dell xms 1730 to alienware m17x - worth it?

I currently have a Dell XPS 1730 (geforce 8700 sli, core 2 duo 2.6ghz, 4mb ram), I want to replace with the Alienware x17 (i7 740 quad core, crossfireX radeon 5870, 4mb ram), but I want to be sure that I am upgrading computers and performance and not going the opposite way.

What I use the computer for:
I am a 3d modeler / C#/Unity Programmer running windows 7 64 bit, occasionally I will play games ( most don't install or work for me ), Diablo 3 would be nice to play once it comes out

My question:

Videocard:

1. what is the difference between: CrossfireX ati radeon hd 5870 vs ati radeon hd 5870,
2. why isn't geforce offered,
3. how does radeon perform compared to geforce, I've never owned a radeon card before

Processor:
4. will i notice much of a difference between i7 740 and i7 940 besides the the 750 dollars, is the 940 overkill for my purposes
5. on a scale of 1-10, how much of an upgrade will I be making in terms of performance, is there a better option for me to go with?

 

Videocard:

1. what is the difference between: CrossfireX ati radeon hd 5870 vs ati radeon hd 5870, - Big performance difference, generally I have noticed with Crossfire enabled about a 40-80fps jump and in benchmarks about 2-4000points
2. why isn't geforce offered, Whats geforce? You mean SLI? It is for 285Ms
3. how does radeon perform compared to geforce, I've never owned a radeon card before - So you mean ATI vs. NVIDIA - I was always a strong NVIDIA/SLI supporter as the games I mostly played played better on NVIDIA SLI. If you read the forums it looks as though ATI XF(Crossfire) is working alot better then NVIDIA SLI machines, it may just come down to preference but after being with ATI for awhile now I really love XF and the performance!

Processor:
4. will i notice much of a difference between i7 740 and i7 940 besides the the 750 dollars, is the 940 overkill for my purposes - I had the 820QM and just moved to the 920XM ES - I have noticed a big performance improvement, however for you if you want to save on costs, buy it with the 740 or maybe even the i5's and buy a 920XM ES from ebay which only costs about $400
5. on a scale of 1-10, how much of an upgrade will I be making in terms of performance, is there a better option for me to go with? As I did not own your comp or have ever used one I can say that you will notice a significant difference, how much depends on what your using it for.

 

I'm pretty sure performance will not go the opposite way. (You meant 4GB of RAM right? )

1. CrossfireX is like nVidia SLI. Two graphic cards.
2. Hah... you should ask Dell/AW engineers. Probably because you'd need a power supply twice as big. Maybe there are heat issues...?
3. Roughly speaking, in terms of synthetic benchmarks, i7 620m + 5870m crossfire score around 16k on 3DMark06, and 14.2k on 3DMark Vantage GPU (not overclocked). You can see what other cards are capable of on a site like Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News - Notebookcheck.net .
4. Depends exactly how often you need the extra speed. Quad core extreme can be really fast if you can utilize all cores and are often running longer CPU-intensive application. I don't think it's worth the price on the Dell website though.
5. Graphic cards are the best upgrade, unless you want to get an RGB LED screen too, which you may want to. It's hard to put a number, because e.g. in regular Windows usage you may not even see any difference, unless you buy an SSD. 3D Modeling probably the greatest difference. (8-9/10?)


The question is do you really need an upgrade? Your specs still look pretty decent. I guess if what you're doing really run sluggish, I'd go with the new laptop.

 

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thank you for the replies, haha I meant 4gm of ram, good to hear that crossfire will outperform my 8700s

I am upgrading because my xps motherboard no longer recognizes my power adapter so my computer runs like crap, I have had this issue before, for 500 dollars they replaced my motherboard, a year later, it is doing the same thing, I figure rather than keep paying money, I would just get another computer,

you guys have been a big help, thanks again

 

No problem Bud, You can also try doing the firepro driver mod for the 5870's since you don't do much gaming it should give you a boost in your renderings, Also do not skimp on the RGBLED you will never want to look away from your screen. Also you can check out the dell precision workstations since they are geared for the type of work you do.

 

the M11x out performs your current m1730. so... what do you think the m17x will do?

 

"Also do not skimp on the RGBLED you will never want to look away from your screen." I agree! That is a must have.

 

Agreed, Kyla Cole never looked so beautiful as she does on RGB

 

Speaking of that, most women look much prettier on RGB LED, with a proper ICC color profile.