Laptop Advice

[De@thknight]

Ok, had a look at the alienware laptop again and for £1347.72 its going to get me:
8800M GTX
2.4 Ghz processor
1 GB Memory
120gb 7200

so i'd then have to buy 4gb memory from crucial for £60 and then the HDD would cost £80 from Scan, so it may be best to upgrade the HDD with alienware, and the asus is cheaper in every way apart from it doesn't have the GTX. And i still think this is paying a lot for what i'm actually getting, isn't it?

So much better would this be in performance terms than the Asus or my current desktop? What i could do for this is go for the basic alienware setup and then upgrade later on.... How easy would it be for me to put the new ram and hdd in anyway?

[TheReaFireblade]

Dell's 17" XPS laptops, are well worth considering

I've got a XPS M1730 myself ( ), but it starts at £1400, so you might want to consider the M1710 @ £1100 instead?

The standard spec includes:

17.0" UltraSharp WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
Intel Core2Duo T7400 @ 2.16GHz
4GB (2x 2GB) DDR 2 @ 667MHz
512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX
320GB 5.400rpm SATA HDD
8x Super-Multi DVD±RW
Sigmatel Integrated HD Audio
Intel Pro Wireless Bluetooth (+ free bluetooth headset)
9 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
130w AC Adapter

Vista Home Premium (32bit)
1 year "base" warranty


Just another alternative for ya

[De@thknight]

Ye, thanks. I had looked at the XPS but when i compared it to the asus i thought the asus was a more powerful laptop. How does yours cope / perform in games?

[TheReaFireblade]

Very well indeed

But with a pair of 512MB 8800M GTX's in it... it damned well ought to

[De@thknight]

Ah lol, don't think i can afford that. How would the 8700GT compare to that

[staffsMike]

It won't really compared at all.

3D Mark isn't exactly the end all of comparisons but check here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...&sort=3dmark06

8800GTX gets about 9000 in 06 (SLi more like 12500)
8700GT gets about 4500 in 06 (which i've seen overclocked 8600GT's hit)
8600GT gets about 3500 in 06

[De@thknight]

The problem for me with the alienware with the GTX is not just the price but i've heard a lot about alienware having bad customer service etc, and when spending so much i don't want to get that. What about http://www.techradar.com/products/co...-327966/review when it comes out. A magazine i have says its £1391 inc vat

[staffsMike]

I guess it depends who you speak to, I hear they are actually quite good. Being owned by dell now it should be really.

If you want good customer service and warranty though dell's xps warranty is the gold standard in my opinion. You pretty much side step Indian call centre's, they are in the home the next day fixing anything that might break it's great, which is very rare and I've supported around 50 dell laptops at my last job and had 3 myself.

I've got an new M1330 (little brother to the XPS M1530 I mentioned before) and it's a great little laptop Honestly I would get the M1530.

Gaming wise the 8600GT's play crysis well on low settings, COD4 well on high, and any other game I've seen on it has looked fantastic and worked a treat.

This was a ddr2 8600GT vs the ddr3 which you would have and on a 1.8GHz C2D so you're pretty much set when it comes to any recent titles and probably most new one's for a good while too.

[FifthFreedom]

I don't get peoples obsessions with taking a laptop to university.

I'm gonna bring my desktop ^^

Then I can buy a cheapy ASUS eee or similar for taking notes and have a solid gaming rig for fun.

Some cases are so small now you might as well, especially as you pay so much of a premium for laptops...

[staffsMike]

Well if you travel about quite a bit then laptop's are very handy. I was almost never at my uni house for more than a few days, whether I was visiting friends or family etc.. It's also handy for going round mates houses for a quick game or taking into uni.

They're great, loved having one at uni, I would counter and say there was little need for a desktop at uni

[Noxvayl]

Well if you travel about quite a bit then laptop's are very handy. I was almost never at my uni house for more than a few days, whether I was visiting friends or family etc.. It's also handy for going round mates houses for a quick game or taking into uni.

They're great, loved having one at uni, I would counter and say there was little need for a desktop at uni

But an MSI Wind, Asus eee or the Dell small thing coming out would perform the function of the laptop when needed in uni as well as taking to other peoples houses to keep your work with you... don't need a gaming notebook for that surely.

Any sort of gaming would then be done on the desktop and its not that big of an issue to cart that around if you want to lan.

[De@thknight]

As i said earlier my problem with alienware is the very mixed reviews they get. if they didn't have this i'd definately think of buying one. But look at the comment down the bottom of this page http://www.laptopshowcase.co.uk/revi...age=2#comments some are very good and so is the review but there are lots of very negative ones too.

[staffsMike]

I've gamed on both of my last laptops rather than have a desktop with me.

It's very handy especially with my xps as it's so small you don't really notice you have it with you and its a perfect little gaming machine for me.

Having a monitor at home and at uni was plenty for me. I didn't need a desktop for anything.

[De@thknight]

Ok i think i'm leaning towards to the Alienware. How easy would it be for me to change the RAM myself and at a later date my HDD?

[cigbunt]

hmm
i got an bargin off dell recently...

xps m1530
2.4ghz
320hd
2gb ram
1440x900 screen (upgrade)
geforce 8600gt ddr3
vista home prem

all for £599.

i found a discount code for 10% then i called up dell and made them give me free delivery in total i saved about £170. check the dell site for that spec...

pm me if u need help gettin that deal..


how much better is the 1 ur gonna buy!?

[De@thknight]

The main thing for me is the gfx card, and this is what puts the price up so much, and i will have double the RAM provided i can change it myself. So does anyone know how easy this will be to do, and i'm guessing it will void the warranty?