Opinions on using Vista 64 w/3GB DDR3 1066MHz in CF Alienware NB?

I was looking at the CF 3870 notebook with a T9400 2.53GHz/4GB DDR3 RAM & Vista64 for $2200, it is kind of as high as I want to go in price.

But I reconfig'd it to have a T9600 2.8GHz w/3GB & Vista64 for $2350... which is a bit over budget, but worth $150 more for the faster processor. But I don't really want to go any higher than that price of $2350 cause I'd already be $150 over my max and adding that last 1GB is another $100.

My thinking is I'm not going to use more than 3GB of RAM for just games, but Vista 64bit usually runs games faster by alotting it some more memory... though still not enough to hit that 3GB limit.

So T94002.53GHz/CF 3870/4GB DDR3 for $2200 or T9600 2.8GHz/CF 3870/3GB DDR3 for $2350?


*I'm not actually sure I'm getting either at this point as I may choose to wait for better tech, but I think they are good for the price/performance and much better than the Toshiba x305-Q706 [P8400 2.26GHz/SLI 9800m GTS/4GB DDR3] I was looking at so I am getting REALLY tempted. I'm sure I'd be happy enough with the performance for the next 1.5 years or so when I'll be looking to upgrade again. It's 50-50 at this point*

 

Actually the x305 is way better in terms of performance/price ratio.

For M17, why can't you get it with 2gb ram first? it would be closer to your budget and upgrade later by yourself.

 

fusion is smoking something.. the 4GB of RAM shouldnt be a deciding factor.. Go for 4GB and the T9400 - Then smile and be thankful you can upgrade to a quad core CPU down the road when prices drop. Or, get 2GB of RAM and purchase another 2GB stick elsewhere and go with the T9600. RAM is too expensive from most notebook retailers.

 

From what I hear the Q706 is only hitting the mid-upper 9Ks unless you OC the P8400 through software. Additionally, the GPUs are packaged together which raises the heat and that extra 9400GT seems to cause some issues with sticking in true SLi mode plus the two different GPUs prevents OCing last I heard.

As for just getting 2GB, I still want Vista64 primarily, so it was more of a question of getting away with using just 3GB. Plus I'd just need to upgrade 1 stick later, if at all. I'm just liking the idea of a really decent processor and much better than the P8400 pushing dual GPUs a few $100 more.

ALSO, What's the recovery on alienware? Do I get a drivers disc at least? If it was a separate disc, that would be nice for upping to W7.

EDIT: Seeing what your xoticpc does with the x9100 E-wrecked makes me want to go 3GB RAM with the x9100 for $2700.

 

Whatever you decide on..make sure it's the final decision. I'll let you know, the scores in my sig are with a BIOS overclock, and a GPU overclock. However, you should hit almost 15k with the x9100 @ 3.3GHz. Unfortunately, the AW system doesn't allow for CPU or GPU overclocking. Check out this thread to see who supports the original OCZ setup.. before AW gets ahold of it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=311358

I suggest Xotic, but others lean elsewhere..it's all personal preference.

 

Wait wat?

The Alienware system doesn't allow for CPU OCing through the BIOS even on the x9100 that is meant to be OC'd? That would send me back to the T9600 in that case.

 

Exactly. AW doesn't support OC'ing the meant to be OCd CPUs.

 

Haiving seen a few of the other sites on that list, Cyberpower is the only one that will give me the x9100 [and 4GB of RAM] in my price range [that is, reasonably outside of my price range], but is there any reason I should trust their quality when it comes notebooks since I don't trust their quality for desktops in the 1st place?

 

Gonna PM you square..

 

Thanks man! I'm going to have to take a closer look at this tomorrow.

 

Good luck.