Alienware help....looking to pick one up.

[vivid white]

Hi All,

I'm looking at buying an Alienware laptop mainly I have to say because I really do like the looks of them.

I do like playing games on my PC but it isn't the biggest source of gaming as I have an xbox 360 and ps3 but I want something that will be able to run games if needed.

I have found this spec laptop at about £250 and wondered how good it is?

Alienware M5500i-R3 Gaming laptop very fast
15.6 wide screen very good
T7200 dual core, 2GHz dual speed X 2 = 4GHz speed,
1.5 GB ram ( can uprade over 8 GB)
160 GB ddr ram,
wireless
Nvidia Go video
Alien ware system and legal product key

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks
James

 

[GrumpyTwig]

What games more specifically? and also what version is the nvidia graphics chip?

 

[vivid white]

Not sure on the graphics chip to be honest, what I listed there was what was in the advert.

Games wise......

There is always a selection but it's normally things like Red Alert on my PC etc.

Thanks for the reply though.

James

 

[GrumpyTwig]

Should be fine whatever the nvidia chip just for Red Alert, does it come with Vista?

Try to get something with either windows 7 or XP, vista will make you suicidal.

 

[vivid white]

I was hoping I could install windows 7 on it once I have it. If I upgraded the ram is it likely to help? What sort of costs would this involve? Thanks

 

[GrumpyTwig]

The memory market is pretty volatile so what you pay this week may be more or less than next week etc. etc.

It's pretty cheap these days so you could up to to 4gb with maybe £30 in your pocket.

 

[vivid white]

Brilliant thanks for your help.

If I stuck some more in this set up would it help things?

James

 

[Webby]

Looks like a circa 2007/2008 laptop going by the spec. If you want modern games you may struggle with the spec and the nvidia go system may be little better than an onboard graphics solution.

Extra memory will help with Win 7 - 1.5GB is fairly low these days.
The screen size is a good mixture of size and portability - does the ad state the resolution though? 2007/8 you be lucky to get a 1080p screen.

I think the ad seller is also confusing a hard disk with system memory. Never heard of a 160GB DDR hard disk before. This was a little before SSD's hit the Market!!!

I do find that dual speed line funny though - dual core = dual speed my hairy arse!! Lol!

Also his line about the alienware system and legal product key is odd. I'm not sure how much 'legal' support you'll get on a 4 year old product. It'll certainly be out of warranty.

My personal laptop preference in the current Market are the Sony Viao's. They have A good level of spec and if you choose their offer period right you can get a cracking laptop in the £700-£900 range. Blurry, 1080p hdmi out, good graphics - the works!

 

[Graeme GTR]

Alienware use to make awesome pcs. Hardcore gaming rigs. They were bought over by someone (big pc maker) and havent heard much from them since.

if you like games like Red Alert look for something with a monster processor and buy Supreme Commander for like £10. Wont find a better (or bigger scale) RTS game.

 

[BenW]

They're owned by Dell now, think they advertise the alienware stuff on the dell website.

The spec looks ok, don't be fooled by the 2Ghz x2 = 4Ghz though because it doesn't, not with the way current software is setup.

As said though, an upgrade to 4GB ram would be wise and really boost the performance

 

[Webby]

Also have a think about which windows you'll be running. The 32bit version has a max ceiling of 3.5GB (reported as 4GB under newer windows), BUT windows reserves memory for itself, which will mean you'll end up at the 2GB mark for any programs you want to run.

You also have to take into account other memory in the computer, such as graphics cards. You have to add this memory to the total. For instance if your machine has 4GB of main memory and a 1GB graphics card, you'll have 5GB of memory on the computer, but the same rule applies. You'll only be able to use about 2GB (split between the main memory and graphics memory) for your applications.

Graeme mention Supreme Commander above - this was actually one of the games they first used on Anandtech to show the 2GB barrier.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2272

 

[vivid white]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I have been having a good look around and it seems that there are quite a few similar age Alienware laptops floating around for sale which have completely different specs and prices so its hard to know which to go for.

If anyone comes across one let me know.

James

 

[vivid white]

Hi again,

I also have the option of this one :-

Alienware m9700i-R1 Gaming laptop.

Specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 Processor 2.16GHz
2GB DDR2 RAM
nVidia GeForce 8700GT x2 running in SLI
17.1'' WXGA LCD Screen
250GB Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home premium

Which would be better between the two? Is there a newer one and older one between then? Bare in mind this on is advertised at £350.

Thanks
James

 

[Jonesy]

vista is crap, is worse than the old windows 95/98 lol

 

[vivid white]

Im not really bothered about the operating system as long as it will run 7.

 

[Graeme GTR]

second one looks more appealing to me, never new you could SLi graphics card in a laptop though. But a memory boost if the motherboard allows it will have that good enough.

I built my pc a few years ago, at the time the 8800gts had just came out so i went with this and still havent changed anything. Only recently bought Shogun 2: Total War and it still runs perfect on full. Did crash when I tried to open a battle with around 5,000 de-synchronised units in it.

 

[Webby]

It should. One point to note about dual graphics cards in these machines is that the memory should never be quoted as the total. So if each card had 256MB of memory, you'd still have 256MB in total graphics memory, not 512MB.

This will still be better than an integrated graphics solution.

I'm not sure how much money you have available, but I feel it's worth pointing out that I did a fair amount of research on laptops for my sisters christmas present. I found out that if you can afford £600 - £900 you will get a very good machine that will wipe the floor with any of these Alienware options. If you go over this price range you'll get better, but this appeared to be the sweet spot.

For this money you'll get a good i5 processor which will be twice as fast as the TXXXX processors and a good mobile graphics solution. Nvidia 330M should be easily achievable, but look for deals that will get you a 430M or ATI equivalent.

And regardless of the look of the machine, Sony had the best component choices available on the Viao's than any of the other big names. It also helps that their machines look great in a mac type of way....if you like that!

 

[Webby]

I've just specc'd this design on the Sony site.

• Intel® CoreTM i5-480M, 2.66GHz
• Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
• White
• 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
• 6 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
• Blu-ray Disc(TM) writer
• ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB
• 39.4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam
• Wireless LAN + Bluetooth®
• HDMI(TM) output
• Battery life up to 3 hours

All for £688.99

Their current free upgrade offer will get you a Blu-Ray writer upgrade from a DVD writer for free, but the offer changes every so often, so next month it could be an i7 processor for an i5 or 6GB of ram for 4GB.

This will be much, much faster than the Alienware machine you're looking at as well.

 

[vivid white]

Hi All,

I have decided im going to actually buy a new laptop now and spend up to £1000.

I have been looking at the Alienware (Which I really do like) but you dont get much for £1000.

Also have looked at the Sony Vaio as previously suggested and I can get it fully kitted out for £900 which is very tempting but I keep going back to the looks of the Alienware.

Are there any other laptops which look the part but also pack a punch and are going to last me a couple of years.

One thing is I do want Windows 7 so I dont know much about Macs but I know they can run Windows but unless they run it flawlessly I wouldnt be interested but maybe someone can clear that up for me?

Many Thanks
James

 

[BenW]

I've got a Dell Studio XPS, great spec and looks good. I had a vaio before which was pretty similar build quality and both are just as nice to use. The Dell has an amazing screen though and I think probably better than 99% of other laptops on the market, including the sony x-black displays