Dell Alienware 17 R4 review

4.42 kilograms of 2017 flagship

The Alienware 17 R4 is among the heaviest machines in the catalog — 4.42kg against a 2.4kg class median, an 84% premium that earns it a desktop_replacement rating. At $669 it delivers era-flagship hardware: a quad-core i7-7700HQ, a GTX 1070 with 8GB and 32GB of RAM. Mobility lands at 8 versus 29, reliability at 19 versus 53 — both honest for a machine this old. The flags stay green: Overwatch, GTA V and Rainbow Six Siege all pass recommended.

The 1070 still holds the bars

An 8GB GTX 1070 clearing recommended settings in all three measured titles eight years after launch is the machine's whole argument. The 17-inch chassis gives it thermal room the thin machines never had, and for a desk-bound buyer the $669 asking price buys genuine high-settings 1080p — and comfortable 1440p in older titles — with a big screen attached.

The honest costs

Weight is the flagged watch-out and mobility at 8/29 quantifies it: this machine moves between rooms, not cities. Reliability at 19/53 is the second caveat — a 2017 performance flagship carries nearly a decade of thermal cycles. VS Code clears minimum for production work, but this is fundamentally a gaming desktop in laptop clothing.

Price trajectory

From an $1,800 anchor to $669 at a 9.62% annual rate, projecting $547 in two years — an 18.31% drop. Slow aging from here; the heavy flagships keep small but stable collector-and-user value.

Against its neighbors

Upward, Dell's Alienware M17 at $736 and HP's Victus 15-fa2xxx at $754. Downward, HP's Pavilion Gaming 15 at $576 and Pavilion Gaming-15-ec1413no at $580 — both far lighter, both with weaker GPUs. The R4's pitch is maximum graphics-per-dollar if the weight is irrelevant to you.

Bottom line

A budget-friendly desk flagship for the buyer who never moves the machine: the most graphics hardware per dollar in its band, paid for entirely in kilograms and longevity odds.