Alienware M17x right for me?

N

nakedhand

2[H]4U
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Apr 21, 2008
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Going abroad to work for 6 months next spring and need a small computer. So I guess I will get my first ever laptop :D about damn time.

I have been browsing deals, this forum, dedicated review sites and options until blue in the face and ended up with this:

Alienware M17x : $2329

Usage: High end photography, time lapse and video production. Occasional gaming.

PROCESSORIntel® Core™ i7 2860QM 2.5GHz (3.6GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)tOPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit
MEMORY8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
VIDEO CARD1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
HARD DRIVE750GB 7,200RPM HDD
LCD PANEL17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
WIRELESS CARDIntel Centrino Wireless-N 1000

I can´t compromise on screen resolution: 1920 x 1080p. Or RAM. The only thing I am wondering is if I could get by with the 2760QM CPU instead? Are the displays good on these things?

I have been looking into Lenovo IdeaPads, Dells, Toshiba, HP and ASUS. Did I miss a perfect counter candidate or two for this M17x configuration at this price level?

Should I wait until April/May and capitalize on Ivy Bridge mobile CPUs etc.?
Any input would be much appreciated. I am complete utter laptop noob.
 
alienware lcd panel are very very shitty from what i experienced.
 
Hey, dunno if it matters (probably not) but my idea of "small computer" is a netbook... know that's not what you're looking for but (more on topic) the only Alienware system I've ever seen IRL (was about 5yrs ago) was literally over 18" wide... we're talking "put two file cabinets underneath and you've got yourself a desk" big... sorry, but if I want that kind of size and weight I'll invest in an original Compaq Portable (or an Osborne One, or... you get the point) ;) stuff like that is more entertaining to me anyways...

FWIW, my little ASUS 1000HEB is quite capable of running CorelDRAW X3... the GIMP takes like five min to load, but I think that's more the GIMP than my system... never had any use for photoshop itself, TBH, that thing gives me fits. Too many tools in not enough space with no organization whatsoever... mind you I can put up with that sort of chaos in my physical workspace, but on my computer it's maddening.
 
starhawk said:
Hey, dunno if it matters (probably not) but my idea of "small computer" is a netbook... know that's not what you're looking for but (more on topic) the only Alienware system I've ever seen IRL (was about 5yrs ago) was literally over 18" wide... we're talking "put two file cabinets underneath and you've got yourself a desk" big... sorry, but if I want that kind of size and weight I'll invest in an original Compaq Portable (or an Osborne One, or... you get the point) ;) stuff like that is more entertaining to me anyways...

FWIW, my little ASUS 1000HEB is quite capable of running CorelDRAW X3... the GIMP takes like five min to load, but I think that's more the GIMP than my system... never had any use for photoshop itself, TBH, that thing gives me fits. Too many tools in not enough space with no organization whatsoever... mind you I can put up with that sort of chaos in my physical workspace, but on my computer it's maddening.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I guess you are right about small computer there. My need will be bringing it there in my backpack and setting it up at my new temporary home and leaving it there. I don´t need to bring it for work (I´m a registered nurse, amongst others). So I don´t care about weight or size, actually I need the monitor to be big, since I don´t want to spend a small fortune buying an extra there, they get expensive north of the polar circle. ;)

Regarding applications, it´s my experience that my current Intel sig rig struggles more than I like with the massive amounts of data that needs to be read, processed and written. I just don´t have the patience and won´t buy a laptop that is slower than my Intel desktop. Would be like going backwards :)

quanta15 said:
Find more sites like this one...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

to find a GPU that will make you happy, and then give Sager Notebooks a look. I bought a notebook from them a year ago (The NP8690 with a mobility 5870), and it's pretty awesome; still handles everything I throw at it.
Click to expand...

Great, will check it out right away. Thanks man.

Also I am throwing in a Crucial M4 when I do a clean OS install.
 
This looks great "on paper". I will have to look into the reliability of Sager build laptops. Reliability is very important to me, I won´t have easy access to parts where I am going.

I like their design much better than Alienware´s too. Nice! :D


8170_170x170.jpg


Display 17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)

Graphics Card AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory [$145.00]

CPU 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2920XM Processor Extreme Edition ( 8MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz ) [$645.00]

Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Professional 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded ) [$60.00]

Memory 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 4 X 4GB [$140.00]

Hard Disk Drive 750GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive [$50.00]Optical Drive Bay —

Optical Drive with Caddy case 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive &

Network Card Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo ModulePrimary

Battery Smart Li-ION Battery

PackIntegrated Security Device Fingerprint Reader

Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price

Warranty Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor WarrantyCarrying
Bag Standard Carrying Bag

Calculate Shipping & Tax

Country:
Zip Code: If your shipping destination is US Military Post, please select United States as Country and input 5 digits Zip Code to recalculate the shipping. Sub Total:$2,439.00 Promotion Discount: -$100.00 Sales Tax:$0.00 Shipping:$0.00 Total: $2,339.00
 
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...north of the polar circle...?

You goin to McMurdo or something? Pretty cool if you are... pack a space heater tho :p

TBH, when I'm doing graphics, I plug in my Samsung Syncmaster 510MP... it's twice as heavy as my netbook, but it's also twice as big (well, not in screen size, but in overall size). FWIW, this netbook is completely stock. 1.6 Atom N270, 1gb of whatever RAM ASUS decided to stick in there, and a 160gb HDD that I'm pretty sure is IDE. Runs WinXP Home.

