help deciding on a new gaming laptop

hey guys I've been reading a considerable amount on here trying to decide on a new laptop and in short I'm torn between the M18x and M17x. Now I know both have their pro's and con's but each offers me something that the other doesn't.

The last Alienware I purchased was back before Dell bought the company and it was a Aurora M9700. That laptop had dual hard drives, dual nVidia 7800GS, and the AMD processor. That laptop still runs somewhat ok today but it's over 5 years old and will barely run TOR on the lowest settings at 1900X1200. Although in it's defense it still ran WoW as of 2 months ago on mostly high settings at the same resolution probably due to the SLI cards but getting those cards to perform decently required a lot of writing and back and forth calls with alienware and the BBB. I had to report them to the BBB 1 year after I bought the laptop because alienware nor nVidia would update their drivers for their mobile line of the 7800GS cards and the gaming laptop I bought wouldn't work with hardly any games. In the end when pressured to send me a new laptop or fix their defunct drivers Alienware or nVida got some drivers out for it albeit beta ones and they are still the ones on there that are the most recent to this day. Once those started to show aging in games I started going to laptopvideo2go and made custom ones which work to this day.

I would really like to get something with SLI or CF to get more longevity out of the machine but it seems there are a multitude of issues with the M18 platform with sound latency and throttling, etc. This is shying me away from that machine added to the fact that the screen while being bigger isn't a 1900X1200 so things don't look as sharp.

After saying all that my main question to the community is this. I play The Old Republic, BF3, Skyrim, and Diablo 3 when it comes out. Are there any of you out there that can shed some light on how well your M17x's are performing with these games?

I will add that I have a killer desktop that I built that I use when I am at home, but I am away more than not and when I am home my wife would like something to play games on with me since my old M9700 (which is hers now) can't play any of the above games with much fortitude.

PS: im trying to keep it under 3,000 USD


Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

 

keep in mind that the m17x r3 doesn't support dual gpu's. the m18x will be better in that respect. the m17x r2 supports dual graphics but isn't completely future proof. if you plan on doing any upgrading in the future and the dual graphics is a must then go with the m18x.

 

I own am m17x r3 with a 6970m in it. Battlefield floats between 30-50 fps for me in combat, and Diablo 3 stays at a full 60fps with vsync enabled. Can't comment on SWTOR though. And Skyrim, it's at a steady 30+ fps, but I never really notice the difference cept in heavy magic situations.

The 6990 is 20% better than a 6970m at stock, and a 580m is around the same. So it's up to you.

 

M18x seems to be the right path for you, dual graphic cards, upgradability, and more futureproof. I am sure you could config a brand new m18x under 3k. I tried everything basic config, with dual 6990 and killer NIC, total comes out to be about 2.8k with 100 dollar off and a free backpack.

I tried the m18x and while it performs better than the m17x r3, i feel its too big for my taste.

 

If your budget is 3000, I'd say go with the m18x. The main advantage over the m17x is its dual gpu support. The only reason to not get the m18x is if you wanted a single gpu. In fact, dell has a deal on a model with 1tb hdd, dual gtx 580ms, and it comes with a razer mouse. Only real downfalls are the base model quad core (still a great cpu) and 4 gigs of ram, which you can and should upgrade on your own for a cheaper price. Also comes with the alienware backpack, and the razer mouse is the naga, which is an MMO mouse.

If you were to get an m17x, lets say with an amd 6990m, 1080p screen, would be around 2200. Still a beast gaming laptop, but makes the m18x with dual gtx 580m's, the backpack, and the mouse a better deal. Oh and a 100 dollar gift card is included, idk what that'd be good for on an alienware site though

 

Thanks for all the replies guys, i built a M17xR3 and set it up fairly nice with the 120hz screen and the best processor with the 2gb 580m and a few more extras and it was 2583 out the door.

Another question, I see all the posts about streaming audio issues with the 580m SLI and possibly the 580m in single configuration. Are people referring to just regular audio problems while playing games or while doing editing/making music?

If I were to get the M18x I would just get the 4gb memory and then order the 8gb of Crucial and do that myself per the guide on here. Is it fairly easy to replace both hard drives for SSD's at a later date? My main array on my desktop consists of 2 intel x25-m's and they perform really well.

 

I cant comment on issues on the 580m, if there are any. But replacing ram, I've done it, takes at most a minute. I just added an ssd a week ago, the physical install, took about a few minutes. SSDs are coming down in price, and the dual hdd bay would allow you to get two smaller drives cheaply, like 120gb's, with a raid 0 speed boost.

 

Also, keep in mind your warranty choices. I wanted to get an M18x for the SLI, but once I added on my Complete Care warranty, it was a little out of my price range. I ultimately decided that for me at least, the extra performance was not worth not having the assurance that my laptop will be in perfect working condition during the duration of my warranty.

 

99sitr, Skyrim runs like butter on my laptop with the 6990m @ stock speeds.

1920x1080 4xAA 16xAF on Ultra preset...make sure vsync is disabled

 

Skyrim, Alan Wake, Deus Ex and Metro 2033 are just some of the games that perform better on the 6990M

 

LoL at the peeps using the word "FutureProof" What is Futureproof in terms of laptops..... if you get 3 years, that's AWESOME, anything on top of the 3 years is a huge PLUS PLUS, and yes the m17x R2 is approaching 3 years for me.

 

It sounds to me like the M17x is a better option for you. The games you are wanting to play will work perfectly on an M17x with a top end graphics card. The M18x would last longer, but you will pay a LOT more for it. When I was comparing them before I purchased my M17x I decided for what I saved off the M18x I will just buy another M17x sooner, rather than spend thousands more and try to keep the same machine longer.

The M17x should last a good 2-3 years easily, and maybe even 4 depending on how fast graphics tech moves as we start to get new consoles.