Three builds - Clevo's vs Alienware

• P650RS-G

15.6 FHD 120hz 5ms TN Panel ( Professionally calibrated with 1 year zero pixel warranty )
i7 6700
GTX 1070 8GB
32GB ( 4 x 8GB )
128GB SSD M.2
1 TB 7200rpm HDD
Windows 7 Professional
3 Year parts and Labor
$2400 depending on the reseller

• P775DM3-G

17.3 3K QHD 120hz 5ms ( Profesionally calibrated )
i7 6700
GTX 1070 8GB
32GB ( 4 x 8GB )
128GB SSD
1 TB 7200rpm
Windows 7 Professional
3 Year Parts and Labor
$2700 depending on the reseller

• Alienware M15x R3

15.6 FHD 120hz TN Panel
i7 6700
GTX 1070
16GB DDR4
128GB SSD M.2
1 TB 7200RPM
Windows 10 Home
3 Year Premium + Accidental
$2500ish

If you could ignore personal preferences and were to look at these three machines for what they are, is there any reason to pick one over the other two?
The Alienware M15x R3 seems to be have some heatsink issues and some others. I don't know if the new ones are fixed or not. There are already some M15X R3 laptops on the dell outlet which the Alienware thread users suspect are the ones with issues and not properly fixed or had any QC on them.

Are there any known issues with the 15.6 and 17.3 clevo's? Any news regarding bad screens for the 120hz panels on these? Any input would be awesome. The ultimate goal is to find a laptop for someone who used to be really into gaming and had to take a break and now finally have the time to do some gaming. Not a very technical person. Something problem free and doesn't require hardcore maintenance. Which ones do you own? Which one do you recommend?

 

Dell support staff said on their forums that they cannot fix the current heat issues with the laptops that have the GTX 1070, only the newer one coming soon with the GTX 1080 will have an improved cooling solution so scrap the Alienware

If you want to buy a Clevo, make sure you don't buy it without the Prema BIOS, read the first part of my review to understand why: EVOC P870DM3 Review by Phoenix

I recommend you get it from HIDevolution for their awesome customer service and better configuration options like factory delidded CPUs and/or Silicon Lottery CPUs, faster RAM options, and the latest SSD options

If you email [email protected] and give him your forums username, you can get a small discount

Also, if you are an international customer like me, they have a global warranty option which covers shipping costs both ways should anything go wrong with your machine.

See:
HIDevolution - The Best Company I ever dealt with

HIDevolution's Warranty!

 

Thanks for the heads up regarding Alienware. That is a great review and one mighty fine machine. Congrats. If I was planning to go with Clevo, I was going to go with HiD largely due to testimonials from yourself and few others

Someone on another thread also pointed out that I should also consider some MSI laptops with GTX 1070 and i7 6700 and 120hz panels. Their GT72 and GT73 series ones.

17.3" 1920x1080 TN @120Hz 5ms, 94% NTSC, G-Sync
6th Gen Intel Skylake Core i7-6700HQ
nVidia Pascal GTX 1070 GPU 8GB GDDR5
16GB DDR4 2400MHz PC19200
Windows 10 Home 64bit

$1799

 

That's also a great option and I love the MSI keyboards BTW, way better than Clevo

 

I would definitely get the P775DM3, I've always been a fan of larger laptops and more power.

 

Personal opinion, but I never go for anything smaller than 17.3".... Even like this, the display is somewhat too small.

Well, this, and the bigger laptops have beefier cooling solutions, worth checking this out!

 

I like the 17.3 screen size too but I don't really want to miss the 120z screen and I'm thinking QHD resolution might be too much for the GTX 1070. I don't want to really go the GTX 1080 route because this laptop would be going to a medium to high medium gamer and 1080 would be an overkill. Ideally it would be a GTX 1070 and 17.3 FHD 120hz screen but it seems so hard to find??? There are some MSI models but everyone I talk to keeps recommending the Clevo with Prema. The next best choice would be the 15.6 Clevo FHD 120hz one but I feel like 1080p is too much for a 15.6! Choices!

 

I find their layout and font label quite horrible. I tested a GS63VR and the only thing that made me keep my money was the horrible keyboard layout

In terms of comfort and use, and don't find it very different from my P651SE keyboard.

It's not, I find quite pleasing to work with

 

Try the Clevo P870DM keyboard and you'll change your mind

the P6xxx series keyboard is much better I heard

 

The keyboard has only flaw. One flaw that makes writing almost impossible on it

The Shift Key is too short and where most of us press it, there is the up arrow key.

This makes writing impossible or really really annoying. Cannot imagine how they passed it to production with such a fatal flaw

 

And can we talk about the switched FN and windows key? Or we are going too off-topic?

Never tried the other Clevo keyboards, but if the P650SE is the best Clevo can offer I don't understand why doesn't come in all of their mid/high-end models.

 

Going back to the original question, I would agree to look at a Clevo over Alienware. Alienware has a nice warranty, maybe a little better build quality in the case, but that is about the extent of the pros for those models. The P650 is a better value, just showing what you are getting for a little cheaper price.

Between the P650 and P775, the P775 will be better for longevity of the computer (with the ability to remove and change the GPU and processor, since they aren't BGA). The desktop processor is more powerful as well, which might not really make much of a difference for gaming, but if you find your self doing some work that is more CPU heavy, then it might be useful in the future. The P650 is cheaper for pretty similar performance in gaming, and a little lighter and thinner if that matters to you at all.

 

I appreciate all the feedback everyone! The Alienware has been out. Right now it's pretty much between the

• P775D with 17.3 1440p 120hz screen with i7 6700 and GTX 1070
  
• MSI GT73VR with 17.3 FHD 120hz TN screen with i7 6700 and GTX 1070
• P75D with 15.6 FHD 120hz screen with i7 6700 and GTX 1070

Concerns with the P775D = GTX 1070 might not be enough for 1440p 120hz gaming?
Concerns with the MSI GT73VR = I guess some of you don't like the keyboard layout? I didn't come across any major problems browsing the MSI thread
Concerns with the P75D = I thought 15.6 1080p was too small but some of you don't seem to think so.

I think I'm narrowing it down. I just have to pick one of the three

 

I would go for the P775D with a GTX1080 if your going to get the 1440p screen with it.. The 1070 will do for now and probably 1-2 years but the 1080 will do it for 2-3 years.. Otherwise, the P775 with 1080p 120Hz + 1070 isn't a bad choice.. Would avoid MSI due to the BGA CPU and especially crap 6700HQ!

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

P775 is probably the strongest from your options.

Generally, it will do things faster and better than the other two, though it is also pretty noisy and pretty heavy.

15" screen isn't nearly enough to enjoy a beast this strong!

 

On the dot!! Totally agree!!

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