New laptop needed

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Guide community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

raider67

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
13
0
1,560
I'm looking at replacing my current laptop as I have cracked the screen on the current one.
Being in Australia, my choices are limited for my price range. It will be used for work and play as I don't own a desktop system, nor do I want one. I don't need to run new games on ultra settings but something reasonable would be good.
I've narrowed my choices to the following. They are similarly priced. My main concerns are build quality and reliability. I don't want to have issues where I have to spend hours on the phone. I've heard some horror stories from some of the Alienware guys. Not so much either way from the clevo camp. I realize that some are just going to be bad regardless of the brand, but I like to cut down the odds when I can.

They are choice are:

Alienware 15 r2
i5-6300HQ
8gb ram
1TB @ 7200 rpm HDD
965M 2gb GPU
15" FHD IPS screen
1 yr warranty

Clevo N170RD
i7-6700HQ
16gb ram
250gb SSD
960m 2gb GPU
17" FHD matte screen
2 yr warranty

I can get a decent deal on a lenovo y700 til month end. Probably be about $250 bucks cheaper. Heard some bad things about the reliabilty though.
i5-6300hq
960M 4gb GPU
1TB @5400rpm HDD
8GB ram
15" screen

I've never owned any of these brands so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
Solution


They both seems to have only 2gb of vram... Im warning you that your laptop is not future proof, but if you cant find a laptop with a gpu that has more or equal to 4gb of vram ill help you choose between these two.

I have to say the Metabox is a great laptop, overall it seems better but the Alien 15 has a better gpu which is more needed to run games. Also, you could probably replace the RAM on both of them, but im specifically talking about the Alien 15 becuase of the 2x 4gb RAM sticks and probably replace the Storage.

Matias_4

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
26
0
1,590
Oh man I just realized the laptops you suggeted have 2gb vram. I would go with the Lenova for future proof, games nowadays require more then 2gb of vram. Siege, GTA, Shadows of Mordor, Battlefront, really any game after 2015. I wouldnt risk getting a laptop with a gpu thya only has 2gb of vram
 

Matias_4

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
26
0
1,590


Yes the Dell laptops build quality and cooling system is great. I do reccomend going with the Dell laptop.
 

Matias_4

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
26
0
1,590


Its a very big difference, I suggest going with the Dell since I know little about the Lenova. the Dell laptop I got had an extra RAM slot and a extra storage slot. So I ended have 16gb of Ram, 256gb ssd and 1TB SSHD. Please link which two you have in mind so I can do a comparison
 

Matias_4

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
26
0
1,590


They both seems to have only 2gb of vram... Im warning you that your laptop is not future proof, but if you cant find a laptop with a gpu that has more or equal to 4gb of vram ill help you choose between these two.

I have to say the Metabox is a great laptop, overall it seems better but the Alien 15 has a better gpu which is more needed to run games. Also, you could probably replace the RAM on both of them, but im specifically talking about the Alien 15 becuase of the 2x 4gb RAM sticks and probably replace the Storage.
 
Solution