Help me decide....

I was going to get a Sager NP9150, but then the warranties that Dell supply are much nicer to look at. I am also because there is no 15" AW laptop, I am trying to decide between the 14" and 17". I will be taking this laptop with me on occasion to work, and maybe school if I go back and want it to be somewhat portable. I use to have a 17" Dell XPS (Forget the model, but it had the different color lights all over it too, and large/thick in size including the powerbrick). and it was large too and I could handle that but it did get heavy on my back after a while.

I also thought AW was cheaper than Sager but looking at the deals SAGER has right now it isn't. Is there a way to get Dell/AW to match or beat the Sager prices including the ram and hd upgrades? What system builds do you guys recommend me doing at start and upgrade stuff after I get it? Like memory, hd I guess?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like you had the XPS M1730.

SAGER has been historically cheaper than Alienware - I've never heard of anyone telling me a Clevo (amusingly, Alienware was previously would be more expensive - because Sager is a Clevo reseller (or, in a way, Clevo's public consumer arm), as are many other companies such as Malibal and Origin PC (amusingly, Alienware was previously a Clevo reseller too). They are famous among the more informed for being the best choice for value in high end performance.
As for bringing the price down to match, Alienware notebooks are no longer the extremely overpriced boutique machines they once were, while Alienware remains a boutique premium brand and still carries an associated 'brand tax'. But, as I said, they've no longer an extreme and nearly unjustifiable premium due to their unique shell designs (which are indeed designed by themselves, though it's possible they're still actually manufactured by Clevo, but I'm not sure). Since the extra cost in acquiring an Alienware is no longer exuberant, you can easily call up a Dell/Alienware representative (or two, or three, or...) to haggle. Many will willingly reduce the prices on Alienware/Dell's absurd upgrade pricing, or even baseline systems.
Check this thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

As for configuration, assuming you're comfortable with the M17x, I'd probably offer the i7-3610QM/3720QM, 8GB DDR3 (or 16GB if you plan to RAM-disk or RAM cache) and the HD7970M. Or the GTX680M (if you can find and afford it), as it's the most fastest notebook gaming GPU available.
The 120Hz screen is entirely to your own preference. I'd of course also recommend the Killer wireless option (don't worry about Bluetooth - the M17x will include a separate Bluetooth card if you select the 1103). I didn't expect it to deliver myself, but it surprisingly actually does best Intel solutions.
As for hard disks, if you can afford them, SSDs are definitely faster, but most users will be satisfied with HDD+SSD cache setups.

For the M14x, no doubt you'll want the 1600x900 screen. The extra pixel density really amps your actually usable space in practice, and as far as I've heard, the screen quality is way higher.

I of course can't quite offer more exact suggestions without knowing what you intend to throw at the system, though.

 

Sorry... this thread is a troll magnet. Plus there are already tons of them just like it. You can use Google with the following prefix site:forum.notebookreview.com/alienware followed by key words to find them quickly within the Alienware sub-forums. To search all of NBR, leave off the /alienware in the prefix.



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