Gaming laptop questions

[dragonwolf8504]

Here is the laptop I bought:

http/www.microcenter.com/product/416834/Alienware_17_173_Laptop_Computer_-_Silver

I paid $1925.96 after taxes

I LOVE the build quality, and the fact that I can get into everything on the underside. I also like the keyboard, able to change colors and everything. I also LOVE the fact that it came with Windows 7 Installed.

But the price is still a little hard to swallow.

I've been kind of eyeballing:

http/www.microcenter.com/product/415326/ROG_G750JW-RB71_173_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

I can add 4GB ram to it for about $40 max.

Both laptops would then pretty much have the same specs.

I have a 250GB SSD that I also planned on putting in the Asus. (It's in the Alienware right now.)

I am using Microcenter Columbus, Ohio Store.

My biggest things are reliability, keyboard (does this newer Asus suffer from the dreaded spacebar glitch?)

Please no "Build your own desktop, your get better bang for buck." I know I would, but I NEED portability, over everything.

I AM extremely happy with the Alienware, but am starting to have Buyer's Remorse on the price. So the biggest thing is I would like the same performance, but for less if possible. (I tried a Toshiba Qosmio out and did not like it. The single vent shared with the dGPU and the CPU just ramped up temperatures. I would prefer Windows 7, but I guess if I need to I will go with 8, provided I can have an SSD (Windows 8 doesn't seem to like being cloned. Help there?)

Weigh in and hope to get help soon as I have about 3-4 days remaining before I am stuck with my purchase no matter how I feel. (15 day return/ exchange on laptops.)

Also I wish to state I was an Alienware hater (always thought they were overpriced, but having owned one now, I am extremely impressed. But with everything else going on around my house, I am feeling a little guilty for sinking so much into a laptop when it seems I could have the same for less.

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Ok, cool, will it's running now, been running for about 7 or 8 mins now. No issues so far. I will check it every 15 mins or so and watch it for a few mins to make sure there are no artifacts. GPU temps are maxing out at about 78C but with avg seeming to be about 74C and drops to 67C. I guess I will report when the test is done and go from there.

Again thanks for all the help. It is and has been greatly appreciated!

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Small update, the benchmark has been going for about 45 mins so far, and nothing has crashed, I just finished watching the last 2 mins and nothing glitched up. (Vsync is off, just as an fyi) been checking it every 5 mins, since I'm just watching tv right now. and nothing unusual has cropped up. I will keep it running for another hour roughly and post back as that would make it about an hour and 45 mins test, which is probably good enough to see I would think.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea its a very good chance that at this point it going to be working completely fine, but best to make sure. Good selling point too if you get the results of that benchmark and include them on ebay when you sell it. Gives the tech savy gamers a hint of how good the GPU is.

FYI as a comparison, I just bought a laptop with these specs:
CPU: i5-3210M @2.5Ghz 3.1Turbo
GPU: Nvidia GT 620M
RAM: 6GB
HDD: 1TB 5400RPM
DVD Drive
15.6" LCD @1366x768 resolution

I paid $320 for it yesterday on Ebay and paid $30 for shipping (Fedex).
It is used with some minor scratches it said and it has a Turkish keyboard but w/e cause except like 3 keys on the side being different its pretty much the same so I didn't care. But as a comparison, your CPU has a 91% faster performance, 10GB more RAM, much higher resolution screen, and SSD, a faster HDD, better disk drive, and your GPU which is faster than this one but I don't really want to look up how much faster. I would say its safe to say at least 5 times faster.

I think I got an excellent deal price wise, so at $1000 they won't be getting quite as excellent of a deal but they will still be getting a really good one. Its worth every cent of it.

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Will it has been like 2 hours. No issues. So I think it'll be good in all honesty.

Mine is in practically like new. Maybe a few hard to see scratches and the Stickers that show the cpu, gpu and such are starting to peel. But otherwise it is like day one almost.

I take really good care of my electronics and computers. For reference, I paid about $1900 for the Samsung back in July of last year. But the Alienwares were more pricier then. So this is why maybe I am more impressed with my Alienware as I didn't pay full price for it. (Originally the Alienware was $1999.) But was an open box, nothing missing.) So I guess if I can sell the Samsung for about $1000 it'll help on my guilt feeling. Which is a little higher now that it seems the Samsung is ok. But still I am very paranoid that the Samsung will still fail. (Since the previous year I had to send it in for repair twice, which I am also going to make known in any auction or sale, b/c I know I'd want that disclosed as well.) For all I know I could still get another year or two's out of the Samsung, but I'm just paranoid and had the money at the time for the Alienware. Who knows what will happen down the road. At least the Alienware is under Warranty until December of 2014 which is over a year from now.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea best to go ahead and stick with the new Alienware. It has a haswell CPU anyways which are more efficient power wise, so you might get a small kick in battery life.

