I won't complain much if I got such laptop at that price. Might not be able to run latest and modern games but it's still powerful enough for a lot of things
Absolutely. If you're lucky enough, Someone else's trash can be your treasure. I got my laptop similarly cheap because the owner couldn't be bothered buying a new onboard keyboard and sold it without it, for about $400 less than they could have gotten for it if they had been bothered to follow through with the warranty repair. Instead they used it until the warranty expired, sold it and I got it for a song.
@@mikes78 Indeed. I just bought a Thinkpad X220 for $10 and it just need a new keyboard replacement that cost around $12-15 and the laptop is running once again. Still a solid machine for the price I bought it.
@@jponz85 ah, so that's what it's for. I was thinking it might've been a proprietary dock connector. Still, it sucks to have to use a proprietary eGPU solution when you should just be able to use the Thunderbolt port which is sitting right there... that'd accelerate the video handling as well as providing faster storage, and power - if it worked.
For something 8 years old, that laptop handles modern games pretty damn well. I get around the same performance on my current HP Pavilion 14 (iris xe, i7 1165g7, 16gb ram) for the mentioned games and I bought this in 2021! That laptop is a great deal for the price. But it also shows how far tech has come in just a span of 8 years. In another decade or so, we might be able to run demanding titles like Metro Exodus and the likes on teensy notebooks with integrated graphics cards. What a time to be alive.
@@MegaTerryNutkins On max settings, sir. I just completed the entire game and the two colonels DLC on the laptop I mentioned. It was on 720p low, however, and I got a very respectable 40fps average.
Not a bad laptop if I say so! I would have upgraded the 120GB SSD to a larger one (and NVME if the laptop would take it), as well as possibly adding a second M.2 (or NVMe?) SSD (given the second slot) and probably just settled for a 1TB or 2TB HDD for the 2.5in slot. Having said that, with 960GB A400's being available for about £35 nowadays, that is also a good option. 250GB isn't enough as a games drive when GTA 5 takes up over 100GB all by itself.
What an interesting coincidence! I'm actually in the process of converting one of these into a desktop computer inside of a Lian Li o11 dynamic. I have a great fondness for the older Alienware Laptops so it's cool to see some more love for these things.
I have this exact model as well! Only difference is that it has a 970m instead. Was very useful to know that Eucalyptus oil can get rid of the sticky mousepad buttons. Laptop holds up pretty well up to this day since I bought it in 2016. Only complain is that the battery holds almost no charge (and replacements are fairly expensive), but I don't really mind since I use it plugged in for gaming lol.
i remember wanting this laptop back in the day, thankfully i saved money and bought a desktop that i still have to this day (with upgrades through the years)
Hey psivewri! your videos are so refreshing to watch! it could also get me into cleaning old laptops and making some use of them, thanks for the content as always!
Very glad to see some UA-camrs taking the pain to find cool and outstanding deals like this for those of us that can’t afford expensive gaming laptops. I would be very glad if u’d sell it to me. I’m from Ghana(west Africa)
I have this exact laptop and I love it lol!! Only payed about 140 American for mine so even though I payed more than you I still feel like I got an excellent deal :)! Enjoy it!!
I still have my 13 R2. Everything original, nothing broken, but it's about time to do invasive maintenance on the thing. I did also have a 15 R2 when they were current...and I remember that 965M being pretty crap for its spec.
Thank you so much for making these videos! It's so satisfying to see these older computers getting restored. I was wondering if you can try playing some Cloud Gaming services on older computers and see how they will run? Are they a viable option for someone that wants to play GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming on an old computer like this?
I think if the internet connection is good enough and the system has hardware decoding of the video stream, you could play on very, very underpowered hardware.
@@tristansewell5986 Thank you for the reply. Yes indeed, technically it should work. However, it would be great to see how well it would actually work with the specific network card, Monitor Screen, GPU and CPU combination on each of them. And it would be very interesting to see the latest games running at max settings on these old restored computers
Our Internet connection isn't great sadly 😅. But I could definitely try that on older machines that would otherwise have NO hope of running the games 😊
That's basically my daily rig. Still using the i7-6700HQ, but I have the following year model of this laptop with the GTX 1060 6Gb. The 1060 singlehandedly gave this laptop so much more of a run than I thought it'd go for when I purchased it back in 2016. Mine also has a Thunderbolt 3 port on the back that works with docking stations and can run two 1080P displays with it. Really handles just about anything I need it for. Such a shame that Microsoft artificially limited Windows 11 compatibility as this machine should have no problem running it.
