Yeah, I'm sorry to say he overpaid. For this, you can get these exact same model machines off of eBay for $200 to $300. They are all over the place. It's ridiculous. I just bought one fully loaded out the door for 200 bucks and have had no problem.
@johnDingoFoxVelocity used market is where it's at. I bought an alienware r4 m17 with a 3070, 10th gen i7 and 32gb soldered ram (unfortunately) for $140. Yes $140...though the screen had green lines indicating a bad gpu, I transfered the item to my name and paid $262 for a premium dell extended warranty. Sent it out on a Friday, got it back the next Tuesday eith a new mobo and gpu. All in all $462 for that laptop is awesome and I have 1yr warranty still. Dell has great customer service...
I have that laptop and I'm in love with it. It's crazy to play and it works well with most programs. The only thing is that I need an Office key for some apps.
“Role playing as the sunny side of Mercury” lmaooo! Dawid is hands down the best at his sponsors’ sections. I don’t skip forward. Sign of a master at work.
The back part is primarily to keep the laptop stable, provide more cooling fin area, but also to keep the ports away from the main body of heat. It's an engineering choice they've been doing for a while, very nice hinge. I bought an Alienware laptop a few years ago and honestly, they're really fine.
Okay the whale sounds got me. The booty on that laptop just looks weird, the shape doesn't even line up with the rest and it looks even worse due to the color mismatch. All rear IO is awful too, just leads to broken DC jacks due to people not always using them flat on a desk and straining the ports. That thermal performance is terrible as well, as usual with Dell they've applied power limits that they cannot maintain. EC firmwares are often real sketchy as well, fans not reacting properly to load etc. Sometimes they fix this with updates, sometimes they don't... plenty of Dell BIOS/EC firmwares completely broke CPU C states on many laptops for example.
I bought an Alienware r16 a few months ago with an AMD 7850 hx and 4080. As a desktop snob I quite like it except for the fans, the keyboard, and "foot". 3D printed a stand for itand it works pretty damn well. As far as upgradability two m.2 slots, upgradeable RAM and Wi-Fi. Also has a USB and Ethernet port on the left. $2500 from best buy.
So fun fact, for a good sleeper, compact, "gaming" laptop; the Precision 34XX series is surprisingly capable. Even better if you can nab it on sale. I got my 3480 for $400, and it has a i7-1370P, and a RT A500(RTX 3050). The new one has core ultra and the 4050 equivalent, and just looks like a normal office laptop.
They have some very nice screen options on those as well. I've picked up a 5550 with an i9, 32gb ram, 2 nvme drives and gpu for school. My friend got the 5540, i7 version with a lovely touch screen for $200.
7:38 Gawd daym thats a solid looking hinge. lets hope its actually mounted to something thats not just a brass insert in a bit of plastic under the screen lid
I got this laptop with a 4060, 16gbs of RAM and 1Tb brand new but sold by the store as “open box”. Basically, it was an order from their customer, who cancelled on them, so I got bug discount and it was 2100$ cad. Honestly, I love it, and the performance is really nice. It’s not my main PC, but I daily drive it for school. It’s obvious not the cheapest and most bang for the buck laptop out there, but considering it was there, and I was looking for something in that performance level and price range, and it was still brand new with a clean windows install ready to be setup. I took it and have been using it for just over a year now.
@@GoatedLuhTyler idk, the form factor and experience of using it for the past year have been great, and despite being an intel based system, I was really surprised by how long the battery can last. For 2100 cad brand new, with warranty from not just DELL, but aso the small IT store that I bought it from, I have zero complaints!
@@Alex-zy6yc a 4080 for 2100?!? I assume you mean 2100$ USD, cuz I’m saying 2100 Cad, and there’s no way you can get that kind of computer for 2100$ cad!
Dell sent me the most expensive m17 r2 a while back to replace my laptop they broke (took 3 months so they gave in) and it lasted 2 years before quite literally blowing up, and thats after a mobo replacement. I now have a what use to be $3000+ laptop paper weight
If you are going to game on a laptop then you have to either get a cooling pad or lift its back up to create a gap between the laptop and the desk. This makes a huge difference in cooling the laptop.
true with the design of this laptop that might not be so much the case. cooling pads are also going to be a little iffy because of how the ventilation is all at the bottom of the laptop
I bought a used Alienware pc for my kid, really powerful, dual 970s, i7, 16 gb ram, for her vr games. I wanna tell you, I have never lifted a heavier pc in my life, at least 60lbs 😂😂😂
Dual 970s? Lol that's like 2016 specs. That 16gb ram is probably ddr3 and the cpu is like a 6800h series i7. Sure they can still play games I have my asus rog with a 980m and plays cod, r6 siege, fortnite etc etc pretty good
Not to be too elitist but dual 970s is very much NOT "really powerful" by any modern standard. Those GPUs are literally a decade old and were mediocre then. You can play simple games like Fortnite but I just hope you didn't pay too much for it.
Im using 4,5 years old Alienware M15 R5 since January 2021 bought on Dell sale. My model have R7 5800H, RTX3070, 64GB ram and 240hz 1440o display. It’s still capable laptop. After so many years of use I can recommend Alienware laptops. When utilising components to the max fans are loud and cpu/gpu temperatures inside are hot but easily within recommended levels.
Oh man, I 100% guarantee you that was designed by the same person at Dell that did the XPS. It looks so much like someone just made a slightly bigger XPS13
It's got the same problem I've seen on all laptops with an Intel cpu that shares the cooling system with the GPU. You have to disable the cpu turbo for extended gaming sessions. Or else it will overwhelm the cooling system and bring the whole system to a slower state.