If it is in super good condition you might even try for $1100 but at that people may double think through the lenovo's and the MSI brands cause they have a couple nice systems at $1100, but are still lacking on a few specs compared to yours. Still its fully working, great specs, great condition, so someone I am sure will be happy to buy it.

Tomshardware also has a "deals" section you may think about listing it there also. Helps avoid Ebay fees.

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Yep thanks for all the help. It was greatly appreciated! Since there was so much info in every post, I wasn't sure what to select as answer. But since your final post stated a rough idea on selling the older laptop and pretty much convinced me on keeping the Alienware I selected it as the solution.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Thanks I appreciate it
I'm glad I was able to help too. Having just bought an i7-3770k and a laptop I know all about feeling guilt for spending too much on tech parts, but really what techie doesn't? lol

Hope the sell goes well

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Yeah, I know what you mean, lol. Yep I will probably post how much I sold the Samsung for, once it sells. Whenever it sells. Thanks again for the help!

 

[ilovecomps]

Hey if your still looking at things to buy check this one out!! MSI GE70-2OE-017US its pretty portable because it doesnst have the exhaust in the back and it can probably do what you want you can get some sweet stuff of xoticpc.com ... cant believe I adv. for them right sigh** but its nice laptop and you can upgrade the hell out of it and see how well it works out probs get the 15 inch though js

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Will now, I know I necro'ed my own thread, but I just found this: http/www.microcenter.com/product/421800/IdeaPad_Y510p_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Dusk_Black

For $999+ tax

From what I read it uses an mSATA for an SSD if I wanted to go that route, I already have a USB 3.0 Blu-ray Writer/ DVD/CD Burner Drive I could always use. I could also get pretty much the same model but w/o an 8GB SSD for about $100 cheaper open box.

Any thoughts?

How good is this laptop?

 

[IInuyasha74]

Well lets break it into pros and cons for this one.

Not include CPU because they have the same CPU.

Alienware
Pros:
1. Single more powerful GPU, probably more energy efficient.
2. 8-Cell Lithiom-Ionn
3. 16GB DDR3
4. DVD Drive
5. You already have and enjoy it for various personal reasons, such as the ease at which you can take it apart for maintenance.

Cons:
1. Twice the specified weight
2. 17.3" display less portable
3. $900 more expensive
4. Slower conventional HDD

Lenovo
Pros:
1. Faster Hybrid HDD
2. $900 cheaper.
3. 15.6" Better for portability
4. Much lighter
Cons:
1. Dual GPUs which perform at best as good as the 770M.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-750M-SLI.91280.0.html
Being Dual GPU instead of one single means lower performance in terms of the consistency at which the frames come out. Same issue that is well known on the AMD GPUs in Crossfire but has recently been greatly improved. The Nvidia GPUs suffered from the problem much less, and still have much less trouble with it, but its an inherent issue with Dual GPUs still. Also, consumes more power as a result of two GPUs.

2. Less RAM, but with the price difference for $120 you could change the RAM, sell the old ones and upgrade to 16GB of RAM.

3. Smaller 6-cell Lithium-ion, mixed with the increased power usage will have significantly lower battery life. With total savings however, you could again buy a bigger battery as a replacement and then possibly carry both and switch them as the larger one dies.

4. No DVD Drive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, from my view point I would prefer the Lenovo. In truth between the Samsung, Lenovo, and Alienware laptops the performance will be rather small. In some tests the Samsung would be found more powerful as a result of its SSD.
In some tests the Lenovo and Alienware will be found more powerful as a result of their 4th gen CPUs at a higher clock.
In most tests such as games, the Alienware will perform best.

None of them will significantly lag behind the others. Now since you have worries about the Samsung, your peace of mind that your system won't break down is worth selling it and getting a new one, but personally I would get the Lenovo. I don't know about the specific case features of the Alienware that you have already said are quite good, but the Lenovo gives nearly identical performance for $900 less. Even after about $120 memory upgrade, and maybe $100 for a larger battery, its still $680 cheaper before you count selling the old RAM. If you wanted that leaves plenty to purchase an SSD even of some kind and use. I don't personally count the little 8GB mSATA as a pro or con. Maybe you can sell it also for a small bit, or keep it as a novelty, but in reality 8GB won't hold windows, so there goes a large amount of performance, and any of the newer games I have and play that would require such powerful graphics take more than 8GB HDD space, so they wouldn't fit. So the performance boost from it is practically non-existent. However, for about $300 you could get a good sized and powerful SSD that is either 2.5" or an mSATA and use which would have plenty of space and perform excellent.

