Dell - G7 17.3" 300Hz Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 (Max-P) - 512GB SSD - RGB Keyboard - Black

I've had my eye on this laptop for some time. My laptop gave out so without skipping a beat I picked this beast up. I read several reviews regarding the high temps and thermal throttling prior to purchasing. I went online to see what could be done to mitigate this problem. All my research pointed toward replacing the thermal paste. At first glance the task seems a little daunting, but it really wasn't too bad. I took photos as I went along to make sure I put things back together correctly. The two thermal pastes that looked at were Arctic MX-4 and Kryonaut. I chose Arctic because it was considerably cheaper and Kryonaut only gives you and additional two degrees Celsius lower temps. Needless to say benchmark scores have improved and temperatures are significantly down. I have not changed any stock settings other than the thermal paste. So, if you are one of the brave that doesn't mind tinkering this laptop is well worth your while. Any other laptop with similar specs will run $800 to $1,000 more. Happy computing!!!

Bought this laptop recently, and have to say that it’s a great 17” gaming laptop. Battery life will last 5-6 hours on average easily and can be extended easily in settings. The 2070 and Intel i7 combo is giving me great gaming experiences. I will say though many will say thermals aren’t good on these on models but After doing all bios updates and updates in general, I’m seeing thermal performance typicality around 80-83c for the cpu and 70 for the gpu. Overall a great buy!

Great Gaming Laptop it's fast and great running games and surfing the web ,It's updated to date. The only thing it gets very hot under load and starts to lower the frames, the fans can't keep the temperatures so I have it over my AC blowing cold air to keep the temperature at 45c.

