Clevo/Sager or Alienware

[ajnindlo]

I have a two thousand dollar US budget. I am looking at the AW 17 or the Sager NP8275-S with

17" display

i7-4700mq or i7-4800mq

780m

16GB ram

750GB 7200 rpm drive

blu-ray or dvd drive

Some have told me I might be able to get a AW 17 for about two grand, which I know I can get the NP8275 for. Not sure if that is true.

Any feedback on differences between these two? How is the noise level with the vBios so they both run at say 85C on the gpu? I saw one thread on the AW 17 overheating the cpu, is this a concern?

I think noise, price, and possible issues are my biggest concerns. Thanks for your help.

[socal87]

I have a mid 2013 AW 17 and I lovehate it. Build quality is excellent - it's hefty, but this was meant to be a desktop replacement and I don't use it in normal laptop fashion anyway. Connectivity isn't the best, but for my purposes, it's more than sufficient. Cooling is superb. The screen is amazing. The keyboard, even, is quality as far as laptops go. I would buy this again in a heartbeat - except I would probably have spent the extra $500 on the GTX780m. Or maybe got the 18 with 2 GPUs in SLI. That, in addition to not taking advantage of the warranty for some minor issues, are my only regrets.

Sager isn't bad, but they're basically rebranded Clevos. I don't have much experience with them, but it would seem that the quality does depend on who you buy them from. They're still more or less standardized and upgradeable, whereas the current generation of Alienware laptops now have BGA CPUs and GPUs - so if you don't already have one, and you want a laptop you can upgrade (other than the available Graphics Amplifier) DO NOT BUY A BRAND NEW ALIENWARE.

[Cheezecowboy]

I would go with Clevo because you can usually customize them to precisely what you want. You pay for the extras so you get to pick which options matter to you instead of the company deciding what is important.

[pcsavvy]

I have a mid 2013 AW 17 and I lovehate it. Build quality is excellent - it's hefty, but this was meant to be a desktop replacement and I don't use it in normal laptop fashion anyway. Connectivity isn't the best, but for my purposes, it's more than sufficient. Cooling is superb. The screen is amazing. The keyboard, even, is quality as far as laptops go. I would buy this again in a heartbeat - except I would probably have spent the extra $500 on the GTX780m. Or maybe got the 18 with 2 GPUs in SLI. That, in addition to not taking advantage of the warranty for some minor issues, are my only regrets.

Sager isn't bad, but they're basically rebranded Clevos. I don't have much experience with them, but it would seem that the quality does depend on who you buy them from. They're still more or less standardized and upgradeable, whereas the current generation of Alienware laptops now have BGA CPUs and GPUs - so if you don't already have one, and you want a laptop you can upgrade (other than the available Graphics Amplifier) DO NOT BUY A BRAND NEW ALIENWARE.

Kinda funny,

you said that the AW17 is hefty, so dell decided to improve, now you said that dell is not up to standard.

[kickassitus]

I'd go with the Clevo/Sager, friend owns one and for the price, is absolutely amazing.

Also I own an Alienware 17 (Mid 2013) - only thing I'd say was worth it was the support from Dell. Besides that it performs just like my friends Clevo, just his was way cheaper.

[mw86]

After experiencing Alien 18 first hand on the complete failure in EC fan design this generation I am switching to Clevo build. I have my Alien 18 and love the feel of it but overall for function the Clevo replacing it will do work at a far larger scale than what my Alien 18 desktop replacement is able. The Alien 18 nice indeed but not a true work horse especially that the system could use to have an extra 100 watts available to power what they sell them with at the highest tier of the mobile market. I will always keep my Alienware and love it but it is aside as a secondary workstation now and not my primary. Main reasons are lack of proper power for the components which they lose their true potential because of and the fact that haswell is a furnace and the sad excuse of auto fan control fails at every step to properly defend the cpu from extreme heat. Love my Alienware but I am sure I will love the Clevo as well. Both imo are great companies and have thier benefits. I can say Alienware has an amazing bios in all the generations I have utilized. M17x R2 -> M18X R1 -> Alien 18 cheers

[sridoodla]

I have a Sager p151em I bought a couple of years ago. Pretty happy with it. Still plays current gen games and applications with ease.

[100ka]

I would go for Alienware as it has better cooling option! biggest problem on gaming laptops is cooling if you think guarantee will cover it, it will but what after when component PCB becomes yelowish or dead or worse ( kidding dead is worse ) . But just take care of cooling is really important.

[nickisnoob10]

I think i got lucky, bought my alienware m18x r2 second hand, was still under warranty about 3 years ago. Still working great. (bought in your price range)

7970m Crossfire, 32 GB ram, SSD drives in raid 0, 1 TB drive, 3920xm.

Was a great deal.

