Hidevolution set-up with 2nd HDD

Hi guys been thinking of getting a M14X for a while now but have been putting it off due to the cost here in Australia. I need a 14" or less as I'm travelling a lot and I'd like to play some decent games like the upcoming BF3 (don't mind if its only medium settings).

I've been scouring the net for some time. I've come across Hidevolution and see that aswell as being able to deliver here at a decent price they have the option to do some upgrades that aren't available through Dell's website.

I was thinking of this set-up:

Processor *
i7 2670QM 2.2Ghz 6MB Cache

Thermal Paste - Lower temps and extend life of system *
IC Diamond on CPU+GPU +$55

Operating System *
Windows 7 Home Pemium 64bit

Video Card *
1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

LCD Panel *
14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900)

Memory *
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz

Hard Drive *
Crucial C300 SATA3 128GB SSD +$205.00

Internal Optical/2nd HDD Bay *
320GB 7200RPM HDD +$60.00

$1,594.00

Other things that I've not got down here are just the standard things that come with the laptop.

The main attraction is the option to get rid of the optical drive for a second HDD; having a 128GB SSD and then a 320GB HDD sounds great to me.

Few things to ask...

Is the thermal paste a good idea, is it too expensive, easy to do myself?

I've left the Ram at 4GB as the upgrade is +$100 for 6GB 1600Mhz and +$200 for 8GB 1600MHz... am I right in thinking that if I want/need to install more ram it would be cheaper to do it afterwards?

I don't really want to go any more expensive as the shipping on top is around a $140.

Does anyone have any advice or comments on the set-up? I'm open to be shown a new set-up or even new laptop as long as it's not larger/heavier.

N.B. Does anyone know if Alienware have any new 14" models lined up for release soon?

Thanks in advance.

 

You might want to check if it is possible to get the "second drive setup" but update to an SSD drive yourself.
Could be cheaper.

And personally I'd suggest an SSD twice as big.
Win7, Office Professional and around 12 games installed on my SSD and it uses already 200 GB, so it's used around 75%.
So I can imagine that with an 128GB SSD I always would have to manage it (Do I throw those two games of in order to install this new one, and so on).
Also the bigger your SSD is and the less percentage of the storage you actually use, the longer it will last. E.g. If your 128 GB is always 95% full vs. a 256 GB that is let's say always like 70% full, my guess would be that the bigger one would be livving longer.

If you go for doing the SSD upgrade yourself, you also might want to compare the Crucial C300 versus the newer version Crucial M4. In some countries for some reasons the newer version is sometimes cheaper. They should both do good though.

Also with nowadays HDD prices I think that if you have a second HDD in there it should be around 750 GB or more (Could also be upgrade by yourself afterwards).
Also depends though on how much data you carry around with yourself. (I have around 500GB of Music and Pictures and Documents and whatsoever and if I have a second HDD in my NB it'd just be nice to be able to drag all those around with me as well).

Other then that your setup looks fine.
If at any point in time you want to update your RAM, then it definately is cheaper to do it yourself afterwards.
Today 4GB are more then enough though.

As generally for an update of current AW models, I haven't seen any rumors lately, at all (Not that I'm an expert).
So my guess is that we are going to have the current revisions for quite some time and the only difference we might se is an occasional upgrade of the parts used (E.g. newer processers and so on).
I would further guess that if there is a rev2 of the M14x it'll come somewhere in H1 2012 (If!).

 

I'd drop some extra cash and go for the Killer Wireless card if you plan to game on wifi.

And I would do the hard drive upgrade(s) myself later on.