Need help, should I get the m15x?

At first glance it looks perfect, reviews seem to back this up (At least perfect for me). And with the AlienFinance scheme it is perfect. I can get the notebook, sell my desktop and use at as capital to make enough cash from ticket reselling to loose no money in this upgrade. In fact I'm willing to pay more money for a slightly worse notebook if it means I can get it now on an AlienFinance-type scheme.

However the costs go up after you see the 'customize' page. It seems it costs just under £900 IF you get the minimum specs, which seem to be very minimum, such as;

Windows Vista® Home Premium 32-bit with Service Pack 1
256MB NVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz (3MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB

I don't posses the computer know-how to calculate if this will meet my demands, and if not, what I need to meet them. Like I said before, I am willing to pay slightly more, because of the alien finance scheme.

So my question is (Finaly!) what upgrades do I need to get a m15x that will meet my requirements.
This is going to be my only computer for the next 3 years of uni life as an animation student, I will be using it for gaming (Id like WoW on full graphics mainly, newer games on lower graphics is no problem, but obviously higher is nicer if I can afford it), animation programs (from flash to Mia), and the usual tasks (media files, office, etc). Also I tend to do multiple activities at once, such as have WoW running, with Itunes, Mozilla and sometimes more running in the background.

Thanks for reading, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

you might be interested by this
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=nb&c=gaming&r=X70

 

Thanks for the fast reply and really nice notebook but that's going over my budget by quite a bit I'm afraid. I don't need the best of the best, just good enough for what I can afford. I'm not run Crysis on full graphics

 

Alienware isnt your best bet if your going with what you can afford. Its known for being priced high. You could also just buy the basic and upgrade later by buying parts from newegg

 

well 900-1100 is affordable to me, I'm just wondering if that buys an m15x that will satisfy my requirements. And if so which upgrades do I want?

And about upgrading sure, but by basic I need something that I can use now, that's still an upgrade to what I have. And sure in later months I can upgrade it further.

 

sager makes a 15 inch thats a bit cheaper

here is some nice stuff, its a good company i would suggest looking

http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-laptops-ct-95_51_149.html

come back and we will still help if you choose the sager

 

I checked out the Sager line, some nice deals, SAGER NP2096 caught my eye. Unfortunately I'm struggling to find a UK retailer online, and for what price they would sell for here.

Also could any of you answer what upgrades I'd need on the m15x, so I can work out how much it would cost me. And if similar systems (in terms of specs) are available at much lower prices from other brands. As said before if it's only £100 or so more, then I would get the m15x because I could get it right away...and I have irrational love for the design

 

if all the gaming is going to do is WoW then get

8700 gt and a p8300
1 gig of ram and upgrade to 4 gigs off of new egg and save 200
also get the 160 gig hard drive

 

Well I'm not sure if I'm going overkill with alienware and I should be getting something much cheaper.
I need a system that is going to be able to handle programs like Maya with no issues, as well as games like cod and total war series. And most importantly be able to these things for as long as possible, in terms of computing sessions (I can be using it up to 5-6 hours in one go during an animation assignment) and keeping up with the market (hopefully a 3 year life span, with the occasional update). I don't want a monster powerhouse because I will be moving it about a lot, though battery life is not an issue since I'll only use it indoors. Anything that can do this, and is cheap as possible is my buy.
Any specific ideas?

I saw a few that looked promising, but I don't really know if the specs are more then what I need or not enough. I guess I really need help with what specs should I be looking for. For example how does this rig compare to the m15x?

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=PEGASUS 520

 

what is the current exchange rate you are working with?

 

I'm only looking at UK sites, so none