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    Alienware 17 vs 18 Buying Advice

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by quaume, Feb 5, 2017.

  1. quaume

    quaume Newbie

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    I'm having the hardest time deciding which way to go.

    I got advice previously to go with latest hardware in the 17R4 but my priorities are screen real estate, cooling/noise, and then graphics. As for CPU, according to userbenchmark, the 6700HQ doesn't seem to be faster than the top end Haswell chips. Cooling and temperature development seems better in the 18 according to notebookcheck and because its an inch thicker so physics.

    I prefer not to have SLI and the 1060s and 1070s are much faster but Alienware 17R4s also cost a bit more than used Alienware 18s.

    Has anyone had experience with both?
     
    quaume, Feb 5, 2017
    #1
  2. ThatOldGuy

    ThatOldGuy Notebook Virtuoso

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    what is your budget? and how long do you want to have this desktop replacement for? Also what model of AW 18 are you looking at?

    There are a handful of current 18.4" laptops out too. you can get a MSI GT83VR TITAN with GTX 1070 SLI for $3000
    The rest of the 18" + market is hugely more expensive (Asus GX800 and Acer Preditor x21 thousands more)

    Personally i would stay away from AW 18's. 3 year old hardware that is loosing SLI support from Nvidia. Takes a lot of tinkering to get them to run right

     
    ThatOldGuy, Feb 5, 2017
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  3. Awhispersecho

    Awhispersecho Notebook Evangelist

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    I have an 18 that runs flawlessly but if you're going to get an 18, you should get an 18 with 980m's since they are already 2 years old. As far as a 17" laptop, you could look at the Asus ROG line as an alternative to the Alienware 17. They should be a little cheaper. But looking at an 18", there isn't any other 1 that will be cheaper than the used AW 18's you are looking at.
     
    Awhispersecho, Feb 5, 2017
    #3
  4. ssj92

    ssj92 Neutron Star

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    The 18" Alienwares have a 1080p display. If you want more screen real estate I recommend the newer Alienware 17 with the 3K (2560x1440 120hz) display(although right now it seems you can only order with 1080).

    There are plenty of Clevo's and MSI laptops as well that you can look into. But if you're only looking at AW18 vs AW17 I'd go with the 17 with 1070 with the 4K display (Use 150% scaling in windows) or the 2560x1440 120hz display.
     
    ssj92, Feb 10, 2017
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  5. mooliecool

    mooliecool Notebook Enthusiast

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    Honestly just get a Clevo with an LGA socket and call it a day. It has native 7.1 sound card, real desktop CPU, and upgradable MXM cards.
     
    mooliecool, Feb 15, 2017
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