Alienware 14x, 17x or completely different?

I'm a girl trying to get into gaming and need a machine that can keep up with the games (My current notebook pc is 4 years old and while it's great for illustration, it can't run much of anything game-wise.) I don't know a whole lot about gaming laptops, but I've been trying to read up.

I'm currently looking at getting either an Alienware M14x or M17x. I wanted to keep my budget close to 1500. I could go with the more expensive 17x if it's really going to be worth the money; but, my conscience will gnaw at me a bit.

Which would you suggest? Or would you suggest a completely different machine?

I would probably upgrade to these specs for the M14x:

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.9GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
WIRELESS CARDS Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO for Gaming & Video
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz
VIDEO CARD 3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
LCD PANEL14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
WIRELESSHD OR MOBILE BROADBAND None
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8x SuperMulti DVDR/RW Slot Load Optical Drive
SOUND OPTIONS Soundblaster® X-Fi™ Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled

 

If you want the gaming look and feel, alienware is the way to go. Since you're starting out gaming, I'd suggest you get the m14x, spend about 1300 on it, no need to trick it out as much, can drop the 3 gb nvidia card, you can remove the killer NIC as well, and the soundblaster wont do you too much good either. With all those components taken off, your price will drop a about 150-200, that should help your conscience. You can also stay at the stock 4 gb of ram and get another 4 gb stick for cheaper at newegg.com, for a total of 8 gbs, or just get a new 8 gb set altogether for dual channel, but that wont make too much of a difference.

The m17x on the other hand is a more powerful machine, but you'd have to get a pretty much stock model to keep it in the price range, which isnt too bad, and bare in mind it's much heavier and bigger than the m14x, you won't be carrying it around on a daily basis. The m14x would do justice in gaming, maybe medium settings for newer games, like bf3, but if you need power, the m17x has it. Look at comparison side by side pics of the m14x against the m17x, then you'll probably know for sure which one you want

 

If you do end up with an m14x I would drop the sound blaster completely, drop RAM to 4GB and the graphics card to 1.5GB. RAM can be done yourself, later on, for cheaper, and the graphics upgrade is not too useful. I would keep the Killer card if you plan to play online games over wifi, I have heard not very happy things about the stock card.

As for 14 vs 17...

A major factor (for me anyway) is the fact that the m17x uses MXM and therefore the graphics card can be upgraded. The m14x does not have this. I have still decided on the m14x because of space and size issues though, you may have different needs.

 

Having both I would not give up my m17x. Its much larger than the m17x but has some advantages.

More power (get the 6970, 6990 GPU)
You can upgrade the GPU
Two hard drives+Blu-ray
Tends to run cooler as it has two fans

If your worried about size get the m14x. If not I would get the m17x r3.

 

why not look at the new msi gt780dxr. its pretty much a beast. depends if your gaming on it

 

The point of this notebook will be specifically for gaming since I already have a desktop and a tablet pc.

 

if you want gaming then id go for the m17x/m18x/msi gt780dxr.
if your travelling or constantly moving lapop then go m14x. while gpu is mid range will play most things i think. plus very portable

 

What games are you going to want to play? If they're demanding, M17X with a 6990 or M18X with a dual gpu solution would be the best option although a bit out of your price range.

The M14x would be best for mild to moderate gaming.

Ebay is your friend.

 

If youre going to get the M17x, you pretty much cant get it stock. There are better options for the price with the cards it offers. Only reason to get it really is the 6970M,90M, and 580M. A 1500$ m17x with a 6870 or whatever it has is a worse ripoff than a mac imo.