I have the older (younger?) sister to this, the m17 R3 Alienware. Mine has the 6700HQ CPU, but a 970M GPU. Still runs Win10 like a dream, but the CPU knocks it in the head for Win11.
That's the best deal ever. I would want to get some more powerful laptop, but the fact that this is only like 90 CAD or something is the best steal and I would definitely get it.
I bought one of these years ago, nearly the exact same but the 970 model from Facebook marketplace for £50, it had an issue in which it wouldn't show anything on it's own display, I fixed that by bypassing the i7's own integrated gpu and running just on the 970, then got the Alienware eGPU enclosure and slapped a 1080ti in it and ran this laptop as my main desktop for about 2 years, before eventually selling the whole lot for way more than I payed for it. I'll always have fond memories on my Alienware.
in my opinion if a laptop can run the most famous games like fortnite minecraft apex csgo valorant etc at a good and comfy 60fps+ its a great laptop. you dont need to run ALL games in the market as long as you can play most games that are pretty popular youre in a good spot
i sold my brother my old alienware laptop for 200 usd. still runs great to this day. i had the same cpu but a gtx1070 and 16gb of ram. still a very manageable portable gaming system. i think i paid almost 3k for it brand new.
my Precision 7530 isn't much newer and has the same rubber coating, I wonder how long it will be until that goes bad. (8th gen intel btw). The older Dell/Alienware laptops are just a work of art. Pretty much everything upgradable, most use the same charger (mine has that same 240W charger, and I can confirm, it is not portable and I get funny looks whenever I pull it out). Very good build quality too.
@@bariumlanthanum6298 yeah, pretty sure the XPS based (Precision 5xxx) ones are the best for build quality. You can't really go wrong with any of them tbh, even the 3xxx models are fine, although all plastic (I owned a 3520 before).
Pro tip with this laptop cause I have one. You can overclock the display to 90hz which is nice for games. I have been running it at that for a long time and haven't had a problem so I recommend it!
She was my first ever gaming computer, she lasted me a good 6 years, and ran so many games very well :3 the gtx 980 she had was really good and I am glad it's the computer i grew up with.
I have this exact model. It's, by far, the best laptop i ever had. Fans are almost turned off while heavy gaming (heavy as in Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings). You can install a custom V-Bios to enable some hardcore performance to truly test the cooling capabilities. (You need to check the chipset. It has the 1st gen 965M, not the 2nd gen, "TI", found in MSI laptops.) Also, with MSI Afterburner, the power draw can be increased. Mine is taking around 78W when OC'd (can be checked with SiSoftware Sandra) to +135MHz Core and +300MHz Memory (can to 400, but it crashes sometimes). The 965M is a very capable GPU that can be OC'd to the performance of the PC 960. Even when not OC'd it's comparable to a PC 960 in real life performance. Oh, and you can use the "Graphics Amplifier" to hook up an RTX to the R2 15. Also if you roll back to one of the earlier BIOS versions, you get XMP profiles and you can install way faster RAM. Have i said how much i like this laptop? 😂😂
I always lover how those AlienWare laptops looked. I remember passing by my local Best Buy when I was a kid and always stopping to look at the displays.
I still daily drive mine, mine does have the 980, i wouldn't buy Alienware again nor would i spend the outrageous amount of money i did when i purchased brand new, but its a great laptop for daily task and light gaming, i build a desktop around 2 years ago so this became my work and travel machine, would love to have something lighter but if it still works i will use it xD Also thanks for the advice on how to remove the gunk in the mousepad it drives me insane and thought i could do nothing about it!
I liked the fact that they used these computers in the stargate series, alienware was my favourite when dell was "big" here in sweden, standard price around 2000USD....
For $65, even just being a productivity laptop is a gnarly deal. I have a 2019 M17 R5. One of the last "really good" laptops from AW. Since then, the quality has dipped back down.
Got a zenbook pro duo like new w everything for 900 on mercari, its got a 3070ti i9 12900k 32g ram 1tb nvme, 2 oled 4k 60 hz touch displays, im soo greatful i caught this hidden gem, laptop is now my baby
This was my daily driver up until 2020. Never really used it for gaming, but it was perfect for music production; these days I’m using an M2 MacBook Pro, I also have a couple Windows computers, but nothing feels as good as my Alienware did. (But USB-C charging is life changing after having to deal with Dell’s atrocious charging brick.)
A lot of the reason for laptop rubber to be degraded so fast is due to the pandemic. The alcohol people would spray on their hands (and devices to "clean them")will degrade the rubber way faster. I've seen a trend of this happening recently.