That leaves the only feature I think I haven't touched on being the DVD drive. You said you have a USB one which is all you need to get by with. Personally, I am one who still likes to have one built into the system, but the Lenovo unless I am mistaken removes it for a large fan to cool the hardware which is a good trade off for a gaming system. DVDs are all but done away with really, and even if BluRay is popular for movies now, its only got so long before it will be the same and I cannot remember the last time I used a disk of any kind to watch a movie really so again its not really a needed item.

Thats about all I can think to say on them, but the finally decision is up to you. Good luck.

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Hey welcome back! lol Thanks again for another posting. Yeah, the more I look at things, the grass seems greener on the other side, I don't doubt Alienware now anymore, but the price paid is huge now, specially if most my games will get the same or close to same settings. I play Diablo 3, Sims 3, Command and Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath, World of Warcraft, Borderlands 2 (and 1).

Looking at SSD's I found out the Lenovo uses an 42 mm M.2, not mSATA, so my upgrade paths are: wait for an SSD in that form factor, upgrade the HDD to a roughly 500GB SSD (I can always cut down my Music and Games) for about $300. Or forgo the SSD for a time and just upgrade to a 1TB 7,200RPM HDD for about $83.

Looking at costs, worst case scenario it seems I'd get about $400+ back with a $300 480GB OCZ SSD included in that purchase. ($999.99+299.99+150)

That is not including the potential of returning the current 250GB SSD I do have which cost $189.99+ tax, so it would pay roughly half back on another (higher capacity SSD.) So really more money back as well!

Another note: I have been getting no luck in selling my Samsung, interested buyers, but then they back out.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea I don't think anyone really ever thought Alienware was bad, just question if the price is worth it since compared to others like the Lenovo with similar performance, it is a big question if the extra features are worth the $900 extra.

Only thing, don't go with a 7,200 RPM HDD. The 750GB one is a hybrid HDD. So even though it is at a slower RPM I think it will still perform better. So if you wait for a little while and decide to upgrade to a larger SSD even, your best just to stick with the current hybrid HDD till then.

Yea I would just return the SSD you have and upgrade the RAM and get the SSD at whatever time you feel like going for it.

As for the Samsung, don't give up yet. Its only been a few days. If you want a quick sell you could drop the price 100 or so, but I am sure it will sell in a week or so.

 

[dragonwolf8504]

Ok, thanks for all the help!

 

[dragonwolf8504]

If anyone was curious on what I did:

The Alienware did go bye bye.
I got a Sager instead. While it ends up costing almost $200 less than the Alienware (see price below) that includes a few extras and some major differences in specs. (At least Major to me.) I got it off of Powernotebooks.com

Sager NP8275
Intel i7-4700MQ 2.4Ghz-3.4Ghz (Same as Alienware)

16GB Ram (Same as Alienware)

120GB Crucial mSATA SSD w/ a second mSATA slot for future upgrades (Alienware didn't come with an SSD and I need to buy one. A 120GB SSD would have been about another $120 for the Alienware and that was installed by me.

750GB 7,200RPM HDD for Data (Alienware had this as the base HDD) Also has room for a second standard 2.5" HDD, which I have a slower 5,400RPM 750GB HDD I'm going to put in for my Music, Movies, and large download files

17.3" 1920x1080p Display (Same as Alienware)

AMD Radeon HD 8970M 4GB GDDR5 GPU (Alienware had a 3GB Nvidia GTX 770M) The 8970M should in outbeat the old GTX 675M in my old Samsung by a mile and seems to even tie or slightly outbeats GTX 675M SLI: http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8970M.90656.0.html

6x Blu-ray Player/ DVD/CD Burner Drive (Alienware had DVD/CD Burner only)

No OS I have an Windows 7 Install so it would be same as Alienware. They also include the Driver disc for the Sager, and I can download the drivers from the website as well.

230W PSU

Costs: $1,659.00 + 3-Day Shipping and $49 Production Expedited fee - $53.41 for a cash discount= $ 1,726.80.

The Alienware cost $1925.26 after taxes for the Alienware w/o any SSD, Closer to $2100 after taxes for Alienware w/ SSD. I think I did a lot better here on specs and everything, plus I can use some of what I already have!

Only downfall is I will need to wait about a week for the new laptop to come. But as I've tested from above, my Samsung should be fine for that time!




I just figured I would post what should for sure be my final pick.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Sounds like another good one. I always loved laptops with a second HDD slot. I have heard of Sager but just always had difficulties shopping for them and through their stuff as a result of the website they have more than anything else.

So I think you got a pretty excellent laptop, and with the 8970M you are at the top of mobile gaming, and seems to have the best mix of features between the Lenovo and Alienware.

Hope you enjoy it