torn between the M15x and the M17x

I have been looking into the M15x for a while now and I am planning on ordering from alienware in the near future. I just did a side by side comparison between The M15x and the M17x with very similar specs and the 17 is only a little more than $200 more!?!?

This was a bit shocking to me. Both builds include the i7-720qm and 6GB DDR3 at 1333MHz.

the 17x has a 5870 compared to the 260m, the RGBled, and a 1TB hdd compared to a 500gb.

I am no expert, but these specs kinda blew me away when i looked at what the overall price difference will be. After the %10EPP discount and nothing else, the price for the M17x comes to $2,272.00 vs $1,979.00 for the M15x.

Can i get some honest opinions on whether its worth it to just come up with a little extra money up front for the M17x or not.

Also, what type of performance difference will i see between the 5870 vs the crossfire 4870s if i decide to go that route.

I actually personally prefer the design of the M15x compared to that of the
M17x, but with the difference in performance for that price, i think id will be able to easily overlook that. (im sure ill be thrilled either way)

Im trying to get it under or just around $2000 if possible but a little over would not be a deal breaker for me. Do you guys think that this may be possible? as i said, those prices are after the %10 epp discount. I also have a $50 off, and im waiting for them to send out another $75-$100 off flier before i order. Any help or advice is much appreciated.

 

Im the the EXACT same situation man. I have no clue what one to get. The m15x looks way cooler in my opinion but id love to have the power and rgb screen of the 17, even though i dont need it at all

 

Go for the M17x!!!

 

@mcgrimace yeah. im only a casual gamer, so id probably be fine with the 260m in the M15, but the performance boost seems pretty significant for that price difference.

All of these issues would be solved for me if the M15 gets a GPU update soon, but who knows when and if thatll happen.

My other issue is that i definitely want this to be a laptop that will last me a while. Im sick of buying a laptop and having it be next to unusable a year later. I want to spend the moeny and have something that is usable for a couple of years.

 

ATI>nvidia
16:10>16:9
numpad>no numpad
WUXGA>FHD+

These reasons are more then enough to warrant a m17x over a m15x IMHO.

 

if you are okay with a 17 inch laptop, then get the M17x, its really a no brainer. The only reason to get the M15x is for a bit more portability. The price for the specs is much better on the M17x than the M15x, even if the M15x was to get a GPU upgrade which will likely only be the 5850, as rumor has it, that the 5870 wont be on the M15x.

 

M15x is compatable with the 5870m as well

M17x all the way. More keyboard, more screen, more space, more flags, more fun. Six flags.

People have said anywhere from 15-30% increase.

 

I was just reading through the thread about the single 5870 vs dual 4870sand im pretty sure for what i want, the single 5870 is the way to go. itll pretty much give me all the performance i need now and be upgradable down the road with a second one when i need to.

i need the notebook for more than just gaming so im actually more concerned about lasting processing power than gaming alone. i want to game on this beast, but i need it for more than just that purpose.

im really thinking at this point that the M17x with a single 5870 is the way to go for me.

 

LOL QFT......

 

Why not wait for crossfired 5870s? Less than two weeks away

Iknorite?

 

well, the crossfire 4870s push my budget a little to high at this point, and i dont have a problem doing a gpu upgrade down the line for an extra 5870.

I think that the extra size will be a big issue for me with regards to portability. Im not getting it for an on the go gaming device. Its generally going to be used as a desktop replacement system. as long as i can easily transport it when i need to ill be fine. if i wanted mobile gaming, id just get an M11x.

Just out of curiosity though, what is the average battery life for the M17x for non gaming tasks?

 

Agreed that's win right there.I went with the M15x simply because the cooling is better, the 9 cell lifts it up from the surface, and I don't need dual GPUs in a mobile computer.

 

wow! is there really an update coming in 2 weeks?!?! i somehow didnt hear about that. I wont be ordering for a little while but i can definitely wait 2 weeks no problem. Can I ask where you read or heard that?

 

It's terrible; under two hours.

