Pros: Intel i9-9900K processor is a very powerful CPU and can handle anything I throw at it. Pair that up with a RTX 2080 graphics processor and you have a laptop that can substitute for any desktop gaming rig with pleasing results. After initial boot-up sequence the fans will spin up very loudly, but after logging in the fans slow down and it is surprisingly quiet. In a typical gamer laptop design the back end of the laptop is designed to help dissipate heat thru back vents. The engineers at Alienware decided to use that along with their sci-fi theme (Area-51 for a model name) and the made the vents look like the exhausts for a spacecraft. So you have an "aerodynamic" look to the laptop when its opened or closed. Just do NOT go tossing it in the air expecting it to fly. Fast boot-up sequence means this machine is ready to tear it up in less than a minute. The keyboard has a soft texture to it that is easy on your hands for long gaming sessions. Speakers are decent for a laptop but you will probably use headphones or more sophisticated sound system to get a richer sound experience out of it.

Cons: This laptop is heavy which makes it difficult to find a laptop bag to carry it and the AC adapters. Two very large and heavy AC adapters are necessary in order to run this beast at its full potential. The adapters are NOT identical but it does not matter which port is plugged in where, so you can switch them around. There was an issue where I could not adjust the brightness level of the screen, but after downloading the GeForce Experience package from NVidia site the most up to date graphics driver gets installed and fixes this problem. Wish there were more than three USB ports to plug peripherals in. My personal preference is to use a USB mouse instead of the touchpad (which is decent and responsive). However you cut down your available USB ports down to two. If you plug an external drive or other USB peripherals you are going to have to make some choices based upon on how many devices and what priority. If one of the USB ports goes bad then things get real messed up till it gets fixed.

Overall Review: I would recommend this laptop to anyone that can afford it. I did lots of research before making this purchase trying to gauge the higher end CPU and graphics cards with quality and price. I was surprised to find out the 10th gen Intel chips were not that much more powerful than their predecessors. So I decided to stick with a 9th gen instead. I also found that NVidia 2080 Max-Q and NVidia 2080 Super were stepped down versions of the base model NVidia 2080 to operate at a lower energy cost and generate less heat. So I went with a the base model NVidia 2080 instead. Newer does not always mean better. This Alienware laptop packs all of that in one package, making it an excellent substitute for any PC gaming rig. Runs anything I throw at it and it then some. However the cost of this is portability, because this laptop is heavy and bulky. Add two brick AC adapters into the mix and you are anchored down. Still with a machine this powerful you really do not want to go anywhere else. I highly recommend downloading the GeForce Experience package from NVidia website so you get the latest graphics drivers. This helped fix a screen brightness problem that plagued me for a week. I also feel that only three USB ports is limiting as you need to plug in a USB mouse to substitute the touchpad is an absolute must.

Pros: AMD Ryzen 3950X processor= 16 cores 3.5 GHz. Multi-processing powerhouse. NVidia GeForce RX 2080 TI=top-of-the-line graphics chipset to tear thru latest games. Combine those two together and you have a machine that can handle just about anything in the foreseeable future. The case is a bit odd because it almost as wide as it is tall. With the case upright you have the PSU and expandable hard drive bay slots on the left, the motherboard as a vertical divider, and the graphic card and PCI slot devices on the right. Seems like kind of a strange layout from your standard ATX Mid-tower, but it works because the airflow in the case has more space than a full-tower. The graphic card has some PCI extension from the motherboard where it sits parallel to the motherboard instead of plugging perpendicularly directly into the slot. Another unusual configuration but it works. The case also has this handle at the top that makes it easy to move around, but one you find out right place to put it you are not going to want to move it ever again. The machine boots quickly and has no problem handling whatever I throw at it. I am running DOOM Eternal with max graphics and have not had any issues or slowdown. Have not overclocked nor reconfigured the core loadout from its standard stock setup.

Cons: Components are packed tight in this case and trying to access them to remove/replace are difficult. I wanted to get specific model numbers for the motherboard, graphic card and SSD but the layout of components makes it impossible to get to them without taking apart everything in that case. There is also a shield/guard to separate the video card from the other components its position cut across the lower quarter of the memory DDR slots. The problem is that if you want to expand or replace the memory you have to make sure you get memory sticks whose height will not conflict with the shield/guard. Memory sticks have these heat sink/radiator designs to help dissipate the heat but make them unique, which unfortunately may also make them too tall with that shield/guard in place. Upon first booting up the fans will be very loud as they spin very fast, but by the time BIOS has loaded and a windows login prompt show up the fans have slowed and things are quiet again. Upon first receiving my PC I could hear something rattling around in the case. After removing the side panel and putting the case on its side, a screw and wire harness zip tie came tumbling out. I have not found where the screw goes but so far no impact on performance, so I will not sweat it. I am concerned that either of these could have jammed a case fan or graphics card fan, or the screw could have shorted out a critical component but I caught before my first boot up, so crisis averted. Update as of Aug 2020 There is a service called ASUS Armoury Crate that supposed to "customize RGB lighting and effects for every compatible device in your arsenal and synchronize them with Aura Sync for unified system lighting effects". However after I ran an ASUS update this Armoury Crate program keeps trying to install itself upon every boot-up/restart. It is annoying to see a pop-up window show up saying its installing and never finishes. I just close the pop-up, but it will show upon the next launch. Tried to remove from startup taskbar but could not find it,

Overall Review: I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for an AMD pre-build who is hesitant about changing the stock layout. As described before the wide mid-tower case has an unusual layout where the internals are not that accessible except to those who are really committed to modifying it. It is a powerful CPU and graphics card in one package and it can handle anything you throw at it. Get the latest updates (Windows, drivers, BIOS, etc), and I especially recommend downloading the GeForce Experience from the NVidia site to make sure the latest and greatest graphics drivers are loaded. As with all pre-builds you have bloatware already pre-installed but you can remove them without too much hassle. It does come with USB gaming keyboard and mouse where the keyboard needs two USB slots to plug in, but that is only because the mouse plugs into the keyboard. Both keyboard and mouse have a heavy durable feel to them, and the keyboard has a scroll wheel in the upper left corner that will allow you to adjust volume control. Give me a couple more months and I will give another performance review on how things have held up since then. Update as of Aug 2020 I replaced the 2x16 GB memory with 4x32 GB (G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 128GB (4 x 32GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600)) = 128 GB memory total. I see a significant improvement in performance. I just wish I could have gotten the speed specs on the stock memory before I replaced them.