Alienware 17 R4 Review (Late 2016, GTX 1070) 

I've had this laptop for 5-6 years and put through unholy amounts of gaming and im only just now having hardware issues with it, most likely stemming from heat damage. This thing ran like a dream and I am so happy I bought it since I've been able to take it around with me throughout the years. I would take this on planes to make the flights go by super fast, also entertaining for the passenger next to me 😂

Absolutely excellent review! Thanks for sharing! :) I just ordered my 17 r4 with: ● i7-7700HQ Kaby Lake ●Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 w/ 8gb GDDR5 ●16gb DDR4 2666mhz ram ●99 Wh battery ●1980x1080p FHF IPS anti-glare screen 300nits (Didn't get 4k g-sync because this gets 4 more hours of battery life) ●512gb PCIE SSD ●1TB 7200RPM HDD ●128gb M.2 SATA Total cost: ~$1,800 USD So excited 🤓

The review I've been waiting for. I ordered this with a 1080 because they offered me £600 off :)

I got one just a couple of months ago and it's an absolute BEAST!! It's like the laptop equivalent of a monster truck, I swear! Money well spent.

Lisa deserves a praise ! Reviews of yours are not quite like others. I don't know but you may be one of the best if not thes electronic hardware reviewer. The videos are a bit long, still, but it is for a reason. So koudoz to you and your team !!!

Does Lisa own MobileTechReview? Don't think I've ever seen a different reviewer.

This review was helpful in my thought about buying this laptop. The review was wonderful, descriptive, and to the point. Keep up the good work.

Unless you travel for work all the time and you're always staying in hotels, I feel like gaming laptops are for impatient people.

It's no different than a desktop in terms of you should have a bigger housing if you plan on putting in a GTX 1060, 1070, or better yet a 1080. Thin laptops don't cut it in terms of thermals, you need bigger housings for the airflow and Alienware does have that. I've had no problems with their laptops and their thermals, they are very consistent. Say what you want about Alienware, but their laptops are damn nice for gaming.

I just started my very first Patreon-ing for Lisa because I think Lisa does a great thing on this channel. Her reviews are the best anywhere online and I wish I could give more support but I at least wanted to do what I can :) I watch these reviews all the time especially if I'm looking to buy something

Thanks for the review! I have the 17 R4 for gaming and software engineering and absolutely adore it. The Graphics amp as a docking station is sublime. All in all, this is one of the best PC's I've owned. Finally something I can game AND work in without looking like a kid; the design really amazing and business like.

BEST review I have seen on a 17' laptop. You, sirs and ladies, have gained a subscriber !

This review is a god send. Jesus it’s like an actual science tech review. Can this just be the review type for everything. It’s like old science channel level.

Good review. I really wish Alienware (and others) would please make models without the GAMER aesthetic. I am an adult, I play games. But I also want something I can carry around without feeling like a guy having a mid-life crisis. I have to imagine the average PC gamer isn't 16 years old and wants something a little more restrained in appearance.

Great Review Lisa! Answers all of my questions. Thank You! You make the best video reviews I have seen, straight forward and in depth!

Loved this vid.. you have a very relaxing energy on top of being very informative I have an Alienware 17 R4 and I love it

Thank you so much for this really awesome review! I just bought this laptop today and i can't wait to get it in the mail. :D I have the older Alienware 17 that I bought in 2013 and it runs very hot and the battery life is terrible. I'm excited to test out this new R4

i do like the gamer aesthetics and cant figure out why anyone would be sorry to see any of these machines at work....dont be such lemmings.. if everyone had a volvo silver and black keyed laptop we would all just be bored silly. i would rather stand out and be asked what is that big thing? so i can answer it is the desktop that isnt stuck at home and its got specs that make life more fun

Got mine last week (1440p TN panel). Banding on the screen, horrible. Tech is coming today.

the alienware gtx 1080 version is the cheapest 1080 laptop around and one of the decent looking ones and a thunderbolt support. although I could wish for more USB port on the other side. can't believe that they wasted all that space for a single USB port on one side.

Thank you! I am researching for a laptop to use for my RU-vid channel. Your information was helpful. :)

Thanks for the video! I've got this laptop coming my way soon. Excited!

Fantastic review! I've always been off put buy Alienware and Razor because of the extreme prices and the specs not warranting them. However after discovering this laptop, I'm really considering buying it. Really happy as well because I can customize it on the website to fit by budget.

Excellent review. I'm putting this at the top of my list of laptops I'm considering. Thanks!

I would love it if more companies would make more modern less aggressive designs. Kinda like apple or razer, the minimalist look is attractive imo.