If you're getting it as a desktop replacement, why not the M17x? You'll need power in your main rig and you'll kick yourself later for not getting the crossfired 5870s

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=477789

 

Courtesy of Notebookcheck.net

Battery Life

Evaluating the battery life proved to be unexpectedly difficult because in 95% of the case, the M17x froze when it was separated from the included adapter and could only be talked into working again with a restart. But when the 9 cell battery (85 Wh) worked, it could only satisfy the energy requirements of the power hungry components insufficiently. Thus, the M17x is already exhausted after 54 minutes under load (BatteryEater Classic test) with maximum brightness and disabled energy savings options. It doesn't look much better at DVD rendering with moderate energy savings options and disabled Crossfire, with 1 hour and 13 minutes. The M17x turns itself off after 1 hour and 26 minutes of internet surfing. Only with minimum brightness, full energy savings options and low load (Battery Eater Reader's test) does the runtime come close to the two hour mark with 1 hour and 54 minutes. Thus, the battery isn't really suitable for longer trips, it needs a stationary use instead. Incidentally, we could bypass the "freeze" problem by starting the notebook without the adapter to start with.

Update: It's probably a software problem. After we set the system to a previous restore point, everything worked perfectly again.

Battery runtime
Idle (without WLAN, min brightness) -1h 54min
Surfing with WLAN -1h 26min
DVD -1h 13min
Load (maximum brightness) -0h 54min

It's not really surprising that the energy requirement achieve astronomical heights for notebook conditions with such powerful components. The M17x drains up to 183.9 watts from the mains under load. The components treat themselves to between 52.1 and 69.5 watts in idle mode. Various multimedia notebooks need that much under load.

 

yeah, i dont need it for mobile computing. i was really just curious at what kind of time i was looking at

 

Just enough time to stay online during the trip from the desk to the bathroom

 

fair enough. I just figured that i would ask.

on a side note, i love this forum. everyone on here is helpful. nobody acts like an all knowing jerk. everyone just shares info and helps others out. this place cant be beat

 

I went with the m15x because of portability too. If you don't take it around alot then m17x is for you. I also have an 7811u-FX from Gateway and battery life is terrible when travel. I leave it at home most of the time.

 

one more question.

Im planning on getting DDR3 at 1333MHz, but im torn on whether or not i should get 6gb, or if 4gb will be enough.

whenever i see peoples specs, i see mostly 4gb so i figure it would be plenty, but again, i want this to be a system that last for a few solid years.

any advice for me? I will be using it for work as well as gaming an some multi tasking. Id like to have more RAM, but im wondering if id be better off getting 6gb now, or getting 4 now, and if i need it, getting another 4gb stick and setting it up to run in dual channel mode.

Any advice?

 

Between 4 and 6 the performance is negligible. Between 4 and 8 the performance is only seen in heavy media work that requires lots of ram.

 

On a technical point, I believe the 1366 rated CPU supports tri-channel mode, so adding 3 x 2GB DIMMS will enable this operation.

Like you I am also dithering between the M15x and M17x with the following specs:

M15x: i7-720QM, GTX 260M, 500GB, 1080p display
M17x: i5-520M, 4870, 160GB, 900p display

Both laptops are refurbs and cost exactly the same. What to do! I'm leaning towards the M15x as I can always fit a 5870 later on.

 

The big deciding factor for me is I absolutley want the aluminium casing and dual GPUs the m17x has but i like the look of the the m15x alot better and wouldnt mind having a "somewhat" portable system lol either way i dont care about weight though. Im not gonna be doing any heavy gaming or anything but i just want to have absolutley anything i play...play well...haha

 

Honestly 4GB will do you just fine unless you're doing alot of media file manipulation or virtualization. I run alot of VM's and I do fine with 3gb, granted if I have all 3 up AND Im multitasking I will reach or come close to the limit of my ram. Lets just say I have come dangerously close 5-10 times over the past 2.5 years on the dell. I am going for 4GB 1066mhz for my new PC as ram is MUCH cheaper to upgrade aftermarket and 4GB should raise the ceiling to well over what ill need for the foreseeable future. As for 1333mhz ram the difference is only slightly noticable for heavy media manipulation, and even then I have been told its not really worth the upgrade (somebody else can chime in on this please). But then again Im not a media guru so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

If it is between those 2 laptops then the m15x is better. One of the pros of getting the m17x is the 16:10 WUXGA screen (10% more screen space then 1080p) and since the m17x is 1440x900 (disgusting on a 17in IMHO) and the m15x has a quad core it looks alot more appealing then the m17x that you listed. Granted I do not like nvidia anymore, its a small price to pay for the better specs.

 

if it were me, id go for the M15x for the better computing power. and like you said, you can put in a 5870 yourself since it is possible.

