13:24 Oh my god, there’s no way he added the Squirrel edit in that montage. ToastyBro’s you have one special gem of an editor. Deserves an absolute raise. That edit is priceless but worth a lot in my opinion.
*On what you're getting with RTX in a laptop: while you do 'technically' get a RTX card in newer gaming laptops, it's a MaxQ variant. Still plenty of graphics grunt for a mobile machine, but not quite as powerful as a desktop. The 3070 in mine is nowhere near as powerful the desktop variant (probably on par with a desktop with a 2070), but I also knew that going in... so, prospective laptop buyers be forewarned. :)
@@leovrivera Unfortunately here in Brazil the only model with the 1660TI still available is a Nitro 5 with Intel I7 10th gen, but it's almost the same price as the Dell G15 with 3060 and Intel I7 11th gen or Ryzen 7 5000 series. P.S: I've searched and the Nitro 5 is around U$100 more expensive than the Dells with RTX3060.
ive still have that very model of laptop, ive upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and replaced the harddrive with a M.2 drive and reloaded windows onto that, i dont game on it,but its still a usable laptop for the things that i use it for, there is app loaded on that laptop called alienware command center, thats where you can change the color of all the RGB on the laptop
II have the previous Model with the 780m and i7 4900MQ and its still a freaking beast. Best thing for me was the build quality. People bag Alienware's for being garbage but this thing was an absolutely solid machine.
AW has excellent build quality. You can't get a better gaming laptop, the newest units are monster as hell. Excellent machines, though they cost enough they need to be great. I love my X17 R1, I'm but another in 2025 no doubt.
@@bruwoi5953 ALL the FPS. Literally all of them. 60, 120, 144, 165, 240, 300. I get all those FPS plus some more for the extra speedy screens. No problems, just fast refreshes.
I have the 17in version of this (970m/6700HQ/16gb) and running it with the AGA and a watercooled 1070 still holds up for most games these days. The only issue I have with the laptop is storage space, though all it'll take is cloning the 128gb m.2 to another 1tb m.2 and eventually upgrading the hdd to a 1/2tb ssd in the future. I bought it secondhand in 2018 and it's been with me since. I'm glad people are still giving these machines another look. They're good rigs. Tired, but good.
I had an even older Alienware laptop 3820m & 7970m I added an SSD, repasted both chips, and swapped out for 16gb 2rx8 ram, and did a windows refresh. The performance was impressive for such an old tech.
I just sold my m14x with 12GB I7 3770 and a gt555m 500gb ssd from 2010!! Everything still worked like the day I got it. Even the battery. Alienware are very good laptops I bought it for 2200 euro used it for over 10 years. Just bought the r15 r5 and I am pretty sure It will keep me satisfied for another adleast 7 years.
Still have mine as my daily. I bought it when my daughter was born, and she’s turning 8! I did update the m.2 and now run an ssd over the hdd, total of 4tb. Running 16g ddr4, still runs all I ever do on it, and all I ever really play is EVE online and Fallouts.
I have that exact laptop. Still runs great. I WOULD like to see you do some testing with the alienware graphics amplifier to see how much of a difference it actually makes. It has a special port on the back of the laptop. 🤷♂️
I have the graphics amp on this same laptop. The only spare gpu I have for it is a 970 desktop gpu. The performance improvement over the 970m is pretty significant. The 970m scored about 6200 on Firestrike while the 970 desktop through the graphics amp scored around 9500. The best thing about the graphics amp vs other Thunderbolt-based eGPUs is the bottlenecking. The performance reduction through bottlenecking is generally only about 3-5%, whereas the Thunderbolt eGPU performance reduction typically runs about 15-20%. I'm able to play games like Forza Horizon 4 now at 1080p on high to ultimate settings with good fps in the 55-60 range and I'm even running RDR2 at 1080p and mainly medium/high settings getting around 40-60, whereas before I'd have to run the latter at 720p on medium with the 970m. One of the biggest benefits to me though is that it runs a lot cooler with only the cpu and not the gpu generating heat internally. I think it'll greatly extend the life of the laptop. The main drawback of course is portability. But then again, I'm not sure about you but portability wasn't that high of a priority for me when getting this laptop in the first place since it's already a boat anchor by laptop standards. As long as I can tote it in the back seat of my car when I go spend the weekend with my folks or something, I'm fine with it. Ideally I'd like to get a better gpu to put in it, like maybe a 980 ti or a 1070 when they become more available and the prices go down a little more. It seems like anything beyond that might be overkill as far as a match for the 6700hq. But I think something like a 980 ti or a 1070 or maybe even a 1060 6gb would be an ideal match for the laptop and graphics amp. The 1060 6gb would be a pretty significant upgrade over the 970m. I think the graphics amp is definitely worth it if you can find one for a good price.
I have that exact same laptop but my graphics card is the 980M. I just added 64GB of ram and a much larger SSD. I build VR games for the Oculus Quest 2 for fun during the weekends and it runs like a champ in Unity. For how long this machine has lasted me it was worth every penny.