Lisa, I love how you review tech products! And I just bought this Alienware! Thanks for all the details and super useful information you always give to us! Thanks! you are awesome!

Excellent review. I have the Alienware 17R4, and I can vouch for those temps and performance gains as well. Outstanding build quality, great 4K screen, Tobii eyetrackimg is awesome for powering up or switching off your screen as and when you leave ur desk.

Just the review ive been waiting for. Thanks Lisa! Great job as always. I started laughing when you brought out the Predator because my stepfather has the Predator 17 and i have the Alienware 17r3 so we always get Alien vs Predator jokes lol. But i will say i felt how heavy this beast is compared to mine and i can feel a difference. However, i do think the upgrade is worth it so i will be putting mine up for sale! Thanks for the great review!

The 15" Version is "R3" because in 2013 they released a 17" Version and a 14" Version instead of the 15" Version. So the 17" Version has a revision more than the 15" one.

Just returned my Alienware 17" R4 for the Alienware 15R3 7th Generation i7-7700HQ !

Love your reviews! the 960 Evo bench #'s was a nice touch, I'm eager to see what the 1TB drive in mine does by comparison. Really glad you touched on the Bios and CPU thermals specifically, it's a pretty hot topic right now with these systems as I'm sure you know.

At first I was like what the heck is this gal going to tell me about gaming laptops but now 5 minutes into the video and I'm like my goodness gracious she is a fantastic reviewer. I guess I have a predispositioned bias for nerdy gamer dudes and their middle ages.

Lisa, love your reviews... how is the fan noise comparing the AW17R4 with 1070 and AW15R3? I'm hesitating between AW with 1070 or a MSI GS63VR (1060). Which is during office tasks most quiet? I see a lot of AW on dell's site offered with G-sync. Which will result in unable to use Optimus, right (meaning more fan noise and less battery life) ?

I don't think they sell it with gtx 1080 . chatted with customer rep on their website. she said 17 r4 doesnt come with gtx 1080. but some review s say it does. I'm confused

Planning to buy the Alienware 17 r4 with UHD, will it be also advisable for video editing and content creation? I don't know if the one with UHD have great color accuracy coz I only know that the other screens are not color accurate. And does opting to UHD screen affects the battery life drastically?

Do you recommend getting QHD with g sync for photos and video editing? With those graphics cards, you can add a 4 or 5k monitor later... or should I get the 4K display on the laptop. But then I'm afraid my gaming suffers. What would you do?

Thanks for the review! Are you gonna check out the new Razer Blade Pro for comparison? And/or the Aorus X7 v6?

I am about to purchase this and I realised there's no card reader in it? Why not? Even entry-level laptops have them.

Bought the same model after watching the video, Thanks for the review!

Lisa - Thanks for the review! Good to see that your overall impression is quite positive! I ordered a 1080 one with the QHD display. I will change the thermal pads and do a repaste. Also I want to downgrade to bios 1.02. It seems Dell limited power limit to GPU and CPU due to the heat complaints of many people. You dont get the promised performance with a later bios! I also recommend reading Iunlocks guide on notebookreview to everyone who considers buying a new alienware.

Seems like an all-around perfect gaming laptop. Time to upgrade from my R1.

I have been trying to order from Dell for 6 weeks. All they have done is give me the run around. I attempted to order an Alienware 17 from Dell. The first attemp was on Nov 26th. On the day before the machine should have arrived I was given a notice that it was cancelled by me (it was not cancelled by me). I then contacted them and the recreated the order. The second order attempt was the same result except this time the order was cancelled with the reason given that "cancelled due to technical issue". So again the redo the order this time they increased the ram and ssd capacity as a an attempt to compensate me for them being completely incompetent and it was guaranteed to be delivered by the 30th. So on the 29th I log in to the website I see it shows my "custom build is complete but not shipped" I email the person I have been in contact with asking what is going on and get the "it's been delayed" issue. I then attempted to contact them on Facebook, which resulted in very horrible responses of "Our Engineering is having to QA" I can barely get them to respond on this I have been a Dell customer for a long time and have never been treated like this. They are horrible and have not been willing to assist with their screw ups. They claim they emailed me with an update, that never occurred. I have experience in the field of deploying machines/computers to clients on a request basis, never has it taken almost a month and a half to send out a computer 48 hours at the most and that is when there is a catastrophic issue hindering the build. This is an unacceptable way to treat a customer who was willing to spend thousands on one machine. How can you sell a machine when you aren't even capable of building it?

What is it with these high end laptops having all the parts replaceable except the battery? I use a ROG G751 since 2 years now and apart from the speaker my only gripe is that I cant keep a spare battery with me to swap out during extreme usage outdoors. Power is what needs to be swapable too.. will make any laptop more desirable.

