New M15x vs. M17

After coming to the conclusion that my M17 is what it is, I have decide to come up with ideas on what to do about my laptop.

Quick background: I own a M17 2.53 C2D Crossfire 3870 set up. I used laptop 100% of the time over a desktop. I tend to always game with my M17 and do any other browsing company 15inch Dell latitude due to the M17 being a small land mass.

Games I play: World of Warcraft. Other MMO's (like Aion).

Honestly that's really it. I would like to think I play more, but other then a couple hours here and there on other games (Crysis Warhead and Warhammer RTS) I haven't sunk in the time I thought I was going too (Least for the M17).

I do a ton of Photoshop and multimedia work. I also play the hell out of movies and what not on the M17.

Last but not least, I travel to friends house every week with my M17.

I was planning on possibly going too the M17x, but the $3000 price tag was weighing on me (wife may kill me for dumping that much on a computer so soon as well). However I've started looking at the M15x for $1900 (Which is a smaller hill to climb after selling the M17). It's not a power house like the M17x, but the i7 core and the LCD screen have perked my interest.

Question I'm asking myself is whether or not it will compare graphically too the M17 (260 vs. Xfire 3870, I'm guessing 3870 come out on top). Will it be that much more mobile then the M17 (damn thing still looks like a monster, though the M17 power pack kills me). Is it worth moving to newer technology over what I have (i7 over my core2duo, though I could upgrade to quadcore)? Also the possibility of GPU upgrade has me interested, though I'm not going to let sway me this time.

What do you guys think?

 

looks like you need to do some soul searching on your computer needs. The worthiness for upgrading is up to you. For playing the games you mentioned the M17 is more than enough. If you like having the latest and greatest toys then see how much you can sell off your M17 for.

 

3870 CF would be slightly more powerful than 260M in games that are optimised for multi-GPU well; however generally the performance will be pretty similar, but with a single 260M, you won't have any performance scaling issues.

If performance per buck is what your after, you might want to get a Clevo W860CU. With 280M GTX, it could be more powerful than say 3870 CF often. Not to mention, its lighter, thinner, and cheaper. You lose the AW lighting though.

 

You kind off said it all in your own post, just need to figure it out for yourself but im betting the m15x will be a good machine so thats got my vote. Im liking my m17x with the cooling and the smaller charger that makes it even more portable then the m17

 

hoesntly. i would stick with the m17 and wait for dx11 cards to come out. but if you can't wait don't got small go big(m17x ) the 3870x2 is faster then the 260m. unless you overclock the stuffing out of it then it will be alittle slower then the 3870x2 STOCK. so it's up to you.

i went from the 3870x2 to a 9800m gtx and the performance was kind of iffy. i enjoyed the 9800m gtx over the 3870x2 but it wasn't becasue of the cards. it was because of the notebook itself. (ocz whitebook vs sager np9262)

if i had to have both notebooks again (same specs
ocz whitebook [email protected], ati 3870 crossfire, 4gb of ddr3 @1333mhz,
vs
sager np9262 [email protected], nvidia 9800m gtx, 4gb of ddr2 @800mhz )
i would choose the whitebook because of the performance all the way. but if i had sli the sager and quad it, it would be a different story.

so it's up to you.
there's games that would benefit from the 1gb of vram vs the 512vram. and the full 112 Stream Processors vs the 128 split in the two cards. but crossfire vs a single card kills most games in site. (getting lazy. lol)

edit: just to add. if were you and it was between the m15x vs the m17. i would keep the m17.

 

the M15X I7 processor is super .. but the off the charts memory bandwith and cpu scores you can see on the net are tri channel memory related ..the new M15x does not have that option..if it did i may have changed my mind and canseled my M17 order i did last week.. the M17 has it all upgrade to a X9100 dual core or a T9800 and 4GB of kingston 5 latency ddr3 KHX8500S3ULK2/4g or KHX1333C7S3K2/4G you can find them all on ebay or newegg

 

oh I didn't know you just ordered it. I thought you had it for a while. Why not the m17x?

 

the m17x is to expensive.. i just ordered a single gpu and a T9800 for desktop work , trips out of town, ect... 1200 dollars cheep.. but i am shure it will play games ok also

 

how much if you drop the cpu and crossfire it.

what games do you play?

 

..............................alienware is sick gotta have one...............................

 

i was thinking about that.. it would have been the same price ...but i have a desktop with a I7 and tri channel memory a nvidia gtx260 and LIAN LI AL. CUSTOM case i have kept the same case and change out internals every few years

 

half life painkiller gears of war serious sam fallout3 bioshock rpg oblivion fable

 

must have upgrade is a... ocz vertex turbo solid state drive.. i picked up one at newegg the 30 gb is 149 dollars the 64 gb is 240 dollars.. about 200 read and 200 write with a single drive.. in my desktop it boots from a cold start in 10 seconds

 

oh ok.
i would get crossfire over the better cpu.
your getting 1920*1200 right?

 

I bought a M15x. Most likely I will keep the M17 as well and tether it for good somewhere for a in house spare gaming laptop (also my wife loves it as well, so she may adopt it permanently). I very well may be disappointed with the M15x, but I didn't want to shell out the 3k+ for the M17x and I wanted to experiment with a lighter more portable laptop to see if I use it more (also go with something that has more processing power and a better LCD screen). Also being a flagship AW product, it very well may see upgrade possibilities to the GPU (here's hoping for 4870's), though I won't count on it.

I've always been on the bigger means more mindset, but I never really utilize all that is available. So I will give this a whirl. Worse comes to worst, I have my M17 to fall back on and I'll end up picking up a M17x in the next generation.

 

the 4870's are availble for the m17x.

 

They were tempting me pretty hard. But even one 4870 would put me over 2100 without changing anything else on the M17x, so I decided against it. If the M15x ends up disappointing in the first week I have it, more then likely I will try to return it and just bite the bullet for a M17x (I need to check return policies). I always go overboard on this sort of thing, I'm trying to play it different this time.

 

The M15x may get a 4870, it depends on chipset compatibility. I say may because there is a chance, the power requirements (65W) is the same as the 260M.

You should be very happy with your new M15x, I remember seeing my cousin's M17x with a single 260M and games ran really well on it. You should see graphics performance about the same as your M17, however some games may perform worse if they supported multi-GPU. Similarly, you'll find quite a few games and many programs will work better with the i7 processor.

You could potentially return the M15x if you don't like it but they will more than likely hit you with a 15% return fee, which at this sort of money is quite a lot indeed.

 

YES i went with the 1920*1200 wirelessN T9600 and backlight keyboard 2gb ram .. have a ocz ocz turbo SSD for it and 4gb of kingston low latency dual channel memory .. i would have went for the new M15X but the 15 LCD .. for a desktop replacment is not for me

 

From what you described, it sounds like the M15x would be better suited for your needs. The i7 in particular will help speed up your Photoshop work, and I've heard raves about the LED display (can't wait when I return to the US - gotta check them out myself). And with what you want to spend, the M15x is definitely a better deal. The specs of the M15x suggest to me it can hold its own in gaming too, though perhaps not as good as a dual GPU system. The M15x is about 3lbs less, and for some people that is a huge difference.

The "quad-core" available on the M17x is not a true quad core, and this does sometimes cause problems.

If I was in your situation, I would go the M15x with either the best GPU if you think you will do more gaming, or, the best CPU if you plan on using productivity apps.

 

If you're saying this because it's in fact two dual core processors combined, the same is true of all desktop Core 2 Quad processors as well and those don't seem to have 'problems'.

 

So the problems are in fact limited to Alienware? Hmmmm....something to consider in the future then....