Alien DIED again...that's it...i think i'm off the Alien wagon

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[pad11]

Good lord this is ridiculous...now i have to replace my hard drives...holy crap.  Well, I don't think there's ANY way I'm waiting for the m17x, let alone spending 6 grand on it.  A comparable dell XPS comes in a grand less and i can order it NOW.  And who knows if it'll break or not but I've had ZERO luck w/ this current alien...and I swear I don't abuse my machine.

Worst part?  Lost all three of my IR starts!

Looks like it's me and my work dell for a while!

GAR!

pat!

[MaxBeta]

  OoohhhNoooo!!  pat!!..that's just awful... what an aggravation to have happen at such an inopportune time.   

I do hope you can get by on your backup.   I have (a gift from my Sis) a Dell lappie (Dell XPS M1710)  ..it seems to be OK, so long as I don't use it for long extended periods of time playing intense games.  Heck..it came with a warning to this affect.    also suggested not playing with any maxed settings to conserve battery life, and causing permanent hardware damage.  I just chalked up all this to warranty rhetoric and..a sneaky way of avoiding out and out abuse.  It runs hot..even if I don't max all the settings..<sheesh>   The real killer here..is... didn't Dell takeover Alienware..?  If so..then what's to keep us from thinking that the legendary Alien gamer ..toughness is lost forever. 

On this last ordeal..did you have any warning..or did it go down in a flames all at once?  So is it something out of the warranty coverage.. or normal wear and tear failure within the component life expectancy range? 

I'm really sad for you pat!! ..you are such a great player..and person.  You certainly don't deserve this type of grief.   Gar!..from me too   

[pad11]

It's still under warranty, they've already shipped new hard drives and i'll put them in on friday....the issue is rebuilding SUCKS.  I'm playing on my Latitude D620, which allows me to play with settings mid-high w/ NO AA or AS, which is fine w/ me for now and what I'll do on the road for work anyway.

I'm looking at a Sager 9262 built by XoticPC.  Pricey but uses a QuadCore processor...pretty damn powerful and future ready.

That's what I'm thinking...the only issue is its a Clevo motherboard/frame, which is the same as my current 7700...but the Clevo frame has been a workhorse over the years w/ few problems....so i think i'm okay w/ it.

As soon as XoticPC says they're shipping w/ the 8800mGTX in SLI, I may pull the trigger!!!

later,
pat!

[MaxBeta]

 

....the issue is rebuilding SUCKS. 

yeah..no kidding it certainly does.. especially when the time could be spent racking up another blazing IR score... 

One thing I've done..and way back on my old Toshiba lappie..I had something called hMonitor ..a heat checking utility.  I've put HDD Monitor of my Dell.. plus the 8800 Nvidias have Smart Control Utility “ExperToo" or something.. which monitors the GPU and actually clocks it down when temps go over a preset threshold. 

I'm not sure how good any of these are.. I don't run any of my PCs maxed out.. as I know it just shortens the working life out of the components sooner than I'm willing to replace them.  Kind of like tires..you know if you drive hard and fast like at the Indy 500 ..you won't get the 80,000 miles out of those tires.   

It's an age old paradox..with little relief.  Great games looks so nice when the best quality settings are in use.  For those of us you play frequently with long and intense sessions, not many PC's of ANY configuration..lappie or Desktop escapes the brutal demand.  Over time the toll has to be paid.. my personal demands have diminished, but I have gained some ground even using the more relaxed settings..  so not an entirely hopeless situation.   

I'm looking at a Sager 9262 built by XoticPC

What is these guys Track record... and how far into your Swiss Bank account do they want assess to... hehe   

[pad11]

oh they want a chunk of $$$ for sure...but they sell a sager full warranty, which is nice...tomorrow i'll post the specs of what i'm thinking about...

thanks max, you're always a good shoulder to cry upon!!!

later,
pat!

[Sandra]

Oh Pat, my commiserations also, you haven't had the Alien long either!! this is a real shame
Double GAR from me.

[pad11]

Thanks for the sympathy GARs!  It's always helpful to know that there are folks out there talking like a pirate with me!

Okay, so here's what I'm looking at from XoticPC.  I won't post the final price as its flat-out embarassing but it is IN LINE w/ other models of this nature and in the end may be a bit less expensive than the Alien.  WHAT IT LACKS?  The cache of owning an Alien; the sleek design; the lighted keyboard; the lighting options; the cache of owning an Alien and; most importantly; the cache of owning an Alien...it makes me a bit sad, it honestly does, but I'm just bummed.

Model: Sager 9262 (uses Clevo D900C/D901C motherboard)

Display: 17" WUXGA Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200 native reso)

Color: Arctic Silver

Exterior Finish: Custum Skins and Paint Job (I'm spending a bit here to personalize this thing to take the sting out of not buying an Alien -- if I chicken out, I can save a bit by NOT doing this)

Dead Pixel Policy: Standard 30 day

Processor: Intel Core 2 QUAD Q6700 2.66 GHz w/ 8MB L2 Cache - 1066 MHz FSB (they offered a Dual Core at 2.93 GHz but it was $400 more, only a dual core and only a 4MB cache)

Video Cards: SLI Enabled DUAL PCI-Express nVidia GEForce 8800M GTX (1042 MB Total) w GDDR3 DX10 Video Cards (User Uprgadeable!)

RAM: 4,096 MB DDR2 800 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory

Optical Drive: Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/ Software (I don't need a blue ray on my lappy, although its only another $400 to get it).

