Actually Considering an m17....

ebay auction for my alienware desktop is going well. i was orginally planing on getting macbook, but this m17 is everything i want (almost) in a laptop. I need help choosing the specs. my budget is 2000-2200 with shipping and tax...

does the cpu matter?
should i get the dual cards?
is the 1920 screen worth 200? i have a great external monitor already...

 

Didn't you just get your desktop? (No offense, of course).

Personally, I'd recommend the T9400 as far as price and power goes. Quadcore is great but gaming and other applications might not take advantage of all the cores for a while. It will fare better in the future though. Choose whichever.

Definitely dual cards. For $250, I think it's a pretty strong deal.

With an external monitor, you probably just stick with WXGA+. It's less demanding for gaming anyway, if you plan on doing any. Plus, should you want a higher resolution you could play on your external. Though WUXGA may be a little bigger on a 17", and if you get dual 3870's the demand for that resolution in gaming might not be so bad. Again, choose whatever you think fits yourself best.

 

//?///////////////////////

 

The M17 is an enticing deal.

 

I should sell m15x to get an m17...

 

Oops. I didn't realise that there was now an m17 and an m17x. However, the advice below is still good.

Hi Lethal Lottery,
If I had to buy an Alienware all over again, especially after what I know (and have experienced), I would have chosen the m17x. It seems to be a more stable system than the rest. As far as processor choice, I've always gotten by with a 2.0 Duo Core. I know that everyone wants that extra 100 to 500 mhz, but I don't really see a difference. Far Cry 2 Still runs on high, and it's as smooth as can be. As far as screen resolutions, make a realistic choice based on how you use the computer. Remember that most games won't run at max resolution. However, if you're into video editing or cad, I would spend the extra money. Video card Choice is where it's at. The bigger the engine, the better. However, you may want to start out by choosing what you know you'll need, and then you can simply adjust based on the money you have left over. There's isn't hardly any difference between an 8800 or a 9800.

Hope this helps,
Gabe

 

Screen and video are definitely must-have upgrades for the prices they are at. Processor...if you can get the 2.53 ghz one..get it, otherwise stick with the base one. Ram and hd, buy off of newegg and upgrade yourself (you can put the stock alienware hdd into the second slot ). And of course, lighted keyboards rule!

 

one more question....
can install a secondary 500gb hard drive (not raid) , and is it accesable from a lid(like ram) or do i have to open up the entire chasis?

 

there's very probably service lid on the bottom, similar to the m15x. and yeah i'm fairly sure you can add a non-RAID drive later on. it'll just be called (D: ) (or whatever) instead of the "normal" (C: ).

 

Hi lethal lottery,
Having owned a m9750, I'm sure the drives install on the side for the m17 (which is version 2 of the m9750). Unfortunately, I've only set up raid. Depending on the bios, it may not let you use the second drive outside of raid. Currently, I own an Asus G50, and it won't let me use the second drive for anything besides raid. Can someone verify this?

Gabe

 

I chose 1440 resolution for games. And I have a 2-year old LCD from xps 1710 if I really want the 1920 resol (should fit, right?)

 

wait for the 4870's to come out they apparently perform better than the 9800 gtx

 

yep, should work if the connector matches (i think these are standardized anyway).

 

There may be a few issues. Whizzo is right in that the connector might not match. Also, the screws that fasten the hinges to the LCD might not match up. Another thing to take into consideration is whether or not the display area will correctly fit the plastic frame. The bios may have issues supporting the screen as well. One more thing to think about is that most LCDs have an inverted mounted at the bottom. If the inverter is in the wrong place, it might prevent the plastics from snapping together correctly. According to the design of the Alienware laptops, the light up logo is also powered through the inverter. I'm not sure a Dell inverter would work out.

Gabe

 

does anyone have an idea of when this will be? I'm starting to like the m17 more than the m15x, it looks much stabler (especially the screen lol) right now the only argument in my mind is if 17 inches will be OK or not. Any college students here use a 17 incher? Is it really a big deal having one instead of a 15 inch?

 

I thought all guys and girls like bigger incher.

17 incher is not a thing you would love to carry around and college tables are too small for it. Also, you need to find a power plug, so you will be always sit at the back.

