I think I might wait on M17x?

Will Alienware release a new laptop when the Capella's and GTX 300M's come out? If so, I will probably wait and here's my reasoning...

I'm a kid and I don't get any help buying this laptop... I think it's fair that I don't because my parents aren't rich and they are already paying for my bills and food... If I save up like $2.5k and buy this laptop with dual GTX 260M's in SLi and a Q9000 with a Terabyte of hard drive space and come to find its outdated (not outdated but actually something newer and better comes out) then I might be ticked I will have to wait to upgrade... besides I do want my laptop to hit the top of the list in game performance and benchmarks... Also, I play GTA 4 a lot and my Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz really isn't cutting it for this game and I know I can get a new cpu but my 8800M GTS is also quite mainstream compared to this cards... Not to mention SLi... As you can see I will need as much CPU power as I can get...

Can anyone shed some light on what you think alienware will release when the Capella's and GTX 300M's come out?

 

in the end, it's your decision. just don't forget that there's always something new coming up - if/when AW refreshes the M17x, we'll be expecting the new ATI HD5870s, or DDR5 RAM, or whatever.

 

Well the Capellas are due Quarter 4 of this year... however the Quad cores now the Qx9300 will be ever bit as good for gaming... and I really can't say about the GTX 300m's but I am pretty sure they will be MXM 3.0b slots and therefore fit in the M17x

 

I was also thinking what if Clevo uses a similar chassis to the D900F or the D901C (not the M980NU cuz the keyboard is horrible) and makes a Capella and SLi notebook... that would be great but they really need a better look on that M98... It's a lot cheaper than the M17x cuz you pay for performance on clevo...

 

It isn't cheaper than the M17x... you are paying about the same for a larger latpop... and the M17x has 3 GPU's, better aesthetics, smaller and cool lighting!

 

I dont think they would be able to cool something like that for some reason.

18.4 inch but nothing less.

 

Kinda back to deciding on 3 laptops:
Clevo M980NU even though it has a crappy keyboard and tracks a lot of fingerprints
Alienware M17x (preferred) will look cooler and has pretty damn good cooling and can power a QX9300...
Any upcoming Capella + SLI notebook...

 

3 gpu's!?! Whoa is that a special order M17x?

 

...........

 

haha I know but triple sli anyone?

 

Honestly you are better off buying an M17x now, with the base P8600 @ 2.4ghz, it is easily overclock-able to 2.8ghz and higher through the FSB over clocking options in the BIOS, one guy even has it over clocked to 3.0ghz!

Then when you are ready now or later, buy an ES QX9300 quad core CPU from ebay for 400.00 rather than the 1000.00+ Dell is charging, it will run GTA 4 no sweat, and if you read about the upcoming Capella models, you will see they are nothing to get "overly" excited about, the QX9300 will still compete with and in some cases may even out perform the 2.0ghz 65W extreme mobile i7 version.

The QX9300 will be a solid chip for quite a while.

 

Around when will you have all that money saved up? If it's going to take a while, I'd just wait for the next model.

I think it's always best to have the newest tech around when it comes out so you can enjoy it the longest before the "next best thing." You don't want to wait too long to make a purchase and have something new come out right after.

 

i think i might just end up buying this:
Alienware M17x
P8600 (QX9300 off ebay)
dual GTX 260M's in SLI (getting GTX 300M's in SLI later...)
4GB 1066MHz RAM
1TB (2x 500GB 7200RPM RAID 0)

 

What I'm doing I have the X9300 off Ebay... buy it from Shirley He is a great guy, and reputable from what I've seen on this sight

 

I would wait for the CF 4870's. Should give a much better boost in performance over the 280's.

That is if you can wait a couple months

 

how so sleey0?

 

mods are allowed to participate in forum discussions like regular forum dwellers? i never knew...

 

The guy is talking about a 2.5k config ppl keep talking about QX9300... C'mon man.

BTW... M17x was released day 2 of this month... It will be outdated in the "normal" time for a notebook, don't worry.

And about QX9300... If you don't want to keep your notebook sub-3k don't worry... Pick a C2D/C2Q overclock it and it will perform the same as a M17x with QX9300 in games.

 

lmao...urm...uh...yeah...i think...

 

eh, we're glad to have you around. just some rookie hazing

 

The 280's are better than the 4870's.

 

actually im an nvidia guy... no offense to ati users... i will get 260's and wait for 300's

 

+1. good idea

 

Maybe the desktop versions but def not the mobile.

 

Have you recieved yours yet? Did it come with thermal compound?

 

The 4870 will smoke the mobile 280s hehe, because the 4870 are based of desktop tech we just have to wait for GDDR5 though.