Every laptop user should know this. 1. Just “raise the bottom” let more air into the machine and you will found cpu&gpu each them reduce 10~15°C or in high usage will have more efficacy 2. You shouldn’t be use “laptop cooler” , cuz that effectiveness actually just like you put two bottle caps under laptop to raise it. But the cooler still use your limited power and it will let cpu&gpu become more hungry. There also very many ways let your experience better , like “gamer most of the time should limit cpu’s PL1&PL2 and offset voltage” “discrete graphics card overclock”. Sorry my bad English,hope it's not too hard to read. Just want help you gus. From Taiwan
I have the same model and spec you guys have and it does seem to perform fine in most highly demanding games, I upgraded the M.2 SATA SSD with NVMe version for faster boot up and loading, then replaced the 2133MHz ddr4 with 2400MHz, and most important of all, cleaned the heatsink fans and replaced the toothpaste(stock thermal paste) with Grizzly Kryonaut. Great to go for another 3-4 years of web browsing and gaming.
ive been carrying this laptop for about 3 years now, i have the amplifier but i rarely use it. its a great pc. I carry the Rosewill RWNB16A with me in a dell carrying case.
I have the same model Alienware with slightly different specs and it did indeed cost me about $2K at the time. It still works decently, but the biggest issue is outdated drivers. About half of my Steam library won't even launch due to outdated graphics drivers, and Nvidia absolutely will not update it, even after running DDU. In terms of performance, it's similar to a GT 1030.
@@Caveyy for 1,300 aud (918.71 US Dollar) I got a laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and an rtx 3050, better performance than what i expected. It was a great deal.
Basically: Good gaming laptops / pc part last a long time and perform well throughout the years, but slightly less *amazingly fast* as it used to be, but managing the graphics setting in games gets it going absolutely well.
i was thinking about getting one back in 2019 before the prices went crazy, gtx 1080 desktop used to sell for $250 on ebay back then. and it was almost always in stock.
I managed to get a refurbished i7-4720HQ and a GTX980M for 350, and can play almost any game on max at 1080p even though this was made in late 2014 I think.
I just sold an Alienware 15 R2 i7-6820HK 32gb Ram 256gb m.2 ssd GTX980m(8gb ddr5) 4k lcd for $510 and I gamed on it myself, the 980m overclocks well and holds up with new games. Also ive been repairing and referbishing laptops professionally since before it was a thing really and I have no idea what your talking about when it comes to Alienware laptops. Out of all of the gaming laptop brands they are easier to repair and hold value longer. Parts are more redily avalible and when under warranty Dell almost always replaces them with an upgrade. And some models have their issues sure, same as any other brand.
I'm still using my Asus K53sv dated back to 2011 and I can't replace it due to stupid taxing and valueless currency of the country where I live (Iran). People should be grateful for what they can afford. If I wanna buy let's say a $1300 laptop right now.,it costs me 10 month worth of my salary. Thanks for the content dude!
Buying new cards for new games is like buying a new console day 1. After you beat the benchmark games you go right back to playing ports/older games. I would still recommend a well priced 1650/1660ti, over the latest and greatest. Gaming doesn't move as fast as ppl say it does (most of these devs re use assest and engines so as long as you have a card that was made during the 1080p boom you're good, might have to lower your settings tho. I don't think 2k/4k will ever be the standard (at least for 5-10 years imo) as prices are still absurd for monitors, and gpus and just overall people aren't as rich as the internet leads to believe.
Ryzen came out two years later Jackson, but I'll give you A for effort :D. That laptop didn't really age well, I know that the mobile versions are always worse but that was basically on par with a 1050 if not worse if I'm not mistaken. I mean, for 400$ it's not terrible but you could just go with a Ryzen 5 APU Laptop and although you wouldn't get similar performance GPU wise, you would have a much better processor, screen, keyboard, battery life, and of course it would be new.
Interesting. I always assume Ryzen APUs are at best a bit better than GT 1030 performance and thus slower than 970m, especially since 960m was considered somewhat close to a 750ti
I had this exact same laptop but with the i5 and a single stick of 8gb ram. It couldn't run GTA 5 at the screen's native resolution very well, so I had to run it at 1366 x 768. My motherboard failed in it after 2 years. I paid $1200 for it, brand new, fresh out of high school with graduation money and not very good monitoring over what I was getting for college. It taught me a valuable lesson and I've never purchased a computer under the Dell brand again.
@@pacijentt4367you don't understand, why is his laptop being broken a reason to not not Dell again? All laptops have quality control issues and not every company makes a good model from time to time
How would it run Cyberpunk 2077? Or perhaps even the upcoming dlc for it? I have this laptop and it plays games like Fortnite as well as Death Stranding beautifully. Only problem was a slight stuttering sometimes at the beginning of a cutscene, which wouldn’t be noticed if you didn’t game for a living.
i bought an used alienware 15 r3 [gtx 1070 i7 7700HQ] still runs great replaced the old drives against 2 2tb ssd sticks and doubled the ram to 32gb with my external gpu rtx 3060 works actually.....i still manage to play any game i want and still should be safe for the next 2 or 3 years best 600$ i spend
This past summer I bought an ASUS ROG gaming laptop from like 2010, and she still games, $60 from Ebay parts only, because it kept shutting off, I cleaned it upgraded the Cpu, and 16 gigs of ram. I love this laptop
@@jponz85 radeon hd5870, its older but i've seen thes GPU play more triple a games better than a GT 1030, i know you can't compare the 2 and the GT 1030 isnt all for gaming, But this little gpu was playing well, with over 55 fps in overwatch, about 68 in fortnite,
Also, that 256Gb nVm.2 drive is not an upgrade. The default config. was that SSD with a 1Tb hard drive. Luckily mine came with a 1Tb Samsung 840 Pro nVm.2 and 32Gb of RAM, which wasn't even in the listing, so that was a nice surprise. It was and still is like new, with 100% battery life, though I'd be lucky to get 2.5 hours out of running this hardware. Even less if it engages the 980m, but it does auto switch between the nVidia graphics and the iGPU if you're not gaming and editing, but you really have take along the massive 240w power brick because 2.5 hours is kinda a joke. But this machine is idling right here next to me waiting for some frames or to chew through some video render. Added two more 1Tb SSDs and I couldn't be happier. Not quite a laptop, but definitely a powerhouse.
ryzen wasn't that good that time ,overheated a lot. 6th gen intel was OK ,970M wasn't that great ,next gen with gtx 1060 was the sweet spot ,everything still run on those ,15 r3 still usable.
Yeah, these machines are built like a taw, and you pay for it in weight. I've got a really weird variant of this model. I've never seen the same configuration before or since. It's got a 4K high gloss touch screen with a mobile i7-6700 and a GTX-980m with 8Gb of VRAM. I don't even think I could find any info on this nVidia chip at the time, only one with 4Gb. I got it mainly for the extreme color accuracy of the displw, with like 99% Adobe RGB and 98% NTSC. I wanted an editing solution that I could use anywhere, or take on the road if needed. But I can game if the mood strikes. It gets in the 50+ FPS on Cyberpunk and 60+ on The Witcher III on high settings. But it gets really hot underneath at the back, and you sure wouldn't want to have to carry it around for very long. Unless you're trying to save on a gym membership....
I have alienware 17 r4 with gtx 1070. It is still baller af. Honestly i have rtx 2070 super desktop but im gaming on my laptop. You need to upgrade that 8gb ram and you good to go.
You hear that, Asus Zephryus? All the way from 2015 they had BOTH a USB C AND an SD slot! Only thing that I wish my Scar 15 had was an sd slot. Don't care about a cam, but guess what this 2015 model had? Yup. I get it that form factors have limited things, but c'mon. The new '22 models have at least the cam an a mux.
I actually have a alienware laptop sitting my closet from 2010. It was 1 of the first intel quad core laptops and has 2 amd cards with crossfiree x. I think they are amd 3850s in there LOL. I also have a 2007 alienware laptop in my closet also.
great video guys if you upgrade it will it be able to run games at high fps i know it might not show cos of the laptop display but how about on a monitor.
When AlienWare was AlienWare the produced some awesome products with the price to match. "Enters Dell" ahhh the consumers will by anything with the AlienWare logo.
Bruh I still have this laptop over 6 six years now and it's a beast that's still able to get 60 fps on medium to low with today's games sometimes higher graphic settings depending on the optimization and graphical intensity. I managed to get this badboy for $745 WITH the graphics amplifier included for free (Crazy ikr?) I did upgrade it abit and made a few tweaks so I'll list em here: Ram came with 16gb Swapped out the 256gb nvme ssd for a 1TB Kingston nvme Installed a 970 evo 500gb nvme ssd Swapped out the 500gb HDD for a 1TB hitachi Replaced the factory thermal paste with Artic MX4 Undervolted CPU to -0.140 using throttlestop so during intense gaming sessions I only ever reach 64-70 degrees celcius Windows 10 ofc thou tweaked to removie the unnecessary bloat. Overall still a solid laptop I never regretted getting since I move around alot. Thou I am looking to upgrade to something with a rtx gpu now. I saw people saying the performance for them is similar to a 1030 but for me with all these upgrades and tweaks, it's comparable at most to a 1060 yeah I'm not trying to over blow it here.
People only talk to hate about alienware, i use to have an Alienware 15r1 i7 4720hq gtx970m 16gb ram 1tb sata ssd and 2tb hdd i used it to stream a lot on that laptop,changed thermal paste to conductonaut undervolted a little and overclocked the cpu and gpu with a 230w charger (cause with the included 180w was not enought) and it served me pretty well, in fact i was getting better fps than my co-worker dell´s with a 1060
Electronics are like the most fun but worst possible things for holding their value. I got a gaming laptop almost 3 years ago already for about $1,000. I still absolutely love it. My daughter probably uses it more than I do. So I was looking at laptops for her and already similar or better spec laptops are around $700. Kind of makes me sad.
