Interestingly, the inside of this Alienware is the same as the Dell XPS. This system is basically a huge plastic XPS with better airflow and a robot vagina.
Wheeeeew! I was getting worried that you were kidnapped by someone on Craigslist selling a 3080ti for $300 behind a 7 - 11 or something. Glad you're back!!
Such a shame what dell has done to Alienware. I used to work for Alienware, back when it was Alienware owned by the original group of friends. They used to hate Dell, and all the b.s. Dell branded parts. Alienware back then used to pride it's self on using the best (or at least giving you the option) to have the best OE parts on the market. Mr Dell himself lied to all of us, and said he wouldn't change anything about how Alienware ran its operation, and was only going to give the finical backing to keep growing. Then a year later he fired like 98% of the Alienware team and sent the production to China. Now you get this crap. Please do not buy anything made by Dell or Alienware. They ONLY care about maximizing profits and making investors happy. They do not care about you, or gamers, they just want your money.
No way! You use to work for Alienware? I’m sorry to hear what happened. I can’t believe they just fired everyone like that, really sucks. They really are only interested in one thing, profit margins.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff yes when they finally "let me go" they handed me a paper explaining how the move would save them millions and make the investors happy. I probably still got it someplace in my house. The original Alienware was a great place to work, I was with them 10 years, and probably still would be if they didn't sell it. It was cool to see a small company full of real gamers, grow and grow and grow. It was one of the few places I've worked that felt more like a family, then a job and I'll forever miss it. Origin PC which I'm sure you heard of, was opened by a former Alienware employee, some of the original staff went to work for them. They try to keep the spirit of what Alienware used to be, alive.
@@aaronwlkr It’s awesome to hear that you guys had such I good thing going. I’m sorry to hear that Dell destroyed that. I’ll definitely go check out an Origin system, I didn’t realize it was started by an Alienware guy. It’s wild that Dell was just like “Soz, gotta drive dat profit” as a reading for firing all of you. That’s a pretty huge dick move.
Was thinking the same. Then DELL bought them out and everyone started calling it Dellienware and fanbois were like "They'll stay awesome, they're not gonna fall just because DELL bought them out, this is a good thing!"
Funny Fact, Dell promised to make a E-waste less Laptop. Yet they still pull this shit for desktops. When their original dell desktops could easily be transferred to a standard ATX case
There are some nice prebuilts out there asus g15dk is a prebuilt I bought it has a ryzen 7 5800x cooled by a towercooler and the graphics card is an 3070 it has an 500gb nvme and 4 tb hdd which I installed my self and last but not least it has two 8 gb ram sticks which are in dual channel. The power supply is a greatwall which I made some research on and according to google and a couple off forums some corsair power supplys are rebranded greatwalls all this I got for 1800$ which in todays market is quite nice I would say My temps, if someone is interested were the only real problem I had with it besides the nvme being too small there fore I bought a 4tb hdd but I undervolted the cpu and changed some ppt tdc values runing at full load gaming I get around 60degrees celsius keep in mind it has no intake fans but okay airflow
About 20 years ago I bought my very first computer from Dell and they did the exact same thing! They claimed I'd cancelled it, but when I asked why I was never refunded my money for my "cancelled" order they had no explanation.
At least you get some standard power supply and motherboards with pretty much anything other than dell prebuilt systems for about the same price just in case you wanna upgrade the cooler and the cpu down the line... A prebuilt is almost never a good deal. I'd very much appreciate at least if the prebuilt systems with somewhat high end graphics cards in them were sold for like 150 dollars more and came with a decent motherboard and a decent power supply. But it's generally a motherboard that will throttle the top end cpu and a psu that will throttle almost any high power unit upgrade... That to me is just a shame because most of these units are customizable prior to your order.
That would be good for a Celeron though, I’ve had an i3 540 that has a stock cooler and it runs around 30°C normal temperatures load. You won’t be doing something intensive in a Celeron. It’s a perfect pairing to me! Balance out costs.
Just like the right to repair, OEM PC builders should be stopped from using proprietary stuff that they charge x2 to replace. This just contributes to E-waste as the upgrade options are so limited. Would never give Dell my money. Good video 😁
I am with you. I will only ever give NZXT or Origin my money for pre-built saying they ONLY use standard PC parts. I'm sure there are others but those are the two that I know of the best.
it must really the replacement fees and prebuild tax they make profit on. Why design and order specially manufactured parts, when there is a 40 year old standard that would cost them less.
I remember when dell bought alienware they sent an email to alienware customers assuring us that they wouldn't change how alienware does it's builds. One of the best computer I ever owned was that pre Dell Alienware (2002) . Sad to see how Dell was so full of shit. It was also the last pre built system I ever owned.
@@ATejkl OK maybe the laptop was nice but it was still overpriced and the wait for it to be built and shipped was too long. This company is stilling putting single channel ram in Ryzen cpus.. that right there should tell you everything you need to know.
If the PSU and motherboard was standard, I'd honestly recommend this OEM gaming machine with proper RAM of course. They improved air flow and improved case space. Ugh... Damn shame.
Yeah it's a shame about the PSU but to be fair their platinum 750w is likely quite good. What Dell appears to have done here is standardize across the XPX/Alienware line so no more standard psu and just the little guy we see in the older (and newer xps) and their server line. wasn't expecting a standard mb tho..
@@notlNSIGHT It‘s just pissing me off that they are doing this easy to repair Laptop stuff now to limit E-Waste, but are creating a ton more with this shit… All just marketing again…
If you work with dell you can get the price lower. I was able to get the max specs with 10% off the whole order, so rather than paying $5k for the pc I paid $4,100 I also got money back with Dell Rewards worth $160 dollars, so $3940 for the top specs in a market where you can’t even get a good GPU for less than $3,000 I purchased the machine for my job since I develop games and it’s a damn beast of a machine, I got 64GB of ram with the GTX 3090, 12th Gen intel core-i9 12900k processor, I ran a bunch of stress tests and this pc can handle whatever you throw at it. I can run multiple games in the background, while rendering large projects in blender cycles, and the pc never slugs or slows down If you get this pc, don’t cheap out with the lower end model is all I can say, get the liquid cooling, get a decent GPU, and you won’t regret the purchase, you don’t need the max specs to enjoy this build somewhere in middle ground is what I would suggest for someone who just needs a gaming machine, but if you need a development machine, max this pc out, it’s worth it! That is… if you can work with dell to get discounts, don’t buy this PC online without speaking with a service rep cause they will help you lower the price. Hold off otherwise.
Well, it's official. I am now going to recommend everyone I know to NEVER buy from Dell. This incident and all the videos from GN and LTT showing their shabby quality in both parts and service proves to me that Dell simply does not give a single care about customers anymore. Just the money they get from them.
I got an xps with liquid cooling an i7 12700k, dual channel ddr5 ram and a 3080 for 2000 dollars. I added a second front fan and it all runs quite well now that I got a crucial bios update I did not realize I missed. It is the same setup as the new alienware desktop, minus all the extra plastic and lights the chassis is exactly the same though.
For the price they charge im shocked these OEM gaming systems even exist... My first gaming PC was an alienware and looking back on it I got SCAMMED hard on the price to spec ratio... like zero cooling and bad temps
The only OEM that’s worth the price is micro centers powerspec line up. They use actual well known parts and have the basics you expect an actual build to have (nvme, dual channel RAM, wraith spire cooler, etc)
10:45 you do have to give props to dell for the anti sag gpu holder, i wish more cases had something like that packed in. i wonder what GPU's are compatible with it. 6:20 also it looks like you can put another fan if you had the right bracket.
@@fracturedlife1393 It’s just giving credit where’s its due. Dell isn’t necessarily great - but not many cases offer anti sag brackets, let alone mass produced prebuilt manufacturers.
I amazes me how Alienware is still in business with the prices they charge, considering you can get an i5 11thgen and a 3060 in a system with dual channel 32gb ram from lenovo for roughly $1300
Y’know, Dell’s quality only seems to have DECREASED since I bought my Alienware 17 R5 from them almost 5 years ago. At least that thing just needed a thermal paste replacement which was not that bad to do, but this is just sad what Dell has come down to.
