malickie

g_christopher
My SC17 order with XOTIC PC just hit the processed stage! I purchased there because they offered the option to replace the 1TB HD with a 2TB model, as well as Win 10 Pro. (Being able to remote into the machine is a requirement.)
 
This will be a desktop-replacement laptop used for development and occasional gaming. It's replacing a much older WUXGA laptop. Stepping down to FHD and losing screen real-estate was a hard thing to accept and so I was waiting for higher-resolution screens to finally appear in 17" laptops. (It's been quite a few years of waiting on that criteria!)
 
The top factors for the purchase were:
- Screen resolution to display a lot of text clearly. 
- High-end processor and memory, good enough graphics that it'll play most games on an external monitor.
- Ideally without silly juvenile glowing logos all over it. 
 
The SC17 was the first 4K 17" laptop to hit the market with 4K, the 6820HK processor, and not making an unjustifiable cost-saving tradeoff (competitors deployed graphics cards with only 3G memory ??). An extra $400-$500 for the GTX 980 MXM card didn't seem quite worth the price bump. Manufacturer reputation was a big factor. MSI and ASUS would both have been fine, but MSI isn't selling a 4K laptop with these spec options yet, and ASUS retracted their announced 4K offerings entirely. Early reviews of the SC17 build quality and EVGA's work on other hardware were enough for me to trust to buying a first laptop offering. 
 
Thanks for making a laptop in the class I've been hoping to purchase for a couple years now. Can't wait to get it!

"The SC17 was the first 4K 17" laptop to hit the market with 4K, the 6820HK processor"
 
That statement right there is 100% incorrect.  Alienware has had that option in their top end 17.3" Laptop since last year, the 17 R3 to be exact Plus 8gb vram, Though I think the 8gb vram was sometime this year they did that part, but still before EVGA.  Really, other than maybe size this laptop is damn near identical to the Alienware 17 R3 that has been around since last year sometime.  Main differences between the 2 would be the Alienware has Thunderbolt 3, and if you where so inclined has the ability to purchase the graphics Amp and upgrade your GPU, granted your losing maybe 5% performance on the GPU you do put in there but still it is an upgrade path that is not at all available to this laptop let alone the price tags are more or less identical as well.  So with one you can either get the Alienware Graphics Amp or even a Thunderbolt 3 Graphics Amp for the ability to upgrade the GPU, with the other you do not have that path to even think about, Just smaller package.  Plus there are a bunch of other options out there that have the 6820HK processor, though you may be sacrificing 4K on most of them, but most of the others also do have Thunderbolt 3.   
 
I really don't understand EVGA not including Thunderbolt 3 in this Laptop, I mean it is meant to be an enthusiasts laptop right?  Last I checked most enthusiast's are looking forward to Thunderbolt 3 and the GPU Upgradability to Desktop performance GPU's because of it, even with a few percentage decay in performance it still offers a forward path that is really quite lacking in this machine. 

Not only that, the SC17 only features room for one M.2 Drive, and one 2.5" HD.

Alienware 17 R3 features 4 M.2 slots and a single 2.5" Drive bay.

As a laptop targeting gamers and overclocking that they sure left out a lot of things that would drive sales IMO.

They can try to claim they were the first with a 4K Screen, unfortunately they're only lying about it.
 

The Alienware 17 R3 is also a big brick which is larger in size in every way.  So, there's that.  EVGA is obviously limited in terms of expansion due to their priority of keeping its size to a minimum.  If having a bunch of drives is important to you, go with the Alienware 17 R3.  Me, personally, I don't want a bunch of drives.  The thing I care about most is size.  Even if the laptop had the ability to add a bunch of drives, I wouldn't.
 
