Picking your processor: advice sought - 3920xm worth paying $900? or at least make it worth paying?

i'm pondering if i should go with the bottom of the rung, 3610qm or go all the way to the 3920xm on m18xr2, that is, if i ever hear from allan

the difference between 3820qm and 3920xm seems to be nil as the difference in base frequency is only 200Mhz. (2700Mhz vs 2900Mhz)

however, 3920xm does come with triple-pipe cooling system whereas all the others come with single-pipe cooling system. and it lets me overclock, or at least, so i heard.

to me, the only way to justify that $900 extra is if i overclock the base frequency at well over 3000Mhz. (i'm talking the base frequency here. i always thought the turbo frequency was somewhat gimmickry perhaps invented by the marketing guys)
does the overclocking feature let me do that? if so, at what frequency? and is it rock-stable? (i just need a good 3-year run so i'm not too worried about high temperature as long as it doesn't effect stability)

 

there will be a 3960XM soon

 

Re: 3920xm worth paying $900? or at least make it worth paying? I say, absolutely, yes, if performance truly matters. Anything less than an XM provides a pretty much average experience.

It would be kind of silly to buy an XM CPU if you are only going to compare stock specs against a QM CPU. That pretty much defeats the purpose of buying the XM.

If you're really interested in having the most powerful CPU available, nothing is as good as the XM. You will not be able to hit 4.5-5.0GHz using a QM proc because it's locked down too much.

 

I'd be careful with these statements. As a mod people respect your opinion on things. Yes, the CPU is the most powerful available. Yes, Dell - at stock - does not allow as much OC options for QM processors. But a "pretty much average experience" for anything less than an XM is pretty much very false. The difference is pretty negligible for anything other than benchmarking. CPU makes nearly zero difference in gaming as long as you have a fast quad-core these days. I have a 3930k and 3960x on two desktops and I pretty much regret paying an extra $400 for the x. OCing was very similar.

I look at it this way: crazy fast laptop - do you want the crazy best? Get the XM. "Crazy" because the bang/buck is not there - but it IS the best and it IS the fastest. You get the factory overclocking options in the BIOS and the 3 pipe CPU cooler (versus 1 pipe with any other QM processor) - so it's a nice perk.

I couldn't find much on this when I Google'd it - do you have details? Is it worth waiting for? I.E. upgrade to 3960XM + 3 pipe cooler later on...I'm debating whether or not I should call tomorrow and try to change my order to a 3920XM...

 

There are part numbers for those floating around, which will allow you to order them sans the XM.

Personally, I don't see the reason in getting an XM directly from Dell unless they're willing to make a fairly good deal on it; as the extra processing power, at stock, is not even 5% off of the next lower model (and about 8% off the second less powerful QM, which is nearly 800$ cheaper). The difference may very well mount when you overclock it, but the difference is still not going to matter to most people that aren't doing things that require the most in the way of CPU power (programmers compiling, graphic artists rendering, etc).

If you want bragging rights, or need the extra CPU power, then the XM makes sense. Otherwise, you should be putting that extra money into a better warranty.

 

Here you go:
link. (great pics of the internals by electrosoft in the prior 2-3 pages).

I was "afraid" to do any mods to this myself until I saw electrosoft's pictures. It looks VERY straightforward to change your CPU and heatsinks (and thus re-paste the CPU/GPU). Heck, I build my own PCs...may as well DIY for the laptop. Especially since I'm already going to be in there for my RAM and drives.

Where is a good place to buy mobile CPUs direct? Maybe I'll wait for the **60XM and then buy the 3-pipe and do it myself...by then perhaps the 680M will be out for me to upgrade to.

 

Personally I would get the 3610QM and upgrade to an aftermarket XM. It is very straightforward to change the CPU and heatsinks, but the process to get to the CPU itself is bothersome.

I picked up a Dell OEM 2920XM for $400 shipped, from eBay.
I would recommend this seller:
Intel i7 Extreme Edition 2960XM - 2.7 GHz Quad-Core OEM SR02F | eBay

 

Thanks - do you have a good tutorial or video (or both!) that you recommend? I'd like to evaluate my option. Was going to call Dell tomorrow to see if I could upgrade to the 3920XM (I know it's not worth it but it's a e-peen thing)...if it's easy enough to do, I'll just wait until the 3960XM drops and do an aftermarket upgrade. I wonder if the BIOS automatically changes to the OC options if you put an XM CPU in?