This laptop suffers from light bleed caused by the bezzel and the CPU temperatures are much too high with a core differential of more than 20c. There is a design flaw on their laptops that cause the heatsink to not be evenly seated on the CPU. It is not just recommended but imperative that you undervolt the laptop using intel extreme tuning utility.

Hey! I am considering a 15 R3 with GTX 1060 and i7, but saw the 17 R4 around the same price with only 50$ price difference but with the AMD R9 470 graphics card - Is there any noticable difference in the performance? Have not been able to find a video on it yet, and doubt I will

Those bezels though...

Lisa is the gtx 1080 version of this available with a 4k panel? I can't find it anywhere.

I remember when Alienware screamed "I'm a gaming nerd" with its outlandish aesthetics. However compared to other gaming laptops in there now, Alienwares designs are now more subtle which makes it much more appealing from a aesthetics standpoint.

Do you know how much is the cheapiest model with the 1070, I look in the alienware website and didn't find one with no SSD, only 8gb of ram, 1080p display. Or the cheapiest laptop with the 1070???

Would the fans be library-grade quiet enough if I did say a GPU rendering in a library?

The Aorus X7 V6 DT slays this. Benchmarks better, while being almost half as thin and light.

I always thought air was free, until I bought a bag of chips.

great review! I am impressed with the quality Dell and Alienware has done with his laptops sense they have gone private

So which be a better investment for cost, good hardware, and decent power: Alienware 17 series or Dell Inspiron series?

Can you see if you can get your hands on one with the 4k screen and the gtx 1070 and any of the pci-e ssd options.

Please tell me what method did you use to transport your os

I have this with an i7 7800 and a gtx 1070 but it performs like shit. Anyone know why,

Hey Lisa, how did you transfer the OS to the new EVO drive? I thought you couldn't do that without having both drives installed simultaneously. Thanks :)

hi lisa could u hep me with this. i keep getting this on my alienware 17r4. Samsung NVM Express device is not connected, please connect your device.cant get samsung drive to work at all bios up to date computer sees it and i boot from it to i have the 960pro 512. did u get your 960evo driver to work.

Hey Lisa do you prefer a fully loaded spectre x369 kabylake or the MacBook Pro base model without touch bar (i5 with 8gb ram) or the surface book base model ( 128gb ssd i5 8gb ram). Ik the spectre has the latest cpu but I wanna know which is the best overall

Bought this a few days ago. Dell had been a nightmare cancelling orders and reporting they are out of components. I hope mine ships soon.

Will you do the acer predator 21x review when it comes out? Not sure if I asked you this before.

it seems like this generation of alienware laptops is plagued by high temperatures caused by the bad contact between the cooling system and the cpu/gpu, some buyers claiming hitting over 95C. If DELL sorts out the occasional thermal problems and MAKES THOSE BEZELS SMALLER, like they did with the xps 13/15, they will have the best gaming laptops without any doubt. The laptop I will most likely buy will be the future kabylake AW 15R4 with 120hz screen if only they can make those bezels smaller(max 1cm)

Love your reviews no crap and to the point best reviews on RU-vid

Lisa, did you mention they have the GTX 1070 with QHD G-sync available? I couldn't seem to find it.

Is this a good machine for photo or video editing? E.G. Adobe of Final cut pro? I just configured one and its close to 3 k so not much difference than a macbook pro.

Is the 4K display available with 120Hz and None GSync for extended battery life when needed?

Anyone having issues with screen bleeding? I hear the bezel itself exerts pressure, making this problem worse in Alienware.

I dont know a whole lot about laptops, and I need to know are 8GB enough to play these games and does it have a place to insert a disk or CD? Please let me know.

By far the best reviewer on youtube doesn't bullshit around and gives it to ya straight... i would wife her

The trouble with being so much thinner is that we've sacrificed upgradeability and repairability. The critical internal components can't be removed or replaced, anymore...

Question, Are all the ports on the back minus the ethernet and amplifier for monitor connection?

Love your reviews. Keep up the great work!

ow, just discovered your channel, nice one Ms. Lisa

has anyone experienced screen flashing on their qhd panel? Its like the screen cuts off like its losing power but the rest of the laptop is operating fine. The test that really makes this apparent is Furmark benchmark running at 1440 every 15 to 30 secs the screen blacks out and comes back on repeatedly. Is this a PSU issue or is my card fubar?

