What is your input.

Well, I have an older m17, and to be honest it's been giving me a load of problems ( it's a little over 1 year old ) I'm going to be going to college soon so I thought what the heck, I'll buy a new laptop and send this old one to be repaired (so I have a backup laptop at college, JUST incase ) anyways, I saw that alienware came out with the new m15x, should I get that instead of the m17x? What is your input? I'm kind of lost here.

 

This is a good place to start:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=423002

 

Actually, I was JUST looking at that before I made my topic as well as the last 2 pages. xP But it still didn't answer my question, I'm kind of confused as to which I should be getting to be honest... aren't the i7s much more porwerful that the quad cores the m17x has?

 

Kind of depends, the m15x will be nice if you are taking it to class everyday in college, as it will be lighter than the m17x, the downside no SLI.

 

Well, to be honest. I'm use to hogging around my m17 which is heavy, so the weight wouldn't really bother me much... I was also wondering those of you with the m17x, what is your experience? How does it run? Any complaints/suggestions?

 

I'd go for the m17x then but I'm kind of biased though, love my m17x best laptop I've ever owned

 

Did any of you order any accessories? I was thinking of ordering the carrying bag ( NOT the backpack ) so I can use that to carry my stuff to class? Any and all experiences you guys might have with this laptop would really help me, I don't want to dish out 2k+ usd to have it go bad on me during my midterms >_<

 

No I didn't get any of the extra accessories I had a walmart gift card and just got a targus 17 inch laptop bag. This is a really nice bag for a good price.

 

Alright, well I don't do much gaming anymore ( I sometimes hop on TF2 or L4D ) but I'm mostly going to be using my laptop for studying/burning dual layer dvds and things of that sort as well as multi tasking photoshop, dreamviewer,cuteftp,flashget, etc etc. I'm probably ( if I get the m17x ) just going to get a single 260. The thing that bothers me about the m15x is the hard drive space and apparently the quality of the video isn't as good? should I just buy the m17x? Is the m17x processor a weaker processor (I'll probably get the cheapest quad core one by the way ) What is your input based on what I've told you?

 

If you don't game very much and are planning to get the singe 260 anyway I would go ahead a get the m15x it has up to a 500 gb harddrive for only 75 bucks extra if you feel you will need more space than this just get an external harddrive you can get some pretty nice ones for a fairly low price. I think that with the m15x you should be able to save some money with the kind of configuration that you are going to get. The video really shouldn't be a problem the new m15x comes with one of the new LED screen.

 

Is the m15x much smaller than the m17? I've grown to very use to the m17 keyboard style and such I don't want to go back to small keys. Are the i7 processors much better than what the m17x currently has to offer?

 

Yeah from what I've read here the i7's are going to be better than the ones currently available in the m17x again I don't think that anyone has got their m15x yet so there's no way to be absolutely certain. As far as the keyboard goes should be same size as m17x minus the numerical number pad on the right.

Edit: Whoops looks like a few people have got their m15x's so far haven't seen anything bad about the screen on the contrary people seem to really like the screen correct me if I'm wrong Marvie100

 

A low end i7 (720QM) Compares to about a Q9000.

 

Higher than that, seeming as the 820QM which is only 0.13GHz faster than the 720QM can keep up with a QX9300. I'd say the 720QM is about equal to a Q9100.

 

I love my M17x. It performs well, been reliable. and like yourself, the weight is a nonissue....

 

So based on everything I've said, would you guys suggest a m17x or a m15x? I basically want something that is durable and will last, something that if I want to later I can upgrade.

 

It's a good debate really. People who have the M15x are already reporting that it does have a good screen, however it has problems running on battery with keystrokes not being recorded, and for some retarded reason Stealth Mode seems not to be able to run on battery (pretty fail if you ask me).

The M17x is larger and heavier, however has a larger screen area, and the same/longer battery life than the M15x with use of the 9400M integrated chip inside it. It does use an older generation of processor, however very few games or applications will put a Core i7 to good use yet. The M17x also has two hard drive bays so if you ever feel that you need an extra hard drive on top of the up-to-500GB storage in one hard drive you can put it in. The M17x also has better build quality. Plus if you ever feel like gaming harder you can always get a second 260M for the M17x.

In terms of upgradability, the M15x is more upgradable in a way as it takes the newer mobile i7 processors whereas the M17x uses the Montevina Core 2 line, which is now pretty much not going to go any further. They'll both have about the same upgradability where graphics cards are concerned though.

 

Ok so here is just an idea price wise how much the m17x compared to the m15x in fairly comparable configurations.

M17x
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300
Single 260
17 inch WUXGA (1200p)
4GB ram (1333)
320X2 Raid 0 harddrives (640GB)

$3099


M15x
Intel i7 820QM (most comparable to QX9300)
Single 260
15.6 WLED (1080p)
4GB ram (1333)
Single 500 GB harddrive

$2474

Based on what you have told me before. i.e you don't game much, you will be hauling to class, you want the single 260, so on so forth the m15x sounds like your machine to me. These prices are without any discount codes so you might be able to save even more.