M15x gamble - should I pay or should I go?

Having read all the posts on recurring issues, poor customer support etc I have decided to take a leap of faith and purchase an m15x - I just can't resist the looks

However I have some quick questions to ask before I go ahead (forgive me if this has been covered already...)

The spec I'm looking at is as follows:

Ripley design
1920 x 1200 LCD screen
Vista Home Premium
GeForce 9800M GT
X9000 2.8GHz processor
Standard 1GB RAM (will change myself later)
Turbo Cache Memory 1GB
320Gb 7200RPM SATA
Standard DVDRW
Illuminated Keyboard
(hopefully purchasing an empty smart bay so I can instal my own hard drive also)

Now, is it a complete waste going for the 2.8GHz processor - by this I mean would there be a noticeable difference between that and say the 2.6GHz?

I'm mainly getting this laptop for gaming (plus the fact that its ultra portable -anything bigger is not an option) but if its worth it I will pay extra to future proof the machine and get longevity out of it. The only other indulgence I have which would be taxing on a processor would be movie conversion ie h.264, xvid, divx etc. That and running Cubase and other such audio recording software. All other activities would be pretty basic such as office apps, some basic photo-editing - nothing heavy in other words.

What should I do peops? Am I a bit late in the game to be buying this model - should I hold out and see what Alienware might have up their sleeves over the coming months?

All advice greatly appreciated

Jay-C

 

stick with the t9300- best bang for buck. Since you can't overclock extreme processor, you won't see much difference in day to day tasks and save yourself a lot of $$$

 

I second that statement.

 

Cheers for the swift response folks -

I'm still a tad confused however, if money were not an issue would you still advise to go for 2.5GHz? Would the extreme processor enable me to get more out of my machine and extend its life in an ever-updating market?

Thanks again

 

drop the 1gb turbo. total waste of time and space and has also been reported that it can slow things down when running 4gb ram.
ive even removed the 2gb card from my sager as i found it as crap as the 1gb card.
not heard much about the 4gb card yet.

1920x1200 hmmm!
imo the 1440x900 would be better and save you a bit of money as well.

 

Yeah go for the t9300. My experience has beel alright if you love the system (like I do) then go for it. I would skip the turbo memory also and just upgrade your ram. I regret messing with the turbo.

Is there any evidence the turbo actually slows things down? Benchmarks or something?

 

the X9000 runs very hot in the m15x, so it might actually kill the longevity of your notebook. also, if a 2.5Ghz CPU is outdated, a 2.8Ghz CPU will be outdated as well.

 

I like you... took the gamble and purchased a M15x. same horror stories i read about my previous M5550 ....and i ended up loving the machine with zero issues. I made the same gamble with the M15x.... and it has absolutely none of the issues ive read about.....except for the barely noticable creak of the lid...

with that said Ive only had the machine two months.. so only time will tell with the hinge issue.. But i purchased 3yr warranty ... so im at least clear for that time, and if the hinge breaks after 3yrs.. i'd probably be upgrading by then ...thats just me though. And if u wanna save some mula...just get one year warranty, and upgrade to 2 yrs before your year is up.

oh and i went with the 2.5ghz processor. The extreme probably wont show a noticable difference and may just end up generating more heat. Just my opinion.

your probably have people telling you your wasting your money on the m15x when there are other machines with same specs that are cheaper.. but i dont see it that way... A gaming laptop you can actually use on ur lap and have awesome battery life thanks to binarygfx and smartbay... thats where i see the price difference.

 

hmmm.... am glad I posted here, some great advice folks, very much appreciated. And whilst I'm here can I say what a great website this is, informative with extremely helpful locals lurking around - nice one

Ok, spec update - say I drop to a 2.6GHz would this be a slight step-up from the 2.5? On your advice I will leave out the the turbo cache memory also. Thats an incredible saving already!!!

I'm going to hold out a little longer I think as living in Ireland (eurozone) the price is fluctuating due to the instability of sterling - I've noticed it rise and fall by a couple of hundred euros in price difference! (Ironic tho because as far as I know Alienware are partly based in Ireland - their sales phone number quotes the Irish dialing code!!)

Jay-C

 

Let me put it from my view.

At this point, I have a 2.13 Ghz processor. The step up from that is a 2.33Ghz processor. Right now if I would have spent another $700 for a 2.33Ghz processor, there would be basically no difference. Yes that is a bit of a overstatement but since this tech is outdated 200mhz isn't going to really make anything run noticeably faster at all. In fact, you may not even see any performance increase if your GPU is the bottleneck (which is likely could be).

Go with the 2.5Ghz. I'm sure you're asking "Should I go with the 2.4Ghz?". The answer is no as the 2.4Ghz does not have as much Cache as the 2.5Ghz which does make a difference.

Hope that helps you.

Also you can't overclock the X9000 which is really the only reason to buy it 0_0

 

1. As everyone above has posted, go for the T9300 Processor for the best bang for buck. You could also go for the 2.6 if you want, but most people here agree that the price difference for a .1 Ghz difference is not worth it.

2. Good thing you would be upgrading RAM on your own. It's easy to do it yourself, and the Alienware support site even has step by step pictures to guide you through the process.

3. Order a Smart bay battery and a Smart bay cage with your system. With the smart bay battery, the m15x on integrated graphics and power saver settings can get you upwards of 6 hours of battery life. Smart bay hard drives from Alienware are a lil expensive, so just get the "cage" and add in the hard drive on your own.

 

Order 1 gb ram from alienware, stick this in (model i used, and its really easy to do it yourself) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231135
Order the 120 gb hard drive and the cage and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280
Stick the 120 gb in the cage and there you go! You saved ~370 right there and have 400 gb of hdd space!

 

Hey, I hate to bring a post back from the dead, but I'm hoping to load Cubase on my m15x (I just inherited a copy of Cubase 3 SE). I've been looking about a bit and it seems notebooks aren't typically designed to accomodate the software. Just hoping Cyberpunkd might be able to tell me what I'll need to get Cubase to work on my m15x? Will I need any external gear, or will my soundblaster express card do the job?

Again, sorry, but he has no contact details. Any help from anyone with experience in this sort of thing would be great. Thanks.