Overall, this has everything you need for a great gaming experience and do recommend, but be advised it is purpose built to be a gaming laptop. As such it is not a 2 in 1, so screen does not tent nor wrap around to create a “tablet”. There is no touch screen nor pen support. And while I think it is nicely packaged with 17.3-inch screen and .75-inch height x 15.7-inch width x 11.4-inch depth, its weight of around 7 pounds makes “portability” subjective. At this price point and with its specs I anticipated it would test out as a higher end machine but its 3DMARK score (a test for gaming performance/processing) of 7062 put it right in the middle for gaming machines. Average temp of 81 degrees C while testing is a tad high. Temp at rest is around 54 C. Its PC Mark 10 score of 5287 (more general everyday processing test), while being the highest of any computer I have tested, still just missed out as qualifying as a gaming device. To be fair it has run everything I have thrown at it. Running all my 1st person shooting games seamlessly averaging well over 120fps with some as high as 248 (but CPU hot 90C but didn’t really drop fps, but I don’t game for hours) and made using 2021 Adobe Photoshop and Premier (video) Elements editing MUCH faster and more pleasant experience than my desktop. Also, you have complete control over an array of color options which is fun to play with. Hard to believe that this unit could just be on the cusp of using “old” technology (it came out 10/20 I think), as there are already laptops coming out using Intel 11th gen CPU’s (and AMD) and newer GPU’s such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 – Asus comes to mind. The only constant is change particularly with computer components. This unit has the following specs; Unit is composed of Plastic/Polycarbonate and Aluminum. Has built in front facing 720p HD RGB camera, 30fps, with left/right microphones at the top. Right side Ports; SD card slot accepting SD, SDHC and SDXC 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection – 5Gbps Left side Ports; Power port using supplied AC power brick Power and battery-status/hard drive activity light (use Fn+H to toggle between them) 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection – 5Gbps. Has PowerShare (charge USB devices if connected even if laptop is off) 1 Headphone/Mic jack Back Ports; Thunderbolt 3 USB-C. Supports up to 40Gbps (I don’t have a thunderbolt device) but I do have a NVMe PCI-e external drive. I ran CrystalDisk using USB 3.2 and achieved max read speed of 430.55MB/s and max write speed of 418.62. Using Thunderbolt (using USB-C connection) I achieved max read of 1030.04MB/s and max write of 711.74. Also supports connecting USB-C to DisplayPort adapter for external monitor. Again, I didn’t have this adapter so could not test. 1 mini DisplayPort 1.4. I did not have this adapter either so could not test 1 HDMI 2.0 connection supporting 4K I do not have 4K monitor but did connect to one of my TV’s and it looked great but maxed out at 60 fps 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection 5Gbps 1 Ethernet RJ45 Network Port. Documentation states using Realtek RTL8111H gigabit controller, but Speccy and Windows 10 device management states it is using Killer E2500 Gigabit controller. I copied 5.25GB movie using external NVMe PCI-e drive to laptop using USB-C port and it transferred in less than 7 seconds. Using same external drive using USB 3.1 port it took about 15 seconds. Same drive on my desktop using USB 3.0 connection took almost 25 seconds. So the laptop is definitely faster! Inside: Intel 10th gen I7-10750H at 2.6GHz (max 5GHz). 6 cores, 12 threads, 12MB cache. HM470 Chipset. I went into Bios and it stated was running at 3.3GHz. All cores are turned on as is Intel Turbo Boost and Intel Hyper-Threading 16GB DDR4 2933Mhz SODIMM memory (2 slots) expandable to 32GB (with rumor it will support 64GB). It is Intel Optane Memory compatible but I think Intel just announced they were dropping this. Windows 10 home 2 - M.2 PCIe 3.0x2 NVMe slots. Boot drive is 512GB Kioxia KBG40ZNS512G 2230 SSD. CrystalDisk score of 2107.26 Mb/s read and 1118.75 Mb/s write using 512MiB test, which is kind of middle of the road. The 512GB size created a problem when I tried to clone the drive for backup as 500GB drive doesn’t have enough space to do exact clone – wound up using 1TB drive I had lying around. Documentation indicates 2TB is max size for 2280 form – seems odd there is a limit. Also, in Bios settings RAID is turned on, but with only 1 drive I don’t know what, if any, version(s) of RAID it might support. 2nd slot is open but it seems there is a small bracket that is needed to attach the SSD that isn’t supplied. I opened it up to verify and it is not provided. I find this really annoying as it can’t be a 5-cent part. In researching this it appears to be difficult to find one and expensive if you do (part number: PXNWV) – I dropped 1 star just for this foolishness. This has been one of my issues with Dell for many years – way to proprietary (which they had gotten better) but they tend to shoot themselves in the foot by nickel and diming you with aftermarket needs. Screen is 17.3”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), (8.46 x 15.04 inches) with wide angle viewing. I could see it at almost 90 degrees. Display has a nice matte finish reducing glare nicely. Using Intel UHD graphics screen has 300.180 Hz. making for very smooth video. or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. States 8GB DDR6 memory with 288.05 Gbps, 2304 CUDA cores, 256-bit interface with clock boost of 1125 - 1590 MHz. Laptop screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 300MHz. Speccy states only 4GB memory so I am a tad confused about that. I connected to a 4K TV using HDMI connection (directly connected to card) and was able to set resolution at 4096 x 2160 60 MHz resolution (and it looked great with no stuttering watching a movie or playing a game). HDMI also allows for intel High-definition audio (HDA) output. Running thru soundbar audio seemed very separated by channel which is a good thing. For laptop sound there is Realtek ALC3281 with nahimic 3D Audio, Intel SST and NVIDIA high def and WDM as well. Built in stereo speakers with 2.5 W max output. They sound pretty good to me and are located on the bottom. Connected Shure Keyboard is a good size as you would expect given laptops 17-inch size, Id guestimate about 80% of my desktop keyboard. Has 4 zone RGB lighting and 12 zone Chassis lighting which can be setup using Alienware Command Center. I found the keys to have a nice tactile feel. Keypad is large with good feel but is offset to the left of center. Killer 1650i 160MHz wireless adapter. Compatible with 2.4/5 GHz and 802.11a/b/g, Wi-Fi 4(802.11n), 5(802.11ac) and 6(802.11ax). Stated max transfer rate of 2400Mbps. I 802.11ax router and the speeds I experienced were as fast as I pay for and matched what I get on my desktop using ethernet cable. Bluetooth 5.1 is also included with wireless adapter. Huge 97Wh, 6-cell lithium-ion battery. I looped a video with power set to balanced and it ran for just over 9 hours and didn’t have any issue with fan noise - Sweet! Took about 2 hrs. to fully re-charge 1-year warranty. Positives; Plug it in, start it up and it will walk you thru the setup process. I was up and running within 10 minutes. Extremely long 12 foot power cord. Alienware app allows you to customize machine to your liking, Settings including fan speed, performance, color, audio, etc. Has Dell SupportAssist – given your view on such things may be a plus or a minus. I ran it initially to verify everything was up-to-date and no issues. It takes a while if you run all of the options and sometimes “fights” with Intel or Windows updates. No real “bloat” software to get rid of. Boots really fast but I disable any software not really necessary during startup using Task Manager. It is very fast processing pretty much anything. Apps open quickly and having multiple windows open is no problem for this laptop. 1080P screen resolution/color is great for me with nice viewing angle. Being able to run multiple screens is nice and helps eliminate need for a docking station Fast as it gets wi-fi…. The USB ports are fast – especially if you have a USB-C device. 9-hour battery life is great. And comes with 2-piece almost 12-foot power cord with in-line power block. Easily “opened” to get to interior components. 8 screws on back and you are in. Interior is designed pretty well allowing easy access to battery, SSD’s and memory. Negatives; Does run hot. I have seen mention of redoing thermal paste and I will be doing this as soon as the paste arrives, I have ordered. Using Alienware Command Center to select Thermal setting of performance certainly helps but fan noise is a tad intrusive, but using headphones blocked that out. Can be somewhat confusing on where to go for settings as there is Alienware app, Intel Graphic Command Center, NVIDIA GeForce Experience & Control Center, Dell Power Manager, Realtek Audio Console as well as Windows 10 controls. Screen is attached to base with a large center support instead of the connection toward each edge. I am concerned about possible screen damage when opening/closing as screen is more prone to twist when using edges SSD is only 512GB which is small for gaming since each game can easily use over 20GB. 2nd SSD drive does not have needed bracket. I guess Dell had a price point to hit and they had to “fudge” somewhere but as I stated above this alone caused me to drop a star as its ridiculous. There are a lot of things to like about this rig. Overall, its nicely designed, easily upgraded and can be personalized easily and I do recommend. Just wish Dell sweated the small things as much as they do the large! Also be aware of newer laptops coming out all the time.

