larger laptops

I always loved the alienware aurora malx. I was looking the other day and found this on ebay. Does any one still have there alienware aurora malx, and if you do could you post some screenshots/videos of it, maybee playing some games or something. I read that alienware has a rumor about a new 18 inch laptop with there new line. What do people think about having a bigger laptop?

 

I can make the answer easy

However it's incomplete with screws missing on the bottom cover, missing hard drive (and caddy), missing DVD Drive, Missing Battery and Power Supply is NOT included. We were able to power this on and get to the bios but was not able to boot off of an external CD drive and from what I have gathered you will need a propreitary DVD drive to install the operating system. We got into the bios, we were able to identify the video card models but could not get any CPU information so we are not sure if it is single core or dual core. I am throwing in a 512MB memory card to help you get started. Other than that we are assuming this is not working and hence the power up to the bios screen, we are strictly selling this for parts or repair and considered BROKEN WITH NO WARRANTY. Ideal for replacement parts or an experienced tech. Once again sold as is what you see in the photo is what you get (besides the mac laptop and furniture).


Now the question is do you really want a system that Might not work

 

Graphically it's a very weak laptop by todays standards. I'd look at the M17x if big laptops are what you're looking for.

 

Id venture to guess finding some one on the forums would be close to nill that still has one(aurora malx). There were a few for sale not to long ago buy one time owners, cept those were lots more $$. I just think having all 19 inches of glory on my desk with its shinny metalic paint would be cool. Could use it for video/cad stuff, and with sli 7800gtx that gets 5000 marks in 3dmark06 it could handle a good asortment of games on lower settings.

 

There's little point really in producing a gaming laptop larger than 17" nowadays. You can nowadays (and have been able to for a while) fit two mobile graphics cards in a 17" system, and keep them very well cooled. The only things you currently get out of a larger system are a 3rd hard drive bay and a slightly larger screen; two things I wouldn't consider worth the extra size and weight.

We might see larger systems return if they ever choose to being 3 or 4 GPUs into a notebook system, as they will need more physical space. But I reckon if we ever do see that in the future, just like in the past few years, those GPUs will once again shrink and reduce the system size needed over time.

 

I see little point of having a 19" laptop that is considerably less powerful than the M11x. It's not mobile.. wouldn't a desktop with a 24" display make more sense?

 

It sounds like a great deal but the LCD screen is probably worn down and faded by now not to mention other parts of the system.

 

Sapphire has come out with a HD 5970 with 4 gig. The desktop market is advancing much fast than the laptop market. People who buy laptops for gaming are usually people that need a laptop by necessity and require portability. If you just want a machine to play games than build your own rig for half price. There are good PC magazines that show you step by step how to build a system at every price point. The nvidia 295 or HD 5870 are very cheap right now and you can put 3 of these in a desktop system for a reasonable price.

 

Honestly, I have to agree. We're talking about a multi-gpu system that gets stomped by a 48 unified shadder 330M in a 11" laptop. The 7800GTX is a 5 year old design, it's definitely not up to snuff anymore. The $419 they want is completely outrageous for what's basically a parts only laptop.

 

That jaksenlanier is best to ask on HP forum. But I heard the alienware 11 Inch is nice.

 

It's a 72 unified shader 335M in the M11x, actually. Just thought I'd point that out.

On another note, there are certainly many millions who would disagree that the 7800GTX is outdated tech. But with some irony they don't even know they have one. The PS3 uses an nVidia GPU based on the 7800GTX and very similar to it. That's still churning out very high quality games. My point here really is that even 'outdated' hardware like that can display amazing games if used to its full potential. (Unfortunately, very few modern games will do that)

 

To point out a few things I did have a Aliewnare m5550 with a geforce 7600gt which ran games pritty good. That was in 2006. The only downsides of the beforce geforce 8000s is it will be running directx 9 Even with the directx9 drivers the grapics look great.

 

I always disagree with these kinda remarks because laptops are great for gaming and should be thought of this way. Personally I think the age of desktops will be defunct sooner or later. Tv entertainment centers will take over the desktop genre, but laptops will always be around in a the form of some type of phone or other mobile device. Alot of threads are made on the internet on what type of laptop some one wants for gaming, and then get tons of replys about laptops arnt for gaming, and bla bla bla. but I dont think thats right, so...

but I do think the price of the aurora I listed was quite a bit for a parts laptop.

 

No one here will disagree that laptops are great for gaming... I personally don't see much use for rigs that bench over 20k marks because 90% of games that are played on the PC are straight console ports. I read an article on Eurogamer in which a Microsoft exec foresees at least a 10yr life cycle for the 360 giving us all 5 years of current gen gaming. Desktop PCs will always exist both at home and in the workplace. And yes, they are exponentially more powerful and cheaper than laptops meaning that those who do not require portability will sensibly opt for the superior cost effective option.

