Buying my first gaming pc, torn between 2 choices..

[Conza]

First off these are laptops i need a lapptop as i travel frequently so please dont :/

Ive customized two pc's at dell

An alienware M14x
Intel® Core? i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus? technology (Stealth Black)
14" (35.6cm) WLED HD+ (900p) display (1600X900)

And a Dell XPS 15
2nd generation Intel® Core? i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz
6GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (1 x 2GB + 1 x 4GB)
2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M graphics with Optimus
15.6" (39.6cm) FHD (1920x1080) B+RGLED display with TrueLife?

I dont know alot about computers but the XPS seems to have better specs and its a tiny bit cheaper, its just so hard because the alienwares exterior is so badass but..which of these will give me a better gaming experiance?

Thanks heaps,

Hey dude,

Short answer, Alienware, sorry if someone else has already explained this, but here's the long answer anyway.

It has 3/4 of the things going for it, and to save time, the 1 it doesn't is Ram, but that ram is faster, so it will commincate with the FSB of the CPU more rapidly, giving fracitonally faster, yet less, ram processes.

The 3 it does have is 'less' resolution (yes, that is better), 'less' pixels, means the total screen that can be drawn is smaller, making the gpu more effective per frame.

Which brings us to the GPUs themselves, GT555 vs. GT540, I don't need to look it up to know that the GT555 must be superior to the GT540, how much I'm not sure, but if the GT555 GDDR5, and the GT540 only has GDDR3, then you really should get the Alienware, of else, find another laptop with a GDDR5 graphics card.

And thirdly, and crucially still, it has a superior processor... oh wait no it doesn't. So in fact, the XPS can be turbo boosted to 3.3 GHz vs. only 2.9 GHz for the Alienware.

My advice, if it absolutley, must be one of these laptops, and you won't consider alternatives, and its primary purpose is gaming - buy the Alienware.

If it'll be used for other things, especially in a business environment, the longevity and less flamboyant XPS would be the way to go (I have an XPS M1530, and it has lasted me 3 years and 3 months at the end of June, that's longevity!).

Honestly though, I would not consider buying a Dell product for a few years personally, as my experience with my laptop has left me a little sour.

Firstly, the HDD is a bit flakey, granted the problems only started happening late last year, but then I couldn't replace the HDD because that one was faulty, ergh, anyway.

More importantly, the mouse pad is a nightmare of a thing! If you close the lid, and the computer doesn't sleep, my M1530 heats up, and at some point the mouse pad becomes too hot, and when I go to use it, the X and Y axis's randomly disengage while using it (only one will work at a time, on and off), until the pad cools down.

So really my advice is Get either... something along these lines;

i7 processor (both the ones above are good choices).

I think NVIDIA pretty much dominant the laptop graphics card market currently, but one of the higher up 5000 series Radeons would probably be ok.

4 or 6GB of ram is a bit low, I'd go for 8GB, 6GB should be settling a bit for a cheaper price.

500GB+ 7200RPM+... or SSD if you're loaded / have a large external storage, and don't need to store lots of things on the local machine.

Asus or Lenovo.

Here's an ebay search to get you started, even if you don't buy from here, its a great search tool.

http://computers.shop.ebay.com/PC-Laptops-Netbooks-/177/i.html?Type=Laptop%252FNotebook&Brand=ASUS%7CLenovo&Memory%2520%2528RAM%2529=4%2520GB%2520or%2520more&Processor%2520Configuration=Quad%2520Core%7CSix%2520Core%7C!&Processor%2520Type=Intel%2520Core%2520i7%7C!&Hard%2520Drive%2520Capacity=500%2520GB%2520or%2520more&Operating%2520System=Windows%25207%7C!&LH_BIN=1&_dmpt=Laptops_Nov05&_fln=1&_sc=1&_sop=15&_ssov=1&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282&_mPrRngCbx=1&_udlo=720&_udhi=

So are these guys,

http://www.notebookcheck.net/

Good luck!

 

[Irriduccibilli]

I wouldnt buy an Alienware if I where you, you can find much cheaper alternatives that's even better. You only pay that much because of the name.
You should look into the Asus G73(or 53 depending on screen size) or the new Asus G74. I believe those would suit your needs, you should probably focus on the Asus G53 series since you need to travel alot, since it's the smaller version

 

[Wintermoot]

I wouldn't recommend the Alien ware I heard they are horribly overpriced.

