Choosing between an m14x and m17x Alienware laptop along with a few questions.

[SLtesterL2]

Hello!

First, I would like to state that I have posted a few threads relating to certain alienware laptops which I was interested in during these past several months to get a general idea on how each would perform individually with SL. So basically, I'm sorry if this post is sort of a duplicate but I do have some questions along with these systems and brought back (what I hope to be) helpful information on the specs of each laptop.

 

 

 

Here are the set-ups for each laptop:

 

m14x:

PROCESSOR        3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M (3MB Cache, up to 3.2 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)  

OPERATING SYSTEM       Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit          

MEMORY             8GB (2 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz    

HARD DRIVE       500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s    

VIDEO CARD       2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™            

LCD PANEL          14.0" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight     

WIRELESS CARDS              Killer Wireless-N 1202 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0    

 

 

 

 

m17x:

PROCESSOR        3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)                

OPERATING SYSTEM       Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit          

MEMORY             8GB (2 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz    

HARD DRIVE       500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s    

VIDEO CARD       2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M          

WIRELESS CARD                Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0      

INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE            Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

 

 

 

 

 

For my questions:

 

1. The MAJOR difference I see between the m14x and m17x is the fact that the m17x can actually switch and upgrade all of it's coponents like an actual desktop which I think is amazing! :matte-motes-big-grin-squint: But unfortunately...That's the only reason for me to actually buy one. I know the laptop has a great amount of power and possesses that convienent feature, but I have to think to myself and think: "Do I need all thatz?" Sure, it's nice to think of planning for future use, but the m14x has EVERYTHING that I need/want and extra on the side! So what's your opinion on this? Stick with a more portable, cheaper, and laptop that already fills my needs or a powerful, upgradeable, but unfortunately more expensive laptop (also, the difference in price is about $300)

 

 

 

2. If I were to go with an i7 instead of a i5, would it really make THAT much of a difference for SL and my whole laptop use in general? I'm using a laptop with a i5 and I love it already so I'm not sure if the i7 is really needed or not since I actually heard that the change for SL isn't by much.

 

 

 

3. I heard that the more up-to-date and fancier Graphics cards have a hard time with SL due to the fact that the viewer cannot recognize it. That's VERY unsettling to me. The fact you spend so much money for a Graphics card and the client you run doesn't even work makes me worry. Is there a solution to this, I googled a bit and found a few people with the same problem but some weren't completely resolved. I think I heard someone say to to hit the key function+ f7 and the person never replied stating wether or not the suggestion worked or not so if you please know, tell me. 

 

 

 

4. Should I get 6 or 8 GB of RAM. I believe I read that RAM increases render speed. ATM I have 6 GB and I can say it runs fairly well, but was wondering if more would help alot or just a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, sorry for the kinda-duplicate thread and on how long it is. Please give me as much helpful info and advice as possible.'

I hope you all have a great day!

Thank you!

[Jewel Laurasia]

I wouldn't spend extra money to be able to upgrade a laptop. My biggest concern with a laptop is it's reliablitity over the long term compared to desktops. I don't know how much this has improved recently.

 

[Gazes into crystal ball...]

 

In 2 years, my concern would be the ability to buy an upgraded video card for that machine. Technology changes so rapidly that it will most likely be outmoded, and buying a new laptop would most likely provide better performance for the money.

 

My opinion is both look like great laptops and will handle SL just fine, as long as the viewer you use recognizes it and plays nicely.

[Orca Flotta]

Hi SLtester, yes, you're right. The i7 is nice to have, sure, but won't help you much for SL. I can't say if the 660 is actually sooooo much better than the 650 GPU. You should read up on that in the internet. The upgradabiity of the m17x (sure you don't mean m18x?) is a nice bonus ... but 300 bucks? Really?

I'd say the golden soloution lies in the middle: 15.6" is the go-to size these days since good screens are 1920x1080 like on the bigger model Alienware. The 1366x768 solution of the m14x seems a bit weak. Also 15.6 is still portable but a 18" is a fuxxen brick to carry around.

Apart from that I gotta say I'm not a big fan of Alienware at all. They are just Dells in super fugly cases that look like indestructable tanks but are actually rather cheap plastic products. If I had the money and was in the market for an SL laptop I'd rather look at MSI and ASUS offerings. Particularly MSI lappies are blowing everything else right out of the water these days. Here you get the GTX 660 in the cheaper series and the good series features GTX670. That's as good as it gets. Unfortunately MSIs aren't that well manufactured.

[Jadeclaw Denfu]

Caution!

The GTX 660M is quite weak and cannot be compared with the desktop version.
This is true for all mobile variants of similar named desktop graphics cards.
In case of the GTX 660-series, http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php says this:

GTX 660 Desktop:     4106 points
GTX 660 Ti Desktop: 4680 points
GTX 660M Mobile:     1455 points.

In other words: the mobile variant has 1/3 of the performance of the Ti- desktop version.
My desktop GTX 650 has 1824 points and gets seriously bogged down in dense environments.

@SLtesterL2: This of course begs another question: Do you REALLY need portability.
A desktop delivering the same performance can be purchased for less than half the price
and can be individually upgraded later.
Regarding main memory: 6GB is an odd number of memory modules, forcing the memory controller
into single channel mode, which reduces memory performance by up to 30%.
8GB is an even number of modules, allowing for full dual channel operation.
Plus with the crappy memory management of Windows in general, more memory is better in every case.
I say, 8GB is the minimum for Windows7/8.

[SLtesterL2]

Thanks everyone for answering I really appreciate it! :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2: Also, if you could, PLEASE answer question #3 since I have been looking up and down the internet and still can't seem to find an answer.

[Jadeclaw Denfu]

Regarding Issue 3, there had been isolated cases of cards not properly recognised by the viewer,
but the viewer has a commandline switch to bypass the hardware detection, which mostly works.
Usually these kind of issues are solved with the next viewer update. If that happens to you, remember to file a JIRA.
Then there is the pink screen issue, that is usually solved by updating the graphics driver to the
latest version available directly from manufacturers website. Don't rely on Windows Update for this,
I had a current driver overwritten by Windows Update with a two year old one, that was also defective,
so off to the manufacturers website you go, or in some cases, directly to the GPU-makers website.