Just ordered! How are my specs?

After many months of thinking about it, I finally ordered my brand new M17x-R2 system today! It should be here by Christmas (I hope). This forum was an invaluable resource in helping me to make my decision. It was because of the people here that I realized Alienware was worth paying a premium for, and the countless posts and threads helped me to settle on the M17x, and made me realize things I never would have otherwise known like the value of the RGB LED screen upgrade. The pictures people posted on here were also crucial in my final decision to go with Nebula Red, which I really wrestled with over the last few days.

So thank you to everyone here. I'm part of the Alienware club now!

Alienware M17x Nebula Red - Anodized Aluminum
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache
Memory 8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
Power Adapters 150 Watt Adapter
Display Panels 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
Video Card 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870
Hard Drive 1TB Raid 0 (2x 500GB 7,200RPM HDDs)
Nameplate Standard Nameplate (Alienware M17x)
AlienFX Terra Green
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
CD ROM/DVD ROM Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: Critical Updates Only
Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter, 36-Months
Service 1 Year Advanced Service Plan
Misc 5 Please contact me regarding Dell's exclusive internet offers
Factory Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
OS Customization AlienGUIse Theme Manager with Breed Theme
Alienhead Chrome Blue
Bluetooth Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR

 

Looks good except why no crossfire? You may not think you need it but many people end up wanting more graphics horsepower and have to do a costly upgrade later. If it wasn't for the dual cards I would have went for something much cheaper.

Oh well, hope you enjoy your new system and welcome to the club!

 

The no Crossfire was more of an I-can't-have-everything-I-want kind of thing. I was already stretching my budget to buy this extremely expensive piece of machinery, and the main attraction of this system over the M15x was the bigger screen and the RGB LED. I am more of a moderate gamer, rather than a heavy one, and my main game is FSX which is more CPU-oriented. I would have loved to get Crossfire but in the end, it would have been too expensive, and given my needs it was an easy thing to leave out.

 

you can always get it later FSX doesn't support SLI/Crossfire anyhow

 

I would go for outlet for better specs and add more warranty.

 

OK, that makes sense I guess. In my case I would gladly give up the RGB as I'm never actually using the darn screen, was a waste in my case lol. Also for 99% of us the 8gb of memory will not do anything more than 4gb (maybe you are in the 1% though) and cheaper to do yourself anyway. The hard drives would have been much cheaper to get on your own too.

 

I don't like the whole single GPU getup, but then again, It's not my lappy. I hope you're happy with your decision and welcome to the WORLD OF ALIENWARE!

 

Normally it would be cheaper to add RAM and Hard Drive on my own but on Dell's Canadian site they have a huge sale on right now for the top-end model. It was literally only $200 more to get 8GB of RAM instead of 6GB, 1TB of storage instead of 640GB, a Blu Ray player instead of a DVD player, and 36 months of McAfee. It was a no brainer.

 

. . . with no crossfire you would have been better off getting the Asus G73jh. Much cheaper, still 17", same specs basically, etc

But still, you have the opportunity at least to upgrade in the future. Hope you have fun with it!

 

Why get it now when the R3 is so close >.<

 

That's true, and actually the Asus was the computer I wanted until I discovered this forum and started reading about Alienware. The specs would be the same but here's why I paid the premium:

1. Build quality - Alienware is made of aluminum and Asus is made of plastic.

2. RGB screen - can't beat it.

3. AlienFX.

4. Asus support sucks and their computers seem to have a lot of problems.

5. Cooling - Alienwares with dual graphics cards still run far cooler than the G73 with one.

The Asus G73 is still an expensive computer and my feeling is if I'm going to pay that much I'm willing to pay a little bit more for the very best. Others may disagree, but that's how I feel.

 

Also the Asus G73 is a 16:9 aspect ratio screen and the M17x is a 16:10 aspect ratio. It's a personal thing, but I completely despise 16:9 screens. They are a way for laptop manufacturers to cut costs as they have less screen area. They feel short to my eyes. It's just me but I am really picky about things like the screen I am getting.

 

It's on sale now for precisely that reason

 

Actually the M17X isn't really made of aluminum, It's more like a layer of aluminum

 

Yeah that free upgrade plus 15% off has got me all wanting one lol.

