Alienware laptop:
Area-51 m7700
Pentium 4 650 3.4GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB
256MB NVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX
17" WideUXGA 1920x1200
Motherboard- Intel 915P PCI-Express Chipset
2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 533MHz 4x512MB
100GB 5400 RPM ATA100
or 80GB 7200 RPM ATA100 (but an additional $186)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA

Grand total: $3,434.00

Now, for my questions. Besides the obvious is it worth that price. I am curious if any of you have any experiences with an Alienware laptop. The video card gets amazing benchmarks from Tomshardware. My other question is about the difference between 5400RPM and 7200RM, I'll be losing 20 gigs and it's $180 more. With the other high speed devices, will it make that much of a difference? I just don't want it to be a big disappointment like my Dell laptop that I purchased a year and a half ago. I know there will be nay-sayers who will say that laptops aren't for gaming, but I am hoping that this setup will curb that some. And it has to be a laptop because I carry it with me equally between three places and do the majority of my gaming away from home.

Your thoughts?

1/2/2006 8:01:46 PM

that is insanely priced

1/2/2006 8:08:26 PM

7200 is a huge advantage over 5400 if you're going to be gaming.

but its a big drain on the battery.

That thing is more like a really portable desktop than a laptop.

1/2/2006 8:11:56 PM

that computer isn't at all worth the price. It's going to be a piss poor laptop with maybe 1 hour of battery life. for that amount of money you could buy/build a desktop with the same specs as well as buy a decent laptop.

1/2/2006 8:21:17 PM

needs more ram

1/2/2006 8:24:29 PM

drunknloaded, get the hell out of tech talk.

Quote :

"2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 533MHz 4x512MB"

wtf do you need more than 2 gb for?

1/2/2006 8:26:15 PM

Quote :

"It's going to be a piss poor laptop with maybe 1 hour of battery life. for that amount of money you could buy/build a desktop with the same specs as well as buy a decent laptop."

1/2/2006 8:49:55 PM

It won't hardly ever be on battery though. And the reason why it has to be a laptop is because I won't be in one location long enough to validate a desktop.

Also, I am taking 2 1gig sticks of RAM out of my current laptop to make it a total of 3 and it is always expandable to 4.

And to those who say that it is overpriced, what alternatives in a "gaming" laptop can you suggest?

1/2/2006 9:12:05 PM

get yourself a new car.

1/2/2006 9:15:50 PM

What's wrong with my current truck?

1/2/2006 9:17:59 PM

don't try and play games on a laptop. overal it's a bad idea. you can't upgrade. the keyboards are pretty crowded, and you need an external mouse. all the processing the games take is going to make your cpu constantly be at 100% and your fan will always be on high (and blow out sooner, which is a pain in the ass to replace). you can't upgrade. you can't upgrade. YOU CAN'T UPGRADE.

if you want a laptop, aim for small/portable, light, battery life, and if it does (or does not, depending on your preference) run Mac OSX.

1/2/2006 10:08:01 PM

you can upgrade some laptops.

granted it is limited, but it can be done.

[Edited on January 2, 2006 at 11:21 PM. Reason : anyways, gaming on a laptop is teh sucks]

1/2/2006 11:20:45 PM

Quote :

"And the reason why it has to be a laptop is because I won't be in one location long enough to validate a desktop. "

How often are you talking about being in "one location" at a time?

1/3/2006 12:05:45 AM

Quote :

"Alienware laptop:"

that alone is driving up the cost...sure its a hell of a computer but really, it is not worth that price

1/3/2006 2:37:43 AM

get this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7454122&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat39100050016&id=1125464966640

its in store in cary for $1049 open box. get the 3 year warranty and a pcmcia audigy2, maybe some ram online. then buy a desktop and a 7800gt and some ram. then give the remaining $1000 or so to me

1/3/2006 2:41:42 AM

Buying a desktop would not work. I spend 40 hours a week in Greensboro playing a game of some kind, usually World of Warcraft, 20 hours a week in Burlington playing games on my laptop and about 24-30 hours a week in Raleigh that I can potentially be playing something. The rest of the time I am sleeping/driving to and from one of those locations.

As long as it fits in a bag, portability isn't an issue and it won't ever be solely on battery power, so that is also not a problem. I know that I can't upgrade it, that is why I am trying to buy one that is tricked out enough to handle my gaming/application needs for a good while to come.

1/3/2006 8:49:16 AM

I would change my recommendation to you buying a life, friends, and potentially getting a job.

1/3/2006 10:48:02 AM

how do you spend 90 hours a week playing games, and be able to buy a $3400 laptop???

1/3/2006 1:10:05 PM

If you don't care about portability, and you use it mostly for games, it's a decent computer.

1/3/2006 1:10:17 PM

why don't yall get off his fucking nuts.

Yep, this sounds like what you need then. Go for it.

1/3/2006 1:19:05 PM

^ Thank you. And thank you for answering my original question as to if this was going to do the job that I need it to.

1/3/2006 2:53:55 PM

.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 3:04 PM. Reason : n/m]

1/3/2006 3:03:48 PM

i would get a mobile proc, saves battery life.

1/3/2006 4:02:32 PM

Unless the battery somehow runs down while plugged in (which it will be all the time), then I don't have that to worry about.

1/3/2006 4:08:43 PM

i would probably save the 3k and get a life....who the fuck plays 90 hrs a week of games...do something productive

1/3/2006 4:09:26 PM

he needs a desktop replacement laptop. hence why they MAKE desktop replacement laptops. Hence why he is looking at buying a desktop replacement laptop.

1/3/2006 4:09:33 PM

from Dell, just configured now. in addition u get a free Dell 512mb mp3 player.

Dell XPS M170

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6800 Ultra
100GB 5400rpmHard Drive
Integrated 1 Gigabit Network Card and Modem
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)


Dell DJ Ditty Qty 1
Dell Digital Jukebox™ Ditty 512MB Unit Price $0.00


TOTAL: $2,543.00

1/3/2006 4:15:21 PM

the alienware is better

1/3/2006 4:25:33 PM

you could buy five desktops just as good as that for the same price and just leave them wherever

1/3/2006 4:59:17 PM

or he could just buy what suits him and not have to worry about mainting 5 fucking systems

1/3/2006 5:57:43 PM

yeah the alienware one is better

1/5/2006 8:16:15 AM

the xps is a better deal though, i bought a 9300 and upgraded to xps specs used some online coupons and got it for 1700 bucks

1/5/2006 2:44:16 PM

Quote :

"the xps is a better deal though, i bought a 9300 and upgraded to xps specs used some online coupons and got it for 1700 bucks"

that was my point. u get the XPS and upgrade the RAM for hell of a lot cheaper on slickdeals than u would get it for through Dell. the alienware didnt mention an optical drive, does it have a dvd burner or what?

1/5/2006 2:46:05 PM

This one came on slickdeals today. It sounds pretty nice, for a laptop. $1550.

Intel Core Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
256MB NVIDA GeForce Go 7800
80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support

1/6/2006 9:13:08 AM

^I was going to post that. I'd buy it if it was 15"

1/7/2006 4:49:37 AM

90 FUCKING HOURS A WEEK?

I HOPE YOU MEANT TO LEAVE THOSE ZEROS OFF OF YOUR NUMBERS

1/7/2006 9:14:15 AM

Nope.

1/8/2006 2:48:05 PM