Alienware m17x spec help

jubei

jubei

jubei

Soldato
Joined
3 Apr 2003
Posts
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Hey guys,

I know alienwares are generally considered a waste of money (by myself until now too). But i have been converted after seeing them in the flesh and am leaning towards getting one now but a little troubled on my spec.

I can either buy from outlet and just hope for good spec, or if i buy new with various discounts n codes i can get about 300 off of the price.

The things i am stuck on are:

would you get a 2760qm with 1080p or a 2670 with 120hz 1080 with 3d glasses for the same cost?

Would you opt for the 500 hybrid drive or the 750 7200rpm if intending to add SSD for OS.

6990m or the 580m? both cost about the same right now.

Finally, the 6300 intel wireless card or the killer 1103?

Cheers for input.
 
For 1415 delivered i can get new:

2670qm, 4gig(will upgrade myself as dell prices are insane), 500hybrid drive, 580m, 1080p 3d screen, intel 6300 wifi.

Hows that lookin? To spec similar up on custom laptops with the 3d screen n 580 comes to about 1600 due to the insane costs of 580 in most places.
 
Don't forget going through topcashback for 8-15% cashback on these depending on what offer is running.

My only other advice is buy the 3 year on site warranty.

These generate huge amounts of heat and do go wrong. Dealing with Dell / Alienware after 1 year and arguing the SOGA is a pitta. You will get somewhere but could end up with 8 weeks + downtime whilst you argue the toss.

It is a lot of money to spend on a laptop with 1 year warranty.
 
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Get the one with the 1080p 3d screen :)

I have the killer wireless in mine not sure what the difference is with the intel one.

Its a nice system im sure you'll be happy with it. I know i am :)
 
Cheers guys, what did u pay for yours dinks? Is the 580m a better card than the 6990?

I will wait n see what pops up on the outlet today else mite just order it new for the 1415 n try topcashback for 5%, have never used that site before though so no idea how it really works n such lol.
 
Also anyone know if the alienware is sata3 or not? If i order it today i also want to order an SSD from here to put in it n want to make sure i get the right ssd and not one of the newer ones if the alienware doesnt support it. Will i need any kind of bracket to get it to work in the laptop?

Would likely get the crucial m4 128gig if that will work without too much fiddling?
 
1296 i paid. The 6990 and the 580 are virtually the same. You can only have the 580 with the 3d screen though.

Yes bay 0 is sata 3. M4 works fine :)

You should look on nbr lots of info about the m17x there.
 
I would have thought two bays would be SATA 3?

At least in my notebook my HDD bays are SATA3 and then ODD is SATA 2.

But for gaming yes stick with the 2670qm. Killer wireless is the most power efficient and at least performs as well as the intel if not better.

Nvidia = Better performance, more battery life (optimus), more driver issues (optimus), more expensive, throttling issues if you OC (built into card bios).
AMD = Better price, less battery life, less driver issues, cheaper, can OC as normal.
 
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Meaker said:
I would have thought two bays would be SATA 3?

At least in my notebook my HDD bays are SATA3 and then ODD is SATA 2.

But for gaming yes stick with the 2670qm. Killer wireless is the most power efficient and at least performs as well as the intel if not better.

Nvidia = Better performance, more battery life (optimus), more driver issues (optimus), more expensive, throttling issues if you OC (built into card bios).
AMD = Better price, less battery life, less driver issues, cheaper, can OC as normal.
Click to expand...

The other bay is only sata 2.

He wont have optimus with the 3d option.
My 580 overclocks fine. No throttling.
 
How did you get it so cheap mate? I used e-value, epp and a voucher code and lowest i cld get it was the 1415. Maybe better speaking to a rep?
 
Meaker said:
I would have thought two bays would be SATA 3?

At least in my notebook my HDD bays are SATA3 and then ODD is SATA 2.

But for gaming yes stick with the 2670qm. Killer wireless is the most power efficient and at least performs as well as the intel if not better.

