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Today we are analysing the Alienware 17 – a powerful gaming machine which fits into the Alienware range between the 18 that we looked at a few weeks ago and the 14 which has yet to pass through our labs. Is it worth a shortlist?
We were recently very impressed by the Alienware 18 which offered excellent performance alongside a very unique and attractive aesthetic design. The Alienware 17 is a slightly smaller machine with a similar specification, although it's not currently available in a dual graphics configuration.
The Alienware 17 can be fully configured on the Alienware website, starting at a rather hefty £1,299. While expensive, this is significantly cheaper than the Alienware 18 which demands an eye popping £1,999 for the most basic model.
Alienware supplied an enhanced 17 to KitGuru for review today, increasing the price by around £800 to £2,099 inc. VAT. These upgrades include a powerful quad core Intel Core i7-4800MQ processor and an upgrade to a dedicated Solid State Drive alongside a flagship nVidia GeForce GTX 780M graphics card.
Specification
- Display: 17.3″ (439.42 mm) WLED FHD Anti-Glare Display (1920 x 1080).
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5 (SLI).
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4800MQ Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost).
- Memory: 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz.
- Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s.
- mSATA Storage: 256GB mSata SSD Boot.
- Optical Drive: Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW).
- WIFI Card: 5G WiFi Broadcom 4352 802.11n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0.
- Keyboard: Backlit Keyboard UK.
- Warranty: 1 Year NBD with Premium Phone Support.
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit.
ASUS do some great gaminmg machines too, and they cost a lot less than Alienware, but at least Alienware put a lot of effort into the looks as well, which is important.
Great machine, I own one, been using it now for gaming for a month. runs a bit hot on my knee, so I use it more on a desk.
The problem with Alienware laptops, of which I have had many, is the hinges wear out so soon. If anything needs replacing it is absurd at costs.