This is yet another example of why I hate those soft-touch coatings. I don't know what kind of magic is used on ThinkPads to prevent them from aging terribly, but the coating usually ages horribly on other stuff and is borderline impossible to get off.
Fairly new? Since when is 8 years old fairly new? I have an Alienware 15 R1 with a 980m and a Haswell processor from 2014. Still runs Windows 10 quite well. I have the external graphics case as well, with additional USB ports.
Quite lucky to get a working one for that little, i usualy see broken ones or for parts at those prices and higher, anything below 100~150 euros is broken or those office laptops at best. btw i wouldint spray cleaner directly on screen, a single drop can kill the display if you warent fast enought at wiping.
I bought an Asus F550VX for 170 € with the same i7 6700hq and a 4gb gtx 950 it even runs horizon zero down with only 8 gb ddr4 ram and 10 gb virtual ram, using FSR and utilizing all 4 gb of video memory I am preety happy
I used this bad boy before I built my pc 3 years ago. I’d say I loved it after I cleaned it out. I got to play cod Cold War, osrs and doom 2016. What more could I ask for¿ plus I had 32 gb of ram which was over kill. I do use this bad boy as a emulation station at this point.
I had a alienware 17 R3 that i got on launch day from dell they actually gave me a massive discount on it realized they made a mistake and had to honor it so i was like $1200 under market value on it lol. My system was wicked high end for the time 6700hq Dual 1tb NVME SSD's 32gb ram, Dual 980M gpus and lastly a 17.3 inch IPS 1920x1080 panel. when I bought it it was about the highest end laptop that you could possibly buy. Also the battery was great could play hearts of iron on battery for 9 hours.
They had dual GPU's available in laptops? Setup like SLI? Thing must have been a beast even compared to desktops of the day. Wonder what it's external power supply was rated at.
Yes they did before SLI was dropped it was the best it was absolutely the best laptop money could buy in the day, and it was very much superior to all the desktops my friends had at the time lol it was like a 350 watt power supply huge brick that weighed a few pounds. @@marcusdamberger
I lucked out and got an HP Omen 15" with i7 9750h, 1660 ti 6 gb, 16gb ddr4 2666, 256gb nvme gen 3, 144hz 1080p screen, and backlit keyboard all for 150 USD
I have similar laptop but with gtx 970m 3gb, pretty solid machine even today for budget gaming :) I highly recommend doing undervolting of cpu via throttlestop, makes a huge difference, before my cpu hit 90 degrees in couple of minutes, now max 80
My 2016 Dell Inspiron gaming laptop has that rubber matte finish and it's starting to become sticky and breakdown. I wish I could go back in time and tell manufacturers to NOT use rubber coatings. Great video.
So weird they used this type of coating. They had similar coating on some 90's electronics that also became sticky. Guess they never think long term that the hardware might be used for a decade..
Nice as always. I really like the restoration videos. Man, can I ask, what's your camera setup? Sometimes I try to record similar stuff and I don't like the quality I get. Thanks!
Not a bad little machine at-all for only a hundred bucks. It's not gonna play Cyberpunk 2077 or any PS5 port particularly well if at-all but I'm sure it'll run anything that saw a PS4 release with some levels of success as long as you're willing to dial the settings down.
I have a simillar machine to this! Asus GLsomething with i5 6300hq 950m(4g) and 16GB ram (upgraded from 8) with 128GB m.2 SSD and I still use it often. With fresh W11 installed it works pretty well, but playing modern games is almost impossible. Though, I downloaded Skyrim and Far Cry 3 again and I enjoyed my time
Seems like a nice deal... but then again my gaming laptop was once owned by a family member which was then fixed up and given to me its my first one too so i do my best to take care of it
I owned pretty much this exact laptop except it had a 970M. I didn't own it for very long. I really didn't like the keyboard, and overall layout of the laptop itself. While the top case looks incredible, and it's pretty sleek when it's closed, opening it up just leaves a lot to be desired aesthetically for me. It's also the reason I decided to buy an M11x R2 from Alienware and get one with probably the coolest design they ever did. Great video!
the final upgrade is with very high soldering skills and bios modding, i could see in the video that there's still empty vram space, need to update firmware bios for GPU to accept more vram and which slot.
I once brought a laptop for 10 pounds ($12). It was Windows 10. No charger. Got it home and tried it with spare charger I had. A few minutes of nothing. It booted perfectly. You can find bargains.
