ALIENWARE m9750: help me customize!

R

Rolexxx

New Member
Hey guys, after getting quite a few recommendations based on my needs, I've decided to purchase an alienware m9750 notebook. Here's a little background on what I'm going to be using it for:

I play online poker for a living. I need a computer that will be able to run 6 or 7 poker sites at a time as well as internet browsers and other poker statistics programs simultaneously, flawlessly. I understand Alienware computers are generally gaming computers, but the speed of these computers is very attractive because of what I'm looking for.

Here's the link to the customization page:

http://www.alienware.com/Configurat...SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

I'm willing to put in a lot of money to my computer. I have daily five-figure swings, and if needed I don't mind spending quite a bit on this computer. I would get a desktop, but I'm going to use this as a desktop replacement because I will be traveling quite a bit and need to have access to my computer.

One of my main questions is about SSD's (solid state drives). I'd like opinions from people who have used them, are they really worth the extra money? It's imperative that my poker results are saved on my computer, and one of the benefits from what I've read is that Solid Sate Drives are much more durable and harder to damage because they don't have any moving parts.

Again, I'm willing to pay top dollar for a computer that is very very fast, but I obviously don't want to waste money on things I absolutely don't need (for example, do I really need dual video cards for what I will be doing?)

As a final note I would like to add that I enjoy high quality music, I no longer use the low quality 128bit iTunes music. So please keep this in mind as well.

Thanks in advance for your help, this looks like a great forum and I look forward to the advice I'll get on this and other topics.
 
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I just did a paper about SSD. For the price and my experince with mechanical drives never failing on me (knock on wood) I would say its not worth the money.

What is good about SSD is that they have no moving parts, which is good. And they are alot faster for booting up, and application launch.

What is bad about SSD is of course high in price "SSD US$8 per GB compared to about US$0.25 for mechanical drives" and they can have a shorter life cycle. Since you are burning the blocks they only last so many cycles before they are done.

I have never used a SSD, this is just from my research.

For your laptop I would say just go with something with a high Core 2 Duo 2.2 or more. Then 2gb of ram should be enough, 3 if you want. Dont worry about upgrading the video card, poker apps dont really have high end graphics. You could go with a bigger screen to see more but thats for you to decide.
 
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So, video card upgrade is unnecessary for sure. I'm pretty sure I am just going to go for 4gb of ram; what about my processor?

I'm mulling over getting the 128gb SSD, or perhaps dual drive configuration- a 64gb SSD w/ a 200gb (7200 rpm) Serial ATA storage drive. Again, anyone who has used an SSD before please let me know what you thought of it.
 
not sure that ive heard anything about that specific laptop but alienware is the WORST company to ever do business with. Bought an area 51 laptop from them and it came with pixels out, they tried to get me to pay a 15% restocking fee on a $2600 computer that THEY messed up. After fighting with them i got it replaced....1 month after warranty harddrive fries. Replaced it and got new memory. Ran awesome for a month, then died and wont even start up. Sooooo many people dislike alienware because of their crappy products and even crappier service. Good luck! :)
 
If you are going to go with 4g of ram, then you will need to get vista 64, anything else will not be able to use all 4g. It will see it as 3.2g
 
wow that is over kill for just online poker


Look at Ibuypower.com for a cheaper laptop that is almost exactly the same


SSD aren't worth it all, way to expensive, plus there isn't that much HDD space on SSD for music, videos....
 
The_Beast said:
wow that is over kill for just online poker


Look at Ibuypower.com for a cheaper laptop that is almost exactly the same
Click to expand...

+1

I couldn't agree more. Alienware computers are generally ripoffs, go to ibuypower for a way better deal...

Also, you don't need that great of a computer for online poker. If all you're going to do is online poker...$1000 should be the top budget...and even that is probably too much, just my opinion.
 
There are Toshiba Laptops On ebay that are Like $800-$1500 i've been using a $1000 toshiba for 2 years .. and nothing broke.. NOTHING i have been using it ALOT like 12 hours a day still works fine .. And its your choice.
 
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