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cinnabun814

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 2, 2018
111
86
I've built 3 PC's before and 2 of them were flawless and operated well for years, but my last one had nothing but problems and caused me to stop building pc's. Going through the process of finding out which part was faulty and eventually sending back the motherboard. I really have no interest in doing that again which is why I suggested an alienware. I like the idea of being under warranty and that being dells problem if something were to go wrong. But I just thought i'd create a thread and see what others said. I really like the Alienware brand.
 

russell_314

macrumors 604
Feb 10, 2019
6,646
10,234
USA
I've built 3 PC's before and 2 of them were flawless and operated well for years, but my last one had nothing but problems and caused me to stop building pc's. Going through the process of finding out which part was faulty and eventually sending back the motherboard. I really have no interest in doing that again which is why I suggested an alienware. I like the idea of being under warranty and that being dells problem if something were to go wrong. But I just thought i'd create a thread and see what others said. I really like the Alienware brand.
If you're planning on traveling back to 2005 I would say buy the Alienware. Otherwise stay away from it if technical support is your reason. It's a Dell straight up. The Alienware brand is dead IMO. Look up how terrible Dell tech support is and you be the judge. Look up "$1500 gaming pc secret shopper" by Linus Tech Tips on YouTube. They compared prebuilt tech support and some brands were quite good at it.

As to what you should do? Buy a gaming PC from a reputable seller that offers tech support (Not Dell) if you don't want the hassle of building your own. I've never had a problem building one but there is the fact that you become your own warranty/ tech support when you do choose to build.

Of course all of this is just my opinion based on my experiences. Someone else might have a different opinion.
 

cinnabun814

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 2, 2018
111
86
If you're planning on traveling back to 2005 I would say buy the Alienware. Otherwise stay away from it if technical support is your reason. It's a Dell straight up. The Alienware brand is dead IMO. Look up how terrible Dell tech support is and you be the judge. Look up "$1500 gaming pc secret shopper" by Linus Tech Tips on YouTube. They compared prebuilt tech support and some brands were quite good at it.

As to what you should do? Buy a gaming PC from a reputable seller that offers tech support (Not Dell) if you don't want the hassle of building your own. I've never had a problem building one but there is the fact that you become your own warranty/ tech support when you do choose to build.

Of course all of this is just my opinion based on my experiences. Someone else might have a different opinion.


WOW! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I googled "Alienware problems" and found tons and tons of threads of people complaining about dell and alienware. Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention.
 

cinnabun814

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 2, 2018
111
86
I decided against a gaming PC. I tried using Windows 10 on parallels and couldn't even make it 20 minutes. It's really difficult for me to use after being used to OS X.
 

russell_314

macrumors 604
Feb 10, 2019
6,646
10,234
USA
I decided against a gaming PC. I tried using Windows 10 on parallels and couldn't even make it 20 minutes. It's really difficult for me to use after being used to OS X.
If you're just using it for gaming it's just clicking whatever icon for the game. The game launches and you play. It's not like you're going to be doing anything in the OS
 
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LeeW

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2017
4,341
9,442
Over here
I decided against a gaming PC. I tried using Windows 10 on parallels and couldn't even make it 20 minutes. It's really difficult for me to use after being used to OS X.

As I mentioned in another thread where you commented about this, Parallels, given it is a Virtual Machine is not suitable for Windows gaming, not suitable for gaming at all in fact.
 
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lcseds

macrumors 65816
Jun 20, 2006
1,226
1,117
NC, USA
I decided against a gaming PC. I tried using Windows 10 on parallels and couldn't even make it 20 minutes. It's really difficult for me to use after being used to OS X.

This is not unusual for many Mac OS users on this forum. Try Windows 10 for 20 minutes, proclaim it unsuitable and go back to Mac OS. Then many users will go on to trash Windows on the forum regularly since they have "experience".

Like the posters mentioned above, I would suggest trying a Windows system. Run your games then if you decide to learn more about Windows, you can take it from there.

Windows 10 is different, not a struggle.
 

kazmac

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2010
10,103
8,658
Any place but here or there....
This is not unusual for many Mac OS users on this forum. Try Windows 10 for 20 minutes, proclaim it unsuitable and go back to Mac OS. Then many users will go on to trash Windows on the forum regularly since they have "experience".

Like the posters mentioned above, I would suggest trying a Windows system. Run your games then if you decide to learn more about Windows, you can take it from there.

Windows 10 is different, not a struggle.
Very true. I’ll eventually become familiar with Windows to troubleshoot as I do on the Mac and just use it for what I do.

I understand my issues were initially installers on the Acer and more recently, thinking I could adjust settings in W10 like macOS. Erm, nope.

I won’t trash W10 since I have no idea how to use it, except for work (and that’s quite simple with my job ITs handling any problems).

That said, my one experience with Dell “tech support” was so bad, I have sworn them off.

So when I do go PC, it will not be Dell.
 
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