What a great system! I purchased an Aurora, with an AMD Quad Core 9750. It is screaming fast and it got here quickly. Everything came in as-advertised.  
 
One thing I love about Alienware is the fact that they put such care into how the system is packed up. And when you open the case up, the wiring is so clean. It will be so easy to get in there and swap out parts when the time comes.  
 
The prices are a little higher than some other vendors, but you really get what you pay for. They don't cut corners and you get a system that looks great and runs great!

This review was modified by its author, karks88, on 9/10/08 8:25 AM.

Alienware Area-51 m15x.  
To start at the beginning, the order process was fairly simple, the customization was easy yet detailed. The order was delayed quite significantly. It was stated at the time of purchase that my order would be delayed due to a backorder of a particular graphics card i chose. They expected about a 5 day delay but overall my order was delayed by about 2 weeks.  
This laptop has one of the highest specs in all of laptops, not to mention in its size class (15.4"). Being top of the class, it obviously comes with a heavy price tag. Over $4.500 for this particular customized model.  
Performance-wise this has been able to handle all the games out right now at full graphics settings, including resolution (Assassin's creed, Race Driver:GRiD, etc).  
For a 15.4" laptop this is quite heavy and not very mobile, however, for a gaming laptop, this is pretty light.  
The screen, with 1900 X 1200 resolution and a 1200p display offers very good video quality.  
The sound quality is decent.  
Did not encounter any problems to date, after about a month of use.  
The biggest, and almost the only, problem is the noise. The laptop tends to get VERY loud even when performing tasks like web browsing. Turning the stealth mode on helps temporarily but gets loud again regardless. However, you are given the ability to change the graphics card to a built-in graphics card which, with stealth mode on produces very little noise. (Of course, with the graphics card switched, you can't play games)

I finalized my Order on 7/28/08, and the estimated date was 8/5/08, and I am happy to say it arrived 8/3/08, a few days earlier that the estimated shipping date. I was constantly tracking the order status, from it being built, to the shipping. Everything was running smoothly, the order status was amazing, it told me where exactly my computer was, both in the Assembly line, and shipping. The customer service was excellent, when I asked if it would arrive on a certain date, they where sure to know when it arrived, and they where spot on. When it arrived, everything was beautiful, everything that was said to be in the box was there, nothing missing, and absolutely no flaws in anything what so ever. The computer was perfect, no flaws, started up perfect, and ran perfect. All the software was there on the computer, and all the backup cd's came with it as-well. Overall I rate the customer service 4/5 (only because I did not contact them that much, because I had no issues), delivery 5/5 came right on time, Satisfaction 5/5, computer worked perfect, packaging was A+, everything was there, Overall experience 6/5, I plan on purchasing from them whenever I need a new computer, and I would recommend this company to everyone!

Hello. I just bought an Aurora Alienware system and I am completely happy so far. Like a few reviews I've seen, I had a slight issue on the order status page and the ship date. It was almost a month later then what it said but the customer service reps. was most helpful in resolving the issues. Hopefully, I won't have to buy another PC for a very long time but if I do, Alienware would be the only place I'd go to.

I purchased an Alienware Area 51 M15X.It arived within a day of the target date it was supposed to.Right out of the box[the packaging was really nice.]it booted up perfectly.So far it has exceeded my exspectations.This is by far the nicest pc I have owned. Alienware rocks!

I am very happy with my m9750, though it took a little over 2 months because of a back-ordered tv tuner

I recently purchased a Area-51 m17x notebook. After going through the order process online and dealing with some great customer service reps who helped me change my order. It arrived just 8 days later. I was truly shocked that it was that fast. I also ordered the Orion Backpack along with the notebook. So far everything has been amazing. Great laptop. It makes my friends jealous and I think I convinced a few to buy one.  
Thanks AW!

I bought an Alienware Odyssey Backpack for my 17 inch notebook and couldn't be more happy with it. It is made from great materials and has plenty of padding to keep my laptop looking new for years to come. Thanks again Alienware!

