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Alienware Laptop
Man of the Waves
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm on the market for a transportable desktop replacement. I've researched it down to two options, the Alienware M18x and the Origin EON17. The biggest differences between the two, would be the 18" screen (as opposed to the 17" on the Origin) for an extra $1k premium.
I don't have any experience with Alienware (pre- or post Dell), but I've heard they can be hit or miss. Origin PC sounds like it has better customer service, though.
I'm open to other suggestions for a good gaming laptop, but it needs to have optical or S/PDIF audio output.
What say you, Stupid Technology Tavernites?
I don't have any experience with Alienware (pre- or post Dell), but I've heard they can be hit or miss. Origin PC sounds like it has better customer service, though.
I'm open to other suggestions for a good gaming laptop, but it needs to have optical or S/PDIF audio output.
What say you, Stupid Technology Tavernites?
Man of the Waves on
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Unfortunately, neither have optical audio options. None of the off-the-shelf brand name laptops that I've looked at have that option.
As such, ASUS or other more common brands would probably be a good way to go.
http://www.xoticpc.com
/thread
Seriously, the laptops you get off here are damn good and their customer support is fantastic. My laptop came from them and is still kicking after a few years of really hard use at sea.
Thanks for the tip.
I already have a good, albeit aged, desktop PC and I've never had a laptop, so this time I'm going with the latter.
I'd check out those Asus gaming notebooks as well. Like this one: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX35908
A friend of mine bought one recently (the 15" version). He seems happy with it. The build quality is also really good.
Also, the plastic bezels around the screen are a big turn off.
And nice avatar
I ended up ordering the 18" Alienware. There were a few features, like HDMI in, that put it over the top. Once I figured out that I should start with the $1,999 version to start my customization, I got the price down to a more acceptable realm.
We'll see if I made the right choice at the end of the month.
24 hours never seemed so long.
Everything out of the box worked flawlessly and the machine runs great.
Specs:
Alienware M18x - Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum
Intel Core i7 2860QM 2.5GHz (3.6GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M NVIDIA SLI Enabled
1TB RAID 0, 2x 500GB, 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Intel Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology
I did play a bit of Dead Space 2 with the computer in my lap (until I started to get crushed) and it was definitely warm, but not unbearable so.
Fan noise isn't that bad either. It goes from barely audible (just under the sound of key clicks) to somewhat noticeable (under the sound of the game).
(This post sent from my laptop connected to my cell phone)
i once bought the $4000 alienware laptop, whatever that was, in 2006 and it was probably the biggest mistake i ever made
thing broke 3 times within the first year, ran so hot it burned your wrist, and ended up having to be declared abandoned goods after they tried to charge me £1200 to fix it
i would never buy from them again, especially after experiencing their customer support
On the upside, modern CPUs and GPUs are much more heat-efficient than they were 6 years ago, so most modern "gaming" laptops don't have anywhere near the overheating problems they did back then. I mean, some are still shitty, but if you do a bit of research, it's not hard to find a much more reliable one nowadays.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html is a good list of mobile gfx cards, and how they rank in power.
I built a PC 4 years ago for under $4k, complete with 40" LCD TV for a monitor. I upgraded the mobo, cpu and ram last year (the previous mobo died) for a few hundred and it still keeps up with the latest games respectably, with it's old 4860x2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution chugged very infrequently with the settings on medium to high.
I spent just over 3k for my new computer and I don't see it going obsolete for a while. In a few years, it might only hold up as well as my 4 year old computer does now, but it'll still be more than enough. I think the SLI is key to longevity, since CPU's are still hovering below the 4gHz benchmark.
As for heat concerns, I chose Intel and nVidia for that reason, since ATI runs a bit hot. At full tilt, the CPU cores never broke 75ºc. The GPU got to 90ºc when I accidentally turned off SLI and blocked the vent. Properly set up on a table, it rarely reaches 80º.