I always used throttle stop on my laptops to undervolt them, and you can restrict clocks and turbo, even on locked processors, or with motherboards that don't have those settings.
@@KesterKurtal The best you can do is turn off turbo on 9th gen and newer Intel processors if they aren't unlocked undervaluing isn't possible anymore.
@@KesterKurtal Yeah it was recommended to me to undervolt the CPU, and to get throttlestop to do it. So I grabbed it for my laptop with a 9th gen cpu and thats how I found out about the locking down. Only HX cpus can be undervolted now.
@@unionofslavstanrepublics2317 That’s fair, but it’s definitely ok English. Like when you ask someone if they wanna try something new and they go “sure, I’m game.” But I can appreciate if it sounds goofy to some.
It's kinda weird to put on a product though. You'd think their marketing line there would be something like 'We're Gaming' as though they're the embodiment of it. But I guess they were going for the 'we are up to it if you are' form. I will admit when Dawid showed it I was a bit confused, it took me a while to think of that turn of phrase.
Speaking of network dongles Dawid, it would be interesting to see you take an SBC/NUC and use dongles for all the I/O. Ginormous GPU via PCI dongle, network dongle, external M.2 dongle, external sound dongle, you name it...DongleMania! Push it to the Moon (or Noon on Mercury)! Then to help the poor little SBC delay it's inevitable meltdown, earn valuable Streamer Pointz by hooking the hot mess to your window AC contraption. It will be glorious!
There was a time when I had one of their ex series laptops and it had a 3070 GPU and a top-of-the-line Intel CPU. That laptop was absolutely amazing and no matter what I threw at it temperatures stayed in the 80s. It was also easy to customize with either more ram or additional memory slots, and I honestly love the computer and even had a mechanical keyboard. At the end of the day, I ended up in a situation where I could have a full desktop experience and I ended up selling it, but it was honestly a great laptop.
It's insane how many modern "gaming" laptops don't have an ethernet port and don't come with an adapter either. Being able to use a wired connection is just as important as any GPU or CPU
My main laptop is actually an Alienware M15 R4 but it's a higher end model with a RTX 3080 wirh boost up to 140W. I had it for 3 years now and it's been solid. It actually performs similarly to a desktop with a 3060Ti in gaming. Timespy score roughly 11K.
I had the first release of this laptop and it was a screamer even with its little i5 and 3050. I couldn’t tell from your hit piece if you were launching games from the Alienware command center like you are supposed to. For maximum performance on games you need to run them and full tilt fans-a-blazing at full speed. In that gameplay mode it’s a different laptop. Overriding fan speeds to full is key to performance in this little guy. Without it you are gaming on a throttled normal laptop.
The msi afterburner osd issue happens on my 5 year old laptop as well. You need to launch the game first and then msi afterburner. The gpu usage & temp should show
If you are traveling a lot, or have to change your address quite often, a gaming laptop, modest as this is, can be a real blessing. But otherwise, nothing beats a desktop PC that you have built by yourself.
For 1000 USD i bought MINT like new, even with screen protectors alienware area 51m r2 with rtx2080super and i9-10900k 32gb ram, the power this laptop offer is enaugh for me and i think the quality is much better than the one You showed, also the cpu is a desktop version as well the performance of 2080super is not like the mobile version, just had to re-pad and re-paste the cpu and gpu! Im so happy with the purchase.
I think this kind of budget gaming laptop benefits a lot with cpu clocks cap a lot since the cooling is not adequate enough to the point it's gonna thermal throttle. set the cpu clocks to a little bit above base clocks so it doesnt go as hot and its gpu could utilize the rest of the cooling
I have an Alienware laptop with a 1080 in it. The CPU thermal throttled with anything even remotely demanding. Turned out Dell had cheaped out on thermal paste. Seems wild to me given how cheap decent thermal paste is. This thing had some of the best laptop components money could buy at that time and they cheaped out on thermal paste?! Once I fixed it, it was a monster laptop that I still get use out of today on work trips. Plus, the whole experience inspired me to build an actual decent desk top PC.
skyrim console needs a proper numpad to work. needs separate pg up/down keys so lack of numpad means cant be perfect gaming laptop (unless you carry around a full usb keyboard).
I have the Alienware X14 R2 with 3050 6GB and I love mine. I've owned it for about a year, and it plays games and does creative work well. I think it's probably one of the nicest looking laptops around. The only other laptop that I think is nicer is probably the Glacier White Lenovo Legion.
I configured a laptop from PC specialist and it ended up costing £1700, ran every game very well. Was happy with it, I ended up buying a monitor keyboard and mouse and hooked it all up to laptop and never opened the laptop lid again. I also put it on a fan cooling tray. Super loud but I gamed with headset. Sold for a normal PC.
I've had power delivery issues with laptops, and it's mainly because of the power profiles applied by the vendors. Clean Windows install or not, the way around this is to enable the default Windows power profiles. Most gaming laptops will have the "Ultimate Performance" profile hidden and bypassed by the vendor's power profile. Under the vendor's power profile, cpu and gpu don't reach their manufacturer advertised power delivery so that the vendor can sell their "great sound and cooling performance" by simply under powering the components. Yes, you'll probably get more fan noise, but that's because the fans are doing what they're supposed to. I've had Dell, ASUS and Gigabyte laptops, and they all disable the Ultimate Performance profile. Once I enabled it I had more steady power to both cpu and gpu, actually reaching their respective limits, which reduces stuttering during gameplay. Side note, the only issue I see with the Alienware/Dell laptops is the cooling design. Having to pull the whole motherboard out just to change thermal pads and paste is just dumb.
