14 inch laptops.....

[Burtie21]

I've decided that a laptop would be a great deal of help with my studies, so I went online and "built" a few just to guage the prices. Now as far as I'm concerned I have to decide between a Dell and Alienware.

I've heard that alienware is very good but slightly over priced, wereas dell has pretty reasonable prices but include alot of bloatware and is generally not held in very high regards amoung the enthusiast community.

So here is my question, would an alienware notebook be better than a dell notebook despite having 512 megs less ram? I'm not sure if the bloatware tradeoff is worth having more ram....lol who knows maybe the bloatware uses the whole 512 extra.

Anyways, any response would be greatly appreciated
Thanks, Graeme

 

[phisrow]

I'd go for the extra RAM. "Bloatware" is a software problem. A couple hours of reinstalling Windows when you get the machine can solve it more or less permanently. Lack of RAM starts to cost money to fix.

Now, if the build quality is substantially different, that is another matter; but I wouldn't let mere software problems stand in your way.

 

[Aarondeep]

Well ram is very easy to upgrade on your own especially in a laptop. Ever think about looking into an Asus or MSI notebook?

 

[Burtie21]

No I hadn't thought about those brands, but id like to keep it under 1500 canadian w/ tax and shipping included, do you think I'd be able to get one for that price? And suppose I did get the dell and reinstalled windows, would I still get battery management software? Also does anyone know if the alienware build quality is better than that of the dells?

Thanks again, Graeme

 

[abhong]

Originally posted by: Burtie21
I've heard that alienware is very good but slightly over priced, wereas dell has pretty reasonable prices but include alot of bloatware and is generally not held in very high regards amoung the enthusiast community.

Burtie21, i too was looking at Alienware, to be honest, willing to pay more out of owning a cool looking "boutique" system as long as the insides were the same/similar setup.
After doing some research in various forums, i saw that Alienware does have the a lot of angry peoples. Their score was not so high on resellerratings.com.
i did find one forum that raves about alienware but it kinda sounded too good to be true.
Plus there are folks who are suspicious about it.

Of course, there are satisfied folks with Alienware. My brother has one. He bought it on my statement that it looks cool. He got his with missing locking latches and parts but he did not voice tremendous dissatisfaction.
His main problem was that it was late. I think his anxiety and expectation did more damage than Alienware...

Furthermore, i too am in the distribution/wholesale/retail business. Not computers but garmetns. In my experience, a majority of satisfied customers tend to stay quiet and just go about their lives. A minority of dissatisfied customers make the loudest noise...

I am not saying that Alienware is bad or not to buy it but do your research well.
My opinion and YOUR decision...

As for me, i decided to get a Voodoo Envy u709 (later when the notebook comes in, i got to explain the concept of mid life crisis to my Korean wife...)

 

[Burtie21]

Haha ok well thanks for the help

 

[HamSupLo]

check out notebookreview.com and notebookforums.com for more info on Asus laptops. There's a list there of canadian resellers for Asus.

 

[ericlala]

^ya if you pay a little more for an asus, you should not be disappointed

 

[spdfreak]

Does anyone know of a 14in laptop that has high end graphics- or at least something better than the integrated stuff on most of them? I have a emachine 6810 now, and I want something smaller and lighter but in the same class for power and graphics.

 

[scottish144]

laptoplogic.com