dkrew

Over at Reddit a member argues that the Scar 18 is not really limited to only 2X2TB, saying: "Yes it can support 4TB [cards] just fine, my current laptop [not a Scar 18] rocks a 4TB one even though they only mentioned max of 2TB. 4TB is not considered mainstream at this point, and to get to 8TB you’ll have to switch your original drive too. Anything that’s M.2 2280 will fit and work. Hell you could put a 8TB NVME SSD by Sabrent rocket too ($1200 online)." I heard that some laptops cannot support having SSD storage on both sides of the card, which sounds like there could be limitations with some laptops.

Good point about storage drives. One way to look at this considering Asus Scar 18 vs. Alienware M18 is that the Asus has the faster better screen (twice as bright 600 vs 300) and Asus has 2.5GB Ethernet (vs "gig") but Alienware has two choices in keyboards (why not get both and see which you prefer and ebay the other one) and the Alienware has up to 9TB in drive storage (4 drives) vs. only 4TB (two drives) for the Asus. The Alienware also has 2 USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports vs. only one on the Asus.

Pre order Asus Scar 18 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 - 18.0" - Intel Core i9 13th Gen 13980HX https://www.newegg.com/black-asus-rog-strix-scar-18-g834jy-xs97-gaming/p/N82E16834236365

Here is one way to try to keep some tabs on this topic: https://listium.com/@GizmoSlipTech/80658/all-2023-gaming-laptops-ranked-list-gizmosliptech

I have a 17" Dell laptop now, and all the laptops in B&H Photo in Manhattan yesterday looked horrifyingly tiny to me, even the 17.3" models. The description above saying that Lenovo should have an 18" model seems to be premature as I see no evidence of there being an 18" Lenovo. As for the others, for me, I might be oriented toward whichever of the Acer, Asus, Alienware, Razer has the best keyboard. I don't know which of these vendors, if any, is better than average at this.

As you may know, we are about to see a slew of 18 inch laptops ( notebooks ) coming to market. Brands so far reportedly include Acer, Asus, Alienware, Lenovo, Razer. It is very expensive in terms of time for me to switch laptops so I'll be tempted to get a maxed out system even though I don't game, but do plan some video editing. Couldn't care less about portability or the weight. So far, the Razer is said to be February, the Acer March, and I don't know about the others. I'm building an Excel and am collecting the data. The main thing that jumps out at the moment is that the Razer Blade 18 does not have an option for a mechanical keyboard. Not sure if that is bad. I don't have enough data yet to offer any conclusions from looking at the Excel data points I have so far.