Alienware 17 vs 18 Specs comparison

Hi all,

I've been lurking around on this forum for awhile. Deciding what type of laptop to try. A short background: I had an MSI GT70 but a voltage issue ended up frying my mobo just after my 2 years warranty was up. I've been strongly looking into moving on and picking up an Alienware. I've done some research and I am really amazed by the dedication of Alienware users.

Now on to my reason for post and current conundrum. I am a person who travels alot for work. I really want a machine that is well rounded as when I am staying in hotels, which I will always use this machine with a power supply by the way, I need something that will really perform well rounded tasks. From watching HD quality movies to fast paced gaming.

Now, I understand from viewing some expertise of current forum users here such as Mr. Fox and J. Dre that the Alienware 18, from a performance standpoint, is going to trump the 17 due to SLI capabilities. However, I am not one of those people that is huge on benchmarking or overclocking. Now, vice versa, I see that the 17 you can upgrade the monitor and grab a 120hz screen which is very enticing to me as I am a gamer at heart, and something that cannot be done with the 18. One other question I had is: Does the 17 have decent sound? I know that the 18 has a subwoofer but I have not found anywhere if the 17 does or not. Also, when it comes to headphones, will a subwoofer really matter? Coming from an MSI, the dynaudio speakers were quite nice, even for a lappy.

Anyways, that is my long winded rant. If anyone cares to convince me which direction to go, I would be happy to oblige. Thank you all for your help in advance! :thumbsup:

 

Welcome to the forums JD$!

I can't speak to much for the 18 as I don't own one but as you have already stated the 18 will of course outperform the 17 due to it's SLI capabilities and as a result probably remain a little more future proof. Both models IF your interested in OCing can be equipped with the 4930xm CPU although from what i gather from those that have it Alienware has somewhat locked those down recently for whatever reason. The biggest downfall to the 18 if it has one is the price is quite a bit higher, especially if you are going to add SLI 880's to it.

The 17 is no slouch when it comes to gaming in it's own , although it will fall off faster just due to having one card vs SLI. my 780m runs everything I can throw at it with ultra settings and I have yet to encounter an issue although maybe others have played something more GPU intensive then BF4. It can hold IMO plenty of HDD space and can hold up to 3 HDD's if you opt to remove the ODD. Cooling on both is more then adequate and if you need more air flow then a cooling pad is always a good investment. The 120Hz screen IMO is a must as I started out with the normal 1080 screen and upgraded after so I have seen both and can make a decent comparison. The 3D is rich and emersive and better then what I see in the theatres IMO. Each game will offer a different 3D experience and some will be better then others as some have been designed with 3D in mind it seems while others throw it in later.

If your not big on OCing and you want to keep your cost down then I would stick with the 17, but if you are interesting in OCing or think you would rather have SLI and don't mind the price then the 18 is the way to go. I am not saying you can't OC with the 17 because you can

Whichever option you chose I suggest maxing the available warranty for peace of mind and leaving out any unnecessary upgrades such as SSD and or memory upgrades as they can be done quite easily yourself once you get the system. I would focus on GPU's first, CPU second if you require more CPU power or the OC ability although the stock CPU is more then enough for gaming , and finally if you go with the 17 I would strongly suggest the 3D screen

 

Thanks very much. If I do decide to go with the 17, i definitely will upgrade to the 120hz no questions and your expertise on the subject has just further bolstered to me being the correct decision. Yeah as far as SLI goes, I don't really have an interest in OC'ng or pushing my rig to the limits. I just want to comfortably game and have a great experience visually and audibly. Which brings me back to one of my original questions.. As for the audio with both the 17 or 18.. I still wonder if the 17 is as good as the 18 in that department, and does the 17 have a subwoofer like the 18 does? If i just use headphones, would it matter either way?

 

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I knew I was forgetting something haha...sorry about that.