I can run CorelDRAW X3, Firefox (latest ver, always with something like 30 tabs in one window :p ), a second Firefox window playing Pandora Internet Radio all at once, and still be able to not only work well, but have a couple Windows Explorer windows open with ref pix... oh, and the one Picture and Fax Viewer window that XP lets you have (but only one!). If I push my luck and open the GIMP (rarely need to do this... I don't like working with bitmaps that much... IIRC it's 2.6.x but it's like five years old) then I get a little bit of a slowdown.

FWIW, my father is a contractor for the EPA who does 42+mb *.psd posters for scientists... his laptop is an Inspiron 6400-e1505 with a better proc (Core Duo [original, not Core2] 1.83ghz IIRC) but only half the RAM and a 40gb HDD :eek: he reboots whenever it gets too painful to deal with, usually every 45-60min.

This netbook is bulletproof. Just get one, max out the RAM (almost always a 2gb limit there) and an LCD screen. Seriously. You'll save $1k at least and your back will more than thank you (so will your backpack, but those are usually pretty inexpensive). If you can use F|OSS then get a lightweight Linux distro (I always recommend Puppy here but if you absolutely gotta have DEB packages then go with Lubuntu -- avoid Xubuntu, no performance benefits to it). If you gotta have Windows, then find a way to get XP (some folks here can help with that over in FS/T... had that happen once, and it worked out quite well -- even M$ was satisfied with the result).

Regarding OSes... here, have some common install sizes...
Ubuntu, rule of thumb is 3gb (old figure)
XP, rule of thumb is 1gb
Dunno 'bout Vista, I avoid it... if I need any more lemons I'll buy a bag at the local Wal*Mart, thanks.
7 is somewhere between 4.75 and 5 gb IIRC

Most Puppy versions are somewhere short of 300mb. I've never seen anything that XP did, that Puppy didn't do at least as well... with the exception of "running windows programs" (but that's the job of wine, which I refuse to argue with). Only program I've never been able to find a Lin version of is CorelDRAW... Inkscape is OK, folks, but it's nowhere near as powerful. If you gotta have 64b for something, there's FatDog64, IIRC that's more like 400+ mb but I've never looked at it with any degree of seriousness b/c I don't have a single system in the house that's awesome enough to run it.

Oh, right, and if you have any issues with Puppy, I'm over at their forum (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php) with the same username -- feel free to hit me with a PM here or there with any questions. Avoid the puppylinuxforum.*** URL (IIRC it's .net but I honestly can't recall) as they are NOT official. I'm not over there, but the stories I've heard from those who are... dude, stay away from there, they got some serious issues.
 
clevo laptops are very reliable and most resellers have great warrenty

malibal and xoticpc are two of the most well known resellers.
 
starhawk said:
OK, just going to put a link up here and then I'll GTFO this thread.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=579593#579593

Look at that if you want, don't if you don't. I personally hope you will.

Having said that, I hear the cries of NO U so I won't post in here again unless you ask... watching silently from the corner, if you get my drift.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I am hesitant to pick up Linux, I know it´s come a long way since 2000, which was when I last looked into it. I am just happy with my OS and all my apps are windows apps too. Files easily get to GB sizes in Photoshop and that is not a netbook/atom task, even worse is processing time lapse material.

I have no idea what "cries of NO U" mean. Feel free to interject any time. This is an open forum. And thanks again for the input.

aintz said:
clevo laptops are very reliable and most resellers have great warrenty

malibal and xoticpc are two of the most well known resellers.
Click to expand...

Excellent. I checked out Xotic PC last night and found their prices a little higher right now. Will give malibal a shot.
 
if your going with either, go on notebookreview forums make an account, contact one of them and they will offer you a discount.
 
Still thinking... I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but which version of Windows do you use?
 
starhawk said:
Still thinking... I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but which version of Windows do you use?
Click to expand...

Win 7.

It does not crash and everything works perfectly for me. Very happy with it.

Just bought the cooler, a Zalman ZM-NC2000 black. Small steps :)
 
OK. I guess I'll let this one be. If you're willing and able (primarily a time issue) to experiment, I'll be glad to help w/ puppy. If not... that's OK, just keep your mind open.
 
I had ordered a Dell XPS-17 from the outlet store but cancelled due to longer wait times than going through regular dell story. Lucky for me I did as I found the MSi GT780DXR, I am programmer and calibrator for consumer electronics and had a previous 17" Toshiba Satellite that was a great laptop for its time. I am constantly programming large systems remotely and needed a big display with fast processor and this MSi is the best thing I have seen so far outside of a custom built workstation laptop.

I have -200US version with 2670QM, 16GB DDR3, 17.3 1080p LED monitor, GTX 570M and it comes with 2 750GB drives in a Raid-0 array. I broke the array and put a 120GB M4 SSD though I would recommend a 256 for you and keep the other 750GB for storage. Also the 2.1 built in Dynaudio speaker system is the best I have ever heard in a laptop.

So far I am ecstatic with this laptop and so happy I got this instead of the Dell. HTH

Oh it was less than 2,000 shipped overnight from newegg, make it 2200-2300 if you add a SSD like I did.
 
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