Need help on deciding.

General thread.

I need help deciding on either keeping my alienware, or selling it and buying an ASUS instead.
I use my laptop for everything pretty much. Gaming, photoshop, illustrator, general school work, facebook, netflix, hulu, the general things.

My alienware M18x is an old model, the R1 with nice specs, but its a bit bulky. The new ASUS G75VX is a bit more slim and has a better cooling system.

Here are the specs for both:
Alienware M18x:

Spoiler

1 Alienware M18x Space Black Anodized Aluminum
1 Intel Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
1 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
1 Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter
1 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED
1 Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M - AMD CrossFireX
1 1.5TB RAID 0, 2x 750GB, 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
1 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
1 Roxio Creator Starter
1 Internal High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio with SoundBlaster MB Software
1 Intel Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology
1 Bluetooth 3.0

ASUS G75VX:

Spoiler

ASUS G75VX-DS72
- FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen w/ 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - X1R565)
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee - (Included on ASUS Standard NON-Upgraded Displays)
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3630QM (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – X2X317)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds) (XPC Service)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 670MX 3,072MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (SKU – X5X523)
- No Copper Cooling Upgrade
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-444P] (Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB SODIMMS)) – Default
- Standard Laptop Finish
- No Afterburner Light Package (Afterburner light package will add 2-5 business days to production time)
- Flame Red Backlit Keyboard Modification (XPC Service)
- 256GB Internal Solid State Drive (SATA III 6/Gbps) - Default (SKU - X5R414)
- 1,000GB (1TB) 5400RPM (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) (SKU - X5R351)
- Disable Raid and Set up Hard Drives as Independant Drives
- 6X Blu-Ray Reader + 8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - X7X560)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth 4.0 (SKU – X8R012)
- No Network Accessory
- Internal 3-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- WINDOWS 8 - 64-Bit (Pre-Installed + Drivers & Utilities Disk)
- Keep factory installed operating system
- No thanks, do not create backup recovery DVD's
- None
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- No Back Up Software
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 1 Year ASUS GLOBAL OEM Warranty 24/7 Support / 1 Year North America (N.A.) Accidental Coverage (Accidental Requires Registration) (SKU - A9R101)
- No Certificate & Binder
- * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based telephone technical support
* Extreme QA testing by dedicated technicians
* 72 Hour stress testing and benchmarking to ensure top performance and stability
- Standard Production Time
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No Xotic PC Gear

(copied and pasted, sorry if its long.)

My question is, should I part ways with my AW M18X R1 and buy an ASUS, or keep the AW M18X and forget about the ASUS? Which laptop is better in your opinion?

Thank you in advance.

 

I recently had a similar dilemma. The only difference was what to spend my money on. Asus or Alienware. I, too use my laptop for everything, and i travel a lot ( new city every 15 days ), so i had to think about the size, comfort and portability.

In the end of the day after doing a huge amount of research i stopped on M18X ,because of the build quality. It is simply SUPERIOR.

Today i was checking a few laptops in a store and after the quality i am now used to, everything else seems cheap. The Aluminium chassis and the quality of the keyboard, palmrest and every small detail of the M18X is simply high end.

I sound like a salesman ( i am ) ,but i would never turn to anything else anymore. I used to be a big fanboy of "Republic of Gamers" ( sounds fking amazing ), but in the end of the day build quality wins.

Yes, it is bulky and heavy, but you should appreciate that. Atleast i do


I hope i give some insight of why i chose Alienware and i would always stick with it.

 

Asus laptops are lame and unreliable. If I were you I would keep the M18x and upgrade it if you want more performance. You can upgrade CPU and GPUs and melt the face of that Asus without a lot of effort. Your M18x might actually outperform it already, even with its aging hardware specs. The M18x is just a much better built machine no matter how you look at it, including build quality. I can almost guarantee the Asus does not have a better cooling system.

If you want it just because it is new and don't care a great deal about performance and quality, that's different. If you rationalize that it is a better product and have the bar raised as high as your M18x on quality and performance, chances are you will regret the purchase.