Depends on your perspective, I've owned and/or worked on just about every model over the years and Its honestly always been hit or miss. Some of the product lines they really queeze every dollar and others they are far more progressive than other manufactures. That being said your models issues are partially due to Intel, they misspaced their thermal and tdp ratings so the OEMs had already began spec and production of the coolers prior to launch. Now Dell could have backpedaled and re-engineered a new cooler but if they did that they would also delay launch and it affects their relationship with Intel which is.... complicated. What aggravates me is they had the ability to over engineer the coolers and they choose not to, and its not the first time Intel has caused this issue. And with the R5 in particular it was the test per-say of a newer compact thin design thats why it only ran one revision because they wanted to use what they learned to develop the m line. And they did, but then also made the same mistakes again... I have a m17 R2 now myself and it has thermal issues with the i7, they all require undervolting to correct.
My Inspiron 7567 that I bought in the winter of 2016/17 is still going strong. Granted installed a M.2 and replaced the 500gb HDD that came with it; as well as upgrading the ram. I also did a fresh install of windows at some point after getting rid of all bloatware. Installed HWInfo64 for fan control so the 1050 doesn't cook and this thing has been a great laptop.
@@TheRickJames If it’s anything like what I experienced with my 17 R5 after taking off the heatsink to repaste the CPU and GPU, the thermal paste they used is probably dried up at this point. I kid you not, when I brushed my hand over the paste on the CPU, it was dry as sandpaper, and that was only after a year of owning the laptop. I went and repasted with TG Kryonaut and my temps and clock speeds were MILES better (I could even clock all six cores on my i9-8950HK anywhere between 4.1 and 4.3 GHz, though under full load at 4.3 it would still thermal throttle after about 30 seconds, and that’s with a heavy -.150 mV undervolt). The sucky part about the m-line of their laptops was that they went back to inverted motherboards like on the 15 R2/17 R3 so to do any kind of repaste would involve disconnecting a lot of cables.
Dell themselves got Dell-eated. The other day I found a 2008 Dell Inspiron 530s in my parents basement and decided to take it and check it out, surprisingly after seeing how shitty OEM machines are today especially in terms of compatibility, literally everything in it was spec'd to industry standard form factors. Standard 24pin atx power, standard(for the time) 4 pin CPU power, All the Fans were 80mm(rare today but still a standardized size) and use a PWM connectors and headers, the PSU was a TFX form factor, and the Motherboard was a Micro ATX and all its standoffs were the same pattern the ones today use. So I'm going to end up building a sleeper out of it, but since it is a TFX its basically an ATX that's been cut in half vertically it makes fitting a GPU in it that's any good kinda tricky. That's really the only OEM weirdness going on with it but I guess Nvidia still makes some of their RTX Quadro series in a low profile form factor so I got an RTX A2000 quadro that im gonna reflash the bios on to run at clock speeds that match the 3050
I ordered a x17 laptop when it was on sale in November and they cancelled my order too claiming it was to make sure it wasn't fraud. When I called them about it they tried to tell me I had to reorder and wouldn't be able to get it at the sale price because it was a limited number and they were all accounted for. I threw a fit over the phone and spent like 5 hours talking to 30 different people and in the end I got it at the sale price wich was like $570.00 off. It ended up being delivered a month later on the exact day they estimated.
@@cynthiacrescent uhm, so first of, no i don’t, and second of, if i would, where’s the problem in that? I only said that dell is kinda like a kid nowadays. Don’t know where your origin of being hurt comes from. I didn’t do anything to you, did i?
David... I got the r13 3090 with best alder lake processor. It destroys everything that is out there with the ddr5 I had put in. It kills me you got the lesser version of this release. Why?
What really sucks is that the 5300 was actually an _amazing_ bang for buck card *when it's priced correctly.* I remember seeing a dell system with something like a 10300 (yes that's a real processor) and 5300 for under 500 USD at one point when on sale.
Obviously, I see you bought the entry level model, so I can't speak about that. However, I have the same PC, with the brand new Intel Alder Lake chip (12700k), 40GB of DDR5 RAM, 6800XT GPU, the 750W power supply, see thru window, full RGB lighting inside and out, and the Cryo water cooled setup. My build is much better than what's going on here, albeit at a cost. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I know that some people love to rag on Alienware/Dell, but if you spend more money for the better models, they are great PCs, and the performance metrics will prove that. These new R13 and R14 models are a major step up from the previous models in terms of cooling, upgradeability, performance, etc.
ABS makes some decently priced 3000 series builds. I couldnt afford to build another pc this year so i bought one spec'ed with a 3060 ti and 10400. All in it was 1900 cad. I'll canibalize it and start a new build for an ultra clean gaming/workstation.
Honestly, I'm glad I got an Alienware pre-built during Dell's last sale in March last year. Ended up getting a 6800xt, 5800x, 512gb nvme, and 16gb of 3200mhz DDR4 for $1977. Ended up ripping all that out and throwing them into a PC I built because I had so many issues with the Alienware operating system.
So glad to be privileged enough to be in a position to build my own. Because for the cost of those parts my heart shudders to think of ever purchasing that monstrosity.
I bought a top of the range Alienware laptop some years ago with a GTX 1080 on board. Thing came with this massive, heavy cooling solution but would thermal throttle after about 15mins of play. Turns out Dell had put all these expensive components in this laptop but had skimped on the thermal paste. I opened it up, put about £1 or £2 worth of MX-4 in there and it ran beautifully. I ran before and after benchmarks and it was insane how much that tiny cost improved performance. To be fair to Dell, when I bought that thing I didn't know much about computers and that experience inspired me to build my own desktop. Plus, I have a 1080 laptop, that still holds up to this day, to use when I'm away from home (which is a lot).
They bought these for my schools esports team. I looked at them and said “why in the world would they ever buy this, they’re better off buying PCs off of eBay.”
DELL - let's make sure our prebuilt that indeed looks like a robot's whatsit is impossible to upgrade. You never know, that might force some return custom... maybe, you never know, what do you mean customers need to be happy to come back..?
My first gaming PC was an Alienware X51. It served me well for many a year with numerous upgrades. Now I build my own PC's but the techniques I learnt doing all the upgrades gave me the confidence to break free of the pre-built shackles 😊
How it started: Watching and giggling at hours of Dawid's OEM pre-built videos. How it's going: Purchased lightly used Omen 5800X/3060ti 30l due to the mafia loanshark level extortion going on in the GPU market currently. Sigh, I can always case swap if i have to. Sincerely, A beaten man.
It’s crazy you posted this today because i was at Walmart tonight and they had a prebuilt, HP I think, with almost the same specs as this, Ryzen 5, 8 gb ram, 256 gig ssd with an RX5500 and it was $640 bucks. I do think this Alienware has a newer Ryzen 5, the nondescript box at Walmart didn’t specify, but holy crap. It’s definitely not 600 bucks better, people really like paying for that stupid Alienware form factor, I guess. Edit: actually I looked it up because I thought I was nuts when Dawid started showing prices for comparable products but I was wrong about the CPU. It does have Ryzen 5 5600 in it. So it’s just about literally the same PC for 639 bucks. That’s actually a pretty hot deal, maybe I should buy it. Or if you want, Dawid, I’ll buy it for you and ship it to you if you want to do a comparison!
i got a Alienware R10 for 200€ because some guy just wanted the GPU in it. i actually prefer the R10 because it doesnt have the Shitty oem mainboard format and the shitty oem PSU. it also supports manual config of memory and it does do XMP Profiles. just slapped in a Corsair H60 in it, upgraded it to 32GB RAM and its nice now.
these things are such a waste of precious metals and plastic. even their shape makes them frustrating, since they take up more space than they otherwise should, and can't even function as an overpriced table to set stuff on. the fact that they don't even bother to powder coat the case and power supply gives off such an aura of cheapness it actually aggravates me. I don't know how they sell at all.
