OMG my head is going to explode !

[Baron Robert Mayhew]

Hi Guy and Merry Christmas

ok now im confused and my head is going to boil and my brains squirt out of my ears.

I have £1300

Do I get a refurb r2 with dual graphics cards

Dell Alienware M17x R2 Space Black
Features:- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, 160GB 7200rpm Hard Drive, 8GB Memory, Dual CrossFire 1GB ATi HD 5870 Graphics, 9 Cell Battery, Intel Wireless-N 6300 and 3 Years Dell On Site Warranty (From 17/11/2011) --- £1100

Processor
Intel Core i7-720QM Quad Core Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB Cache with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz)

or

£1300 A r3 with 3d and single card. · Second Generation Intel Core I7-2820QM – 2.3GHz Quad Core with Hyper-Threading, 8MB Cache, Maximum Turbo Boost Speed 3.4GHz · 250GB Hard Drive

· 8098MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333 SDRAM Wireless Europe Dell Bluetooth 370 · Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio ·Wireless: Killer Wireless N 1103 Card DVD ROM Combo (, DVD, CD read and write) Drive · Display 17.3in 3D Widescreen High Definition (1920 x 1080) WLED with TrueLife · Integrated Laptop Webcam · 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 460M Graphics



Both have 3 years refurb warrenty with dell

I want to play easy games like tft2 but also the newer stuff MW3 e.c.t

Hope someone can help put a cork in my head to stop the brain leakage before its too late.

Alternativly if anyone can give me advice on bang for book and spec for £1300 that would be great

cheers in advance

Rob

[svl7]

If you ask me, both systems aren't really worth it... of course the 3 years warranty inflates the price, but it's still pretty expensive for what you get hardware-wise.

Does the R2 come with the 1200p RGB LED display? In this case I'd say the price is more or less acceptable, still on the expensive side, but ok... especially since it comes with three years warranty.

The R2 which you describe above has much more GPU power than the R3 with the specs you mention.

The CPU isn't bad, but it's nothing compared to the Sandy Bridge equivalents.

The r3 is simply not worth it because of the GPU, it's handle tft2 and MW3 well enough, but it's nothing compared to lets say a 580m.

You can get an r3 with a 580m and an i7 2670QM for 1450 GBP if you look online, the CPU is not as good as the one in the r3 you describe, but the GPU is far superior. And if you order it by phone you should be able to get some rebate if you talk to the rep, I guess you should be able to get it for about 1200-1300 with 580m and 2670m. You won't get three years warranty, but you could still extend it before it expires. Will come cheaper than upgrading the GPU later.

Just my thoughts...

[unreal25]

Between these two, my opinion is M17x-R2, because it has dual cards. If it comes with an RGB LED screen that would be fantastic. R3 does have a bit faster CPU, but I doubt it can have nearly impact on game FPS as a second GPU (I don't really see the point of these super-fast CPUs unless all you want to do on a laptop is run benchmarks or play crappy ports like GTA4). If memory serves me well, a single GTX 460M is somewhere in line with a single 5870M.

[Baron Robert Mayhew]

Thanks for the quick responses ppl very helpfull

17" Wide FHD (1920 x 1080) UltraSharp WUXGA LCD

is that the decent screen or not ?

Rob

[Stevenxowens792]

Neither system. Both are 1 generation back so I would try to get something with low end (I7) cpu and the 6990 or nvidia 580. Go with cheapest hd and mem as they can easily be upgraded later. Also go for the 1080p if you can.

Just my .02

StevenX

[unreal25]

Its probably an average screen in terms of the image quality, but is relatively high resolution. (for example, all Macbooks I've seen have much better quality displays)

If these two aren't the only choices, or rather if I was buying an M17x right now (well OK I wouldn't buy it, because I don't like their cheap/regular screens on these high end machines... but if I would), I would go with:

- the cheapest CPU (i7 2670M), which is btw, a pretty fast CPU and I imagine by the time CPU becomes the bottleneck for playing games we'll go through at least 3 more generations of GPUs

- the best GPU, because it will mean a world to have a powerful graphic card for pretty much any game), which I believe is GTX 580M

- regular 1080p screen, but if you really have fetish for 3D, go for it, its just seems too expensive to me to be worth it (no idea what use would be 120Hz screen otherwise since its not the same refresh rate mechanism as on CRT screens.... but maybe improves the display quality a little). My opinion for $350 just rofl - no.

- cheapest HD option, since you should get caddies for both slots and can easily upgrade the hard drive later (I am guessing the design is pretty similar to M17x-R2)

- cheapest memory, again as said above upgrading on your own is tons cheaper and does not void warranty

- cheapest WiFi card (get a good N-router instead imo, because having a super-imba-killer WiFi card will mean nothing if you have a $20 router)

- DVD // BluRay dunno if you use, I used this drive once in last 2 years to install windows

I don't know what are the prices in the UK, but if its still too expensive, you can cut still cut the corner I guess, on the GPU but then probably not worth getting.