On your last question, Alienware machines in general aren't the most well-thought-out designs, especially from a cooling perspective. However, as is the case with all gaming systems, a desktop will always trounce a similarly priced laptop (including the cooling side of things, but especially on ease of maintenance and upgrades).
I have an MSI Katana 15 with the same CPU and GPU, 16GB of 5200 MT/s memory, a 1080p screen, and a slightly worse webcam. On the bright side, it has an Ethernet port and cost like $940 almost a year and a half ago at Micro Center. I have a pile of modern ThinkPads and Latitudes, but I wanted something I could do a little gaming on to pass the time while I looked for a job.
The reason the GPU temperatures weren’t shown is because you opened MSI afterburner before opening the game, while using nvidia optimus the dedicated GPU is only active when a program that requires it is running so by opening afterburner before the game afterburner didn’t detect the GPU; In addition to that, it also behaves pretty randomly as the GPU is occasionally detected by afterburner even when it is not active but the fix is to open MSI afterburner after the game.
I have a x14 R1 that I bought about a year and a half ago, and they have defiantly cheeped out on the build quality. My R1 doesn't have any of the plastic bits on it or the major chassis flex that this one displayed. Over all I have been very happy with the x14 R1 that I have.
Changing the power profile in control panel off of balanced if anything would actually reduce performance since it's going to prevent the CPU from turboing and throttling properly. In Windows 10 there used to be a slider in the taskbar / tray that has now moved to the power menu in the settings menu Windows 11 you can move that to high performance I would only recommend doing it when plugged in and you can even put it on battery optimized if you'd like when on battery Do be aware most OEM systems like this from Dell Lenovo HP we'll have power control drivers rather than just the default Intel one or the AMD one included with the chipset. On these devices dimensioned change will not work correctly without that driver. if you clean install Windows either use the recovery and clean it up yourself after or make sure your installing each and every driver listed on oems website laptops unlike modern desktops have a lot of weird little drivers
Portable or thin laptops, such as the Alienware x14, HP 14-inch and Asus G14, heavily depend on proper tweaking and balancing power between the CPU and GPU. The main issue with these laptops is that the CPU and GPU often compete for power due to system limitations. For example, a game may achieve optimal FPS with a 75W GPU and 25W CPU, but because of power balancing conflicts, you might see a 70W GPU with a 30W CPU, or an 80W GPU with a 20W CPU. This imbalance can lead to FPS drops. I have a x14, and with proper tweaks and undervolting, I am able to improve gaming performance by at least 10-15%, and more stable fps.
Alienware does make a good laptop and a good display. If they could figure out their airflow/misplaced engineering in a desktop, they would slay it there too.
I have one of the dell G15 series laptops which is essentially an Alienware with a different skin on it. It's honestly not a bad lil unit and it was waay cheaper than its alienware equivalent.
I spent $2,800 CAD on an MSI Vector 16, and after some bios and OC tweaking, and a cooling pad purchase, I'm exteremly happy with this laptop. i9 13980HX, 32gb ram, and RTX 4080. It was on sale when I bought it, though...
Did a review on the M16 R1 AMD version a couple months ago. I have really enjoyed the laptop, got it open box, and it has a 7845hx 12 core and a rtx 4080. Paid 1500 bucks, seriously my favorite laptop I've ever bought, and I have been a dell/alienware hater for 25 years. Also mine didn't have any bloatware on it either, I was shocked.
Still proprietary junk for all Dell/Alienware desktops. HP and Lenovo on the other hand, depends on models. HP Omen and Lenovo Legion desktops use Micro ATX
Anyone know if any gaming laptop manufacturers have started putting PTM7950 in them at the factory instead of thermal paste or liquid metal? I know XFX started doing it on desktop AMD cards, like the 7900xtx with the magnetic levitation fans
I'm noticing that a lot of higher-end or mid-range gaming laptops have the extra back part (My Lenovo Legion 15" laptop also has a similar design, and the Lenovo LOQ I tried, but returned for the Legion laptop, also had the extra space at the back, likely for additional cooling for the video card as both, at least in the case of the Lenovos, had RTX 4060's). The soldered components and limited storage upgrades are ones reason I decided to get a 15.6" laptop instead of a 14" laptop. I guess for me though I'm using mine as a desktop with a dock probably 80% of the time too, and it's my only computer at the point (minus a tablet) so I sort of need the ability to add space to it (curently have 3TB of storage across 2 drives), and it can hold about 64GB of RAM which means it will be good for upgrades for a few years. I think I paid about $900 for mine but that was on sale I think (it was $1100 I think regular price so $200 off). The only downside to it is it only has an 8 core Ryzen 7 7700 CPU though but I guess it's comparable to my desktop which was fine (I just wanted portability) and the video card makes up for it I guess since I do media creation. I guess if you were going based on specs only (hardware specs) this one might not be the best value. I mean you can get an HP Victus with a similar configuration for probably $400 less (although roughly the same limitations.(some soldered RAM although I think the Victus might have one slot that you can add memory) and only one SSD on some models. So for the price of this cheapest laptop from Alienware, you could find something better (again, like the one I have which is probably a step up, for about the same price, but a little bigger/heavier).
