Apparantly you've never tried running Civ 4.
A 1000$ notebook may do the job now, but what about the next game he
wants to play?
Laptops are almost non-upgradable. It's not worth it to get a cheapie
laptop and regret it later. I'm not a big fan of ASUS to be honest,
but they are an okay brand. Alienware just guarantees that you're
getting everything up to date.
As for being big laptops, What's wrong with that? Someone created the
notion a while ago that laptops have to weigh under a pound for them
to be good, but what's the point? You can always set it on a desk or
tv tray regardless of weight.
Actually my point is the $1000 asus will run circles (performance wise)
around the Toshiba $1500 Qosmio gaming laptop, so bang for your buck for
gaming, ASUS.
ASUS has a modular video card, but honestly, with a 9800m, you'll be
fine. After 3 years you'll want to buy a new computer (Desktop or
otherwise) instead of trying to upgrade anyways.
Also I have played Civ4 on and off for the last 2-3 years (or so it
feels), it's the only game I have installed on my $500 toshiba notebook.
That thing won't run WoW smoothly, but Civ 4 is turned based and while
it's not amazing, it still runs better. You don't need a $3000 PC to run
Civilization.
Nothing wrong with big laptops, but when I think laptop I think portable,
and I don't consider Alienwares "portable". Maybe that's not a selling
point for him, so whatever.
Quality, Alien sure has the OS dialed in and running smooth, but so does
ASUS, more so than any other system. I trust ASUS as I've used their
products since the 80386 days, and no major issues/failures (talking
mobo's of course), now they are doing notebooks that look and feel good,
run good have a ton of extras above and beyond what the big 3 mfgs do. I
look at aliens and I see bloated everything, bloated cases, extra plastic
everywhere, etc.
guy brings an alienware desktop to a lan party, that's 1 less spot for
another system. Just saying.
Hell, if we were talking desktops I'd rather get a Voodoo or a Blackbird
(and I dispise HP).
imo,