 

Thanks for the concern. I stand by my original comments and my words were carefully chosen by design. Nothing about the comments is false, but I respect your opinion and trust you have good intentions. Just so the record is straight, if you don't step up to the plate for an XM, then you've got an average i7 CPU that delivers the average i7 CPU experience... barring a defect, it performs the same as any other i7 with the same model name... pretty simple. It is what it is, and it's never going to be more than what it is. There is reduced flexibility and impairment of system performance potential for the end user that purchases a QM CPU. Whether the average experience is good or bad depends on what you want from your Alienware. If the only intent is normal use, web browsing and the ability to play games smoothly, an XM CPU is not important.

There are many noobs in the forum looking for answers that want to get into overclocking. Meaningful overclocking is not possible with a QM because they have locked features by design. If they don't know that, they will purchase something that doesn't allow them to do what they want to do. The comments suggesting that any particular QM CPU is the performance equivalent to an XM CPU, remarks suggesting they don't need an XM CPU, or an XM CPU is not worth the money, or the XM CPU makes no difference are highly misleading opinions that spread misinformation. You did not make those comments, but I see them made frequently in forums by people that do not have an XM CPU in their signature.

" 'Crazy' because the bang/buck is not there" could be very misleading statement for someone that doesn't know better because that statement presumes to know what is best for someone else and offers up a personal perception as thought it were fact.

It is plug-and-play at stock settings. You have to enter the BIOS and select the option to enable the Extreme CPU to make overclocking features that come with the XM processor available, but otherwise there is no difference in the BIOS between XM and non-XM CPUs. The option to enable the Extreme CPU is grayed out in the BIOS with a QM CPU. Once enabled, you have the ability to change whatever settings you want to change to make the XM perform in the manner you want it to. [ LINK]

To get the most performance possible from a 3rd Generation XM CPU, you will need to wait for an unlocked BIOS mod to access voltage and amperage settings that are hidden from view with a standard BIOS. There will be some performance limitations based on stock power specs without the unlocked BIOS.

Now that Ivy Bridge is out, it seems like those $400 Sandy Bridge XM CPUs are starting to dry up and the prices seem to be on the rise. The one you linked is $900, (Buy it Now price,) not $400, so it would make more sense to buy the next generation Ivy Bridge XM CPU already installed in the Alienware M18x R2 for the same price as this old Sandy Bridge XM on eBay. (Edit: the auction just closed with a $550 USD winning bid for the Sandy Bridge 2960XM.)

Upgrading to an XM later (or better RAM, SSD, etc.) with aftermarket parts is not necessarily a poor choice by any means. My system is full of aftermarket parts. You might be able to save a few bucks, but it has some drawbacks compared to ordering a new system with an XM already installed. I have an aftermarket CPU upgrade and wish I had paid extra for the XM CPU so it would be covered under the warranty. Having an XM CPU in your specs can be very beneficial in the event a system warranty exchange become necessary for some reason in the future. It's also advantageous to not have to tear apart your system to swap out parts in the event a depot repair is required. Basically, anything you can afford to buy installed from the factory is covered under factory warranty and will be replaced by a system with equal or better specs in the event a system exchange is required during the warranty period. For people that can afford it, just food for thought.

The other thing to consider is support. Any user-induced damage that occurs while swapping parts is not covered under the warranty. If you have system malfunction with aftermarket RAM, CPU, SSD or other parts installed, you will generally get no assistance with tech support until you install the parts the system shipped with. If the problem goes away with the factory parts installed and comes back with the aftermarket parts installed, you're on your own. This is not a problem for someone with extensive knowledge and skills, but it can be a terrible problem for someone that lacks the knowledge and experience to solve their own problems.

 

No go xm you wont regret it.. plus it doesnt cost all that much more compared to aftermarket upgrades.. and it will be under warranty.. I know Dell want 2400 for an aftermarket 2960xm.. so I can imagine what they would want for the new one ..lol but if you get it as an option when you configure it.. well you save a little bit of money.. get the good guts..and upgraded the other stuff like the memory /hard drives later..

