I caved and bought a Refurb R2; tell me what you think

Well my m15x of february of 2008 finally crapped out (8800gtx). I did a 20% certified refurbish and got the following R2 with the following specs:
-- Alienware M17x R2 Laptop Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Unit Price: $2,359.00 (1850ish after my discount)
Quantity: 1
-- Alienware M17x R2 Laptop

-- Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)

-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium

-- Certified Refurbished

-- Accessory Kit

-- Service Software

-- Information

-- 5.1 Channel Audio

-- 17 inch UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display

-- Operating System DVD

-- Information

-- Command Center

-- Operating System DVD

-- 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

-- Shipping Material

-- 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

-- Hard Drive Bracket

-- Information

-- Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card

-- 240W AC Adapter

-- 125V Power Cord

-- AUTO-UPDATES,ON

-- Crossfire 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870

-- Cyberlink Power DVD 8.0

-- Software

-- Information

-- 9 Cell Primary Battery

-- Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

-- Notebook Keyboard

-- Software

-- Label

-- Image Restore Software

-- Lunar Silver

-- 64BIT Operating System

-- 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

-- Cyberlink

I figured that the 920 and CF 5870's should be good for awhile more at least. I am hoping to get 2 good years of gaming out of this notebook before I retire some of my vices. Just got a nice house and kids could be on the way in a few years so I will probably just get a next gen console and call it a day. After taxes this thing came out to 1850 dollars. Not a bad deal right?

Now I know the newer 6970s and 485's are beasts but I just don't feel like waiting and paying much more for the performance as 2k was my max...AND i did need a computer now.

So m17x Vets, will this computer run games well for the next couple of years? Any input would be appreciated.

 

Hi, that is a nice spec, as for games over the next few years, i would see no problem as with the 920XM CPU you have overclocking available, but do not think you will need it.
Anyway if game designers write decent code then a lower power Alienware would still be good for a few years.

 

do I need more than 4 gig ram currently? I was glad this only came with 4gig as I would rather spend the money myself and upgrade. What games do you play and how do you find the performance? I play a lot of L4D2 which actually made my 8800GTX 2.5ghz penryn core 2 duo stutter during heavy action in MP. I am hoping for silky smooth gameplay for L4D2, COD MW2/black ops/ hopefully crysis (never got to play it on high)

plus my other logic for pulling the trigger now is that I think that regardless of how powerful the CPU/GPU's are today and next year, it is "almost" irrelevant as games are mostly ported from consoles. When the new consoles hit in about 2-3 years, than any laptop coming out this year will be basically useless for gaming as the start of new console gens usually signify most significant software leaps that will inherently predicate around necessity for newer hardware

 

I would up the ram to 8, other than that, that is a sick deal!

 

With the specification you have 4GB is more than required. The only reason i could see you needing more is if you are running memory intensive applications apart from gaming in the background.

 

I'd buy the one with Crossfire 5870s and RGB screen for $1900 with discount, but I'm waiting on my R3... nice refurbs available though.

 

Very nice set up, should last you a very long time. As far as up grades, just do them your self over time when you have the cash and sales. An SSD or mor ram is about all you'll ever need to do, great deal.

 

Looking good

 

Congrats daveh, that is a mighty fine machine you've got there. That set up will definitely keep you gaming in the years to come but you can always upgrade the GPUs down the track like many have done here. Enjoy!

 

You folks do realize it has been a year this thread hasn't received any attention, right?
Why the revival

 

why R3 even exist ?
Welcome to the ALL POWERFULL team Sir

 

Hilarious. DR650 where did you find this? I thought the price looked a little high for today's $$$