This laptop would be perfect for me if the size were a just little bit smaller.  A 17" laptop doesn't fit under an airline seat.  But, if I had to buy a 17" laptop, by specs alone, the EVGA SC17 would be my choice over the Alienware 17 R3.  Your priorities will sway you one way or another.  Nothing can have the best of everything.

ty_ger07
The Alienware 17 R3 is also a big brick which is larger in size in every way.  So, there's that.  EVGA is obviously limited in terms of expansion due to their priority of keeping its size to a minimum.  If having a bunch of drives is important to you, go with the Alienware 17 R3.  Me, personally, I don't want a bunch of drives.  The thing I care about most is size.  Even if the laptop had the ability to add a bunch of drives, I wouldn't.
 
This laptop would be perfect for me if the size were a just little bit smaller.  A 17" laptop doesn't fit under an airline seat.  But, if I had to buy a 17" laptop, by specs alone, the EVGA SC17 would be my choice over the Alienware 17 R3.  Your priorities will sway you one way or another.  Nothing can have the best of everything.

You do realize the alienware 17 R3 and the SC17 is a 17.3" laptop.. and the alienware isn't huge right? It's thinner than the Asus Rog counterparts.

Squall_Rinoa86

ty_ger07
The Alienware 17 R3 is also a big brick which is larger in size in every way.  So, there's that.  EVGA is obviously limited in terms of expansion due to their priority of keeping its size to a minimum.  If having a bunch of drives is important to you, go with the Alienware 17 R3.  Me, personally, I don't want a bunch of drives.  The thing I care about most is size.  Even if the laptop had the ability to add a bunch of drives, I wouldn't.
 
This laptop would be perfect for me if the size were a just little bit smaller.  A 17" laptop doesn't fit under an airline seat.  But, if I had to buy a 17" laptop, by specs alone, the EVGA SC17 would be my choice over the Alienware 17 R3.  Your priorities will sway you one way or another.  Nothing can have the best of everything.

You do realize the alienware 17 R3 and the SC17 is a 17.3" laptop.. and the alienware isn't huge right? It's thinner than the Asus Rog counterparts.

Yes, of course I realize that they both have 17.3" screens. Read what I typed. Regardless of the screen size, the Alienware 17 R3 is larger. It is wider and it is thicker. It's pretty easy to get the dimensions online and check for yourself. The Alienware is 5.4% wider and 28.6% thicker. That was my point. It's easy to fit more (unwanted) expansion bays into a thick brick. If you want thick brick, buy thick brick. "Thick brick" = thicker and box shaped.

ty_ger07

Squall_Rinoa86

ty_ger07
The Alienware 17 R3 is also a big brick which is larger in size in every way.  So, there's that.  EVGA is obviously limited in terms of expansion due to their priority of keeping its size to a minimum.  If having a bunch of drives is important to you, go with the Alienware 17 R3.  Me, personally, I don't want a bunch of drives.  The thing I care about most is size.  Even if the laptop had the ability to add a bunch of drives, I wouldn't.
 
This laptop would be perfect for me if the size were a just little bit smaller.  A 17" laptop doesn't fit under an airline seat.  But, if I had to buy a 17" laptop, by specs alone, the EVGA SC17 would be my choice over the Alienware 17 R3.  Your priorities will sway you one way or another.  Nothing can have the best of everything.

You do realize the alienware 17 R3 and the SC17 is a 17.3" laptop.. and the alienware isn't huge right? It's thinner than the Asus Rog counterparts.

Yes, of course I realize that they both have 17.3" screens. Read what I typed. Regardless of the screen size, the Alienware 17 R3 is larger. It is wider and it is thicker. It's pretty easy to get the dimensions online and check for yourself. The Alienware is 5.4% wider and 28.6% thicker. That was my point. It's easy to fit more (unwanted) expansion bays into a thick brick. If you want thick brick, buy thick brick.

