Question Thinking of replacing my desktop PC with an alienware

vorsies

Novice Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
26
Age
32
Location
Manchester
Hey people; first post :clap:

I wanted to bounce around my idea of selling my gaming PC to get an alienware 13 R3.

The reasoning is that I travel back home (Cyprus) quite frequently; plus I'd like some more portability when I'm here in the UK. I really want to have one (powerful) system.

The choice of the alienware 13 is the gorgeous OLED display, plus the ability to add an external GPU with not many losses.

My current system is an i7-5820K on top of an MSI x99 SLI-plus mobo, with 16gigs of RAM, a GTX970 and 500GB SSD in an h440 (with the expected amount of scratches for a 3 year old desktop).

Additionally, I'm looking to change my BenQ 27" 144Hz FHD monitor for a 2K 144Hz, not so much for more pixels when gaming but for more display area when coding.

What do you think? Also how much do you think I can get for my setup (desktop and monitor)?

Thank you :)
 
Last edited:
The external GPU can be buggy at times so do not count on that when deciding to go for a laptop.
 
Did you have a bad experience? I haven't seen anything (not that I've searched for problems with the alienware graphics amplifier).

I had an epiphany to hold off until they announce the 8th gen mobile processors in Q1 to see if it's worth waiting for the 7700HQ replacement on the 13.
 
No but when I looked into reviews it seemed a common problem. Not just from the alienware offering but from others such as MSI
 
Don't expect anywhere near the same performance from the laptop, without the graphics amplifier.

If you're flying a lot, then the laptop bulk will take up a lot of hand luggage and you generally get about 1.5 hours usage out of it, before you need power.

If you have to cart the graphics amplifier around, then the portability is also drastically reduced, it is pretty heavy and bulky.

Personally, I would rather consider getting a secondary desktop for your home in Cyprus and maybe a cheaper laptop or Chromebook for on the move (I use an iPad for travelling entertainment). You will get a much better system than the laptop plus graphics card that you have to purchase.

These days, most of your stuff can be stored online (google drive), game progress is mostly cloud saved in Steam and if you code a lot, then simply use Github or Gitlab to store your projects, which is what you should be doing anyway.
 
Don't expect anywhere near the same performance from the laptop, without the graphics amplifier.

If you're flying a lot, then the laptop bulk will take up a lot of hand luggage and you generally get about 1.5 hours usage out of it, before you need power.

If you have to cart the graphics amplifier around, then the portability is also drastically reduced, it is pretty heavy and bulky.

Personally, I would rather consider getting a secondary desktop for your home in Cyprus and maybe a cheaper laptop or Chromebook for on the move (I use an iPad for travelling entertainment). You will get a much better system than the laptop plus graphics card that you have to purchase.

These days, most of your stuff can be stored online (google drive), game progress is mostly cloud saved in Steam and if you code a lot, then simply use Github or Gitlab to store your projects, which is what you should be doing anyway.

Hey, thanks for your well-rounded reply. For the record, of course I'm using version control :rotfl:

I've actually toyed with the idea of moving my GTX970 back home today! Also, I wasn't planning of carrying the AGA around; I would settle with medium graphics on the go.

The idea behind the laptop is that it would be an all for one solution (with the AGA staying at home here in the UK) but it's starting to clear up in my thick head that a system which satisfies all my needs is probably a figment of my imagination; at least for now. (worth saying thought, that my AW m14x r2 from 4 years ago lasted me just over 4 hours of watching movies)

I was really keen to find something that would be "just as" powerful as a 1440p gaming desktop, that would unplug and have descent 1080p gaming as well as 4-5 hours battery life when running IntelliJ at 30,000ft:thumbsdow

I'll sit tight for now; while on the lookout for a cheap laptop that my give me partially what I need when travelling. Let's see what AW unveils in CES in a few weeks.

Thanks for your reply :clap:
 
I had the same thoughts a couple of years ago, but after some careful thinking I just decided, that you don't get the best of both worlds, it is just a really expensive compromise.

I use Visual Studio and I would really struggle below 15" screen space, there is just too much I am used to having open.

I am not sure what the IntelliJ IDE requirements are, but from my experience with a full blown IDE, then it is good to at least have a decent dual core CPU, 8GB RAM and an SSD. If you get one with a decent mobile graphics card, then you can definitely play a lot of games, rather than going full blown with an Alienware.

For portable programming, also check out Visual Studio Code, it offers Intellisense for most languages and has a really nice interface, but is lightweight for coding.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom