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    Which M17x would you choose?

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by tbonephile, Apr 11, 2010.

  1. tbonephile

    tbonephile Notebook Consultant

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    I have a choice of a M17x with a QX9300 and 1080P and GTX 280m SLI with Blu-ray burner or a M17xR2 with i7 820qm and ATI 4870x2 with 1920 RGB screen and DVD-RW. Cost to me is about the same. Which one would you get? I'm wondering because I heard that the QX9300 OCed is faster then the 820qm. Any thoughts?
     
  2. beelsr

    beelsr Notebook Consultant

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    Diffs between the 2, from my research for my system exchange:
    R1.............................R2
    CCFL screen................RGBLED screen
    Core2Duo....................i5-i7
    NVidia GPUs.................ATI GPUs
    NVidia chipset..............Intel chipset
    Integrated GPU............only discrete GPUs
    better battery life *......--
    Blu-Ray **.................No Blu-Ray
    black or silver.............black, silver and RED
    --.............................more HD options

    * When you use the integrated GPU, it consumes less power
    ** If you can still get one with BR, it's being phased out

    IMO, I would go R2 all the way. Anything to be rid of NVidia right now. Somewhat objectively in comparison: the RGB screen is better and higher res and the ATIs are faster.

    Clarksfield CPUs are typically faster than Penryn but OCing can flip the winner here - depending on what you're running. The Turbo Boost in the Clarksfield depends on how many cores are activated...

    If you don't need BR in the laptop, you can always add it externally via USB. I wouldn't let this be a deal-breaker for _me_...
     
  3. Malignant

    Malignant Notebook Ninja

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    RGB Screen > R1
     
  4. HeatFireAsh

    HeatFireAsh Notebook Guru

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    Just get the R2 and the i720 and add the blu ray player.
     
  5. darkloki

    darkloki Notebook Deity

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  6. tbonephile

    tbonephile Notebook Consultant

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    I have no problem working on the computer I'm just wondering which is faster a QX9300 OCed to 3.06 with GTX 280m sli or a i7 820qm (I think you can't oc it, turbo not counting) with 4870s. My biggest thing is I love to get 2 plus hours of battery out of my laptop and I guess only the R1 can do that... What to do...
     
  7. EntityX

    EntityX Notebook Evangelist

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    You will run the risk of having high latency and stuttering with the R1.
     
  8. tbonephile

    tbonephile Notebook Consultant

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    EntityX, Since you have the exact same specs I was looking at on the R2, I was wondering what kind of vantage gpu and P scores you get? Thanks!
     
  9. tbonephile

    tbonephile Notebook Consultant

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    BTW I am also based in BJ!
     
  10. EntityX

    EntityX Notebook Evangelist

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    Nice, whereabouts in BJ? I'm at work right now but when I get home i'll post my scores.