That's still an usable machine. With a better ssd and a 2nd storage ssd, solid internal cleaning and applied thermal paste of cpu and vga chips, Windows 10 (or even 11 without the tpm, secure boot and memory check restrictions), it'll work like a charm. I've done so many of the older machines, and a few of the similar specs like this one, all of them performed well. P.S. There's no solid state hard drive, but SOLID STATE DRIVE or SSD or if it's the hard drive then it's hdd, but these two are different devices.
I was looking to buy a similar laptop but the GPU was almost always a deal-breaker, really unfortunate that they don't have modular GPUs. Guess I'll just wait and save for the Framework 16.
i enjoyed watcing your contents on my thinkpad t570 laptop been a fan of you for a few years now. and thats why i decided to buy a laptop but sadly im not that techy.
I have a Dell 7577 i7 7700HQ with 1060 graphics which is still ticking along nearly 6 years later as a daily driver not that I really use it for gaming as I have a PC for that :) The battery is pretty much useless now of course but I haven't bothered replacing it as I pretty much just have it plugged in all the time anyway, it is a bit like this Alienware as there is a simple door on the back for easy access to the battery/storage/memory but to clean anything else would pretty much require quite a complex disassembly of the entire unit!
Thanks to Backblaze for sponsoring this video :) I can't wait to get more videos to you really soon! backblaze.com/psivewri
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Please answer your my favourite UA-camr
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@@andriveShaking my head my head?
I won't complain much if I got such laptop at that price. Might not be able to run latest and modern games but it's still powerful enough for a lot of things
Absolutely. If you're lucky enough, Someone else's trash can be your treasure.
I got my laptop similarly cheap because the owner couldn't be bothered buying a new onboard keyboard and sold it without it, for about $400 less than they could have gotten for it if they had been bothered to follow through with the warranty repair.
Instead they used it until the warranty expired, sold it and I got it for a song.
65 USD for a current-era working laptop that can comfortably run a lot of stuff by throwing a stick of RAM in it is one hell of a deal
I bought a Ryzen 3500u laptop with its Vega 8 igpu for 120CAD from a pawn shop and I thought I had the craziest deal ever. :(
@@mikes78 Indeed. I just bought a Thinkpad X220 for $10 and it just need a new keyboard replacement that cost around $12-15 and the laptop is running once again. Still a solid machine for the price I bought it.
@@jponz85 ah, so that's what it's for. I was thinking it might've been a proprietary dock connector.
Still, it sucks to have to use a proprietary eGPU solution when you should just be able to use the Thunderbolt port which is sitting right there... that'd accelerate the video handling as well as providing faster storage, and power - if it worked.
For something 8 years old, that laptop handles modern games pretty damn well. I get around the same performance on my current HP Pavilion 14 (iris xe, i7 1165g7, 16gb ram) for the mentioned games and I bought this in 2021! That laptop is a great deal for the price. But it also shows how far tech has come in just a span of 8 years. In another decade or so, we might be able to run demanding titles like Metro Exodus and the likes on teensy notebooks with integrated graphics cards. What a time to be alive.
Metro Exodus can run on the original GPD Win Max, no need to wait a decade it happened three years ago!
@@MegaTerryNutkins On max settings, sir. I just completed the entire game and the two colonels DLC on the laptop I mentioned. It was on 720p low, however, and I got a very respectable 40fps average.
fire 🔥
I just finished playing Metro Exodus on my Legion Y720 with its i7 (7th gen) and 1060. Still got it! 💪
aadi
found any Australian clown ? Why there ? down under aliens ? Worth Shipping, muhahahahahahaha
Not a bad laptop if I say so! I would have upgraded the 120GB SSD to a larger one (and NVME if the laptop would take it), as well as possibly adding a second M.2 (or NVMe?) SSD (given the second slot) and probably just settled for a 1TB or 2TB HDD for the 2.5in slot.
Having said that, with 960GB A400's being available for about £35 nowadays, that is also a good option. 250GB isn't enough as a games drive when GTA 5 takes up over 100GB all by itself.
What an interesting coincidence! I'm actually in the process of converting one of these into a desktop computer inside of a Lian Li o11 dynamic. I have a great fondness for the older Alienware Laptops so it's cool to see some more love for these things.
Y ibm love . Tink pad love.
I have this exact model as well! Only difference is that it has a 970m instead. Was very useful to know that Eucalyptus oil can get rid of the sticky mousepad buttons. Laptop holds up pretty well up to this day since I bought it in 2016. Only complain is that the battery holds almost no charge (and replacements are fairly expensive), but I don't really mind since I use it plugged in for gaming lol.
