Final Decision on Gaming Laptop - Help!

BiH115

Gif Guy
Joined
May 12, 2011
Messages
9,327
Hi all. After finally beating my head into a pulp on what to get (currently computerless, and horribly bored on my days away from girl/job), I've decided to get a laptop as my MAIN gaming/programming/surfing machine. Heavy emphasis on the gaming of course. :D

First thing's first. I'm asking to get some general insight, hopefully from people who have these systems, so I can get a better idea of what to expect. With that in mind, I'd like an Alienware. I've owned pretty much every model from the early 2000's to the holy-grail that was the M9700, with it's dual 7900GS setup (greatest day ever when I saw that on the table after getting home from school in 2007).

I've been out of the loop for a while, and a few months ago sold my desktop I used for gaming (GTX 580, 2500k, etc etc. for reference), so I was able to pretty much max 99% of games. I'd like to do that this time around, but on a laptop. I've realized I can't live without gaming, and I need to get back into the swing of things, via my roots, my precious Alienwares.

Now, I'm aiming around $3,000 as a max budget, don't want to get TOO crazy, but I would like a powerhouse. I'm planning on messing with the configurators myself a little bit tomorrow during downtime at work, but figured I'd at least (if anyone cares!) let you fine people throw your 2 cents in. If you can help it too, don't tell me that I'm overpaying, or that there's better, or that I'm crazy (actually this one's ok). Let's keep those things to ourselves :rolleyes: .


Ok so if anyone's got something to add, what's the big difference between the 17" and the 18", besides the obvious of course. How big are the 17's when they come out of the packaging? Daunting in size and weight? What about that incredible 18"er? Is it noticeably bigger? Now what about the 14" one, that looks solid and has some nice specs, but with a great "let's go on the couch now and socialize" size.

I also see that the new revisions of these laptops are out, with the 6xx nVidia's and the 7xxxx AMD's. Good stuff, but I'm not seeing a ton of information on the net about it, possibly because these revisions are fairly new.

Feel free to throw those 2 cents in! I appreciate it, especially from a fellow Alien-head. I'm absolutely enamored with their designs, and while a Sager or MSI might be more reasonable to get, they don't look like the Alienware's, and they don't feel like them. I know that sounds idiotic, but it's a long road I've had with them (I also have a lot of the desktop cases sitting around downstairs as trophy's), and I wouldn't have it any other way.


Apologize for the long post! Long-winded is the only way I work apparently, trying to break that habit! Thanks in advance. :eek:
 
If you want to interact with a lot of Alienware owners, go here.

On the same forum, you can also ask for notebook recommendations here (fill out the form). But it seems rather pointless since you are down to 3 systems, and you will quickly drop the 14" model once you start comparing GPUs sorted here by benchmarks, and here by game performance. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the m14x, it's a hell of a 14"er. But coming from the desktop world, I don't see you settling for that.

Also, we should be just days away from Ivy Bridge. While you will care more about the GPU, you don't want to order a custom $3k laptop whose CPU becomes obsolete while you are waiting for you system to arrive.
 
17" and 18" laptops are daunting in size. In your case the 18" would be the way to go. It offers dual gpus. But with that said wait for their ivy bridge refresh, it won't be much longer.
 
Thanks for the reply Knight, saw your post late last night after I posted mine and appreciated it! Also thanks shoota, I believe that may be the way to go. It'll be heavy (had some of the big ones from Alienware before), but at least I can physically carry it with one arm, unlike my last desktop where I needed 2 people almost! :eek:

I've been looking at the ivy bridge refresh that's due in not only these laptops, but in everything else (MacBook's, desktop CPU's, etc.) but from what I've read, it doesn't offer anything SUBSTANTIAL as far as I've understood. It's simply a 'tick' in the intel cycle, and not a 'tock' like Sandy Bridge was. I mean I'm sure it'll be an improvement on the whole, but I don't think it justifies being without a computer for a month +. The wait to get a 17" or 18" laptop is already close to a month if I order today, doesn't make too much sense when the CPU's in the laptops right now are ridiculously fast enough.

Never know, I might just wait, maybe pick up an Xbox or something to tide me over. I'm getting that gaming itch, and I'd really like to go back into programming with some friends and finish up a few projects to our game(s). It's a pain, a real pain.

First world problems eh?
 
I'd suggest speaking with a sales rep. If your system does really take a month to build and ship, I'm 99% certain Ivy Bridge is going to be out by then. Ask about their order cancellation or return policy (most high end laptops give you a 30-day return window). This could actually play into your advantage in 2 ways. First, when you discuss this with a sales rep, let them know you are really concerned about paying full price for a CPU that is about to become obsolete. Try to get either a whole system discount or see how far they might be willing to upgrade the CPU for no additional charge. Then when it arrives, and Ivy Bridge is out, call Dell and tell them you want to return the system because it arrived instantly obsolete. They will start making you offers to get you to keep it.

I do agree that Ivy Bridge doesn't seem to offer much to gamers, but more is more, and it's not the like new CPUs will be priced any different than the current Sandy Bridge CPUs on Alienware's configuration page. Also, if you decide to sell the system in the future, resale will be better with the newer CPU.
 
