Customizing An Alienware Laptop. Help Please.

Im customizing my laptop and i need to bring it down 200-300 more dollars. So please help on what components wont make a significant difference.
---> this means i have this one selected at the moment.

Hard Drive
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM [subtract $75.00]
320GB SATAII 7,200RPM [subtract $50.00]
---> 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM [Included in Price]

Memory
1066Mhz Memory
3GB DDR3 at 1066MHz [subtract $75.00]
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz [subtract $25.00]
1333Mhz Memory
3GB DDR3 at 1333MHz [subtract $50.00]
--->4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz [Included in Price]

LCD Panel
15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED [subtract $100.00]
--->15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED [Included in Price] Choose WideFHD for full 1080p

Video Card
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M [subtract $200.00]
1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5730 [subtract $150.00]
1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850 [subtract $50.00]
--->1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M [Included in Price]

Processor
Intel® Core™ i3-330M 2.13GHz (3M cache) [subtract $300.00]
Intel® Core™ i5-540M 2.53GHz (3.06Ghz Turbo Mode, 3M cache) [subtract $100.00]
Intel® Core™ i7-620M 2.66GHz (3.33Ghz Turbo Mode, 4M cache) Add $0.00
---> Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) [Included in Price]

Internal Optical Drive
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) [subtract $150.00]
---> Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) [Included in Price]

Wireless Card
--->Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card [Included in Price]
Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card [Add $45.00 or $1.00/month1]

 

Go 4GB 1066MHz RAM
i5-540m
Radeon HD 5850

That's $175 down, and I guess the Hard drive would be next, easiest thing to upgrade later besides RAM

 

That is way more than enough to take off. Get an external if the 250gb HHD limits you. 1600x900 should be ample at your screen size.
i5 is more than enough for your needs, correct me if I am wrong.

 

I mostly agree with the above posters. I'd make every effort to keep the 1920x1080 screen resolution, though, since higher resolution is nice for productivity.

I have to say, though, the $200 difference between the i3-330M and the i5-540M is a painful ripoff. If it would be possible to upgrade yourself while keeping the warranty, that would likely be significantly cheaper if you can sell your Core i3.

 

I agree, I would try and keep the FHD, but he asked for suggestions, so I suggested =)

 

Call Dell, tell the rep what you are looking at and start comparing prices to Sager. Sometimes they can cut a deal for you. The hard drive is easy to cut, as it takes a few minutes to upgrade yourself later. You could cut screen resolution (but I love my 1920x1080 screen on the G51) as it would actually improve gaming performance at native resolution (less pixels to render=more FPS). I'm also not convinced by the Blu Ray drive, and you can get an eSATA enclosure and a desktop drive for about the same price. But that's just me, it's pretty subjective. But going back to my first suggestion, try cutting a deal with Dell first. You may be able to get everything you want for close to your price if you get a good agent.

 

Agreed with many of the above posters - make every effort to keep the 1920x1080 screen resolution. It will greatly increase your productivity; a higher resolution means less scrolling, seeing more stuff at the same time, etc.

If anything, cheap out on the hard drive and RAM; those are easily upgradeable later on and doing so will not void your warranty.

It's a shame Alienware does not offer the i5-430M or i5-520M processors. That is a really steep upgrade price from the i3 to the i5. Not worth the difference IMO . . . the i3 should be fast enough for just about anything.

 

i would get the crapiest hard drive and upgrade urself.. also for RAM get the lowest amount.. also keep the full HD screen.. for GPU get the cheapest one which is GT240M and upgrade to a 5870 1GB GDDR5 urself easily.. and u get epic gaming laptop.

 

I wouldn't waste the time upgrading the graphics card yourself... get what you want now. I'll let others argue the merits of MXM cards... but does Alienware even off the upgradability. The Ati 5850 is nice, for what it's worth.

Stick with the HD screen. Cut the RAM and hard drive. You don't need the i7 (and it's not one of the quads anyway). The i5 is over priced here, but there's a minor performance boost over the i3 that I personally think is worth it. I'm skeptical about the BluRay, but it's cheaper than if you try to buy your own. There was a thread a couple weeks ago about a poster looking for a slot load BluRay burner and was told $200+, IIRC . Do you actually need a BluRay Burner?

 

the ATI 5850 is a GDDR3 card which makes it quite crap although better than my 9600M GT ... the sad thing is 5870 is not an official upgrade for M15x but really works and makes M15x into a gaming monster..

 

I have to disagree..ATi Radeon HD5850 is a great card for its "price"....
The performance of the Mobility HD 5850 depends heavily on the used graphics ram.
As long as GDDR5 is used the performance is between GTX260M-280M...however with DDR3, the performance reduces...
Heres a link:
Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850

BUT Alienware provides 1GB GDDR5 ATi Radeon 5850 graphics card So that shouldnt be a problem...

As games usually dont use more than 2 cores.. I find i7-720QM[1.6Ghz-4 cores](slower clocked) a poor choice against i5-540M[2.53Ghz-2 cores]...
Also in quad core CPUs normally only 1 core usually runs at the given clockspeed and not all..Dont be fooled by the turbo boost...It works only when temperature conditions allow..So choose wisely..

By the way, I am also thinking of buying an ALienware m15x laptop with nearly same specs..So i have done a lot of research work about a good config at decent price..

Take the 4GB DDR3 1066 MHz memory..and 500GB Sata II..
Go for 1080p..only if you have use some Graphics soft. like CAD etc..

GPU benchmark list-
Notebookcheck: Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List
Processor benchmark list-
Notebookcheck: Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List

 

its 1GB GDDR3 from what i heard so that's a problem.

 

Well Actually at first even I was unsure...I even asked the dell representative but he was a complete noob and took half an hour to tell me that card uses DDR3/GDDR5 interface...
But on the Alienware site under "Tech specs" it is given GDDR5...
So it must be..I cant be sure though..
Heres the link:
Alienware M15x Laptop Product Details | Dell

 

i cannot find anything about GDDR5 in tech specs...

 

Without the OP telling us what they want to DO with the machine, all is speculation.

right now, the machine is configured as a very expensive aren't-I-cool prestige machine.

 

Dude.. look in Video Card Options under tech specs you will see...

Video Card Options:

* 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M
* 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
* 1GB GDDR5 ATI Mobility RadeonTM HD 5850

 

ok ok i saw it...

 

For CPU, I would prefer 620M over 720QM, as none of these graphics cards can be bottlenecked by a dual core processor, and in most situations higher frequency serves much better than more cores.

For graphics card, I would prefer 5850 over a DX10 card.

BluRay is not necessary imo, but anyway this is totally personal preference.

 

its def gddr5 i love how people claim certain things when they dont even know.

 

I would go with the 260 graphics, 1080p screen, cut the bluray to the dvd drive($150), go with either the i5 or i3 processor(-$100/300), and step down to the 1066 ram as 1333 isn't really a benefit without an i7(-$25). That drops between $275-$475 off your price. The only way I would change that is if you are going to be doing a lot of CPU tasks(HD encoding, etc) then go i7, want to change to the 5870 aftermarket (then go 240 graphics card), or if you own a ton of blurays that you watch while on the road. If you're looking for gaming only cut it all install a 5870 and it'll rip through any game.

 

The answer to this is if you're looking for a killer gaming rig for a while, and know how to do it it's worth it to upgrade. If not it isn't over the others. And no Alienware doesn't offer the upgrade directly but you can buy a 5870 from the NBR Marketplace and install it, it is a confirmed working card and Alienware did add support in the bios for it.