About to return my m11x R2 :(

so i need a little help from u guys,

so i recently bought an m11x for a cheap price about 700$ and it was the r2, now at the time i bought the r2 because i had to finish paying for college otherwise i would of bought the r3. Now im a little more stable and i feel like i can cough up to get the r3 and get this Microsoft offer which i missed out. (i though i had qualified before but apparently i didn't >.<) So, now if i do decide to return it i would want to get the r3 but not cough up all that money at the same time. I mean this computers are great, they are a BEAST! to say the least. The only down side is the screen size with gaming and stuff but im somewhat getting used to it. Now im a college student and i use my laptop a lot for programming and other stuff. A screen slightly bigger is def. a plus (less strain on my eyes), however i dont want it too big.

So to conclude, although the m11x is wonderful pc i think the fact that 1) doesnt have a cd drive and 2) the screen size slightly affects me. So for those that own the m14x, how big is it? and how heavy? if u happen to own both or have seen both which one would u prefer?

Is there other laptops that can slightly compare to alienwares in the smaller price range that can accommodate my college needs?
the reason i initally bought this was because of gaming, but im now realizing that i shouldn't have just based it off that.

hope u guys can help me out

 

it you go to this website: Gaming Laptops - Best Laptops for Gaming | Digital Storm

You can build a 15" i7 quad core laptop with a 540m and a 1920X1080 screen for $1000, in comparison, the m14x with a quad core i7 and 555m and 1600X900 screen for about $1300. on the flip side, i dont know much about Digital Storm's customer service or build quality.

 

wow nice find, they do look pretty official and the laptops specs are really good. I did noticed they are no brand laptops right? going by the fact the lcd display in the back their is no marking of a company. Seems like a good website ill google it and see what i can find thanks!

 

I do a lot of stuff that requires a bigger screen. That's why I have a 21" monitor at work (Apple Cinema Display I found in the trash and fixed up!). Gaming on the small screen is not nearly the pain I expected it to be.

 

Look at xoticpc http://www.xoticpc.com/ as well. Since you dont need one particular to Alienware. A nice Sager would work.

(I have bought from them before, good customer service, just slow since so overwhelmed).

 

Hey, i was looking at their laptop and some of them like that Asus 13 inch. ( ASUS U31SD-A1 - Xotic PC - ASUS Laptop) compare to the alienware they are very similar to the specs of the alienware r2, looks good how long does the shipping etc take? 13 inch would probably be better since its a tad bit bigger yet still portable enough.

are there laptops build as u place the order or do they have them build already? i wish i would of done a little more research and found this before... what do u guys think about that Asus?

ASUS U31SD-A1 - Xotic PC - ASUS Laptop

after looking into it a little closer everything seems perfect but looks like the video cards are not all that good? especially on the ones that are 800 and less :\

 

I knew those laptops looked familiar. Sager Laptops from Taiwan.

The manufacturer is a Taiwanese company called Clevo which sells through various resellers in the US who brand the computer themselves.

I bought three of their laptops back in 2002 and from personal experience noticed they run a little hot; you could feel the temperature through the keyboard as well as on other areas of the laptop where the temperature would radiate from certain areas. The fans were somewhat noisy as well. Both these observations were corroborated by other users of their laptops on various Clevo forums.

Not having any experience with their newer models I don't know if these things have been resolved. They weren't glaring issues but I returned to buying branded (Dell) laptops since. As someone who understands how finicky gaming laptop users might be I thought relevant to voice my experience.

Again the value of their laptops are unparallelled and one of their strongest selling points but it isn't without tradeoffs. Be careful which reseller you buy the laptop from as some resellers are worse than others with their customer service.

I bought mine from PC Torque which is also the same guys who started off Notebookforums.com.