M17 Future Upgrades

I'm a upgrade junkie. Figured I would get that out in the open. I also like to tear apart things and put them back together which is not a good thing with my warranty. My M17 is set to arrive today, so I started thinking about things to do in the future to help out gaming and multimedia. This is my current set up:

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 T9400 2.53GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Terra Green
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support

Now the first thing I'm doing right out of the box is up is replacing the ram to 4 gigs. More then likely it will remain like this for a couple months. I need to tinker around with it for a bit before I dive into anything crazy. The things I'm most interested in is CPU after hearing that the GPU is processor dependent. However I'm also hearing that the 4870's are just around the corner, which may or may not have the same problem as the 3870's. So either I'm going to stick it out with the 2.53 or possibly invest later on in a X9100 or whatever beast they release in a couple of months (possibly quad if the marks are there). I would like to go to a SSD drive, but I'm going to wait a bit for prices to go down and capacity to go up (250gig is the range I'm looking for). I love watching movies. I wish I would have upgraded the drive to blu-ray drive before hand. However I will upgrade this as soon as I see something solid and decent in price come out.

Anyways, how many of you are upgrade junkies and what are you planning on changing out on your rig?

 

Oh they're there.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4243775&postcount=454

- F

 

yeah but see they had that quad running at 3.6 overclocked...

 

That's fine. Clock two out of the four cores on the QX to 3.06Ghz and it'll still likely outperform the X9100 and have two cores to spare. If I'm not mistaken, the quad has demonstrated more overclockability than the X9100, which would make it the wiser longterm choice for a number of reasons. Some have reported the X9100 to be unstable at 3.5G while the quad has been clocked as high at 3.7G, albeit with a high degree of cooling.

- F

 

i need to buy one of those, wish i got it to begin with. oh well. i can always upgrade. 17.3 is pretty good for a laptop.