Alienware computers are the best I have ever owned - Call of Duty 4 for PC runs terrific - I have told everybody I know about my purchase

Customer Service Making Me Happy!  
 
I should start off by saying computers is not my full time job anymore. In a previous life I provided installation and network support to small business offices but have moved on to something else. I mention this because I have had the chance not only to look but work on many different types of computers and from the moment I first saw an Alienware computer, I started to drool. Not only at the great styling of computers but also because of the amazing speed that I now need especially for portable digital film editing … Ok, I admit the ability to play games at lightning speed was also a slight attraction for me hehe.  
I had previously ordered only 3 Alienware laptops out of an approximate total of roughly 180-200 computers but the ones I set-up for my customers and family were amazing. Unfortunately my experience was not exactly the same. I finally decided to take the plunge and walk away from Sony Vaio and order my dream laptop from Alienware. At first I didn’t notice any problems while carefully unpacking the laptop from the nice black box and foam packaging. After reading the standard instructions and warnings I plugged it in and it booted up like a dream. Even the little personalization stuff I chose online was correctly configured. It all looked good until I turned off the laptop, left it over night and booted it up again. I didn’t make much of it but when I initially booted the laptop out of the box, it showed what I presumed to be the motherboards default time/date. The same thing happened the next morning on booting up (default time/date). I called a direct service line to the Roswell Team, with hardly a wait time and was surprised to hear they actually work for Alienware, not some support company in another country. We came to the conclusion it must be just a faulty battery, so they immediately shipped a replacement for me. Well it wasn’t the battery it was the motherboard (a type of problem almost impossible to diagnose before shipping). Alienware quickly jumped into action and sent me shipping instructions to get the laptop repaired.  
The story goes on and includes some additional problems but ALL the problems I have had with the laptop HAVE NOT BEEN the fault of Alienware yet their customer service people have continually been patient, understanding and extremely helpful with any and all problems. I have had to deal with support staff from many different computer companies but have to say the Alienware’s support staff has been the best. They even adjust the way they talk to you depending on your computer experience!  
I now have my dream laptop and despite all my best efforts (and Vista) I cannot get the thing to slow down or crash. ALIENWARE MADE ME HAPPY!  

This review was modified by its author, chopp, on 8/27/08 4:26 PM.

Ordered an Alienware Laptop for "School" (lol). Had for almost a month now and no complaints, arrived well protected in package and significantly faster than I expected. Runs great and wasn't bundled with any of the junky trial programs a Dell or a Gateway would have been. Very pleased overall.

I have made two purchases from Alienware (some gear and a laptop). Alienware's interface is easy to navigate and probably the most sleek one I have ever seen (as I would almost expect). It would be very true to say that anything you buy is not the cheapest from Alienware, but you really are paying for the quality. They are pretty good with keeping you up to date on order status and their shipping is fairly quick. Overall, they are a great company for any gamer or person who heavily depends on their computer for handling many applications at a time.