My best friend finally got a desktop (she’s always had a laptop) and her parents surprised her with an Alienware for Christmas. Basically a Ryzen 7 5800 and a 3060. But guess what? They gave her a single 500gb HDD. $2k on a PC for a HDD? And a 500gb one at that? Dell straight up ripped her parents off. Sold them a bunch of warranties and everything too
Call me rude, but why would anyone willingly pay for what is a "stupid tax"? There's not a lot you can fuck up if you're already buying a pre-built system.
The baseplate for the cpu cooler is literally machined onto the rear sidepanel behind the motherboard. By trying to eliminate the need to fiddle with a baseplate behind the cpu to streamline building and reduce costs, they ruined cooler upgradability. If they at least used standard parts, the machine would have been salvageable.
Did you try turning off the RivaTuner overlay in DOOM? It has problems with overlay applications making the frametime horrendous. My 3700x and 6800XT with an overlay kept my framerate at a constant 40fps, then after disabling any overlay I had, it fixed it.
Ugh, well I really like Dell's Alienware laptops. My dad has one from 2016 with a gtx 1070 8 gig and i7 7th gen and dual channel ram 16 gig. I like it a lot. But it seems maybe their towers not worth unlike their laptops (when on sale).
The amount of work that Dell put into making sure most of the hardware won't be reusable is astonishing, are they trying to win some kind of "least sustainable company" award?
I'll be honest, that 5300 preformed way better than I expected. I was expecting something in the ballpark of a GT 1030 as I've never heard of it before, but that was surprisingly not bad.. that until you look at the price of the system.
@@AnnaDoes I can imagine, I've had to deal with pretty bad tech support, such an honour to get a reply from you, hope you and Dawid are doing all right
got my r12 with a 3060ti for 1200 brand new and it came with dual channel ram! i dont care what u say you cant get a pc with a 3060ti for 1200. best investment ive spent. i was able to get a oled cx as my monitor since i saved 1000 dollars.
"what have we learned?"...don't buy prebuilds that use propriety parts. I learned this way back in the late 80's with Hewlett-Packard....the good thing was that it inspired me to learn how to build my own systems. Good Video though Dawid.
This channel has made me realize that I hate dell pre builts. Thank you, Dawid, for your service to the people. Friends don't let friends buy dell products 😂
Your reaction was suprisingly quite chill when you opened it up. I thought you were going to scream wildy like a maniac and going KO to the floor of the pure ram madness in there.
I remember for a shot time the last generation you could get a 5800(nonX) 16GB single channel, a 2TB 7200RPM, and a 6800XT for something like $1950, with a 3 year warranty. It was a good thing we went with the 5800 nonX too becasue we didnt realize the CPU cooler would both be a box cooler meant for a pentium, as well as being choked worse David Carradine
I have an R14. I tried upgrading to 128Gb of T-Force ram and it didn’t like it at all. I’m returning it today and just ordered Corsair Vengeance since it seems to work for you and a couple of other RUclipsrs. Thanks for the video.
they really optimized their efficiency over the last couple of gens, which was always my main issue. I can see myself going team red next time if they keep going.
@@VinnyVidiVintage complete overkill. But, I got it for $360 US, so it was at least cheaper. Plus, I had already bought 32gb's of teamgroup ARGB 3600 speed ram for my 9700k last year. Which was a mistake. I also received a b550-F for Christmas. After purchasing a used Dark Rock Pro 4, my total cost was under $500.
The branding. I used to be obsessed with Alienware because I always wanted one as a kid, back when they used to be good. Their newer desktops are horrible, but their older stuff is pretty good and was built better. Their laptops are also pretty damn nice, and probably the only thing I will ever consider getting from them.
I almost bought a $2800 Alienware a10 on Black Friday gamer nexus saved me from that mess with their reviews, months later for about the same cost I am doing my own build after finally getting a 3080 from Best Buy and it will be form factor
@@DawidDoesTechStuff the 5300 is OK, especially in this market but not at that price obviously, it was low end when it came out. I think it's like 1050 3GB performance, not 100% sure.
I've been wanting a pc for awhile, in November I finally bought a refurbished one from NZXT. My boyfriend told me after I had bought it that he was planning on buying me a Alienware PC for Christmas.. I'm so glad he didn't. RIP my NZXT build though, it just died yesterday after the PSU committed sudoku.
Thanks for the great review Dawid. I thought about getting this PC, but I ended up building my own PC instead. After watching your review, I'm really glad I build my own PC instead.
i was looking at them they look a lot nicer and airflow seems better but they way overcharge for things even like 1TB SSD for like $300 when you can get like a SN570 for $130
Thanks to that AIO misfortune I finally understand what Alienware really means. Mix and match unrelated hardware specs to create the ultimate alien abomination. I should really have noticed sooner with the weird placements and semi-proprietary components. Meh…
The AW you bought previously also had the same memory upgrade ability. Getting an AW and combing in a bunch of deals can actually be cheaper than building your own PC. I got a 3700x with liquid cooling, rtx 3080, 16gb dual channel ram, 512gb nvme for $1950 cad after taxes during the black friday sale of 2019. (10% off for new customer, 15% cashback for rakuten and 500 off for BF sale). You probably still can't get my config at this price doing it yourself today. Also you have to get the AIO with any AW build. For whatever reason they have the dumbest case design but if you spec it right you end up with a great PC. Yes it doesn't justify some of their stupid builds but AW PCs can be good if you spec them properly and buy at the right time
All Dell system reviewers: "We bought the worst possible model offered by this OEM, (again!) Guess what? It sucks!" TBF: Dell should have higher min specs on these. Like no SC RAM options or air cooling. Those cheaper options should be kept in the XPS lineups. But anyways, I have several Alienware desktops. All options were carefully selected and they're not min spec units... guess what! They don't suck! Amazing, right?! The only mods I've done where I put in quieter fans. Also, the mid-range and higher builds are better buys for your buck and you should always call and ask for a better price as they give discounts easily. But if you wait for a sale you can even get decent models for a good price. I bought a Black Friday salefor my daughter for $1399 with an 11th gen i7, 16GB, 3060ti, 512 NVMe which I feel would have been a decent price even before everything blew up.
3:25 I actually see these wings as useful for protecting the cables and rear connectors when sliding that robot ~ against a wall. In my setup, the power and DP connector are the ones taking the hit.
I absolutely SCORED an Alienware Area 51 R2 locally for $150 cash! That was a pretty insane deal! It was water damaged, so required a bit of work and 2 out of 3 of the GTX 980 Tis worked!! Using it as my main system now and gave one of the GPUs to my younger brother.
are alienware pcs different in every country? here in ireland you HAVE to get it watercooled (no air cooled option) and the minimum gpu spec is a 6800xt, psu 750 watts only. min ram is 2x 8gb sticks and cpu is a 5900x. i guess the quality of alienware products depends where you live
You shouldn't be able to purchase these without the liquid cooling! These should be the cheapest prebuilt you gotta talk to a sales rep for a discount or acquire a discount code, I got an r12 with a 3060ti for €1280 back in April prices have risen thought and they gave a further discount because I made some complaints about the motherboard
I've been subbed for quite some time now. Just wanted to say your videos are very refreshing to me. the current landscape of PC content is as flat as Kansas, I absolutely can't stand how boring most people are. Thanks for being entertaining my man!
I feel like the R13 does perform better than the R14 mostly bc it has newer generation stuff. Im personally getting the R13 bc I think its one of the better pre-builds and I just dont have the time to build my own. The specs: 12th gen i5 12600K(water cooled), dual channel 16gb ddr5 ram, GTX 1660 TI, 256GB ssd (boot) + 2TB ssd (storage). Perfect specs for what im going to be doing.