In terms of the 17 and 18 I believe they are powered by the same audio engine but I can't be sure about speaker placement as the 18 would have more room. I seem to remember reading something about the 17 having a sub woofer as well but honestly I am not sure if it has a dedicated one or just decent bass ( for a laptop ) coming from the satellites. I don't notice any table shaking bass or anything like that but as far as I am concerned the 17 has amazing sound compared to other laptops. I do think that the sound that the R4 had was a bit better but there were tons of problems with that sound arrangement with the creative chips. There is a piece of software that a few of us have bought and played around with from Creative called the X-Fi suite which IMO adds more depth and customization to the sound but it can be problematic for some people, myself included when I am running windows 8 and using my G930's. Other then that I do think the sound is pretty good, it is quite loud IMO and can easily fill a room to the point it is easily to loud. If your going to be using a headset most of the time then I would say the external speakers will be more then adequate for the times you are trying to use them.


Someone with an 18 may be able to answer the question about a sub woofer more clearly but I would have to speculate on that one.

 

No problem at all, MogRules! Thanks for that quick reply! I appreciate your in-depth answer. I am leaning towards the 17 right now unless someone can really back up the 18 with a earth shattering difference in audio. I'm not really an audiophile by any stretch, but I do have some decent cans that I use when gaming and being able to watch a movie without headphones on while I am shacked up in a hotel due to work would be a boon to my life. Besides, that 120hz screen sounds sexy in the 17 for gaming

 

Alienware 18 has a 'subwoofer' the 17 does not. But the 17 does have a good kick for its size. Volume will easily fill the hotel room for example.

120Hz screen is noticeable. Even when doing basic things or gaming you will notice the slightly more smooth experience. I am yet to get my 3D glasses (mine was a dell refurb). There is a the Dolby Digital Plus software which processes the audio and there are different presets for whatever your doing (movie, game, music), the older R4 had the Creative Soundblaster card which was not bad too.

The 17 and 120Hz isn't impossible to use on battery, maybe 2 hours and more if you go into power saver mode. But nice to know if the outlet power has an issue for whatever reason you can carry on going.

 

It comes down to portability, if you need to move it around more often the 17 is a lot lighter and easier to move around and place, the 18 is heavier but packs a bigger performance punch.

 

Portability isn't an issue. I have a nice SLAPPA backpack. I consistently carried my work laptop and old GT70 MSI laptop at the same time. Never bothered me. Heck, the 1" bigger screen isn't a selling point to me. It's more: is the 17" 120Hz 3D monitor greater than the extra subwoofer and sound that I may get from the 18 with a comparably nice monitor even though it's only 60 hz? Additionally, is waiting until this 880m graphics card thing worth it because of the high temps at this point.. that's more of the questions i'm wondering about.

 

It's not the high temperatures that is the problem. It's the huge amount of vRAM and the crap vBIOS unable to support it. Higher temperatures is just a side effect of the actual problem. Flashing the 880M with the custom vBIOS on TechInferno basically eliminates the issue, and a good re-paste with IC Diamond will mask the temperature side effects. The 880M is a good card once you've done these two things.

About half a dozen articles I've read suggest Maxwell is coming out in October. If you can wait, I suggest doing so. Even if Maxwell isn't an amazing boost over Kepler (which would be somewhat shocking, considering the 860M is a huge improvement), there's a good chance the issues with the 880M will not be present in Maxwell.

The 120Hz bundle is simply awesome for a gaming laptop. My first Alienware was the M18x R2. I then owned two M17x R4's (one with 120Hz). Ever since then I've owned a few Alienware 17's and have stuck with the 17" model because of that screen. To be honest, I spent like $4500 on my first Alienware and later realized I did not need all of that power to satisfy my gaming needs. It's fun for benchmarks and bragging rights, but that gets old after a while, unless you have the money and audacity to upgrade every year. I'm happy with the 120Hz bundle and a single GPU. But I'm also a student, and the portability factor does make a difference, especially with the PSU's.

EDIT: If I had a "fluid" income, I'd have all three laptops, and would overclock the heck out of them. That day hasn't come, yet. So, I've decided to stick with the 17" model: the 14" satisfies my portability need much more so than the 17" & 18" but lacks in gaming, the 18" model is a bit too big for the classroom but dominates gaming, and the 17" model gives me a balance between those two worlds.

