M15x and College

Hey guys,

Ive been following the forums pretty closely as I am looking for a laptop for college. In theory the m15x has everything I need, ability for great battery life, gaming capabilities, fairly portable size etc. It seems the build quality has been mildly improving, (I can deal with a little screen creaking if necessary.) My real question is does this notebook have the longevity to get me through 4 years of school? I don't mean in terms of components but rather the ability of it to last that long without dying on me.

I realize that its only been around a few months, but what would your guys estimates be. Is it also to risky if I run into maintenance issues, running the risk of being SOL if I run into failure and need hardware to be replaced.

I also know that the new Sager 15 inch will be coming out soon but Im not sure if that will be released quick enough to get it to me before mid August when I have to leave and Im a sucker for the backlit keyboards, recently picked up one and would love to have one on a laptop.

 

I would personally say that most laptops will fail within a 4 year period. If you get the warranty for that length, you can probably be okay but there might be a major failure or two along the way.

I've seen a few last 4 years and more (one even 7!), but few and far between.

 

Most of my laptop Tend to last 5 years. There are some small issues that can come up but there easy to deal with.

Frist laptop Pro Star P4 3.4 EE l3 2mb cache, 1gb ram 2 80 gb hard drives.
Only issues I had 2 hard drive fail and 1 dvd rw drive fail.
But overall they all had quick fix.

Acer centreno core Duo 1.66 ghz 1gb of ram only issue is replacement of power supply.

Alienware area 51 5550I I had the most problems but I dont think all of Alienware products have this issue.

 

Does anyone have any experience with AW in dealing with older laptops still within warranty that they aren't selling or supporting? What happens in these cases?

Don't mean to hijack the thread but thought it was relevant to the original question.

 

The older ones like the area 51 5500, 5550. 15 Inch laptop Has a nice hard case to it. Some people like me had some issues with the laptop. But there alot more people who seem happy with the system.

 

I have 3 laptops so far: 1 Toshiba with P4, 512mb ram last for 3 years, 1 Hp last 2 years, and XPS1530, hope it will last long enough.
hardly to expect 15x last 4 years because it contain a 8800GTX inside. I think 2 years, maybe

 

Overclock system I would see problems but nothing overclocked.

 

clean it out and u will be fine.. most deaths are due to dead fans or dust... give it a good clean once a year or every 6 and u will be fine.

 

3-5 years should be ok. Worst case, buy 2 and use the second for parts

 

As long as you take care of your laptop, it should last a long time. My Sager is over two and a half years old yet has no problems. It looks brand new because I take good care of it.

 

That's true to a point, but I cannot imagine a 90+C average temp can help much..

 

I work for a BIG company, we are world wide and we trade in or laptops every 3 years, they get used and abused in those three years. I am currently using a Lenovo (IBM) T-42 that is do for trade this year. It is ready for it. The replacements that I have seen handed out so far is the T-61. I do not know what improvements they have but the people who have traded theirs in like them so far.

Our IT guy says 3 years is a rough lifespan for a corporate laptop.

 

hmm guess Ill just pass on the M15x then, build quality just doesnt seem to have the reliability I want while being away.

 

From an M15x owner perspective... That's a very good choice.

 

Will any high performance laptop is more than likely going to run into problems than a hp from best buy. If your gamer though your choices are somewhat limited on a laptop

 

the "older" the technology, as you will find in co-operate laptops ( not talking intel platform, but ram,hd,gfx etc and you pay for it, look at what you get in a consumer laptop vs a business laptop ( not talking about a cool 13.3 laptop) but the t series, the dell business series, you pay for the extra testing,guarantee etc. My T42 ( private) and my T41 business and T61 not a single problem with hardware, just software. Hp's I have used in the past, once you get past the HP software and sometimes strange solutions then I have never had a problem. Dell tends to be somewhat "cheap" but they do give me good run.

When it comes to the consumer line, like AW you see all the issues. Always wait until others figure out the lemons for you and wait and see, want something sound and stable that will keep you write your papers on time, look at the business lines, if you need a game pc then wait for Montevina as it will run cooler and potentially not have as many issues, see Clevo, VoodooPC, Sony, HP, Dell- we're probably talking a month and you can look for this generation barging's or go for a new business laptop they have tested for months ( Hp, Dell etc have beta testers, but more on the business line than consumer line)