Buying the Minimum to get Maximum

In the short term I want a reasonable gaming rig but I want to be able to upgrade whatever I can overtime to make it into a monster.

My question is when configuring an M17x what do I need to have put in by AW as I won't later be able to put it in myself? I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to dismantling laptops so not sure I could do anything too technical, it might be helpful if you could let me know how difficult it is to upgrade everything as well?

At the moment the configuration I'm thinking of ordering has
Intel Core i7 740xm
4gb RAM
A single 5870 GPU
RAID 0 1TB HDD (Is this necessary or shall I go for the 320gb RAID 0 and throw in bigger HDDs later?)
Beyond HD Screen as I don't see myself swapping that out!

Any help much appreciated

 

you might wanna consider going with the xfire 5870s, Ive heard they are pretty hard to get a hold of after the fact

 

changing processor and cards is relatively easy. the screen is very difficult. Get 1 TB HDD as it is very cheap these days. the cards depends on if you plan on putting in 2 i would do it when you order. I would just upgrade your HDDs to SSDs and the RAM on a later date. I doubt you will need another processor before you buy a new system.

 

Thanks for your replies,

Ok so looking at the configuration below can anyone see a way I could save money by doing without something now that would be easy (and cheap) to put in in the future?

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M17x MLK Gaming Laptop - Space Black
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 740QM (1.73 Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 1 year of coverage included with your PC
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support
GRAPHICS CARD CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
MEMORY 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
HARD DRIVE 1TB (7200 RPM) Free Fall Sensor Raid 0 "Stripe" Dual HDD - (2x500GB)
LCD 17in Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) Slot Load Drive
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
PRIMARY BATTERY 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
OFFICE SOFTWARE English Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note)
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Antivirus Software

 

You should also think about the fact that laptops are not as easily upgradeable as desktops. You could change cpu, gpu, ram yes, but you are limited to the motherboard bios config that the laptop has. You will always be limited in this sense.
If you want to buy minimum now, when are you going to be able to "max" it out? With technology advancing quite frequently, you are always going to be behind the curve.
You could get the lowest end M17x and still do reasonable gaming...

 

Actually, I would consider getting the cheapest drive you can and cloning it over to a new SSD (be sure to get one of the models that properly support TRIM - the Gen2 Intel ones are OK and so are OCZ Vertex 2 and some others).

The single SSD will outperform that striped HDD although it will have a lot less room. This would also leave the second drive bay available for future expansion.

For me, having two 160G SSD drives is more than enough space for my games plus a few large virtual machine files for work.

 

If you plan on swapping the CPU out, go with the cheapest CPU they can offer you. It's relatively easy to find extreme mobile CPUs on eBay or other such sites.

You might also save some money if you stay with base spec hard drive(s) and install ones you want later. I wouldn't recommend a RAID configuration; it actually gives little speed benefit (at least with software based RAID like the M17x uses) and just increases risk of total data loss.

If you are adamant about using a RAID configuration you might just want to get a single HDD of the type you want to RAID, and put in a second one yourself. You'll have to ask for the second HDD bracket, however, and the savings are likely to be little so might not be worth the trouble for you.

 

If I get it with the base processor then (the i5 520M) will I be able to remove that and plug in the most recent CPUs? E.g. this one?

I was never really sure about what RAID 0 could offer in terms of increased performance, in all honesty on my current rig I'm only using just over 100gb after 3 years of collecting games and other files on it so I don't exactly have large space requirements, sounds like one or two SSDs would be useful. How easy is it to clone everything over from the original HDD to a new SSD and how easy is the SSD to install?

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 520M(2.40GHz,3MB cache)
GRAPHICS CARD CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
MEMORY 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
LCD 17in Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) Slot Load Drive

Above would be the new configuration based on current suggestion. That comes in at a grand total of £2345

To get that to what I'd like I'd only really need to get the new CPU and SSD as I can't imagine needing more than 4GB RAM for a while...

Any further suggestions?

 

You should in theory be able to just swap the CPUs out. Only thing you'd need is a tube of (good quality) thermal paste.

I'd confirm with the others first, I THINK the heatsink and fan from the different processors is the same. And the 940XM should work.

 

Do you need the Bluray? Other than that, you've got the essentials - the screen, the highest gpu option. Everything else will be easy to upgrade (cpu, ram).

 

Installing a drive in the m17x is very easy. There are instructions with pictures that comes with the machine if you have any trouble then refer to that. Just make sure you get the "drive caddy" contraption for the second bay when you order it (this might have changed, but you had to ask for the caddy unless they were shipping the preconfigured system with two drives installed, they did not charge for it though).

With that selected "cheap" drive, I would go for the 160G Intel drive since it is exactly the same size and sounds likely to be more than enough for your needs. If you every run low on space you can always just drop a second one in. Make sure you get one that says "G2" in the product id. The "G1" drives do not support TRIM properly and you would just be wasting your money on a G1.

Cloning to a second drive is extremely easy with the m17x. You can use any number of drive cloning software - like for example Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost. Just install the SSD drive into the machine (leave the original one there too), pop the DVD in and boot to the DVD. The software will ask you to identify the source and destination disks, which will probably be defaulted to the correct ones already.

