I want to get this out there for everyone to see. This post is all based on my own personal experiences. It is my own opinion so take it for what it is worth.
A little background about myself: I work as a PC Technician fixing desktops and notebooks. I see almost every single brand in the shop and base my opinions off of this.
Acer:
Acer computers suck, no if ands or buts, they suck. Why do they suck? I’ve come across a few in the shop and each one had to have the operating system installed for one reason or another. In doing so, all but one Acer computer provided me with a recovery disk. This is pertinent due to the recovery disks providing the drivers and software that comes pre-installed on the computer – without it I was left with trying to find the right driver along with telling the client that the software is no longer available and unless they have the install CD for Office or whatever else, they’re SOL. Now this gets to the main point of why I hate Acer so much. Their website sucks. They have several different locations such as Americas, Europe, and what not that you can choose from but I’ve noticed that the site in general is slow, hard to navigate and sometimes just doesn’t load. How can a multi-billion dollar company like Acer provide such crappy support? Even when I can find the right page for the right model, more often than not the driver file is no longer there or it takes a seriously long time while downloading at roughly 5KBps on both a cable and DSL connection. Just a little secret, if you can, choose the Europe or other locations besides N. America, I’ve gotten better response time with downloads (not a whole lot) but it is better than nothing.
IBuyPower/Alienware
The reason I mention both companies above is that they seem to share the same exact components inside the laptops they sell. I have to say that when choosing a notebook you really want to consider if the company has readily available spare parts for sale. While working at the shop I’ve noticed that many notebooks’ keyboards tend to go bad for reasons beyond me. In the case you buy an IBuyPower or Alienware notebook, you’re going to be SHITOUTOFLUCK at finding a replacement. You may find one off eBay or some other unknown site that you have to put your trust into but chances are you won’t. On top of that, if you’re looking for a motherboard, or any other proprietary part, you’re definitely SOL. Last but not least, I came across an Alienware that had a RAID setup with two hard drives. The client wanted me to re-install Windows since he purchased this notebook used. I said sure okay, I can do that, not knowing it was a RAID setup. Soon after I realized this I contacted the client asking if he has the recovery disks since without the disks there is no way I can install the RAID controller driver, the client said no. I contacted Alienware myself via e-mail and the client also contacted Alienware via phone but both tries were unsuccessful. The e-mail I received back said that unless I am the original owner and can back that up by proof of purchase and all this other stuff I did not have nor did the client, I was SOL. The client basically reported back to me the same exact thing – thus we were unable to get the actual recovery disks to re-install Windows. So this guy ended up paying I don’t know how much for this notebook but was unable to get it to work properly since he couldn’t re-install Windows! That is bad if you ask me!
There’s a caveat, unless you are the actual owner and know how to fix the laptop, don’t go with either company.
Averatec
Main reason being they don’t have readily available parts to buy. I’ve seen keyboards and a few other major parts but nothing like a motherboard, track pad, recovery disk set, LCD, etc.
So it comes down to this. If you buy a notebook, invest in the extended warranty especially if it is one of the three mentioned notebooks up above. In closing, if you have any questions about purchasing a notebook, feel free to shoot them my way. I’ll try my best to answer them to the best of my ability. Thank you.