Ocing is fun.. but you have to have the right hardware.. running.. xm is the way to go..

 

if you listen to this on such a high end system you will be very mad at your self later for not getting it when you ordered it.. trust me..

 

Yes, you can do what you ask. At the moment, my CPU frequency is clocked at 4.2GHz. Sitting here doing nothing but replying to your question, my idle clock speed is 4.17GHz, with a random spike to 4.28GHz. Have a look see below.

Spoiler

 

as i agree with this for the most part.. you do not buy this cpu for bragging rights.. you buy it because you want the best in your expensive @22 system.. and yes you should get this from dell as it will be under warranty!
and it should be done at the time of purchase... to save money.. if its a 700 dollar option and you happen to get thet deal then yay but lets say you buy this cpu after market and it cost you 800-1000 how is that saving money when not only do you now not have a warranty on you cpu.. you spent a hundred over what it would have cost you when you got it to just pay for it and have it warrantied? doesn't make much sense..

 

oh and those dual 7070m every one is ordering .. just to let you know these are very effected by cpu power and speed..

 

and mine is about the same..

 

This is not true. Not for gaming. Perhaps for benchmarking activities - yes.

Fair enough. No sense in arguing when I may join you. But I can't wait to have an XM so I can do what I do with my 3960X - warn people to only buy it if they have the money to burn.

 

Sally, my opinion on it is this:

Get the 3720qm, then if you feel that you need more, get a 3920xm from Ebay. I purchased a 2920xm oem for a fraction of the cost on ebay. There are deals to be had if you look. that way, you can sell your 3720 to help cover the cost of the XM.

BTW, the 3720qm can be overclocked 4x's (i.e., the multiplier can be upped 4x or 400mhz in the stock dell bios) so that brings the 3720qm to 4ghz single core. That maybe enough for your purposes. For gaming, you don't need an XM, but the best Benchmark numbers can only be achieved with a heavily overclocked XM processor

 

well on this i have to agree with Mr Fox.. it would be silly to buy this only to compare to stock lower cpus..

 

ha really care to back that up with fact?

because i tell ya these cards do not like to be oc much with out a huge increase in cpu performance.. so unless your planning on staying at stock.. then yes you will be fine..
but buy the low end cpu and see how it goes.. kinda seems like it would be a bottle neck.

 

What are you basing this on? It certainly is true. Benchmarks prove it, and the benchmarks I would be referring to are representative of gaming performance potential (3DMark11 and Vantage, to be specific.) Many games do not max out the potential of a CPU, so that much is true, but GPU efficiency and ultimately the maximum system potential is absolutely tied to CPU performance. To just make a broad statement "This is not true" and "Not for gaming" is an over-generalization that is only partially accurate.

Sure, you can lower some of the settings in a game and still have a very satisfying experience, but if you want to have all game graphics settings maxed out for the ultimate experience possible with the newest games, and future games, there is an undeniable relationship between the CPU and GPU. Under the right circumstances, your CPU can become a bottleneck to the in-game experience. Metro2033, Crysis 2 and a number of other games will perform noticeably better with a more powerful CPU that has been optimized for high performance.

 

Sure thing:

Benchmark Results: CPU Scaling : Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards, Benchmarked

It's about the best illustration there is, as BF3 is the most demanding game for PCs today. You can cite benchmarks all day (synthetic) but for actual gaming benchmarks - there is VERY little difference. You guys are really reaching here. I understand you're wording things "very carefully" again - but c'mon.

 

Since you are planning to upgrade to the XM CPU, once you learn how to set everything up for optimal performance, you will understand more clearly. I found it very difficult (nearly impossible, in fact,) to relate until I upgraded and now I don't want any CPU that is not an XM. The thing about it is, the conditions are never static. Some games and programs will never fully exploit the performance you can extract from an XM, but some will. It depends on a number of factors.

 

I suppose if that's how things are in the mobile world. But I find it hard to believe. I have a 3960X-powered desktop and a 3930K-powered desktop...the experience on both is pretty much identical. Even more so since I configured them very similarly (save for mobo/GPU). The differences between 3930K and 3960X are in a way similar to the differences between the Ivy mobile quads - slight increase in MHz and more cache - oh and crazy more $$$.