Asus warranty support is pretty terrible, so consider that as well.

@Zo0r7y - I have to agree with you. After owning the M17x R2 and M18x all other laptops that I own or use seem like garbage in comparison. Once the bar on expectations is raised to a certain point, nothing else is good enough.

 

Aside from the excellent reasons Mr. Fox listed the warranty is among the most important. Remember that technology sooner or later fails, (it's not a matter of if but when it'll happen) and you better have your back covered. As of now Alienware offers a warranty that's unmatched in the market for similar products. That alone should give you enough reason to discard other options such as Asus. Besides, where else on the net are you going to find a tech-savvy, good looking, and ready to help brotherhood like ours?

 

Yeah, I could just purchase better parts. My warrenty is gone, is it possible to renew and if so how much?

And where's the best place to purchase some parts? i'd prob. want to upgrade my video card, get a SSD to replace one of the HDs and my cpu

 

GPUs + CPU + SSD (and maybe heat-sink too since you're at it) sounds like an excellent plan, and you'll be stunned by the (desktop-like) performance boost you'll experience. I'd definitely renew the warranty as well--that's critical. The best place where to ask is this forum, actually. PM one of the reps that are here (Luis for example) and ask for some quotations.

Remember, owning and upgrading a computer like the M18x is like an investment that will reward you at the present (performance) and in the future (piece of mind warranty + upgrade capabilities).

 

understandable.

what are some places, besides newegg where i can get all that? ill consider just buying upgradeable parts.

 

Try asking one of the AW/Dell reps that are here in this forum. Try Luis, shoot him a PM or email and ask for some prices. I'm sure he' be glad to help you out.

 

IMHO, your m18x is already better then that asus laptop.
The asus has a better cpu (but not by much) but weaker 3d performance.

I'd get better gpu (single 680m or 7970m would be a small/medium upgrade or if you can go for SLI/crossfire it would be much better!) and a SSD drive.
You could also get a 2920/2960xm cpu if you need more cpu power. But that 2720qm would still get the job done if you cant do both vga and cpu (maybe add the XM later ...)

 

Luis? Alright I'll give him a PM. Thanks!

 

Or, better yet, sign up for Dell EPP mailing list and get coupons if you are patient...They just had a 10 20 or 30% off coupon which worked on Alienware as well. I was able to push the discount to about 26% since they had some bundles which had a fixed price off, but held off since I wanted the 30% coupon which I wasn't lucky enough to get...There's also the next gen coming in a few months which made me pause more...

With high discounts, Alienware can be potentially lower priced than anything else configured similarly so don't let price defer you from Alienware (ALL ASSUMING you are patient)...They do have sales and some of the reps here can get you 15-20% off regularly...


I've been here since the M18x R1 and still

 

joecait, you need to pull the trigger buddy. We don't know what tomorrow holds in store for us yet. If there is not an M18x R3 you might seriously regret waiting. If a smaller, lighter, plastic, single-GPU Alienware flagship is released in lieu of an epic beast of equal or greater brutality as the M18x, (should a tragedy of that magnitude occur,) even with next gen processors it won't qualify as a beast. That ain't gonna cut it at all for a true performance enthusiast. Hopefully that will not happen, but waiting for something better might be a risky affair. Ending up with no option but accepting a machine that represents a compromise in performance and quality would suck as long as you have been waiting for the right window of opportunity.

 

Sounds like you have made your decision to upgrade instead of buying new. Let me just throw some input here. My GF has an Asus G73 laptop. When we first got it it was awesome, i offered her an Alienware and she opted for the Asus because of size. I bought my m18x shortly after and it has similar specs to yours except i have the dual 6990m in mine.

