Original Coupon Deal
Good deal for a 3070 laptop. Usually a choice between legion 5 pro and the alienware at the same price point but for me at just over 2k looks like a great deal.
Seems to be the cheapest price listed on ozb so far. Just bought one so keen to hear any thoughts.
This is the cheapest 3070 there is with a mux switch. Compared to the 2.6k l5p, it have:
16gb less ram
only 256gb ssd, you need to bug CS to get kits to install normal 2280 nvme ssd. refer to reddit for instructions
worse screen by quite a bit
worse battery life (because of amd vs intel 11th gen, not so much due to laptop themselves)
15w less power on the gpu (110+15w vs 125w+15w)
On the other hand, it:
is more than $300 cheaper, the cost
the 15w wont be that detrimental to gaming performance since on the cpu side the 11800h is stronger than 5800h in games (refer to jarrods tech)
alienware coming in with those rgbs man
killer wifi 6 while the new l5p batches I believe are shipped with mediatek? wifi cards
better resale value just because its alienware and have intel cpu caters more to the 'masses'
For people who got this laptop but wanted to upgrade the ram, I couldnt recommend any less than this g.skill 64gb kit for only $330.
I couldnt recommend any less than this g.skill 64gb kit for only $330
If you need 64gb, you need 64gb but for everyone else 16gb is fine.
I did say 'if they wanted to upgrade the ram.
Due to production issues, almost all laptops with 16gb kits this year comes with dual rank kits. Which degrades performance by quite a bit esp in gaming, if you wanted to get best performance you have to upgrade to 2x16gb kits since single rank 8gb ram is almost non existent. Given 32gb kits all cost more than 200$. It doesnt hurt to step up straight to 64gb kit for just a bit more. Better resale value as well.
I bought a 16x2 kit for $180 delivered earlier this month with dual ranked 3200mhz cl22
32GB is already overkill for gaming though
@green_banana: It was leftover Black Friday Sale…
actually it was $202 after all the surcharge+delivery fees from MWave…
https://www.mwave.com.au/product/crucial-16gb-1x-16gb-ddr4-3…
@meong: Ah must have missed that deal then.
You are right 32gb is overkill for gaming from a usage viewpoint but it’s also only 32gb kits and above that offer one the performance boost just because its single ranked
Thank for the detailed write up!
Yes. Intel will perform better in games for 15 seconds then it overheats and throttles.
Mate, this is no 10th gen anymore and this is certainly not desktop 11th gen, the 10nm superfin used on the mobile 11th gen is in every aspect comparable to the 7nm on the zen3 mobile. Numbers dont lie.
Hign end mobile cpu just tend to output a lot of heat no matter if you are intel or amd. Better cooling system is the key, not the chips themselves. My 5900hx zephyrus duo with upper fan intake and thermal grizzly still hit 90 degrees from time to time with near full fan load, and thats a normal temp for this machine.
The screen is terrible, you would basically be wasting the 3070. Its an oxymoron.
Yeah because the screen is definitely a bottleneck here?
3070m is essentially a card between a desktop 3060 and 3060ti, making it a 1080p card. This is not to say you cant run 2k games on it at a smooth framerate, esp given DLSS is a thing. However, its definitely not somehow too powerful that its held back by the 1080p panel. Ever ran battlefield 2042? Cyberpunk? Yeah these titles arent exactly the most well optimised but at the same time games will only get more resource intensive as time goes on and 1080p is definitely fine for gaming. Not to say the the l5p's screen isnt great, its one of the best laptop panel there is, but it doesnt automagically render 1080p screen garbage.
It's not the resolution, it's the response times and the colour gamut.
It's a garbage panel.
Huh? Since when is 165hz/99srgb/320nit/4ms G2G for a gaming laptop considered a garbage panel? Which universe did you live in mate?
@Brrrrt: I stand corrected! I've become so used to every cheap Dell (and others) carrying the same crap panel at these price points when the screen is FHD that I didn't even check.
That's a huge improvement, thanks for the info.
@jasswolf: Np mate:)
But yeah low end dell machines cut quite the corners and I bet the 120hz low color coverage panels they are still using in 2021 is years old stock they are just trying to clear through.
Alienware is better since well, it is alienware it’s stupidly expensive already it would be a bloody rip off if they offered the same screen as the dell ones haha
I went from an Alienware 15 R3 to Legion 5 Pro. My Alienware had a GTX 1080 Max-Q with i7 7820HK, and it would constantly overheat and throttle, the result is that it would continuously bump up against the thermal limits and drop from 80 fps to 30 fps for a split second every few seconds. I had to undervol the CPU and use a cooling pad just to get a smooth experience, even then it would struggle on a hot day. The Legion 5 Pro on the other hand has performed flawlessly, have yet to experience any throttling (though it's still on the same cooling pad) and it's much quieter.
That being said, this is the 15 R3, and the M15 series has supposedly upgraded cooling. Though Googling around I still see people complain about throttling. I'm definitely reluctant to buy any Alienware laptop in the future with high specs, I'd trust it a lot more with mid-spec systems on the same cooling. I hope your machine runs fine, but in case it doesn't, a cooling pad with fans really helps, as does installing Intel XTU, undervolting and limiting multicore boost frequencies.
You can get the R5 with 512gb ssd for $50 less on dells website and then another 6% cashback with cashrewards making it only $2100.
Nice find but just a heads up the R5 this gen have terrible heat upbuild even though it shares near identical parts with the r6 in this deal. Need to limit cpu temp in TCC manually or it will run at 100c with just normal load.
People have reported success with a repaste that included a 0.3mm copper shim sandwiched between the cpu and the heatsink
For this time of the year i might just wait till boxing day
This is dell's boxing day sale, the same price as it is on their own website.
Well, you'll definitely won't fit many big games with how small the SSD is. Otherwise looks pretty good. Just need to add more storage.