I actually may just go XM from the factory. We'll see. I have a feeling this laptop will be a big project for me and I may find it more fun to do it aftermarket.

 

Conflicting opinions again....as usual!!!

I hear lots of people saying an XM cpu is not worth it, its too much money...blah blah blah....truth of the matter being at the end of the day, as you are looking at an elite system anyway, if you CAN afford it at time of purchase...get an XM as you will only kick yourself if you dont do it at the outset.

There is absolutely NO comparison to be made between the extreme and the other chips....can you OC any other non-XM to over 4.5ghz or even 5ghz? - nope. If performance is what you are after, its a must have. If you dont order with an XM, I would liken it to ordering a F1 car and asking if you could put the engine out of a Fiat Punto into it.....to save some cash.

I guess alot depends on what you actually intend on doing with your machine.....only you will know what you plan on using it for but if its just gaming/surfing etc, a non-xm would probably suffice. If you went that way, you could look into an aftermarket upgrade but its likely not to be as beneficial or cost effective as doing it right away. You may run the risk of getting ES or QS sample that has been thrashed pretty hard - as thats what they are - testing chips that have found their way onto the market.

Aftermarket cpu purchases also have drawbacks....not least to say warranty. As Fox mentioned before, if you do run into issues with your machine and it needs replacing, Dell will look at your original config and look to replace on the same like for like basis. If you order with an XM, you would get an XM as a replacement - if you dont, you wont.

Also, if you need to return your system for repair, or have a tech visit, it could also hinder your warranty as you have performed an aftermarket upgrade not warranted by Dell - they wont look at you dropping an engineering chip into your system as a good upgrade!

I know its a tricky choice but if you really want the best, just pull the trigger and do it. I have a hunch you already know which is the best option.........

 

I'll give you a better analogy: it'd be like buying a Corvette instead of a Porsche to save some cash. Both are fast. One is better than the other. The difference, is a matter of taste and preference.

Your Fiat analogy is ridiculous.

 

wow.. well we tried.. im done.. I understand that it is not the place of these forums to miss lead people.. but that is in fact what you are doing..

I to didnt see the difference and first went to the xm just because i wanted the fastest cpu available.. but upon installing it I saw a marked increase across the board.. from the way programs opened up to the way games played for me..

So I started posting about it not knowing any better saying some asinine things and people corrected me.. and turned me onto the correct terms.. and why certain things operate why they do..

so with that said im going to forward this thread to some real ocers.. (not saying your not fox but I believe brother John would eat this thread alive..since he is not a mod and not constrained to being nice).

Ill tell you this tho.. im the first person in the world to break 40k gpu score and it couldnt of been done with out the xm cpu.. now will I be running it like that 24/7 no.. but will i be running at 4.0-4.2 sure.. because it works..for every day use.. and regardless of what people say or you say.. there is a direct link between the way my 7970s run and operate and my xm cpu..
I hold fps better.. I dont get a huge drop.. I also own a 2720 cpu.. and I can tell you right now that id never ever think of putting that back in here and trying to play games at ultra.. just my thoughts tho..

there are plenty of threads and post on the benefits of the xm cpu.. go read them for your self and then make an informative decision on what you would like to do.. I understand price plays a part..but to me and every one else that owns one the price is worth it.. and Sk3tch.. have you owned one? are you looking to upgrade to it later? if so remember this thread and when you get id be willing to bet you start singing a different tune..

 

For all the talk of which is better or not, lots of testing would need to be done across many many games to truly come to any conclusion. We can leave the synthetics out of it unless the OP is buying the machine to benchmark first and game second.

Many will say no and others will say yes but that holds no weight what so ever against the numbers. No one can just say something is better without some form of proof of why it is better.

So if someone was willing to test a couple different CPUs across a wide range of games we could put the argument to rest .

We cant even compare this to desktops since laptops behave differently. It should be generally similar but it is not always the case with how things scale.

This stuff has been done in the past since i have been around but not so much anymore . Would be interesting to see the results though .

Funny the OP asked a rather simple question and it turned into a battle royale .

 

I think enough has been said at this point. If an XM CPU wasn't worth having, Intel wouldn't be selling them. Mod or otherwise, we are a community of enthusiasts and should be nice to each other. We should all be friends. I don't think anyone expected the discussion to escalate so much.

