Looking for expert opinions on this laptop

Hello, folks. My current laptop (a Mythlogic Nyx with a 970M) is starting to be worse for wear and I am looking for new and shiny alternatives. I usually prefer Clevo models as I use my laptop for my research as well as gaming and appreciate the understated styling. However, I recently stumbled upon this Alienware that seems like it is at a too-good-to-be-true price point compared to the Clevo models I have priced.

I would be very interested in hearing if the resident Alienware experts would recommend pulling the trigger on this, going with a Clevo instead, or waiting a couple months in the case that new and exciting hardware will shortly be released. Thanks in advance for your time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834298766

Price: $1999
Specs:
i7 6700HQ 2.60GHz (Skylake)
17.3" 4K UHD display
Geforce GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5
16GB DDR4 RAM (8GB x 2)
256GB SSD
1TB 7200RPM SATA drive
Killer 1535 Wireless
Klipsch 2.1 speakers
2MP Webcam

 

Do you want to upgrade the gpu or cpu down the line? If you aren't too concerned with that I believe you could spec out a Clevo P650RG with similar specs for around the same cost, and I would heavily favor that because it has GSync (which is awesome). Alienware has also had some poor cooling designs recently although I'm not positive on the 17" version. I know the newest 15" isn't great.

Depending on when you need to buy, Both Nvidia and AMD are now heavily rumoured to have their Pascal and Polaris lines being launched or at least revealed at Computex with anticipated June or July release dates. While this isn't confirmed, it seems pretty likely to me, and usually mobile cards launch a month or two later. If you can wait Pascal should be quite powerful.

Edit: if you do want to upgrade P750DM-G or P770DM-G both have GSync, desktop socketed cpus, and MXM gpus.

 

Better buy Clevo. Alienware new models are crap.

 

Not crap, disposable junk.. The new ones are an absolute overheating, drive lacking pieces of trash!

 

I can attest to the overheating. I briefly owned an Alienware 17 R2 , and I was told that 95 degrees on the CPU was "normal operating temperature"

I could have cooked my balls just watching a movie. Terrible pieces of hardware, and a fire hazard really. They run way, way too hot.

 

@beccarte , hello mate !
Please do not buy the new Alienware bullcrap, Glad that you've asked before...

Get a Clevo machine you can find used good condition P7xxZM or go for new P7xxDM Skylake.
Or the bigger brothers P870DM or P775DM.

All can use desktop class K series CPUs or C - unlocked broadwell exclusively in the ZM

Or can wait for the Polaris / Pascal Q3-4 2016 refresh for new offerings from Clevo.

 

Steer clear of any trash that is built on BGA. It does not matter brand it is... all of it is garbage.

 

The hate is strong in this one

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

I haven't had any issues with mine, but I would probably wait at this point for new gpus, the 980m is getting pretty old.

 

I doubt it. New generation is just a placeholder because HBM2 didn't got mass produced in time.

 

Skip this gen of Polaris and Pascal tbh, get the next generation, I'll wait until the GDDR5X reaches the mobile, HBM2 would need redesign of heatsinks so I doubt the older machines would not be able to upgrade it...

 

there is no such thing as expert on that laptop. No one with enough REAL experience would dare buy it, and keep it long enough to be considered an expert.

Not that I'm fishing for a client, but seriously, I will give you a great deal on a clevo instead.. PLEASE do not feed the trolls at Alienware/Dell that create/sell that garbage... but really, ANYTHING to not encourage another poor soul to buy a BGA Alienware.

 

The Nyx with 970M should hold itself very well even now.

This is your laptop: https://www.mythlogic.com/2013_Models/nyx1713a.php

I don't think you need to upgrade yet

 

Yeah I will second that.

 

Wow what a bunch of Clevo fanboys! Interesting how you spend more time here then in your own forums. FWIW every expert laptop reviewer that I have read or watched says that they cannot recommend Clevo due to it's poor quality of build. Go watch Dave Lee when he rates the top 5 gaming laptops and listen to what he says about why he didn't include Clevo.