Well not smoke, but definately perform

 

No they will smoke them

Why you might ask?

the 4850's in Xfire in the Asus w90p still have yet to be beaten in Vantage(Nvidia's benchmark) as well as alot of games . They are only 4850's , 4870's with DDR5 will be ALOT faster and more then likely the same price

 

Well, since theres no mobile i7 out yet, I have to use desktop comparisons.

Tale a look at this page: Linky

The performance difference between a QX9770 (fastest non i7) and an i7 965...is pretty amazing.


Both are 3.2 Ghz, one utilizes the 1600 MHz FSB, the other QPI (i7)...

The i7 965 outperforms the QX9770 by almost 40%

If this is a preview of things to come to the mobile world, then maybe the i7 (or i5, I believe its going to be called) might be worth the wait?

 

I mean just as an example the Clevo M980nu with GTX 280M SLi was announced in January of 2009 at CeBit and just now went on sale for pre-order in June.

Clarksfield Calpella is due out sometime Q3 2009 so when exactly are you expecting machines using the CPU are going to be available for purchase?

 

Next year?

 

Until I actually need a GPU that smokes 2 280's which run any current game flawlessly and for a while yet... I won't think I will be upgrading and by then lol there will be a new set out that surpass the 4870's

 

With Alienware's warranty can't you do a full refund when your under the warranty?

 

i had one of the old style M17X rigs and really enjoyed it but could never solve an overheating problem. Alienware was kind enough to allow me to return it for the M17. Despite the occasional stutter problem which Alienware acknowledged that are still working on, think i will hold on to my M17 until a gaming laptop with a LED screen and DDR5 comes out. Use Macbookpro for work and love the screen but the M17 for everything else.

 

lol, they are release Quarter 4 or early 2010 lol, the GTX 280m was released earlier this year as well, look how long it took to actually go into circulation...

 

No only 30 days usually with restocking fee

Sometimes you can get out of it

 

Oh ok... ummm some people are telling me to wait and some are telling me to get one now... the i7 doesn't sound like much of a difference but it might be considering the i7 was 40% faster than the fastest desktop quad core...

 

Games are GPU dependent not CPU dependent

 

i wont be only playing games but using to sony vegas to render my videos in hd and such... besides even though i have said this before i will keep saying it, gta 4 will swallow your cpu...

 

GTA won't be the only game you play right?

the 9280 is a Amazing machine ... it still plays games on very high... but it is more for a desktop replacement. But it is MXM 3.0 which means you "should" be able to upgrade to the 300 series from Nvidia

























because pictures are so much easier then googleing

 

yea i wish the 9280 has sli... that would be awesome... no i will play A LOT of newer games.... prototype (lol), arma 2, gta 4, crysis, crysis warhead, crysis wars, fallout 3 and much more...

 

then a Quad with SLI seems like what you want( compromise)

 

If u keep waiting u gonna wait forever

 

Alienware M17x
P8600
Dual GTX 260M SLi
4GB 1066 DDR3 RAM
1TB 7200RPM

Upcoming upgrades:
Ebay'd Q9200/QX9300...
RJTECH or Alienware GT300's....

I can also do 1333 ram if it improves my cpu overclock, will it?

 

I would buy the QX9300 only if we find a way to increase vcore

About 1333 ram... Check my sig

 

Well there's a significance to the 40% increase.

Keep in mind that they are both Quad Core, they are both clocked at 3.2 Ghz....and the i7 performs 40% better.

Not to mention with the architecture, it would be upgradable to Intel's new processors for the coming years, where as the Core 2 series have come to an end.

 

why is it pointless? Or have you answered this question before?

 

Yeah but the clarksdale models in calpella will have REALLY low clock frequency (at least the first generation...)

You can lock your ram to 1066 when overclocking.

Performance increase from 1066 to 1333 is minus than 1%.

1066 and 1333 modules r probably the same with different SPD values.

I think it's enough to be pointless

 

you emphasized REALLY low.....exactly how low? xD

and how long would the wait be for mobile i7 processors to be up to par?

 

Because increased speed brings increased latency which negatively effects performance, they cancel each other out. I have overclocked my CPU by 340mz using SetFSB, and my 1066mz ram has held up just fine.

It is usually preferable to get ram that is the same speed as your FSB.

 

1.6, 1.73, 2.0GHZ

But at least you can use turbo mode to "overclock" ONE core to 2.8, 3.06, 3.2GHZ respectively.

But at least in yours system RAM is 1:1 on M17x IT'S NOT (what means that you can overclock without increasing RAM speed )