Alienware m9700 Hardware

[Webster26]

I travel extensively for work and i need a good mobile gaming platform i think im going to go with the m9700 from alienware. i buy a new laptop every 18 months or so, so i dont get to far behind the times in terms of hardware evolution. The question i have is should i get the 2GB ram option or the 7900GS x2 SLI. I dont want to pay for both of the options i am just not sure which is "more bang for the buck" so to speak. Any Thoughts?

 

[TMoney468]

I'm not sure about Alienware, but vendors in general tend to charge more for a ram upgrade than what you could actually buy and install yourself. I would just get the upgraded video card, especially since you want a gaming laptop, and you can always buy an extra DIMM of ram later on...just make sure you get 1x1GB ram so you can add another gig later

 

[Webster26]

The Ram options are limited to 2x 512's or 2x 1GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz for $270

The VC option is $300. i suppose i could buy the video upgrade then then just later down the line swap the ram for 2x 1gb sticks? im not 100% sure on if both ram sticks can be removed. i dont have much experience upgrading a laptop.

 

[fralexandr]

RAM is generally pretty easy to remove/replace on newer notebooks , so it should be no problem.

 

[Fraggable]

You can get 2GB of DDR2 laptop RAM for less than $100 these days, so definitely do that upgrade yourself. You can replace both the sticks that are preinstalled.

You sure that's DDR 400MHz RAM? Is this a new laptop or used? I'd have to think a new laptop would use DDR2?

 

[Webster26]

I copied the ram description directly from the website. after digging into it a little more that laptop uses older hardware throughout not even a dual core processor so i cannot justify spending the money on something that is out of date before i pay for it. HP has some reasonable gaming notbooks at a much better price using Core 2 Duo processor's and DDR2 ram. The only catergory that Alienware has an advantage is the graphics processor. The HP has the 7600 Go whereas the alienware using the 7900 Go.

 

[Brainonska511]

How about the Inspiron E1705 (7900GS) or the Dell XPS 1710 (7950GTX)? There is also the refreshed Asus G1 (15.4" gaming notebook) that will be coming out shortly which comes with the 8600GT provided you want a more portable gaming machine. There are also several notebooks out at the moment from Asus and a few others that have the 7700Go (4 more pixel pipes than the 7600, making a faster card; it was a small upgrade that added some more power saving features as well) and you can find that card in notebooks as small as 14" (Asus A8Js).

 

[Fraggable]

With the coupons that are out for Dell, I'd say a E1705 w/7900GS is a great value. Get the smallest amount of RAM possible and upgrade it to 2GB on your own, and make sure you get one of the faster Core 2 Duo's, like a T7200, and you're set.

If you want to game on it, just stay away from the 7600go. It's just plain weak. Maybe better than average for a laptop, but still weak. The 7900GS is fairly decent.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

The thing is, the new Santa Rosa laptops just came out, and they started with integrated graphics.

The ASUS G1S is one of the first Santa Rosa laptops with the Nvidia GPU.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3728&review=Asus+G1S

Others will follow. So if you don't like the Asus, then I'd wait.