 

Yeap fully agree with you on this, the 16:10 vs 16:9 was my main reason to even consider the Alienware over any thing else (was thinking about the Asus G73), and then the more I looked at the two and read a bit on this forum the decision to go for the Alienware was easy, even though its 33% more expensive than the Asus .

 

if you think you may want xfire later on, see how much extra 240w PSU will cost you. If its a modest amount may be worth buying that one now, rather than having to buy another PSU later coz youve got the 150W one...
Just a thought and hope she serves you well

 

As someone who's owned both I hate to see so many people cutting down the G73.

1. Personal preference I know, but the build quality of the Asus was great, on part with my R2

2. Again, personal preference, the screen does look better, but not enough to make it worth paying more for

3. I like the lights too, but the Asus was more of stealth look and it pulled it off well

4. From my experience Asus has a much better warranty (2 year warranty and accidental coverage, you have to pay extra for it with the m17x), never had to use it though with any of my Asus though. My dells have been repaired many times.

5. That is just silly. The G73 had the best cooling of any laptop I've ever owned. The fans were quiet so you could hardly tell they were running. It never got hot. My R2 is great but there are times I think if it didn't have a bunch of cords tied to it, it would take off. And even with all that noise it still doesn't run any cooler than the G73 does out of the box. Plus as you can see with all the threads on re-pasting the m17x has problems with its cooling, certainly in stock form.

I guess all I'm getting at is the drive to get an m17x many times is for the dual graphics, but in your case I would have suggested the G73 as a much better choice and bang for the buck.

 

I don't mean to slag off on the Asus. I'm sure it's a great computer. I was just trying to explain why I felt the price premium was justified.

A lot of it comes down to price. If the M17x still cost what it did last summer, I wouldn't have bought it. But because of the impending refresh, the discount on the R2 model is pretty substantial, especially in Canada. The Canadian website organizes it into three categories ("good, better, best"), and the "best" one was $700 off. That's almost a 25% discount. It narrows the price premium down to a point that I felt it was very much worth it.

The other thing about the Alienware is as others have noted, it has the capability of crossfire even if I didn't get that option now. I stretched my budget (or rather my parent's budget) for this, but I can always add another graphics card down the road. I wouldn't have that option with the Asus.

As for the cooling, I am going on the reported numbers on notebookcheck.net. I am also going on the fact that I have seen several threads in the Asus forum from people who have had to send their laptops in for repair due to overheating. There are people in that forum who report that their temperatures are regularly 90 degrees plus and sometimes over 100. The quality control of Asus seems to vary so maybe you lucked out and got a really good pasting job.

The other thing about Alienware is that it is a product that has a certain mystique about it. There is just something about owning an Alienware - you know it's the best of the best, you know it's going to turn heads, you feel great for having it. It's like a Mercedes versus a Toyota. There's nothing wrong with the Toyota, it gets the job done. But there's just something about a Mercedes.

I think that's an issue that gets lost by a lot of people when they say "oh, but you could have gotten an Asus with the same specs for less money". Yes, I say. But then it wouldn't be an Alienware, would it? It's my laptop and I wanted an Alienware, so I got one

 

Understood. Sorry, I wasn't trying to offend anyone but I was in a hurry so I worded my post kinda bad. The m17x is a great computer and once you get it stable and how you like it, it will be even better.

Oh, and I actually had two G73's for about 5 months so I must of gotten lucky twice

 

You didn't word it bad. No worries, man. This is a forum. We discuss things intensely

 

And why ATi for FSX? NVIDIA works better with that game

 

And why ATi for FSX? NVIDIA works better with that game

 

In Canada, the M17x is only available with the 5870, as opposed to the States where they have an Nvidia option. FSX isn't necessarily the only game I want to play, although I also like racing games which seem to be the one category where Nvidia smashes ATI. Anyway, I wasn't going to go with a computer I didn't want just for that, and I'm not sure if the whole "FSX is better with Nvidia" thing is even true anymore. I hear people say that on forums all the time, but I have never actually seen an objective piece of data that proves it. As a rule, I tend to be suspicious of statements that have no data to support them. It's possible that it was true 10 years ago, and people repeat it enough so everyone believes it. Who knows? But there are plenty of people on flight sim forums with ATI who are very happy with it.