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2414
June 14th, 2020 12:00
Alienware m15 R2 vs XPS 15
Hello
I am looking at a larger budget laptop and I hoped for some opinions:
A.) Hardware - cpu i9, max ram single TB disk (no raid 0), config is xps or alien
B.) OS - dual boot win10 (gaming for Teens), Debian, live Kali & live TAILS (for myself).
C.) Software - League/Diablo/etc Games, ANN & ML, Bitcoin mining, Green/Whitehatting, Matlab & science apps
It has been awhile since I looked into hardware & gaming so I hoped for some opinions and experience for my questions & clarification requests:
1. Alienware (16 gigs) vs XPS(64 gigs) is very skewed in system RAM - why no 64 gig alienware?
- I assume multitasking (xps) is the reason as alienware is for a single (1) game at a time?
2. As Alienware videocard is far superior to XPS is gaming proportianally inferior to multitasking and vice versa?
- I suspect the xps gaming will be faaar worse than Alienware multitasking.
3. Is overheating and heat-on-lap discomfort a problem?
-I do not wish to have extra lap boards with coolers and fans
4. The various XPS systems are probably linux compatible where Alienware is probably not compatible?
4.1 Particularly the NVMe RAID 0 configs are not Linux compatible so I chose 2TB PCIe Solid State Drive single disk to bypass the dualboot issue - issues?
4.1.1 What is the game quality loss by not using RAID 0?
4.2 Is there any other known linux hardware issues with Alienware or XPS (like the old winmodem days)?
- I do not need linux OS for whizbang gaming I want CLI workhorse CPU & FPU.
Please let me know what you think and if you have any ideas or comments that might have bearing.
cheers
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thomaskeano
5 Posts
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June 24th, 2020 18:00
I don't have an opinion for the current XPS 15. My last Dell laptop was an XPS 13 from 2015 or 2016.
My current laptop right now is the Alienware m15 r2, bought last December of 2019 so it's the first generation of the remodeled M15, so that will be the laptop I would be referring to in this comment, unless stated otherwise.
Heat:
If you're using this on top of your lap, I would honestly say do not. Without undervolting or anything that would increase the airflow around the laptop, unless you have it on Max fans, it would be very hot. It would probably reach a temperature wherein you could get mild burns if used for extended periods of time with system-intensive tasks on top of your laptop. Seeing as you're in Canada however, maybe the temps would be better.
Specs and gaming performance:
Seeing as you're using different kinds of software that seems to vary the amount of RAM they need, depending on what you're doing, including compiling code, I presume 16 GB's would be insufficient for you? The XPS 15 might be the better choice here, unless you're planning on playing games that require a lot of power. If it's for games like League, or Diablo, the XPS 15 would serve your purposes excellently. Just don't buy the i9 version. No laptop, except for the M51 and other thick ones, has the thermal capacity to even barely properly cool it, let alone the XPS 15.
Multitasking on this laptop though is pretty smooth. No stutters anywhere except for some software issues that I'm not really sure on what, or which of them is causing it, as some have reported. Then again, never had this problem on my XPS 13 without not knowing which of the programs is causing it.
No opinion on dual-booting, but I imagine it's fine for both either way? A friend of mine installed a Hackintosh on his Inspiron, and I can't imagine their other lineups of laptops would be that different for installing a Linux.