, and I can resell them for nearly the same value I paid for since I paid so little in the first place($180 for i7, $120 for ud3r, $155 for 1gb gtx 460, $40 for h50, $40 for 922).
He said $300 less, not at $300.
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M17x is not even considered a laptop. It's a freaking portable desktop. Literally.
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Not a terrible deal for an Alienware refurb, but for $1,260 you could’ve built a far more powerful and upgradable system with used enterprise gear like a ProLiant DL360 https://serverorbit.com/pc-and-servers/proliant-dl360/6-core-2-53ghz-xeon (6 Core 2.53GHz Xeon). Here’s the comparison:
Your M17x R2 (2010):
Pros: Portable, "gaming" aesthetic, 1080p screen
Cons: Outdated GPU (5870M struggles with modern titles), non-upgradable CPU, DDR3 bottleneck
DL360 Alternative:
CPU: 6-core Xeon (2.53GHz) + hyperthreading = better multitasking
Upgrades: Slap in a used GTX 1650 (~
120
)
+
S
S
D
f
o
r
∗
∗
120)+SSDfor∗∗ 400 total**
Performance: Handles esports at 100+ FPS (vs. 5870M’s ~30 FPS in modern games)
Future-Proof: Supports DDR4 (with adapter), PCIe 3.0
The DL360 lacks portability, but for a desktop replacement, it’s a smarter performance-per-dollar play. That said, if you needed a laptop, the M17x is still a decent nostalgia piece—just temper expectations for 2024 gaming.
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EPT