Then just take the original drive out and store it away someplace safe, and put the SSD into the drive bay that held the original drive.

It would likely be best to do that first before ever booting the machine into Windows. That way you always have a pristine version of the drive that shipped with the machine that you could always fall back to later if necessary.

 

Where can I get Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost? A simple google quickly answered this..And I can't believe it is really so simple to upgrade the m17x. If it is so cheap and easy why do so many people spend the £3000-£4000 on it for the same thing?

If I forego the BluRay drive, which I don't really need....(though I am curious as to whether the standard drive is slot loading or not? Presumably it is?)

And get rid of the Bluetooth module which I also can't come up with a reason for getting apart from completeness (what is it generally used for here?)

I'm not sure whether the pricier wireless card is worth it? Open to suggestions on that as well?

If I were to get rid of all those options so my only non standard options are the GPU and the LCD that brings me to a very low low cost of £2204.

Even adding on the cost of the CPU and SSD it's still under £3000

 

I agree, lose the Bluray. You can buy the Bluray on Ebay if you decide you need it. Just get the cheapest CPU. The 940 does fit, but it's an overclocked 920. Don't waste the extra $200 on it. The 5% BIOS overclock basically makes it a 940. Get the cheaper wireless card. The 6300 is also cheaper on eBay. Get the cheapest hard drive option. Put the money toward an SSD for your OS partition. A 750GB HDD can be bought for less than $100. Basically go bare bones on ALL of it ACCEPT the LCD and the GPUs.

 

Sounds like a plan to go for the basic system apart from the LCD and dual GPUs then.

Should I upgrade to the SSD first then the processor later as I can probably only stretch to one for now and upgrade the other in in a month or two.

Also slightly offtopic but:

1. What is the general turn around time from order to delivery? Presumably variable on your spec..

2. How hard is it to qualify for the finance, I have 1 outstanding loan but never defaulted or late payments, also I'm only 20 so understand I'm in the high risk for credit. Anyone got any experience with it? I would be looking at the Buy Now Pay August 2011 rather than a monthly payment plan if that makes a difference..

 

Mine was 12 days from hitting the 'BUY' button to my doorstep. And thank the Lord I was off that day. It was glorious. You're gonna just have to apply for the credit. And if they do give it to you, it still may not be enough to cover the purchase. When I first got my Dell Preferred Account, they only gave me a $1,500 limit, and the M17x starts at $1,799.

 

It's a matter of knowledge and convenience. While someone who has worked with computer hardware knows how to replace parts, most people either don't know that this can be done on a laptop, or don't know how to do it. It's easier for them to order the machine with the spec they want, rather than to hunt around the the best price.

Businesses also get the systems preconfigured with the necessary spec. They don't usually care so much about the price, they just want the system to be ready to use as soon as it arrives.

The M17x can only take slot-loading drives, and I believe that pretty much all of them are a standard size. I could be wrong though.

The only downside to putting in a different drive later is that it's a bit difficult to get to, and you need to pretty much disassemble the entire system. You also need to double-check that it is the right size, and that it fits behind the case.

When I order mine I'm getting the drive already in place. It's not cheap (around $NZ320/$US235) but I already have a number of Blu-ray titles and need a player for the bedroom.

Unless it comes as part of the base system, or you have a burning need for it, ditch it. I doubt you'll ever use it.

Many people have said that the Intel card is more reliable than the Dell card, mostly due to the different chipsets used (Intel vs Atheros). The wireless card should be fairly easy to get at, so it really comes down to price. If the cost of buying the card later is less than getting it installed from the start, stick with the cheaper card for now. If it's cheaper to get the Intel card installed from the start, do whatever your budget allows.

 

I would go for the SSD first. SSD prices have not been coming down much at all in the past 6 months. CPU prices drop much more quickly.

So money spent today will pretty much get you the same SSD as it will in a few months for the same price, but for equal money you will be able to buy a better CPU than you could get today (or the same CPU for less).

 

Seems like I'm pretty much ready to order then! Thanks for everyones help with this, no doubt I'll be posting about some advice for which RAM I need soon or something!

Does anyone know of a video of someone going inside an M17x so I can look into the belly of the beast before it arrives?

Also I've read about some problems with the Intel X-25 G2 SSD not reading/writing at very good speeds in the m17x, is this resolved or is there a better SSD available?

 

The_Moo posted a GPU change video for the M17x here:
How to change your M17x GPU ( video edition)

 

i have a 820QM processor for sale for 300$ if you need one directly

 

Do you recall where you read that? I haven't had any trouble but I might just be lucky.

 

I think it was on this forum, after everything has been recommended I searched through quickly for info and came across some resistance to that SSD...

 

I have finally put in the order for my M17x! Can someone recommend me a UK retailer that has the Intel X-25 G2 160GB SSD that has been talked about in this thread? I found this at ebuyer but I'm not sure if it is the correct one for my system or if the price is reasonable or not?