 

It might be better if the OP comes back and go's into some detail exactly what they want to do with the machine ?.

Gaming/encoding/benchmarking/All of the above or maybe just watching Blu-rays and chatting on facebook .

I think people could give more guidance with a little more understanding of what it is they will be doing.

Intel makes those CPUs because they can benefit certain people absolutely and also some people just have to get the best available no matter what the cost ( i have a close friend just like that) and companies cater to those individuals by you paying for a cherry picked item which to many is worth it in spades while others see no value at all. Different strokes for different folks as they say.

My motto is if you can afford it, or your even thinking about it, then just get it because you'll probably regret it later on if you dont and no amount of reading or someone telling you that you should not have will make you feel better .

 

I hear ya. I hope to be a part of this community and I'm not trying to tear anyone down. I'm just always up for a good debate.

I still have yet to see any facts from the XM side of this "debate" - but that's cool. That's what the XM is about - having the best and being the best - it's a high profit part for Intel. In much the same way that Dell sells a $250 overclocking "service" with their M18X R2. Some people want the best and will pay for it. Nothing wrong with that.

Yes, check the links in my posts. I own a quad-SLI Nvidia GTX 680 desktop rig powered by a 3960X CPU. Go to my website to see my 24K 3DMark 11 score - that's 3DMark 11 - not Vantage. So, you go find your "real OCers" - if they are "real OCers" they'll know that gaming DOES NOT require a CPU like the X or XM processors. You just need any modern quad-core CPU. Even dual-core is usually just fine. That's all I have been trying to say.

 

You are part of the community and I'm glad you're here with us. I also respect your opinion, be it different or not, and think that I speak for the majority of the community on that.

Besides, anyone that owns a desktop that runs that well is OK in my book.

 

lol.. ok ok your rig is nice! but we dont buy these systems because we wasnt a computer that can do every day things.. we buy these machines because we want the best of the best.. hence your desk top!

Every body has a choice.. in what they buy but if i was going to use this machine for just face book and casual web surfing and movie watching there are plenty of other systems that are far cheaper than these.. hell even if your going to do casual gaming there are far cheaper lappys out there..

any one and every one who bought an alienware bought it for there own reasons but deep down inside we all know we wanted the best and sooner or later we all begin to push the limits of the system as far as we can.. we may not start out like that at first but it always happens!

I should start a thread on ~why Did you buy your alienware~ just to see what people put! I for one bought mine to begin with for the name and the bragging rights to say hey look at what i have! and to game!
but it seems lately that i game less than id like since it put me so far in the hole lol..

 

I personally wouldnt. I doubt there is worthy difference in gaming. I would personally invest that money into longest warranty possible, and the best GPU option.

 

hi OP here

didn't expect my question would draw this many responses. thanks all - especially to Mr. Fox, DumbDumb, sk3tch and all the others who took time to respond. you guys are awesome and i learned so much!

my original question - can 'XM' do the base clock that's sufficiently higher
than then next best 'QM' - has been satisfactorily answered thanks to Mr. Fox.
SlickDude80 also suggested that i can do some limited OCing with
3720QM but it seems that unlocked nature of 'XM', the proprietary XM BIOS, along with better
cooling seem to justify its hefty entrance fee (to me and me only )

i realized that my original title, "is XM worth $900?" was perhaps not carefully
worded. i really meant to ask was, as I just said, if XM can sufficiently
be made to perform faster by a large margin than the next best QM.

as for what is worth how much to whom is really an individual choice, i guess.

one thing that surprised me, was the fact that games might not be
GPU-bound. everywhere i go (thanks to google), it seems almost common sense that even the lowly 3610QM should be able to drive 7970m or 7970m cf sufficiently but some of you guys are saying otherwise. this one, i'm planning to find out myself

thanks again!

 

i couldnt justify the price from 3720QM to 3920XM - $1160.50 AUD
now for 300Mhz + 2MB cache difference running stock then performance gain is minimal. if overclocking then sure it makes the 3920XM looks more attractive. it will depend on what you use it for. i dont plan on overclocking mine........until the oc bug bites.......
i should mention that for the price tag alone is not only for the CPU but for the upgraded cooling to support it.

