The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    m14x or ? for Maya

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by Daegul, May 6, 2011.

  1. Daegul

    Daegul Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Looking at picking up an Alienware for a reasonable (under $2k) price, and the m14 seems like a decent bet.

    What's my best bang for the buck, particularly with the 3gig graphics card (which apparently doesn't have a huge performance impact on gaming)? Or am I better off getting an m17 (m18x is just too pricy when spec'd up even a little).

    The ram upgrade to 8gig for $100 seems like $ well spent, but other options ($600 for an SSD, seriously?) just don't.
     
    Daegul, May 6, 2011
    #1
  2. martinroshak

    martinroshak Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    46
    Messages:
    215
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Just from reading around....

    You're right, don't get the 3gb gpu, you will not see a difference in performance given the size of the laptop's display.

    If you want to make use of the 1600mhz RAM, you will need to have a 2720QM processor, higher isn't necessary unless you're doing a lot of video editing, encoding, etc.

    Dell in general is expensive for things such as RAM, HDD and SSD (as you have picked up) upgrades. $100 doesn't sound too bad but I would shop around on any pc sites in your country to see if you can get it cheaper, as is usually the case.

    The display choice is really personal preference, although for productivity's sake the 1600x900 will most likely be better and would be a worthwhile upgrade.

    Any m14x users who have a better working knowledge of the details feel free to correct me, but I think I'm pretty spot on.
     
    martinroshak, May 6, 2011
    #2
  3. Cloudfire

    Cloudfire (Really odd person)

    Reputations:
    7,279
    Messages:
    10,304
    Likes Received:
    2,878
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Who is Maya?
     
    Cloudfire, May 6, 2011
    #3
  4. HEUR

    HEUR Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Maya works perfectly on m14x...
    Maybe a m18x is the best choice!
     
    HEUR, May 6, 2011
    #4
  5. stevenhsiao

    stevenhsiao Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    If you are using mainly for Maya, 3gig graphics card is a bit too much.
    You should save a bit of money and upgrade as much RAM as possible for speed up rendering.

    Even though some company like Vray have start using GPU to run rendering instead of RAM, but 1. this only happens recently, no one knows how well GPU runs yet. 2. 1-2 gig GPU should more than enough to do render...
     
    stevenhsiao, May 6, 2011
    #5
  6. BatBoy

    BatBoy Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,395
    Messages:
    7,964
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    206
    We have a M14x forum and there have been several threads on this. Please look around before creating a thread.

    Thanks.
     
    BatBoy, May 6, 2011
    #6