 

wow, changing my specs on my M17x layout from 6gb to 4 gb DDR3 at 1333MHz takes it down to $2100. that means that i can either add a blue ray player to my build (which would be nice but not necessary), or likely get the price to under 2K for a monster of a system.

God. looking at this makes me want to order right now. i need to wait and see about these 5870s in drossfire. if that comes out in the near future, the system is basically sold. man i cant wait to get my hands on one of these.

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice. ive pretty much decided that unless the M15x gets a major upgrade by the time i order, that for the price and specs, the M17x is the way to go.

 

Im just waiting on my car to sell so can go out and order my new laptop. Im still technically on the fence between 2 laptops, but the option to be able to upgrade the GPU down the road is pulling me hard toward the alienware side.

 

I know what you mean. i just want to be able to easily upgrade when i need to. The speed that things become obsolete is blazing fast, so i want to start with a high quality product that is easy to keep up to date.

 

The main reason Im going for a m17x is the fact that the only 16:10 dell business 17in is the m6500 and it is really expensive compared to the m17x as is the lenovo and HP 17in business models. The m17x is the most affordable 17in workstation that meets my build quality requirements.

 

Long time forum reader finally posting, for the past few months I was sold on the m15x (waiting for gpu refresh) but like the OP I configured an M17x and was pretty pumped about the specs. My main questions/ concerns are:

1. Does the m17x still fit in a backpack with relative ease? It'll be at home like 90% of the time however I am starting business school in September so i'm sure I would lug it to school sometimes. 12 lbs is less than some text books I've had so im thinking it should be fine.

2. How does it "feel" compared to the m15x? I know it's like 3 pounds more but is it still fairly easy to move/ use around the house? I've never seen either laptop in person so I'm having some trouble imagining it. Also how different does the aluminum shell feel compared to the m15x?

3. Kind of a weird question but do you think being a business student (most likely specializing in finance) that the m17x having a full number pad is another compelling reason to get it? I've never really utilized one before...

4. Not really related to the m15x/m17x dilemma but how is the speaker quality on these laptops? The only other laptop I've really heard is my brothers couple year old non-unibody MacBook and it's pretty brutal. It's more about volume than actual quality than I'm curious about.

5. Besides portability and a bit longer battery life is there any other pros to the m15x that maybe I haven't thought of that could potentially sway me back

6. Official last question, does the lunar silver look good on the aluminum finish?and just in general does the alien fx look good with the silver case?

Thanks guys I've seen how helpful this forum can be.

 

Depends on the size of the backpack. The Alienware Orion Backpack could probably fit 5 of them.

Heres a side by side compariosn, for visuals only unless you speak German
YouTube - Alienware m15x - new gaming treasure

Abosultely.
Some good info starts here http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...le-ati-hd5870-graphics-card-perform-2.html#37

"The M17x has two full-range speakers underneath the palm rest. These speakers are as close to desktop quality speakers I have seen in a notebook (save for the Toshiba X205/X305). Bass is noticeable and the mids and highs are far stronger than typical notebook speakers. This machine has several audio output options – two headphone jacks, HDMI, and surround sound out" - taken from the NBR review Alienware m17x Review

RGB LED screen, crosffire GPU's, 17 inch screen, and as I said before "More keyboard, more screen, more space, more flags, more fun. Six flags."

Yes and yes. The Lunar Silver won't be as big of a finger print magnet as black, and Silver can pair with any color.

It sure is, just be careful not to thread-jack next time

 

^^^ well, to quote DR650SE,another excellent user of this board, "It appears that the M15x is the red headed stepchild of the alienware family."

Unfortunately, many of the best top end features are not being offered on the M15x. After they get the dual 5870 gpus for the M17x, it would be great to see them put one as an option for the M15x. At this point though, it seems that the only way to make this happen is to buy one and install it yourself.

Im actually considering doing that. but i need to read up on the warranty info. i dont want to do it if it is going to void my warranty on the entire system.

 

Whoops misread what you were saying. The M15x probably won't get the option of a 5870, but more likely a less powerful card. Like M17x 280 --> m15x 260 situation

 

i meant a single 5870 for the M15x after they put out the CF 5870s for the M17x.

unless they do a redesign, there isnt room for dual gpus in the m15x. i would like to see some sort of gpu update for it sometime in the near future though. if not, its going to start seriously lagging behind not only the M17x, but also a lot of other gaming rigs out there.