Why it is so big ?
is it worth 100 aussies ?
i remember wanting this laptop back in the day, thankfully i saved money and bought a desktop that i still have to this day (with upgrades through the years)
I enjoyed every single second watching this video. You opened my eyes towards using old things as they still useful. Thanks.😊
Haha that laptop looks like a pain to do basic maintenance on. Not surprising coming from Alienware though lol.
I remember pulling apart an older (2012ish) Alienware and it was very easy to access the fans + heatsink.
The M.2 slots on this laptop are SATA only I think, I'd double check before buying any nvme drives for it.
It has the nvme keying so it's nvme /sata compatible
@@MolonLabe808HIrude
Specs page says otherwise
As far as I've read it will accept NVMe as well as Sata. Hence the M.2 NVMe slots.
M.2 and SATA are 2 different things lol
Hey psivewri! your videos are so refreshing to watch! it could also get me into cleaning old laptops and making some use of them, thanks for the content as always!
Same. Sive's videos inspired me to find old PC/laptops and try to make it more useful rather than ended up in the e-waste bin
Same
These still sell for +500€ where im from. You got a great deal on this one.
You must be from some other planet, in Australia is's new ?????
Was it always bad ?
must be faked video with edited facebook post or some shit.. 421 usd in my country. pfft
Lucky enough, in Malaysia I never come across a seller who didn’t clean up their used items before selling.
I guess you can’t expect much for $100 given that it’s a complete steal for a working Alienware.
Very glad to see some UA-camrs taking the pain to find cool and outstanding deals like this for those of us that can’t afford expensive gaming laptops. I would be very glad if u’d sell it to me. I’m from Ghana(west Africa)
I have this exact laptop and I love it lol!! Only payed about 140 American for mine so even though I payed more than you I still feel like I got an excellent deal :)! Enjoy it!!
I still have my 13 R2. Everything original, nothing broken, but it's about time to do invasive maintenance on the thing. I did also have a 15 R2 when they were current...and I remember that 965M being pretty crap for its spec.
Thank you so much for making these videos! It's so satisfying to see these older computers getting restored.
I was wondering if you can try playing some Cloud Gaming services on older computers and see how they will run? Are they a viable option for someone that wants to play GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming on an old computer like this?
I think if the internet connection is good enough and the system has hardware decoding of the video stream, you could play on very, very underpowered hardware.
@@tristansewell5986 Thank you for the reply. Yes indeed, technically it should work.
However, it would be great to see how well it would actually work with the specific network card, Monitor Screen, GPU and CPU combination on each of them.
And it would be very interesting to see the latest games running at max settings on these old restored computers
Our Internet connection isn't great sadly 😅. But I could definitely try that on older machines that would otherwise have NO hope of running the games 😊
@@psivewri Thank you so much for the reply, I really appreciate that! It would definitely be awesome to see if it's possible
That's basically my daily rig. Still using the i7-6700HQ, but I have the following year model of this laptop with the GTX 1060 6Gb.
The 1060 singlehandedly gave this laptop so much more of a run than I thought it'd go for when I purchased it back in 2016. Mine also has a Thunderbolt 3 port on the back that works with docking stations and can run two 1080P displays with it. Really handles just about anything I need it for. Such a shame that Microsoft artificially limited Windows 11 compatibility as this machine should have no problem running it.
I have the older (younger?) sister to this, the m17 R3 Alienware. Mine has the 6700HQ CPU, but a 970M GPU. Still runs Win10 like a dream, but the CPU knocks it in the head for Win11.
These alienware laptop repairs never get old :)
Man, I remember buying one of these for a couple hundred about 8 years ago. Served me well.
That's a great deal for a still useful system! I love that over the top "gamer" design
There always something cozy about watching an old laptop being upgraded and refurbished
picking up old copmuter in second-hand market is really fun
That's the best deal ever. I would want to get some more powerful laptop, but the fact that this is only like 90 CAD or something is the best steal and I would definitely get it.
That is a beautiful refurbishment right there! Very satisfying to watch! Nicely done!
I bought one of these years ago, nearly the exact same but the 970 model from Facebook marketplace for £50, it had an issue in which it wouldn't show anything on it's own display, I fixed that by bypassing the i7's own integrated gpu and running just on the 970, then got the Alienware eGPU enclosure and slapped a 1080ti in it and ran this laptop as my main desktop for about 2 years, before eventually selling the whole lot for way more than I payed for it. I'll always have fond memories on my Alienware.
in my opinion if a laptop can run the most famous games like fortnite minecraft apex csgo valorant etc at a good and comfy 60fps+ its a great laptop. you dont need to run ALL games in the market as long as you can play most games that are pretty popular youre in a good spot
agreed
Hello from Zach's Tech Turf.
i sold my brother my old alienware laptop for 200 usd. still runs great to this day. i had the same cpu but a gtx1070 and 16gb of ram. still a very manageable portable gaming system. i think i paid almost 3k for it brand new.
my Precision 7530 isn't much newer and has the same rubber coating, I wonder how long it will be until that goes bad. (8th gen intel btw).
