Alienware

[Corporal Bill]

Hello my fellow escapists.

Do any of you own an Alienware PC?

I am going to purchase one when i'm sixteen, the Aurora to be precise and i'm wondering whats the difference between games for windows disc's and just regular PC-CD or DVD ROMS

And also can you sorta upload games on disc to Steam to play online. Like Left For Dead 2 for example.

Answer away friends

EDIT: Also if you have an Alienware Aurora please tell me what you think of it and how it performs

 

[Radeonx]

I'd highly suggest NOT getting an Alienware. They are incredibly overpriced. It's much easier to just get a custom made computer, or build your own.

And yeah, you can upload disc games to Steam, but you need a product code to be able to play online, I think.[footnote]Not 100% sure on this.[/footnote]

 

[Destal]

They tend to overheat pretty badly, the towers are probably better than the laptops though. You can build a significantly beefier computer yourself for far cheaper than an alienware though.

 

[Buizel91]

I don't own one (but ooooh how i would love to) but i have seen some Alienware stuff.

Seen a Alienware Laptop and i nearly Jizzed.

Saw a Alienware PC and i nearly fainted at the Specs

But meh, looks like in stuck with a stupid Packard Bell which sounds like a Dinosaur when i turn it on. (no joke)

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I will third or fourth or whatever it's up to now that Alienware is and always has been very overpriced. If you have the money and just want to show off, go nuts, but if you're just looking for a good/fast computer, you can do just as well for less.

Some games that are on Steam will let you install from the retail version or link your SN to your Steam account. All Valve games will, and a handful of third-party ones will. Most other games will not (but there's a list of the ones that will somewhere on the Steam support site that I'm too lazy to get find a link for), but you can still add them to your Steam game list and launch them from there, though, even though they won't be officially linked to your account or automatically update or anything.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

As said above, they are overpriced for their specs. Yes, you do get a nice looking tower with all kinds of flashy lights and what not, but do you really NEED that?!
I was thinking about buying one a while back, but saw a PC with almost the same specs for 300 euro's cheaper (flashy tower not included) so that choice was soon made.
If you can build your own computer, it is a lot cheaper. It isn't very hard to do and you can find a lot of info about it on the internet.

 

[Bob_F_It]

I don't own an Alienware rig; I found that by hand-crafting this one myself, I can get the exact specs that I need and not sacrifice a whole car for it. Alienware is awfully convenient in that you know it'll work and you have someone to complain to when it doesn't, but it's not the cheapest choice.

Games for Windows vs not? I don't see a difference. I guess it just means that microsoft vetted how the game would work on Windows and convinced the developer to make it break on macs.

Steam. It's not that you upload games to it, you download them. Getting L4D2 on disc is just to avoid having to download a 6GB game before being able to play it. Your copy of L4D2 will still be licensed and limited to your Steam account. You can stick shortcuts to your games from Steam, which is only good for getting the game overlay to work and tell your friends that you're busy playing WoW or whatever it is.

 

[DazZ.]

Why do you want an Alienware? They're incredibly overpriced and you're only paying for the brand name.
Build it yourself and save a lot of money and get the satisfaction of building your own machine.

What do you mean the difference between "Games for windows" disks? They haven't got special disks... that's just a game brand thing meaning it (sometimes) uses Windows Live software.

You can't upload games to Steam unless you're Valve.
If you buy a Valve game or a game that requires Steam in retail form you need to link the cd key to a Steam account. There are a few games you can do that with that don't require Steam as well, but very few.

 

[Corporal Bill]

You can stick shortcuts to your games from Steam, which is only good for getting the game overlay to work and tell your friends that you're busy playing WoW or whatever it is.

I will never play WoW lol

 

[Corporal Bill]

I don't own one, no. I don't like pre-built PC's, too expensive. Really man, I'd just build it yourself, if you have the time, because it's much cheaper.

Sorry about that. Had to get it out.

Anyway, Games For Windows disks are exactly the same, the game just uses Games for Windows live. The disks will work exactly the same as normal ones.

Also, yes, if you have a disc copy of a steam game, it'll install from disk. Although it might need to download updates.

I'm getting one since I'm going to get a job at McDonalds since theyre always hiring to pay for it. I would build one but myself but i'm afraid I kniw nothing of PC's.I'm from a console/Laptop backround so I don't know about PC's.I only really want one for the mods and stuff you can do too games.

I think you meant to put that there.

Anyway, it's actually remarkably simple to build your own PC. All you need is a basic toolkit, something you can use to earth yourself so you don't dispel static electricity (touching the copper pipe at the bottom of a radiator every 20 minutes works fine, although anti-static wristbands are the best), a flat surface, and a working internet connection and something to check online with. There's millions of guides for pretty much every PC setup imaginable, and it shouldn't take even someone who's never done it before more than 5 hours.

Meant to put what where?

 

[blankedboy]

I don't like pre-built PC's, too expensive. Really man, I'd just build it yourself, if you have the time, because it's much cheaper.

Why does everyone say this is the reason they hate Alienware? You can get custom-built Alienware computers for a significantly lower price.

Yeesh.

 

[megs1120]

My brother had an Alienware laptop that was nothing but trouble. The DVD drive never latched right, randomly refused to read discs, the computer overheated constantly, he had issues with the hard drive, the USB ports died one by one and, unable to get any assistance from Alienware, he eventually murdered it with a hammer.

After that, he got a laptop from Cyberpower gaming laptop based on my recommendation and hasn't had any trouble with it, as far as I know.

The best thing you could do is build your own computer, but if you don't want to or can't do that, Cyberpower has treated me well in the past and their prices aren't bad.

Your best bet, if you've got your heart set on an Alienware is to do what you're doing and ask around. They might have improved over the last few years.

 

[megs1120]

I don't like pre-built PC's, too expensive. Really man, I'd just build it yourself, if you have the time, because it's much cheaper.

Why does everyone say this is the reason they hate Alienware? You can get custom-built Alienware computers for a significantly lower price.

Yeesh.

Building your own computer is hardcore and everybody wants to be hardcore, right?

 

[DazZ.]

I don't like pre-built PC's, too expensive. Really man, I'd just build it yourself, if you have the time, because it's much cheaper.

Why does everyone say this is the reason they hate Alienware? You can get custom-built Alienware computers for a significantly lower price.

Yeesh.

Building your own computer is hardcore and everybody wants to be hardcore, right?

It's hardly hardcore, building your own components is hardcore, being a cheapskate isn't.

 

[VampSmiley]

I will admit to owning an Alienware M17x. So far I have been impressed by it. Yes it is on the expensive side, but I had to look into it because financing options for laptops seem rare, and most of the other pre-built laptops didn't seem to have the features I wanted.

 

[migo]

If you're going to go prebuilt, Falcon-NW is the way to go, since they are primarily a custom builder, their stock models are just default configs that they have going.

Puget Systems is also really good, as they know what they're doing.