 
This is more or less what I was saying, the SC17 is obviously smaller and for a reason, some people enjoy and or need smaller form factor.  The inherent problem I have is with them marketing this laptop as an Enthusiast grade Laptop.  When I think enthusiast grade I tend to think about expandability and upgradeability both of which this laptop is massively lacking.  Thunderbolt 3 could have solved half the issue and it really wouldn't have made the laptop any bigger than it already is, in my personal opinion that is an obvious glaring omission to an otherwise fairly decent small form laptop, still wouldn't label in enthusiast grade though considering the limited expandability.

malickie

ty_ger07

Squall_Rinoa86

ty_ger07
The Alienware 17 R3 is also a big brick which is larger in size in every way.  So, there's that.  EVGA is obviously limited in terms of expansion due to their priority of keeping its size to a minimum.  If having a bunch of drives is important to you, go with the Alienware 17 R3.  Me, personally, I don't want a bunch of drives.  The thing I care about most is size.  Even if the laptop had the ability to add a bunch of drives, I wouldn't.

This laptop would be perfect for me if the size were a just little bit smaller.  A 17" laptop doesn't fit under an airline seat.  But, if I had to buy a 17" laptop, by specs alone, the EVGA SC17 would be my choice over the Alienware 17 R3.  Your priorities will sway you one way or another.  Nothing can have the best of everything.

You do realize the alienware 17 R3 and the SC17 is a 17.3" laptop.. and the alienware isn't huge right? It's thinner than the Asus Rog counterparts.

Yes, of course I realize that they both have 17.3" screens. Read what I typed. Regardless of the screen size, the Alienware 17 R3 is larger. It is wider and it is thicker. It's pretty easy to get the dimensions online and check for yourself. The Alienware is 5.4% wider and 28.6% thicker. That was my point. It's easy to fit more (unwanted) expansion bays into a thick brick. If you want thick brick, buy thick brick.

 
This is more or less what I was saying, the SC17 is obviously smaller and for a reason, some people enjoy and or need smaller form factor.  The inherent problem I have is with them marketing this laptop as an Enthusiast grade Laptop.  When I think enthusiast grade I tend to think about expandability and upgradeability both of which this laptop is massively lacking.  Thunderbolt 3 could have solved half the issue and it really wouldn't have made the laptop any bigger than it already is, in my personal opinion that is an obvious glaring omission to an otherwise fairly decent small form laptop, still wouldn't label in enthusiast grade though considering the limited expandability.

That's your interpretation of what 'enthusiast' means apparently. As already mentioned several times, many (dare I say most) understand 'enthusiast' as the performance level, and the SC17 is certainly right up there with the fastest components in this compact size, and the added ability to overclock, as it is intended for gaming and mobility. The SC17 scores top marks for both. If you consider 'enthusiast' level as how many extras you can add on and upgrade, then ANY piece of crap laptop is 'enthusiast' level if it has upgradable CPU and GPU sockets by that interpretation. Maybe that explains it a bit better?
   

No BGA 980M / 970M has vram bigger than 4/3GB
 
EVGA not giving TB port is just an excuse to push consumer to buy the next model instead of being able to use an external graphics solution.

STR8_AN94BALLER
No BGA 980M / 970M has vram bigger than 4/3GB

1) All NVIDIA chips are BGA.  Even the mobile ones which come on an upgrade-able MXM 3.0 board are soldered onto the MXM board using BGA.  Even the desktop NVIDIA cards have their chips soldered onto the desktop board using BGA technology.  Your comment makes it confusing to know what you are trying to say.
2) EVGA's SC17 has 8 GB of VRAM on its non-MXM 980M.  Alienware's MXM 980M has 8 GB VRAM as well.  So, I don't know which one you are referring to and why you say that none of them has more than 3 or 4 GB of VRAM.

Ok, I haven't seen any mention of it and I'm gonna be that guy...
 
Windows 7 support?

STR8_AN94BALLER
No BGA 980M / 970M has vram bigger than 4/3GB
 
EVGA not giving TB port is just an excuse to push consumer to buy the next model instead of being able to use an external graphics solution.

 
OR, like many of the rest of us, they think TB is not popular enough to justify including it in what is essentially a slim-line notebook. USB covers the vast majority of peoples usage needs. Just a thought...