One of my coworkers used to work ad Dell (up until 2, 3 years ago). Whenever someone asks him for an employee discount his first reply is “are you sure you want to buy a Dell?” Jokes aside, it’s kind of interesting to see Alienware’s approach to a 14in laptop. Socketed wifi is even more surprising. A 4050 at this price is meh but then again if you’re buying a 14in laptop you probably know what you’re getting into
Whenever the MSI AB overlay doesn't work on a game I use the 'advanced' (or whatever it's called) nvidia overlay. It gives all the info about the GPU but only the % usage of the CPU.
You can fix Afterburner if your laptop has a MUX switch or your NVIDIA GPU has an advanced Optimus setting that forces the laptop to use the dedicated GPU only. That way, RTSS shows correct statistics.
One thing I rarely see mentioned that dell does very well is warranty support. The alienwares come with on site support, which I have taken advantage of in the past and is pretty good. Maybe do a video testing their warranty support? It has to be better than asus.
The GPU utilization not showing up in afterburner is optimus issue with newer versions of afterburner, to show gpu usage u have to start the game and minimize the game than start afterburner, than it will show GPU usage. Otherwise u can use Nvidia app to show gpu usage and temps as well
Speaking from experience, that 130w power brick comes with the Dell Latitude 5531's. Nice to see it's the same as having a plastic turning stock in a Lamborghini.
I have that issue with Afterburner on my PC, it doesn't work anymore for on screen display, it just crashed and no matter how many times I reinstall it, just doesn't work anymore.
New windows install yes. But - I would very much recommend putting Alienware commander back on afterwards - there's a not small pile of dead m17 and x15 machines in a storage cupboard somewhere at the office where someone didn't do that
You need to have the DGPU running before you open MSI Afterburner for it to detect all the statistics, on a laptop. You can do this by opening the game, then as soon as the DGPU is being utilised, open MSI Afterburner.
by the way, lenovo is also hard to remove the back plate by hands, but a simple guitar pick does the job for it... i wonder if that alien ware also work with a guitar pick.
I’d rather have any sort of USB-C dock with Ethernet than having to plug in and unplug EVERYTHING from the back. You can literally get a good one for just 160 CAD or so, that has lots of USB ports, Ethernet, audio input and output, and etc depending on which brand.
It'd be neat to see you compare this to a laptop with a similar price, I feel like when you look for laptops you always look for the total package when the users are really just looking for raw performance which leads to you finding the 4050 for almost 2k, when it feels like I look for any tech devices I'll find a laptop with a 4070 for 1k, 1.4 not on sale
Oh god the price for the laptop is UFO level:
Ultimate
Financial
Oopsie
@@CatCatuna I just paid $1000 for a non gaming laptop, so yeah. Not bad at all.
@@CatCatunayou could get an older version of the g14(2022 or 2023)
Yeah, I'm sorry to say he overpaid. For this, you can get these exact same model machines off of eBay for $200 to $300. They are all over the place. It's ridiculous. I just bought one fully loaded out the door for 200 bucks and have had no problem.
@SimplyTheSloth we don't recall main OP's comment asking for your opinion either but yet here we are. The hypocrisy in your statement holy shit
@johnDingoFoxVelocity used market is where it's at. I bought an alienware r4 m17 with a 3070, 10th gen i7 and 32gb soldered ram (unfortunately) for $140. Yes $140...though the screen had green lines indicating a bad gpu, I transfered the item to my name and paid $262 for a premium dell extended warranty. Sent it out on a Friday, got it back the next Tuesday eith a new mobo and gpu. All in all $462 for that laptop is awesome and I have 1yr warranty still. Dell has great customer service...
Usually aliens abduct us, this time Dawid abducted one back.
??
Usually they probe us, this time Dawid probed them!
Well amount of probing he gets it time to prone back
I came to comment about actual aliens. I suppose this comment will suffice. 👽👽👽
@@christophermullins7163 ;)
I have that laptop and I'm in love with it. It's crazy to play and it works well with most programs. The only thing is that I need an Office key for some apps.
I always use BNH Software to avoid complications and it has never let me down.
“Role playing as the sunny side of Mercury” lmaooo!
Dawid is hands down the best at his sponsors’ sections. I don’t skip forward. Sign of a master at work.
your parents are disappointed on how your life's turned out😱😱
gaming is fucked when a laptop with 4050 costs $1800...
Well that's Canadian dollars. Their flag is a leaf.
@@nazgulsenpai i don't care if it's in Liberian dollars, that's way too expensive for that tier of performance.
Yes
50 class gpu, with soldered memory for $1800 CAD. God it's a joke here.
And it'll get even worse, charging a premium price for a 50 tier GPU with shitty cooling
That mic comparison is the best way to demonstrate the difference sound quality!
04:30 also quite open to the ingress of accidental fluids turning the Alien into a quivering mess.
It's gonna be hard to explain what happened to customer support
"Point away from the screen" should be on a sticker when you first open it.
"It performs very well hooked up to a window AC" Your sponsors should pay you more 😅
The back part is primarily to keep the laptop stable, provide more cooling fin area, but also to keep the ports away from the main body of heat.
It's an engineering choice they've been doing for a while, very nice hinge.
I bought an Alienware laptop a few years ago and honestly, they're really fine.
You could just buy a Dell G15 for much cheaper. They're practically the same.
I'm having a hard time with my heart man. Today was rough just waking up. You made me laugh within the first ten seconds of the video.
Thank you.
oh, so sorry to hear that. hope you get better!
Hold on, man.
I hope you get better.
Hang in there my friend ❤
u got this brother! 😤
2:03 fav part
🧐
Best part
I have had my alienware 18 on every day for 11 years and counting. Still plays anything pre 2018 on high/ultra settings. Best purchase I ever made.
