Solved! HDMI-In vs Cheaper and more power?

[Zlyback]

Hey,

Split between getting the Alienware M18x which has HDMI-In letting me plug xbox/PS3 into my laptop and play or getting a Maibal laptop almost fully loaded for 300 less than the alienware but has no HDMI-In. The HDMI-In would let me play xbox will the wife watches TV. Builds below:

Alienware: $3,800
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
VIDEO CARD Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M AMD CrossFireX
HARD DRIVE 256GB Solid State Drive SATA 3Gb/s
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 3.0
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

Maibal: $3,500

Display: 17.3" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit GlassView Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-960, 8MB L3 Cache, 3.2GHz (Desktop CPU)
Memory: (12GB) 12288MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 3 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: Dual AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Hard Drive 2: 250GB Intel® (510) SATA III 6Gb/s SSD2 Drive
Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-ray Reader 8X DVD+/-R DL Super-Multi Drive

 

[WR2]

Alienware M18x Notebook review

 

[WR2]

Or you could get the Maibal X7200 and a nice external monitor for the console (or laptop).
ASUS VE276Q Black 27" 1920X1080 2ms Full HD HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor w/Display Port $300

 

[Zlyback]

Well isn't the Maibal laptop I put together more powerful than the Alienware? How a Maibal laptops in quality?

 

[Zlyback]

We have a small 19" 1080i tv I can move into the living room to play. Those alienware lights sure are pretty though

 

[Totalslaughter]

The mailbal looks like is desktop cpu so yes will be more powerful but they both have same cross fire setup so should be about the same in games. Also, I just recently ordered a M17x R3 and is supposed to come tomorrow after a week delay from the original estimated delivery date. If you call them and sign up for a dell account, basically pay for the majority of the order through their credit you can get at least a few hundred dollars off to bring the price down a bit. From what I've seen you should always call and not pay full dell.com prices.6

 

[sidewinderx2]

Well isn't the Maibal laptop I put together more powerful than the Alienware? How a Maibal laptops in quality?

That Maibal is less of a laptop, and more of a miniaturized desktop attached to a glorified UPS unit. Whatever game you play, i highly doubt you'll use all that power the setup can offer you. Maxing frame rates on a 1080 resolution screen is not at all hard... that crossfire setup is pretty much only needed if you're planning to use an external monitor with much higher resolution.

But anyways, if you're willing to spend that much on the laptop and try to max out performance, i would suggest that you not get the SSD on the Maibal, and buy one yourself after, as Maibal seems to only off the Intel SSDs, which aren't quite as good as the newer Sandforce powered cards like the Vertex 3 and such. Also, the SSD should be your primary drive, not secondary, since the operating system will be on it, and booting the OS/programs-you-use-often faster is the whole point of having a SSD in the first place.