I have pretty much the same model laptop as the one in this video, and I was wondering if this system is worth the money it would cost to refurb. It has some screen lines as well as backlight bleed, a dead battery that only works when plugged in, and possibly a dead gpu. Nvidia control panel doesn't load and instead displays a message stating, "you are not currently using a display attached to a nvidia gpu." However, the gtx 980m gpu shows up in the device manager. Should I take this to my local repair shop and risk the fix or scrap this system all together? I would love to keep this system because I've always loved Alienware, and I would love to keep it as a collector's piece with some light use on the side. Maybe you guys at pc bros would be interested in the project? If you've read this, I thank you for your time!
I have the same laptop. M17 r3. 6820hq and 970m. Rocking 16gb ddr4 and a alienware graphics amplifier with a rtx2070 and 1440p external 27inch.... it destroys all mentioned games. Just sayi g.
@Jonathan Pontel runs slightly better as the bios offers a level 2 overclock and its a 6820hq in mine. Slight difference. The amplifer adds huge upgradability options.
13:24 Oh my god, there’s no way he added the Squirrel edit in that montage. ToastyBro’s you have one special gem of an editor. Deserves an absolute raise. That edit is priceless but worth a lot in my opinion.
What an absolute legend
Looool
Give him a raise fr
The most impressive thing is that a 2015 laptop had a type C!
Except even now it's less usable than a standard USB.
That's Alienware for you.
*On what you're getting with RTX in a laptop: while you do 'technically' get a RTX card in newer gaming laptops, it's a MaxQ variant. Still plenty of graphics grunt for a mobile machine, but not quite as powerful as a desktop. The 3070 in mine is nowhere near as powerful the desktop variant (probably on par with a desktop with a 2070), but I also knew that going in... so, prospective laptop buyers be forewarned. :)
3050 in strix g15 is ass even tho its the most powerfuk mobile 3050 rx580 beats it
@@pekiimatvrdi At least it has DLSS.
Me rocking a 1660ti on a laptop. It runs Halo Infinite so we good lmao
@@leovrivera Unfortunately here in Brazil the only model with the 1660TI still available is a Nitro 5 with Intel I7 10th gen, but it's almost the same price as the Dell G15 with 3060 and Intel I7 11th gen or Ryzen 7 5000 series.
P.S: I've searched and the Nitro 5 is around U$100 more expensive than the Dells with RTX3060.
I think max Q is mostly discontinued
ive still have that very model of laptop, ive upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and replaced the harddrive with a M.2 drive and reloaded windows onto that, i dont game on it,but its still a usable laptop for the things that i use it for, there is app loaded on that laptop called alienware command center, thats where you can change the color of all the RGB on the laptop
They could have also updated the drivers for better optimization for the games too
I'm pretty sure that just by upgrading the 8gb to 16gb of ram would make this thing perform better, ssd wouldnt hurt either
Same
what is your graphics card? is the laptop still good for gaming?
II have the previous Model with the 780m and i7 4900MQ and its still a freaking beast. Best thing for me was the build quality. People bag Alienware's for being garbage but this thing was an absolutely solid machine.
AW has excellent build quality. You can't get a better gaming laptop, the newest units are monster as hell. Excellent machines, though they cost enough they need to be great. I love my X17 R1, I'm but another in 2025 no doubt.
How many fps do you have, i have problem with mines
@@bruwoi5953 ALL the FPS. Literally all of them. 60, 120, 144, 165, 240, 300. I get all those FPS plus some more for the extra speedy screens. No problems, just fast refreshes.
@@ChryslerLeBaro thx
I have the 17in version of this (970m/6700HQ/16gb) and running it with the AGA and a watercooled 1070 still holds up for most games these days. The only issue I have with the laptop is storage space, though all it'll take is cloning the 128gb m.2 to another 1tb m.2 and eventually upgrading the hdd to a 1/2tb ssd in the future. I bought it secondhand in 2018 and it's been with me since. I'm glad people are still giving these machines another look. They're good rigs. Tired, but good.
I had an even older Alienware laptop 3820m & 7970m I added an SSD, repasted both chips, and swapped out for 16gb 2rx8 ram, and did a windows refresh. The performance was impressive for such an old tech.
I still have my m11x alienware lol. Still works but the hinges broke so it only works on an external monitor
I just sold my m14x with 12GB I7 3770 and a gt555m 500gb ssd from 2010!! Everything still worked like the day I got it. Even the battery. Alienware are very good laptops I bought it for 2200 euro used it for over 10 years. Just bought the r15 r5 and I am pretty sure It will keep me satisfied for another adleast 7 years.
Still have mine as my daily. I bought it when my daughter was born, and she’s turning 8! I did update the m.2 and now run an ssd over the hdd, total of 4tb. Running 16g ddr4, still runs all I ever do on it, and all I ever really play is EVE online and Fallouts.
how does it run Eve?
@@hctesch It runs great. No issues at all.
I have that exact laptop. Still runs great. I WOULD like to see you do some testing with the alienware graphics amplifier to see how much of a difference it actually makes. It has a special port on the back of the laptop. 🤷♂️
Same bro
I think it's possible to upgrade some ram, or storage. Although you may not want to, it doesn't hurt to add some.