Okay the whale sounds got me.
The booty on that laptop just looks weird, the shape doesn't even line up with the rest and it looks even worse due to the color mismatch. All rear IO is awful too, just leads to broken DC jacks due to people not always using them flat on a desk and straining the ports.
That thermal performance is terrible as well, as usual with Dell they've applied power limits that they cannot maintain. EC firmwares are often real sketchy as well, fans not reacting properly to load etc. Sometimes they fix this with updates, sometimes they don't... plenty of Dell BIOS/EC firmwares completely broke CPU C states on many laptops for example.
I bought an Alienware r16 a few months ago with an AMD 7850 hx and 4080. As a desktop snob I quite like it except for the fans, the keyboard, and "foot". 3D printed a stand for itand it works pretty damn well. As far as upgradability two m.2 slots, upgradeable RAM and Wi-Fi. Also has a USB and Ethernet port on the left. $2500 from best buy.
So fun fact, for a good sleeper, compact, "gaming" laptop; the Precision 34XX series is surprisingly capable. Even better if you can nab it on sale. I got my 3480 for $400, and it has a i7-1370P, and a RT A500(RTX 3050). The new one has core ultra and the 4050 equivalent, and just looks like a normal office laptop.
are there any cooling issues?
They have some very nice screen options on those as well. I've picked up a 5550 with an i9, 32gb ram, 2 nvme drives and gpu for school. My friend got the 5540, i7 version with a lovely touch screen for $200.
7:38 Gawd daym thats a solid looking hinge. lets hope its actually mounted to something thats not just a brass insert in a bit of plastic under the screen lid
I got this laptop with a 4060, 16gbs of RAM and 1Tb brand new but sold by the store as “open box”. Basically, it was an order from their customer, who cancelled on them, so I got bug discount and it was 2100$ cad. Honestly, I love it, and the performance is really nice. It’s not my main PC, but I daily drive it for school. It’s obvious not the cheapest and most bang for the buck laptop out there, but considering it was there, and I was looking for something in that performance level and price range, and it was still brand new with a clean windows install ready to be setup. I took it and have been using it for just over a year now.
that is not worth the price at all
@@GoatedLuhTyler idk, the form factor and experience of using it for the past year have been great, and despite being an intel based system, I was really surprised by how long the battery can last. For 2100 cad brand new, with warranty from not just DELL, but aso the small IT store that I bought it from, I have zero complaints!
For 2100 you could get a 4080 laptop
@@Alex-zy6yc a 4080 for 2100?!? I assume you mean 2100$ USD, cuz I’m saying 2100 Cad, and there’s no way you can get that kind of computer for 2100$ cad!
@@Alex-zy6yc 1406,82 in euro
Dell sent me the most expensive m17 r2 a while back to replace my laptop they broke (took 3 months so they gave in) and it lasted 2 years before quite literally blowing up, and thats after a mobo replacement. I now have a what use to be $3000+ laptop paper weight
same here
Thank you DDTS.. your weekend video is perfect Saturday evening viewing here in Perth West Australia
hahaha yes
If you are going to game on a laptop then you have to either get a cooling pad or lift its back up to create a gap between the laptop and the desk. This makes a huge difference in cooling the laptop.
true with the design of this laptop that might not be so much the case. cooling pads are also going to be a little iffy because of how the ventilation is all at the bottom of the laptop
I bought a used Alienware pc for my kid, really powerful, dual 970s, i7, 16 gb ram, for her vr games.
I wanna tell you, I have never lifted a heavier pc in my life, at least 60lbs 😂😂😂
Dual 970s? Lol that's like 2016 specs. That 16gb ram is probably ddr3 and the cpu is like a 6800h series i7. Sure they can still play games I have my asus rog with a 980m and plays cod, r6 siege, fortnite etc etc pretty good
Not to be too elitist but dual 970s is very much NOT "really powerful" by any modern standard. Those GPUs are literally a decade old and were mediocre then. You can play simple games like Fortnite but I just hope you didn't pay too much for it.
That’s not powerful. My 4050 beats the aging 970.
You should have gotten something newer.
My...laptop's GPU is around 4.5x the performance of a GTX 970....
@@Nauzhror1216 what gpu do you have ?
This couldn't have been a true Dawid video as there was no mention of dysentery, gonorrhea, or syphilis. LMAO!
Haha yeah because there was no McAffe on it 😂
LMAO!
Im using 4,5 years old Alienware M15 R5 since January 2021 bought on Dell sale. My model have R7 5800H, RTX3070, 64GB ram and 240hz 1440o display. It’s still capable laptop. After so many years of use I can recommend Alienware laptops. When utilising components to the max fans are loud and cpu/gpu temperatures inside are hot but easily within recommended levels.
Any gaming laptop with non upgradable ram is a big L
I actually love the "booties" in Alienware laptops because they look cool.
Just not so much on the 14"
@@aaz1992 I actually like big laptops as long as they look cool and perform well.
was looking for this comment. I love the way it looks.
@@raffitchakmakjian Fr
i am typing this on my new steam deck!
nice did you get stock or oled?
No one cares.
hows it like?
@@Kuldar67 i care...I care buddy...
@@Gravage why bro mad?
"which has had one of its knee caps blown out" made me spit out my coffee, mate 🤣🤣
Thank you for making and sharing your videos
Oh man, I 100% guarantee you that was designed by the same person at Dell that did the XPS. It looks so much like someone just made a slightly bigger XPS13
That’s what I thought too!!! I have one and was surprised by the similarities
Is the Laptop using LPCAMM2 rams? Dell sales representative confirms X16 R2 (AU) use soldered rams - no LPCAMM2.