I am definitely impressed with this laptop. Definitely fast and has everything you need to game. Very nice 1080p 300hz screen. The video card is flawless I connected it to my 4k TV and it works with no issues. Just make sure you raise the hz to the maximum that the TV or monitor can handle in windows display settings. I played a few different games on it and I had no issues whatsoever. Very easy to maintain with the Alienware software. Keyboard is very nice love the colors on it. The mouse is very responsive but it's a fingerprint magnet. I love how many vents it has, and the fans work very well on it. If you don't like loud fan noise you will have to adjust it . I don't mind tbe noise myself since I use a gaming headset. I like that it has most of the ports on the rear of the laptop. One thing I wish it had was a bigger hard drive at least 1TB. It's definitely a gaming laptop that's worth the purchase

Over all an amazing computer the only reason I didn’t give five stars is because i use this computer for professional and personal use and I have to restart my computer every day because the caps lock light and the number lock light always get stuck either on or off. Also I know everything can be found online nowadays but this is my first ever laptop purchase and no where did it come with a user guide or manual either electronically or paper and I just find that really irritating for a $2000 laptop to not come with the user manual where I can review every single thing I would want to know about this computer, even on the dell website it’s only certain specifics not a whole manual.

Great laptop, runs hot but to be expected while gaming. Even comes with Alienware console. Chose this over Alienware and MSI because it was best bang for the buck with a 2070 RTX graphics card. Memory is expandable to 32 gb. Also chose this over the OLED display laptop to get better FPS with the 300 MHz screen.

I really love this laptop. Its so much faster than my old one. I can actually play dead by daylight, phasmophobia, and other steam games on it. I love the keyboard and lights under the laptop. I will say, when you are playing games that take alot of power to work make sure the fans are not covered and well ventilated. It may be a good idea to get a laptop fan. Other than that I have had no issues and it has been wonderful.