Alienware m17x - to purchase or not to purchase
polycounter lvl 15
Hey guys,
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I found a guy near me looking to sell his relatively new Alienware m17x for 2,000$ - Cnd.
here are the specs.
Intel Quad Core i7- 4930MX "Haswell Bridge 4th-Gen i7" Extreme Edition Processor
(8MB Cache | 3.9GHz Turbo Mode
16GB DDR3 RAM 4 DIMMS @ 1600mhz
Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB SSD & 512 SSD & 750GB HDD 7200rpm {Three hard drives}
17.3" LED 3D HD (1920 x 1080) 120HZ
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M 4GB
BD/RW DVD/RW CD/RW Combo Drive Blueray
Webcam/Bluetooth
AlienFX Illuminated Keyboard | Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
8 Cell Battery & 240 watt Charger
Super nice, I know. I've looked around, I can't find better specs for the price. Only questions are in regards to condition. He bought it this month, and has to part with it for financial reasons.
What you guys think, decent purchase? Also, I'm not interested in desktop, I want portability. Thanks ahead of time
~
Am
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I found a guy near me looking to sell his relatively new Alienware m17x for 2,000$ - Cnd.
here are the specs.
Intel Quad Core i7- 4930MX "Haswell Bridge 4th-Gen i7" Extreme Edition Processor
(8MB Cache | 3.9GHz Turbo Mode
16GB DDR3 RAM 4 DIMMS @ 1600mhz
Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB SSD & 512 SSD & 750GB HDD 7200rpm {Three hard drives}
17.3" LED 3D HD (1920 x 1080) 120HZ
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M 4GB
BD/RW DVD/RW CD/RW Combo Drive Blueray
Webcam/Bluetooth
AlienFX Illuminated Keyboard | Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
8 Cell Battery & 240 watt Charger
Super nice, I know. I've looked around, I can't find better specs for the price. Only questions are in regards to condition. He bought it this month, and has to part with it for financial reasons.
What you guys think, decent purchase? Also, I'm not interested in desktop, I want portability. Thanks ahead of time
~
Am
Replies
I hope this isnt some guy off craigslist? Might be stolen merchandise then. In either case make SURE that the warranty is transfered to you. Also check the price of comparable systems, alienware is usually overpriced as it is.
Problems -
1. There has been the odd issue with the built in microphone.
2. If you are a maya user the instance key is zero on the number pad so you have to click Num Lock to access so you will want to change that in maya.
3. The duel process cocks up from time to time (disable it and only use the powerful NVidia card)
4. Its very heavy so get a (Swiss Gear back pack)
5. My Screen is far to refeletive but that has been fixed on the new model.
6. This one cost about £2400 :O
On the good side, Its fast, The back lit keys are cool, people are always taken back when I get my whooper out of the back pack, Runs all the standard 3D software without any issues, Dell support are fantastic and will come to your house in 24 hours to fix any issues and will give you a replacement if they have to take it away.
My work colleagues spend about £400 less on some standard laptops as they think my laptop is vulgar, distasteful and looks like a disco dance floor from the 1980s. BUT their laptops on the other hand suck balls as within 8 months their processors are burned out while my Alienware is still just as fast as the day I got it.
If your a free lance you can hook up a HDMI extra screen and Key board and carry on as if you are on a powerful PC
He has an older model so maybe they've improved on that aspect, but I would grab a laptop cooler of some kind to be safe.
I won another one last year, and the guy I sold it to had nothing but problems with it, even though it was brand new.
Avoid at all costs I'd say.
Honestly it's a really powerful laptop and it hasn't lost any of it's punch over the year. It runs 3ds max and Zbrush flawlessly and I'm told the graphics card is pretty powerful (although in my experience it has trouble running high end graphics, but I don't play enough games to really give a solid opinion on it).
There are a number of disadvantages as people have pointed out-
Very heavy,
Refelective screen, I have the newer version and it's still terrible,
Mic issues,
Something no one else has mentioned - it is extremely loud. When the graphics card fans get going I can literally hear it through noise cancelling headphones ಠ_ಠ this annoys me daily and is my only real gripe with the laptop.