I bought an XPS 8950 desktop from them recently for my first pc, with exactly the same internals as the Alienware in your vid. I've tried really hard to mod and swap out parts, but the deep-rooted effects of their proprietary philosophy is a nightmare to bypass. Regarding the power supply, I modded the metal shell sheltering the psu (out of consideration for fan position on generic psus), figured out how to connect the GPU and CPU slots on the motherboard to generic modular SFX psus (because ATX would not fit in that tiny space), only to yield when I dug deeper into the SYS connection by opening the stock psu and looking up the pin outs of generic psu motherboard connections online. It is operating solely on 12V rails, and the positions of all the pins in the cable of the stock psu (hence motherboard) do not align with the few applicable ones from generic psus. Unless one has absolutely thorough knowledge and access to single pin to single pin cables (DIY maybe?), the only solution would be a completely customised psu. I even emailed Corsair and they instantly gave up, similar to the advice for me from many RUclips reviewers and reddit advisors Now I'm trying out a generic AIO solution (limited to single 120mm fan because of Dell's case of choice). A tower air cooler is possible too, but only ones the size of the Noctua NH-U9S would be able to fit nicely (I've seen reviewers painstakingly squeeze bigger ones to uncomfortably fit though). *I will try your mounting method, it seems ingenious *PS: They bundled the same 460W psu with my RTX 3070 build with no upgrade option lol, which is why I had to go through all that in the first place. I wanted to purchase the upgraded psu from their parts store, but they don't have it listed either
Cool story time! So over xmas, they had similar alienware systems on special (think they still are... tbh its prob marketing to always have them "on sale") However, on the Dell Ebay store, they're the same price as the website ...... and if you're a ebay Plus member, you get discount codes and free shipping. Could get a 5800x/3070 alienware gaming PC for around $2kAUD - not bad. *Something like $3399 marked down to $2499 SALE! Plus discount code **I got my Alienware monitor in the same fashion. I was considering buying it, and swapping out the cpu and gpu with my current PC (3600/1080), and then sell the alienware PC with the older/lesser gear in it for $1500ishAUD. Essentially getting a decent upgrade for $500odd. However, I was never sure if the 3600 would work on the "b550" board using a Dell bios. Or if the 1080 (asus strix) would physically fit, or if the PSU would have enough power etc. Plus I didn't have enough money at the time to outlay for it. *If my GPU stuffs up tomorrow, I'd think this might be the way to go, here in AUS you're looking at $1500AUD for a 3070 retail anyways.
Interesting video. Just bought an R13 will all the upgrades I could find. Even got a decent veteran discount. I'm curious how well their water cooling works into that little case. I mostly VR game so that will certainly push the CPU temps.
Alienware is such a corporate PC in gaming drag, I understand a good number of people owning one will never open it up and won't care... but for those who do and were expecting magic fairies and unicorns inside the machine, will be underwhelmed by it's drab grey metal interior and lack of said magical parts, I'm sticking to BMO (Build My Own).
I had exactly the same experience buying a laptop from Dell. It took so long that I told them I needed to cancel the order and refused the delivery. Too bad their shipping information doesn't update faster so you can see what's happening.
Interestingly, the inside of this Alienware is the same as the Dell XPS. This system is basically a huge plastic XPS with better airflow and a robot vagina.
"Robot vagina" lol
Sus
I thoroughly enjoy watching you videos. You hyperbolic Polish dude. ;)
So - what PC should I buy. Lightroom, photoshop, video production, high graphic gaming......
Hey you didn't answer my question in my last 2 comments but how much and big is the monitor you use in the video?
Wheeeeew! I was getting worried that you were kidnapped by someone on Craigslist selling a 3080ti for $300 behind a 7 - 11 or something. Glad you're back!!
I was trapped in someone’s basement for like a week and a half. Quite the experience, but I’m glad it’s over now. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff
Sorry about that, but I did give you plenty of nice sammiches and a blackberry to help you pass the time.
@@indridcold2840 But you DIDN'T give him a 3080ti... shame on you
@@EvilDoppleganger
It's even worse than you think, I kept him in my basement until he "gifted" me *HIS* 3080Ti. I'm a monster 🤷♂️
It puts the thermal paste on its skin or it gets the hose again!
Such a shame what dell has done to Alienware. I used to work for Alienware, back when it was Alienware owned by the original group of friends. They used to hate Dell, and all the b.s. Dell branded parts. Alienware back then used to pride it's self on using the best (or at least giving you the option) to have the best OE parts on the market. Mr Dell himself lied to all of us, and said he wouldn't change anything about how Alienware ran its operation, and was only going to give the finical backing to keep growing. Then a year later he fired like 98% of the Alienware team and sent the production to China. Now you get this crap. Please do not buy anything made by Dell or Alienware. They ONLY care about maximizing profits and making investors happy. They do not care about you, or gamers, they just want your money.
No way! You use to work for Alienware? I’m sorry to hear what happened. I can’t believe they just fired everyone like that, really sucks.
They really are only interested in one thing, profit margins.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff yes when they finally "let me go" they handed me a paper explaining how the move would save them millions and make the investors happy. I probably still got it someplace in my house. The original Alienware was a great place to work, I was with them 10 years, and probably still would be if they didn't sell it. It was cool to see a small company full of real gamers, grow and grow and grow. It was one of the few places I've worked that felt more like a family, then a job and I'll forever miss it. Origin PC which I'm sure you heard of, was opened by a former Alienware employee, some of the original staff went to work for them. They try to keep the spirit of what Alienware used to be, alive.
@@aaronwlkr It’s awesome to hear that you guys had such I good thing going. I’m sorry to hear that Dell destroyed that. I’ll definitely go check out an Origin system, I didn’t realize it was started by an Alienware guy.
It’s wild that Dell was just like “Soz, gotta drive dat profit” as a reading for firing all of you. That’s a pretty huge dick move.
The whole story sounds so jewy
@@XRG9805 ... What? I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
I remember when Aienware was such a premium product (early 2000’s) and I always wanted one… oh how the mighty have fallen…
Same since forever tbh.
We just have better options these days (or should have)
@@loowick4074 Well before Dell bought them they were halfway decent, just expensive. But now? No. Just say No...
Was thinking the same. Then DELL bought them out and everyone started calling it Dellienware and fanbois were like "They'll stay awesome, they're not gonna fall just because DELL bought them out, this is a good thing!"
It was only ever classed as a premium machine by price, not by those that could build their own equivalent for half the price.
They fell when they got bought up by Dell.
I’m back BABY!
Let's gooo I missed u dudee
yay ur back
Missed ya man
Wb champ
Hes back!
Dell: Same metal chassis since 1998
I swear these prebuilts are the same thing just in different bodies
That's like saying that Madonna in the 90's is the same thing as Madonna in the 80's: They both suck, and it's hard to tell which one was worse.
Funny Fact, Dell promised to make a E-waste less Laptop.
Yet they still pull this shit for desktops.
When their original dell desktops could easily be transferred to a standard ATX case
They just see who can glue the most plastic crap to it. 😂
@@darknessblades *looks at my old optiplex's proprietary front panel connection*
Yeeeeah...about that
There are some nice prebuilts out there asus g15dk is a prebuilt I bought it has a ryzen 7 5800x cooled by a towercooler and the graphics card is an 3070 it has an 500gb nvme and 4 tb hdd which I installed my self and last but not least it has two 8 gb ram sticks which are in dual channel. The power supply is a greatwall which I made some research on and according to google and a couple off forums some corsair power supplys are rebranded greatwalls all this I got for 1800$ which in todays market is quite nice I would say
My temps, if someone is interested were the only real problem I had with it besides the nvme being too small there fore I bought a 4tb hdd but I undervolted the cpu and changed some ppt tdc values runing at full load gaming I get around 60degrees celsius keep in mind it has no intake fans but okay airflow
About 20 years ago I bought my very first computer from Dell and they did the exact same thing! They claimed I'd cancelled it, but when I asked why I was never refunded my money for my "cancelled" order they had no explanation.
By law, you have to be "done dirty" by Dell when you order a PC from them at this point
I think it’s part of their service to be honest.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff Did they get you with the monthly tech support scam too?
