Alienware M17x R4 vs Alienware 17 R1 Ranger

Hi, I have been wanting to get the community decision on what you guy's think is the best 17 model between these two and comment why you think it's better. Enter your vote in the Pole above.

One has better performance/upgrades (mostly the same in terms of GPU), one has better design, overall quality, etc. Lets see where the votes go.

 

Ranger because it does not have the audio issue the M17x R4 has from what I know.

 

Some will say R4 because the Rangers NVRAM, but oddly I have had no issue with it or resetting it so its seeming to be more of a straw man to me.

I prefer the Ranger, as the R4 is too gaudy for me personally. I prefer the keyboard, and the chassis for what it allowed for me to mod into it.

 

The Ranger in theory has the CPU advantage, assuming you can cool it, aside from that
Ranger:
-Less external ports
-NVRAM to reset (honestly not that bad)
+Internal ports are all Sata 3
+better iGPU (if you use it)
+all CPU's with a turbo boost can be OC'd without BIOS modding (XTU/Throttlestop)
M17X R4:
+regarded as better built
+CPU is regarded as running cooler (IVY vs Haswell)
+more external ports, seperate HDMI in
-iGPU is worse?
-ODD and MSATA are Sata 2?
-/+ older AW keyboard? (haven't used it so can't compare)
Thats all I can think of, afaik they all support the same GPU's so if you get one and upgrade it to the top config youll get similar performance anyways.

If you're actually considering buying one now a days, I'd ask you to take a step back and look at something like a Nitro 5, sure its a lot more plastic-y and its got the red gamery look to it, but the performance is on par CPU wise (2500U) and the dGPU is much faster than any of the stock options of the AW17 R1/M17X R4, as well as having M.2 and being newer/

 

I don't mind the plastic-y case as long as it's strong enough (and not super flimsy) and brings the cost way down to deliver better specs for less, Clevo is a good example for that (Metabox for Australia). I buy broken Alienware systems now and then to fix up and just looking to see who thinks what over each of these two systems in general, Acer certainly has one thing over Alienware... Custom fan control. :-D

 

I personally like the AW17 R1 over the M17X R4 despite its flaws, but the one downside to me is that it lacks a couple of ports (VGA, HDMI IN as seperate, and a spare ESATA/USB)
If you don't mind the "flaws" I listed above, just go for the the 17 R1.

 

Thanks for your pole vote, even though the pole is just starting it's all towards the AW17 R1 atm, interesting.

IMO regarding the joint HDMI IN/OUT port, in what scenario would you be using HDMI IN and OUT at the same time on the M17x R4?

 

Idk, just a thought.

 

I prefer the m17x, why?
Very hard to cool the top spec Haswells properly and the EC control is finicky, no proper control over the fans.

Both have about the same CPU power, both can be upgraded with about the same GPUs.

And me like the oldschool design.

Have had a ranger myself, so had a direct side by side comparison, chose the m17x and sold the ranger.


Btw, never had any sound issue with the recon 3Di.

 

Im hoping to bypass the onboard audio with a DAC that should be arriving today.