About to buy an M15x, few questions.

I have been shopping for a gaming laptop for quite some time now and i have finally settled on the Alienware M15x.

I have a very powerful desktop and i won't be travelling for another few months so i am not in an "extreme" hurry to purchase the laptop.

My question is: Would it be worth while to wait until fall before buying the M15x or will i not see any difference in spec/price? Will there be a revision?

thanks in advance for your help.

 

Hey! Dell (AW) has some good deals/ savings going on now so I think this is the time to jump ship. I spent about $1900 dollars on mine (after taxes, free air shipping). I ordered the i7, M15x, ATI HD5850, free 9 cell battery, free HDD upgrade (actually free video card upgrade from the stock). Basically with that setup your golden.

I don't think theres a refresh until late next year. Especially since they "renewed" their image with the M11x's i3/5/7 processors. Also get the 900p screen since the 1080p (according to many) gives little to no difference... So you save about 150 bucks (better processor perhaps )

But in all honesty. If you don't need the laptop for a few months... why not wait? However it does take a few weeks for you to actually get it, so keep that in mind.

 

I agree with bwazy. The chance of any real big changes are rather slim after the new processors. The only thing that might be worth waiting for is the reason that Intel just sliced priced of many of the their CPU's so after using up the ones they have, Dell might drop prices a little.

 

Thank you for the replies guys.

I will go ahead and order one seeing as they are indeed having specials.

Now for around 2200$ canadian (taxes and shipping included in price) what spec should i aim for?

What would be the best setup for that price range?

 

check out dell outlets, should have some nice setups. but search for ones with ati 5850.

 

I live in Canada. I was under the impression that the outlet was only for US customers.

I did go through the outlet and i found amazing setups that would save me up to 800$ if not more.

My biggest concern is the 900p or 1080p screen and CPU. Those two are the choices i can't seem to settle on. I am definately going for the ATI 5850 and going to flash it to 5870.

 

I have the 1080p screen and couldn't be happier, however I'm more of a multimedia person than a gamer (though I do like to frag every now and again ). Watching BluRays on it is awesome. My processor choice was i7 quad as I also like to encode media/etc and it's such a huge difference from the T9400 C2D I had with my XPS 1640 (The reason I sold it ).

Anyway, for saving some $$$ I would suggest going with the 900p lcd, but get at least an i7 quad processor.

 

I really would love a crisp display even though i will mostly game on this laptop. Would the 1080p be that much nicer looking graphic wise? And is it that much of a diff. in FPS performance with a 900p and 1080p?

And what about the outlet? is it off limits to canadian customers?

 

i got my m15x yesterday.
1080p, isnt a lot of extra money so i would sugest to get it.
if for example you play strategy games you will be able to see more area, same goes for any game really without scrolling.

i went for the intel i7 740, reason for me it was at a sweet spot on priceing v performance.
i also like the idea that being slower speed it will produce less heat and make the batery last longer.

if you have a tight budget try reducing hard drive, blu tooth, possible batery or wi-fi card.

hope that helps.

 

Honestly, I don't think there's a noticeable difference between the 900p and the 1080p to warrant the upgrade, since you were get a decent fps drops if you're not running at native resolution and want to take the 1080 down to 900. I'd only recommend the 1080p screen if you watch a lot of Blu-Ray's, but even then you could go either way. The 900p screen would still look great.

Definitely get the 5850 over the 260M, you'll avoid the throttling issues and get better gaming performance, and save a couple bucks.

I highly recommend an i7 processor, but which one is up to you. The 620 and the 740 are very close to each other in performance. The general consensus is that the 620 will give you a *slight* boost in performance over the 740 in most games, as most games aren't optimized for four cores. For those few games that are optimized for 4 cores, such as Battlefield Bad Company 2, there will be a pretty decent boost in performance with the quad core. So in the end, it depends on whether you want very slightly better performance for most games, or a more significant boost in select games. Others may also argue that the quad core is more future proof as more upcoming games will take advantage of the quad core, but that's debatable.

Aside from games, the 620 has that higher clock speed, but of course the 740 will perform better in multi-threaded applications, so if you're doing a lot of video encoding and editing, go for the 740.

Battery is a matter of preference. The 9-cell will give you a bit more battery life but stick out the bottom, potentially making the laptop uncomfortable on your lap, but also increasing airflow on a flat surface. 6-cell is weaker, but flat.

Remember to get at least 4GB of RAM. Other than that, it's all up to you. Good luck!

 

M15x
i7 740qm
Ati 5850
4gb ram
stock HD (replace your self and save $$$)
9 cell
Bluetooth
900p or 1080p


Bagpack
Mouse

 

Here's the setup i went with:

Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black edit
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache edit
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter, 30-Day Trial edit
LCD PANEL 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED edit
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3) edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB SATAII 7,200RPM edit
VIDEO CARD 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850 edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) edit
BATTERY OPTIONS Primary - 6-cell (56Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery edit
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio edit
Options
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 3 Year Advanced Service Plan edit
AVATAR Alienhead Glow edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alienhead Glow edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION AlienGUIse Theme Manager with Breed Theme edit

Now to call and haggle....

 

Nice configuration.

 

Great start! I placed the call today thinking the sales department would be open on Sunday and spoke to an indian girl who asked me a billion questions before transfering me to an agent.

Once transfered, i get this message: "Our offices are currently closed, please call back during operating hours".

Couldn't she just save me the 10min and tell me they are closed? lol

 

Dell being curtious? Thats even more unlikely than the iPhone supporting flash.

 

Umm read my first post for the specs you want