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    Planning on Ordering this: Thoughts?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by TemplarKnight, Jul 30, 2011.

  1. TemplarKnight

    TemplarKnight Notebook Guru

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    Okay, because last time I didn't do the research, I basically just slapped together a system that I thought was pretty good, but not breaking the bank on things. I ended up coming here and just getting quizical looks and finding out that the system I ordered was probably gonna BSOD and wouldn't be very well future-proofed.

    So I returned that one the same day I got it and to avoid making that mistake again, I'm letting ya'll know what I'm planning on getting before I place the order :(in order of build on site)

    Alienware M17x R3:
    I7 2720QM 2.2 GHz
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    4 GB Ram(plan to upgrade later to 16 GB)
    AMD Radeon 6990M
    1.5 TB Raid 0*
    17.3-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 60Hz
    Killer Wireless-N 1103(I got this mainly because I decided to get a better Wireless card than the base one, then decided since I'm already in for $50, $30 wasn't that much more so I went ahead and got this one. Any thoughts or criticisms?)
    BluRay Player

    *= I considered getting a single 750GB drive and then buying another one and installing and formatting myself, but changed my mind for a few reasons. 1. I looked up the price for a hard drive on Newegg and it came out to 89-100 bucks, so 50 dollar difference would be a drop in the bucket really. 2. This allows me to plug and play right out of the box. I am planning on upgrading the memory, but I don't have to do it right away and I can toy with my laptop for a bit before getting frustrated and upgrading. With this, because I would have to reformat both harddrives to set up the raid, I would have to A. set it up right away or B. not do anything substantial with the laptop until I add the second hard drive. Ultimately I can afford to save myself a slight headache now. SSD drives are nice, but right now I need more memory than speed.
     
    TemplarKnight, Jul 30, 2011
    #1
  2. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    Why do you want 16GB of memory? 4 is more than enough for any game out there at the moment.
     
    Serephucus, Jul 30, 2011
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  3. jwolf7722

    jwolf7722 Notebook Deity

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    Memory is cheap and often never used. I would drop the hard drive to cheapest and upgrade yourself. Its honestly not that difficult to set up Raid or Ahci setup.

    Setup looks great though!!
     
    jwolf7722, Jul 30, 2011
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  4. mark_j

    mark_j Notebook Consultant

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    I like your setup. Raid 0 makes me nervous, but I am more concerned about data security than hard drive speed, so maybe just a matter of taste. I would stick with one drive and buy a big external drive for backup and storage.
     
    mark_j, Jul 30, 2011
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  5. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

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    Get the stock 320GB HD and add a SSD later.

    Config. looks best bang for buck performance price wise if you ask me.
     
    Brabostaan, Jul 31, 2011
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  6. CleanSweep

    CleanSweep Notebook Geek

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    Yeah I would say screw the RAID. You won't get 750gb Scorpio Blacks for sure, those are the best laptop hard drives on Earth right now, just get two off of Newegg, or you could always get one SSD and a hard drive like me, if you have the money. The difference is night and day but I didn't understand that until I used one for the first time, in my system! ;P
     
    CleanSweep, Jul 31, 2011
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