 

It's not a ridiculous analagy.

If you look at the mobile cpu options available, you will see that an extreme cpu is by far superior to the base level cpu - no one can argue that it is not. Although the base cpu will not be "tedious" to work with, it IS the lowest available on many Alienware laptop systems (including 18x) and as such, will provide you with the very bare minimum in terms of cpu performance....that's why I likened it to a Fiat...(sure, if you compare it to a dual core cpu ...it becomes a Lamborghini LOL). The XM is in a league of its own and that's why it commands a heft chunk of cash to buy one - you simply cannot make a non-XM into an XM in terms of performance.

Any machine is only as good as its components, and if you want the fastest and best, unfortuantely those things always cost more - but you know this yourself already, hence the fact you have two desktops with extreme processors, one coupled with quad-sli 680's - you obviously felt the extreme cpu was worth it...TWICE, let alone putting in x4 expensive gpu's

Sure, an entry level cpu will perform "ok" but that's it - dont expect anything spectacular or stellar from it (much like driving a Fiat Punto - it will get you from A to B but you might not enjoy the ride as much! LOL).

You could also put the same context on gpu choice - you CAN get a single 660m on the 18x...yes, you can play games on it BUT, it will perform nowhere near as good as the higher end options available.

 

Here are some interesting articles for you guys:

Intel Sandy Bridge Processors Gaming Performance: Part II - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Placebo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here are som (controversial?) claims to discuss:

1. Claiming non-xm SAndy/ivy i7's are "impaired" or "average" is misleading at best.
   
2. ANY ivy i7 processor will be good enough for gaming, even paired with crossfire 7970m.
   
3. Benchmarks are benchmarks, and benchmark performance does not necessarily equal gaming performance.
   
4. The XM sandy/ivy's make sense for video encoding etc. - not for gaming.
   
5. The main reason for gamers to get the XM-processors are (as evident in this thread) bragging rights.

Now, as much as I understand the wish to have "the best possible", I think the playing down of performance from non-xm i7's and playing up the processor demands for pc games in this thread is wrong, and might end up costing less knowledgeable impressionable persons hundreds of $/£/€ for performance they probably never will need/use. So that is why I felt the need to post the claims above. Please feel free to disprove them

 

I guess it just boils down to a few very basic points.

1. Can you AFFORD an Extreme cpu? - If the answer to that is yes, there is no harm in getting one WHATEVER your reasons might be for doing so, wether they be for "bragging rights", benchmarking or for running very cpu intensive workloads....goes without saying, if you can't afford one, you probably won't get one!

2. Do you NEED an Extreme cpu? - if you dont plan on benching or using for heavily based cpu intensive tasks, you probably DONT need one.

3. Do you WANT an Extreme cpu? - chances are most people would say YES, if money were no object.

As with most things in life, and as mentioned in the above post, we all would like the very best.....it's down to the individual's choice at the end of the day as to wether they NEED, WANT or can AFFORD one......superfluous as it may seem to others, sometimes we just want the things we desire, irrespective of wether we fully utilise them or not....and that makes the choice easy, as its a case of the heart ruling the head!

 

It's nice to pop in here and find a good debate brewing. And in this case, I think Fox makes a very good point. The use case for custom Alienware machines is enthusiast performance, typically with the latitude of being able to modify the system by over clocking. The XM is the right solution for that person.

I think the tough part is quantifying the return on the 900.00 investment. Quadzilla makes a great point (as usual) that the only way to truly quantify that is to test the games that the OP will be involved with.

One thing we should all agree on...gaming performance is dependent on more variables then just the video channel. Any resource contention on disk I/O, memory bandwidth and memory ceiling, cpu utilization both on a single core and across the cores in total can create performance limitations. Some will be more intrusive then others during game play.

One thing I will say, look closely at your disk selection. Having an SSD makes a series impact in day in and day out use. If you can afford to have one as a boot drive, or even use 2x256 gig ssd's in a raid config will make a massive difference. Remember that traditional spindle drives are running 25-70 meg disk r/w, where a 6g SSD Raid stripe will run near 600 meg per second r/w...thats 10x-25x speed improvement. And its felt EVERYWHERE. Launching every app, opening files, launching and playing games...the entire experience will feel completely different.

