New Laptop Ordered WadyaThink?

[JackMcHale249]

Well i just ordered my newest gaming toy.

Alienware M17XR4

Specs Listed:

3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

32GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz

17.3-inch Wide FHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M

128GB mSATA + 750GB 7200 RPM

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Service Pack 1

Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish


Maybe overkill on RAM? But hey why not? It can't hurt anybody.
Anyone know if i can overclock that processor anymore than 3.4ghz?
That would be handy to know. Thankyou!

 

[claptonman]

Yeeeeah 16GB of RAM would be overkill on a gaming laptop. It'll probably play good, but you sure payed a huge amount. If you put half of that into a desktop, you'd get a better computer.

 

[JackMcHale249]

Its also going to be used for 3D design, Video and photo editing, Basic Programming, My college work, Gaming, Web Design. So on....

My wife and I are both geeks lol. It will be used for ALOT.
Plus it had to be portable, And my 30 pound desktop wasnt. Haha.


P.s. The desktop in my Sig is probably getting an overhaul anyways. So we will have the best of both worlds. GPU first.

 

[wolfeking]

for the questions.
Yes. You needed 16GB. 8GB as a bare minimum.
No. You may be able to, but keep it stock. They can barely handle stock heat, let alone overclocking anything.

And you wasted a bunch going alienware. You could have gotten a better system price and performance wise by going with Asus or Sager.
I don't agree that you needed a desktop as said above. There are plenty of cases where a desktop is not feasible.

 

[JackMcHale249]

So really for what we are using this laptop for 32Gb of ram isnt really overkill, you are saying i needed 16gb anyways?

Better price? Yes. I Totally Agree. But i wanted an alienware. I wanted that look and that quality, And i feel like if im going to pay 2 - 3 thousand dollars for a laptop, im going to get the one i want from the beginning, Does that make sense? I may just be crazy.

But I have to disagree on being able to get a better system, I went to alienware, asus, msi, sager, xoticpc, and a few other smaller sites, And the 680m with 32gigs of ram, is about the best it comes, with a full HD screen of course but I wasnt going to upgrade from the 3630QM on any of them. I feel i got the best i could of gotten to be honest. And the best i possibly Needed.

But Yeah, Alienware is expensive though we got a great deal on the alienware due to me being in school and my wife being in the US Army, Also the sales rep put us on the friends and family discount. We got a great price compared to if we didnt have that stuff.

Tip for anyone ordering an Alienware. Call them. Dont order any other way. They do great prices on the phone.

 

[wolfeking]

You're trying to defend your purchase. Aside from the fancy LEDs that scream "$3000 laptop! steal me !) The same equipment could have been had (with a far better build quality) for $600 less than the alienware. For $400 less you could have had CFx 7970m, which is a dead even competitor to 680m SLI.

YOu will not be able to do much more than 16GB with a gaming laptop. IF you were to be using programs that could take up 32GB, then you should have gotten a Precision M6600 (maybe 6700) as they would perform far better with those programs than a gaming laptop.

 

[JackMcHale249]

I did not pay $3000 haha.
show me the same specs exactly for $600 less than what i paid. (I'm honestly Curious) Thankyou.
And there is no defending my purchase lol, I wanted an alienware. And i bought an Alienware, And im quite happy with the fact that i purchased what i wanted to purchase. And the 7970 is not $400 less than the 680m, I paid $250 more but i see what you are saying with it. And thats fine, Its your opinion.
But i am in no means Trying to "defend" anything. I got what i wanted.

Edit: Just built a sager NP9370 with Almost identical Specs. $100 dollars less than my purchase.

 

[wolfeking]

In all defense you did not tell us how much you paid. I am going off the prices posted on the Alienware and Sager sites, as they are more reliable than peoples word.

 

[JackMcHale249]

Call Alienware, You will see that the prices are inaccurate, They do alot more for you on the phone.
The Sager i just built with the same specs was not even $100 cheaper.

Exact prices

Sager: $2,319
My Alienware: $2,372

My experience will be different than others,
Friends and family discount, US Army Discount, Student discount,

They stacked those all for me, I believe the laptop i got without those discounts was going to be right around $2,750 ( I would not have bought it unless we got the price we did )

Im happy and me and my wife got what we wanted. If we have a bad experience, then we will learn from our mistake. But we have wanted an alienware for quite some time, And we took the time to save up and get one. I thought i would share that experience with you all.

