Alienware 17 Gaming Notebook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on September 6, 2013 12:00 PM ESTTo say I went into this review of the Alienware 17 optimistic is accurate; surely Alienware would be able to tame Haswell and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, wouldn't they? If not them, then who? Yet the truth is unfortunately far more complicated, which has led to this review taking much longer than I had hoped. Testing, then retesting, then sanity check testing, then retesting again, then sanity check retesting...and even then being left without as clear a conclusion as I'd like?
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. First things first: the Alienware 17 represents the first major design change for Alienware in years. On the strength of the matte display, it's a net victory. The subtantial ridge at the edge of the chassis actually winds up being easier on the wrists for typing than the old design, the lighting rim is slick, and nobody complains about an aluminum lid. Alienware also smartly includes 802.11ac connectivity standard.
Yet there's still so much room for improvement. The new aesthetic, like the old one, takes some warming up to, but I can't help but feel like Alienware could've come up with something cleaner. When you open the bottom of the notebook you don't get the sense that space has been wasted, yet when you look at it you just wonder if it had to be this bulky. Backlighting the touchpad was arguably a waste of time and effort, and the revised keyboard layout is a modest step back.
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Once you update the BIOS in the Alienware 17, performance is brought in line with other Haswell/780M notebooks, but it's still a bit behind the curve. The 780M in our review unit wasn't hitting the high peaks that competing Clevo notebooks saw, and more and more I'm feeling like this is going to be a bit of a lottery. The performance difference is measurable but ultimately negligible. What we're really dealing with is twofold, I think: Haswell's turbo capacity could very well vary from chip to chip even among the same model, and that could also be true of the GeForce GTX 780M. We're already dealing with binned GK104 chips as it is. What we're looking at, as far as I'm concerned, is variation in "bonus performance" coupled with basic performance that needed to be eked out of the driver. The hardware is working fine, and it's stable, and it's a pleasure to game on.
While I'm more than happy to take Alienware to task for shipping with a performance crippling BIOS, once the A04 is in place the notebook is essentially golden. The Alienware 17 turned out not to be the flagship "this is how it's done" gaming notebook I'd expected, but it at least serves as a reality check in and of itself for what we can expect from Haswell and the 780M. It's also incredibly expensive, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. Ultimately, if you can afford it, I still think the Alienware 17 is the gaming notebook you want. It's not the homerun the Alienware M17x R3 was when it launched, but it's a worthy descendant.
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arthur449 - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Based on these comments, I feel it would be a good idea for AnandTech write an article describing the current state of notebook gaming PCs.Is performance closer than it has been in the past to desktop parts? Price?
Apart from Optimus and Enduro, are there any recent software or hardware trends that may change this in the future?
inighthawki - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Thanks so much!Pneumothorax - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Anyone else underwhelmed by Haswell with the exception of ULT version? Sad thing is we're stuck with this generation till 2015....andykins - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Only the ULV SKUs, or 40 EU graphic SKUs (with or without Crystallwell) are any improvement over last gen.JarredWalton - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Power/battery life is almost universally better on laptops, as long as we're not looking at full blown gaming laptops like the Alienware 17, Clevos, etc. The MSI GE40 for instance posts some pretty awesome battery life results.warezme - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
I would label it disappointing. The redesign looks like a compromise in quality over the previous generation in an attempt to increase profits. The screen a TN panel, while matte is good, the lack of glass insert that went over the entire surface was classier even if more reflective. The missing control panel on top, also a cut in cost by eliminating extra buttons and and an extra controller, the integrated battery slot, etc. It looks cheaper without the benefit of a lower price.ilkhan - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Any chance of a GTX770M notebook review? This is the 3rd or 4th GTX780M review but nothing down-market.Relaxe - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
M. Sklavos,I have an Alienware M17xR3 since early 2012. At first, I had some troubles with games being "choppy"... investigations made it clear that the GPU and CPU hit the thermal derating ceiling very fast....
Please, consider integrating OCCT from OCBase in your testings. This test demonstrated very clearly how thermally limited my Alienware was.
After this, I repasted the GPU and CPU with a cheap but well revied thermal paste... and now I do not hit the thermal limits at all (even at full load).
I am still baffled by Dell putting such a low-grade paste in such a premium product...
Maybe this has something to do with the inconsistent result you had.
Also, It would be nice to have a thermal picture of the bottom of the laptop under load.
Khenglish - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
I wish clevo and AW would pay more attention to battery life. With optimus there is really no reason for a gaming laptop to have significantly worse battery life than GPUless laptops. The MSI GE40 with just a 65Wh AND a dGPU is incredible compared to clevo/AW.landsome - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
No reason except for significantly larger screen, larger and often better equipped mobo, sometimes dual hdd's of which one mechanical, typically a bit more power-hungry CPU, more mem, an optical as well - these things end adding up.