Anyway, her computer lasted JUST until the warranty expired lol and then hell started to break lose. Screen pixels go out we pay for replacement then 6 months later (this past September) her computer starts messing up a lot, i reformated the computer and installed all new drivers and cleaned everything up really nice but we were still having some random crashes and issues, after looking on Asus' website we decide to flash the BIOS... now i have flashed a TON of bios in my life lol so i go to the asus site, type in her serial number and it brings up all available downloads for her comp (much like dell) i choose the bios and download their "EZFLASH" utility with the latest bios.. Its so simple not like the old days of using Floppy drives you simply follow on screen instructions... I followed them down to the LETTER and the flash bricked her mother board. I contacted support and they said "We consider flashing your bios to be an advanced form of repair on your computer and do not recommend our customers to do this" My response was obviously "Why have an "EZFlash" and why offer it on your website right next to video drivers?" I got a very canned response again. Long story short i send the comp in and pay 200 bucks for a new mobo and hard drive, i get the comp back a month later and we turn it on, it lasted 1 hour before shutting itself off and when turned back on showed a black screen and nothing else, we call and send it back this time the repair is under warranty since we just sent it in a month earlier. I got it back again a month later and it lasted less than a week before doing the same thing, we didnt install anything other than quickbooks and WoW on the computer so again we sent it back this time it took 2 months to get the computer back (just got it today actually) and it looks like they had to replace most everything inside the system.

What i learned from this is A.) You cant trust Asus at all, not until i threatened them with the BBB did they finally actually fix the computer. B.) the Asus laptops are incredibly unreliable and C.) i have fallen that much more in love with my m18x. Last week we ordered my GF an Alienware x-51 desktop so we have something reliable instead of that asus laptop for her. She starts vet-school in the fall.

This is just my personal experience but i will never own another Asus computer, their mobos may be fine but their laptops are horrible (imo)

 

Preach-it, Preachah! Great example, asims33... thanks for sharing that.

 

Just sent Luis a private message, hopefully he has time to respond back.

 

well, this convinced me greatly, because its from experience. thank you!

 

Atleast if you have brought up an Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM with an 680m due to size and havin' a good performance because of the powerful 680m outperforming the dual AMD cards, I would have said okay because of the size and the slide improve in performance. But common, Asus? It's a joke for people that have never heard of Alienware / Clevo / Sager. If I was you, I would have never brought this up. Just enjoy your machine, because as it is its more powerful then the system you are comparing with. There is no reason to give up on what you have because you want something new and useless... Hope you do not mind my direct answers

 

I respect your blunt response, no hard feelings, thats what I was looking for haha.

I am keeping my M18x R1, im just asking about upgrades now and how much it'd all cost.

It'll cost way less than a brand new ASUS that's easy haha.

 

If you'd like to keep things affordable, I suggest going with dual 7970ms and a 2960XM with triple pipe heatsink... it'll mop the floor with 99.9% of laptops out there and cost you less than a grand. The 7970m drivers have improved exponentially from their earlier, glitch-heavy versions, and they're on par with 680ms on stock clocks.

If you don't mind spending several hundred more, then go for a couple 680ms. They've got all the performance of 7970ms, but with better overclocking potential and driver stability. If you can spring for the $1k-1.2k for the 680ms, you won't regret it. They're incredible cards.

 

No problem man glad i could help you avoid some future hassle.

 

How much would dual 7970ms and a 2960XM with triple pipe heatsink cost? Ill consider buying.

 

I'm not sure about the 2960xm (probably $300-400?) but the triple pipe is only $20 from Dell. The 7970ms will be $350-400 each, so I guess it would cost over a grand to upgrade, but you could easily recoup $500 from selling your 6990ms and current CPU. It won't be cheap, but it'll cost less than getting a brand new laptop and it'll give you world-class performance for a laptop.

 

Im fine w/ all that. How about a renew of the warrenty? After that I should be all good Thank you!

 

Glad to help. I'm not sure about renewing the warranty, though I'm afraid it might be pricey. I know that you can upgrade for cheap if the system is less than a month old (I upgraded mine from 2 to 4 years shortly after buying, it came out to a little over $300, and I used a $250 rebate card from Dell to get it down to under a hundred bucks.) Perhaps there are online deals or coupons you could use towards a warranty upgrade, and I'm sure you could find a rep that would give an additional discount. They will offer you a $75 dollar gift card off the bat, but I would definitely try to get a discount beyond the gift card.