Ooh that's good. Real good. I think I'll do that. Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the heads up! :cool:
 
FWIW AMD is releasing the 7970m video card soon, so when you talk to the rep I'd ask about when Alienware will be offering those.
 
Got some good solid outlooks on the notebookreview.com forums. Making me re-decide which system to get. The 675m's don't really offer much, if anything over the previous 580m's. In fact people have flashed 580m's to 675m's (rebadges).

Sn0_Man, the 7970m is an option in the 17x variant, and I've specced one out for considerably less, including SSD's, tons of RAM, the blu-ray slot loader upgrade, upgraded wi-fi, upped the processor as well. May go with that. I know it's not an anodized alloy case like the 18x comes equipped with, but it's roughly the same size, and it'll perform better. May even be able to pop in a 7990m or something when those get released, or something better down the road.

For now, the 676m seems like a fool's choice considering what's out there. Also considering the exact same specs can be had in the 17x model, plus a better card.
 
I thought I'd bring our discussion back to your own thread. So you went ahead and ordered it. Did you get a discount for "settling" for Sandy Bridge?
 
I thought I'd bring our discussion back to your own thread. So you went ahead and ordered it. Did you get a discount for "settling" for Sandy Bridge?


Actually, you could say that, I brought it up and it seemed that they'd go for it, but would get back to me. Shortly after, I got an email explaining that while they are NDA about mentioning what a 'certain' part may be, they did say that for people who order the newest revisions should be sure to mention this 'upgrade' to customer support. Obviously the 'certain' part is pretty obvious.

There's a thread about it too from a Dell rep. on the forums. Pretty happy with the way thing went today, overall.

Are you planning on a laptop config./build anytime soon as well, or?


Edit: Forgot to mention, I got a few hundred dollars off after annoying the sales person to no end. I bitched like a woman (no offense to anyone).
 
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No upgrade for me. I am just overly obsessed with staying on top of the laptop market. I was shopping for my current laptop for nearly 2 years. A pending new home purchase made buying a much needed upgrade nearly impossible. I was weighing the possibility of buying used versus new so I was researching previous generation laptops while staying on top of the latest and greatest. After doing that for so long, I was just kind of hooked.

So anyway, it sounds like you are actually going to get the 3820qm CPU, but Dell just can't tell you this. Just make sure they don't give you the 3720qm, that should have lower price than the 2860qm despite the generational difference.

Regardless, you can still use the trick of calling in to say you want to return it. Even if they stonewall you, you can always back down. You have nothing to lose other than a little time.
 
I'm assuming I am, 99% sure at least. Hopefully everything goes smooth.

I too looked at some used earlier revisions, and for the length of time I plan to keep this, saving 4-500 bucks didn't make sense, on an older revision that can't compete with these newer ones. That's not to say that the M18x R1 and M17X R3 aren't great laptops, they are, but finding one fully specced out with a decent price tag that won't make you lop your leg off, is hard.

That elitebook you have in your sig looks like a solid beast of a system too. How are you liking it?
 
I love it. It actually was quite a saga which I detailed over at Notebookreview in the 8740w owner's thread. I bought a $2,000 version of this, and ended up with a $4,900 version after multiple system replacements. The Dreamcolor panel is the best...just gorgeous. The sad part is that I am kind of wasting the FX5000M. I don't need CUDA, which is why I bought the Firepro card. The FX5000M is only slightly stronger for gaming. If I was more tech savvy, I would have bought a replacement Firepro card, pulled out the FX5000M and sold it.

Anyway, I'm planning on keeping this until Haswell (new architecture after Ivy Bridge) or Broadwell (die shrink of Haswell). Probably the latter unless my system starts slowing me down. Before any of that though, I need to get an SSD. That should tide me over for awhile. I also have the bug to build a server/workstation, but I don't think I'll actually go through with it.
 
Oh wow, a almost 5 grand configuration of the model you got? That's great news! Stinks about the replacements, what happened?

I doubt that the processor in there will slow you down at all, should be fine until the next 'tock' of Intel's model.
 
The one I ordered spontaneously shut down several times each day (not temp related). Others with the same problem were suspecting a mobo problem relating to the 4 ram slots (which was new back then on a laptop). I must have been one of the first through the tech support gates with the problem (most probably just returned it and bought a Dell M6500). HP wanted to study my laptop, so they offered me a choice of 3 replacement systems which were "tested and will arrive working perfectly". That got me the following upgrades.

720qm to 820qm
4GB RAM (2D) to 8GB RAM (4D)
+I got to keep the power adapter from my 1st system

The new system crashed even more often until I removed half the RAM. Then it was about equal in crashing. I got escalated to super-high tech support (the guy I worked with was in charge of identifying and fixing this particular problem). He would not send me a replacement until he knew the problem was solved. After a few months I was getting impatient since other users were ordering ssytems and they were arriving just fine. But he balked at letting me spec out a CTO machine, but said I could select any prefigured model. So naturally I went with the most expensive one. But then that one had several on-site services for problems I can't even remember so they replaced the mobo and then replaced the entire system with the same model. Then that screen was bad, so they replaced the screen. I think that is it. Hard to remember. It was 8 or 9 months of living with one problem or another.

