Searching for a Gaming Desktop Replacement

I started my journey down the rabbit hole when I began looking for a gaming laptop a couple of weeks ago as I've recently become engaged and have been spending time between our two houses on a week to week basis. This has caused the loss of my exclusivity of my office/man-cave and being away from my gaming PC a week at a time. As a gamer for the last thirty plus years, this was something that needed to be fixed.

I started small, looking at the traditional gaming laptops of the "thin & light" variety but nothing piqued my interests until I saw the Alienware 51m. Desktop components, replaceable/upgradable components wrapped in an attractive package. I immediately started looking at i9-9900K/RTX2o80 options on the Dell Outlet and watching YouTube videos to get back up to speed on the latest internals and reviews. All of this inevitably led to the uncovering of throttling problems and the limitations an Alienware machine.

This all led me to looking at Clevo based machines and this site. All I want a machine that will work out of the box. Function over form and this video really resonated with me. I want something I can tweak, that's extremely powerful and durable.



I think a clevo based machine is what I'm looking for but I'm completely overwhelmed by the number of resellers and models offered. I'm hoping folks have some good recommendations.

Thanks in advance for the help!

General Questions

1) What is your budget? $3-4k USD

2) What size notebook would you prefer? Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Which country will you buying this notebook? United States

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like? No preference

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed? Yes

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook? Gaming

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both? Both

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? MMORPGs, FPS

9) How many hours of battery life do you need? 1-2 hrs maximum

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK? No preference

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows 10

Screen Specifics

12) What screen resolution(s) would you prefer? 1920 x 1080, with option to export to 4k on a larger screen.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? Prefer glossy but matte is tolerable. The quality of the LCD is really important. Minimum light bleed is appreciated.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you? No

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need? 1 - 2 TB

Timing, Warranty and Longevity

16) When are you buying this laptop? Next 30 days

17) How long do you expect to use this laptop? For 4-5 years

18) How long could you afford to do without your laptop if it were to fail? Indefinitely

19) Would you be willing to pay significantly extra for on-site warranty, or would it be acceptable to you to have to ship the laptop to the vendor for repair with perhaps a week or more outage? Shipping to a vendor is acceptable.

 

The Alienware Area-51m has quite the following here; check out our Alienware forum.

The Clevo-based notebooks are a little generic but can provide good performance for the money. You might want to browse around our Sager and Clevo forum. Sager is the largest seller of Clevo notebooks in North America. You can buy direct from them. www.sagernotebook.com

Charles

 

Thanks for the post. All of these forums have an amazing amount of information.

I think I've narrowed it down to two avenues. Most likely, I'm going to hold off a month until the latest revisions are out. It looks like both Clevo and Alienware are 30 day-ish away from releasing their next refresh. Once those are released, I'll compare pricing and spring for the best option.

The second option is to spring for an Alienware 51m i7-9700k/2080 combo if Dell runs some crazy offer during Memorial Day. It seems like the sweet-spot for this generation and if I can get it for some significant %-off, I'll spring for it. Otherwise, I'll wait.

Thanks again.

 

Try the Dell Outlet for an Area-51M, the laptops sold there are warrantied as new. Might be able to snag one for less.

Charles

 

Thanks for the heads-up! Hopefully the right config (and deal) will pop-up. Thanks again for the help!

 

Just to follow-up, I snagged an Alienware 51m R1 today during their July 4th Cyber Deal. With the discount, and stacking coupons, I was able to get it for $1,911.56. Just wanted to say "thanks" for all the great advice and information on this site. It made the difference in deciding what I ultimately ended up with!

 

Well done! That's great hardware for the money.

Charles

 

What kind of coupons did you use? I tried everything but the lowest price I got was $2350 before tax. That's an awesome price.

 

There is a 10% off coupon code I used from signing-up to receive e-mail offer from Dell. You can find the link to sign-up here. The 50OFF699 I believe will work with it as well.

I also had a discount that was applied as the company I work for has a discount program with Dell. That being said, you should be able to barter with a chat representative for an additional discount. Best of luck!

 

You also might try in the Dell Outlet. (Hit that link to see our guide.) They have special coupons for that on occasion.

Charles