 

I do think Dave Lee has a cool channel. His verdict about gaming laptops are a bit off to be honest. The laptops he often likes are laptops I think are poor higher end machines. The highest end he tested was the AW15 and the Razer Blade. The rest are all budget.

 

I don't even understand what this says, lol, and my friends, staff and coworkers think I am a techie lol.

 

I am actually using the AW15R2 and pretty much with the same specs and the thermals are excellent. I still have to see any temperature counter touching 80c. The CPU is always hovering around 70~75C under full load and the GPU is always around 65c under load. Fan noise is audible but not loud.

 

If you are referring to his budget gaming laptop video, your spot on. The Clevo N155 series laptops are junk. Most Clevo models in fact aren't that great. Plastic chassis and poor build quality overall. That's not the case with the higher end models. The Clevo P650 is great, and the P770DM and P870DM laptops are also quite solid. Overall they all have great cooling and GSync, the P650 in particular has GSync at a lower price than anyone else. That's why they are recommended so often.

That's pretty awesome! I don't believe that is common experience though. I see quite a lot of laptops from my work, and I know a bunch of people with blazing hot AW laptops. But both of our experiences don't matter. The important thing is real data and not anecdotal evidence. Overall, the newer generation of Alienware aren't as great as the previous from everything I've read from throttling and temps to price to performance. (meaning value not that they perform bad)

 

Exactly

LOL I was just saying that the other day...

 

That's not accurate. I spend more time in the Clevo threads now. Alienware threads don't seem to have much going on except mostly people looking for help resolving a problem. It's definitely not the fun and engaging culture it used to be and the hardcore Alienware performance enthusiasts that used to love the brand don't really have anything in common with the BGA jockeys. I would still be an Alienware fanboy if they had just one model I was interested in owning. Unfortunately, they've got nothing I am impressed with today. Clevo was the only acceptable option, so they are winning by default as far as I am concerned. I'm sure they offer some cheaper junk, as most of the competing brands do. I don't pay much attention to the low budget models they offer, just as I never paid any attention to the low budget offerings from Alienware.

Anyhow, if I recall from skimming through that clip Dave Lee did not elaborate on which Clevo he did not include, but for $1,000 it's hard to expect too much from any brand and it shows by the low (minimum realistic gaming specs) on the top five 15 inch models reviewed. I got quite the chuckle when I saw what his top five were. If they actually were good build quality (chassis) then there isn't much money left to spend on specs. And, you know when Dell Inspirons, Lenovo and Acer laptops are getting good reviews the bar has been set really low.

I'm very happy with the build quality on my Clevo machines, but they are not $1,000 teenager toys. Clevo is more or less the only game in town today if the highest performance, highest specs and greatest configuration flexibility are the most important things a person is looking for in a notebook. Sure some are better than others. Same can be said for Alienware models that have come and gone.

Through this unfortunate experience, I have learned a valuable lesson. It was one that I should have already known, but I got caught up in the notorious Alienware culture. It was driven by compelling products and it was fun while it lasted. That lesson is "brand is irrelevant" and it has never been more true to me than it is now. The source that gives me what I want, when I want it and how I want it, is going to be the winner. Today that is Clevo. Tomorrow that might be a different brand, or maybe even nobody. They may all end up being losers and nobody offering anything for sale that I am interested in buying. Choosing from the lesser of evils is not a good place to be. Having zero acceptable options is worse. Let's hope it doesn't come down to that, but things seem to be moving in that direction.

 

That is true but I think my temps are the oens that the general users of these models on these forums get and a lot of them even overclock them. The cooling is quite beefy for this class in general if you comapre it to the likes of Gigabyte and MSI. Only Asus does this better in this class (but their laptos are the size of desktop replacements, so you could just buy a big Clevo with a desktop processor instead).

