Alienware AW15R3-0012SLV Laptop (6th Generation i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060

Sweet Laptop

I think you have to be in some kind of club to get this one

Ignore all the negative reviews, decide for yourself, I purchased this laptop and I absolutely love it! The build quality is the best part of it, it just in general looks and feels like its worth what its priced. Battery lasts about 3 hours since its 68WH so it's not the best BUT it has the option to upgrade to the 99WH, which is really good. If you care about not only the performance of the laptop but durability and aesthetics, this is the laptop for you!

Build is fantastic but this listing shows two model numbers, and neither match the model number on the documentation I received. According to the listing this is supposed to be a 120hz gsync display, but this display has a 60hz display and I cannot find a way to verify whether it is gsync equipped. I think I'll be returning this laptop as I only stepped up to this price point for the faster display. update: can't overclock display as was recommended and this is definitely not gsync, encountered a keyboard issue that caused keyboard input to become mostly unresponsive, wound up being Shadowplay, had to disable this feature in Geforce Experience update 2: Dell is forcing us to get drivers from them rather than Nvidia, as such they are not up to date causing Forza Horizon 3 to crash within 30 seconds of gameplay. update 3: Out of the box Nvidia GeForce Experience will be out of the date and not able to be updated, drivers direcetly from Alienware's website are also out of date. To update drivers go directly to nvidia, do not use the auto detect tool, manually locate the correct drivers for your device and use those.

Terrible heat issues. When I asked Dell to do the repasting of the heat sink they told me that there was no problem with the device. Check out the core temp differences. [...]

2-stars for: This machine has issues with thermal throttling. The official stance from Dell is to re-apply paste to the CPU/GPU and undervolt the system. I personally do not want to be making that level of change for a laptop of this price. This was tested via tools on a USB stick prior to loading into the OS for full setup. The rest of the review. Pros: Large Battery, Good keyboard action (for a non-mechanical keyboard), responsive trackpad. Good battery life when performing new tasks. Thermal dissipation is good. The power adapter is good and a relatively decent form factor (for a 240W PSU). I've used this power adapter for other applications and find it to be phenomenal. Neutral: Gamer Aesthetics - some people really like it, some do not. Cons: Massive size (and weight) which is needed for thermal dissipation and the insanely large 99WH battery. In short, this is NOT really a portable machine. Most every "15 inch" case/bag/backpack will not fit this machine due to it's size. The version I purchased was the IPS (not g-sync) panel and was not very bright.

The combination of the i5-6300hq and GTX 1060 is great for 1080p gaming. I have been playing Black Desert Online at high settings and 60 fps. I did tweak some of the other settings to help improve the average framerate. The backlit keyboard does change colors based on load and temperature. I am not sure how to adjust this yet but it messed up my color scheme. The fans do get loud under full load, so I would recommend gaming with headphones or a headset. Overall, I am very happy with the performance so far!

My 11 son received this for Christmas & he loves it. The graphics are beautiful!! He no longer complains about his games lagging or the game will not run. We don't have those problems any more!!