Alienware 17 R1 replacement

Hey guys

I've had an AW 17 R1 (Intel 4710, 16GB Ram with Nvidia 880m) for a couple years now.

While it still does the job quite well, I am looking to sell it before it loses too much value and get a new laptop. I am fairly certain I can still get over $1000 for it here so I'd like to do that before it gets too outdated.

I would like your input at 2 different levels please:

1- First of all, do I need to even bother looking into MSI or Asus's offering or should I stick with Alienware? Last time around, people criticized build quality of MSI and Asus had some other issues which I don't really remember right now. But on paper both the MSI GT72S and the upcoming Asus G752 JY looks pretty cool, especially the Asus. I am really digging the rear vents.

2- Now the big question: I can find some great deals online, from Dell Outlet for instance on AW 17 R2. Same CPU as my current AW, but with a 980m. I know CPU and even DDR4 RAM won't have THAT big of an impact on gaming, but would getting the R3 be worth the extra bucks? Other than making it easier to sell in 2-3 years I don't see any other benefit for what I am going to use the laptop for (gaming, web... )

3- IF you recommend I go for the R3, would the UHD screen be worth it? I am pretty sure the 980m isn't powerful enough for 4k gaming and I wil NOT be viewing movies on the laptop. I have a UHD TV with a media player for that.


Thanks for your help!

 

No one? I am actually leaning towards the G752 now...


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Why would you want to trade in that r1 for the next 17 r3. It's a downgrade. No point in selling it just because its value is dropping. All Alienwares are hard to sell nowadays from what I've seen simply because the market has kind of dried up. Unless you wanna switch to another brand, my recommendation would be just upgrade what you have now. You can just buy the 980m mxm card and put it in your r1 and its be faster than the next soldered 980m laptops. You can even use the money you save from not buying an new machine to upgrade the CPU if you want to. That's what I did. Have the 2013 17 r1 and after 2 years just got the 980m card and swapped out the gpu.


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How easy is it to swap the GPU's? I wouldn't be against this solution but I really to want to end up with a big paperweight... I've seen the tutorials and there was a time where I would've actually enjoyed tweaking INF files, playing with heatsinks but nowadays I'm lucky to even play 1/2h a day...

I am also wondering why you'd call it a downgrade to go for the R3? What are the issues with this model?

 

They run hot, and nonupgradable.

 

Yeah read about this. Anyway, I am keeping the laptop now and upgrading my gpu to a 980m


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