The Alienware 17 R5 looks great and offers strong gaming performance, but it has weaker CPU performance than its competitors.

Just when you thought the Alienware 17 had pulled out all of the stops, the latest version, the R5 ($1,549 to start, $3,974 as tested), pushes everything a step further. Sure, its new black color scheme is handsome, but inside, a combination of an Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU make for powerful gaming performance. Pair that with great speakers, a beautiful G-Sync display, and a revamped Alienware Command Center with overclocking options and you have a winner. Well, except for problem: we didn’t get the pure CPU power we were expecting.