Interested in an Alienware in a Few Years

I am in college, and am interested in an Alienware laptop. I was messing around with the new M17 on the website.

Specs:

Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
4 gbs of ram

The total was 4 grand which totally surprised me, my total was around 7k with the other ones

Will this configuration play games that come out in a few years on best settings?

I'm not very technical, I just picked the best options.

Thanks

 

The CPU definitely won't be a problem, but I don't know if dual 3870's will play on the best settings. Certainly high, or at the least medium settings though. Your configuration is still strong. I just don't think it will completely max out future games.

 

Can you recommend the best alienware laptop that'll handle future games with ease? Price doesn't concern me yet.

Thanks alot, +1 to your rep for helping me

I don't know much about computers, I just want a gaming beast

 

I think the 3870's in crossfire will easily handle all the latest games with no problems. If you have the money, 8800 gtx sli is slightly better with the m17x, but there are no quad cores with the m17x. I would just stick with the m17

 

Alrighty, so the M17 will be more powerful in the long run? I'll look at the M17 and figure out what crossfire and sli means

Basically, what I am asking is if price isn't an object, what is the best alienware laptop?

 

Crossfire and SLI more or less means the same thing, 2 GPUs working together. Crossfire is for ATI cards, SLI is for Nvidia cards

 

Handle them, yes, but he's wondering if they'll max them out. It is possible, I mean I never said 3870's in Crossfire were weak. It's just they're only getting more demanding especially if maxing games out involves YxAA/YxAS.

The m17x's Dual 9800M GT (Same performance as Dual 8800M GTX) might be a little stronger. Driver updates may improve 3870 performance. So far 3870 performance is not really that impressive and is being kept up with by a single 8800M GTX. I'm sure drivers will at least surpass a single 8800M GTX but I don't know about dual 8800M GTX/9800M GT.

Edit: He also said "few" years. So, our scope should be greater than a year from now, which I can only see as more and more demanding. Like I said though, dual 3870's should still play games at high, medium at the least, for a number of years. I would guess.

Also, should you choose to go with the m17x, I'd recommend buying the RAM separately as you can save a couple hundred $'s that way. It's relatively easy to install yourself. Here's the official AW guide for the m17x.

 

Honestly, I would just go with a D901C if I didn't need battery life. Desktop quad cores>> anything that will come out in laptop world for a WHILE, and 3 hard drive bays is also sweet along with the 9800 gt x's

 

So a maxed out m17x with ram bought separately would be my best bet?

 

Speaking from experience, there will always be something THAT much better in 2 years, and you'll wish you waited. You might want to spend more like 2K now and get a nice laptop with a 9800 video card (quite a few available in the 1500-low 2s, and very respectable performance compared to the 3870s) and save the other 2K.

That 2K in the future will still buy something faster than your 4K on the 3870s would buy now...

 

I don't have the money now, I'm at -1000 because of college at the moment

There will obviously be something faster, and I understand that. The new macbooks just got released and I couldn't care less. As long as i'm happy with it, well, i'm happy with it

If I got it today, I'd wanna play

Crysis/Crysis Warhead
Assassins Creed
Far Cry 2
GTA 4

When I get it, I wanna play the best and newest games on max.

 

BlackMac, I think we're looking at the same things: A rig that will last a while, play current games on max and preferably not trash our wallets.
What has attracted me to AW a this point is the fact I can send in the laptop to upgrade the laptop with a new CPU and GPU and then reconfigure the system to properly run.
The m17 uses the new Intel Centrino 2 processors (m17x doesn't), Which is good for wireless, better at the same GHz and "better battery life."
I am seriously looking at getting the m17 with the T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB Cache) or maybe the T9600 (it's practially as good as the X9000) with the 2 ATI cards. In the spring, when I get back to the States, I plan to send it back to AW to upgrade the CPU with some of the new Centrino 2 chips that will be around then. If they can upgrade it with a better GPU at that time, I will have that done to.

 

They're both solid laptops. You just need to take a look at their differences and then decide from there. For example, the M17 doesn't have the ultra-useful smart bay but the m17x does.

 

I still got a few years to decide

 

Oh, I thought you were buying soon. In a few years there will be a new model for sure.

 

Though smart bay is very useful for the m15x, I don't think it matters much for the m17x. SB battery is not yet available for the m17x, and even if it does become available I don't really think it can help that much with the battery life of the m17x with its 2 9800m GTs.

So the smart bay would then just be for the optical drive and an extra hard drive. Since the m17x can already be configured with 2 HDs, having a 3rd smart bay hard drive is not really all that essential unless you really need a ton of space

 

Come on guys, the xfire 3870 beat the 9800M GT, 8800M GTX SLI in both 3d06 and games. And they are on par with the 9800M GTX. Dunno where all this BS about the 3870s being weak and ATI drivers sucking is coming from.

 

Now I understand the title of this thread. Makes much more sense now.

 

i have yet to see a single 3d06 that shows where the 3870 crossfire are on par with a 9800 GTX sli, i haven't even seen them on par with the 9800 GT in sli... maybe the 4870 crossfire > 9800 GTX. I am just stating this from the data i have seen, if anyone actually has any data showing that 3870 crossfire X is on par with the 9800m GTX i would love to see em...

i am just not one to put my faith in apparent drivers that are supposed to come out and make these graphic cards into something amazing that there is no evidance that they can even do it... i'd rather go for the sure thing...

but if ur droppin 4k on a laptop i would deffinitaly go with a D901C from clevo, not only is it a better processor, its got 9800 GTX in SLI, plus it has a better warranty as well...

don't take my word for it... post under the "What Notebook Should I buy" forum asking what the best laptop is out there for 4k to play the most demanding games... shoot, dun even put a price cap on it, just say best laptop for gaming and see what hits you get back.


Oh, but what a i was gonna say, is if ur plannin on waiting at least a year to buy, i garuntee there will be new laptops out.

 

I didn't know that actually. No smart bay battery for m17x? Does the m17x have an integrated card?

And gaz might want to take a look at this thread.

 

m17x does have Smart Bay, but no IGP. For the Smart Bay, I believe you can have the "usual" options of optical drive and HDD, not sure about extra battery though.