Anyone looked at anything like this lately?
T’is for my brother whose an airline steward, so wants to be entertained & avoid either drinking or racking up CC bills while away on trips (after 15+ years, you tend to have visited/done everything a couple of times)…

Alienware are slagged for being expensive, what alternatives are there though?

Looking to future proof the machine as much as is possible without getting silly money, any thoughts… are Crossfile/SLI graphic cards worth thinking about or just daftness?

Spec wise currently with alienware:
He wants an 18″ which is £340 more expensive than the 17″ just for that bigger screen, gunna try and point him away from this!
Going for Win 8, as I have a ‘spare’ Win 7 64bit to put on if need be.
6GB Ram, as he’ll be playing games not using 64bit specialized CAD software or video editing…
Blue ray DVD, worth it on such a small screen?

Why high end, as he’ll use it till it dies, like his last one for 5-7 years (it was a tad flakey & v. slow @ the end)

….the best part of £2K (you could buy a bike for that!) is a big jump from the £500 i5’s I usually work with, so I’m a little out of my comfort zone…Any thoughts/comments?

WTF just found a similar spec Samsung for less than £800, wats going on…

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-computers/high-performance/NP350E7C-S02UK (£775 from Dabs)

It’s got an 18 month old graphics card that was midrange at launch

I use a M17x R4 i7 3610, 16gb ram (video work), 2gb 660m, full hd screen, 128gb SSD + 500gb hd, blu ray (well worth it, but I already have a large blu ray collection). Total cost was £1450ish. I got the base spec plus screen and blu ray then added SSD with a fresh install then removed ram and fitted 2x8gb. Used a 10% off offer which seams to happen quite regularly.

I love it for general use, photo and video editing, watching films etc but I can’t say I’ve been that impressed with the gaming performance. Been playing DayZ a lot at the moment which is quite a taxing game but it wasn’t quite as capable as I’d wanted. Its defiantly a heavy beast and battery life is pretty poor. The backlit keyboard and touch pad are however beautiful compared to most laptops.

I’ve got a M18x R4 i7 3610 16gb RAM, AMD Radeon 7970m. etc.

I absolutely love it, far and away the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought. I also bought an iMac 27″ around about the same time for similar money and it was bloody awful by comparison although granted entirely different tool. But I regret the 1.5k I paid for the iMac, but don’t regret that at all for the M18.

I ‘live’ in hotels for work, hence why I bought it as I also love gaming etc.

People bitch and moan about Alienware, yes it is a bit aimed at the kids (rich kids) with all its fancy lights and styling, I’m 40 btw, but the build quality is superb I cannot fault it at all. Almost a year on it’ll play anything you throw at it with ease.
I’ve had to call support once and had the screen replaced, they were excellent, engineer next day to the home.

Edit: it does weigh a ton mind.

Have a look here for some advice:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=111

there is also a long thread on the Alienware

I am typing this on a version of the Samsung listed above, plays black ops 2 etc with no issues, only downer win8 doesn’t support blueray film playback so you need to either roll it back to win 7 or get a piece of software from ‘somewhere’ that will do it for you

The novelty of the Precision 6600 work gave me soon wears off after carrying it for 5 mins. Not the most reliable machine either. Both HD’s have failed but luckily its got something called a Raid so didnt lose anything. Has an annoying clciking noise again now, & IT reckon one of the drives is on its way out again. 😐

I’d just take an Xbox or slimline PS3 with me. 🙂

the hustler – are you sure about blue ray on Windows 8? Microsoft were giving away Window 8 media centre for free for a limited time. I can’t try it with blueray though as I only have a DVD drive.

I would take a look at the Asus laptops or Dell outlet.

Or what about just taking an Xbox 360 and plugging it into the room TV?

edit: saw some neat cases with build in screens and space for a games console in Costco. Not sure how big the screen was but you could make your own with an aluminium flight case, LCD TV, some foam and velcro straps.

Cheers for the replies, looks like the M17’s is looking strong but need to follow up on the Samsung..

TheFunkyMonkey, cheers I missed that as I was rushing off to the cinema, & am only now looking at it properly. The equivalent Samsung is NP700G7C Series which looks interesting

I would like to throw in a curve ball of sorts.

I use a HP Envy. i7 and what not. I can play GTA4 on it’s highest specs with no problem. Even using the laptop and a TV monitor so 1080p. With mods etc..

Also Flight Sims I have no lag issues or problems with on full specs.

I recently tried Crysis too. (Boring game IMO) On the highest display settings my TV could handle and it was flawless there too. Absolutely no lag.

Only complaint is the battery life is around 1hr gaming and 2 on the net.

Also, I have lusted after Alienware for ages too. After a M18x (you can play your consoles on it apparently the latest generation has a HDMI input too.)

BUT people have told me that for day to day use it’s not wonderful. Prone to crashes etc..

Have a look at the Dell business end as you could probably match the alienware specs. Some of the high end business models will for it but look plane or chunky

What kinds of games is he playing? And is he a PC geek? Cause if not, you might be surprised at what could suffice. For my gaming laptop I use a midrange 15″ HP; the graphics card is the key aspect, and it runs Crysis 2, GTA4, various other games without any issues. It’s not too big, not too heavy, and the battery life isn’t bad on the integrated graphics.
But if he’s a connoisseur, fair enough on getting something bigger and heavier for lugging about.

the hustler – are you sure about blue ray on Windows 8? Microsoft were giving away Window 8 media centre for free for a limited time. I can’t try it with blueray though as I only have a DVD drive.

Yes google it its about the apparent decline in laptops being used for blueray play back

I posted about this one recently, which my wife has just got for vid. editing;
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_700_-_Core_i7-3630QM_16GB_1.5TB_Blu_ray_combo__Nvidia_GTX_675M_2GB__NP700G7C-S02UK/version.asp

It’s excellent, recent quad-core I7, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 2GB Nvidia GTX 675M graphics card, etc, etc. And can get it with Windows 8 or 7.

Should last years before being outdated though.
The gaming mode ramps up everything to get the best out of it.

She went for this because the Alienware seems overpriced (and have a massive case), and HP Envys weren’t as good for the money.

Cheers for the extra posts, that Samsung does look extremely tempting.
Got to find time to sit down and compare them, but it does seem the Samsung is ahead on price, even if the spec if slight, and I mean slightly, beaten by the more expensive 17x

In answer to some of the post, my brother is a game-aholic but does not have BB or play online (as he’s out of the country so much).
The weight mean nothing to him, his old unit (Clevo m57a was huge), as all he does is lug this and a small amount of clothing around.
Getting the highest spec available (without being silly) so that it last as well as possible, as it maybe high spec now but in 3-5 years (or longer) time he’ll still be using it….