 

unfortunately, no PC game does that. There can be absolutely no comparison made between a console and PC. The overhead differences are just too great.

uhh, no they're not? They're hot, the ones that do it well are big, suck a lot of power, have absolutely no battery life, are loud, usually are 1-2 generations behind desktops and the curve that Games are designing around. They're the opposite of everything a traditional laptop is thought to be. They suck at it infact. We buy them because they're cool and maybe because a few of us move around a lot to go to lan party's or would just rather play on our laptop than haul our desktop everywhere. That doesn't mean they're good at it. The fastest laptops in the world aren't even 1/2 as fast as the fastest desktops, given the same cost to build.

 

Err... if an M11x can max out the settings of any game circa 2008 and before i'd consider it to be great at fulfulling its role. 15-17" laptops can perform to the highest standard easily encapsulating the enthusiast level gaming experience. I don't recall comparing laptops and PCs like-for-like - they both offer different things, hell.. if your only understanding of laptops is that they suck and can only to the best of their ability produce a choppy pixelated mess then perhaps you should try a unit which has, i don't know.. a graphics card?

 

You're forgetting something, it'd be in your opinion that a laptop doesn't game well. Exactly what people want in terms of gaming performance is up to them.

For a fair price, you can get an M17x with Crossfire mobility 5870s. Yes, a desktop may be cheaper, however there are many advantages of having a laptop, even if it's not very good in terms of a 'normal' laptop. And while you'd get more power out of a desktop for the same price...do you really want that power?

For many, many people, crossfire mobility 5870s are more than enough. They'll play almost every game out there, maxed out, at a 1920x1200 resolution-even Crysis is mastered by the beast.

In return for the extra price compared to a desktop, you do get some nice features. No, the battery life isn't long, but the fact is it DOES have a battery. A desktop doesn't. And while it's not very portable, it's still far more portable than a desktop. I take my M17 on holiday in the summer and winter, and any smaller holidays in between-I could not do that with a desktop.

My M17 cost me £1500, compared to my family's desktop of comparable power which would cost £800 at the time of ordering my laptop. But I'm happy to pay that extra for the power to take it on holiday, the ability to take it to LAN parties, and the ability to easily use it around the house. Yes, I could have got a very powerful desktop for that; I don't need that much power, my M17 plays games just as good as I want from a computer right now, maxing out most games at 1440x900-and even the games it can't max out still look great.

Oh and just as a point to counter several of yours; the best gaming laptops out there run very cool (even my M17 runs no hotter than that desktop I mentioned above, and both run a damn sight hotter than the M17x), they suck out far less power than a comparable desktop (my M17 will suck out 180W on max load-the latest, most powerful graphics cards alone suck that much out each.) and you really can't say they're generations behind desktops. They aren't, simple fact.

 

it's not an opinion, it's a fact.. CF 5870s are more or less equal to a desktop 5870, mabye a little less, this is simply insufficient to play every game today at full-bore. I don't think anyone here is going to say that they would rather play on medium settings rather than high settings of anything. It's just a matter of what we're willing to put up with and sacrifice that is the subjective part.

play games from 2+ years ago? In 2 years, the M11x will be obsolete(or nearly any laptop built today), which ties in with what I was saying, they're always behind the curve. It's always been that way, it always will be. It's just a matter of your needs in combination with what you're willing to sacrifice. The M11x sacrifices more power for more mobility, and the reverse becomes the case the larger you go. That doesn't make them great however. It will do the job, yes, nothing more.Maybe it sounds better if I say, a Quad SLI Desktop is great, a CF 5870 Laptop Is also great, but in different ways.

you didn't need to type all that, I already agreed with most of those points in my previous post. my desktop does have a battery btw, it serves the same function as in my laptop: a UPS, which is all the battery in a DTR laptop really is anyway. You can not honestly tell me that the 1-1.5hours most DTR's get on their huge batteries is enough to do anything remotely productive. They're there almost for aesthetic reasons, if they weren't there at all, I'm not so sure many people would mind too much. Do our laptops work decently now? yes, however, they're equipped with hardware that's already a year or two behind what games are now being designed for. It's just not a good combination for keeping anything longer than 2years or so, which a great desktop can do, but that ties in with what I was saying before.

 

What's opinion is if gaming laptops are good at gaming. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that desktops are more powerful; that is fact. However, the opinion part comes in to play when people consider exactly what they want.

It's a severe understatement to say that a desktop 5870 isn't sufficient to play every game out there maxed out. It is. Even Crysis, at 1920x1200, runs very well on a desktop 5870, and similarly well on mobility 5870 crossfire. They truly have mastered every game at their laptop's resolution (1920x1200). And the very few out there that they might not be able to play full load, they will still play in absolutely astonishing detail that a full blown gaming desktop would barely be able to improve on (excluding the insane resolutions pushed out by a huge EyeFinity display). This may change in the coming years, but in today's terms, crossfire mobility 5870s are sufficient to play EVERY game out there in stunning detail, nearly every single one maxed out. And that is a fact.

