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    your opinion on aw17 config and coupon begging

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by raftom, Jun 25, 2014.

  1. raftom

    raftom Newbie

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    i'm looking to buy my first gaming laptop without preferably breaking the bank too badly. i'm not very experienced so i read up lots on this site and notebookcheck. keeping the price down a little lead me to asus rog line initially which sounded like a dream from a specs, noise and temp perspective, until i read a lot of the complaints on this site, with respect to rog laptops being very difficult to manage and optimus being a pain. i know nothing about bios or overclocking anything so i thought something more simple and reliable could be more appropriate. so i began checking out alienware in the more subtle 17" variety. would any of you esteemed, experienced alienware owners care to comment on my config or general thought process?

    4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ Processor
    Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit, English
    8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
    500GB 5400RPM (8G SSD) Hybrid SATA 6Gb/s
    NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M graphics with 2GB total GDDR5
    17.3" WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display
    $1700 canadian

    the first thing i'll do is add a boot ssd. and i don't think that will be too difficult for me.

    i wondering in particular:
    1) is this a good price to performance point to get in at? i will be looking to run some demanding games and i want max settings wherever possible, but i have a budget.
    2) what are my upgrade options in the future?
    3) should i go to windows 8? i've heard that its lighter and so boots and runs games quicker.
    4) are there comparable laptops that i should have a look at?
    5) i will be ordering in canada, but i will move to china afterward temporarily where the warantee is (correct me if i'm wrong) not valid anymore (china is not on the list of countries a warantee can be transferred to). so i'll be taking only the minimum protection. how would you feel about that?


    and lastly, if the general consensus is that i'm not too crazy, could any kind souls spare a coupon they aren't going to use?
     
    raftom, Jun 25, 2014
    #1