2:02 As a dad I can say you've nailed that sound. A+
Ah, a Dawid video. Where comments go to die
$1700 for a 4050? I'll pass.
My Alienware has a gtx 765m & was $2000 at launch
Dawid, you and your videos are awesome, and I can't for them each week, keep it up
It's got the same problem I've seen on all laptops with an Intel cpu that shares the cooling system with the GPU. You have to disable the cpu turbo for extended gaming sessions. Or else it will overwhelm the cooling system and bring the whole system to a slower state.
A co-worker has one similar to this and he mentioned the overheating problems as well. On his with a 4060 it hits slowdown mode within 10 minutes.
I always used throttle stop on my laptops to undervolt them, and you can restrict clocks and turbo, even on locked processors, or with motherboards that don't have those settings.
@@KesterKurtal The best you can do is turn off turbo on 9th gen and newer Intel processors if they aren't unlocked undervaluing isn't possible anymore.
@@Jackpkmn I did not know that, the newest laptop I had, had an 8th gen in it.
@@KesterKurtal Yeah it was recommended to me to undervolt the CPU, and to get throttlestop to do it. So I grabbed it for my laptop with a 9th gen cpu and thats how I found out about the locking down. Only HX cpus can be undervolted now.
1:19 Ah yes **WE'RE GAME.**
Truly a Engrish moment.
Technically a perfectly fine sentence in English, actually. Is it cheesy and kinda dumb here? Sure, probably. But it’s also acceptable English.
Dell is an American company 😂
@@archgirl We're game or We are game isn't the best worded phrase in my eyes.
@@unionofslavstanrepublics2317 That’s fair, but it’s definitely ok English. Like when you ask someone if they wanna try something new and they go “sure, I’m game.” But I can appreciate if it sounds goofy to some.
It's kinda weird to put on a product though. You'd think their marketing line there would be something like 'We're Gaming' as though they're the embodiment of it. But I guess they were going for the 'we are up to it if you are' form. I will admit when Dawid showed it I was a bit confused, it took me a while to think of that turn of phrase.
Love some early morning shenanigan’s with Dawid does tech stuff so let’s see what kind of trouble he is upto today.
Speaking of network dongles Dawid, it would be interesting to see you take an SBC/NUC and use dongles for all the I/O.
Ginormous GPU via PCI dongle, network dongle, external M.2 dongle, external sound dongle, you name it...DongleMania!
Push it to the Moon (or Noon on Mercury)!
Then to help the poor little SBC delay it's inevitable meltdown, earn valuable Streamer Pointz by hooking the hot mess to your window AC contraption. It will be glorious!
There was a time when I had one of their ex series laptops and it had a 3070 GPU and a top-of-the-line Intel CPU. That laptop was absolutely amazing and no matter what I threw at it temperatures stayed in the 80s.
It was also easy to customize with either more ram or additional memory slots, and I honestly love the computer and even had a mechanical keyboard. At the end of the day, I ended up in a situation where I could have a full desktop experience and I ended up selling it, but it was honestly a great laptop.
As always FUN stuff, thanks Dawid for all your reviews. YOU da Man !
13:08 that's a beautiful keyboard, could we get a link where to buy it ? thanks
It's insane how many modern "gaming" laptops don't have an ethernet port and don't come with an adapter either.
Being able to use a wired connection is just as important as any GPU or CPU
My main laptop is actually an Alienware M15 R4 but it's a higher end model with a RTX 3080 wirh boost up to 140W. I had it for 3 years now and it's been solid. It actually performs similarly to a desktop with a 3060Ti in gaming. Timespy score roughly 11K.
I had the first release of this laptop and it was a screamer even with its little i5 and 3050. I couldn’t tell from your hit piece if you were launching games from the Alienware command center like you are supposed to. For maximum performance on games you need to run them and full tilt fans-a-blazing at full speed. In that gameplay mode it’s a different laptop. Overriding fan speeds to full is key to performance in this little guy. Without it you are gaming on a throttled normal laptop.
The msi afterburner osd issue happens on my 5 year old laptop as well. You need to launch the game first and then msi afterburner. The gpu usage & temp should show
If you are traveling a lot, or have to change your address quite often, a gaming laptop, modest as this is, can be a real blessing. But otherwise, nothing beats a desktop PC that you have built by yourself.
I have an x16 r2 and I LOVE IT. I'm actually impressed by the quality of the laptop
1700$ for a RTX 4050 16 gb of ram and not upgradable ram and 500 gb ssd is CRIMINAL
For 1000 USD i bought MINT like new, even with screen protectors alienware area 51m r2 with rtx2080super and i9-10900k 32gb ram, the power this laptop offer is enaugh for me and i think the quality is much better than the one You showed, also the cpu is a desktop version as well the performance of 2080super is not like the mobile version, just had to re-pad and re-paste the cpu and gpu! Im so happy with the purchase.
I think this kind of budget gaming laptop benefits a lot with cpu clocks cap a lot since the cooling is not adequate enough to the point it's gonna thermal throttle. set the cpu clocks to a little bit above base clocks so it doesnt go as hot and its gpu could utilize the rest of the cooling
i wished to see the difference in performance compared to a clean install of windows
I have an Alienware laptop with a 1080 in it. The CPU thermal throttled with anything even remotely demanding. Turned out Dell had cheaped out on thermal paste. Seems wild to me given how cheap decent thermal paste is. This thing had some of the best laptop components money could buy at that time and they cheaped out on thermal paste?! Once I fixed it, it was a monster laptop that I still get use out of today on work trips. Plus, the whole experience inspired me to build an actual decent desk top PC.
skyrim console needs a proper numpad to work. needs separate pg up/down keys so lack of numpad means cant be perfect gaming laptop (unless you carry around a full usb keyboard).