Dell more like dell-ete the fucking company
At least you get some standard power supply and motherboards with pretty much anything other than dell prebuilt systems for about the same price just in case you wanna upgrade the cooler and the cpu down the line... A prebuilt is almost never a good deal. I'd very much appreciate at least if the prebuilt systems with somewhat high end graphics cards in them were sold for like 150 dollars more and came with a decent motherboard and a decent power supply. But it's generally a motherboard that will throttle the top end cpu and a psu that will throttle almost any high power unit upgrade... That to me is just a shame because most of these units are customizable prior to your order.
It's weird in South Africa our Dell customer service is outstanding. Probably not the same worldwide.
Always love seeing that single channel memory, next to a cooler that I wouldn't pair with a Celeron... ULTIMATE GAMING!
a Celeron D from 2005 maybe.
That would be good for a Celeron though, I’ve had an i3 540 that has a stock cooler and it runs around 30°C normal temperatures load. You won’t be doing something intensive in a Celeron. It’s a perfect pairing to me! Balance out costs.
Just like the right to repair, OEM PC builders should be stopped from using proprietary stuff that they charge x2 to replace. This just contributes to E-waste as the upgrade options are so limited. Would never give Dell my money.
Good video 😁
What's even dumber is that they USED to use standard parts, and slowly make them more and more proprietary over time
I am with you. I will only ever give NZXT or Origin my money for pre-built saying they ONLY use standard PC parts. I'm sure there are others but those are the two that I know of the best.
it must really the replacement fees and prebuild tax they make profit on. Why design and order specially manufactured parts, when there is a 40 year old standard that would cost them less.
@@HappyBeezerStudios It is to force you to buy a new PC rather than upgrade & to try to force you to buy from them again = massive E-waste
i might give dell $2 if they were hungry an sleeping on the street
It’s too bad at one time Alienware was a private company and they sold real custom pc’s… they were one of the first out there
Alienware stuff are like reverse sleeper builds. Sexy on the outside, ugly on the inside.
Hahaha this is so true.
A generic dell case with a bunch of plastic stuck to it.
Not even sexy outside. Its unique i guess but its like a ricer
@@HorsepowerGarageVideos perfectly accurate
ricer computer
I remember when dell bought alienware they sent an email to alienware customers assuring us that they wouldn't change how alienware does it's builds. One of the best computer I ever owned was that pre Dell Alienware (2002) . Sad to see how Dell was so full of shit. It was also the last pre built system I ever owned.
Will say, there laptops are still insane! If you want/need a laptop like in my case, it’s perfect, they’re amazing!
@@ATejkl I had both laptop and prebuilt pc.. trash at the best.
@@dzgaming1 I dont know which laptop you got, but mine was amazing
@@ATejkl OK maybe the laptop was nice but it was still overpriced and the wait for it to be built and shipped was too long. This company is stilling putting single channel ram in Ryzen cpus.. that right there should tell you everything you need to know.
@@dzgaming1 well, the laptops are designed and built by Alienware, but desktops are built by dell, so it’s dells problem, not theirs
If the PSU and motherboard was standard, I'd honestly recommend this OEM gaming machine with proper RAM of course. They improved air flow and improved case space. Ugh... Damn shame.
Yeah it's a shame about the PSU but to be fair their platinum 750w is likely quite good. What Dell appears to have done here is standardize across the XPX/Alienware line so no more standard psu and just the little guy we see in the older (and newer xps) and their server line. wasn't expecting a standard mb tho..
@@notlNSIGHT It‘s just pissing me off that they are doing this easy to repair Laptop stuff now to limit E-Waste, but are creating a ton more with this shit… All just marketing again…
If you work with dell you can get the price lower. I was able to get the max specs with 10% off the whole order, so rather than paying $5k for the pc I paid $4,100 I also got money back with Dell Rewards worth $160 dollars, so $3940 for the top specs in a market where you can’t even get a good GPU for less than $3,000
I purchased the machine for my job since I develop games and it’s a damn beast of a machine, I got 64GB of ram with the GTX 3090, 12th Gen intel core-i9 12900k processor, I ran a bunch of stress tests and this pc can handle whatever you throw at it. I can run multiple games in the background, while rendering large projects in blender cycles, and the pc never slugs or slows down
If you get this pc, don’t cheap out with the lower end model is all I can say, get the liquid cooling, get a decent GPU, and you won’t regret the purchase, you don’t need the max specs to enjoy this build somewhere in middle ground is what I would suggest for someone who just needs a gaming machine, but if you need a development machine, max this pc out, it’s worth it! That is… if you can work with dell to get discounts, don’t buy this PC online without speaking with a service rep cause they will help you lower the price. Hold off otherwise.
Lol
Well, it's official. I am now going to recommend everyone I know to NEVER buy from Dell. This incident and all the videos from GN and LTT showing their shabby quality in both parts and service proves to me that Dell simply does not give a single care about customers anymore. Just the money they get from them.
The Alienware laptops aren't too bad tbh, overpriced but totally usable. The Desktops are near literally hot garbage.
eh id disagree, dell is the best option for office and server computers
Its always about money for companies regardless.
I got an xps with liquid cooling an i7 12700k, dual channel ddr5 ram and a 3080 for 2000 dollars. I added a second front fan and it all runs quite well now that I got a crucial bios update I did not realize I missed. It is the same setup as the new alienware desktop, minus all the extra plastic and lights the chassis is exactly the same though.
@@richardatthegate i have an inspiron 3891, adding a sata fan hub allowed me to reduce temps by adding a front and rear fan
For the price they charge im shocked these OEM gaming systems even exist... My first gaming PC was an alienware and looking back on it I got SCAMMED hard on the price to spec ratio... like zero cooling and bad temps
The only OEM that’s worth the price is micro centers powerspec line up. They use actual well known parts and have the basics you expect an actual build to have (nvme, dual channel RAM, wraith spire cooler, etc)
10:45 you do have to give props to dell for the anti sag gpu holder, i wish more cases had something like that packed in.
i wonder what GPU's are compatible with it.
6:20 also it looks like you can put another fan if you had the right bracket.
Yeah $0.05 plastic holder, well done Dell. Damn the Dell bar is Loooooooooow.
@@fracturedlife1393 It’s just giving credit where’s its due. Dell isn’t necessarily great - but not many cases offer anti sag brackets, let alone mass produced prebuilt manufacturers.
the fact that they include it for that tiny RX 5300 though is hilarious. It's so unnecessary in that configuration.
@@Insecurity119 the bracket is most likely due to shipping.
the power supply will support the gfx card.
unfortunately
I amazes me how Alienware is still in business with the prices they charge, considering you can get an i5 11thgen and a 3060 in a system with dual channel 32gb ram from lenovo for roughly $1300
it's Dell. it doesn't matter if they don't make much under that brand, when the laptops and office machines make the big buck
Not over here in Hong Kong, they put a 10700 with a 2060 haha
Wow, even 1300$ for that is kind of a steal. Got a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and RX6800 for 100$ more
@@HappyBeezerStudios Don't forget about all their server machines they sell that's where the real big bucks are.
@@esotericjahanism5251 yup, that has always been the big moneymaker.
Y’know, Dell’s quality only seems to have DECREASED since I bought my Alienware 17 R5 from them almost 5 years ago. At least that thing just needed a thermal paste replacement which was not that bad to do, but this is just sad what Dell has come down to.
Depends on your perspective, I've owned and/or worked on just about every model over the years and Its honestly always been hit or miss. Some of the product lines they really queeze every dollar and others they are far more progressive than other manufactures. That being said your models issues are partially due to Intel, they misspaced their thermal and tdp ratings so the OEMs had already began spec and production of the coolers prior to launch. Now Dell could have backpedaled and re-engineered a new cooler but if they did that they would also delay launch and it affects their relationship with Intel which is.... complicated. What aggravates me is they had the ability to over engineer the coolers and they choose not to, and its not the first time Intel has caused this issue. And with the R5 in particular it was the test per-say of a newer compact thin design thats why it only ran one revision because they wanted to use what they learned to develop the m line. And they did, but then also made the same mistakes again... I have a m17 R2 now myself and it has thermal issues with the i7, they all require undervolting to correct.