As Fox mentions above, the XM procs do make a big difference. You want all available power on hand to route data around the motherboard, and feed the graphics cards. The XM procs are clocking in about 14% faster then 2600k desktop procs...so we're talking massive power. And with the new Ivy Bridge design, they are only drawing about 35 watts.

As for the car analogy, Im going to disagree with both. Both are Porsches. But they make the base 911, the GT3 (more power), The Turbo...and the GT2..codenamed "The Widow Maker." How deep do you wanna go?

 

I only have one answer to all of this Question??????
If you are planning to overclock 3920XM then its worth 100%,it will make a 10/25% difference in high intencive Games and Application or Programs..since you guys are already spending over $2500 for Alienware M18X why not get the best rather than later upgrade and hassle ending up spending for money...

 

So has OP made a decision?

 

I ran vantage with a single 7970m paired with the lowliest sandy bridge CPU (i3-2310m) and it still pulled a 17k+ gpu score. Just a little food for thought.

 

I only bought the 3960X because I felt like it and because I was already building the baddest PC around so I may as well "go all out" and spend the money. I'm doing the same with my M18X R2. But that doesn't change the fact that it makes no difference in gaming.

There is no context in GPU choice because GPU *IS* the bottleneck these days. CPU has far surpassed anything needed by games. While GPU is where the more juice the better. I.E. I play BF3 at 5760x1080/120hz on 3 monitors - even with 4x680 and 3960X - I get around 70-90 FPS in online MP.

 

yup but i'm not telling the world what it is until i get the firm quote from allan (of Dell)

gotta maintain my bargaining power

 

This statement is definitely not true. An average experience ( we are not talking about an i3 here we are talking about top of the line i7 ). If the OP wants to find out pi to 5 million decimal places 10 seconds faster than me then yes please go and spend that $900. Are you into benchmarking (if yes then you should consider the 3920XM) ELSE there is no way somebody can justify spending that much money.

Here is a list for you to make up your mind Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Here is what you can do in that $900 on top of the average experience.

1. Get a XBox 360
2. Get a PS3
3. Get a PS Vita.

OR

1. Get the HTC One X
2. Get the ASUS Transformer Prime

OR

1. Get an awesome keyboard/mouse combo
2. Get a pair of 3D monitors to go with the 7970m crossfire (which I hope you are getting)

 

i respectfully disagree. as i said few posts ago, the title of my post was clumsily worded. what i wanted to know was what that $900 buys me, and NOT whether it's worth the $900 or not. because that really is up to each and every individual to decide whether something is worth how much...

$900 buys a lot of things. but let's not go there because it's hopeless to put together something of a $900 shopping list we can all HAPPILY agree on

 

Well, it's official - I've joined the 3920XM club. Put in a new order today (I guess that's the only way they can "change" and order - cancel and put in new one). The upgrade was only $675.83 more over the 3720QM I had prior.

All for the e-peen.

 

I agree with this as only you know if it is worth the extra cost but it is nice to get all the information up front before making the purchase.

As others have stated it can be more expensive to upgrade after you buy and not have the part covered under manufacture's warranty.

 

I think some of us have also forgotten that there ARE other uses for a powerful Alienware laptop BESIDES gaming or benching. I've seen many people purchase top of the line M17's/M18's with XM cpu's who have had little or no intention of using them for gaming - plenty of people out there who buy these systems for work and not play.

Only Sally will know if she plans to use the machine in that repsect - ie. pro audio editing , VMware etc etc.....but if she DOES want to do that kind of thing, an XM would be a must have.

One other thing I would say worth considering is future resale value. I'm not saying that anyone buying a machine equipped with an XM would get back the full value of the initial outlay after xxx years, but it certainly would increase the machine's worth - it would also appeal to a "wider audience" of prospective buyers later own down the road....

 

Yeah, VMware for me. That was why I was going for the 3720QM (VT-d). But now, with the XM, I can go crazy on benchmarking and overclocking.

The resale value point is a very good one. It's one reason I did not feel too bad about leaving Clevo/Sager - as they are not as well known so there is not as much of an aftermarket demand for them. My past laptops (MacBook Pros) have typically had at least an 80% rate of return on the initial investment. That's a pretty low price for a rental and to always have the hottest gear!