should i get dual gtx 280m's or dual hd 4870 mobility's?

well i made the decision to go with the 4870's and also i bumped up the hard drives to be 1 Tb with 2x 500gb in RAID 0 configuration so the final specs lineup is:

Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
ATI CrossFireX™ – Dual 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 4870
17-inch WideXGA+ 1440x900 (900p)
6GB DDR3 at 1066MHz
1TB - 2x 500GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Alienware TactX Stereo Gaming Headset
Microsoft SideWinder X8 Mouse - Black

with a grand total of $3,448.80 tax included. What dya guys think?

 

Get the Wuxga screen for sure... Dont skimp out on the part.. trust me it will be that much better..

 

^^^^^^ What he said! Its the only way to go!

+ I would get 4gb ram and add the blu ray dvd player/burner to really enjoy the upgraded screen!

 

how would the 4 gigs of ram affect my gaming? would that affect performance in crysis and other games?

 

4gigs is more then enough... Focus that cash on the upgraded screen and maybe an SSD .. Forget 6 gigs for now...

 

k. isnt it true that games right now are unable to use more than 4 gigs anyways? and thats something i can always upgrade in the future too

 

ram and hardrives are the easiest upgrade.....Takes about 5 minutes to add a hardrive and add ram. All you have to do is remove the battery and unscrew 2 screws. Pc of cake!

 

Just wait till the Prices fall on the 4gig sticks then upgrade if you feel you need it .. Right now the prices are still stupid expensive for virtually no performance difference ... We are talking gaming here though.. There are things that could use the extra ram but gaming is not one of them..

 

64-bit software will be able to address 4GB's and greater, but the amount of memory will not help with performance in games. Other software such as photoshop, maya, etc will... Just not games.

 

Hello Guys, My Virgin post

I have been stalking this forum for around 4 Months now, and have read absolutely every M17x thread and post here, and elsewhere. I have been deliberating between the M17X and the Clevo M980NU; After a lot of reading, I have decided to place my order for this system.

My only grip is having SSD's in raid config. I hear that this can be a bit of a problem with running SSD cleanup programs. I wonder if I should reformat the drives as none raid? either way,l think the machine will be pretty awesome over my Ageing M1730.

I had to order the Machine over the Chat system on the site, as I wasn't able to have a SSD+ Sata Mech drive combo, and there is no config for dual SSD's on the UK site. But I was informed that 2x SSD's would be £600 extra. So that is what I went for.

Alienware M17x Gaming Laptop - Space Black
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz,1066MHz FSB,12MB L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64bit- English
3 years Next Business Day + Accidental Damage
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English
Accidental Damage already selected in your Service Plan
17-inch Wide UXGA 1920 x 1200 - Beyond HD (1200p) Display
4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
512GB Solid State Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" Dual HDD - (2x256GB)
CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® GDDR3 Mobility™ Radeon™ HD 4870
Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) Optical Drive
9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
N12W1701
Alienware M17X Order - UK
English Documentation
Alienware M17x Resource DVD
240W AC Adaptor
UK 2M 250V Power Cord
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
1 year of coverage included with your PC
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe
Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n) European

A lot of guys on this forum have helped me with my decision, You have put in a lot of hard work testing your Machines and this has helped me decide on the best option (I like the think I chose the best option anyway )

So thank you to everyone who has put a lot of time into these threads and posts, without your input, I would still be here making decisions. *a special thanks to The_Moo, Mandrake aka NWGuru, Quadzilla, dondadah88, the3vilGenious, Praetorian77, raven82, Scook9 and many others. I have had lots of fun reading the posts in here and soaking up all of the wealth of knowledge you guys have. I have certainly learned a lot about computers over the last few Months because of you guys.

I do hear a lot of negative stuff about dell and Alienware, but I have owned 3 dell systems and 1 Allienware in the past, and I have certainly had no issues with customer support. Everytime I have needed a replacement, it got fitted in my home the next business day. so I can't moan at that

Thanks guys, for all of your very valuable input! I speak for a lot of silent surfers here I am sure

 

Thanks! Nice to see a post from someone new who isn't doing it just to complain.

As far as RAID SSDs go, check the firmware of the disks when you get it. It will be printed on top. If it's a newer firmware you can leave it in RAID since the controller will be handling the cleanup and not Windows. I don't know if anyone has sufficiently tested this yet but in theory it should work just fine.

 

I think you made a big mistake with the screen, you will be much better off with the 1920x1200 especially with all that GPU power.

 

This "Oscar winner" part is sweet Sure this is the best forum Ive ever joined. We have best guys here and got professional advices 24/7/365 for FREE!!!

 

well, according to notebookcheck.net benchmark, it seems that the Dual 280M SLI performs much better.....

 

Your bill is in the mail.

I've owned both and the only benchmark I did better with the nVidia system was DMC4. Everything else has been bested by the ATI cards.

 

well i am getting the upgraded screen and also i would like to thank you guys as well! my last littly decision is wether or not i want silver or black! lol

 

I have black and it is amazingly nice, and goes well with the lights.

 

LMAO

RED! I posted a topic that has some pics of my red. Just in case you are considering the color

 

First off, GREAT that you went with the 1080p Screen. Complete waste to have the SLI/Crossfire and not be able to run 1900x1200.

Also, I would choose Black just because I personally like it and its a tad easier to clean and I believe resell value might be better as its the most popular color.

 

Black is the "safest" color and red is the "loudest".

 

Remember if you ever plan on selling it, black will be worth more long term (because it apeals to a wider range of customers).

 

Just dropping in and saying thanks

also I personally like the red just because I like being loud but the black is nice.

Also you have choosen wisely on your build

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_200_Series ->
The GeForce GTX 280M is GDDR3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...essing_units#Radeon_R700_.28HD_4xxx.29_series
The CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® GDDR3 Mobility™ Radeon™ HD 4870 is GDDR3.

I am about to buy the same laptop but I really have no idea which one to choose and why. They seem not to have any differences but Nvidia is more well-known.

 

It really comes down to your own personal taste. But, from what I've heard the 4870's will overall perform better than the 280's. The better the processor you get the more so that is true. 280's are less processor dependent while the opposite is true for the 4870's.

Personally, I'd say go for the 4870's. That's what I'm getting with mine.

 

I got the 280M sli's. They run pretty much every game like the ati should..

 

Just bought an M17X myself