Im about to buy an alienware laptop, but i need your help!

[matin94]

Hello, im about to purchase an alienware laptop and i want to make sure im making the right decision. a few months ago i started to do research on laptops that would suit my needs which is using it to do my uni work whether its writing an essay, designing a website or programming, and i want to be able to game on the go because sometimes i have around 2-3 hours worth of free time between lectures. i should mention i dont really play many AAA titles with intense graphics, just the odd game like GTA or Payday 2 would be as intense as it would get, especially on a laptop. i already have a powerful Desktop PC at home.

alienware meets my needs quite perfectly, they are powerful enough, not ridiculously expensive (although still expensive) and Dell offers a 15% student discount with is great. right now theyre also taking off £50 off the price which means even more savings.

 

the thing i wanted help with is deciding between the alienware 13 and 15, and i would love to get some other suggestions that people think would be very good for me that doesnt exceed the price im looking for.

The alienware 13 has a dual core where the alienware 15 has a quad, i understand more cores = better, but do you think ill really be needing a quad core? the AW15 comes with a 970M aswell, with 1TB HHD and 8GB of ram, I am going to upgrade the ram and add an SSD m2 to the laptop in the future. the whole price of the AW15 comes up to £1000 thats including my discounts. 

however the AW13 is great for size, it has a 960M GPU compare to the 970M. i dont believe i'll be making much use of the 970M but its always nice to have and i've read good reviews about  the battery life. so which would you recommend and why. i've stopped following the tech world in the past year since i went to UNI so im not sure whats so good and whats not so any input and advise will be much appreciated.

im completely open to any other laptops that can compete with these two, and i would seriously appreciate any input and criticism towards any of my choices.

thank you! 

[DominicNikon]

4 minutes ago, matin94 said:

Hello, im about to purchase an alienware laptop and i want to make sure im making the right decision. a few months ago i started to do research on laptops that would suit my needs which is using it to do my uni work whether its writing an essay, designing a website or programming, and i want to be able to game on the go because sometimes i have around 2-3 hours worth of free time between lectures. i should mention i dont really play many AAA titles with intense graphics, just the odd game like GTA or Payday 2 would be as intense as it would get, especially on a laptop. i already have a powerful Desktop PC at home.

alienware meets my needs quite perfectly, they are powerful enough, not ridiculously expensive (although still expensive) and Dell offers a 15% student discount with is great. right now theyre also taking off £50 off the price which means even more savings.

 

the thing i wanted help with is deciding between the alienware 13 and 15, and i would love to get some other suggestions that people think would be very good for me that doesnt exceed the price im looking for.

The alienware 13 has a dual core where the alienware 15 has a quad, i understand more cores = better, but do you think ill really be needing a quad core? the AW15 comes with a 970M aswell, with 1TB HHD and 8GB of ram, I am going to upgrade the ram and add an SSD m2 to the laptop in the future. the whole price of the AW15 comes up to £1000 thats including my discounts. 

however the AW13 is great for size, it has a 960M GPU compare to the 970M. i dont believe i'll be making much use of the 970M but its always nice to have and i've read good reviews about  the battery life. so which would you recommend and why. i've stopped following the tech world in the past year since i went to UNI so im not sure whats so good and whats not so any input and advise will be much appreciated.

im completely open to any other laptops that can compete with these two, and i would seriously appreciate any input and criticism towards any of my choices.

thank you! 

i would get a 970m with quad core because GTA V is very hard to run. i have a laptop with a i7 6700hq with a GTX 960m and on battery i cant play it at all. when pluged in i get 60+fps at low settings

[Enderman]

first of all, you should not buy anything from alienware

 

second, you should wait for laptops with GTX1000 series GPUs for lower power consumption and much better performance and battery life

[_JohnB330ci]

4 minutes ago, DominicNikon said:

i would get a 970m with quad core because GTA V is very hard to run. i have a laptop with a i7 6700hq with a GTX 960m and on battery i cant play it at all. when pluged in i get 60+fps at low settings

Jeese, what laptop? Mine with a I7 6700HQ and GTX 960M Can run GTA V on High, 1080p@60fps

[matin94]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

first of all, you should not buy anything from alienware

 

second, you should wait for laptops with GTX1000 series GPUs for lower power consumption and much better performance and battery life

could you please explain why i shouldnt buy anything from alienware?

[Clanscorpia]

2 minutes ago, matin94 said:

could you please explain why i shouldnt buy anything from alienware?

Because it is low quality. It also breaks down quickly. The cooling also isnt as good as MSi's and ASUS'

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, matin94 said:

could you please explain why i shouldnt buy anything from alienware?

1) expensive for what you get

 

2) far from the best quality, will most likely have stuff break or malfunction after a year or two

 

3) bad customer service

 

4) flashy LEDs everywhere make these laptops marketed to children who dont know any better and use their parents money

 

5) just like apple, you overpay for the brand name

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

1) expensive for what you get

 

2) far from the best quality, will most likely have stuff break or malfunction after a year or two

 

3) bad customer service

 

4) flashy LEDs everywhere make these laptops marketed to children who dont know any better and use their parents money

 

5) just like apple, you overpay for the brand name

good job  

I would also like to add that the keyboards they put on them are not that good, other "gaming" laptops has better keyboards.

[matin94]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

1) expensive for what you get

 

2) far from the best quality, will most likely have stuff break or malfunction after a year or two

 

3) bad customer service

 

4) flashy LEDs everywhere make these laptops marketed to children who dont know any better and use their parents money

 

5) just like apple, you overpay for the brand name

so what alternatives would you recommend

[Enderman]

7 minutes ago, matin94 said:

so what alternatives would you recommend

there are many

lenovo, msi, maingear, etc... all with different options

you should probably make a separate post with exactly what you are looking for, the budget, the weight and size, the screen size and resolution, battery life, and stuff like that

[Dackzy]

22 minutes ago, matin94 said:

so what alternatives would you recommend

give rebranded Clevo laptops a look.

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptops/

http://www.mysn.co.uk/

[DominicNikon]

2 hours ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Jeese, what laptop? Mine with a I7 6700HQ and GTX 960M Can run GTA V on High, 1080p@60fps

http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ROG-GL552VW/ 

[_JohnB330ci]

14 hours ago, DominicNikon said:

http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ROG-GL552VW/ 

Weird, my Dell Inspiron 7559 Can run GTA V at much higher settings

[exercutor5]

17 hours ago, matin94 said:

so what alternatives would you recommend

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers-for-next-day-delivery/246/

[Pendragon]

P750DM from various Clevo Rebrands

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/octaneII-15/

 

The Defiance two that was linked above, the P650Rx, is great too. 

Difference is Octane has desktop grade chips, so more heat, less battery, thicker, in exchange for more performance. Ultimately up to you at the end of the day.