Primary Hard Drive: 200GB 7200 RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 -- 16 MB Cache)

Secondary Hard Drive: 200GB 7200 RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 -- 16 MB Cache)

Third Hard Drive: 200GB 7200 RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 -- 16 MB Cache)

Raid: Raid 0-Stripe

2.5" SATA Enclosure and Back-Up: USB 2.0 SATA Aluminum Enclosure + 1600 GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive (I need to get into the habit of backing up my saves!)

Memory Card Reader: Internal 7 in 1 card reader

Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR

Wireless: Built In Intel PRO-Wireless 4965 802.11 a/g/n

Camera: Built in 2.0 megapixel Camera

TV Tuner: Built in Multi-regional TV Tuner w/ Remote (Express Card MCE Remote and Receiver)

Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi 7.1 Xtreme Audio Notebook Express Card (plus the internal one as standard)

Speakers: Integrated System Speakers

Case: Tripp Lite Corporate To-Load Black Leather Notebook Case

Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery

AC Adapter: Extra Power Brick

Fingerprint Reader: None (only $80, but I worry about it going fudgy)

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 32/64 Bit Edition w/ Drivers and Utilities CD (MUST REQUEST DUAL BOOT W/ XP, willing to pay extra for that although our tech folks can do it too for free, so maybe I'll hold off)

Warranty: Sager 3 Year Part and Warranty w/ Lifetime 24/7 Customer Support.


whew...well, whaddya think?  I think power wise it rivals (or maybe because it's quad core and future ready) surpasses the m17x.

later,
pat!

[MaxBeta]

   Wooweee!!! pat!! All that packed into a lappie..amazing isn't it?

The hardware you've listed looks like as high end as one can expect at the present time.  The warranty looks acceptable.. so will this type of competition make Aliens do them one better..hard to say.  I think Alien rode the wave of their reputation for quite awhile.. and things just caught up with them.  No doubt they had the top spot longer than most.. so I truly understand your close attachment and have much empathy for you.

I guess if the price is in the range of what you were looking at in the first place.. that it is just a matter of taking the leap into another realm of high end laptops.. 

Since you use lappies as your primary box for all things game wise.. you'll put in the time to test the units endurance range.  Whereas I use my lappie for incidental play when away from home... big difference on expectations and wear and tear factors.

I hope you have something soon that will fill your playing needs...  life is much too short to have nothing to do..but go around "GAR'ing" everything in sight..   

[pad11]

HA!  Gar, indeed! 

Thanks max,

What XoticPC will do is ship the system NOW w/ the second video card disabled (because it won't work in SLi mode just yet) and when nVidia releases the official drivers, they'll send out a User installable upgrade to make it accessible...there's a beta driver out now that Dell uses but I'll wait until nVidia releases theres...but I am thinking of buying now (soon, maybe monday) even without the SLi, because I'll have the second card and essentially be waiting for the driver to install it...

it IS indeed a sweet machine, is it not?  I mean, damn, quad core in a lappy!

So far XoticPC's user rating for customer service is over 90%, beats AW's 50% pretty well!

later,
pat!

[City Builder]

Okay, let me try to be the voice of reason in this techological madhouse of a world that we live in, plus being a real life warranty administrator (though obviously for automobiles and not computers)...

These are mechanical items, they break.

There now that the voice of reason has spoken I'll only add the following...

No matter what brand name you purchase it's the warranty that you are purchasing really.  If this Sagar whatever (Ive not heard of them before so as you can see I don't keep up on this stuff anymore) has a better warranty and better price and better specs then go for it.  However if the new Alien has a comparable warranty and comparable specs and a nice enticing price then go for it.  Either one has the chance of breaking with some hardware in it, theres just no avoiding it.

I bought a toaster oven  (Black and Decker which is a good brand) and it was broken right out of the box, I returned the oven of course under warranty since it was new and grabbed another of the same make and model and it has worked flawlessly for over 3 years now.

Other cases in point.  We have a 2007 Honda Accord come into the dealer and the water pump has gone out, but for every Accord that has a water pump go out on the same year and model there are hundreds if not thousands that don't have the problem.  But they have the warranty there to back up their product.

Hard drives that get used substantially are more likely to go out and break then those that don't.  I had my Maxtor personal backup hard drive call it quits on me just last week and I spent the entire night pulling data off of it one file at a time, then unplugging it then plugging it back in again to get it to respond.  Now some folks will say that Maxtor is junk, and others will say that they've never had a problem with it.  But my warranty was expired so I was out of luck.  Point I guess being that it's really the luck of the draw, and I would have to imagine that for every Alien that has a problem(s) such as what Pat has experienced there are probably hundreds or thousands that have not.  Luck of the draw really.

I swore off Compaq's about 10 or more years ago and when HP took them over I still didn't look at them, but I did buy an HP laptop a few years ago and it still runs strong today though it's not a gaming laptop by anymeans with it's weak ATi x200 video card but it's been solid, however my dads HP desktop had the power supply go out on him within the first 90 days, Luck of the draw?  I think so.

Good luck in which ever you decide to buy Pat, we all know that it's not much fun when our primary computing device takes a dive on us.  I wish you well, and I only hope that you think of reason and that you purchase what makes you happy.  If you buy this brand that I've not heard of and that makes you happy and you have no regrets down the line where you think "I should have spent the extra $$$ and bought the alien"  then that's great, so long as you are satisfied then that's all that matters just remember to fully investigate the brands and see what others say about problems they've had and how the company has dealt with them.