Why does every tech reviewer show clips of Unigine Heaven with tessellation turned off?

great review, Thanks. Would love to see a review of the 17 R4 4K version. You're one of the few people that also notes brightness ratings. I use my laptops in a very bright area and need at least 350 Nits. would love to have the AMOLED 13 inch version but that's screen is just a little bit too small. Wish they made that in the 15 or 17 inch version. Sadly, I have heard that the 4K version screen is not very good. Supposedly is blurry and slow. Would love to see your version of that screen.

I really like the ash silver x360 but I want the thunderbolt three on the newer one but it only comes in silver. Are the thunderbolt 3 worth it?

Hey Lisa, I have a question about i7 mobile processors. There are higher spec 6th gen. i7 mobile processors, above the 6700HQ. How come super-spec laptops don't use the higher-end 6770, 6820, 6870, 6920, or 6970? i7-6700HQ seems to be the top-spec mobile processor that you can actually purchase that is used from the 6th gen.

I have one of these. Fantastic computer. Battlefield One at over 100 FPS on Ultra is awesome

Great review. Do you happen to know what the nit rating of the 4K screen is? I need a bright screen where I work, and want a 4K screen. I tried XPS15 but want a bigger screen.

Love your reviews, Lisa! Keep it up!

Is it possible to turn off all lighting but the keyboard?

I never understtod how to replace the boot drive on any pc? How do u take the OS from one drive to the other?

@10:10 It's 6700HQ not HK but we get the point. Could you also do MSI GT83VR? the one with a real keyboard.

Whats up with that huge amount of bezel underneat the display?

does the samsung m.2 drive come by default when you choose that option from the website?

Picked up the R4 on Saturday 02/04. Came w/16GB and whatever is listed on Bestbuy.com. Upgraded to 32GB and a portable DVD. Went cheap rather than Blu-ray. Tobii tracking is kind of annoying after the novelty. Ran into a number of driver related issues. Needless to say, it's going back. Not because of weight or even cost. Driver issues out of the gate = better to make use of BB's 15 day return policy.

Can you help me making a choose between those two please : I7 6820HK .. GTX 1070 .. FHD 1920x1080 w/ Tobii Eye I7 6700HQ .. GTX 1070 .. QHD 2560x1440 120Hz Gsync w/ Tobii Eye

i HATE that alienware isnt offering other colors than silver (and sometimes black) anymore. also, the new notebooks seem to be made of plastic instead of metal. and why would they offer almost complete customization on the parts but not on the graphics card...

which software did you use to clone the stock SSD to the EVO960 SSD?

Any advice for buying one of these used? How much should I Pay the most? Is $1800 dollars too much?

On this laptop u shown in video...if i install a gtx titan x with the help on amplifier...so will it work ?? Without external monitor...?? Because i saw in a video tht for titan v u need to use an external monitor....helpp needed...

how do you do the whole upgrading the hdd for the alienware 17? i wanna learn how but i'm afraid with my condition i might mess it up.

Does anyone know the DB level of the fans during moderate to high work? I'm considering using this for an audio workstation. I have a macbook pro and it's too noisy. Sounds like it should be hovering.

I have the Aurora R5 and I was thinking about getting a laptop a gaming one what would be the best time other than Christmas to buy one

Does the R4 have gsync? I'm looking at a gtx 1070 R4. Here are the specs Audio7.1 Digtial Audio out using HDMI out connection / 2.1 Speaker includes Subwoofer Bluetooth-EnabledYes Built-in WebcamAlienware HD+IR presence detection camera Graphics CardNVIDIA? GeForce? GTX 1070M with 8GB GDDR5 Operating SystemWindows? 10 Home (64-bit, English) ProcessorIntel? Core? i7-6700HQ Processor (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost) Processor Speed3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost Touch ScreenNo Power100 to 240 VAC Auto Voltage USB Port(1) Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0, (1) Type-C SuperSpeed USB 3.0, (1) Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 with PowerShare technology Features17.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display Hard Drive Capacity128GB PCIe SSD (Boot) + 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage) Wireless TechnologyKiller 1435 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 Battery Life99 WHr Battery Type6-Cell Battery Digital Media Reader or SlotsNo Media Card Reader, includes USB 3.0 ENERGY STAR CertifiedNo EPEAT QualifiedNo HDMI Outputs(1) HDMI 2.0 Output IEEE 1394 FireWire PortsNone Optical DriveOptical Drive Not included Screen Size (Measured Diagonally)17.3"

I just bought a 17 R4 there is lots of talk about upgrading the screen to a LG 17.3" panel for a much better display any thoughts?)

Why is Skylake the "latest, greatest" available when Kaby Lake has been in laptops for a few months?

Will the 1080p 60hz panel overclock? 100hz possible?