Re: Need help on alienware specs
@sassyfrashnash The seller offering the used Alienware gets generally good reviews, with most of the bad ones sounding like the customers were being difficult. It always has to be a consideration when buying used, but there don't seem to be the typical red flags. Anyway, I'd still contact the seller to see the return policy if the laptop doesn't perform up to "like new" standards. If the policy is reasonable, you could run some benchmarks and a stress test, then decide whether the hardware seems to be holding up.
If in fact this laptop is as advertised, it would be an excellent deal for its components. The SSD is large enough for a dozen games, it has an extra HDD for overflow, and its processor, while a couple of years old, was the usual choice for gaming laptops in 2017. (The 8300H is a bit stronger, but the difference isn't worth avoiding the 7700HQ altogether.) The 32 GB RAM is nice but likely unnecessary.
Given how laptops can sometimes be treated harshly by their previous owners, I usually don't recommend getting a used model unless a new one is out of the buyer's price range. On that note, the MSI is a great price, but it would need a second 2.5" hard drive in addition to the small one already installed. The advantage is that you could buy exactly the SSD that you wanted, and install all your games on it without worrying about running out of space. But of course you'd need to buy that drive as well, and while not exorbitantly expensive, an SSD will drive up the total price. This is a decent option:
The other thing to keep in mind is that an Nvidia 2060, while not much stronger than a 1070, does support a few newer features, like DLSS, that older cards don't. Whether this makes a difference to you probably comes down to whether Cyberpunk supports the newer features, which isn't clear. (Raytracing: yes; DLSS: maybe) It won't make a difference to the other games you want to play.
So I guess the question is whether the extra money is worth it to you. Given that you'd prefer to stay under $1000, the Alienware might be the better choice. If money isn't as much of an issue, the MSI is a slightly better option overall once you add in the second hard drive.
