M17XR4 for Active Duty

Hey everyone! Long time lurker and finally need everyones input before I pull the trigger this weekend on a second laptop.

I am looking to get a gaming laptop to supplement my 13 inch Macbook Pro for deployments. They will be single player games (Mass Effect, the older KOTOR's) and newer FPS's online when I am not out at sea. I have narrowed down my choice to either a new M17 base model with the upgraded resolution screen for around 1,650 with my military discount, or a new Asus G75-TS72. The G75 has 16gigs of RAM, a better video card, and a blue-ray player. The Quality feels good on it in the store, but I still prefer the feel of the M17. There are a few horor stories with the quality control on the G75 also.

Now the kicker is this: My coworker just bought 2 new M17XR4 with a 7970M card, 3720QM, and the upgraded screen. The first was for himself, but the second was for a family member that lost his job and no longer could pay him for the laptop and did not want to open it. I just looked at the box and it indeed has all the seals and has never been opened or registered. This setup was outside my price range before, but he offered it for $1,700 today. I figure I can talk him down another $50-100. This would save me around $300 then buying it new and I will still have a new laptop.

Is it a no-brainer to go pick up the M17 today for that price and forget about the $150 cheaper Asus? Any and all criticism is appreciated!

 

go pick it up and start playing with your new R4 already! ;D

you don't need 16gb ram...

i have 8gb ram on all my older systems.. never once came close to using all the memory

6gb on my new R4 has been fine as well. unless you plan on running several memory hoggers at once

 

R4 is a tremendous Laptop. And the 7970 is a great card. It will eat up the mentioned games. If you like the feel of the M17x, i say go for it. Its a stunning piece of technology.

Things like RAM are ridiculously cheap these days, as are Blu ray drives.
BTW, not that this is a reflection on ASUS but my co worker had a g74 that was faulty, tried to get a refund and is now in the middle of a small claims court hearing.

 

You get the awesome Dell support and a better laptop for less. Not a hard decision.

 

3720QM, 1080 screen and the 7970 for $1700 is too good to pass up. You also won't have to wait a month to play.

 

I would have to side with everyone else here and say you should go for it! sounds like a great deal.

 

Thanks for the input everyone! If everything goes to plan tomorrow, I will be the proud new owner of my first Alienware laptop! Picking up a new Logitech G500 (I loved my old MX500 mouse) tonight. Is it wise to buy a cooling pad for a wooden desk for this computer?

 

Congrats and welcome to the alienware club!! I personally just use cheap water bottle caps to elevate the back of the laptop while I'm gaming and it helps keep the temps down. No need to spend a bunch of money on a cooler.

 

Go for the alien ...just got my second one ....they are fantastic machines and upgrading GPU/CPU super easy on the 17x

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

For what it's worth I have an R3 with the 6990 in it that I've been using since Feb here in Afghanistan and have had no heat related issues with it. It seems from what I've read on here that the AMD cards aren't as finicky about temps as the Nvidia cards are. I would be surprised if the new versions offered by AMD were any more inclined to heat issues than previous versions.

 

I will have to try that bottle cap trick and see if the temps change! And glad to hear about the lack of heat problems SlimShady; if the cards are not slowing down in the sandbox, then I won't have anything to worry about in an AC room. Off topic, are you an EOD or a support role for TFT?

 

I'm a DA Civilian working on the CREW program. Iraq from 07 - 10 and Afghan from late 10 to now.