Dell’s gaming laptops have been known to be pretty decent. Their prebuilts however...
Yeah my pc is priced quite close to 1800 and it look so mich nicer lol
My Inspiron 7567 that I bought in the winter of 2016/17 is still going strong. Granted installed a M.2 and replaced the 500gb HDD that came with it; as well as upgrading the ram. I also did a fresh install of windows at some point after getting rid of all bloatware. Installed HWInfo64 for fan control so the 1050 doesn't cook and this thing has been a great laptop.
@@TheRickJames If it’s anything like what I experienced with my 17 R5 after taking off the heatsink to repaste the CPU and GPU, the thermal paste they used is probably dried up at this point. I kid you not, when I brushed my hand over the paste on the CPU, it was dry as sandpaper, and that was only after a year of owning the laptop. I went and repasted with TG Kryonaut and my temps and clock speeds were MILES better (I could even clock all six cores on my i9-8950HK anywhere between 4.1 and 4.3 GHz, though under full load at 4.3 it would still thermal throttle after about 30 seconds, and that’s with a heavy -.150 mV undervolt).
The sucky part about the m-line of their laptops was that they went back to inverted motherboards like on the 15 R2/17 R3 so to do any kind of repaste would involve disconnecting a lot of cables.
I found your note on the chassis at 2:30 particularly insightful. It gave me better perspective on Dell-Alienware's design choices.
To think that once upon a time Alienware was a name of quality and solid gaming excellence.. But then they went and got themselves Dell-Eated
Dell themselves got Dell-eated. The other day I found a 2008 Dell Inspiron 530s in my parents basement and decided to take it and check it out, surprisingly after seeing how shitty OEM machines are today especially in terms of compatibility, literally everything in it was spec'd to industry standard form factors. Standard 24pin atx power, standard(for the time) 4 pin CPU power, All the Fans were 80mm(rare today but still a standardized size) and use a PWM connectors and headers, the PSU was a TFX form factor, and the Motherboard was a Micro ATX and all its standoffs were the same pattern the ones today use. So I'm going to end up building a sleeper out of it, but since it is a TFX its basically an ATX that's been cut in half vertically it makes fitting a GPU in it that's any good kinda tricky. That's really the only OEM weirdness going on with it but I guess Nvidia still makes some of their RTX Quadro series in a low profile form factor so I got an RTX A2000 quadro that im gonna reflash the bios on to run at clock speeds that match the 3050
I ordered a x17 laptop when it was on sale in November and they cancelled my order too claiming it was to make sure it wasn't fraud. When I called them about it they tried to tell me I had to reorder and wouldn't be able to get it at the sale price because it was a limited number and they were all accounted for. I threw a fit over the phone and spent like 5 hours talking to 30 different people and in the end I got it at the sale price wich was like $570.00 off. It ended up being delivered a month later on the exact day they estimated.
Ahaha, that’s how you negotiate with a soulless corporate hellhole.
Remember when the minimum GPU that was actually in a prebuilt was a 1060, I miss when prebuilt “minimums” GPUs weren’t literal trash.
True, my friend got the last gen of good pre built, with a 1060 6GB. Kinda like kids nowadays. Rude, spoiled and not thankfull.
@@phoenixyt124 For someone who's not a kid you sure cry a lot.
@@cynthiacrescent uhm, so first of, no i don’t, and second of, if i would, where’s the problem in that? I only said that dell is kinda like a kid nowadays. Don’t know where your origin of being hurt comes from. I didn’t do anything to you, did i?
my old Asus G11 CD-K's graphics card was a GTX 1050 (non ti), i miss when gpu's were in stock
A N I M E
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David... I got the r13 3090 with best alder lake processor. It destroys everything that is out there with the ddr5 I had put in. It kills me you got the lesser version of this release. Why?
What really sucks is that the 5300 was actually an _amazing_ bang for buck card *when it's priced correctly.* I remember seeing a dell system with something like a 10300 (yes that's a real processor) and 5300 for under 500 USD at one point when on sale.
you gotta love how dells cheapness prevents you from using amd cooler hardware you have to use intel on amd that's hilarious🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Obviously, I see you bought the entry level model, so I can't speak about that. However, I have the same PC, with the brand new Intel Alder Lake chip (12700k), 40GB of DDR5 RAM, 6800XT GPU, the 750W power supply, see thru window, full RGB lighting inside and out, and the Cryo water cooled setup.
My build is much better than what's going on here, albeit at a cost. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I know that some people love to rag on Alienware/Dell, but if you spend more money for the better models, they are great PCs, and the performance metrics will prove that. These new R13 and R14 models are a major step up from the previous models in terms of cooling, upgradeability, performance, etc.
Dude exactly, this video is a joke.
@@mattfleig2621 Tell that to the poor souls who payed all to much for that system.
I would have loved to see some more in-depth review of that GPU. I'd never heard of the 5300.
OEM part, they don't want you to know about it.
You don't want to know about it.
@@mikem2253 why not? Even if it's OEM only, I'd love to see it in a comparison. Maybe Gamer's Nexus will get their hands on one some day.
@@EvocativeKitsune
It's basically about the same as a GTX 970 in performance.
@@darthwiizius Impressively bad! Thanks
Working in customer support where we set up deliveries, the story at the beginning is honestly so accurate. That stuff happens aaaallll the time.
9:45 ironically enough, my MSI prebuild also has good support for memory out of the box.
ABS makes some decently priced 3000 series builds. I couldnt afford to build another pc this year so i bought one spec'ed with a 3060 ti and 10400. All in it was 1900 cad. I'll canibalize it and start a new build for an ultra clean gaming/workstation.
Honestly, I'm glad I got an Alienware pre-built during Dell's last sale in March last year. Ended up getting a 6800xt, 5800x, 512gb nvme, and 16gb of 3200mhz DDR4 for $1977. Ended up ripping all that out and throwing them into a PC I built because I had so many issues with the Alienware operating system.
You got ripped off so much you could have bought a prebuid with better components for at least 800$ cheaper
@@42o45 who’s selling that prebuilt config for almost $1000 cheaper with better components?😂
So glad to be privileged enough to be in a position to build my own. Because for the cost of those parts my heart shudders to think of ever purchasing that monstrosity.
You're a pretty chill e-bro and I appreciate your content
I bought a top of the range Alienware laptop some years ago with a GTX 1080 on board. Thing came with this massive, heavy cooling solution but would thermal throttle after about 15mins of play. Turns out Dell had put all these expensive components in this laptop but had skimped on the thermal paste. I opened it up, put about £1 or £2 worth of MX-4 in there and it ran beautifully. I ran before and after benchmarks and it was insane how much that tiny cost improved performance.
To be fair to Dell, when I bought that thing I didn't know much about computers and that experience inspired me to build my own desktop. Plus, I have a 1080 laptop, that still holds up to this day, to use when I'm away from home (which is a lot).
They bought these for my schools esports team. I looked at them and said “why in the world would they ever buy this, they’re better off buying PCs off of eBay.”
Sounds like both a first-world problem and the natural state of a school's intelligence.
DELL - let's make sure our prebuilt that indeed looks like a robot's whatsit is impossible to upgrade. You never know, that might force some return custom... maybe, you never know, what do you mean customers need to be happy to come back..?
My first gaming PC was an Alienware X51. It served me well for many a year with numerous upgrades. Now I build my own PC's but the techniques I learnt doing all the upgrades gave me the confidence to break free of the pre-built shackles 😊
How it started: Watching and giggling at hours of Dawid's OEM pre-built videos. How it's going: Purchased lightly used Omen 5800X/3060ti 30l due to the mafia loanshark level extortion going on in the GPU market currently. Sigh, I can always case swap if i have to. Sincerely, A beaten man.
You could try Radeon's Anti Lag to get the input lag down. It can make a huge difference in some games.
That’s true, it definitely needed help with Doom.
Is sad that they have such option in the first place...
Should always be in performance mode :7
Anti-lag will add input lag on low frames
@@iAMaReaperGotprobZ Wrong. It may add input lag on high frame rates.
