Need Help to Choose...

Hi guys,
I planning to buy an Alienware to be my main PC for School and at home, first I was really exited about the m11x R3 but now I think that the screen is a little small and the perf a little low (but exceptionnal for a 11") but the battery life is just insane...
I'm now looking on the m14x, I think it is really power full, the battery is a pretty low when you compare to the m11x but I know it's because the screen is bigger and the perf too.
So I want to know if the 350$ for the i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache) from the i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.9GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache) are really worth it, will it really increase the perf?
My second question is, do you think that 75$ for the LCD upgrade is a good investment or it's useless? Because the rez is higher so the games will run slower, am I wrong?
Thanks in advance, I hope you'll understand my bad english.
EDIT: I'll play games on it like: TF2, L4D2, Portal 2, League of Legends, GTA IV, Minecraft, ect... But maybe recent games in the future. And I'll don't connect my Laptop to an external monitor.

 

There is like a million post on this long story short for gaming the stock config will get you best fps. I updated processor to the 2720 but there is no real world performance gain and screen upgrade is nice but will hurt frame rate for gaming.

 

Ok thanks, I see a lot of issue with the temps ect, and a lot of people that says the m15x was better, the m15x isn't on sale anymore right?

 

M15X was replaced by the 14X..not sure if it's already in effect

 

I read that the m17x r3 replaced the m15x, and in the US site of alienware the m15x isn't there anymore. I think 14" is a good size but the m14x looks really heavy, and if it gets really hot when gaming I don't want to buy thermal paste I think it's not normal without OC that the CPU or the GPU gets 90 / 100°C while gaming.

 

not accurate i get extremely high temps during furmark overclocked gaming on a comforter (poor air ciruculation) I get around 72. And I did my own thermal paste and have reason to believe that i jacked it up. lol

 

I wish the m15x was still in production, I feel like it was better gamingwise than the m14x, but what do I know

 

The screen upgrade is definitely worth it. More pixels will mean that you have more information on the screen, which is helpful when editing Word documents or when browsing the web. The m11x has a 1366x768 display, so if you get the m14x at that same resolution you won't actually fit anything more on your screen. The individual pixels will be bigger, but because you have the same number of pixels, you'll be just as much as you would on the 11" screen.
Also, I got the 1600x900 screen and I'm running FEAR at 1366x768 and it looks great. You really have to try to see that it isn't running at native resolution. I also played around a bit with Crysis at 1366x768 and it looks good too. I feel that the native resolution vs. non-native resolution isn't such a big deal in this case.

I have the most basic processor and it has been more than adequate for everything I've done. It depends on your needs, and somebody with a bit more knowledge about the processors could be more helpful on that than I could.

Lastly, when running in my custom power profile that saves battery, the computer predicted that it had a total of 5 hours of battery life. I rarely use the computer on battery, so I don't know how long it lasts, but it was at about 80% and it predicted it had 3 hours and 57 minutes left to go.

 

I think I'll go with an m15x, it is still on sale in europe, overpriced but I can only buy a not used m15x in europe. If you don't look at battery I think m15x is better on perf, customisation, temps, OC, and fan noice. What do you think about that, am I wrong?

 

Make sure you pay attention to the graphics card in the m15x. Some cards will disappoint you. Shot for a ATI 5850 which seems to be what people prefer for gaming.

 

I can only choose the GTX460m, I think it's fine too, no?