M17x Or M15x Decision

Okay i was all excited to buy the M17x Then after some research find out that alot of people say that it does not last long and u will be replacing fixing alot of parts often. And that theres a major stuttering issue when gaming where ur fps drops to like 5 every like minute when using windows 7. How much of this is true? Im so worried that ill spend 3500 on a gaming laptop and have to replace/fix parts every month

 

I don't know how people can come up that it does not last long when the new M17x hasn't even been out that long? What are they doing to their systems for the components and parts to wear out so fast? As far as I was away the new M17x and M15x are built pretty damn sturdy, at least from all the stuff I've been reading about them. I think the stuttering issues come from the SLI, when SLI was all the rage even on desktops way back, this same issue surfaced on many, many forums. Either stealth mode or driver issues imho, but as I don't own either, I can't say for sure.

 

You've must have been talking to them Sager folks over there. Someone there said that the M17x has a 90% failure rate. lol!

 

Okay so im in a pickle. Ive got 2 options that are pretty much the same price i need some advice.
SYSTEM COLOR Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black edit

M15x option.

PROCESSOR Intel Core i7 820QM 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)

OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

SECURITY SOFTWARE: McAfee® VirusScan Plus – 30-Day Free Trial (English)

WARRANTY AND SERVICE: 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service
after Remote Diagnosis

LCD PANEL: 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED

MEMORY: 6GB DDR3 at 1066MHz

HARD DRIVE : 250GB SATAII 7,200RPM

VIDEO CARD: 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M

INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW,
CD-RW)

BATTERY OPTIONS Primary - 6-cell (56Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery

SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
$2,599*!!!!



---M17X OPTION 2.


SYSTEM COLOR: Space Black – Anodized Aluminum


PROCESSOR : Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)


OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English


WARRANTY AND SERVICE: 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis


LCD PANEL 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)


MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz – 2 x 2048MB


HARD DRIVE : 320GB 7,200RPM w/ Free Fall Protection


VIDEO CARD: Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled


INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE: Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) $2,869!!!!




This is a what you get for your price thing? which one do you think i should buy???

 

Lol I was !!! haa

 

Well what do they know about it. We owners do

 

I'm sure others will disagree with me here, but I would go with the i7 processor. Read up on it and you will see it is quite an impressive piece of chip technology.

Sure, you can't SLI with the 15, but I personally think that with the i7 (not available in the 17", the ability to fully use the 1333 memory due to the non-existence of a front-side bus bottleneck, and the single 260m GPU, you would be better off....may or may not score high on benchmarks, but I doubt there would be anything you couldn't run just as well as you could on the 17. In the end, the i7 optimizes all parts of the systems...

Now if we could get a 17" with an i7 and SLI....that would be the deal!

 

I personally would go with the M17x option, but I am a heavy gamer and graphics dude. The larger screen size and the dual cards will push my gaming buck farther than an i7 and single 260 alone will IMO.
And when/if the 9600 gets too slow in a year or 2, you can overclock the crap out of it or upgrade to a high end quad and still have dual viddys in SLI, which will be much more supported gamewise in the next few years. The life expectancy of a single 260 will be much less than a pair of em as support for SLI grows and improves.

And they don't have a 90% failure rate I have never had a problem with mine and would recommend one to anybody out there.

 

I'm praying for the stuttering not to happen on my system delivered tomorrow...

 

i7 is a good processor. I concidered the M15x seriously before deciding on the M15x. The i7 and being a little more 'portable' was the only reason I concidered it. At the end, I am glad I went with the M17x. I would have regretted it in the end.
I do think the M15x might run somethings like PS2 emulators a little more fluid. I won't get my M17x for awhile to see how it performs on those.

 

Cant take advice from someone with a mac. SOrry. Lolz.

 

I would go with M17x (ignore sig). Some of the things I just couldn't live without on my main computer are:

1) Screen size
2) Dual Hard Drives
3) Battery life (yes, believe it or not. I am averaging 3:20+/- battery with Display at 50% brightness)
4) Numpad

Other bonuses:
1) Dual cards
2) Aluminum
3) Weight (not)

 

Anyone know how prevalent the stuttering issue is on the M17X? Wondering how much of hit-or-miss this is. Hearing this is already starting to make me nervous while waiting (long wait) for my AW to get delivered.

 

Thats nice unplugged time. Any other tips for longer unplugged time?

