Dell Precision M6400 or Alienware M17x ?

Ive been hunting around for a laptop for a couple of months now and ive still not decided what to get lol, i was initially drawn to the M17x but here in the uk we seem to be paying well over the odds for one compared to the US.

I was looking on ebay earlier and i came across a couple of Dell Precision M6400 laptops with what looks like a huge spec for a decent price, they seemed to offer more value than the M17x at their respective prices.

Now what i need to know is what is the difference between a Precision M6400 and a Precision M6400 Covet ?

How well regarded is a Precision M6400, is it known as a gaming laptop as ive not come across them before.

This is the spec i was looking at, how would this compare against an M17x, how well regarded is the processor and graphics card and the spec in general ?

Dell Precision M6400
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300 (2.53GHz,12MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
NVIDIA Quadro® FX3700M
Dells 3 Year Warranty (ONSITE)
320GB Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8 GIG DDR 3 (1066mhz)
Fixed 8x DVDRWSlim Slot Load Drive, including SW
Microsoft® Windows® VISTA Business Edition (SP1 64BIT)
High resolution, WXGA widescreen 17" inch display (1440x900)
Integrated Dual-Band 1510 "N"
Dell™ TrueMobile internal

 

The M6400 is not known at all as a gaming laptop, it is more for 3d modeling and CAD work, however I've seen some 3dmark06 scores with the FX3700M around 11-12k.

Its not really meant for gaming, but they are very very powerful machines. Quite sleek looking too might I add.

 

Main differences:
Covet & M6400 are the same aside from the cover colour.

M6400/Covet can support upto 16GB RAM, Alienware can support only 8GB.

Alienware has a games oriented GPU. M6400/Covet has a business oriented (but still blindingly fast for games) GPU.

 

The GPUs of the M6400 (Nvidia Quadro 2700 or 3700) are not business oriented, they are professional Computergraphics (CAD, OpenGL) and scientific oriented.
A business oriented GPU supports only Office Applications.

regards
Christopher

 

Not really true.
Yes the FX2700 etc are aimed at OpenGL applications rather than DirectX - but it is still a high end graphics card and I've been playing some top notch games on my M6400 with an FX2700m with no problems at all. Smooth flicker free graphics.

 

Shure they are high end NB Graphics Cards, also they support DirectX. And also you can use them for playing Games, with the right driver you also will get nearly best performance. When i mentioned busines GPUs i think about some onboard GPUs good for Office based Apps but weak for games. I think the M6400 can be used realy good for playing even the newest high end games, but if you consider the price then maybe for a Gamer NB it is a little bit expensive.
Also for a gamers NB like the Alienware M17x you will be able to find easly a Nvidia Driver with special support and performance for gaming. If using the M6400 you will have to go to sites like laptopvideotogo to load some modded drivers for best gaming performance.

regards
Christopher

 

Thanks for the replies, i wouldn`t say that i was a big gamer, i mainly use my laptop for things like video editing and dvd burning applications.

The only thing that puts me off the M6400 is it doesn`t appear to have a bluray drive option and no HDMI ports, apart from that it looks a beast of a machine.

 

Yay!
We agree. Misunderstandings are easy to make on the internet.
My old D820 was fine for 3 screens of Visual Studio, but cr*p for games.

 

If you get a docking adaptor then you can get HDMI via the Dell Video Port thingy, also the base unit itself does have a Dell Video Port thing that (I *think*) you can get HDMI through. I could be wrong though, I've not used HDMI on my M6400.

 

The M6400 has a Blu Ray drive option. Just check the Dell site. It also supports HDMI via a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter or via the dock.