 

[The Epicosity]

I am so used to Dells being everywhere in Austin that I almost didn't even consider the Alienware, but you should get it over the other, Alienwares just really suck with a lot of things, I am just going to also go ahead and assume you have Minecraft, which from the couple of different ones I have used it works very slowly on, and my old Acer netbook works fine, if not a bit slow, on it.

There, me being a total MC/Dell fanboy.

 

[Mr. Underson]

Better specs AND cheaper? Seems like a no-brainer to me. If you want a fashion accessory, buy a mac.

 

[direkiller]

Honestly though, I would not consider buying a Dell product for a few years personally, as my experience with my laptop has left me a little sour.

Alienware is owned by dell they have basically become the mac of the pc(you pay more for its look and its brand then the specs on the product)

 

[StBishop]

I love how I have been put int

[snip]

I did read what he said fully, don't say I didn't, read my full post I recommend he get a PC for gaming and a laptop for school, I have been through the same thing he is going through now and bought a gaming laptop. A decision I spent the next two years regretting. You can get a PC with specs higher then those two laptops.

I was a good boy, I did search bestbuy before i posted, the cheaper of the two is about 1,200$ dollars if I remember correctly, and a PC which was better in every listed spec was 400$ dollars cheaper, telling me you can't find a laptop that will work just fine in school for 400$?

OP didn't say what kind of travel. For all you know he's a travelling salesman who lives on the road.

I have a gaming rig and laptop for uni too. But it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, just pointing out that the OP did say "don't even bother" and he got about 3 replies that did bother.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Also pc's get out of date really quick

That's only true if you want to run stuff on really high settings.
If all you want is something that runs brand new games better than consoles can, there are still plenty of 6 year old PCs able to do that just fine.

The rest of the "buy new stuff nao" is a mix of enthusiasts being shopoholics and marketing.

 

[antidonkey]

Well, while the XPS line is over priced, Alienware is even worse. If the dell is cheaper, go with it since it seems to have better specs.....and just so you know, Dell owns Alienware. I'm not a big fan of Dell laptops anymore so I'd look at Asus if it were me.

 

[darksomos]

The XPS. All that hardware on the XPS is much better than
the Alienware, without the Alienware price bloat.
Typing from a 3 year-old XPS right now, I can say that they
are a fairly good set of laptops with _surprisingly_
satisfying hardware under the hood. Don't forget to
tack on the longer warranty, though. It might come
back to bite you if you don't, and when it is needed,
it can save you as much or more than you paid for it.

 

[Kingsnake661]

Alienware? Son, you gonna get ripped off.

Get the XPS, how much do they cost anyway?

I feel obliged to come to alienwares defence, at least in *MY* case. I got one about 10 years ago.. maybe 8.. somewhere around there. I did have an issues with it's liquad cooling system at frist, but they fixed it.. the CS wasn't bad, but mailing the thing back was annoying...

OUTSIDE of that, it's been a good, soild system. My brother has it now, (i got a new gaming rig) and it's been upgraded a few times, last time being the MB, processer, and ram. Videocards been replaced a few times. But all the other equipment in the system is it's original hardware, and it all still runs very smoothly... it's a very soild and stable system. I think it was worth the money, and has lasted longer then any other system i've ever gotten. (It was VERY upgradable. Quite easy to do)

But that was before Dell bought them... I'm not sure the currnet level of quality is still the same, but, I was a happy alienware customer... I won't buy from them anymore, cause Dell burned me a few years back... but that's a different story.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Out of the 2 choices presented? The XPS.

However, I would strongly recommend you check out the Asus G series laptops and Sager laptops and see if any of those suit your usage and budgetary requirements better.

As for getting an evil looking case... that's not that hard too do. Gutted a mate's laptop down to an empty case, attacked it with orange 2pak automotive spray, and loctited a modified belt buckle on the top as a badge. He loved the end result... even if I personly thought it looked like a neon turd.

 

[TrevHead]

I havnt read every post so I dunno if this has been mentioned but many of the PC manufacturers like DELL & HP are putting cheap / sub standard RAM into their desktop PC, dunno about the laptop market but its worth keeping in mind.

Ive got a HP desktop and theres nothing worse than Win7 refusing to run a program because it doesnt like the RAM thats in your PC that you cant swap for something of higher quality because you cant take the back off without voiding the warranty. (next pc Im going back to building my own)