 

Thanks J.Dre. I think I tend to agree with most of what you say. I don't really care to push benchmarks or overclock whatsoever. I'm looking for an all-around machine to play music, movies, and have enough oompf for gaming comfortably near max settings in since I travel for work so much and spend so much time after hours in hotels. That's really all. I appreciate your input!

Insince you own all 3 models, how is the sound difference between the 17 and 18?

 

No problem.

And I didn't own the AW 18, I just had the chance to use one for a while. I'd say it's a bit better on the Alienware 18. But, they are very similar (the 17 and 18) in this area. To be honest, I game mostly with a headset. So, I'm probably not the best person to ask about it, being as the laptop's speakers aren't all that important to me. And when I'm at home, I hook the laptop up to my surround sound - again, rarely using the laptop's speakers.

Compared to other brands, the Alienware speakers are much better. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

 

Awesome. I have a decent set of headphones I can bring with. As long as the sound is good through headphones and music sounds crisp and a little bit of oomph.. I am totally fine with that!

 

I can honestly say without A shadow of a doubt, both the 17 and 18 have pretty much the same sound quality.

 

Awesome. That actually helps me alot to narrow down my decision. Thanks for your input!

 

Just be aware the weight difference is rather large, the 17 is a little heavier than the GT70 to begin with (5kg vs 4.6kg) the 18 is 6.8kg (all figures include power brick). Not as bad as my P570WM at 9.1kg but still.

 

Hi Guys. I realize that this thread is a bit older now, but I was curious if the 120mhz panel is also anti-glare and if not how do you deal with the reflection?

This is a personal preference thing, but I would prefer a 60hz panel that I can actually watch vs. a 120zh that doubles as a mirror in all but a pitch black room.

Thanks!

 

Search, search, search! It's a TrueLife display, which doesn't have much glare while turned on.

Go to 2:20~ and you'll see the screen.

 

Thanks J.Dre. I had done some searches, but I was hoping that the "real" use was different than the videos. It seems like you are saying that there is glare but you do not personally notice it when watching a movie/playing a game or perhaps while viewing stuff that is not black?

In the video you posted, you can clearly see him scratching his balls as he's like doh!

Then in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rESNxD_TxeI, he is playing BF4 and he could see the entire room at the same time.

To me, that does not seem to justify the 60 vs. 120hz? He mentions that the mouse works better, but if I am constantly refocusing between the screen and the background objects it seems like it would cause a headache?

I had a gateway, and then an acer, that had a glossy screen. I sold both to buy an AW and made sure it was not glossy. IMHO, there is a reason why business systems do not have glossy screens - since programming/email/web is easier on the eyes on matte vs. glossy screens.


I wonder if buying a 120 and then using a privacy screen would defeat the whole purpose?

Thanks again!

 

You did not search very well! http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/758711-120hz-3d-screen-upgrade-alienware-17-a.html :hi2:

You don't need to add anything to the screen to prevent glare. It won't be noticeable or bothersome while the screen is on (gaming, movies, etc.).

 

I push my M18 screen to 100hz without problems so that is an alternative also (just note that all screens perform differently. My previous screen could only go up to 90hz.).

 

No real glare noticeable on the 120hz screen. only if there is a light source in the right angle to reflect directly into your eyes, otherwise you wont see your own face whilst watching a movie for example.

 

I have gone from the 60hz matte to the 120hz semi gloss and it isn't that bad at all in terms of glare. You might have a better time trying to use your laptop outside in the sun on a sunny day with the matte screen but beyond that it isn't anywhere near as glossy as the previous R4 screens IMO and I had that one as well. The image smoothness alone more then makes the difference worth it IMO. I have watched 3D blurays and played plenty of games and the glare has never been an issue. I guess maybe if your sitting with your back facing a giant window and the sun is glaring through then maybe......I also sit in a dark office while pulling graveyard shifts with no lights on and I never see myself in the screen even on dark backgrounds so I don't really see that being an issue either.

 

120hz screens are usually quite bright too to help the 3D glasses.