Alienware Area51 - a great gaming PC
Written: Jan 18 '03 (Updated Jul 01 '03)
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Pros: Very FAST gaming computer
Latest hardware- very customizable
Looks cool- custom colors
24/7 tech support
Cons: Somewhat expensive
Technical glitch right out of the box
Cooling fans are somewhat noisy
The Bottom Line: I've only had my computer for over two weeks, but so far I can say I highly recommend it to PC gamers who want the latest & greatest gaming PC.
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| craig100's Full Review: Alienware Area-51 Pentim 4 Desktop Computers |
Here is my experience with purchasing an Alienware Area51 computer:
ORDERING/GETTING PC: I ordered the PC on 12/4/02 and received it on 1/3/03 via Fed Ex. Customer service was very helpful when I ordered the PC. I made some follow-up modifications to the order (power supply, speakers) of which they happily took. When I received the computer, everything arrived in great condition. They did however send me the wrong speakers (I had modified my original order with customer service). Customer service had no record of the change and refused to offer to rectify the situation. They said I could however return them minus a 15% restocking fee, but I decided to keep them. (Anyone ordering an Alienware computer should note down the name of the person and the date/time you speak with someone in customer service. They supposedly keep log books in case of a problem like this. I wish I had known that before I ordered.) Aside from that, everything was exactly what I ordered.
SETTING UP THE PC: First off, Alienware packs in a nice binder with all of the system specs and testing results which is a nice touch. (What stood out was the test results for Quake III 311.9 Frames per second. Wow!) Setting up the PC was fairly easy. Most cords were color coded. The speakers were tricky since there were 3 plugs for the 5.1 surround system. The keyboard is nice with various special buttons to access Internet Explorer, read mail, etc. Once connected, computer booted up fine. One of the first things I noticed however was that the sound was choppy/skipping. When I contacted tech support, I found this was a just discovered issue caused by interference between the Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz processor and the Audigy 2 sound card. (Having the latest hardware installed is not alway a good thing!) They advised me to fix it by moving the sound card from the slot it was in to the PCI slot furthest from the video card. That solved the problem (good thing I am somewhat technically inclined or I probably would have had to return the computer to have this done). I was disappointed that Alienware did not catch this glitch prior to shipping the computer as they supposedly have a rigorous 200-point quality control process. Aside from that one issue, the rest of the setup went flawlessly. Note that the PC tower itself is full-size unlike the mini-tower I had on my last Dell PC. I have to keep it on a side desk for now because my computer stand doesn't have enough room. Since Alienware offers about 9 different PC colors, I chose the "space black" color. Everything is color-coordinated quite nicely. Even the mouse is customized with a shiny black surface. Overall this is a very sharp looking computer.
RUNNING THE PC: Once setup, operating the PC is simple, just turn the power and speakers on and Windows XP loads up quickly. The PC is extremely fast and runs games beautifully (Playing FS2002, Max Payne, Hitman 2, GTA3, Rallisport Challenge. All run great on the Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card.) I haven't gotten a good night sleep since I got this computer since I'm usually up late playing all these awesome games. For the monitor, I chose the NEC MultiSync FE991sb which I find offers a beautiful picture at 1024x768 resolution, however the controls are a bit confusing to operate. The buttons trigger an on-screen menu which is not very user-friendly. Minor quibble though considering the good price for this monitor (about $260)Alienware also puts several fans in the computer case to keep the components cool. These fans are a bit on the noisy side but it's worth it to prevent anything from overheating.
TECH SUPPORT: So far I've had to call tech support twice. Both times I got through within about 5 minutes and they helped resolve my issues. Very happy with support so far.
Update as-of July 1, 2003:
The PC was running great for first 4 1/2 months. Then in mid-May, experienced a major system failure where the computer would not boot. Tech support could not resolve issue on the phone so they ordered two onsite tech visits. These did not solve the problem, so they had me ship it back to their location (at their expense) and they replaced the motherboard which solved the problem.
The positive is that Alienware did what they specified they would do in the warranty (deliver onsite service and repair at their expense if needed).
The negative is that it took a long time to get it fixed. It takes them about 3-5 days to send out a replacement part and then 3 days for FedEx to the onsite technician. Also, if the PC needs to be sent back (which it did in my case), it takes them 10-15 days for their technicians to fix it and re-test it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
craig100
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Reviews written: 1
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