Hello, I am now a second owner of an Alienware laptop and I must say, "Wow!". This new Alienware 17 R2 is very powerful.
My first one was an Alienware M17x3. I still have my old Alienware laptop, it runs just fine however some of the newer games run slower and I needed to start tuning graphics down. I have had my old Alienware laptop for almost 4 years now and have thousands of gaming hours on it with little to no issues.
Now, the new Alienware 17 Laptop is a beast! I got the added 250G SSD and the Nvidia 980GTX card and holy cow it boots up in like 5 seconds seriously... Very fast boot-up with the SSD, well worth the extra money.
The only game I have tested on the new Alienware 17 R2 is World of Warcraft. It runs it on ultra hitting 90+ frames consistently which is impressive to me. I haven't had the chance to download any of my other games yet off steam but I am looking forward to Witcher 3 on this baby.
I only have two small cons and that is that there is no optical drive, I doubt I will ever need it but I can see that ONE time when I want to watch a dvd or something on it on an airplane... and the power cord input on the left side can get annoying. My old Alienware laptop it is in the rear and not in the way of my leg when its on my lap, not really a big deal though since I will be mainly using this on a desk.
Overall the Alienware 17 R2 is a VERY awesome laptop that I am sure will serve for many gaming hours to come. Thanks Dell! I was worried at first when you guys took over Alienware, but its looking like a nice machine so far. (hide)
Pros:very fast & powerfull ultra settings are no prob!, klipsch speakers sound great, touchscreen makes win 8 tolerable, keyboard feels great to type on, lighting is awesome with leds & mousepad lit up, laptop design & look is very nice!
Cons:no optical drive, wish powercord plug-in was in rear like old laptop