Of course we would rather play on 'high' rather than 'medium', that's why we have such powerful beasts. If there's any game that the crossfire mobility 5870s can't max out, both today and in the coming years, it's the difference between "very high" and "ultra high", or the difference between 1920x1200 and a slightly lower resolution. You really can't argue with me on that; feel free to cough up some benchmarks showing the crossfire mobility 5870s showing weakness playing ANY game, and I'll listen.

My comparitively ancient crossfire mobility 3870s manage to max out every game I have except for Crysis at 1440x900. Even Crysis I manage at a modded level between high and very high, at 1280x768. And just a single mobility 5870 will manage to edge out my crossfire 3870s, even if not by much.

 

A little game called Metro 2033 maybe? Give me a benchmark for that game and I'll run it. I can't play it with very high detail in directx 10 or 11 in half the game, even with AAA and AF reduced to their lowest settings. Before you bite my head off explaining that's the one game. I trust you'll remember that it's a 2010 release, not some 1-3 year old game we're talking about.

1440x900 is not 1920x1200, although if I did play at that resolution, im sure things would be a lot easier to play on, yes.

Most titles review sites benchmark on are a couple years old now. Crysis? That's a 2007 release buddy.


in any case, I'm done arguing for the sake of arguing. I respect your opinion, I just disagree with it. Friends?

 

I did say that there are a few games that wouldn't run maxed out. And the games that can't be maxed out, such as Metro 2033, will still look amazing at the lower detail levels.

I was comparing my 'ancient' hardware to the very latest. My cards aren't even as powerful as a single mobility 5870. Add a second 5870 (and consider that crossfire scales better at higher resolutions) and you can see that it can game well at 1920x1200. Benchmarks have proved that.

2007, to be exact. And it's still one of the most graphically demanding games on the entire market. Very few games exceed Crysis in either graphical detail or in how hard they push the hardware.

There are many games being pushed out even today that look no better than the games of 2-4 years ago. Unlike the hardware, game graphics don't get better extremely rapidly.

Basically, Crysis is still one of the best benchmarking tools because it still looks better, and still taxes the hardware, far harder than nearly every game out there today, so it is still an excellent measure of how good graphics hardware really is. If any given graphics hardware can play Crysis on High or better, then it will do very well on every other game (even if it can't max them out it'll still look great)

Fair comment. I'm arguing like this really because I just enjoy debating about things like this. Just as with you, I do respect your opinions and I can see your solid points in your arguments, I just don't agree with your general motion.

 

my ninja edit skills are still top notch.

 

I'm also thinking that larger than 17" screen is overkill


But, heck, if the market supports it, let them make more of them.
Don't mean I have to buy one...

 

18" and larger laptops have always had a tough time in the market. Many models have died off with rather low sales volumes.

It might well be worth it if that extra inch or two matters. But the M17x with the LED screen is about as good as most would wish for.

 

yup, past 17" mobility and chassis flex become issues, and it's just not desirable.

 

Anything larger than 18.4" in my opinon would be a all in one desktop. Why don't AW make one to replace the Studio 19. Say 27" with Dual 480M's or 5870's and Desktop I-7 980X six cores?

 

Actually, now I think of it, something like that could be quite a good idea. A gaming all-in-one could work quite well for those with space challenged areas.

The only issue really would be cost; if it was much more expensive than a normal gaming desktop with the same components then very few people would buy it.

 

I would consider pcs at the workplace workstations, but I still dont think they will be around for ever. Besides If you took a poll on an adults, how many would come up with laptops compared to desktops. I don't think nearly as many would have desktops. They might have workstations...but just desktops for browsing the net and stuff no...

 

If I wanted a really good desktop it would be setup for water cooled overclocked and sli or crossfire 2 to 3 gpus. That would take 45 Mins to move the case, Power cords, keyboard mouse, Monitor other parts. To the car.

But with the Laptop I can unplug cord set on top on the laptop and put in the car. 3 Mins tops.

So both system each with there pros and cons but they both can do anything I want them to.

 

I found another gorgous malx aurora, this one was a one owner, and has a bit more info then the other one I posted. The auction says it dosnt post with beeps. It's here to look at so what do you think it would take to get it functioning again?What kinda problem does that sound more like, mobo? memory?

 

Im not really a desktop fan, I much prefer laptops mainly bacause Laptops support my needs, they are more portable, and I can easily set it up with less hassle.

 

The aurora malx is a 19 inch lapotop.

 

it also weighs ~ 17lbs, not including the adapter.

it could be anything, however normally RAM goes before anything else. The auction has the coded beeps, I'd try to find an online manual to see what that specifically means. If you can nab it for < $150 it might be worth while since DDR ram is cheap, if it's something like a GPU or CPU though, you're in another $100-150, and if it's the mainboard, you'll have to find a whole new parts unit most likely.

 

Yah I got some extra notebook ram laying around, ID still need to get a sata drive for it though. Cpus rarely die though so I dont think that could be it. Messing with replacing a mobo though would be a pain! The condition of it loooks good though, and the screen is ok so no matter what dosnt work with it at least it has those two things going for it. Maybee someone else knows more about the beeps and it not posting? Free shipping to!