I have the graphics amp on this same laptop. The only spare gpu I have for it is a 970 desktop gpu. The performance improvement over the 970m is pretty significant. The 970m scored about 6200 on Firestrike while the 970 desktop through the graphics amp scored around 9500. The best thing about the graphics amp vs other Thunderbolt-based eGPUs is the bottlenecking. The performance reduction through bottlenecking is generally only about 3-5%, whereas the Thunderbolt eGPU performance reduction typically runs about 15-20%. I'm able to play games like Forza Horizon 4 now at 1080p on high to ultimate settings with good fps in the 55-60 range and I'm even running RDR2 at 1080p and mainly medium/high settings getting around 40-60, whereas before I'd have to run the latter at 720p on medium with the 970m.
One of the biggest benefits to me though is that it runs a lot cooler with only the cpu and not the gpu generating heat internally. I think it'll greatly extend the life of the laptop. The main drawback of course is portability. But then again, I'm not sure about you but portability wasn't that high of a priority for me when getting this laptop in the first place since it's already a boat anchor by laptop standards. As long as I can tote it in the back seat of my car when I go spend the weekend with my folks or something, I'm fine with it.
Ideally I'd like to get a better gpu to put in it, like maybe a 980 ti or a 1070 when they become more available and the prices go down a little more. It seems like anything beyond that might be overkill as far as a match for the 6700hq. But I think something like a 980 ti or a 1070 or maybe even a 1060 6gb would be an ideal match for the laptop and graphics amp. The 1060 6gb would be a pretty significant upgrade over the 970m.
I think the graphics amp is definitely worth it if you can find one for a good price.
is it still good for gaming?
I have that exact same laptop but my graphics card is the 980M. I just added 64GB of ram and a much larger SSD. I build VR games for the Oculus Quest 2 for fun during the weekends and it runs like a champ in Unity. For how long this machine has lasted me it was worth every penny.
Same, the 980m held up well and had alot of vram for the time so it does well with modern titles.
64gb of ram? Wtf lol
@@jponz85 maybe they do loooots of video rendering? idk lol
@@jponz85 why logic when enthusiasm
I still use my 2013 Alienware 14 and surprisingly it will play most current games including New World and Division 2.
Every laptop user should know this.
1.
Just “raise the bottom” let more air into the machine and you will found cpu&gpu each them reduce 10~15°C or in high usage will have more efficacy
2.
You shouldn’t be use “laptop cooler” , cuz that effectiveness actually just like you put two bottle caps under laptop to raise it.
But the cooler still use your limited power and it will let cpu&gpu become more hungry.
There also very many ways let your experience better , like
“gamer most of the time should limit cpu’s PL1&PL2 and offset voltage”
“discrete graphics card overclock”.
Sorry my bad English,hope it's not too hard to read.
Just want help you gus.
From Taiwan
I have the same model and spec you guys have and it does seem to perform fine in most highly demanding games, I upgraded the M.2 SATA SSD with NVMe version for faster boot up and loading, then replaced the 2133MHz ddr4 with 2400MHz, and most important of all, cleaned the heatsink fans and replaced the toothpaste(stock thermal paste) with Grizzly Kryonaut. Great to go for another 3-4 years of web browsing and gaming.
Can you play most games in low setting wiggle going under 60fps?
Obviously you guys are new to the pc world... thumbs up
ive been carrying this laptop for about 3 years now, i have the amplifier but i rarely use it. its a great pc. I carry the Rosewill RWNB16A with me in a dell carrying case.
I love that they refer to this as an old laptop while I watch the video on the exact same model XD
ive always wanted one of these. Still want it. I would do anything for one
I have one bro for sell if you still want
@@vonclohk507 I recently got an msi katana laptop, Thank you for the offer though!
I have the same model Alienware with slightly different specs and it did indeed cost me about $2K at the time. It still works decently, but the biggest issue is outdated drivers. About half of my Steam library won't even launch due to outdated graphics drivers, and Nvidia absolutely will not update it, even after running DDU.
In terms of performance, it's similar to a GT 1030.
You can buy a 600$ laptop nowadays and it would be much better
@@Caveyy Oh yeah, definitely. My current laptop has a GTX 1650 and was only $580 when I bought it.
@@shade20x64 yup that’s what I was talking about I got a hp pavilion gaming desktop that has a 1650 super in it
For 700$ and my friend just bout a pavilion gaming laptop that has a GTX 1650 in it for 600! Plus tax
@@Caveyy for 1,300 aud (918.71 US Dollar) I got a laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and an rtx 3050, better performance than what i expected. It was a great deal.
Basically: Good gaming laptops / pc part last a long time and perform well throughout the years, but slightly less *amazingly fast* as it used to be, but managing the graphics setting in games gets it going absolutely well.
I had a 8750H/GTX 1070 model I got for 500 dollars off and it was a very reliable laptop.
i was thinking about getting one back in 2019 before the prices went crazy, gtx 1080 desktop used to sell for $250 on ebay back then. and it was almost always in stock.
Awww I had that laptop 😍😍😍 many many good years. Ahhhh the 970m. What a legendary card.
