Gaming Laptop

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by kirant

Hm...Alienware is having a sale on their M15x (300 off). I'm looking at upgrading from my 5 year old computer (which pretty much sucks. It was the store minimum price from the Vista era).

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m15x/pd?refid=alienware-m15x&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

I'm wondering, price wise, how it would compare to a Sager. Visual isn't a huge problem for me, but I would probably lean towards the non-black colours of Alienware:
http://www.fortnaxnotebooks.com/inde...id=7&Itemid=96

I'm not too familiar with the differences I'd feel between what I'd probably get with the Alienware deal and what I'd get with the Sager (taking the default purchase)...off the customization, I'd get ($1299. A pretty nice price):
ALIENWARE
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3)
320GB SATAII Hard Drive
Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
6-cell (56Watt) LI Battery

And how much different would it be compared to my current laptop? It's got 1.6 GHz processor, 1 GB Ram, and can't run Starcraft II because of a terrible graphics card (and can't last 15 minutes unplugged )

The Alienware is on sale because it's 2 year old technology. The i7 740QM is no slouch but it is the last generation i7 and slower than the current i7 (Sandy Bridge) CPUs are twice as fast. The GTX 260M on the Alienware is also slow.

The Alienware is also only on SATAII (3GB/s harddrive transfer speed) for the harddrive interface while the Sager provides SATAIII (6GB/s harddrive transfer speed) for the future. The Sager also has USB 3.0, HDMI, optical SPDIF, eSata, Firewire, etc.

If price is your concern, for $1250, this Sager NP8130 has a CPU (2630QM) that is two times faster than Alienware and a GPU (GTX 460M) that is at least 30% faster than the Alienware. Closer to 50% if overclocked (and it's easy). You also get 8GB of ram and a 500GB harddrive instead of 4GB ram and 320GB harddrive on the Alienware.

http://www.fortnaxnotebooks.com/inde...id=6&Itemid=97

The Alienware is not good value. It's no contest. On the Sager (basically what I have, I added $150 extra for the faster CPU), you can run Starcraft 2 on the maximum settings at 1080p.

The Sager is cheaper, twice as fast, has modern interfaces and futureproof ports, the latest Intel series 6 chipset, more ram, bigger harddrive, etc. I don't know why anyone would even look at the Alienware unless they wanted it for the looks and the backlit keyboard. $1250 doesn't include the operating system though so factor that into cost if you want to buy one preinstalled or if you want to just find one yourself for cheaper. I got a copy of Windows 7 Professional for $25 on a student program from Microsoft. You can find copies of Win7 on CP, Kijiji, etc. for under $50 also.

Compared to your current laptop, the Sager NP8130 will be like over 10 times faster. I'm serious. The 2630QM CPU in it is already 2-3 times faster than my quad core desktop running @ 3.6GHz.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

If price is your concern, for $1250, this Sager NP8130 has a CPU (2630QM) that is two times faster than Alienware and a GPU (GTX 460M) that is at least 30% faster than the Alienware. Closer to 50% if overclocked (and it's easy). You also get 8GB of ram and a 500GB harddrive instead of 4GB ram and 320GB harddrive on the Alienware.

http://www.fortnaxnotebooks.com/inde...id=6&Itemid=97

Thanks. Though I am a little confused at the overclocking comment. Never tried it before. How would you?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by kirant

Thanks. Though I am a little confused at the overclocking comment. Never tried it before. How would you?

Download a program like Nvidia Inspector. Then you just drag two sliders. One for the Shader (which is tied to the core clock) and one for the Memory. If you get this laptop, I can show you.

The stock speeds for the GTX 460M are:

Core Speed * 675 MHz
Shader Speed * 1350 MHz
Memory Speed * 1250 MHz

Just by dragging two sliders (Core and Shader are locked together), you can get:

Core Speed * 800 MHz
Shader Speed * 1600 MHz
Memory Speed * 1400 MHz

This works out of the box for almost everybody with this graphics card in the Sager systems and it's 100% stable.

The only nitpick I have for the Sager is that the videocard fan (there is a separate fan for the CPU and GPU) is usually on most of the time at a low level so if you are sensitive to that, it might be a bit annoying. I usually play music at a low volume and don't notice it anymore. I don't know how quiet the Alienware is. The Alienware also has a backlit keyboard.

I forgot the mention that the Sager has 4 ram slots (most laptops only have 1!) and two are empty if you buy the 8GB version so you could be crazy and still have room to upgrade in the future although more than 8GB is overkill for most people already.

Sager also has a mini subwoofer (a small low frequency driver) built into the bottom and a nice THX sound system that makes the speakers sound great.

I'd also recommend you get an SSD now or in the future since the Sager has SATAIII. I boot up in 10 seconds, can be on the internet in 15 seconds.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I'd also recommend you get an SSD now or in the future since the Sager has SATAIII. I boot up in 10 seconds, can be on the internet in 15 seconds.

I'll keep that in mind. At the moment, I think that's overkill for me, so I'll probably take the extra storage space instead.

[3 Justin 3]

My new computer came today, what a beauty!!

Need to get used to the keyboard as it is bigger than my old one. The screen is excellent though.