Maybe go looking for a second hand one? The build quality on the alienware is amazing, don't think other gaming laptops can compare.

I personally really like the aesthetics of the alienware as well.

[badcap]

My recommendation on this topic, though it requires research, is to try to build a laptop yourself, or get an older gen that doesn't use UEFI, and mod that up, you'd be surprised how much more money can be saved, plus the performance older hardware is truly capable of. ANYTHING with UEFI has drawbacks, mainly being the inability to mod one's own Bios...sad...

[dynamiet1974]

i find that the alienwares are WAY overpriced, and not worth the $. i've had one for 2 years, and while its a decent machine, its not worth the $

[BrackDynamite]

I would avoid Alienware. In the realm of prebuilt desktops and laptops, they seem to be fairly overpriced with dubious build quality. So really, you're getting a fairly poor value and you're better off getting a laptop from a different OEM.

[Kromey]

One of the things you mentioned was that Alienware had a great cooling system. I own a Sager NP9570 (Clevo P570WM) with 880M SLI (known to overheat) with IC diamond thermal paste applied from XoticPC, and I have never seen such an effective cooling system. Under full load for quite a while, I'm looking at 64-65 degrees Celsius on GPU1 and maybe 70 degrees Celsius on GPU2. The casing for the Sager is very large, however - it's very thick, which contributes to good cooling. Additionally, I have heard that the model places its 4 fans directly overtop of the cards and CPU, which contributes to fantastic cooling. Now, you specified a different Sager model that I am unfamiliar with in your original post, but Sager can make effective cooling systems for sure. The fans are almost always on, however, and while I wouldn't call them whiny or loud, they definitely have a deep presence.

[proviticus]

I would vote Sager/Clevo based on mostly price. I bought an alienware m18 r2 in 2012, and a Sager NP9377 in 2014. I loved both, but (at least in my price ranges of 3000-4000) I found a lot more bang for my buck with the Sager.

Now, the Alienware definitely has a unique and flashy look. I liked that sometimes and was annoyed by it other times. I think the NP9377 has a nice mix of flash and class, so I prefer its look, too, which was unexpected.

Now, as far as cooling goes I have had problems with both. My 7970ms in crossfire in the m18 consistently ran hot and the system died a little less than two years after I purchased it (out of warrantee). Reflowing the cards restored the system to working order, but they would continue to die and require reflowing again. Because heat issues killed my previous machine, I opted for the thermal paste and copper heating upgrades from Xoticpc when I purchased the NP9377. However, that machine is just begging for the same problem since the 880ms consistently max out at 93c. It is, despite these high temperatures, still running today, about 16 months later.

Maybe I just have bad luck, I'm not sure. I would say maybe stay away from SLI, but my temperature issues actually seem worse in games that don't support SLI (since SLI support isn't usually perfect, so when SLI is on neither card tends to be at 100% utilization). I loved both of my laptops, but in the future I will probably do some kind of solution like the MSI GS30, so I can have portability and power, without the airflow restrictions in normal solutions.

[siven]

u cant go wrong with clevo;)

[calsurferpunk]

I used to have a Clevo that was basically a desktop replacement and it was very good for it's time. There was actually an Alienware that was literally the same Clevo, but rebranded. I think Alienware just buys from companies like them, adds some fancy graphics/lights and calls it a day. Alienware is highly overpriced for what you get. My little Lenovo is probably 1/2 the price of a comparable Alienware.

[zombie_kun1]

alienware is fine

[D3monicBlaz3]

I have neither. I have the Y510p, which Im extremely happy with, besides the trashcan reproduced wifi card. I had a kid in my class who had a sager laptop, and wow, it was LOUD. i could tap the eraser against the table and fail to hear it in some fan spin ups. That alone would be a killer for me. Although since its 400+ cheaper, you could look into a fan replacement. Not sure how you feel about that. 

[leticriss]

always go for sager if possible

[iTzTeEZzY]

i just bought an Alienware 17 r4 =]

[meni]

About the temps. 8 of 10 gaming Notebooks do not have really good temps.

I swear to use Liquid metal. Search for some YT Videos by iUnlock. He speaks

out some design flaws about nowadays gaming notebooks.

 

GL

[runix18]

Either way you go (clevo or alienware) try not to get the BGA CRAP. 

Ps: Alienware for a long time it's not a desktop replacement anymore, not since the mx18 r2 died, everything with alienware today is BGA CRAP, you could never see a bga crap as a desktop replacement, NEVER.

 

Edited June 26, 2017 by runix18

[SOUTHPACIFICTUBE]

I recommend sager !
I am still using my NP9150 /p150em from 2012 !!!
Only issue was overheating due to plugged up radiator and fans with dust.
Running strong 3.9ghz! all day !  

[ralftech]

alienware all day man... or MSI GT73VR-7RF