Buying an M17x. Have a Few Questions

So I'm looking to buy an M17x because I'm sick of my Mac that can't play any games. lol I just have a few question on how I should spec it.

1)Is it easily upgradable? Processor, can you go from i5 to i7? GPU? RAM?

2)Which processor is best just for straight up gaming and is it worth it for the 920XM?

3)If I don't pick crossfire 5870's can I change to crossfire later and is it worth the 375 dollars more over a single 5870?

4)How much RAM do you recommend and should I go with 1333Mhz over 1066Mhz?

5)Is Raid 1 worth it? I was thinking of choosing 500GB Raid 1 instead of just the single 500gb HD.

6)Is it worth the 200 for the screen resolution upgrade?

7)Is there any point in upgrade the wireless card for 60?

I'm just trying to figure out how much it's going to cost me and what I should do so I don't have to worry about upgrades later. Thanks for the answers.

 

I'm sure if you read through the m17x threads you can find an answer for all your questions.....

 

Yeah I have been. I just thought maybe I'd get some quick answers by posting a thread while I read.

 

totally agree..

1. yes, easily upgradable.
2. 820qm
3. yes
4. with i7 go for 1333, 4GB.
5. Not worth it, get the single 500 gb hdd + aftermarket Intel X25-M 160GB SSD
6. totally, not worth to buy the m17x without, you can get the asus G73 for much cheaper.
7. yes but can upgrade later for cheaper from babyhemi

 

Thanks for the answers. I'm going to go with these specs. I skipped blu-ray since I don't see the point when there's HD online all over.

SYSTEM COLOR- Space Black - Anodized Aluminum
PROCESSOR-Intel® Core™ i7 820QM 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM-Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
VIDEO CARD-CrossfireX™ 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870
LCD PANEL -17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
MEMORY-4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
HARD DRIVE-500GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE-Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
WIRELESS CARDS-Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology

Total is 2999.99.

 

awesome system you got yourself there

 

One last question. I don't need a ton of space so would it be worth it to get the 256gb SSD? What kind of performance improvements do they give?

 

they are not worth the money. you should look into buying a small HDD for storage (from dell) + Intel SSD which is far far better than the one dell sells (samsung).
So what will happen is that you get your lappy with the HDD from dell, you go ahead and put it as slave, and as master you put that new intel ssd that you bought.
That's it, you're set.
Moneywise it's more or less the same is buying that SSD from Dell but performance is much better.

 

Ah. I would have never though of that. I'm really glad I asked.

 

sure, but use the search, it's all there
you should do a fair amount of reading here on the forum to get a better picture of your options

 

I tend to use and SSD for fast program loading and as a boot drive with the OS on it, and then use a large HDD from newegg.com for storage. I store all my pics, movies, music, videos, documents, ect on my larger drive. Just like the Inspiron 1720 in my sig. I'll probably do the same with the M17x. Intel 160GB SSD for boot/programs, 640GB or 750GB HDD for my storage since the system holds two drives. I just got the two dell 256GB SSDs from forum members at resonable prices. I like the dell 256GB because it offers some speed and space. $ per GB isn't as bad as other SSDs, but you have to compromise. They are not as fast as the other drives out there like OCZ or Intel.

 

I will second this, I am quite happy with the Dell SSD (samsung) speeds, it is not that much sower and much better priced IMO. The only issue with the Dell SSD drvies have been firmware versions which do not support TRIM, it is hit and miss with what you will get, but you can always request an exchange

 

I believe Dell started adding trim support to SSD on May 19'th and later production.

 

1) The I5 and I7 use different sockets. The P55 has only 2 slots for ram and if you buy 2+2 you will have to buy 4+4 later if you want to upgrade to 8 later. Extra GPU can be added later but you will require a NEW 240w power supply as well as the single card power supply will not suffice. 1/2 the cost to add CF with original build.


2) The sweet spot price is the I7 820QM. If you have an unlimited budget than of course go with I7 920XM. The advantage of the I7 920XM is that they have unlocked the overclock. The GPU is always the botttle neck in games so you are better to buy extra GPU rather than go with I7 920XM for gaming. If you have unlimited pockets than go with both.

3) You will get double the frame rates with the extra card. Laptap GPU are lighter than desktop GPU and you will need all the GPU power you can get to play modern titles. As mentioned before it is a waste of money to upgrade GPU later as it will cost much more.

4)Yes definately go with the 1333Hz. I would go with 8 gig as 4 is the bare minimum for Windows 7 64. More is helpful for video editing and having multiple windows open.

5)If you are using your machine for games than I can't see why you would want Raid1. Is someone steals your laptop Raid1 won't help you. This is usually used for critical applications like databases, or commerce, or business record keeping. For a gaming machine I just don't see the point.

6)Definately go with the higher resolution screen. The other advantage is the RGB which gives truer colors. The colors pop off the new RGB LCD.

7)Yes the wireless card is much faster and helpful if you use wifi.

8) Go with SDD drive as your bootable driver and use an HDD for your photo,video, and music.

A realistic discount is 10%

 

Wrong, i5 and i7 is exactly the same socket and exactly the same motherboard.

Also wrong, 4 is by far not a bare minimum. There are users here that play all the recent games at high settings using 2 gigs of ram and others that run with 4 without a pagefile. 4 is sufficient to every task you throw at it (open as many windows as you want) except when working with virtual machines (that consume can consume lots of ram since it's basically another operating system running) or very heavy photoshop work.

 

I may add... We are a day away from E3. I would certainly wait until then just in case by some miracle there is a refresh...

 

The i5 mobile family has poorer performance than mobile i7 family due to lower core frequencies, smaller size of level 3 cache, and smaller number of cores, although the i5 processors do include every single technology that is also present in Core i7 mobile CPUs. Mobile Core i5s are packaged either in 988-pin micro-PGA package, or 1288-ball micro-BGA package. The i7s however are packaged in only the PGA 988. Some i5 owners will be able to upgrade and some won't depending on which i5 socket you have..

Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz) FC-BGA10, Tray BGA1288
Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz) FC-PGA10, Tray PGA988
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor (6M Cache, 1.60 GHz) FC-PGA8, Tray PGA988



On page 7 of Maximum PC Build the Perfect PC issue June/July 2010 they build a bare bones PC for $647! It has 4 gig. The main purpose of Windows 7 64 was to increase ram capacity. Not sure why you would buy a high end gaming laptop and than throw 2 gig at it, in fact you can't as 2 gig is not an option. But each his own I guess. The important point was that there are only two banks for memory so if you buy only 4 gig now you wll have to buy two new banks later.

Windows bare minimum requirement is 2 GB RAM (64-bit) + 1 GB if you plan on using Windows in XP mode.

 

the i5 processors Dell puts into m17x alienwares are strictly PGA988 socket.
They do not have two versions of the motherboard, just the one that supports both i5 and i7.
so in m17x it's not a question of which i5 socket you have, because there's only one.

 

As you can see, two plus one does not equal four. Nor does sans XP mode which is just... Two. Yay for math!