Maybe you just got a lemon? Also, it's kinda unrealistic to expect major upgrades for a notebook.
Naw, this particular model was advertised to have an upgradeable graphics card. That was the main reason I got it; they didn't have the latest card in stock at the time (9700), only the 9600, but they told me I could get a 9700 at any time and that the 9800 was coming. When I was ready to upgrade, I couldn't.
I like the stuff that Alienware makes. Alienware products look nice and are high performing, unlike most pre-built PCs. Their desktops are water cooled and they are one of the few manufacturers that make SLI notebooks. I like building my own computers but I would definitely buy their stuff if I had the money.
I don't know how their stuff is now versus four+ years ago, I can only go by what I got from them (Area 51m). The laptop is built like a TANK and the casing can stand a lot of punishment, but there are several things that hinder it as a "laptop," especially one you might bring to school with you:
-It's heavy. The HUGE POWER BRICK is really what does it. You don't get a case for this thing, they give you a backpack.
-The battery life is shit. We're talking about 45 minutes here.
-When using the battery, you have to run the PC at low performance settings, so forget about any real gaming.
-It overheats. My biggest problem with it. I cleaned it often and kept it dust-free, but it didn't matter.
There were also major problems with the wi-fi; basically the built-in wi-fi was shit and I had to get an external card. There were a lot of issues with this particular model back then from what I remember, but I'm sure that's no problem now.
Now I got this PC as a desktop replacement. I needed a laptop but was okay with not bringing it everywhere; did a lot of moving around and just needed something that could be packed up and moved easily. It served me well, but as a gaming computer it got outdated fast and a lot of stuff ran a bit too choppy. I found that I did very little PC gaming and its faults that I listed above sucked, so when it came time to get a new computer, I went with a lighter, slimmer, smaller laptop that has been working great. I would like to play a few games here and there, but it's just not enough of an issue for it to matter. If I really want to play Diablo III for example, I'll get a desktop. I didn't even know about subnotebooks when I got my MacBook; if I did I would have gotten a desktop for sure. You can't beat those things for portability and battery performance.