What I paid for: just under $2k
i7-720qm
M7820
WUXGA (TN)
2x2GB RAM
320GB HDD
backlit keyboard

What I ended with: $4,899
i7-740qm
FX5000M
WUXGA (IPS - Dreamcolor)
2x4GB RAM
500GB HDD
backlit keyboard
+that 2nd power adapter
+each new system came with a new warranty, in effect this gave me an 8-9mo extension
 
What in the heck? I would have quit after the Super-Tech support guy part. I realize getting lemons is sometimes an unlucky part of life, but that's just ridiculous. 8-9 months of crappy computers, from the same company? They shouldn't have charged you sh*t.

I would have backed away and forgotten it. Kudos to you for sticking through though.
 
You see they hooked me with that first system upgrade. Whent that arrived crashing, I was seeing 920XM+SSD+Dreamcolor+docking station in my future. Also, at the time, the M6500 was only offering the M7740 as their Firepro option (they had jumped the gun with the M6500 getting out before Xmas, which meant the M7820 wasn't read yet...though they eventually did offer the M7820).

But yeah, lots of wasted time. I am just remembering my attuned quick save skills. You see, before the crash happened, the fan ramped up to super-high speed (beyond what it did under full load). At that point, I had about 30s to save anything I was working on. And if I was really fast, I could save and shutdown before the crash.
 
Little update on this:

Looks like everyone is getting outfitted with Ivy bridge chips for the new models. Some people that have ordered around my time (April 20-25) are already receiving their systems not only this week, but today. A dell rep. well known on notebookreview.com has been BOM'ing the SKU's all day, getting everyone up to speed on the mobo/cpu situation. In short, Ivy's for everyone, all around.

Looking forward to getting my rig this week or next week at latest. :)
 
Cool. Getting a new system with newly released hardware is fun. Get ready to benchmark (and do a little gaming..maybe if you have time between benchmarks).
 
Will do knight man. I'm going to first of all make sure all parts I bought are included of course hah, then I'll hit up a few benchmarks. I'm not seeing a ton out there on the forums, so I'll try to help out in that department.

I'm mainly excited for Diablo 3, which isn't a demanding game by any means, but it's one of the bigger reasons I got something portable. Have a few LANS to attend. :)
 
Another update on this, for anyone following Alienware shipping procedure:

System was shipped this morning at 3AM apparently, and had a delivery attempt at 8:30 (half hour after I left for work, :mad: ). Also for anyone in New England, it shipped from New Jersey, so pretty close-by for me in New Hampshire.

Hoping to pick it up tonight and get some benchies rolling!
 
The excitement of a new laptop waiting at home can make for a long work day.
 
The excitement of a new laptop waiting at home can make for a long work day.

You got that right. The waiting isn't the worst part, my day goes by very fast due to having a pretty great job, the real concern is making sure the thing runs like it ought to, and that all parts promised are inside the system. :D
 
I'm waiting for my Alienware M17X R4 to show up at the end of this month. I'm usually an Nvidia fan boy but decided to give AMDs 7970M a try. From everything that I have been reading it just walks up and down on the GTX675M aka GTX580m. Poeple keep talking about the GTX 680m but the 7970m is already $150 less then the GTX 675m. So who knows what the GTX680m is going to cost. Some of the benchmarks for the 7970M are showing that it could be almost as powerfull as GTX 580 desktop card. My only concern is the driver support from AMD. I guess we will see.
 
I received my laptop sometime last week, but wasn't able to do a ton with it. Managed to get in a round of BF3 and Left 4 Dead 2, and both ran like it they were gliding on ice, on sticks of melted butter. The 7970M is a wrecking ball.

Will need to make some time to get in a few benchmarks this week hopefully.
 
I'm waiting for my Alienware M17X R4 to show up at the end of this month. I'm usually an Nvidia fan boy but decided to give AMDs 7970M a try. From everything that I have been reading it just walks up and down on the GTX675M aka GTX580m. Poeple keep talking about the GTX 680m but the 7970m is already $150 less then the GTX 675m. So who knows what the GTX680m is going to cost. Some of the benchmarks for the 7970M are showing that it could be almost as powerfull as GTX 580 desktop card. My only concern is the driver support from AMD. I guess we will see.

Got my p150em with a 7970m yesterday. I'm stupified that this much GPU performance can now be had in a laptop. On the whole, the 7970m is cranking out higher FPS than my GTX 480, and a good amount faster than a GTX 580 when OC'ed. I was second guessing not getting an m18x with crossfired 7970ms, but with this much power in a single card that allows me to play every game highest settings there's no need.
 
My M17X R4 showed up 3 weeks early, only 7 days from order to delivery!. OMG the 7970M is so blazing fast, I have not played a game on my desktop since it arrived. AMD has hit a home RUN with this card. This card stomps the 580M and the 675M. I feel sorry for people paying more for the 675m, and getting 50% less performace in some games.
 
True that, every time I boot up a game and start playing, seeing it run buttery smooth, WHILE in a public place, makes me glad I went portable.
 
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