Those CPU temps....same temps I have on my modern gaming laptop. Good to see that thermal solutions have gotten better for laptops...... 🤨
Well, CPUs have gotten more powerful, laptops have gotten thinner, which means that yeah, the thermal solutions have gotten better :)
Maybe your laptop is bad?
I managed to get a refurbished i7-4720HQ and a GTX980M for 350, and can play almost any game on max at 1080p even though this was made in late 2014 I think.
I just sold an Alienware 15 R2 i7-6820HK 32gb Ram 256gb m.2 ssd GTX980m(8gb ddr5) 4k lcd for $510 and I gamed on it myself, the 980m overclocks well and holds up with new games. Also ive been repairing and referbishing laptops professionally since before it was a thing really and I have no idea what your talking about when it comes to Alienware laptops. Out of all of the gaming laptop brands they are easier to repair and hold value longer. Parts are more redily avalible and when under warranty Dell almost always replaces them with an upgrade. And some models have their issues sure, same as any other brand.
We need more montages, period.
One of the Greatest Laptops ever made including the M14X Gen 3
was literally about to buy this laptop thanks
The older Alienwares looked better. The letters lit up and All of them came with a lighted track pad
I have an Alienware w/Penitium 4, 2GB RAM, a 40GB SSD (yes, you can buy IDE SSD's), and a Geforce FX5700 GO 128MB card. Baller.
Lol
I'm slightly ahead of you with my dell xps m1710, 4gb ram, core 2 duo, 120gb hhd, gforce 7950 lol
Never forget my first alienware laptop 13inch playing call of duty black ops those were the days
Great show guys, thanks.
I'm still using my Asus K53sv dated back to 2011 and I can't replace it due to stupid taxing and valueless currency of the country where I live (Iran). People should be grateful for what they can afford. If I wanna buy let's say a $1300 laptop right now.,it costs me 10 month worth of my salary. Thanks for the content dude!
broooo, I had this laptop. It was such a great machine
I have used this exact modile for about 7 years and its super releyable. Mind you you cant play most new games in maxed quality
Buying new cards for new games is like buying a new console day 1. After you beat the benchmark games you go right back to playing ports/older games.
I would still recommend a well priced 1650/1660ti, over the latest and greatest. Gaming doesn't move as fast as ppl say it does (most of these devs re use assest and engines so as long as you have a card that was made during the 1080p boom you're good, might have to lower your settings tho.
I don't think 2k/4k will ever be the standard (at least for 5-10 years imo) as prices are still absurd for monitors, and gpus and just overall people aren't as rich as the internet leads to believe.
Ryzen came out two years later Jackson, but I'll give you A for effort :D.
That laptop didn't really age well, I know that the mobile versions are always worse but that was basically on par with a 1050 if not worse if I'm not mistaken. I mean, for 400$ it's not terrible but you could just go with a Ryzen 5 APU Laptop and although you wouldn't get similar performance GPU wise, you would have a much better processor, screen, keyboard, battery life, and of course it would be new.
Interesting. I always assume Ryzen APUs are at best a bit better than GT 1030 performance and thus slower than 970m, especially since 960m was considered somewhat close to a 750ti
@@mcslender2965 I see, I thought Vega 8, GT 1030, Mx150, 960m, 750ti is similar
Klipsch audio, that's nice
I had this exact same laptop but with the i5 and a single stick of 8gb ram. It couldn't run GTA 5 at the screen's native resolution very well, so I had to run it at 1366 x 768. My motherboard failed in it after 2 years. I paid $1200 for it, brand new, fresh out of high school with graduation money and not very good monitoring over what I was getting for college. It taught me a valuable lesson and I've never purchased a computer under the Dell brand again.
Not sure why Dell matters here
@@re4796 cause dell made alienware
@@pacijentt4367 no, why does brand matter?
Because dell parts, alienware is just a name, dell motherboards and other parts were in alienware laptops
@@pacijentt4367you don't understand, why is his laptop being broken a reason to not not Dell again? All laptops have quality control issues and not every company makes a good model from time to time
i love alienware, their cherry mx keyboard is amazing
Alienware is overpriced rubbish, made for rich kids who don't know any better, you can build a impressive pc for a better price!
@@HUYI1 like me :) I love my over priced sjit!
How would it run Cyberpunk 2077? Or perhaps even the upcoming dlc for it?
I have this laptop and it plays games like Fortnite as well as Death Stranding beautifully. Only problem was a slight stuttering sometimes at the beginning of a cutscene, which wouldn’t be noticed if you didn’t game for a living.
I love y'all content keep the good work up
i bought an used alienware 15 r3 [gtx 1070 i7 7700HQ] still runs great replaced the old drives against 2 2tb ssd sticks and doubled the ram to 32gb with my external gpu rtx 3060 works actually.....i still manage to play any game i want and still should be safe for the next 2 or 3 years
best 600$ i spend
3:46 "feels like i am lookin at a IBM think pad"
me has one : am i joke to you.
