Alienware M9750 QuickShip Ed. 17" WXGA+, Go7950GTX SLI, T7200, 2GB, 160GB 7200RPM, Vista Premium $2,449

This is not exactly 'on sale' but the price is good - Alienware's QuickShip Edition M9750 ships in 48 hours and has surprisingly good specs for the money.
-17" WXGA+ display
-Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz/4MB L2/667MHz FSB)
-Dual Nvidia GeForce Go7950GTX 512MB in SLI
-2GB DDR2-667 RAM
-160GB 7200RPM hard drive
-Intel 3945ABG WLAN card
-8X DVD burner
-Windows Vista Premium

Also includes some goodies like an Alienware t-shirt, mesh cap, and mousepad.

For those looking for one of the best gaming notebooks on the market, this is a tough deal to pass up. See our M9750 here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3840

$2,449
http://www.alienware.com/Configurat...sCode=PC-LT-BTS-AREAM9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

 

I agree, this is a pretty crazy deal. The alternative is waiting for the 8800m release and those notebooks seem to start at god awful prices.

 

Does this includes power adapter?

 

Yes, any new notebook you would buy comes with a power adapter.

 

Only if you must buy now ( and don't mind AW silly alien theme ) .

 

If your in the market for an SLI notebook, y bottle - neck yourself with 7xxx series graphics card?

 

Because the 7950 GTX SLI equipped notebooks still post higher scores than any other notebooks currently on the market? It's possible that 8700m SLI notebooks have beaten the 7950s, but I'm not sure.

I'm not including the 8800Ms as they aren't exactly ON the market just yet. Not for a few weeks at least anyway.

For the price, you still get a very decent piece of hardware.

 

Well, in essence, your just looking at todays' titles, whilst I'm looking 2 steps ahead, with games like Crysis and etc. and others that will start utilizing physics and games of tommorow your going to get screwed because your going to be stuck with low fps if you go for last - gen video card.

 

Not true. The Go7950GTX is much stronger than an 8700M-GT, even in Crysis.

 

is it stronger then 8800?

 

It's much stronger! Infact they have to keep the notebooks apart in the factory so the 7950's dont pick on the 8700's.

7950 has its 256-bit Memory Bus which gives it more than twice the bandwidth of the 8700. The 8700 can claim DX10 compatibility however (for what its worth) and 3x faster performance in shader intensive operations. How this translates into game performance is pretty clear.... GeForce Go 7950 is faster at higher resolutions. The type you will be wanting to use on your new laptop. Push the resolution up, and adding AA/AF the 8700 gets bottlenecked quickly. The 8700 can be quicker at lower resolutions.

 

The 8800M-GTX should be stronger than even the Go7950GTX SLI setup but right now there is no way to confirm that.

The Go7950GTX has bested the 8700M-GT in every test I've seen around here, sometimes only a by a small amount (at lower resolutions), but by large amounts at higher resolutions (WXGA+ and up).

Until the 8800M comes out, the best choice is the Go7950GTX SLI setup for games. Even a single one is good enough.

 

Is it cheaper than the 8800? Is it better than the 8700?

The selling point of this laptop is the price for the hardware. It's not the newest thing, but it's very decent for the price.

And please, physics? Physics cards have been released for close to two years. How many titles do you see using them? How many games that are to be released will be using them? Not many is the answer to BOTH questions.

That said, are you really looking 2 steps ahead? Right now, the 7950s are the best cards you can get on a notebook for running Crysis. The 8800s will beat them, but not until they actually become available. And honestly, between a 7950 and a 8600 or 8700, I would say the 7950's probably MORE future proof.

 

@Warloque - Even playing some games that utilized physics engines, the 7950GTX still beat out SLI 8700GTs. The main problem is that the 8700 has a 128bit bus, while the 7950GTX has a 256bit bus. In fact, if you look at that, you would actually be taking a step backwards

The point is that many people are disappointed with the performance of the 8700GT, because it is slower than the 7950GTX, and as Chaz was saying, you can start to see a big difference at higher resolutions.

 

for $2500 i would friggin hope so.

 

hmm...interesting

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4089

 

Yes, I saw that too. Sadly, unreleased yet. Prices may go up prior to release. And 2,199 was for dual 8600s and probably a T7100, 1 gig of ram, and 80 gig 7200 RPM. To get the Dual 8800s was an extra 1 grand, and extra 400 for a single 8800.

And more importantly, the quickship is available now, whereas the m17x will be delivered earliest in January.

So to answer my rhetorical question, yes it's cheaper than 8800 and still better than the 8700.