The M14x would be great, too, especially if you can squeeze a beefy video card in it and hook it up to a big monitor. I'm going to be using mine away from home a lot, so I didn't want to compromise on the big screen.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M does really well with games all the way up to Skyrim and Metro 2033 with settings all the way up, even before the SLI.
THIS MAN SPEAKS TRUTH.
I got a sager there for like 1200 that had parts at the time better than alienware for like 800 less than alienware.
No problems, beast laptop is beast. Heat is laughable as its designed to handle it.
Dont pay the alienware markup.
~~1500 gets you this beast from there.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
Maybe even 1 card lower than that. Still very very fast. Its(6990m) like 10% slower (worst case, many games it keeps pace) than a nvida 590m but hundreds cheaper.
See, I'm confused myself now. Do you mean the 590m? Because there is no way that card could be less powerful than a 6850(desktop) and only be 10% slower than a desktop 590. What do we mean by slower, anyway? FPS?
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
i corrected! My mistake. Comparison of mobile cards here, not desktop
Tis.
Either getting that or 1000$ sli absolute monster desktop in 3 months.
Can someone tell me if this is worth the price? Only including the parts I think are important as they pertain to performance. There are many options for upgrading the RAM, HD and Processor if one of those is significantly worse than the rest of the machine.
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache
nVidia 610M 2048MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technolog
6GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB + 1x2GB SODIMMS)
750GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s -- there's a 7200 RPM option of the same drive
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive
[edit]I'm not a huge graphics whore...My first order of business with something like this will be to go back and play the Company of Heroes games and some older stuff that ran absolutely like shit on my old PC at their max settings. I don't mind playing newer games at medium settings or whatnot. Just saying all that so to help the judgement of the above. I am way out of the loop on PC hardware these days.
It would be better to upgrade your PC, if you can reuse enough of the parts. I picked up a decent motherboard, a 3.4 GHz 6 core AMD CPU and 8 gig of pc1600 RAM last year for maybe a third of that price. If you have a good monitor, case and power supply already, your money would go much further in a desktop rig upgrade.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
I've been told by multiple people not to buy Alienware.
Chassis Model: Digital Storm x17 Laptop (Model: 8170)
Display: 17.3 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Glossy Surface) LED-Backlit Display
Processor: Intel Core i7 2860QM (2.5 GHz Turbo Mode to 3.6Ghz) (Quad Core) (8MB Cache)
Thermal Compound: Premium IC Diamond CPU and GPU Thermal Compound (Reduces Thermal & Laptop Noise)
Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz
Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)
Secondary Hard Drive: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player (Blu-Ray 6x) & DVD/CD Writer
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wireless LAN Module
Video Card(s): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M 2GB
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
My laptop is so great, I haven't had to go to Alienware customer service for anything yet. I don't have any firsthand experience with them outside of them getting my computer to me a week before they said they would.
I've also never had the inclination to buy pre-built, since there's little risk to building it myself and I don't like transporting big PC systems for fear of things coming loose.
Looks great and at a good price to boot.
Once I started going over board with components, there wasn't as big a difference in price so I went with a more distinct chassis and minor features for a couple hundred dollar premium.
Very much this.
This thing still does everything I need to do with gaming. Depending on the game and engine it chokes up pretty hard. I can raid in wow with all the settings turned up, or play other high end games on it with ease, but its chokes to death on civ5, which I am guessing is because of engine optimization being bad.
edit: relevant experience, I have built my own desktops and computers for others for the last 10 years. If you need a desktop, for gods sakes build it yourself if you have the time to deal with parts when they break. I had a friend that worked for ibuypower, and he was actually surprised to find out they dont just slap components in a case, check to see if its starts up and ship it. They actually do very rigorous testing and let me know when he was hitting bad batches of hardware so I knew what brands of memory to avoid, etc. I dont recomend them necessarily because of price, but it was at least nice to know these places do stress test items before sending them out. The cash you are throwing at them isn't just a money hole.