Right Boys and Girls, 2 Laptops. One budget. One choice. One question. Which?

Retro_Rob

Hey all,

I really want to get an alienware, yes i know there are other cheaper laptops out there and i'll have the posts of "no! you should get this or that" but i just reckon this is the reliable choice for me so just need help choosing between the two. Cheers to all who do!

Right first one....

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M17x Stealth Black

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2720QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)

OPERATING SYSTEM English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

GRAPHICS CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 6990M

MEMORY 8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]

HARD DRIVE 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive

LCD 17.3" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD

OPTICAL DRIVE DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write)

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Killer™ Wireless-N 1103

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9 cell Li-Ion Default Base Battery

And the other.....

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M14x Black WLAN

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2820QM (2.30Ghz, 6MB, 4C)

OPERATING SYSTEM English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

GRAPHICS CARD 3GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT555M

BASE Alienware M14x : 3.0 Base Black

MEMORY 8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel

HARD DRIVE 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive

LCD 14.1" (36 cm) Widescreen High Definition + (1600x900) WLED with TrueLife

OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - EUR

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 8-cell 63W/HR LI-ION

Thanks a million

Chris Hansen

Retro_Rob wrote: »

Hey all,

I really want to get an alienware, yes i know there are other cheaper laptops out there and i'll have the posts of "no! you should get this or that" but i just reckon this is the reliable choice for me so just need help choosing between the two. Cheers to all who do!

Right first one....

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M17x Stealth Black

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2720QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)

OPERATING SYSTEM English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

GRAPHICS CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 6990M

MEMORY 8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]

HARD DRIVE 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive

LCD 17.3" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD

OPTICAL DRIVE DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write)

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Killer™ Wireless-N 1103

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9 cell Li-Ion Default Base Battery

And the other.....

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M14x Black WLAN

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2820QM (2.30Ghz, 6MB, 4C)

OPERATING SYSTEM English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

GRAPHICS CARD 3GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT555M

BASE Alienware M14x : 3.0 Base Black

MEMORY 8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel

HARD DRIVE 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive

LCD 14.1" (36 cm) Widescreen High Definition + (1600x900) WLED with TrueLife

OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - EUR

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 8-cell 63W/HR LI-ION

Thanks a million

Unless you need portable computing for launching a missile or computing satelite trajectories in a bid for world domination, the second one

Retro_Rob

Even though its 14"? You think it'll be ok for gaming and watching series an things with the missus?

dazzday

Unless you need it to be portable (ie in a backpack in and out to college etc), the first one is the clear winner:

The 6990 >> 555 gpu. If fact for a serious gaming laptop the 555M shouldnt even be considered (you want 560 / 580 +).

The 1080p >>900p for movies

Other options id consider would be something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-040-MS&groupid=959&catid=1828&subcat=

Or prehaps the ASUS G53 or ASUS G73 ... i think you will get more bang-for your buck with these.

Overheal

I'd the 14" IF it was a GTX 560 or something. But it's not. 6990 is the clear winner and unless you need to carry this around a bunch, go with the 17".

cr17

M17 defo, escpecially if your not moving around much. Great for games, movies, both have awesome specs though.

Chris Hansen

Retro_Rob wrote: »

Even though its 14"? You think it'll be ok for gaming and watching series an things with the missus?

Dont lie, you have no missus



If you really do though, consider an external monitor for watching shows and films on perhaps?

Retro_Rob

Chris Hansen wrote: »

Retro_Rob wrote: »

Even though its 14"? You think it'll be ok for gaming and watching series an things with the missus?

Dont lie, you have no missus



If you really do though, consider an external monitor for watching shows and films on perhaps?

Lol, well she won't be very happy to hear she doesnt exist but i'll let her know

Yeah we're getting a smart tv to hook it up to for movies but I do suppose the 17" would be better for my games seem as we dont need it to be mega portable...

I was just afraid sacrificing the 2.3 for the 2.2 processor on the 17" would be a big no no. but I do want a really good graphics card...

dazzday

You wouldnt notice the difference in gaming between the two i7s. ONly if you were heavily using professional applaictions (matlab etc) or benchmarking would the difference come to play.

Get the better GPU.

beno619

Those are just the base clock speeds, turboboost will send both of those processor clocks past 3.0 Ghz and yeh you wouldnt really feel any difference in performance.

Overheal

beno619 wrote: »

Those are just the base clock speeds, turboboost will send both of those processor clocks past 3.0 Ghz and yeh you wouldnt really feel any difference in performance.

In direct use I've seen those boost up to 2.8, not beyond 3. Not even at 3. Though perhaps not those model chips.

beno619

Overheal wrote: »

beno619 wrote: »

Those are just the base clock speeds, turboboost will send both of those processor clocks past 3.0 Ghz and yeh you wouldnt really feel any difference in performance.

In direct use I've seen those boost up to 2.8, not beyond 3. Not even at 3. Though perhaps not those model chips.

My i7 2630Qm has a base clock of 2.0 and can boost up to 2.9 so I can only assume better processors with higher base clock speed will boost further ?
Not many common applications would need that raw processing power anyway.