This past summer I bought an ASUS ROG gaming laptop from like 2010, and she still games, $60 from Ebay parts only, because it kept shutting off, I cleaned it upgraded the Cpu, and 16 gigs of ram. I love this laptop
What gpu does it have? I bought a g75vx asus rog for $80 lol. Has a 660m I believe but still games decently. Upgraded the ram and ssd and it runs ok
@@jponz85 radeon hd5870, its older but i've seen thes GPU play more triple a games better than a GT 1030, i know you can't compare the 2 and the GT 1030 isnt all for gaming, But this little gpu was playing well, with over 55 fps in overwatch, about 68 in fortnite,
Also, that 256Gb nVm.2 drive is not an upgrade. The default config. was that SSD with a 1Tb hard drive.
Luckily mine came with a 1Tb Samsung 840 Pro nVm.2 and 32Gb of RAM, which wasn't even in the listing, so that was a nice surprise. It was and still is like new, with 100% battery life, though I'd be lucky to get 2.5 hours out of running this hardware.
Even less if it engages the 980m, but it does auto switch between the nVidia graphics and the iGPU if you're not gaming and editing, but you really have take along the massive 240w power brick because 2.5 hours is kinda a joke.
But this machine is idling right here next to me waiting for some frames or to chew through some video render. Added two more 1Tb SSDs and I couldn't be happier. Not quite a laptop, but definitely a powerhouse.
I’m gaming on an Alienware laptop about that old, still running strong but won’t play modern triple a titles
I am currently using an alien ware laptop with a 960m I hang out around 60-100fps in games like league, Minecraft, PoE in medium to high settings
my old 970m was a champ
I had a creeping suspicion from the thumbnail, yep this is the exact laptop I bought refurbed for $800 around 2016.
in school just got this banger vid tho🤣
I AM LITERALLY WATCHING IT ON THE SAME EXAC LAPTOP
does it run good it is worth buying
Reminds me of the HP Pavilion laptop with Windows Millennium Edition and the backlit CD controls on the front lip.
This thing is a monster, so huge 😳😳
The katana in the background bugs me. The sharp edge should be facing upward
ryzen wasn't that good that time ,overheated a lot. 6th gen intel was OK ,970M wasn't that great ,next gen with gtx 1060 was the sweet spot ,everything still run on those ,15 r3 still usable.
Can you get ahold of an "Alienware Amplifier" eGPU and test that same laptop again?
Why not try with 16gigs just to compare?
Yeah, these machines are built like a taw, and you pay for it in weight.
I've got a really weird variant of this model. I've never seen the same configuration before or since.
It's got a 4K high gloss touch screen with a mobile i7-6700 and a GTX-980m with 8Gb of VRAM. I don't even think I could find any info on this nVidia chip at the time, only one with 4Gb.
I got it mainly for the extreme color accuracy of the displw, with like 99% Adobe RGB and 98% NTSC. I wanted an editing solution that I could use anywhere, or take on the road if needed.
But I can game if the mood strikes. It gets in the 50+ FPS on Cyberpunk and 60+ on The Witcher III on high settings.
But it gets really hot underneath at the back, and you sure wouldn't want to have to carry it around for very long. Unless you're trying to save on a gym membership....
I have alienware 17 r4 with gtx 1070. It is still baller af. Honestly i have rtx 2070 super desktop but im gaming on my laptop. You need to upgrade that 8gb ram and you good to go.
Why do you game more on your laptop than desktop?
@@jponz85 beamng drive , cs go , cod warzone , half life , pubg , gta 4 etc.
My girlfriend has a Alienware M15 with a 1650 in it and it still can play some of the newer games.
You hear that, Asus Zephryus? All the way from 2015 they had BOTH a USB C AND an SD slot! Only thing that I wish my Scar 15 had was an sd slot. Don't care about a cam, but guess what this 2015 model had? Yup. I get it that form factors have limited things, but c'mon. The new '22 models have at least the cam an a mux.
Ive handled a LOT of old laptops. I've never had a Wi-Fi card fail.
That’s nothing. I’m using a M17x R4, which came out in 2012. Great machine
I'm using an asus rog g75vx that came out I believe 2012 as well lol. Has a gtx 660m or 665m
Huu mine is M18x from 2011. GTX580m and still rocking any architectural’s software 😆
970m probably can play most games low to medium settings 1080p.
Great and intrusting video like every one👍🏻
Can u review veno scorp pc’s i heard they have great pricings and desings for a prebuilt pc
Does the 970m support NIS upscaling? Would be cool redo the testing with it enabled if it does.
Still have an old 2012ish m17x r4. Battery probably gone to hell though.
I actually have a alienware laptop sitting my closet from 2010. It was 1 of the first intel quad core laptops and has 2 amd cards with crossfiree x. I think they are amd 3850s in there LOL. I also have a 2007 alienware laptop in my closet also.
I have everything but my Alienware laptop. It was Aurora M9700 lasted almost six years before the motherboard took a dump. Still makes me sad.
I still have my dell xps m1710 and works flawlessly 😂
@tommyDtwitch do you want to sell that laptop?
great video guys if you upgrade it will it be able to run games at high fps i know it might not show cos of the laptop display but how about on a monitor.
When AlienWare was AlienWare the produced some awesome products with the price to match. "Enters Dell" ahhh the consumers will by anything with the AlienWare logo.