 

Yeah thats what i was thinking but im totally freaked of waisting and spending 3.5k on a machine that stutters (((( im leaning towards the m15x at mid specs for 2600... But then im scared to get that cuz im freaked the screen size will be to small to hardcore game and that im gonna have to put my eyes right next to the screen to see anything

 

His advice was sound. The i7 will benefit your system all around, and score a lot higher when it comes to anything not related to gaming, and still pack a decent punch gaming wise. One has to ask themselves if what they want is pure gaming, if so then yes the M17x will not disappoint, but if you want something that you can do a lot more with, then the M15x will ouotshine the M17x, hands down, because of the i7.

 

Thanks for the vote of support...I do try to stay informed all around rather than just limit myself to one brand.

BTW, anyone who doesn't think a 4 pound MBP is a lot better to haul around daily for general use than a 9-12 pound gaming laptop?

 

Well yeah a MBP is a nice piece of machinery but a gaming laptop is just that a "gaming" laptop. You cant really play COD4, Crysis, WOW (10+RAID) on a MBP on native resolution with nice eye candy.

Im also waiting for my M15X but im still debating whether I should go with a SFF pc or something or Matx board pc. I ruled out the M17X due to the older technology and I dislike SLI as it has too many complications associated with it...

Im wondering whether the 15inch of the M15X might be too limiting for gaming tho...

 

Well for me personally, I'm a digital composer/musician/DJ and I spend a lot of time moving around, using my equipment where it needs to be. All the tools I use require a hell of a lot of power to get what I need done on time.

I've never had a MBP in my life, but for ease of use for general stuff I'm sure it's a lot easier. Hauling around 9lbs and a chunky laptop for day to day activity, like the M15x/17x might prove to a problem for some. You can't just whip it out on the bus or train, as it's just a little too big/heavy imho. Not to say that I won't be doing that while working on my music, but the abysmal battery life doesn't win any awards. Though, if you move around a lot and have access to a power outlet, I'm sure from room to room the 9lb'ers+ will come into use more.

I'm a little concerned about this too. I have a 22 inch widescreen monitor right now and moving down to 15 inch might be a little surprising, but I also have a Samsung Q1 UMPC which is 7 inches, and that's not too bad for a quick and dirty use, but for gaming I'm not sure 15inches will be enough to see the smaller text? What we really need to see is less unboxing videos and more actual videos of the M15x in action with games.

 

Well, the QX9300 and the 280m's you have do not help battery. Other than that, I haven't done any tweaks to it. Just have my display at 50% and everything at stock. Usage is really limited for me on battery, I usually surf, maybe use some light photoshop, etc. You understand; lite usage.

Also, for what it's worth I always Fn+F2 when plugged in and fully charged.

I have no stuttering issues on Windows 7, and didn't have any either when running Vista. Maybe it's my dual core, but I've heard people with duals also getting stutter. Therefore, I would also say hit-or-miss.

 

My system is delivered tomorrow. I cant guess how i would feel if it turn out to be a stuttered one. I'm so nervous. I will return it if it stutters.

 

So the okay so what im wondering here is say im running aion, and im also running a web browser and itunes all at the same time? what happens there with the i7 720 proccesor? the 2.8 ghz is split up.!?@?!?!@ im lost

 

If you're running lots of different things, the i7 is going to be a better performer I'm sure. I wouldn't get carried away with all the technical things, a lot of us don't even know exactly how the i7 works.

 

Bottom line here, if you need a balance between some portability with decent power, go the M15x.

If portability is not a factor (desktop replacement) and you're after gaming, go the M17x.

Oh and I seem to remember reading somewhere that the latest BIOS revision has fixed the stuttering issues?

 

Okay, let me break this down slowly for you (no insult intended, but you clearly don't understand multiple core processors very well)

A dual core processor has two cores, each running at one clock speed, for example 2GHz. It's like two processors each running at 2GHz.

The quad core processors are the same, but with four of these processors in it.

i7 processors also have four cores. However, when less than 4 cores are being used (because not all programs will use all 4 cores) it will overclock the cores being used. If only one core is being used it can overclock as high as 2.8GHz. Two cores in use can overclock, but not as high as 2.8GHz. If 3 cores are in use, it will still overclock, but only by a very small amount. If all 4 cores are being used, then it won't overclock at all.

 

also core for core, clock for clock the I7 is faster vs any dual or quad core anyway, making it the ideal solution for a flexible mobile chip.

 

Well, I haven't had any stuttering while hardcore gaming, did have some stuttering doing routine tasks (email, browsing, etc.), but lately even that has not been an issue....