Help and Advice for a Noob

Hey guys I'm a new computer gamer, and I was wondering what computer to buy. I need this computer mainly for school (word proccessing and internet) and I also want it to be for gaming. The games I intend to play are Diablo 3 and Starwars Old Republic. I was initially going to buy an apple, but have come to realize how overpriced they are and am now starting to look into alienware which are also expensive, but not as bad. I was wondering what model you would suggest for me, and what type of upgrades or specs I would need. I have some money for this laptop, but would not like to upgrade the RAM and Videocard if it is unneeded. So any options or help would be great.

 

I guess we will be able to help you if you could tell us more, like size, budget etc..

Are you looking to buy an Alienware or you won't mind looking into other brands.

If so, you could open a thread here:
What Notebook Should I Buy?

Filling this form:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...ould-i-buy-form-must-read-before-posting.html

 

Ok here is the basic gist.

1) What is your budget?

-My budget is roughly $1100-1700 or so

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

-I like the Size 13-15

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

-United States

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

-I have no major preference, I just want a good laptop

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

-Primary tasks would be gaming (StarWars Old Republic, Diablo 3, Maybe CoD)
and also I would like to use it for college (word, excel, powerpoint)

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

- I would like to be able to take the notebook around with me, but it will also have a home on the desk

 

Assuming you want to buy new, for that price range I'd probably look at Asus. They make a good product, customer service is decent in my experience and there are many active posters on this website that can assist you with anything you need to know about it, just check out the ASUS forums.

The G74 series would serve your purposes well I think.

 

Have a look at the M14x. It's $1,100 to start off, so you've got lots of room for upgrades. Bear in mind though that most of them are pointless. I'd upgrade to a 2670QM processor, and a better screen. They're about the only upgrades that are worth it.

 

Ok thanks guys. Serephucus would an upgrade in the built in wireless card be worth it? or maybe make 6gb or 8gb? Withe the video card what is the difference between 1.5gb and 3.0gb? Thanks a lot guys ill look into these options

Quick question.. Should I wait a few months for new updates? or they wont be worth it?

 

That's what I meant about them being pointless. You could certainly upgrade to 8GB of RAM, but where Dell want $200 for it, Newegg will give it to you for $41.

The upgraded graphics card is pointless. The extra memory doesn't help performance at all, only resolution, and for you to be using as resolution big enough for the 3GB to make a difference, the card wouldn't be able to push out playable framerates anyway.

The wireless card is a good upgrade though. You'll get better speeds, and probably a little bump in battery life too.

If you can stand to wait, I'd hold out, at least until we get a better idea of what the new specs are likely to be.

 

-Intel® Core™ i7 2670QM (2.2GHz,3.1GHz,w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache) Alienware Recommended
-Intel® Core™ i7 2760QM (2.4GHz,3.5GHz,w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)

Which of these would I get and what is the difference in GHz going to do for me?

 

I'd get the 2670. For the little speed bump, the price isn't really worth it, and odds are you won't notice a difference. The vast majority of games you'll play - actually, what games are you looking at playing? - will be GPU-bound.

 

Im looking to play SWTOR and Diablo 3 maybe call of duty

 

Yeah, you'll be absolutely fine with the 2670 so. Maybe just buy a year of accidental damage with the extra money? Always nice to have piece of mind.

 

Both are good procs. Every little bit helps. If you can afford more CPU, go for it... 400MHz is enough that it can be seen and felt. It would be better to get a slightly less powerful Alienware system with an advanced warranty than a slightly better spec'd Asus. Based on what I have seen and heard from close friends that own or owned an Asus G-series, I cringe whenever I hear that someone is considering buying one. I almost bought one a while back and I am so glad it did not. Your budget is a bit low for a truly serious mobile gaming system, so you will be compromising on performance in that price range. As suggested, the M14x is a far better choice. It will do an acceptable job of most things and it has that Alienware look that is unbeatable. The Dell/Alienware advanced warranty totally annihilates the warranty service and support you will get from Asus.

 

Here is what I'm looking at.. good or bad

Alienware M14x

Processor-

Intel® Core™ i7 2670QM (2.2GHz,3.1GHz,w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)

Or

Intel® Core™ i7 2760QM (2.4GHz,3.5GHz,w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)

Operating System-

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

Wireless Card-

Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO for Gaming & Video

Memory-

8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz

Video Card-

1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology

OR

3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology

Hard Drive-

-750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

OR

-1TB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

LCD Panel

-14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight

So in all of my options that say "OR" I need to make sure the upgrade would be worth the price. I'm trying to stay right around $1700 and all those upgrades don't fit. So I need your opinions on what upgrades are more worth the money. Once again I'm using this computer for College and Gaming. The games I will be playing are Diablo 3, Starwars Old Republic, and Call of Duty

Help!

