25 replies to this topic

[Tom]

After going on a little hunt, one of my not-so-smart and not-so-tech-savvy friend suggested for me to get an Alienware laptop. I've long known about Alienwares being nothing but Dells with pretty cases, and after looking at their laptops, I can confirm that.

Now I'll make this a tad less complex for the technologically impaired people using some bold and some colors to compare the specs.

Win Lose Tie

Alienware M18x
Price: $1799.00
Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM
18.4" Screen (1080p Resolution)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M (Skyrim, 60+ FPS at High settings)
11.93 lbs

Now let's compare this to a pretty reputable brand that you don't hear much of...

MSI G Series GE70 0ND-033US
Price: $1169.99
Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM
17.3" Screen (1080p Resolution)
8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
750GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M (Skyrim, 60+ FPS at High Settings)
5.95 lbs

So half the weight, and slightly smaller screen, but overall slightly better specs for only $600 less? Wot is this? Then again, it would be unfair of me to compare a laptop of "similar specs". What could I possibly get for ~$1750 on MSI's side? Let's find out.

MSI GT Series GT70 0NC-012US
Price: $1749.99
Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM
17.3" Screen (1080p Resolution)
12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600 MHz
750GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 128GB SSD
3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670M (Skyrim, 90+ FPS at Max Settings)
8.6 lbs



TL;DR - Alienware sucks, don't get it.

[Nintendustin]

If you're not building it yourself, go with Digital Storm.

[Tom]

If you're not building it yourself, go with Digital Storm.

The problem I see with Digital Storm, or any laptop configurator, is that every last laptop is specifically handmade for you. I would only see this route feasible if you need to assemble a laptop that contains absolutely the best specs that a pre-built laptop would not feasibly have.

Any other time would be quite wasteful, as I matched the specs of GE70 0ND-033US and it would cost me $345 more for them to build one for me, even with stock thermal compound. :c

Edited by Tom, 08 September 2012 - 08:51 AM.

[Nintendustin]

Hey, manual labor sucks to pay for. Like I said, this is for those who don't want to build. They are the best when it comes to not screwing you.

Oh, and I wouldn't buy a laptop for gaming unless you had to.

Edited by dUstin, 08 September 2012 - 08:57 AM.

[Tricky Sonic]

May I ask the purpose of purchasing a laptop?

[Tom]

May I ask the purpose of purchasing a laptop?

Sure! I'm going to college in 2 years and I'll need something portable to take to the lecture rooms and then to my dorm. I also enjoy PC gaming and general multimedia, so a decent graphics card, processor, and possibly an SSD are great brownie-point winners.

Surely you don't expect me to lug around some kind of Mini-ITX computer with a briefcase handle and built-in monitor to the class and back, do you?

[Nintendustin]

What is your budget?

[Tom]

What is your budget?

$2,000 so far. I'm probably not going to actually order anything until the day I graduate, so I'm sure better laptop models will come out within the 2 year gap, not to mention I'll have a substantially higher budget.

Edited by Tom, 08 September 2012 - 12:10 PM.

[Tricky Sonic]

I'm always weary about multimedia laptops. It would be world's cheaper to buy a cheap laptop for classes and build a Nice gaming desktop for home or dorm. I just sold my laptop. I wanted to game on the go, but I ran into overheating issues and the lack of being able to really upgrade it.

If your bent on a laptop though..goes advice. Make sure it has at LEAST a 7200rpm hd or an SSD.

based on your choices I'd picky the MSI G series. As a custom PC builder and avid PC gamer im really anal on specs. 8GB of ram is all you would ever need in the entire life of that laptop. 17" screen is a big laptop as is. I'd spend the lowest amount on that and then find a fantastic sale on a SSD. The problem with laptop makers are they shove so much high end crap in them it makes your head spin. In 4 years or less they will all be outdated. No need to break the bank.

[Nintendustin]

$2,000 so far. I'm probably not going to actually order anything until the day I graduate, so I'm sure better laptop models will come out within the 2 year gap, not to mention I'll have a substantially higher budget.

That's a good budget to have. However, two years is long time from now.

[Tom]

That's a good budget to have. However, two years is long time from now.