 

[wolfeking]

I still would always recommend the sager for build quality and airflow before I would suggest an alienware.

 

[JackMcHale249]

I still would always recommend the sager for build quality and airflow before I would suggest an alienware.

And maybe we will eventually get one, I dont doubt sager in any way shape nor form. I have used a sager a few times before and they are awesome. I agree with your comments about sager having good build quality and air flow. And there option to upgrade them is great. ( I believe they are completely upgradable from home? )
But, We will see how this experience goes.

 

[wolfeking]

Yes. Safer uses the industry standard connections MXM and mPCIe), and are fully user upgradable. You can upgrade an Alienware too, but you have to grab Alienware parts to upgrade it. Same as the old XPS and Precision lines. Removable graphics cards with a dell specific connector.

 

[JackMcHale249]

Do we really think the 680m is going to HAVE To be upgraded any time soon? honestly? That and the 7970 are the best cards out there for gaming in laptops.
And with my setup i wont have troubles playing any games or running any programs i shouldnt think. So i don't think i would need any upgrades here soon anyways.

 

[wolfeking]

The issue there is you expect too much out of it. The lifespan of a laptop GPU, even the best of them, id about 3 generations. A 8800m GTX for example was the best around, but was useless by the time that the GTX280m was released. Your 680m will not handle much at decent settings by the time that GTX800 line is released.

 

[JackMcHale249]

And when is that planning on being released?
I know from reading that the maxwell 780 has been delayed to 2014. so thats a year just for the 7 series.
I think ill be good for a while. And its not like the 680 is going to become completely obselete and just die. I think it will still work enough for me. Im still using older cards in other pc projects and they are maxing modern warfare 2 at 30fps which is plenty for me im not a hardcore gamer. Unlike other people i dont HAVE To have 60fps at ultra settings. haha.

 

[wolfeking]

at the rate they are going, about 2-3 years.

And you are making a generalization based on desktop cards. A 8800 GTX will still game just fine. But you are looking at 1/2 to maybe 65% of the power in a laptop card. I can still play MW3 on my FX2500m (which is an overclocked 7900m GTX), but that is only because I barely exceed the specs of an Xbox with it. When the new consoles release, and games start taking advantage of that, be prepared to have a completely useless laptop, as you are running more or less a 660ti power wise, which is decent while games are not taking advantage of it.

 

[JackMcHale249]

"Useless laptop" So its useless because it doesnt play the modern day games.
Its an opinion. Not a fact wolfeking.
and in 2-3 years, I can buy another laptop. And upgrade my desktop some more. Im sure ill be ok but thankyou for your concerns.
and did you notice i said modern warfare 2? i havent even played modern warfare 3 yet. I dont play the newest games, i only bought diablo 3 a couple of days ago. Im sure this laptop will do me just fine for a good few years to come.

ALSO: after the 700 series is out, They will be "useless" eventually, then the 800 series, then the 900 series.
Everything becomes old. Its life. Im not scared of 3 years down the line, BUT thankyou (honestly) for informing me of that time period.

 

[wolfeking]

I'm sure you will be happy as long as it does whta you need it to. but it just worries me that you buy the best now and it will be useless pretty quickly, quicker than a desktop. (To me useless is that it will not be reliably able to handle a good variety of software. as in it gets harder to find drivers for it, and start running into issues with hardware no longer working with it.). Like I can not ever use a 3TB HDD on my laptop, and it is only 6 years old. Even a 3 year old laptop won't handle single 2+ TB partitions at all.). Also take into account that you have to worry about replacement parts should it ever break. RAM, CPU, DVD drive and the like is fine, but should you burn out a GPU, you are stuck with Alienware replacements. But that likely does not bother you as you will likely send it in under warranty. I like to fix my own rather than send it in.

 

[JackMcHale249]

I have a desktop aswell remember, which is constantly getting upgraded. I will always have that. My m17xr4 will always be useful for me.
And yes i fix everything on my desktop myself, but for the warranty i have free with my new laptop. Ill let them fix that stuff.

 

[DMGrier]

Hey man nice laptop, I personally would not buy a alienware but on that same note it is like comparing a BMW to a Taurus SHO, same in performance but the SHO is cheaper but on the other hand when you own a BMW you own a name.