 

Here is the problem in a nutshell, I think Clevos are bland and I like my laptops to "pop" like Alienwares do. I do not care about overclocking or many of the tests allot of you base your decisions upon. I do not worry about not being able to upgrade the GPU or CPU as I usually replace my laptops every two years. So Alienware is still perfect for me and my taste in laptops. I do pay attention to reviews on new laptops and that is why I purchased an Origin EON 17-X (loving it). However I will most likely still purchase either a AW 13 or 15, for two reasons: (1) greater mobility and (2) I must sport an Alienware laptop because I am a huge fanboy . Oh and I like to have an extra gaming computer on hand to lend my friends and to get them into gaming. One Last comment on Dell/Alienware, they have always provided me with excellent support, since I purchased my first laptop of theirs in 2004.

 

The support for Alienware is pretty solid. The looks on the other hand are a lot more subjective and a lot of people myself included would consider them too flashy and bulky compared to some other options. At the same time I can see the appeal, and my desktop setup is completely rgb to be fair haha.

 

You get what your willing to pay with Clevo's and you know where they hurt. The Covers are thin and cheaper, but don't really have issues, the keyboards while getting nicer and nicer as the years roll on, still not as nice as a Alienware.
They're also abit thicker then other laptops would be, however they're UNIVERSAL gpu heatsinks make upgrading easier then any.

In the end, you have to ask why your buying a particular brand. If its not the performance your after, then why go clevo ? If it's the looks, you should go Alienware if it's over all build quality and marketing, I think MSI have the best. If it's complete monopoly on their own sourcing of parts then go ASUS, though I expect to see them die out soon enough in the laptop market. Wouldn't be surprised if Gigabyte takes over their laptop division.

 

Seriously I would like to see that russians introduces new gaming laptop. Heavy metal based case with upgradable CPU/GPU and superb cooling system. I would even get a loan for getting that.

 

Asus has released a 15inch laptop past weekend which surpasses all MSI and Gigabyte's models. MSI isnt my choice for build quality, GIgabyte even less. Asus however is pretty decent when it comes to build. Their mother company pegatron is also manufacturing the Macbook air's by the way. They have a huge assembly line.

Gigabyte presented a new 14inch laptop and one of the notebookreview reviewers said it is more durable than the previous models so time will tell if it is really up to par. Their past laptops weren't,

I am quite disappointed with today's quality though. When it comes to small and light laptops, Sony was pretty much king, thin and light offerings of MSI, Asus and Gigabyte still cant hold a candle next to the old high end Vaio models.

The older Alienware machines where proper tanks and looked great too. The newer ones are still fairly durable but the magnesium M15X and ALuminum M17X where really well made. I never bought one though because I needed a laptop that could last me around 5 hours on abttery for college.

 

Issue with ASUS, is you pay huge premiums to upgrade. They might as well have soldered everything on, and made everything smaller, because many less people upgrade their ASUS laptops. They use a slightly modified form factor. It's still a MXM 3.0 card but they made sure the shape was off. Not sure what the call that version, it's electrically the same as the cards we use in other systems, the standards we use. It's like ASUS wants to be like APPLE. Just, they're no where nearly as innovative IMO

 

apple : http://www.notebookreview.com/noteb...eview:+The+Good,+The+Bad,+The+Expensive_mwall

oversized, overpriced tablet. Actually many tablets are more powerful and cost half as much, and are years old, and faster, and have more connectivity, and last longer on battery. Actually this apple product - is all about build quality, nothing else. Alienware now does the same thing, but on the lower end of build quality - just enough to still stick SOME performance in there, just not anything modular or spectacular or considered good enough for gaming.

 

Not good enough for gaming? What did you smoke lol. The 980M performs pretty much the same as the mxm version. The performance different between a quad core bga cpu and desktop cpu is in gaming negligible. So why isnt it good enough for gaming? I have spend hours playing the witcher, the division, black ops3 etc on these laptops and my settings where always maxed out on fhd and i have a 175mhz overclock on the core as well.

 

Are there any 980m 15" notebooks at all thinner than the Clevo P650RG, that thing is crazy thin for the power.