 

IF not the 500gb black wd passport is a beauty for 170 from newegg...

 

This really might not be very soon. I'm not positive of course, but I haven't heard too much about it at all recently.

 

wow fusion uve returned at lot of stuff! you should really make sure u want something before you return it because your kind of abusing the return policies :/

 

so this is what i would get:


[1] M17

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p)
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Astral Blue
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: M17 Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: M17 Keyboard Diagram Overlay

Order Total: $1,885.98 after tax / shipping.

i would do some testing to see is 2 gigs is all i need... if not i will get 4 gigs from newegg, and re sell the ram on ebay. this would bring the cost up 60- 100 bucks. after that i would get a 500 gb hd, from newegg for 140.

total cost would be $2100 . the only things that concern me are the screen. although i wont be using the laptop display except on the go. it just feels akward, not taking advantage of the higher res. also the cpu.... 2.4 mhz faster and double the cache.... for 250 more... still not sure.

 

Well, I would keep this toshiba if it was good, but it's not, although I am typing with it.

My old m1710 is fried, I need something to work with while waiting for AW, and it looks like I need to test another laptop before AW arrives.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4115422&postcount=29

You copied my order. except that I pay $2311 CAD. AW rips off Canadians.

 

fusioness are u complete oblivious to curreny?

 

1886 x (1 / 0.8513) = 2215 estimate.

That's 100 off.

 

Fusion, what happened to your M1710? Mine is still going strong.

 

Well over the past few days I've decided to get an m17 instead of m15x, these are the specs I'm looking at:

[1] M17

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Astral Blue
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Ultimate N 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card with MIMO Technology
The World's First 450 Mbps Wi-Fi Adapter!
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: M17 Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: M17 Keyboard Diagram Overlay

should Í get the 2.53 processor instead? is it really a big difference? I'll mostly be doing photo editing, gaming, and audio production.

 

nice config, but may i advise going with 64bit OS instead of 32bit? more future-proof.

i don't think you'll notice the difference between 2.4Ghz and 2.53Ghz, if one's outdated, the other will be outdated too. however, they might have different cache sizes, which will have an effect on multi-tasking performance.

 

7900m gtx fried 2 months after warranty. Replaced with 7950m gtx by credit card protection and fried 14 months later, and dell doesn't have parts anymore. So my 3500$ investment is gone.

 

Yea I will get the 64 bits. the cache of 2.53 is 6mb, 2.4 is 3mb. I suppose if I have the extra bucks I'll get the 2.53. Thanks whizzo

 

info that might help you.

Two Mobility Radeon 3870 graphics cards (on MXM boards) combined in crossfire mode. The crossfire mode is compareable to the SLI solution by Nvidia and should perform about 20-40% better than a single 3870. As all multi GPU solutions today, the HD 3870 X2 suffers from micro stuttering (at frame rates around 30 fps).

3DMark 06in comparison
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900 (min)
57
...
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX
10045
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M
10430
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI
12184
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2
12800
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2
13055
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT SLI
14000
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX SLI
14150
...
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX SLI (max)
14150

 

Well that's still pretty good right? also maybe with future drivers it will be better, and I can always upgrade it to the 4870 or whatever (the one that will come out in the future). I think it will satisfy me with the gaming, I'm aching to play Assassin's Creed, Crysis, COD4 and GTA IV lol. I'm completely smitten by the M17 now, I love the black color and sturdy look, and it's less flashy than the m15x. I only wish I could get it in Ripley, even though skullcap isn't so bad. Other than that I freakin love it and cannot wait to own one. I'm hoping Santa can help me out

 

you might want to ask around about how often ati updates it graphic card drivers. nvidia does it all the time

 

All set to order the following... I really want the PROC for photoshop stuff but really don't like ATI due to driver support etc... Used to be a big ATI fan but that was years ago when they were near TOP. Need to see more benchmarks for this setup - If it can beat the 8800's on the Dell then I'll be sold.



Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Fusion Red
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 2048MB

 

It can beat 8800's, if you don't want to save money, order this fully loaded, which I personally think it's not a good deal compare to the basic setup of M17.
But if you got money, who cares.