Wow wow wow I have an Alienware, and it's an excellent laptop, what's your beef?
They tout them as the best gaming laptops/desktops, but they aren't. Overpriced branding at its best. My mate dropped £3k on an Alienware desktop. Fool!!
Of course they tout them as the best, there not going to say come and buy our crap product where you can better elsewhere. There are very few other custom built laptop makers that allow easy access for upgrading and the the best cooling solutions, there's sager and clevo but pricing is very similar to alienware. Warranty from my experience is the best i have ever experienced too.
its all about smart buying when it comes to alienware. My alienware specc'd up on their website was 2.4k paid 1.6k, calling and bartering gets you the best price.
I think Apple has far more to answer for than alienware/dell will ever have to when it comes to over priced branding!
Alienware fill a consumer demand for desktop replacement gaming laptops, my machine will run for 5hours without a charge when i need it to and still play crisys 2 at very high (when plugged in)
Desktop machines i cant comment on however.