Nvidia = Better performance, more battery life (optimus), more driver issues (optimus), more expensive, throttling issues if you OC (built into card bios).
AMD = Better price, less battery life, less driver issues, cheaper, can OC as normal.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true on the alienwares, the ati have graphic switching too so have decent battery life but also driver issues, especially upgrading to official ATI drivers. I ended up using a custom BIOS and switching of the graphics switching so I could upgrade drivers straight from ATI easily (but I am not bothered about battery life)
 
Ive had 2 alienwares now, a proper desktop rig, and now an M11X, yes they maybe overpriced, but the service ive had from the is excellent, and that goes a long way with me, polite friendly engineers, who always come out on time and very rapidly, next day every time.
After much thought though ive gone for the new Samsung, from this site, for a bit of a change really, but they are great machines, even the little m11x R1 is fantastic.
 
jubei said:
How did you get it so cheap mate? I used e-value, epp and a voucher code and lowest i cld get it was the 1415. Maybe better speaking to a rep?
Click to expand...

Used an e-value code plus there was a voucher for 15% off and free delivery,this was over Christmas.
 
Called n spoke to a rep who said that the promo was just for xmas and cant match it. Then said he would get me a call back tomorrow from the epp team who could try to help.

Hopefully can net me my 17x for 1300 or less and i will order it, else think i will hold off for now.
 
Scrutinize said:
My only other advice is buy the 3 year on site warranty.

These generate huge amounts of heat and do go wrong. Dealing with Dell / Alienware after 1 year and arguing the SOGA is a pitta. You will get somewhere but could end up with 8 weeks + downtime whilst you argue the toss.

It is a lot of money to spend on a laptop with 1 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Dont bother, from my own experience alienware customer care is top class and they are happy to keep your laptop running out of the one year warrenty without having to spout any law at them. They know your rights and they are rare in the fact that they just say, okay, and leave you happy.

When my own MB died they picked it up and returned it to me in the same week, very good.
 
Have you thought about this one ? It even comes with 3D glasses and screen is 120hz 17.2" LED. Has two spare slots for RAM so can be updated to 16GB with these Samsung RAM modules you will need 2 x 4gb of these M471B5273DH0-CH9 Which seem to go for £40 for the 8GB.

Samsung 700G7A-502UK

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=lt-127-sa&utm_source=forums&utm_medium=banner

bit pricey here on ucuk i have seen them floating about for £1,372.80 but seems a great laptop and i'm after one too. do ocuk price match if called up (going to try give them a call today and see, if not going to have to grab it elswehere) ? i would rather buy from ocuk but the companies that are selling it for £1,372.80 are respectable companies i have dealt with before.


specification:-
- operating system: genuine windows® 7 home premium (64-bit)
- display: 17.3" superbright 400nit fhd 3d led display (1920 x 1080) (120hz)
- graphics: amd radeon™ hd6970m 2gb ddr5
- samsung 3d active glasses included
- storage: 2tb s-ataii hard drive (5400rpm, 1tb x 2 in raid 0)
- 8gb express cache (speeds up hdd performance)
- bluray drive
- hd audio
- mic noise suppression
- dolby home theatre®
- 4w stereo speaker (2w x 2)
- sub-woofer
- 2 megapixel webcam
- processor: intel® core™ i7 processor 2670qm (2.2ghz, 6mb l3 cache)
- physical specification: 409 x 276.6 x 30.4 ~ 49.9mm (16.1" x 10.8" x 1.19" ~ 1.96"), 3.5kg (7.71lbs)
- memory: 8gb ddr3 system memory at 1333mhz (4gb x 2) 4 dimm slots
- main chipset: intel hm65
- communication: 10 / 100 / 1000 gigabit ethernet lan, inte® centrino® advanced-n 6230, 2 x 2 802.11 abg/n (up to 300mbps), widi support
- bluetooth 3.0
- vga available
- hdmi available
- headphone-out
- mic-in available
- internal mic available
- display port available
- 2 usb 3.0, 2 usb 2.0
- 7-in-1 (ms, ms pro, sd, sdhc, mmc, mmc plus, xd)
- rj45 (lan) available
- dc-in (power port) available
- power: 200 watt 8 cell (89wh)


reviews here of the last speced version of it, it has been updated since with better hdds and better cpu.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/review-samsung-series-7-gamer-700g7a-notebook.66523.0.html


More reviews here

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-700G7A.65445.0.html


Samsung page here of the older speced version same laptop of course just with smaller HDDs but everything else is the same. Drivers etc here too.

http://www.samsung.com/sg/consumer/.../NP700G7A-S01SG/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail
 
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