Alienware Reviews 

The ALIENWARE AURORA RYZEN™ EDITION R10 GAMING DESKTOP is an ubelievable joke

I purchased an Alienware Aurora R13 PC on 6th October 2022, supposed to be Alienware's flagship PC. What a joke! This machine has been mis-sold! The spec is a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 12900KF (16-Core, 30MB Cache, 3.2GHz to 5.2GHz w/Turbo Boost Max 3.0) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB GDDR6X and 32GB Dual Channel DDR5 at 4400MHz. I have been trying to get this to run at the speeds above - IMPOSSIBLE! The Alienware Command Center is appalling, the motherboard has no options for overclocking. The cooling is not sufficient either. Cinebench testing showed the processor running at 4.7Ghz for a few minutes, it then throttles down to 4.1Ghz due to overheating. Memory is running at 4400Mhz with no option in the BIOS to change? Errors all over the machine at point of first start, Killer Utility. AWCC, etc etc. DO NOT BUY THIS OR ANY OTHER ALIENWARE / DELL PRODUCT. Customer service would not help, once they knew I had passed the 14 day return policy they put the phone down on me. I own an Audio Visual rental company working within the corporate sector for the last 35 years delivering live events and currently own an extensive range of professional equipment. I will NEVER purchase or recommend any product from Alienware / Dell again.
What a Disgrace!!

I had so many issues with the laptop, literally every component was replaced under warranty, when the warranty expired it was very expensive to continue with, needless to say blue screen of death every day, many multiple issues, running super slow on easy games, random crashes, worst laptop ever do not buy

After reading all the negative reviews after my purchase, I thought oh dear what have I done. However everything has been superb. I received my X17 R1, i9, 32gb Ram, 2T SSD, Comfort view, slight lead time due to pandemic as ordered when first went on sale; a first for me after progressing through the various consoles in my life from, Atari, Sega Megadrive, Playstation, XBox etc. Well what can I say, but awesome! Been using for 7 months now, and added the mouse headphones and 25" Monitor everything from gaming to programming not a glitch, super fast and responsive. Streams my D&D Talespire session to discord without any bother, perfectly. Also downloads games from Steam without a hitch, pairs up Xbox controller no problem, runs Unreal engine just great. Just one small problem, it didn't come with my prepaid McAfee quiet build, but McAfee sorted that after I gave them my order number. Would thoroughly recommend, as for the fan noise, can't hear it with my headphones on ha ha. Guess people only post when they have something bad to say, just like social media, you make a comment and everybody wades in with their size 10's.

Poor quality. Spent a fortune on a m17 r2. Only has 1 year guarantee. After 14 months the back plastic near the hinge has snapped. Cant get hold of anyone or find replacement parts.

The Alienware Aurora R13 is exactly how I imagined it and the build quality is superb. I am very happy with my purchase. Thank you Alienware, I’ll always be grateful!

Dell G5 G5500 with AlienWare

This machine is quite powerful but has constantly overheated since I bought it. Thanks Intel. Alienware doesn't know how to set a suitable fan speed & leaves the fans running fast following gaming or something intensive. I had to replace one of the fans for this reason after about 2 months.

I don't really know why it's so difficult for them to get this right? Read the temperature & set an appropriate fan speed. Free 3rd party software seems more capable.

I won't be buying another laptop or AlienWare system in future when this one wears out!

Do not ever buy one of these crappy laptops. They are not worth the money. I spent to much money for it to constantly have problems. If it updates the brightness stops working. Then when you take the update of the mousepad stops working. Not to mention the whole host of other issues it has. Don't ever buy an alienware it was such a mistake I regret spending the money on it.

terrible
I ordered an alienware m15 rtx2080, i910900 in 2018 and since then it has been a living nightmare, it is terrible, eventually i managed to refund it and get my money back, please save you time and dont waist you money on this crap.

I ordered an expensive monitor from AlienWare. Seconds after hitting the 'buy' button, I noticed their auto-address lookup function had stuck the wrong letter at the end of my postcode.

I immediately contacted AlienWare/Dell and pointed this out, only to be told "I sincerely regret that we are unable to change the address as the order is currently in the production stage."

