I want to get a M9750 for my birthday... but

I want to get a Alienware M9750 notebook for my birthday in November, but I am unsure about some stuff. My budget is $2200. I have a few questions. Because the RAM is a bit overpriced I thought about buying a 1 gb then to save the money and buy 4 gb at my local computer shop who sell it for alot cheaper, Is it possible to take the ram out of the notebook and put the ones I bought in?

Thanks,
Allen

 

yes but buy them online. also why are you getting M9750?? you can do so much better with $2,200. look around and do some research. you'll quickly realize M9750 is pretty ancient.

 

Get the M15X its the new one

 

@Chu - Since your budget is lower (you guys are going to kill me), you should possibly buy a sager from xotic PC with a 3 yr warranty as you can get their 17" with a 8800GTX for a great price (probably under $2000) and you won't have to deal with the SLi headache.

 

i actually support what stone said. finding drivers for sli is going to be pretty much hell since nvidia doesnt support sli for notebooks very well yet. and yes you can just open the bottom panel of the m9750 and change the ram. theres even a youtube video of someone doing it i think, if you need help doing it.

 

@Exiled - Yea usually I would say go for the M17x or something but IMHO SLi is a headache and if youre on a low budget a sager will fulfill both of those needs better than an AW (price + no sli + speed)

 

I would get a sager with an 8800m GTX. I love my Alienware, but with all the horror stories of the m15x I would go with sager for now.

 

I agree too although if it were me i'd check out pro-starwhich is basically the same as sager accept you get a few more options with OS configuration. I like how you can get up to three partitions already installed and can have dual boot already configured with Vista Ultimate 64 and XP Pro. Not to mention some nice desktop processors.

Rob

Pro-Star (Sager) doesn't look as nice but they have higher end stuff and lower prices.

 

@Rob - Personally I like xoticpc.com because justin is a very active forum member here and he always runs benchmarks and whatnot on their new laptops they release. They also have a very high rating (9.7 / 10) on customer satisfaction.

 

Wait until November. Many things gonna change the end this months (probably even the mythic 9800GTX gonna make her debut until november).

Only advise is: don't stay focus only at AW section, look also the Sager&Clevo before make your mind.

And i strongly discourage picking up a m9750 since it is old, which give you very little lifetime on games/performance eating softwares and upgrade space.

 

or get a OCZ whitebook?

 

If you want a notebook from Alienware for $2,200, I'd suggest the m15x. It is thinner and lighter, and a single 8800M-GTX > dual Go7950GTX.

 

for $2200, you can do better. If you still like the looks of the M9750, Digitalstorm Online has the DM17 and RK Computers has the RKC-1756 (the latter is cheaper to configure and can be purchased almost barebone). However, you'll have to wait till the end of August or early September for them to become available. Both of them can handle a single 8800M GTX or two HD 3870s in crossfire.

 

I say get the m9750. It's a beautfully designed notebook and will still serve you well for a few years yet. It's funny how everyone says it's outdated and then to for the m15x with the 2.5ghz processor. Is that so much better than the 2.33ghz? The 8800 is better but the dual 7950s are still very good cards. Eventually the m15x will be put of date and all you'll be left with is a badly designed overheating notebook. The m9750 on the other hand is am absolute pleasure to own.

You can easily upgrade the ram from third party, it takes about two minutes. Also get only one hard drive and buy another from third party fir much cheaper. Enjoy your birthday notebook, you won't regret it.

 

haha, d'you know, it is, actually.

yeah but at least the m15x is up to date. the m9750 is already outdated by at least a year, more like two.

 

the m15x will be outdated by November, in fact, the m15x is nearly outdated now. if you want to be nice to whoever is buying the notebook, the m9750 is much cheaper now, though you're getting an older high-end notebook; however, it still rocks mostly every game on the market. though, by November new platforms should be issued and you can probably get a very nice notebook for $2200 this fall. i'd just keep up to date on Alienware and Sager/Clevo notebooks, but keep in mind other companies releasing newer platforms. i hear the m9750 case is getting a refresh by Arima and it's going to have a much better platform that what's on the market currently and will look very similar, if not, exactly the same as the m9750. perhaps keep your sights on that for a while.

the m9750 is still a decent buy since it's a pretty cheap notebook right now, it's 17 inch with a beautiful screen, and it's built pretty solid, not to mention, it looks pretty nice. it still remains a very slim package for a 17 inch notebook as well. keep that part in mind when choosing, however, in terms of performance, for $2200 bucks you could get something that will really outperform the m9750 in November.

 

QFT for the thinner and lighter. Might have some build quality issues but chaz is right.

 

the m9750 is based on the Napa platform. which came even before Santa Rosa. We're at Montevina now. get over the fact that the 9750 is OLD TECH.

 

If the m15x gets outdated, how outdated does that make the m9750?

 

Thanks for all your suggestions, now it makes me want to change to that ati one because i always wanted to swtich to ati, thank you ichime for that suggestion and thanks everyone for these helpful replies. i am really glad i came on this forum for notebook help

 

check this if you want a m9750: http://www.guruofgaming.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2202

 

wow why does the left most picture look like a m17x...

 

actually it looks a lot more like the m9750. that's because it's a revision of the m9750 chassis to take new technology. not a bad idea imho.