My positive review of the m17x R3. The search is over.

Hey folks,

So, I've been an owner of several laptops trying to find the perfect one for me. My needs are to have a powerful laptop that I can mainly use for work and for some gaming.

My previous laptops have been:
1. HP Envy 17 - (Was just way too hot, froze up it got so hot - returned)
2. Asus G73 - (Phenomenal laptop, just didn't need it at the time so sold it.)
3. HP Envy 17 3D - (Took another stab at it, but once again way too hot, for me, so selling)

Now that I've had the M17X R3 3D for a few days and after much testing, I'm settled.

This laptop stays cool, even after hours of gaming and large work sessions (Photoshop, Flash, After Effects, misc) it's cool as well. I love having the 120hz screen and I'm a sucker for the 3D, gaming in 3D as well as blu-ray 3D is just awesome. But, I know some folk don't like it.

I did a clean install as soon as I got it, with an SSD for boot and a 500 gig as 2nd drive.

It was finally between this or an Apple 17" laptop, but for the price, the Alienware won, hands down, especially when I can upgrade stuff myself at the fraction of the cost Alienware charges and still come way under the Apple and I love the 3D.

Oh! Updating drives/ram in this thing is soooo easy, I love it. But Alienware M17X R3 3D gets a 10/10 from me.

 

I'd love to see some pics if you'd care to share a bunch

 

My issue with the 3D is just the fact that you have to go with an inferior GPU to use it, particularly given that 3D really needs the extra GPU power. The 6970M is significantly more powerful for a very minor cost increase. If they offered the nVidia 485M, it'd be perfect for 3D, but then again the 485M is only barely more powerful than the 6970M but much more expensive.

Of course, for the gamer who doesn't want to max everything out (just wants something powerful) then the 460M is fine. The problem being that many people who would buy an M17x do want to max everything out...

Sorry, GPU rant over. Glad to hear that you're enjoying your machine! I just wish there was a way for me to demo the 3D somewhere to see if it's really worth it, but out where I am, no such luck. You get plenty of people (like you) who say that it's really good, but at the same time you get plenty of people who say that it's just a gimmick and makes little difference.

 

Did you vote on the thread in my sig and in Dell Ideastorm link in that thread?

That would help us greatly, including the OP.