Looking to buy and save on an R2. Buy now or later?

I've been looking to buy my first alienware, an M17x R2 and i saw the "Bleeding Edge Graphics For Less" deal. I selected that and then added the "17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)" because i heard that it was well worth it.

So currently the specs are:

SYSTEM COLOR Space Black - Anodized Aluminum
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor
MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
VIDEO CARD 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 285M
HARD DRIVE 640GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
LCD PANEL 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology


For $2,499.99 ($385.00 savings)

Now my question comes from the rumors that the M17x R3 will be announced at the CES in a couple weeks.

Do you think it would be wise to wait for this announcement and see if the price drops to save more money on this purchase? I don't know much about alienware so i don't know if the price even will drop, but i'm hoping you guys would know.

 

I would wait....if only to see what you can get for that kinda money on a new R3 if released then....on a side note, i very much doubt thta the R2 will be significantly reduced just becasue of the R3 - I mean Dell will still want to (and be able to) shift these R2's.....i wouldnt bet on H U G E savings but who knows...might come down a bit more.....might not!

 

Waiting is almost always the wise thing to do. You never know when you might learn something that changes your outlook for the future and your desire for the purchase. Besides, the technology almost always marches forward, so you will probably be glad in the end. And if possible, even after R3 is out, keep waiting as long as you can before buying. Most of us only buy these crazy machines when we have to; I had to move forward because my other machines were slowly dying and were not upgradeable anymore.

 

i would wait. in the tech environment, you never buy the current spec when the new version is weeks away from release. that's if you trust the rumours - which is a whole 'nother topic...

if you're making money with your PC and you need to upgrade for that (i.e., the faster PC will make you more money), do the calcs to see if it's worth it. if it's just a toy or hobby thing, then wait.

how much the R2 will go down when the R3 comes out is debatable - but it will go down.

The RGBLED is well worth it. I would get the extra RAM from newegg and sell the RAM you get (that's what I did). And I'd put an SSD in it - I wouldn't buy it from Dell though.

And, I'd buy it from the outlet - cheaper. And since the outlet gives a 4 year warranty on it, I can't think of a reason not to buy it from there (the only diff last time I bought a system was outlet had 1 year less warranty length)....

 

That is a big wrong answer right there. You never, ever buy the first of anything in the tech world. You always wait for the first service pack. If your corporate environment is on this hardware, you better not buy the latest and greatest and have it go down with no answers

 

If you want the system now though, then get it. I just got the build you are looking at, but with the SLI 285m and a bluray. The LED screen is incredible. What I am most impressed about with the Alienware, is the build quality. Will the R3 be able to run games a bit faster? Probably, by maybe as much as 20%, but is that worth another $1000 to you? Because that is how much it will probably cost(low 3k range probably).

I would say buy it now, I got them to honor a 15% off back to school coupon code that I was going to use this past summer. So you can do much better on price than the quote you got.

Performance wise, these games aren't really being optimized to take advantage of all that power, so the R2 will easily be able to handle all the major release of the next 3 years.

The consoles aren't going to flip to next gem until 2015 probably, so at that point, I think you will see a major change from developers, but until then , you should be good to go with the R2.

 

I'll wait until the R3 is released and the price of the R2 goes down.

Do i want an R3? No. But if the price of the R2 will go down then it will be worth the wait. I am only 18 and i see this laptop as a toy not a necessity. Plus, it's already going to be hard to get my parents to allow me to spend $2,500+$175 tax on a laptop the way it is, so i'm sure waiting can only help.

 

At this point in time just wait. CES is literally around the corner.

 

Its not a bad idea to wait for a week or so.

 

software, yes, almost always wait. for hardware, not so much. cars? definitely never buy in the first year of a new generation of a car.

hardware 1.0 - really a 1.0 of something; revolutionary, brand new technology, never been done before, integrated in a certain novel way, etc... yeah, wait for the .1 version.

Otherwise, if it's evolutionary, a building block, tweaked a bit from the previous iteration, the same design but upgraded components, etc.., it's almost always fine. Hardware doesn't get recalled but rarely - the obscure bug that hits a few people gets sorted out with updated drivers and firmware.

A major distinction is if this is personal or business (which is why I made that point). Pros/business people need to run the #s to see if the new tech is worth it - you can wait (sometimes forever) to get something that is virtually guaranteed to be faster and cheaper next year, but you lose out on being able to use it for the time being. If the new gear will make you more productive (i.e. make you more money), then you tend to get the new tech.

Hobbyists will put up with crap that will drive businesses crazy. If I had to put clients through as much trouble with new servers that I've seen people put up with their M17x-R1, I'd be light a few clients. Remember: leading edge, not bleeding edge.