The older Dell/Alienware laptops are just a work of art. Pretty much everything upgradable, most use the same charger (mine has that same 240W charger, and I can confirm, it is not portable and I get funny looks whenever I pull it out). Very good build quality too.
Dell Precision 5570 owner here, can confirm about the build quality
@@bariumlanthanum6298 yeah, pretty sure the XPS based (Precision 5xxx) ones are the best for build quality. You can't really go wrong with any of them tbh, even the 3xxx models are fine, although all plastic (I owned a 3520 before).
The gpu with this model can be changed out though your options are limited at least it is not as bad as you think.
965 still puts in the work.
Pro tip with this laptop cause I have one. You can overclock the display to 90hz which is nice for games. I have been running it at that for a long time and haven't had a problem so I recommend it!
I like how easy laptops are to maintain, take apart and clean vital parts that need regular cleaning.
She was my first ever gaming computer, she lasted me a good 6 years, and ran so many games very well :3 the gtx 980 she had was really good and I am glad it's the computer i grew up with.
I have this exact model. It's, by far, the best laptop i ever had. Fans are almost turned off while heavy gaming (heavy as in Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings).
You can install a custom V-Bios to enable some hardcore performance to truly test the cooling capabilities. (You need to check the chipset. It has the 1st gen 965M, not the 2nd gen, "TI", found in MSI laptops.)
Also, with MSI Afterburner, the power draw can be increased. Mine is taking around 78W when OC'd (can be checked with SiSoftware Sandra) to +135MHz Core and +300MHz Memory (can to 400, but it crashes sometimes).
The 965M is a very capable GPU that can be OC'd to the performance of the PC 960. Even when not OC'd it's comparable to a PC 960 in real life performance.
Oh, and you can use the "Graphics Amplifier" to hook up an RTX to the R2 15.
Also if you roll back to one of the earlier BIOS versions, you get XMP profiles and you can install way faster RAM.
Have i said how much i like this laptop? 😂😂
What shaders do you use for minecraft? Awesome videos! Love older tech and you always get the good stuff! Keep it up!
I always lover how those AlienWare laptops looked. I remember passing by my local Best Buy when I was a kid and always stopping to look at the displays.
Me too but it too expensive 😂
First Alienware laptop I’ve seen this close, nice find, great descriptions 🎉 from cali
PSA for anyone purchasing Backblaze from this video: Backblaze's price will be raised from $7 to $9 per month in October.
I still daily drive mine, mine does have the 980, i wouldn't buy Alienware again nor would i spend the outrageous amount of money i did when i purchased brand new, but its a great laptop for daily task and light gaming, i build a desktop around 2 years ago so this became my work and travel machine, would love to have something lighter but if it still works i will use it xD
Also thanks for the advice on how to remove the gunk in the mousepad it drives me insane and thought i could do nothing about it!
Hey psivewri, awesome video as usual but can you please tell me what background music you use as they're incredibly soothing to listen
there wasa alienware egpu "Alienware Graphics Amplifier" (this very large connector on the back) this was how we did the docking back in the day
I liked the fact that they used these computers in the stargate series, alienware was my favourite when dell was "big" here in sweden, standard price around 2000USD....
For $65, even just being a productivity laptop is a gnarly deal. I have a 2019 M17 R5. One of the last "really good" laptops from AW. Since then, the quality has dipped back down.
Got a zenbook pro duo like new w everything for 900 on mercari, its got a 3070ti i9 12900k 32g ram 1tb nvme, 2 oled 4k 60 hz touch displays, im soo greatful i caught this hidden gem, laptop is now my baby
You know it's a good day when Nathan uploads a new banger.
This was my daily driver up until 2020.
Never really used it for gaming, but it was perfect for music production; these days I’m using an M2 MacBook Pro, I also have a couple Windows computers, but nothing feels as good as my Alienware did. (But USB-C charging is life changing after having to deal with Dell’s atrocious charging brick.)
you seem like a great youtuber! it was a pleasure watching this video reccomended from my homepage (:
That was my first gaming laptop! Man it was not anything amazing but to a 14 year old, it was like holding the coolest gadget ever lol.