That's true, but knowing what my options are now will give me a good idea of what my options might be in the future.

I'm always weary about multimedia laptops. It would be world's cheaper to buy a cheap laptop for classes and build a Nice gaming desktop for home or dorm. I just sold my laptop. I wanted to game on the go, but I ran into overheating issues and the lack of being able to really upgrade it.

If your bent on a laptop though..goes advice. Make sure it has at LEAST a 7200rpm hd or an SSD.

based on your choices I'd picky the MSI G series. As a custom PC builder and avid PC gamer im really anal on specs. 8GB of ram is all you would ever need in the entire life of that laptop. 17" screen is a big laptop as is. I'd spend the lowest amount on that and then find a fantastic sale on a SSD. The problem with laptop makers are they shove so much high end crap in them it makes your head spin. In 4 years or less they will all be outdated. No need to break the bank.

I know that Crucial is a pretty reputable SSD company. Their regular SSDs are like 50 cents a gig.

Also if I recall correctly, the G Series (Also the GT Series I believe) has an available mSATA slot for storage upgrades, so I could easily slap on an additional 256gb of blazingly-fast storage if need be. It's ~$220 right now, but I'm sure the price of SSDs will drop a bit in 2 years.

Edited by Tom, 08 September 2012 - 12:48 PM.

[Mignaga]

Yeah buying an Alienware laptop is like buying a Mac. The reason why it is so expensive is because you are paying for a brand name.

[AndyG]

I got a Mac through school and have changed my thoughts on the Macs, people can disagree all they want but Macs do have a lot of nice features and quite a few things are layed out a little better. I have been keen to get a macbook pro but seeing the price has put me off, it would be great if you could get the Mac OSX working on PC's and visa versa instead of been limited to being able to install Windows on a Mac.

[Tom]

I got a Mac through school and have changed my thoughts on the Macs, people can disagree all they want but Macs do have a lot of nice features and quite a few things are layed out a little better. I have been keen to get a macbook pro but seeing the price has put me off, it would be great if you could get the Mac OSX working on PC's and visa versa instead of been limited to being able to install Windows on a Mac.

It's actually very possible, to the point where there's a cult of people who perform such witchcraft.

Just check out hackintosh.com and suddenly save $2000 by not buying an expensive aluminum Facebook machine.

Edited by Tom, 09 September 2012 - 05:13 AM.

[Joshua]

I have an Alienware Laptop; a customised M14x2. I didn't buy it though. It was a gift from a friend of mine.

Yeah buying an Alienware laptop is like buying a Mac. The reason why it is so expensive is because you are paying for a brand name.

I don't like Apple products, at all. But in their defense, if someone wanted to use a computer with the Mac OS X (and isn't a tech nerd) and along with the "unique" branded software that Apple provides, they don't exactly have any other choice do they.

[Ixchel]

It's actually very possible, to the point where there's a cult of people who perform such witchcraft.

Just check out hackintosh.com and suddenly save $2000 by not buying an expensive aluminum Facebook machine.

Yeah I've actually installed Linux on an old clamshell iBook I'm looking to regut. (The aesthetics man. Tell me this isn't cute?)

[Robotic Sunshine Commander]

i dont game on pc but if i did, i would just make one myself. but if you don't game at all just get a mac it has everything u need

It's actually very possible, to the point where there's a cult of people who perform such witchcraft.

Just check out hackintosh.com and suddenly save $2000 by not buying an expensive aluminum Facebook machine.

macbook is cheaper than most custom pc's. lol and if someone was smart they would just use their phone or ipod to go on facebook. ur one of those ignorant people who know little about new macs

I got a Mac through school and have changed my thoughts on the Macs, people can disagree all they want but Macs do have a lot of nice features and quite a few things are layed out a little better. I have been keen to get a macbook pro but seeing the price has put me off, it would be great if you could get the Mac OSX working on PC's and visa versa instead of been limited to being able to install Windows on a Mac.

that isnt going to happen because apple knows what they are doing unlike microsoft lol

[Tom]

macbook is cheaper than most custom pc's. lol and if someone was smart they would just use their phone or ipod to go on facebook. ur one of those ignorant people who know little about new macs

Now before you go slinging around insults haphazardly, I'd like to do a quick comparison between between the cost and performance of a Mac versus the cost and performance of a custom PC.

