Alienware is similar to your mother: running hot, ugly, overpriced and nothing like the performance you'd expect. Stay well clear.
A friend of mine has an Alienware laptop. The battery wouldn't charge but it ran fine off the mains, so he sends it away. They ship it to Ireland, and then replace the motherboard (which they themselves said was fine) and charged him £700.
He moaned and complained and it soon dropped to £120, but it shouldn't have happened that way at all.