 

Go with the 1.5GB GT 555M (the extra 1.5GB of video memory is basically worthless) and go with the 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s HDD. The 250GB larger capacity of the 5400RPM HDD isn't worth the reduction in performance. If the money saved on the 1.5GB GT 555M covers the price difference, go for the faster CPU. If it doesn't, use the money saved to buy more time on the advanced warranty, or upgrade from the basic to advanced warranty with accidental damage coverage. Don't settle for a 1 year basic warranty.

Call and haggle on the price and upgrades (parts and warranty) rather than completing the purchase online. Build it and save it, and refer to it, but buy it from someone offline that you can negotiate a better deal with. If you haven't already done so, read this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

 

Alright thanks a lot Mr. Fox. So you feel this will be a pretty decent machine that can last me awhile? How long do you see this lasting if you have any idea

 

You're very welcome, bro. I can only comment about what I did because I don't own an M14x. I have an M18x and it is not even close to the same thing as the M14x. If I were shopping for a smaller multi-purpose laptop, I would definitely consider an M14x.

Man, I would be scared to try to tell you that because I would hate to give you wrong information. If I were buying it for myself, I would expect at least 3 years of service out of it before it becomes "too old and too slow" to be any good for gaming. I have no ownership experience with the GTX 555M, so it would be better if someone that owns a similar system to chime in on this and comment about how well it performs with current game releases. The only thing I would be apprehensive about it Optimus. I'm not sure that it works as well as intended, so I would defer to folks that own a system with Optimus. I have read some not-so-great things about Optimus, but there are some people that can ruin anything, LOL. So, again, I'm not going to be much help to you on this question.

I have 2GB of memory on each of the GTX 580M GPUs in my M18x and I have never used half of the memory on one of the cards during very intense gaming, so that I why I recommended going with the 1.5GB version of the GTX 555M. That should be plenty of video memory for now and for at least a couple of years. The GPU performance comes from the GPU core more than it does the amount of available memory, and GPU performance is further enhanced by a powerful CPU. (A weak CPU becomes a bottleneck for GPU performance.)

 

Playlisted don't forget to check out the Dell Outlet Store. It's a good place for that higher end lower price Alienware. I have had very good luck with them and saved a ton of money. You get the same warranty as new and they stand behind them completely. The m18x with out the SSD's was 2200.00 over four grand if I had had it built. Good luck on your next system and welcome.

 

If I was you I would check out this thread. The Gamers Series 7 arrives in April, packed with a 670M GTX and Ivy Bridge Quad Core CPU. It's also in your price range.

Look at all the video's.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/off-topic/645976-samsung-enters-gaming-market.html

 

nice new profile pic, as to that thing being released in April, I highly doubt it at this point since intel delayed most of ivy bridge.

 

Thanks . This close to Ivy, now isn't the time to buy a Sandy based DTR. I'd wait for the Sammy.

 

OP, please do yourself a favour, and don't buy RAM from Dell. You'll save over $150 if you replace it yourself, and it's very, very easy. Your laptop will still be covered under warranty, just not the RAM. Even if you end up having to replace it - twice (which is extremely unlikely to ever happen) - it'll still be cheaper than if you got it through Dell.

As the others have said, a 1.5GB video card is what you should be going for, the 3.0GB won't do anything.

I'd also go with the 750GB 7200 RPM drive. You'll notice the performance drop going to 5400RPM.

 

Alright, thanks a lot guys. I guess my last general wondering is how to take good care of the laptop? Is it smart to always shut it down, or is sleep mode ok and what antivirus software would you recommend free or store bought?

 

How to use it... this is a matter of preference to some extent, but I always shut down instead of sleep/hibernation. In 25 years of computing, something always seems to not work properly and ultimately require a reboot after resuming from a sleep state or waking from hibernation. I just don't use those features and as a result, never experience problems related to them. I disable all sleep and hibernation features in Windows and set my power profile to "do nothing" when closing the lid. I also don't have to worry about my system waking up by accident in a backpack or briefcase and baking itself. I know of several people that have experienced this.

Antivirus is also a matter of preference. I my opinion, the crapafee that comes with a new Dell/Alienware system is trash. It not only does not work great for virus protection, but it also has no user-configurable exclusions. You cannot stop it from quarantining what it thinks to be malware, even when it is not malware. That totally sucks. I set an exclusion for scanning certain folders and file types and this is not possible with crapafee antivirus. It basically does whatever it feels like and you're left to the mercy of the software to "think" and act on your behalf. I really despise that.

There are lots of free options that work well. Microsoft Security Essentials is good, and I never had any problems using Avast. As far as paid programs go, I am using Vipre right now and like it. ESET is also excellent and I used it for several years. I stopped because free is a better price, LOL. Both are light on resource utilization. Norton is also a very good product (use it on some of my systems), but it uses more resources than Vipre, ESET or MSE. I say free is the best way to go for most users.

 

I agree with Mr. Fox that free works well for most users. I've had great experiences with Avira Free Antivirus; virus definitions are updated almost daily. I am trying out AVG Antivirus Free Edition 2012 right now. So far so good.

I would also recommend using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Remover, another great freebie.