I will be very unbiased and use the power of a Mac Pro versus some random computer I'll assemble on some computer configurator.

Now if you have the balls to try to use the "Macs don't get viruses" card, I will have to suggest that you stop downloading random torrents and porn so you wouldn't be getting viruses on your Windows computer.

Win Lose Tie

Mac Pro
Price: $2499.00
3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor
6GB DDR3 RAM clocked at 1066 Mhz
1TB 7200-rpm 3Gb/s hard drive
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
18x "SuperDrive"

Tom's Build
Price: $2035.00
3.60GHz Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor
16GB DD3 RAM clocked at 1866 Mhz
2x 1TB 7200-rpm 6Gb/s hard drive put in Raid 0, making one 2TB partition.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 4GB
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive


Now I'm not going to compare the processors because Xeons are for servers, while i7s are for gaming.
If I really wanted to, I make this simply a computer for non-enthusiast gaming, and would replace the GTX 680 with Radeon HD 7750 1GB, which would cut the price by $606.

Your move, Mr. Fan.

Edited by Tom, 09 September 2012 - 04:20 PM.

[Robotic Sunshine Commander]

Now before you go slinging around insults haphazardly, I'd like to do a quick comparison between between the cost and performance of a Mac versus the cost and performance of a custom PC.

I will be very unbiased and use the power of a Mac Pro versus some random computer I'll assemble on some computer configurator.

Now if you have the balls to try to use the "Macs don't get viruses" card, I will have to suggest that you stop downloading random torrents and porn so you wouldn't be getting viruses on your Windows computer.

Win Lose Tie

Mac Pro
Price: $2499.00
3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor
6GB DDR3 RAM clocked at 1066 Mhz
1TB 7200-rpm 3Gb/s hard drive
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
18x "SuperDrive"

Tom's Build
Price: $2035.00
3.60GHz Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor
16GB DD3 RAM clocked at 1866 Mhz
2x 1TB 7200-rpm 6Gb/s hard drive put in Raid 0, making one 2TB partition.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 4GB
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive


Now I'm not going to compare the processors because Xeons are for servers, while i7s are for gaming.
If I really wanted to, I make this simply a computer for non-enthusiast gaming, and would replace the GTX 680 with Radeon HD 7750 1GB, which would cut the price by $606.

Your move, Mr. Fan.

sorry about that i forgot the pro was that expensive but you know all the extra programs you have to buy to get the equivalent you would get on a mac computer on a windows based computer? atleast 100 dollars for each individual program ( which comes in the equivalent or better form on a mac).

do you know how many pc's i have had with extremely "reliable" virus protection programs that have gotten viruses after just a few years??( which is also a pretty penny to upgrade every couple years) according to almost everybody which is whooped by apple's protection by miles.

i have said this to many of my friends, if you want to game MAKE YOUR OWN PC, but for everything else just buy a damn mac it has everything you need and is much cheaper in the long run especially if you have no clue how to purchase and repair pc's. so the power factor almost doesnt even matter thier .

Your opinion about the virus protection is all just what i have said " your opinion".

Overall Macs are usually better quality than market pc's and last much longer because of the protection. the programs that come with them are worth all of the money. have you even owned a mac and experienced how much easier it is to deal with?

i wasnt insulting you just giving my share on what i saw btw. here is your answer if this didnt solve anything-

http://apcmag.com/15_reasons_macs_are_still_better_than_windows.htm

Edited by hardcoreUfan, 09 September 2012 - 04:31 PM.

[Xiombarg]

The biggest feat of crap Apple has spread is that they believe in "progressive cooling", meaning I had to buy a damn external fan so my imac would stop overheating.

Now if you have the balls to try to use the "Macs don't get viruses" card, I will have to suggest that you stop downloading random torrents and porn so you wouldn't be getting viruses on your Windows computer.

It was a pain looking for a mac anti-virus program, as I am running a dual-boot Windows 7 on an imac. There is almost nothing official, but I was lucky not to get a virus on that portion. I have to stick with the windows side for almost everything, as I go to "dangerous" sites where I would easily get a mac virus.