My dad has this exact laptop, works perfectly.
should I buy one
@@AAk1mb0 for mid range gaming? yes.
@@TheSpeedy216 mid range gaming?
yeah its a pretty old card but it should be fine
Bruh I still have this laptop over 6 six years now and it's a beast that's still able to get 60 fps on medium to low with today's games sometimes higher graphic settings depending on the optimization and graphical intensity.
I managed to get this badboy for $745 WITH the graphics amplifier included for free (Crazy ikr?)
I did upgrade it abit and made a few tweaks so I'll list em here:
Ram came with 16gb
Swapped out the 256gb nvme ssd for a 1TB Kingston nvme
Installed a 970 evo 500gb nvme ssd
Swapped out the 500gb HDD for a 1TB hitachi
Replaced the factory thermal paste with Artic MX4
Undervolted CPU to -0.140 using throttlestop so during intense gaming sessions I only ever reach 64-70 degrees celcius
Windows 10 ofc thou tweaked to removie the unnecessary bloat.
Overall still a solid laptop I never regretted getting since I move around alot. Thou I am looking to upgrade to something with a rtx gpu now.
I saw people saying the performance for them is similar to a 1030 but for me with all these upgrades and tweaks, it's comparable at most to a 1060 yeah I'm not trying to over blow it here.
People only talk to hate about alienware, i use to have an Alienware 15r1 i7 4720hq gtx970m 16gb ram 1tb sata ssd and 2tb hdd i used it to stream a lot on that laptop,changed thermal paste to conductonaut undervolted a little and overclocked the cpu and gpu with a 230w charger (cause with the included 180w was not enought) and it served me pretty well, in fact i was getting better fps than my co-worker dell´s with a 1060
@@mcflygarcia Exactly!
Small HDD, might have been from a older laptop.
8GB seems lite for that and time period, I had 8GB for my i3-370m/radeon 5650 bought in 2010/11.
My msi gaming laptop is 8 years old and I still can play pretty much any new pc game, still.
Wow
It has my respect
Hi
Love the videos been here since 90k
Electronics are like the most fun but worst possible things for holding their value. I got a gaming laptop almost 3 years ago already for about $1,000. I still absolutely love it. My daughter probably uses it more than I do. So I was looking at laptops for her and already similar or better spec laptops are around $700. Kind of makes me sad.
if these guys think that a 15 R2 alienware is thick, they should get their hands on an M17X or M18X, those are absolute behemoths.
The textures loading in weird is because the textures or the view distance is on epic. I forget which one you put to epic
Once a beast always a beast
can u make a vid on the 3050 with AAA games like cyberpunk and assasins creed? with dlss and supposedly ray tracing on
can u please review the Acer Nitr 5 laptop with the rtx 3050
if you ever need to, you can replace the wifi card on these old alienwares super easy
Hello this was amazing video but could you make an review about Acer Predator Orion 3000-630 i5/16/512/1660S Becouse i dont know what to get soon.
I have pretty much the same model laptop as the one in this video, and I was wondering if this system is worth the money it would cost to refurb. It has some screen lines as well as backlight bleed, a dead battery that only works when plugged in, and possibly a dead gpu. Nvidia control panel doesn't load and instead displays a message stating, "you are not currently using a display attached to a nvidia gpu." However, the gtx 980m gpu shows up in the device manager. Should I take this to my local repair shop and risk the fix or scrap this system all together? I would love to keep this system because I've always loved Alienware, and I would love to keep it as a collector's piece with some light use on the side. Maybe you guys at pc bros would be interested in the project? If you've read this, I thank you for your time!
I failed to mention that the track pad does not work as well. No rgb on the track pad, no cursor movement, and the buttons on it do not work.
why did u remove it from ur shop?
Hi love your ☺ content and especially when you test laptops can you please try Sony lenovo e series for games like fortnite
I just bought one of these for 169.00
can you try turn off optimus perhaps or mux switch.
I just pickup up an asus Rog Scar 3 2070. Little dated on the cpu side but I think I just got lucky on eBay. Only $700
Great video
my friend has a gtx 1050 in his laptop from that year, that thing is not worth it, he also upgraded it to a gtx1650.
can you guys do a build amd rx 6500 xt build?
It just hurts that this games better than my laptop
Which laptop do you own?
I have an Alienware 15 r3 laptop and it stutters / buffers the exact same way with high fps games. It sucks a lot but never knew a fix
Have this laptop and was able to beat Psychonauts 2 on the lowest settings with absurd lag. I recommend an egpu or buying a better computer.
I have the same laptop. M17 r3. 6820hq and 970m. Rocking 16gb ddr4 and a alienware graphics amplifier with a rtx2070 and 1440p external 27inch.... it destroys all mentioned games. Just sayi g.
Yeah but that's cause your running it on the amplifier what about just on the laptop gpu itself with 16gb ram should run okay
@Jonathan Pontel runs slightly better as the bios offers a level 2 overclock and its a 6820hq in mine. Slight difference. The amplifer adds huge upgradability options.
is it worth to buy HP Pavilion Power 15-cb015nm?