I'm pretty much using it as a desktop now and it's still going strong. I'll probably upgrade in a year or for something with better spec but it has been well worth the price
There's something Definitely wrong with it.
Why would anyone want to sell a reasonable new piece of tech?
my main work machine is a laptop and its great, iv had it rendering for several days straight without heating problems etc. so i wouldnt worry about it not meeting the standards of a stationary. And those specs are pretty damn solid for any machine.
id just make sure its legit before getting it.
If you have the space, go for a proper cooled case, if not, be sure to keep it clean at least a few weeks, and I recommend getting a laptop cooling stand, it helped cool my other laptop considerably.
This is always the claim because there's no other way to justify it.
However, this hardware is all brand new to the market - the i7-4390MX was only released in June and has probably only made it into machines in the last three or four months. If someone has legitimately picked up this machine for around $2500 in the past couple of months, it's not very likely they've suddenly found themselves in financial difficulty (obviously it can happen, but let's be realistic here).
Things like this are sometimes bought with stolen credit card numbers and then resold on craigslist.
My main concern is the overheating. Asus handles the heating issues in high end laptops the best I hear, and with the best CPU available in this m17x it is most likely of the models to have this problem. (overheating)
Any computer I've customized online with the same specs is atleast +1k more usually higher, (I'm an artist I don't have alot of money) but you get a warranty. I've had my current asus for 2 years without a warranty, In that time I've upgraded the ram,(not as easy as just taking off the backplate), repasted the cpu and flashed both vbios and bios. I'm relatively confedant that I can figure out solutions to tech problems with the interwebs and my mini-screw driver set. (I'm keeping my current g73, till this one proves itself.)
So the question is, money for specs. These specs are worth it, yea? I don't really care it is dell/alienware. I'm just an artist hungry for power... cpu power.
Huston we have a go.
@ LittleClaude - Could you tell me what your idle Temp is Claude? and maybe a temp while under load, like rendering or gaming? So I have something to compare against? You've never had much problem with heating? Thanks!
~
Am
The heat is fine, runs most games/UDK/Crysis at 45-60fps with no noticeable frame drops. I lecturer with it every day so I am constantly getting it in and out off my back pack, I bang it around at work, boot of the car and at home my kids smash it around and it has not let me down yet....touch wood!
Honestly the new generation m17x models are fantastic, the speakers rock they are so loud you can really annoy all the apple mac hipsters in Star bucks.
I have been through so many laptops over the years and Alienware is the 100% the best I have had. Also what other laptops can change the colour of your air vents and power cable
This might help
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Yes you can get a PC that is much better but if you need a laptop it does not get much better then this, also upgrades are simple to install, a few screws slot it in and Bob's your uncle.
One last thing, CTRL delete, laptop with 16GB ram still brings a smile to my face.
Just dont make the mistake I did. Your cooling pads fan - make sure the usb is a plug through. I only have two usb ports available otherwise with the fan plugged in.
A bit of advice from me...if you dont really really really need a laptop...take that $2000 to newegg and order in each individual part and build your own PC. $2000 well spent on newegg would build you a monster of a machine
And err... holy cow! 150 processes? if that it's your screenshot, you need to learn how to optimize windows
Its the end of the week and I have not shut down all week, I have open and closed it from lectern to lectern, opened more or less all the adobe/auto desk suite and lots of other programmes and used them more times than I could shake a finger but with all that power it does not matter as it never crashes or slows down as ALIENWARE is solid as a rock. :thumbup:
Also if you want a PC then just hook up the 1920x1080 HDMI to multiple external monitors and then put in a USB keyboard and rock and roll. Then when you need to be on the move just unplug it and off you go. And when you do use it on the go it's got duel graphics cards so the battery switches the performance to the optimised one automatically so the battery lasts for hours, that is unless you have 150 processes going with UDK/Crysis running in the back ground.... that would be a good time to restart
Honestly it really is a step above the rest. :thumbup:
I'm sure your task bar is full of icons
Your system may be hyper bloated of unnecessary apps.
BTW, for gaming, i prefer to have a tower with a dedicated sound card and a Dolby/DTS 5.1 home cinema with at least 500W.
Sorry, but i think this is a very expensive whim/caprice. If you really want power for udk, just buy a GXT780 Tri Sli