I recently purchased an Alienware Area-51 m15x and decided to write a review on it. First let me start off by saying, I love this laptop.  
Out-of-box experience was great. My laptop arrived in a plain black box. It was well packed and organized. Everything was in its own compartment and secure. The laptop itself was in a black neoprene like material that is suitable for transporting it around to keep it from getting scratched. My only complaint here was discovering that the bluetooth media remote that I ordered was not anywhere to be found! More about this later.  
I waited two months to write this review because I wanted to take time to familiarize myself with the laptop and it's performance and capabilities. The build quality is great. It's very sturdy and solid feeling. The chassis is the Ripley design and I was impressed with the finish on the case. It is a shiny silver metallic color with a glossy gel coat over it. After two months of using it at home and carrying it back and forth to school, I have yet to put a single scratch on it. My only complaint being that it does get dirty very quickly in the area that your hands rest on while typing.  
The keyboard layout is excellent. It is nearly full size and has full size buttons. My only complaint with the keyboard is that sometimes the keys don't fully register when they are pressed. I notice this mainly when I am typing double letters. I often find myself having to go back and correct missed letters. Other than that, the palm rest area is phenomenal. It has a very large area to rest your hands on, and the scroll pad is disabled when you have a mouse plugged in. This is a great feature and one I never would have thought of, but it keeps you from accidentally moving the cursor around or selecting something by unintentionally while you are typing.  
The screen option I decided to go with was the 1440x900 with clearview. I couldn't really justify the added expense of the higher resolution screen since the only real benefit for a resolution that high for me would be for 1080p movies, and even then most people can't truly tell the difference in resolution on a 15" LCD. Having said that, I am very pleased with the picture quality and the clarity of the clearview LCD.  
Ah, now we come to performance. What you have all been waiting for with baited breath. My laptop is equipped with a 2.5ghz Core2Duo,Nvidia 8800GTX, 4Gb ram, 200Gb 7200 rpm hard drive, 1Gb of internal Readyboost ram, and Windows Vista Home Premium. Gaming performance is outstanding! As a matter of fact, I can actually be converting videos from one format to another in the background while playing Counterstrike, and never notice any drop in frame rates at all! WoW! I am a multitasker, and usually have multiple windows open at a time. I can have so many windows open on this laptop that I often have to start closing them because there are just too many and It takes too long to find the window I am searching for! Load times are fast, and I run my games on the highest resolution possible. No problem. None. I would also like to note that I am an AutoCAD student and that was the REAL reason for ordering this beast. (Wink,Wink). I have no problem at all running Autodesk or Inventor. My only suggestion would be that if you are buying this laptop ONLY for engineering programs, you might benefit more from the Nvidia Quadro workstation graphics card.  
The only ding I can give in performance is not the fault of Alienware, but Microsoft. I ordered this laptop with Vista Home Premium because I wanted to maintain compatibility with future versions of Autocad software and have the benefits of DirectX 10. That being said, Vista is not nearly as nimble as Windows XP. Slower boot times, slower interface, and a mild performance hit to frame rates in most games are the plague brought on by this operating system. Gamers beware, if that is your reason for purchasing, go with XP or set it up to dual boot. You will be much happier.  
Last but not least, Customer Service. As I mentioned earlier, my bluetooth remote was left out when my laptop arrived. I quickly made a call to Alienware customer service. I placed my call about 5 minutes before the department closed for the day. I waited in the phone queue for about 5 minutes before being answered by a live technician. He was very polite and quickly and efficiently ran me through a check-list of my invoice and proceeded to tell me of locations within the packaging to look for my remote. Not having found it, he then placed me on hold for about 5 more minutes while he made a new invoice on the spot to have my remote sent to me at no additional charge. All in all, we were on the phone about twenty minutes and he never once sounded rushed or inattentive to my needs. Kudos to you Alienware! A company who values their customers, imagine that! I received my new remote two days later and have been very pleased with its performance. This is likely the most pleasant customer service experience that I have ever had.  
In closing, I would say that I have been very pleased with purchasing my laptop from Alienware. Great packaging, performance, and reliability have made me truly grateful of my decision to buy a laptop from this company, and my next computer, whether a laptop or desktop will likely also bear the Alienware moniker.

I bought an Alienware Area-51 M15x in June and I couldn't be more pleased with my laptop. It looks awesome and runs absolutely amazing. I'm definitaly glad I bought my laptop from Alienware.

This is the second laptop that I have purchased from Alienware and I am once again thrilled. The laptop is packaged beautifully and performed extremely well out of the box. I was very impressed with the "pouch" that the laptop was in that helped keep any packaging materials from messing up the surface.  
 
As for the laptop itself, the new Area51-mx simply screams. Everything runs lightning fast on it. I have yet to run into a problem playing any games on it, including WoW (avg. of 150 fps), Crysis, Assassin's Creed, and Bioshock. the system seems to be very well cooled (which is great with all of the stuff they jam into this thing).