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Registered Member #902
Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042
hey guys, I'm trying to choose a laptop for college
I have narrowed it down to either a Dell 15" XPS system or an Alienware M15x (yes, I know that Dell owns Alienware now but Alienware still operates most the same way they used to)
now, each system has similar specs (the alienware is somewhat better in that regard) but what I am mainly concerned about are the companies and the machines themselves.
I see each company has a set of die hard fans and critics, but it gets hard to sort through reviews when too many of them are based on things like software, price biasing, are too old to use towards modern machines, or are based on one bad experience that was not even put into context (e.g: one bad unit and the reviewer immediately returns the unit and gets something else rather than trying it again)
The main arguments I seem to find are that: -Alienware at least uses a rather standard set of parts, making repairs and upgrades easy whilst Dell uses entirely custom systems (and I know replacing parts in Dells to be difficult from experience). -In general, I see better reviews for Alienware's customer support shipping out a part next day air, while Dell is harder to deal with but I also see the exact opposite of this in places.
I also see extremely different opinions as to which performs better with similar hardware, but it is hard to tell which is accurate because few actually use a benchmark or state operation.
I plan to use my laptop as a part desktop replacement for a lot of things, from casual typing and surfing to 3D rendering/video editing to possibly some gaming
Any personal experiences with these laptops? Any good, reliable reviews not based on random use I can look at which aren't years old?
Registered Member #2463
Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546
Just some logistics. Might apply to you.
If you already have enrolled, and have a student number, some college bookstores offer deep discounts to students on a wide range of computers and software,
Registered Member #902
Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042
radiotech wrote ...
Just some logistics. Might apply to you.
If you already have enrolled, and have a student number, some college bookstores offer deep discounts to students on a wide range of computers and software,
yeah, they offer it for three laptop makers: Apple, HP (both heck no for me), and Dell - but I still worry myself about Dells, as I know how they are made and I have serviced Dell laptops before, and didn't like it. But they do have a good price, hence the problem I'm facing.
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choosing a laptop for College
