My first gaming PC?

Hi Gamers,

I am looking to purchase my first gaming pc. It will be used mostly for role playing games and Photoshop applications. My choices are between the xps 17 (not the 3d), m15x, or m17x r3 (also not the 3d).
Here are some configurations:

XPS 17
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2520M processor 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.20 GHz
6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus

Alienware M15x
Intel® Core™ i3 370M 2.4Ghz (3MB Cache)
4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3)
1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M

Alienwar M17x
Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M

Will 4gb be enough for games?
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

 

There are a couple of questions which determine which is the best for you.
- How long do you want to use it?
- What do you want to play on it?
- How much money do you got for it?

 

I hope the pc would last for 4 years.
I would like to play starscarft 2 and Dragon Age on it.
$1500 is my budget.

Thanks

 

If you're not set on Dell, check these out:
Sager NP5160 Custom Laptop (Built on the Clevo W150HN) (choose 1920x1080, not 1366x768)
Sager NP8130 (Built on Clevo P151HM1) Custom Sager Laptop
Sager NP8150 (Built on Clevo P150HM) Custom Gaming Laptop

The XPS 17 is a multimedia laptop, not necessarily a gaming laptop, though the graphics card is decent for gaming.
The M15x has the older processor architecture (if you want it for gaming, go with something better than the i3)
All the Alienwares are all a bit overpriced, but they are good gaming machines.

 

The Sager computer have so many options on configurations. Thermal Compound? Do I need to open up the PC and applied it? I might create a mess. I would not trust myself. When I pick out all the option I might need for the my PC, the price keeps on going up and up. Guess I need to do more research and rad the reviews on the Sager computers.

Thanks

 

Not to go too far offtopic (this is the Dell forum after all!), but all of the internal options (like thermal compound) in the XoticPC configurator are done for you. So if you pick ICD7, for example, that's the thermal compound that they'll use when they put the notebook together for you.

Apart from the Sagers, any of the 3 notebooks you've listed will fulfill your (so far) listed requirements. The M17x will obviously be able to handle the 2 games you listed at the highest settings of the three, but it's expensive and heavy. The M15x is a 15" notebook, as opposed to the 17" of the other 2, so it's going to be smaller.

And yes, 4 GB of RAM should be plenty for the time being. Upgrading later is easy, and probably cheaper in most cases.

 

I have been fooling around with the Sager and Asus configurations and addons. And it seems to me that these computers cost around the same as Alienware. Sager and Asus, both have good warrant. Sager have a common outer black shell and Asus outer shell look similar to Alienware. The addons for Asus's backlit options are extra costs for each color. The Alienware's backlit option is already included with multiple colors. I really like this option, so I will just stick with Alienware.

Thanks

 

Well out of those, the M17x is obviously the best, but wont that be way more expensive then the other 2 configurations?

The Xps 17 is good aswell though. You can get one with a 2Ghz i7, 555m, 500gb hd, 1600x900 screen for around £850, where as the m17x you listed probably costs £1200+

You'll probably want an i7 if you're using photoshop a lot. And the graphics card does the majority of the work in terms of gaming.

And yes 4gb ram is plenty for games. Besides, ram is really easy (and cheap) to upgrade yourself. You just clip it in to the back of the laptop.

So in conclusion, get the M17x if you have enough.

 

Man this is tough. i7 it will be.

 

I can run most games on top settings on my XPS 1645....I'm going to use the XPS 15 (LX1502) as a gaming machine, and I don't think I'll see a problem.

 

XPS 15 is a good laptop, and for many games it could be all you need.

Just remember, the most important upgrade on the Dell XPS 15 is the B+RGLED 1920x1080 display. It's the first option under the "Adjust Performance" tab (on the USA website, may be different for other countries). The standard screen is a disgrace to the XPS line, and the upgraded screen is one of the best consumer-laptop screens currently available. Photoshop will also be awesome on this display.

With a $1500 budget, you'll probably be able to afford plenty of upgrades, just make sure the B+RG screen is one of them. Only fools completely spec-out the innards in laptop like this and "forget" the most important upgrade: the screen. The base CPU on the XPS 15 is a lot better than the base CPU on the Alienware M15x as well (both bese it's SandyBridge / new generation, and because it's not an i3)