1:36 Where is this sound from? I remember it from somewhere
I have owned this laptop for about a year now. 32gb and a 4060. Very happy with it. I got it for $1200 from Dell.
I have the Alienware X14 R2 with 3050 6GB and I love mine. I've owned it for about a year, and it plays games and does creative work well. I think it's probably one of the nicest looking laptops around. The only other laptop that I think is nicer is probably the Glacier White Lenovo Legion.
Was that cloth between keyboard and screen a wipe type of cloth? Like the cloth that always comes with glasses.
I configured a laptop from PC specialist and it ended up costing £1700, ran every game very well. Was happy with it, I ended up buying a monitor keyboard and mouse and hooked it all up to laptop and never opened the laptop lid again. I also put it on a fan cooling tray. Super loud but I gamed with headset. Sold for a normal PC.
I've had power delivery issues with laptops, and it's mainly because of the power profiles applied by the vendors. Clean Windows install or not, the way around this is to enable the default Windows power profiles. Most gaming laptops will have the "Ultimate Performance" profile hidden and bypassed by the vendor's power profile. Under the vendor's power profile, cpu and gpu don't reach their manufacturer advertised power delivery so that the vendor can sell their "great sound and cooling performance" by simply under powering the components. Yes, you'll probably get more fan noise, but that's because the fans are doing what they're supposed to. I've had Dell, ASUS and Gigabyte laptops, and they all disable the Ultimate Performance profile. Once I enabled it I had more steady power to both cpu and gpu, actually reaching their respective limits, which reduces stuttering during gameplay. Side note, the only issue I see with the Alienware/Dell laptops is the cooling design. Having to pull the whole motherboard out just to change thermal pads and paste is just dumb.
x14 r2 is so cheap , it only costs me one kidney instead of three kidneys like the x16 dose
On your last question, Alienware machines in general aren't the most well-thought-out designs, especially from a cooling perspective. However, as is the case with all gaming systems, a desktop will always trounce a similarly priced laptop (including the cooling side of things, but especially on ease of maintenance and upgrades).
9:19 where is the lav mic hidden? Did you keester it Dawid?
I have an MSI Katana 15 with the same CPU and GPU, 16GB of 5200 MT/s memory, a 1080p screen, and a slightly worse webcam. On the bright side, it has an Ethernet port and cost like $940 almost a year and a half ago at Micro Center. I have a pile of modern ThinkPads and Latitudes, but I wanted something I could do a little gaming on to pass the time while I looked for a job.
Had to go back and do a double-take when I saw that AIO linked to the window ac. 😂
The reason the GPU temperatures weren’t shown is because you opened MSI afterburner before opening the game, while using nvidia optimus the dedicated GPU is only active when a program that requires it is running so by opening afterburner before the game afterburner didn’t detect the GPU; In addition to that, it also behaves pretty randomly as the GPU is occasionally detected by afterburner even when it is not active but the fix is to open MSI afterburner after the game.
I have a x14 R1 that I bought about a year and a half ago, and they have defiantly cheeped out on the build quality. My R1 doesn't have any of the plastic bits on it or the major chassis flex that this one displayed. Over all I have been very happy with the x14 R1 that I have.
Changing the power profile in control panel off of balanced if anything would actually reduce performance since it's going to prevent the CPU from turboing and throttling properly.
In Windows 10 there used to be a slider in the taskbar / tray that has now moved to the power menu in the settings menu Windows 11 you can move that to high performance I would only recommend doing it when plugged in and you can even put it on battery optimized if you'd like when on battery
Do be aware most OEM systems like this from Dell Lenovo HP we'll have power control drivers rather than just the default Intel one or the AMD one included with the chipset. On these devices dimensioned change will not work correctly without that driver.
if you clean install Windows either use the recovery and clean it up yourself after or make sure your installing each and every driver listed on oems website laptops unlike modern desktops have a lot of weird little drivers
Portable or thin laptops, such as the Alienware x14, HP 14-inch and Asus G14, heavily depend on proper tweaking and balancing power between the CPU and GPU. The main issue with these laptops is that the CPU and GPU often compete for power due to system limitations. For example, a game may achieve optimal FPS with a 75W GPU and 25W CPU, but because of power balancing conflicts, you might see a 70W GPU with a 30W CPU, or an 80W GPU with a 20W CPU. This imbalance can lead to FPS drops. I have a x14, and with proper tweaks and undervolting, I am able to improve gaming performance by at least 10-15%, and more stable fps.
Alienware does make a good laptop and a good display. If they could figure out their airflow/misplaced engineering in a desktop, they would slay it there too.
I have one of the dell G15 series laptops which is essentially an Alienware with a different skin on it. It's honestly not a bad lil unit and it was waay cheaper than its alienware equivalent.
I spent $2,800 CAD on an MSI Vector 16, and after some bios and OC tweaking, and a cooling pad purchase, I'm exteremly happy with this laptop. i9 13980HX, 32gb ram, and RTX 4080. It was on sale when I bought it, though...
Did a review on the M16 R1 AMD version a couple months ago. I have really enjoyed the laptop, got it open box, and it has a 7845hx 12 core and a rtx 4080. Paid 1500 bucks, seriously my favorite laptop I've ever bought, and I have been a dell/alienware hater for 25 years. Also mine didn't have any bloatware on it either, I was shocked.
