Recommendations for M17X R2 (Alienware vs Aftermarket)

Okay I finally got my refund for the ailing Area 51 m17X. In fact I have two credit card credits, so not spending the money isn't an option.
Here's what I used the first AW for by priority...
1- Photoshop, video editing, drawing tablet, texture creation and editing
2- 3D rendering with app's Maya, zbrush, etc.
3- Gaming
4- Writing
5- surfing the net
I have 4800 dollars in credit and a big chunk will be reserved for an extended warranty.
The only real benefit for me to get the premier warranty over the advanced, is the American based tech support. There is no such thing as on-site for me, as I found out with the other AW. I really liked most of the Costa Rican Techs I dealt with so I am on the fence with the different warranties. Is the premeir worth the extra?
The cpu; do I pay for the 920xm or wait for the refresh? Or do I get a lesser cpu like the 720 and replace it with a 920 that I buy from the marketplace here?
The RAM is another such issue, I will probably need 8GB this time around since I'll be rendering a lot come this Fall. Again do I order 4GB and then purchase a pair of 4GB sticks aftermarket? If so which brand is best?
Finally is the Samsung 256GB SSD worth the 504.00 they are charging for the upgrade or is it better to get the Intel x25 gen2 160GB for about 400dollars.
The dual 128GB SSD's I owned previously spoiled me a bit and I loved them.

I know all these questions are a little bit about personal preference. I can do the cpu, RAM, and SSD upgrades myself. I am just on the fence about whether or not I 'should' do it. Are prices or quality that different between Alienware and aftermarket?
Last time around I had no idea about the EPP and I qualified for it. I got absolutely no discount from the website price even after speaking to a sales rep. I am terrible at haggling prices. This time I am better prepared thanks to the wonderful thread based on saving money.
Any advice, based on what I use this laptop for, would be most appreciated.

 

Back again I see! I think all your questions are good to decide before you order again. The ram you can do of course, the drives well if I had it to do over again prob go for the 160g intel the speeds they spec are really fast. Then you can put most other stuff on the second drive. The CPU thats another story. If you go after market and need to use your warranty you got that in there to have to change, not fun when things are not working right to began with.
I really like my 920 xm would the 940 worth waiting? I don't see it fast enough to wait. And buy one aftermarket I like my warranties in one basket nice and neat.
Good luck on what ever you do and see ya around here.

 

Dude. Get the "lowly" i5 and buy a i7-940XM from ebay. It's so much cheaper.
600 bucks vs. 1000. You choose.
Aftermarket upgrades are much cheaper overall and give you the same performance. Except for maybe the CF 5870s. Get those with your laptop. Plus the Samsun SSDs are slow as hell. Get the intel one

 

You do know that those "600" chips are Engineering Samples, right? It's uncommon to see actual OEM i7 920XM cpus on e-bay that go for those prices. You can get lucky on this forum with members selling off their OEM cpu's but those are few and far between as well. If you do end up with an ES cpu, you'll definitely want to keep your old cpu so that IF warranty issues arise, you can switch back and pretend nothing ever happened.

 

Thx for the replies. Sorry I put this in the wrong part of the forum but I was unsure since aftermarket upgrades are done on all alienware systems and the warranty is across all models.
I'm still hoping for some feedback on the premium warranty versus the advanced warranty. Or rather whether it's worth the cost.

 

If you buy 4gb ram from dell they will give you 2 x 2gb sticks and you won't be able to buy 4 more gb offmarket. You will be forced to buy 2 x 4gb sticks and keep/sell the oem 2x2gb ram.

 

Insurance against my Baby going down 2 or 3 years down the road, Hell ya. Paid 786.00 for 2 extra reg warranty and 3 years complete care. Have not even looked back, I figure worth every penny if something happens grandkids spill a drink or it falls out of my Semi oops! I get it fixed or new lappy. If you got the money get it.

 

I'm probably the lone fish swimming upstream here, but my viewpoint on the CPU differs from most. Given the extreme (pun intended) price difference between a 920XM or 940XM and the 820QM, and, given the fact that the 820QM and 920QM are very similar in speeds (same cache, less than 10% turbo speed difference not counting overclocking), and the important fact that the M17xR2 BIOS has very limited OC'ing capability, I would opt for the much, much cheaper 820QM, and put your money into DUAL RAID 0 SSD's.

Looking at what you do, I will assume you're not a benchmark freak or heavily technical, so overclocking via software probably isn't your thing. The 920XM/940XM run HOT. Like the sound of fans on all the time?? I don't. I find the 820QM much quieter. So, except for bragging rights about having an Extreme CPU, I think, given your use and experience, that you'd be wasting money on a 920XM. Go 820QM. You probably won't notice the speed difference in real world apps, and buy 8GB RAM and dual 256GB SSD's and configure for RAID 0. You'll be happier overall.

Also, regarding Crossfire--that only works in some games. So, unless your rendering and video apps FOR SURE use dual GPU's, you might just stick with one, faster 5870, which is quieter and cooler and less buggy than dual 5870's.

Again, some people on the forum just want the fastest, and are very technical and are willing to forego some things (like a quiet, cool computer) for a few extra fps in a game, and have the skills to tweak and experiment. Others, like me (and maybe you), prefer a stable, quiet and cool running HIGH PERFORMANCE notebook. That's where my recommendations come in.

Good luck on your choice!

 

I have to say that's pretty good advice

 

I have two of the samsung ssd in raid 0 from dell and I dont have any complaints.

 

Me too, and given that the M17x does not have SATA3, and my read speeds on dual Samsung 256GB SSD's practically saturate the SATA2 channel anyways, there isn't any reason to spend the extra money on anything faster for a dual SSD setup. If you wanted a single SSD, then maybe the OCZ Agility 2 with it's 350MB/s read speeds would be good, but two of those are overkill for SATA2.

Plus, find your M17x at the Outlet and a unit with 2 x 256GB SSD's is much, much less than at retail, making it an even better steal!

 

If you're going to go ahead and get the beefed up warranty, I'd just get all the upgrades WHEN you get the computer, or else they won't even be covered by the warranty.

I'd definitely get the RAM upgrade seeing as that is what Autodesk recommends for a good experience (8 GB) on their website tech specs for stuff like Maya.

 

Aftermarket 8GB RAM can be had for $270or less from Newegg.com I'd also go with hardware upgrades upfront, doing so down the road can get very pricey. Best to do it when you order. I also have a couple of the Samsung SSDs and have no complaints about them. They are much much faster than the HDDs, though not as fast as the intel. I'd at least get the complete care warranty. I but with the i5 520 CPU, and I have a 920XM and a 940XM as well in a box. I'll put those in and bench them when I finish benching the 520, but I got the 940XM on ebay as a QS. It's no differant than the OEM 940XM when that gets release. I just keep the 520 for warranty purposes. The 920 well eventually get sold.