After listening to advice (thanks y’all), trying out a few models, and shopping for the best deal i chose…
A refurb Alienware 15.
– It met or exceeded my specs
– Build quality is excellent
– I got a fantastic deal
Main specs (full specs below):
Intel Core i7-4710HQ
16GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (OS)
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB (data)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
I wanted something bare enough to upgrade parts (no sense paying for stuff I don’t need/want). The laptop came with a 1TB standard HD and 16GB ram. I swapped these out for the parts above and the old parts will go into upgrading another laptop.
The laptop also came with Windows 8.1 Pro installed along with a WindowsRE / Alienware Respawn setup (4 partitions). Since I do my backups with Acronis TI I had no need of that. So, when I swapped in the drives I installed Windows 7 Ultimate. I consider this install temporary as this laptop will patiently await Win10.
Pics & Full Specs
My pics:
Official pics from Alienware (because I’m a lousy photographer):
Full Specs
taken with: HWiNFO64 (portable)
ALIENWARE 15 ———————————————————————
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Build 7601
Central Processor(s) ——————————————————
[CPU Unit Count]
Number Of Processor Packages (Physical): 1
Number Of Processors Cores: 4
Number Of Logical Processors: 8
Intel Core i7-4710HQ ——————————————————
[General Information] Processor Name: Intel Core i7-4710HQ
Memory ——————————————————————–
[General information]
Total Memory Size: 16 GBytes
Total Memory Size [MB]: 16384
[Current Performance Settings]
Maximum Supported Memory Clock: 800.0 MHz
Current Memory Clock: 933.9 MHz
Current Timing (tCAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS): 10.0-10-10-32
Row: 0 – 8192 MB PC3-14900 DDR3 SDRAM Crucial Technology BLS8G3N18AES4.16FE
[General Module Information]
Module Number: 0
Module Size: 8192 MBytes
Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM
Module Type: SO-DIMM
Memory Speed: 933.7 MHz (DDR3-1867 / PC3-14900)
Module Manufacturer: Crucial Technology
Module Part Number: BLS8G3N18AES4.16FE
Row: 2 – 8192 MB PC3-14900 DDR3 SDRAM Crucial Technology BLS8G3N18AES4.16FE
[General Module Information]
Module Number: 2
Module Size: 8192 MBytes
Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM
Module Type: SO-DIMM
Memory Speed: 933.7 MHz (DDR3-1867 / PC3-14900)
Module Manufacturer: Crucial Technology
Module Part Number: BLS8G3N18AES4.16FE
Video Adapter ————————————————————-
Intel HD Graphics 4600 —————————————————-
[Video chipset]
Video Chipset: Intel HD Graphics 4600
Video Chipset Codename: Haswell GT2
Video Memory: 1024 MBytes
[Video Card]
Video Card: Intel Haswell-MB GT2 – Integrated Graphics Controller [DELL]
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M —————————————————
[Video chipset]
Video Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
Video Chipset Codename: GM204M
Video Memory: 4095 MBytes
Drives ——————————————————————–
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB —————————————————
[General Information]
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive Model: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB
Drive Capacity: 953,869 MBytes (1000 GB)
Media Rotation Rate: SSD Drive (Non-rotating)
Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB ———————————————
[General Information]
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive Model: Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB
Drive Capacity: 238,475 MBytes (250 GB)
Media Rotation Rate: SSD Drive (Non-rotating)
Audio ———————————————————————
Intel Lynx Point PCH – High Definition Audio Controller [C2] ————–
Audio Adapter: Intel Lynx Point PCH – High Definition Audio Controller [C2]
High Definition Audio Codec: Creative
[Driver Information]
Driver Manufacturer: Creative Technology Ltd.
Driver Description: Sound Blaster Recon3Di
Network ——————————————————————-
Qualcomm/Atheros e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller ——————
[General information]
Network Card: Qualcomm/Atheros e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
[Capabilities]
Maximum Link Speed: 1000 Mbps
Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1525 Wireless Network Adapter ———————-
[General information]
Network Card: Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1525 Wireless Network Adapter
[Capabilities]
Maximum Link Speed: 54 Mbps
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