I wonder if Dell desktops are still proprietary junk or if they've gone back to ATX yet
Still proprietary junk for all Dell/Alienware desktops. HP and Lenovo on the other hand, depends on models. HP Omen and Lenovo Legion desktops use Micro ATX
NGL, really missing Linode being a sponsor in the intros.
even if the no MacAfee option was $20... it's worth it for what a pain it is to remove
Anyone know if any gaming laptop manufacturers have started putting PTM7950 in them at the factory instead of thermal paste or liquid metal? I know XFX started doing it on desktop AMD cards, like the 7900xtx with the magnetic levitation fans
Alienware purposely put all the plastic there for Dawid's love of peeling ASMR. Edit: That flick shot though.
When Dawid touched the intakes, for a moment I thought that he tried to dissolve them with his finger grease
love the fact that dawid opens the system up before even turning the power on XD
I'm noticing that a lot of higher-end or mid-range gaming laptops have the extra back part (My Lenovo Legion 15" laptop also has a similar design, and the Lenovo LOQ I tried, but returned for the Legion laptop, also had the extra space at the back, likely for additional cooling for the video card as both, at least in the case of the Lenovos, had RTX 4060's).
The soldered components and limited storage upgrades are ones reason I decided to get a 15.6" laptop instead of a 14" laptop. I guess for me though I'm using mine as a desktop with a dock probably 80% of the time too, and it's my only computer at the point (minus a tablet) so I sort of need the ability to add space to it (curently have 3TB of storage across 2 drives), and it can hold about 64GB of RAM which means it will be good for upgrades for a few years. I think I paid about $900 for mine but that was on sale I think (it was $1100 I think regular price so $200 off). The only downside to it is it only has an 8 core Ryzen 7 7700 CPU though but I guess it's comparable to my desktop which was fine (I just wanted portability) and the video card makes up for it I guess since I do media creation.
I guess if you were going based on specs only (hardware specs) this one might not be the best value. I mean you can get an HP Victus with a similar configuration for probably $400 less (although roughly the same limitations.(some soldered RAM although I think the Victus might have one slot that you can add memory) and only one SSD on some models. So for the price of this cheapest laptop from Alienware, you could find something better (again, like the one I have which is probably a step up, for about the same price, but a little bigger/heavier).
The Dell Precision laptop I have from work came with exactly the same power supply.
One of my coworkers used to work ad Dell (up until 2, 3 years ago). Whenever someone asks him for an employee discount his first reply is “are you sure you want to buy a Dell?”
Jokes aside, it’s kind of interesting to see Alienware’s approach to a 14in laptop. Socketed wifi is even more surprising. A 4050 at this price is meh but then again if you’re buying a 14in laptop you probably know what you’re getting into
Whenever the MSI AB overlay doesn't work on a game I use the 'advanced' (or whatever it's called) nvidia overlay. It gives all the info about the GPU but only the % usage of the CPU.
You can fix Afterburner if your laptop has a MUX switch or your NVIDIA GPU has an advanced Optimus setting that forces the laptop to use the dedicated GPU only. That way, RTSS shows correct statistics.
Yay another laptop videos!
Me and my friends were just talking about your vids roasting Alienware desktops, and how the laptops were better. And then this vid came out.
I like that they actually tried a few new and different things with this, but the price is insane.
One thing I rarely see mentioned that dell does very well is warranty support. The alienwares come with on site support, which I have taken advantage of in the past and is pretty good. Maybe do a video testing their warranty support? It has to be better than asus.
6:56 Soldered RAM at 4800MT/s - not that fast - you can get 5600 in SO-DIMM format (spec sheet of the 13620H says 5200 is possible)
The GPU utilization not showing up in afterburner is optimus issue with newer versions of afterburner, to show gpu usage u have to start the game and minimize the game than start afterburner, than it will show GPU usage. Otherwise u can use Nvidia app to show gpu usage and temps as well
Speaking from experience, that 130w power brick comes with the Dell Latitude 5531's. Nice to see it's the same as having a plastic turning stock in a Lamborghini.
I have that issue with Afterburner on my PC, it doesn't work anymore for on screen display, it just crashed and no matter how many times I reinstall it, just doesn't work anymore.
New windows install yes.
But - I would very much recommend putting Alienware commander back on afterwards - there's a not small pile of dead m17 and x15 machines in a storage cupboard somewhere at the office where someone didn't do that
You need to have the DGPU running before you open MSI Afterburner for it to detect all the statistics, on a laptop.
You can do this by opening the game, then as soon as the DGPU is being utilised, open MSI Afterburner.
I like the idea of the side hand warmer 😂. Crappy laptop though at that price point...
by the way, lenovo is also hard to remove the back plate by hands, but a simple guitar pick does the job for it... i wonder if that alien ware also work with a guitar pick.
Review the R16 desktop please!
My problem with my x15 r2 is that rear end. It won’t fit in a smaller backpack laptop area
I’d rather have any sort of USB-C dock with Ethernet than having to plug in and unplug EVERYTHING from the back. You can literally get a good one for just 160 CAD or so, that has lots of USB ports, Ethernet, audio input and output, and etc depending on which brand.
It'd be neat to see you compare this to a laptop with a similar price, I feel like when you look for laptops you always look for the total package when the users are really just looking for raw performance which leads to you finding the 4050 for almost 2k, when it feels like I look for any tech devices I'll find a laptop with a 4070 for 1k, 1.4 not on sale