Alienware 17 R3 + Gaming Amplifier - What do you think?

[Sevilla]

I have been someone who has veered away from brands like Alienware for a long time. It wasn't because they weren't good enough or powerful enough to game on or such, but rather because of their inflated prices. I remember one of their gaming laptops costing upwards of 2 grand for modest hardware configs mostly because they reigned when it came to portable performance. These days it seems Razor has decided to take that spot with their gaming notebooks.

Some disclosure before I continue. I currently own an MSI GT70 Dominator 17in laptop. I have no problem lugging around an 8 pound behemoth of a laptop when I need to. I feel most laptops these days average out at 5ish pounds anyway (any with decent specs) so adding a few extra pounds for excellent performance is really not an argument point for me. I love having a machine with a large screen and with a lot of power. Also, I have the appropriate backpack (Everki Titan) or laptop carry case (Everki Advanced Laptop Bag) should I ever need to carry it whether by itself or with extra items. Also, i'm not a video producer, blogger, video editor, pro gamer (though I do game frequently) etc. I don't need to be convinced to spend my money someplace else. I just believe that if you're gonna lug around a laptop, you may as well lug around something you really want. Also, most other non-laptop needed things can be done on a tablet these days anyway.

Now that that's out of the picture, I am looking at the Alienware 17 R3 for a few reasons:

1. ~$1400 for a laptop with a good brand, sturdy construction, elegant presentation, and great hardware to me is relatively fair. I bought my fugly (affectionate term) MSI GT70 at about ~$1300 anyway, so the pricing to me fits the bill. Also, most gaming laptops in this price range with exception of a couple of brands on both extremes are similar specs (looking at the 970m version, by the way.).

2. The Gaming Amplifier is appealing, and even though I probably won't buy it anytime soon (I have a full sized custom water looped gaming desktop (see sig) so I don't need it to replace my main PC) since I have my reservations on it. Yes it supports a full gaming desktop card, yes it has expansion ports, yes it's neato, but ultimately I am all about specs. It runs a PCI-e 2.0 4x slot. That's not so good in my opinion.

3. I have accepted the ecosystem of owning a large laptop. I've heard the comments, the jokes, and the awes. I have large hands and I like to multitask. I like to check on my server, re-encode home movies, listen to podcasts, remote in to fix friends/family problems (I work in IT, by the way), play games, and have a powerful machine whenever I decide to take a laptop.

I feel getting it at this point is a no brainer, and even without the Alienware Amplifier, i'd still consider it.

But what about that amplifier...?

Say i want to buy it someday, will it be worth it? Will Alienware come out with a "Alienware Amplifier R2" with at least a PCI-e 8x card slot? My biggest gripe is that most people who own one say "You only lose 5 to 10% performance on it anyway, it's no big deal!" well then I shouldn't spend 100% of my money to a graphics card if my only intention is to use the Amp, should I?

What are your thoughts on the Amplifier? Is the actual port on these laptops capable for an R2 revision of it with an 8x PCI-E slot? Even if one never comes out, i'm still sold on the laptop regardless. 

Let me know your opinions.

[thatguyyouknow75]

If it has what you want, others opinions shouldn't influence you. The majority of people here will bash Alienware so I advise you buy based off of your gut instinct 

[ZestyJalapeno]

Inb4 some people go on here and spout circle-jerk shi8te about AW like it was made by Apple or something...

The Graphics Amp, in practice, seems to be a fine enough product for those that want future-proofness from their machine. The PCI-e 4x is not a bottleneck, at all. What bottlenecks these mobile PCIE ports is the fact that some of the time they may be tied to a laptop that has a dual-core processor which is the actual bottleneck, (ie Alienware 13). 

[Sevilla]

Just now, thatguyyouknow75 said:

If it has what you want, others opinions shouldn't influence you. The majority of people here will bash Alienware so I advise you buy based off of your gut instinct 

I still don't get the bashings to be honest. I focus on the specs and the value based on those specs.

I have yet to hear crazy stories about their laptops exploding or just failing to work properly. That's like when people bash Apple for anything other than the cost (same applies to Razer).

[Sevilla]

1 minute ago, Dogeystyle said:

Inb4 some people go on here and spout circle-jerk shi8te about AW like it was made by Apple or something...

The Graphics Amp, in practice, seems to be a fine enough product for those that want future-proofness from their machine. The PCI-e 4x is not a bottleneck, at all. What bottlenecks these mobile PCIE ports is the fact that some of the time they may be tied to a laptop that has a dual-core processor which is the actual bottleneck, (ie Alienware 13). 

That's kind of what I was thinking too. All the reviews of it are tied to a dual core i7 13in laptop, not a quad core. If you know of any reviews that show otherwise, let me know.

Also, I know 4x vs 8x vs 16x is probably what? 1 FPS, maybe 2? 

[ZestyJalapeno]

5 minutes ago, Sevilla said:

That's kind of what I was thinking too. All the reviews of it are tied to a dual core i7 13in laptop, not a quad core. If you know of any reviews that show otherwise, let me know.

Also, I know 4x vs 8x vs 16x is probably what? 1 FPS, maybe 2? 

The 17 you're considering most likely has a quad-core hyperthreaded, so average FPS difference should be none. I've ordered the 15 R3 with a 4k screen myself, can't wait. 

[Sevilla]

1 hour ago, Dogeystyle said:

The 17 you're considering most likely has a quad-core hyperthreaded, so average FPS difference should be none. I've ordered the 15 R3 with a 4k screen myself, can't wait. 

Are you using it with the amp or just a 4k connected to the laptop?

[ZestyJalapeno]

40 minutes ago, Sevilla said:

Are you using it with the amp or just a 4k connected to the laptop?

4K screen on the laptop itself. Reason being is that it has 100% RGB and sRGB coverage, and the 1080p screen on the 15 is known to be a bit crap. I'm not getting the amp yet because I'm sure the 980m will drive it just fine.