The Alienware 18 Gaming Laptop Makes A Return

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Kevin Carbotte
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.

28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Rhostam
    I've owned a few "gaming" class laptops, but never anything as crazy as an Alienware or Razer. I have also owned a few desktops hand-built and pre-built. My priority has been portability when it comes to gaming since picking up your rig to go to a LAN session isn't exactly a popular thing (ever/ anymore?). For my recent desktop I tried out Alienwares X51 and I loved it. Small, petite and still capable enough to play the games I wanted at that time. So, when it came time to upgrade a few years later I plopped a 750Ti in it and squeaked out a little more. Awesome. But I still wanted something mobile, even as my gaming days begin to wane. I finally bought last "seasons" Alienware 18 and have one word to say: AWESOME. After a while I did have a problem with the screen. I may have done something to it, perhaps not. Either way, support took care of my problem which undoubtedly biases my opinion. SLI 880Ms still do the work I need. It's great news for people that they are continuing this line of portable gaming machines for people that don't want to use the external GPU device (which itself is awesome!) or use a smaller screen. 18" and you forget sometimes you are on a laptop!
    Reply
  • rigs79
    Why buy this when Skylake is so close? Just wait a few more months. Seems like an odd time to roll this out.
    Reply
  • Quixit
    Why buy this when Skylake is so close? Just wait a few more months. Seems like an odd time to roll this out.

    Skylake doesn't make a huge difference.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    16489509 said:
    Skylake doesn't make a huge difference.

    Not in performance, no. But it uses less power, so yes, the mobile version upgrade to Skylake will be pretty significant for a laptop for a host of reasons.

    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Very nice and pretty! But *gag*, the price tag (no pun intended)!!
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    First of all, why would anyone spend upwards of $4,700(US) on a maxed out 1080p laptop. Dual SLI 970s is way overkill for that, let alone dual 980s. Sure, you can hook it up to a 1440p or 4K monitor, but then what's the point? You may as well just build a much less expensive desktop if you are going to peripheral dock it. I mean last year MSI rolled out their GT60 gaming laptops that had a 3K resolution option (1620p). WTH Dell?
    Reply
  • loki1944
    First of all, why would anyone spend upwards of $4,700(US) on a maxed out 1080p laptop. Dual SLI 970s is way overkill for that, let alone dual 980s. Sure, you can hook it up to a 1440p or 4K monitor, but then what's the point? You may as well just build a much less expensive desktop if you are going to peripheral dock it. I mean last year MSI rolled out their GT60 gaming laptops that had a 3K resolution option (1620p). WTH Dell?

    I would, spending a large amount of time overseas, I want the horsepower to run demanding games at high FPS and have them look good coming out of a projector.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    16490003 said:
    First of all, why would anyone spend upwards of $4,700(US) on a maxed out 1080p laptop. Dual SLI 970s is way overkill for that, let alone dual 980s. Sure, you can hook it up to a 1440p or 4K monitor, but then what's the point? You may as well just build a much less expensive desktop if you are going to peripheral dock it. I mean last year MSI rolled out their GT60 gaming laptops that had a 3K resolution option (1620p). WTH Dell?

    I would, spending a large amount of time overseas, I want the horsepower to run demanding games at high FPS and have them look good coming out of a projector.

    Well for 1080P it's more overkill, a GT72 dominator is just as good at 1080P arguably as twin GTX 980Ms.
    Reply
  • loki1944
    16490091 said:
    16490003 said:
    First of all, why would anyone spend upwards of $4,700(US) on a maxed out 1080p laptop. Dual SLI 970s is way overkill for that, let alone dual 980s. Sure, you can hook it up to a 1440p or 4K monitor, but then what's the point? You may as well just build a much less expensive desktop if you are going to peripheral dock it. I mean last year MSI rolled out their GT60 gaming laptops that had a 3K resolution option (1620p). WTH Dell?

    I would, spending a large amount of time overseas, I want the horsepower to run demanding games at high FPS and have them look good coming out of a projector.

    Well for 1080P it's more overkill, a GT72 dominator is just as good at 1080P arguably as twin GTX 980Ms.

    A single 880M isn't the greatest for 1080p; SLI 980Ms is definitely the way to go. I know, I have an Origin 15S with an i7 and 880M. It's ok for 30-40 FPS in demanding games at 1080p on high settings http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-880M.107622.0.html , but SLI 980Ms would make maxing games at 1080p feasible. http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980M-SLI.129389.0.html.
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    16489509 said:
    Skylake doesn't make a huge difference.

    Not in performance, no. But it uses less power, so yes, the mobile version upgrade to Skylake will be pretty significant for a laptop for a host of reasons.

    This is an Alienware, not a laptop....it cares not for these things.
    Reply