@@iAMaReaperGotprobZ Why would you use new hardware to play old games?
I rather build me scrapped old computer for old games.
It’s crazy you posted this today because i was at Walmart tonight and they had a prebuilt, HP I think, with almost the same specs as this, Ryzen 5, 8 gb ram, 256 gig ssd with an RX5500 and it was $640 bucks. I do think this Alienware has a newer Ryzen 5, the nondescript box at Walmart didn’t specify, but holy crap. It’s definitely not 600 bucks better, people really like paying for that stupid Alienware form factor, I guess.
Edit: actually I looked it up because I thought I was nuts when Dawid started showing prices for comparable products but I was wrong about the CPU. It does have Ryzen 5 5600 in it. So it’s just about literally the same PC for 639 bucks. That’s actually a pretty hot deal, maybe I should buy it. Or if you want, Dawid, I’ll buy it for you and ship it to you if you want to do a comparison!
I would like to see a comparison between the most expensive and least expensive alienware - just to see if there is any difference in build quality.
Do people actually think of Alienware as a premium brand anymore? I guess if you still think Tommy Hilfiger and Polo are still stylish you might.
I reckon the only reason there wasn't the typical level of Dell VD present is that they haven't ported most of it to Windows 11 yet.
ahh smart
i got a Alienware R10 for 200€ because some guy just wanted the GPU in it. i actually prefer the R10 because it doesnt have the Shitty oem mainboard format and the shitty oem PSU. it also supports manual config of memory and it does do XMP Profiles. just slapped in a Corsair H60 in it, upgraded it to 32GB RAM and its nice now.
What I’ve learned in the past with Alienware is to customize your own gaming rig with better parts at cheaper the price of an Alienware anytime
these things are such a waste of precious metals and plastic. even their shape makes them frustrating, since they take up more space than they otherwise should, and can't even function as an overpriced table to set stuff on. the fact that they don't even bother to powder coat the case and power supply gives off such an aura of cheapness it actually aggravates me. I don't know how they sell at all.
My best friend finally got a desktop (she’s always had a laptop) and her parents surprised her with an Alienware for Christmas. Basically a Ryzen 7 5800 and a 3060. But guess what? They gave her a single 500gb HDD. $2k on a PC for a HDD? And a 500gb one at that? Dell straight up ripped her parents off. Sold them a bunch of warranties and everything too
That's the sole reason Alienware exists to scam old and pc illiterate people out of their money buying gifts for their kids.
Call me rude, but why would anyone willingly pay for what is a "stupid tax"? There's not a lot you can fuck up if you're already buying a pre-built system.
Not sure. Her parents dont know PCs so they obviously took advantage lol @@DanielFerreira-ez8qd
The baseplate for the cpu cooler is literally machined onto the rear sidepanel behind the motherboard. By trying to eliminate the need to fiddle with a baseplate behind the cpu to streamline building and reduce costs, they ruined cooler upgradability. If they at least used standard parts, the machine would have been salvageable.
FINALLY, I WAS WATIING SOO LONG(but you know its dell so you can't blame david)
Haha yeah, 2 months to receive the PC was a rough wait 🤣
My thoughts too praying he didn't get the rona
Did you try turning off the RivaTuner overlay in DOOM? It has problems with overlay applications making the frametime horrendous. My 3700x and 6800XT with an overlay kept my framerate at a constant 40fps, then after disabling any overlay I had, it fixed it.
Dawid: Prebuilt has improved
Dell: Must be that new box.
It’s the only explanation. 😂
I won't be able to unsee that PC case after what you just said about it
Ugh, well I really like Dell's Alienware laptops. My dad has one from 2016 with a gtx 1070 8 gig and i7 7th gen and dual channel ram 16 gig. I like it a lot. But it seems maybe their towers not worth unlike their laptops (when on sale).
Alienware used to look kinda cool, but this looks like somehting the 1950's would imagine the future would look like xD
The amount of work that Dell put into making sure most of the hardware won't be reusable is astonishing, are they trying to win some kind of "least sustainable company" award?
They’re competing with apple
@@VinhNguyen-ip7bn true
I'll be honest, that 5300 preformed way better than I expected. I was expecting something in the ballpark of a GT 1030 as I've never heard of it before, but that was surprisingly not bad.. that until you look at the price of the system.
Dell's customer service policy is pretty disgusting, I'm surprised they haven't been taken down by the cia or something
It’s the WORST. Well maybe not the worst, but it sucks to have to interact with.
@@AnnaDoes I can imagine, I've had to deal with pretty bad tech support, such an honour to get a reply from you, hope you and Dawid are doing all right
got my r12 with a 3060ti for 1200 brand new and it came with dual channel ram! i dont care what u say you cant get a pc with a 3060ti for 1200. best investment ive spent. i was able to get a oled cx as my monitor since i saved 1000 dollars.
Same I got my R12 3090 for about the price of a 3090. Zero Interest.
@@andurilan I was trying to find one with a 3080 but the 3060ti was the only one on sale sadly. Gotta love the 0% interest though
Man I remember when I was severely wanting an alienware. But the more reviews I see I would now just steer completely clear of them.
nowadays Alienware is just the fancy "dude, you're getting a dell?", especially since they're owned by Dell
"what have we learned?"...don't buy prebuilds that use propriety parts. I learned this way back in the late 80's with Hewlett-Packard....the good thing was that it inspired me to learn how to build my own systems. Good Video though Dawid.
This channel has made me realize that I hate dell pre builts. Thank you, Dawid, for your service to the people. Friends don't let friends buy dell products 😂
Your reaction was suprisingly quite chill when you opened it up. I thought you were going to scream wildy like a maniac and going KO to the floor of the pure ram madness in there.
I remember for a shot time the last generation you could get a 5800(nonX) 16GB single channel, a 2TB 7200RPM, and a 6800XT for something like $1950, with a 3 year warranty. It was a good thing we went with the 5800 nonX too becasue we didnt realize the CPU cooler would both be a box cooler meant for a pentium, as well as being choked worse David Carradine
I have an R14. I tried upgrading to 128Gb of T-Force ram and it didn’t like it at all. I’m returning it today and just ordered Corsair Vengeance since it seems to work for you and a couple of other RUclipsrs. Thanks for the video.
While it’s still bad, you gotta give them credit for improving the airflow of their case significantly and the better ram support.
Bro what happened?? Missed your videos Glad you are back. Keep up the good content! Will always be waiting for another video
I really like AMD's GPU offerings this time around. I use a 6700xt daily and it's quiet and powerful. I will soon be pairing it with a 5800x.
I love my 6700xt as well.., although I am over killing my system by pairing it with a 5950x..
they really optimized their efficiency over the last couple of gens, which was always my main issue. I can see myself going team red next time if they keep going.
@@VinnyVidiVintage complete overkill. But, I got it for $360 US, so it was at least cheaper. Plus, I had already bought 32gb's of teamgroup ARGB 3600 speed ram for my 9700k last year. Which was a mistake. I also received a b550-F for Christmas. After purchasing a used Dark Rock Pro 4, my total cost was under $500.
@@HappyBeezerStudios I usually buy Nvidia but this time around I wanted to go all AMD. As soon as my Samsung 980 pro comes. All will be complete
Glad you're back Dawid, hope you're doing well
I genuinely have no idea how Alienware stays in business. Even in the pre-built OEM space they are a horrible value.
The branding.
I used to be obsessed with Alienware because I always wanted one as a kid, back when they used to be good.
Their newer desktops are horrible, but their older stuff is pretty good and was built better. Their laptops are also pretty damn nice, and probably the only thing I will ever consider getting from them.
I almost bought a $2800 Alienware a10 on Black Friday gamer nexus saved me from that mess with their reviews, months later for about the same cost I am doing my own build after finally getting a 3080 from Best Buy and it will be form factor
Dawid goes from explaining the computer to best fan fic to give examples for the computer
It's a frosty Saturday morning in Rochester NY and I had to tune in for a good laugh with my hot coffee! Thanks for making my day Dawid!