 

The newly "released" Asus GL502, only the 970m has shipping and been available in the last week in the US, still waiting on the Asus GL502 980m to ship:
https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-GL502VT/

Asus ROG Strix GL502 laptop flaunts GTX 980M, 32GB RAM & NVMe SSD support
http://gearburn.com/2016/05/asus-rog-strix-gl502-laptop/

 

Wow on paper that looks great. But I hope they have fixed their USB port issues along with other quality control problems. I hope its good, but I'm pretty skeptical of Asus gaming laptops recently. The UX501 is pretty great, but I am not a fan of anything else.

 

I am hopeful

I never had the power issues with USB 3.0 that others have had, I use powered hubs and powered drives. Turned off all the power saving setting for all the USB devices in Device Manager, and used vendor drive tools to disable power saving in the drive controllers too.

I am hopeful for the GL502 980m too, lets see how it works out. If anyone can get the cooling working right for a gaming notebook that thin with a top end GPU, Asus can do it.

 

The gigabyte p35w series are a bit thinner. But a crap build quality. The clevo isnt that well built either.

 

The P35W is a 970m though. I think the P35X is about the same but its not as well constructed. The Clevo P650RG has pretty good build quality to be honest. The metal chassis was quite firm, its weak point from my time with one was the screen, but that shouldn't affect usage too much.

 

Yeah sorry the X is indeed the 980 version. Both have the same chassis. There is a newer P55 chassis but it performs worse in terms of cooling.

 

Makes me wonder why Razer hasn't stuffed a 980M or Mobile 980 in its computers...

 

I think they cant control the heat. The Gigabyte just throttles pretty much to 970M levels when the CPU is stressed as well.

 

Yeah I owned the 2014 version of the Razer Blade 14inch and while I loved the look and it was great for surfing, gaming generated allot of heat and I think a 980m would melt the darn thing lol.

 

Owning this "vanilla" looking notebook is akin to driving a nice GRAY car. It may get you from point a to b but is hella boring to look at. How many people purchase cool looking cars for the actual mileage? They want to make a statement with a nice looking vehicle and though it doesn't change how good the car drives it does give the owner more enjoyment while driving it. This is the same principle behind why people purchase an Alienware laptop over this fugly Clevo drek, in my humble opinion. Why else are all these other companies like MSI, ASUS and so on copying Alienware and making racy colorful laptops now when they didn't used to hmm?

 

I like your examples because it just shows how we all like different things.

Gray, dark silver and blue are my favorite color vehicles. They are the best looking to me and I get a chuckle out of some fancy car driving by in bright yellow that looks like a cab, or a white one that looks like the hundreds of work vehicles I see every day. If I was ever given a red, orange, yellow, green, black or white car I would either repaint it or sell it and get one I really wanted.

Some of us prefer the simple, clean looking laptops. I really like the looks of my old Razer Blade and P35X. It's sad that the gaudy look is becoming more popular and has leaked into the Clevos now as even the P870DM has a few accents to it.

There may come a day where there are no simple looking laptops, and they are all BGA only. I just hope by then I'm an old fart or found a different hobby because I don't want to be part of it.

 

I mean alright. Personally, I prefer an understated laptop, because I'm of the opinion that Alienware's look crazy corny and too flashy. I totally understand where your coming form though. Clevo also is implementing rgb keyboard just like everyone else, but I still don't know what that has to do with what I said. The Clevo is still a very powerful and thin 980m laptop. It performs great. Looks is totally subjective so you can prefer whatever you want. I wouldn't want a red Ferrari, I'd rather have a dark colored car that's fast but doesn't stand out as much. It all depends on if you want attention or not.

 

I don't mind a little bling. A flashy-looking computer with mediocre performance is such a waste. Sometimes there is a fine line separating flashy looks from tackiness. Kind of like a Hyundai Veloster. What Car and Driver had to say about it reminds me a great deal of the BGA turdbooks that are being marketed as though they are something special.

http://www.caranddriver.com/hyundai/veloster

 

@Mr. Fox

Lol...yep.. a hairdressers car