I hate to complicate things, but another option would be upgrading to a new M18x. I got mine (specs in my sig, with the 4 year warranty) for $3100 total, which is a steal imo. I'm not sure how much used r1s go for on the used market, but I imagine you could recoup around half the cost of a new system by selling your current setup. I'm not sure if that would be a more cost-effective solution or not; I guess it depends on how much the total cost of upgrading would be including the renewing the warranty.

Either way, I highly recommend upgrading. You've got a great setup as-is, but you'll be amazed by the difference the new GPUs will make

 

Based on my experience with 7970M CF, I cannot recommend that product to anyone with a clear conscience. Chances are it would turn out fine, but there is a chance that it might not. I only mention it so you make a decision with both eyes wide open and know there is a risk involved taking the cheaper route to an upgrade. There have been a number of us that had very bad experiences with them. But, things have definitely gotten better with drivers in the past few months. If you are not interested in overclocking and just want something inexpensive that is twice as powerful than 6990M CF, then I also would not go out of my way to discourage them. If you are not finding your 6990M CF to be lacking in performance, GPUs might be an upgrade to skip for now. The 2960XM CPU upgrade alone might be enough to get you by until 6990M CF is incapable of handling the kind of gaming you do. If you are neither an avid gamer nor bencher, there may not be a good reason to upgrade anything other than maybe adding more memory and/or SSD for a little more pep. Considering that you would be downgrading performance with the Asus you asked for feedback about, maybe holding with what you have makes good sense.

 

Im fine with the R1 unless the R2 has some adjustments that are useful. If not, upgrading the R1 is top priority.

 

For now, im mostly focused on getting an SSD and another 1TB HDD to replace both my HDDs. the CPU is next, then last is GPU.

 

What were you thinking in the your first post. Switching from an Alienware to an Asus. Come on!
Glad the guys slapped some sence in to you!

All fun aside, good luck upgrading.
I truly believe if you had switched, the overall quality and basically everything you now were used to and took for normal with your Alienware, would have really disappoint you with an ASUS.

 

A lot of my friends in my college have ASUS, and im the only one with an Alienware. It's just them telling me to inquire about it.

 

Let some of your friends play on your Alienware sometime... they will be converted too lol

 

I think Alienware build is superior to the Asus. Plus sexyyy

 

It makes sense that you'd inquire and don't rush any decision, you're showing common sense. However, since your friends own Asus they might not have an idea of what an M18X can do. Not to mentioned, once again, that AW warranty is unmatched in the market. Don't think that we're just a bunch of fun boys. There is a reason why we preferred AW to other products. I'm sure you have had a chance to realize that several members of this forum are technically savvy, competent users, and aware consumers who decided to buy an Alienware simply because, as of now, the M18X is the best product in the mobile gaming notebooks category you can find. You get performance, warranty, community, and technical support all in one package. That's why so many decide to make an investment and opt for an M18X instead of a cheaper and mediocre product.

 

I have had the Alienware M18X for a year and 2 months now. It's my first gaming laptop and I spent alot of money purchasing it and then upgrading it. I could have bought a desktop twice its power but its such a great laptop in reliability and build quality (not to mention that amazing screen) that I have never looked back. Get a kick from pushing that alien head to power on the laptop.

 

Mr. Fox is right! I have been an M18X owner since June 2011 and I can honestly say that Dell stands behind their product. I have been through 5 iterations (technically 6 if you count a few "parts only service" replacements I did myself) of the M18X. Each time Dell wanted to make things right. The sense of community on this forum along with Dell's cooperation have helped iron out many issues for us Alienware owners; look at the countless number of threads and judge for yourself. Take this recent post for example. I seriously doubt ASUS can compare in build quality, warranty and support.

Yes, I am pleased to hear that RRei will be re-absorbed back into "the hive'... don't think of leaving "the collective" ever again!

 

nah I won't be leaving any time soon. I myself have been an owner of my M18x since June 2011 and it looks like ill be sticking with it. I'll just be upgrading a few parts that's all.