Man, I saw the GPU, and I was like "that wouldn't be the 5300 would it? Gotta be a 5500XT at minimum", how wrong I was
Haha!! I know right. The RX 5300 really is shocking in this PC.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff the 5300 is OK, especially in this market but not at that price obviously, it was low end when it came out. I think it's like 1050 3GB performance, not 100% sure.
@@Al3ksandrOrlov Nah more like a 1060 3gb
I've been wanting a pc for awhile, in November I finally bought a refurbished one from NZXT. My boyfriend told me after I had bought it that he was planning on buying me a Alienware PC for Christmas.. I'm so glad he didn't.
RIP my NZXT build though, it just died yesterday after the PSU committed sudoku.
Thanks for the great review Dawid. I thought about getting this PC, but I ended up building my own PC instead. After watching your review, I'm really glad I build my own PC instead.
Dell: get less for your dollar.
Seriously that's pretty much a optiplex with a bunch of plastic melted on.
I’d say that if Dell does actually watch these videos, based on their excellent customer service skills, I imagine they just go ‘meh’ rather than care
The only people at Dell who'd have the power to change things are too busy counting their money to research any product/service feedback.
i was looking at them they look a lot nicer and airflow seems better but they way overcharge for things even like 1TB SSD for like $300 when you can get like a SN570 for $130
Thanks to that AIO misfortune I finally understand what Alienware really means. Mix and match unrelated hardware specs to create the ultimate alien abomination. I should really have noticed sooner with the weird placements and semi-proprietary components. Meh…
The AW you bought previously also had the same memory upgrade ability. Getting an AW and combing in a bunch of deals can actually be cheaper than building your own PC. I got a 3700x with liquid cooling, rtx 3080, 16gb dual channel ram, 512gb nvme for $1950 cad after taxes during the black friday sale of 2019. (10% off for new customer, 15% cashback for rakuten and 500 off for BF sale). You probably still can't get my config at this price doing it yourself today.
Also you have to get the AIO with any AW build. For whatever reason they have the dumbest case design but if you spec it right you end up with a great PC. Yes it doesn't justify some of their stupid builds but AW PCs can be good if you spec them properly and buy at the right time
Dawg, GTA 5 came out in 2013, move on!
All Dell system reviewers: "We bought the worst possible model offered by this OEM, (again!) Guess what? It sucks!"
TBF: Dell should have higher min specs on these. Like no SC RAM options or air cooling. Those cheaper options should be kept in the XPS lineups.
But anyways, I have several Alienware desktops. All options were carefully selected and they're not min spec units... guess what! They don't suck! Amazing, right?! The only mods I've done where I put in quieter fans.
Also, the mid-range and higher builds are better buys for your buck and you should always call and ask for a better price as they give discounts easily. But if you wait for a sale you can even get decent models for a good price. I bought a Black Friday salefor my daughter for $1399 with an 11th gen i7, 16GB, 3060ti, 512 NVMe which I feel would have been a decent price even before everything blew up.
FIRST
3:25 I actually see these wings as useful for protecting the cables and rear connectors when sliding that robot ~ against a wall.
In my setup, the power and DP connector are the ones taking the hit.
I absolutely SCORED an Alienware Area 51 R2 locally for $150 cash! That was a pretty insane deal! It was water damaged, so required a bit of work and 2 out of 3 of the GTX 980 Tis worked!! Using it as my main system now and gave one of the GPUs to my younger brother.
are alienware pcs different in every country? here in ireland you HAVE to get it watercooled (no air cooled option) and the minimum gpu spec is a 6800xt, psu 750 watts only. min ram is 2x 8gb sticks and cpu is a 5900x. i guess the quality of alienware products depends where you live
You shouldn't be able to purchase these without the liquid cooling! These should be the cheapest prebuilt you gotta talk to a sales rep for a discount or acquire a discount code, I got an r12 with a 3060ti for €1280 back in April prices have risen thought and they gave a further discount because I made some complaints about the motherboard
WTF, the last gen Alienware came with an AMD 5700, and this one comes with a RX 5300, downgrade on the GPU department, but it costs more?!?
I've been subbed for quite some time now. Just wanted to say your videos are very refreshing to me. the current landscape of PC content is as flat as Kansas, I absolutely can't stand how boring most people are. Thanks for being entertaining my man!
Welcome back Dawid i'v missed your video's over the last few weeks hope there are more interesting vid's on the way
I feel like the R13 does perform better than the R14 mostly bc it has newer generation stuff. Im personally getting the R13 bc I think its one of the better pre-builds and I just dont have the time to build my own. The specs: 12th gen i5 12600K(water cooled), dual channel 16gb ddr5 ram, GTX 1660 TI, 256GB ssd (boot) + 2TB ssd (storage). Perfect specs for what im going to be doing.
I bought an XPS 8950 desktop from them recently for my first pc, with exactly the same internals as the Alienware in your vid. I've tried really hard to mod and swap out parts, but the deep-rooted effects of their proprietary philosophy is a nightmare to bypass. Regarding the power supply, I modded the metal shell sheltering the psu (out of consideration for fan position on generic psus), figured out how to connect the GPU and CPU slots on the motherboard to generic modular SFX psus (because ATX would not fit in that tiny space), only to yield when I dug deeper into the SYS connection by opening the stock psu and looking up the pin outs of generic psu motherboard connections online. It is operating solely on 12V rails, and the positions of all the pins in the cable of the stock psu (hence motherboard) do not align with the few applicable ones from generic psus. Unless one has absolutely thorough knowledge and access to single pin to single pin cables (DIY maybe?), the only solution would be a completely customised psu. I even emailed Corsair and they instantly gave up, similar to the advice for me from many RUclips reviewers and reddit advisors
Now I'm trying out a generic AIO solution (limited to single 120mm fan because of Dell's case of choice). A tower air cooler is possible too, but only ones the size of the Noctua NH-U9S would be able to fit nicely (I've seen reviewers painstakingly squeeze bigger ones to uncomfortably fit though). *I will try your mounting method, it seems ingenious
*PS: They bundled the same 460W psu with my RTX 3070 build with no upgrade option lol, which is why I had to go through all that in the first place. I wanted to purchase the upgraded psu from their parts store, but they don't have it listed either
Cool story time!
So over xmas, they had similar alienware systems on special (think they still are... tbh its prob marketing to always have them "on sale")
However, on the Dell Ebay store, they're the same price as the website ...... and if you're a ebay Plus member, you get discount codes and free shipping.
Could get a 5800x/3070 alienware gaming PC for around $2kAUD - not bad.
*Something like $3399 marked down to $2499 SALE! Plus discount code
**I got my Alienware monitor in the same fashion.
I was considering buying it, and swapping out the cpu and gpu with my current PC (3600/1080), and then sell the alienware PC with the older/lesser gear in it for $1500ishAUD.
Essentially getting a decent upgrade for $500odd.
However, I was never sure if the 3600 would work on the "b550" board using a Dell bios.
Or if the 1080 (asus strix) would physically fit, or if the PSU would have enough power etc.
Plus I didn't have enough money at the time to outlay for it.
*If my GPU stuffs up tomorrow, I'd think this might be the way to go, here in AUS you're looking at $1500AUD for a 3070 retail anyways.
Interesting video. Just bought an R13 will all the upgrades I could find. Even got a decent veteran discount. I'm curious how well their water cooling works into that little case. I mostly VR game so that will certainly push the CPU temps.
Alienware is such a corporate PC in gaming drag, I understand a good number of people owning one will never open it up and won't care... but for those who do and were expecting magic fairies and unicorns inside the machine, will be underwhelmed by it's drab grey metal interior and lack of said magical parts, I'm sticking to BMO (Build My Own).
I had exactly the same experience buying a laptop from Dell. It took so long that I told them I needed to cancel the order and refused the delivery. Too bad their shipping information doesn't update faster so you can see what's happening.
3:41 "The gaps help give more airflow."
I just got the full spec'd R13. OMG its the best freakin machine I've ever used. Its so fast and gfx are unreal