Wow, what a flexible system, that doesn't allow you to change an error a second after you made it.

What, are Dell's orders carved in granite tablets by calligraphy-trained monks in a temple high in the Himalayas. Or, you know, put into a computer system's database?

Of course, the monitor went missing during delivery - claimed delivered to somewhere (just not me), I never even saw a delivery van, despite waiting in all day and working by the front window, nervously tracking the process via an online BPO tracking system that looks like it was designed to run on an Amstrad green-screen terminal.

Checking the internet, I see there are hundreds of stories like mine, complaining about sub-sub-sub-sub contracting via a firm called BPO, orders missing, delivered months late after day's worth of painful, stressful effort by frustrated customers.

AlienWare aren't a PC firm anymore, they are a clown-car manufacturer.

Avoid Dell. Avoid AlienWare like the plague.

Well this was annoying. I bought a £3500 Alienware Aurora R12 with an Intel i9 processor and Radeon 6800 XT.

It arrived 3 weeks later after being delayed several times.

When it arrived I tried to play Fortnite but it wouldn't get over 50fps. Then I tried Legion TD and this game wouldn't start at all. Then I tried CSGO and it was laggy and unplayabale.

I contacted their support who spent 3 hours playing with settings and trying to overclock the graphics card which made the PC crash and restart.

I now have to return the PC, but it's going to take 12 working days to get a refund.

They blamed the games for the errors, but my 9 year old PC with a GTX 970 runs them just fine.

They have offered no apology or anything to help.

EDIT to add: They sent me a review request. I left a 1* review. Theey declined to publish the review as it "didn't meeet their standards"

Since leaving that review, they have removed my warranty. I've only had the PC for 2 months and I paid for 12 months warranty.

Currently on the phone to their support and they say they can't help.

Is this a criminal organisation?

Constantly trying to replace major components in the system multiple times and I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.

I've had terrible experiences with alienware support before and I highly recommend for no one to buy from them as if there's any issues with the system, which I can assure you there will be. They will be like automated robots in their attempt to fix it with no care for your requirements, which often don't fix it.

I'd give 0 stars if I could. Ended up paying £75 for a heatsink casing, about 10p worth of plastic. Customer support is non-existent to the point of negligence. Never buying Alienware again.

Horrible service. I placed an order with them for an alienware pc (expensive item). They proposed a delivery date 14 days after confirming the order. I decided to place the order instead of procuring it from a retailer. 7 days later, I get a email in casual terms, that they decided to change the delivery date for a whole month from the original delivery.
Then it comes de Kafkian process of cancelling an order. Fill a form, no confirmation of reception, no chat support, no easy available phone number to call.
I'm sick and tired of this companies doing whatever they feel like, forcing customers to waste their time with endless processes of refunds, claims, etc. It's all designed to tolerate this kinds of abuse.
Don't buy directly from Dell/Alienware, just take your time and go to a retailer. Last time. I'm buying something from them.

AW3420DW Is amazing, thank you

Hi. If you want to buy a expensive vacuum cleaner you came to the right place! I've spent a lot of money for a "top spec" PC from Alienware just to stare at a computer case because it's not usable.
At first, I thought that its just cooling itself, but damn.. few months later, even 5 minutes in to a game and all the fans goes to 100% in spikes of 5 seconds every 1 minute. I know that does not sound bad at all, but trust me, I use headphones at max volume and I still hear the space shuttle take off my desk.
I thought that I was lucky that it happened 2 months before my 1 year guarantee was over, I tried like 5 times to contact the support and try to explain how serious this issue is and that is really unusable with that amount of noise, I even sent them videos. They had no idea what caused the issue, so they came and replace my GPU on site ( I did not like that they replace the faulty GPU with a refurbished one, but meh, it was working ).
Two weeks in, the space shuttle returns home. I called them again, same problems, same guy. They came with a new GPU and new motherboard this time. I thought that I was lucky again, almost all new PC at the end of 1year guarantee.
6 months later, THE SAME PROBLEMS, but now, out of warranty ! So what I do now? replace all components? I tried everything softer wise, updating bios, clean install, everything, the hardware is faulty. So where do I start, replacing case fans ? the processor is water cooled so I don't think that's the issue, GPU ? I won't spend 1200£ for the same 2080Ti and hope that it wont have the same problems, another manufacturer GPU I don't think it will even fit in the case! everything is so cramped up inside. So I should buy a new case at first and see how it goes ? The components inside are so cheap and ugly, just some plain green boards, I can't even try to rebuild this thing in a new case because I would need to replace everything.
How can they build and sell something that does not last even 1 year?? Is the 3rd graphic card that fails in less then 2 years? IS THIS EVEN LEGAL ?