A lot of the reason for laptop rubber to be degraded so fast is due to the pandemic. The alcohol people would spray on their hands (and devices to "clean them")will degrade the rubber way faster. I've seen a trend of this happening recently.
Not Alienware, it will do this on its own.
Of course it happens to any of this coating on its own. But the pandemic has accelerated it.
This is yet another example of why I hate those soft-touch coatings. I don't know what kind of magic is used on ThinkPads to prevent them from aging terribly, but the coating usually ages horribly on other stuff and is borderline impossible to get off.
Fairly new? Since when is 8 years old fairly new? I have an Alienware 15 R1 with a 980m and a Haswell processor from 2014. Still runs Windows 10 quite well. I have the external graphics case as well, with additional USB ports.
great opportunity to pick up an alienware graphics amplifier and try out newer graphics cards!
I'll have to find one though 😅 I can't say I've seen any
If you do get to it. The 1080 would be your best bet. The 20-series cards tend to get bottle-necked by the CPU. @@psivewri
that is massively better than my work laptop, which is still perfectly fine for its uses
Quite lucky to get a working one for that little, i usualy see broken ones or for parts at those prices and higher, anything below 100~150 euros is broken or those office laptops at best.
btw i wouldint spray cleaner directly on screen, a single drop can kill the display if you warent fast enought at wiping.
I bought an Asus F550VX for 170 € with the same i7 6700hq and a 4gb gtx 950 it even runs horizon zero down with only 8 gb ddr4 ram and 10 gb virtual ram, using FSR and utilizing all 4 gb of video memory
I am preety happy
I just snagged a 17 r4 for $75 USD on FB marketplace. To say im happy is an understatement
I used this bad boy before I built my pc 3 years ago. I’d say I loved it after I cleaned it out. I got to play cod Cold War, osrs and doom 2016. What more could I ask for¿ plus I had 32 gb of ram which was over kill. I do use this bad boy as a emulation station at this point.
I had a alienware 17 R3 that i got on launch day from dell they actually gave me a massive discount on it realized they made a mistake and had to honor it so i was like $1200 under market value on it lol. My system was wicked high end for the time 6700hq Dual 1tb NVME SSD's 32gb ram, Dual 980M gpus and lastly a 17.3 inch IPS 1920x1080 panel. when I bought it it was about the highest end laptop that you could possibly buy. Also the battery was great could play hearts of iron on battery for 9 hours.
They had dual GPU's available in laptops? Setup like SLI? Thing must have been a beast even compared to desktops of the day. Wonder what it's external power supply was rated at.
Yes they did before SLI was dropped it was the best it was absolutely the best laptop money could buy in the day, and it was very much superior to all the desktops my friends had at the time lol it was like a 350 watt power supply huge brick that weighed a few pounds. @@marcusdamberger
Hold on. I though the Alienware 18 had the dual 980M graphics cards. I own the 17R3 as well. Same specs as yours, but only 1x 980M 8GB
No it had dual cards I both the 17 and 18 did. @@filthycasual2730
3:04 The 6700HQ only supports 2133MHz DDR4 so you are limited as far as speed is concerned. A 32GB upgrade will be nice for it though
The extra capacity definitely helped with BeamNG drive + AI cars. Which basically needs 12GB of ram 😅
I lucked out and got an HP Omen 15" with i7 9750h, 1660 ti 6 gb, 16gb ddr4 2666, 256gb nvme gen 3, 144hz 1080p screen, and backlit keyboard all for 150 USD
back in the day I thought those laptops looked so bad ass and always waned one would definitely buy at that price for old times sake
I have similar laptop but with gtx 970m 3gb, pretty solid machine even today for budget gaming :) I highly recommend doing undervolting of cpu via throttlestop, makes a huge difference, before my cpu hit 90 degrees in couple of minutes, now max 80
My 2016 Dell Inspiron gaming laptop has that rubber matte finish and it's starting to become sticky and breakdown. I wish I could go back in time and tell manufacturers to NOT use rubber coatings. Great video.
So weird they used this type of coating. They had similar coating on some 90's electronics that also became sticky. Guess they never think long term that the hardware might be used for a decade..
You’re videos deserve more views. Keep up the work mate! 🎉
Nice as always. I really like the restoration videos. Man, can I ask, what's your camera setup? Sometimes I try to record similar stuff and I don't like the quality I get. Thanks!
