The truth about both Alienware and Voodoo laptops and also Widow PC is that they are no different than many other brands on the market today. All laptops are built by the same three or four companies in Taiwan. In the past Alienware purchased and re-labeled a great laptop manufactured by a company called Clevo At some point Alienware made the huge mistake of dropping Clevo and going with a company called Uniwill. Uniwill produces a cheap laptop. Not just in price but also in quality. This was a mistake of huge proportions for Alienware. Their quest for an even greater margin of profit has lead to quality control and support problems that still plague the once elite company. Now in an attempt to get back some of its lost reputation they have reintegrated some of the laptops made by Clevo. Sadly Alienware is still trying to stretch it bottom line by not always offering he internal components that best suit the machine. For example. Alienware and M-Tech offered the same base machine, each machine was capable of handling 533MHz RAM and each machine could if built that way hold SATA hard drives (at first, since our article they have caved and started offering these at a huge premium). To make the price seem less extreme, Alienware would not offer the 533MHz RAM nor would SATA be an option. Yes the laptop was a great laptop, that is why M-Tech offered it under their product line. However, to not offer the items that would really unleash the power of the machine, just to save money, is not very smart. Of course now this issue is old news but it does represent the true level of commitment they do or do not have.
Why then is Alienware perceived as being "All That"? Frankly, as everyone knows, looks sell. Lets face it, Alienware takes the same, exact laptop and makes it look HOT.
To achieve the cool look that Alienware is noted for, Alienware takes the laptop and strips it down, spray paints it or modifies it in some other way and reassembles it. While this makes the laptop look very nice, it does have some negative effects on you and the laptop itself.
First: The paint job costs a lot of extra money. Money you pay, for nothing other than a cool paint job. No extra benefits, no custom look that separates you from someone else, just a laptop that screams out "look at me I look like all those other expensive Alienware laptops, steal me when my owner is not around".
Second: By choosing to strip down and paint the entire laptop, the warranty from Clevo and Uniwill to Alienware is voided. This of course is bad news to the consumer. If anything ever happens to Alienware as a company you will not have the ability to get Uniwill or Clevo to cover the laptop for warranted repairs. (No, we are not in anyway saying Alienware is in danger of going under. We have no idea of what their financial standing is.) As a side note, when M-Tech applies your unique custom laptop look, we only paint the lid so disassembly is not required.
Third: We believe you should not tear down a laptop any more than is absolutely necessary. Every time your strip down a laptop you stress the laptop chassis. This increases the chance that a mistake will happen in reassembly. If it isn't broke, don't fix it! Especially if the laptop is a Uniwill based machine or now the low qaulity machine DELL has insisted on adding to the Alienware lineup.. They just are not built well enough (in our opinion) to withstand this abuse.
Fourth: All this modifications add weeks to the time it takes you to get your laptop from Alienware and now that DELL owns Alienware you also get the benefit of talking to someone in India rather than were you live.
You do the math. Is this the laptop you want to pay twice the price for? Essentially the same story holds true for Voodoo laptops and Hypersonic laptops as well.
Instead of paying twice the price for a laptop of questionable quality, try looking at the MTECH D900C, MTECH M590K and the MTECH M570U these three laptops easily match and outperform the Alienware laptops and cost you half the price. In fact the newest laptop that M-TECH is just now offering is the MTECH D900C. This laptop easily outperforms all other laptops and most desktops made today. If you want the worlds fastest laptop choose the MTECH D900 Series. The D900 series is the same as the Alienware but with far better quality prices and a significantly shorter delivery time. In fact if you want a AMD based laptop and call the Midwest regional office at AMD, they refer you to M-Tech Laptops. David Makin of AMD and ATI (he also writes for Toms hardware), says that he M-Tech laptop "is the only game in town".
If you prefer a 20" laptop with SLI video then please review the MTECH M590K. In the past PC Magazine said the MTECH 870P (now retired) was the fastest laptop they have tested to date. It beat all other laptops, it even beat all the AMD 64 laptops. If that 870P was tested against today's M590K, M570U or the D900T, the D900 series they would cleanly beat the 870P on performance. That is how fast the current lineup of laptop is with M-Tech. They beat the fastest laptop in the world hands down! (Revised 1/3/2007)
To sum it up, if the Alienware or Voodoo or Widow PC, looks like an M-Tech with a great paint job, then the laptop is a very good base model and one you would be happy with it. If it does not look like ours, it is a Uniwill and you will have to take your chances. Just make sure that you have the best and fastest components within it and not just the base machine barely filed out with inadequate technology. Remember, the perception that Alienware or Voodoo or any other high priced laptop is better, is only that, a perception perpetrated by very good marketing. In fact we would go as far as to say that laptop owners would be thrilled if the laptops Alienware sold were as good as Alienware's advertising and marketing is. However the fact is they use, at best, the same laptop as other quality vendors and at worst an inferior product made to look beautiful through clever artwork. This can make the laptop look far better than it performs. Do you really want to spend all that extra money for nothing more than very good advertising?
Here is but one of many comments from a prior Alienware owner.
Words just can't describe
this machine it is absolutely the best notebook or desktop I have ever
come across and for the price can't beat it. the months of web searching and
research was absolutely worth it. forget Alienware, voodoo, sager, hypersonic
all of these cannot give you what you get in terms of quality product and price
and features, MTECH machines have separated themselves from everyone else by
leaps and bounds.
Thanks again,
Philly (MTECH D900T)
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