Alienware previously used to be affiliated with quality and power, this would come at a premium but that is to be expected with any top end product. However it seems that Alienware is slowly becoming more and more like their parent company Dell, where ambitious technology meets the cheapest materials and easiest production.

Imagine you bought a Porsche 911 where you are told you have one of the best cars on the market on paper. But then once you buy the car you find out its only able to go 70 miles an hour on the motorway for 20 minutes without overheating. Then imagine that you are expected to manage this heat issue yourself but setting a hard speed limit on you car of 50 mph. No matter what you try you can't cool it down, and when you get it "fixed" by the company they charge you for the convenience and the same issues occur.

This is standard in all top end spec Alienware laptops to my knowledge. I've been through a couple, and for some reason I thought I could get it fixed and it was a one off but there seems to be no end. Look online and you will see the same issue, constant skipping if the pc is even remotely pushed past what should be an easy task for the hardware. This is called "Thermal Throttling". It essentially means the parts of the pc overheat, and cut power when they reach their limit causing a massive skip or "Lag spike". At first it was bearable but it's only gotten worse in a pc barely over two years old. I say this while I run an 8 year old game that's struggling to max out on 60fps, what is considered bare minimum on a pc that has a 1080GTX.

The irony is you will see the new DOOM run at 144fps completely smoothly, the BAM, lag spike, smooth again with no drops for 15 seconds, the another spike. It's unplayable. Imagine if a professional footballer had a microstroke every 15 seconds while he was on the pitch and his manager said "don't worry, he runs smooth other than that".

Before I get told that it must be a setting I will let you know what I've had to do to make a very expensive machine barely fictional at a decent standard. It's running on power settings with no power saving restrictions. All NVIDIA settings set to performance, resolutions set to 1440p, Intel XTU to undervolt the CPU, MSI afterburner to undervolt AND underclock the GPU. A frame limiter application to lock the pc at 60 (some games will kill the pc if they are not limited even if they are old). All OC software turned off as I would want to risk the apparent 3 tiers of overclock available on the Alienware 17. Both CPU and GPU re pasted, new ram and SSDs and a cooling pad.

This is just a fraction and I'm sitting here running Crysis 2 with some issues.

Believe me when I say that Dells ambitions to have high end laptops is incompatible with their cheapest manufacturing first policy. It's like expecting a chef to prepare you a Soufflé but the owner of the restaurant bought him Crunch Corners to serve as the ingredients (no disrespect,love a crunch corner).

Alienware has lost its way, the only reason I'm not giving this one star is because my laptop does actually work, but I have years of experience. I pray for the poor child who saved up for one or the inexperienced gamer looking for a travel option thinking this would be suitable.

Specs for the curious: 7820HK, 1080GTX, 32GB DDR3 Ram, 2x500GB M.2 SSDs.

This is review of the online sales chat. not the product.
I am looking to upgrade to a new gaming pc to embrace microsofts new flight sim.. new gaming world.. new gaming pc. So thought i'd seek help from their online live sales chat. started at 12:40... got an agent straight away.. fed him my requirements.... got 1st response at 12:56!. and that was just... "whats your budget".. ok I thought. cuold have given me options initially but hey ho.. i put in my up to figure... it's now 13:08.. and no response...still waiting.. Im now surfing other gaming pc sites while waiting. half an hour and not one buying option. Very poor

Edti:- Still waiting at 13:15.. and giving up.. you lost a sale there alienware!

Ordered new m17, said 10-12 days. After I paid it then said it was 25 days. No response to my email asking to honor the advertised days. They were quick to respond before sale! Just to add also that I waited for a response back to my student status but time was running out as my current laptop needs replacing so had to place order without student discount.