I film using Fujifilm XT4 cameras. The main lens I use is an 18-55 T2.9 👍
I got one with an I7 and 980m and its from the trash, NO JOKE. These machines are still beastly bro.
yeah
bro there's a GPU dock connector in the back....
they didn't put thunderbolt because you were expected to use a proprietary GPU dock.
Not a bad little machine at-all for only a hundred bucks. It's not gonna play Cyberpunk 2077 or any PS5 port particularly well if at-all but I'm sure it'll run anything that saw a PS4 release with some levels of success as long as you're willing to dial the settings down.
it runs well gow and cb77 on med.
These are always my favourite videos from you!
I have a simillar machine to this! Asus GLsomething with i5 6300hq 950m(4g) and 16GB ram (upgraded from 8) with 128GB m.2 SSD and I still use it often. With fresh W11 installed it works pretty well, but playing modern games is almost impossible. Though, I downloaded Skyrim and Far Cry 3 again and I enjoyed my time
As someone who mainly plays minecraft, I can say, this sir is a huge steal.
Hello chat 🎉😢😮
The keyboard is well seasoned😂
I have a i5 4200m, 16gb ram and a gtx 765m. Works fanatically for me. I run modded AC at like 100fps so idk.
Assassin's Creed?
assetto corsa@@thejayestjay
This would be such a good contender to be converted to an everything console with a custom chassis, and put under the TV
Love older computers love you're work true legendary man never forgotten 💕
7:19 yeah, i do love a good solid state hard drive :)
Im not a pro in tech but I remember that Alienware used to be one of the best if not the best brand for computers tech
Seems like a nice deal... but then again my gaming laptop was once owned by a family member which was then fixed up and given to me its my first one too so i do my best to take care of it
I owned pretty much this exact laptop except it had a 970M. I didn't own it for very long. I really didn't like the keyboard, and overall layout of the laptop itself. While the top case looks incredible, and it's pretty sleek when it's closed, opening it up just leaves a lot to be desired aesthetically for me.
It's also the reason I decided to buy an M11x R2 from Alienware and get one with probably the coolest design they ever did.
Great video!
I have 10min in between meetings, oh look at this. Psivewri uploaded a new, conveniently 10min video. 😅
That was a steal. I would have insta purchased it if I happenned to cross something alike over here lol.
the final upgrade is with very high soldering skills and bios modding, i could see in the video that there's still empty vram space, need to update firmware bios for GPU to accept more vram and which slot.
Nice video Psivewri keep up the good work
Hey. Love your videos. Though can you please leave a link for the eucalyptus cleaner. I am really unable to find a good one.
this was my first alienware I owned.
Man you got this for a great deal!!
The charger is worth more than what you paid for the whole computer. Great deal!!!
Another excellent video! Thanks!
I once brought a laptop for 10 pounds ($12). It was Windows 10.
No charger. Got it home and tried it with spare charger I had.
A few minutes of nothing. It booted perfectly.
You can find bargains.
That's still an usable machine. With a better ssd and a 2nd storage ssd, solid internal cleaning and applied thermal paste of cpu and vga chips, Windows 10 (or even 11 without the tpm, secure boot and memory check restrictions), it'll work like a charm. I've done so many of the older machines, and a few of the similar specs like this one, all of them performed well. P.S. There's no solid state hard drive, but SOLID STATE DRIVE or SSD or if it's the hard drive then it's hdd, but these two are different devices.
Looked much better and not a bad deal for $100
I was looking to buy a similar laptop but the GPU was almost always a deal-breaker, really unfortunate that they don't have modular GPUs. Guess I'll just wait and save for the Framework 16.
Great video! Would be interesting to do a temp / gpu / cpu benchmark before and after removing the cat fur as I presume it will throttle?!
i enjoyed watcing your contents on my thinkpad t570 laptop been a fan of you for a few years now. and thats why i decided to buy a laptop but sadly im not that techy.
I have a Dell 7577 i7 7700HQ with 1060 graphics which is still ticking along nearly 6 years later as a daily driver not that I really use it for gaming as I have a PC for that :) The battery is pretty much useless now of course but I haven't bothered replacing it as I pretty much just have it plugged in all the time anyway, it is a bit like this Alienware as there is a simple door on the back for easy access to the battery/storage/memory but to clean anything else would pretty much require quite a complex disassembly of the entire unit!
"The keyboard is well seasoned," has gotta be the nastiest thing put into a sentence.
Would you install a total of 3 SSDs (2 NVMEs and 1 SATA)
Careful... Lock-Tite will cause plastics to disintegrate.
I like to use just a touch of Testers plastic cement.