Alienware's M17x: Mobility Radeon HD 5870 CrossFire Is A Go

[scook9]

[citation][nom]wiinippongamer[/nom]way way way way way ... way overpriced[/citation]
Why do people still insist on comparing laptop prices to desktop prices? They are not comparable. That is like comparing motorcycle prices to SUV prices.....

 

[bildo123]

[citation][nom]duk3[/nom]Bang for buck at $4000? Not so much.The problem with big heavy expensive laptops is that a desktop does everything they do and better at a third of the price.How much are you really going to be taking a $4000 laptop out of your house?[/citation]

I never understood this. I know a couple people who have these massive laptops...that 95% of the time, if not more, sit in a room, practically glued to the desk. I understand saving space and all, but to pay that much of a premium seems a little much to me. (Okay I'll be honest, its stupid).

 

[scook9]

To some people it is worth it. No one is saying you should go out and buy one. These large laptops are extremely popular with deployed military personnel as it allows then to take a fully functioning system with them overseas. They usually just pay for it with their deployment bonus

 

[warezme]

All of that in a 15" form factor would be so nice. I have the m15x but just can't see lugging anything bigger than that. The 1920x1200 screen is a little hard to read on the 15 but still very usable.

 

[Guest]

I like to see a comparison to other 5870 without crossfire like Asus laptop.

 

[mchuf]

[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]Although not common knowledge to many....highend laptops have had upgradeable gpus for years in the form of MXM cards. It is a standard followed by many manufacturers and as long as you have bios support, there are many upgrade options. I have the older M17x (R1 with core 2 stuff) and I can take GTX 260m, GTX 280m, GTX 285m, Radeon Mobility 4870 all in single or dual card configurations. The M17x R2 (i7 version - what is reviewed here) can take GTX 285m, Radeon 4870m, Radeon 5870m, and potentially GTX 400 cards once Dell releases them also all in dual or single configurations.[/citation]


Thanks for that info.

After this comment, I just looked up upgrading a laptop gpu. Ugh, I don't think many people would want to attempt this. Also where can you find a laptop gpu?

 

[scook9]

A few resellers carry them, and then there is the spare parts store at places like Dell or Sager. eBay and forums are usually the best place to find them though

 

[Guest]

I have the M17x and it rocks!

 

[5150 joker]

Dell has released a new vbios + 8.763 set of drivers for the M17x. As others mentioned, Tom's forgot to test the LCD displays of each laptop. If they had, the readers would have discovered the RGB LED display of the M17x is in a completely different league compared to what Clevo uses. It destroys them in brightness (~320 nits) and it has >100% of the adobe color space.

Also, the M17x uses a metal chasis and lid cover that lends to a very durable unit. The Clevo competitors reviewed today are fully plastic.

Next, the M17x has a backlit keyboard + alien fx lighting. The Clevo solutions lack either.

Lastly, when you buy a Clevo based system, you are at the mercy of mom and pop botique sellers that require you to ship the system back to Sager's depot and wait 2 weeks for a turn around time while warranty repairs are done. Alienware in contrast offers next business day home service where a service tech brings the part and fixes it on site so you have little to no down time.

Bang for the buck, looks, build quality, LCD quality, efficiency, and warranty the Alienware wins hands down.

 

[Guest]

Right on Joker. Thats why i own 2 of these now.

 

[Conner Macleod]

[citation][nom]rohitbaran[/nom]What do you want to say? Your second statement is way out of context of the first![/citation]

Incorrect, he's making two separate statements, one about his personal preference and another in which he compares the cost-benefit ratio of two competing laptop manufacturers. Both statements are logically independent of each other.

On topic, nice laptop but not really worth it, unless you have cash to burn. There are plenty of other manufacturers that make very powerful laptops for half the price and they're more than capable of handling the latest games at the highest settings. This laptop amounts to overkill.

 

[5150 joker]

[citation][nom]Conner Macleod[/nom]Incorrect, he's making two separate statements, one about his personal preference and another in which he compares the cost-benefit ratio of two competing laptop manufacturers. Both statements are logically independent of each other.On topic, nice laptop but not really worth it, unless you have cash to burn. There are plenty of other manufacturers that make very powerful laptops for half the price and they're more than capable of handling the latest games at the highest settings. This laptop amounts to overkill.[/citation]


None of those laptops can play the latest games with max settings. It takes dual GPU's just to reach midrange desktop performance. So with a single GPU you're getting half that.

 

[Conner Macleod]

[citation][nom]5150 joker[/nom]None of those laptops can play the latest games with max settings. It takes dual GPU's just to reach midrange desktop performance. So with a single GPU you're getting half that.[/citation]

Nonsense. Case in point, let's take a look at a Toshiba gaming laptop:

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-X505-Q890-TruBrite-18-4-Inch/dp/B003N7O3EG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1285700081&sr=1-1

For much less than half, you're getting a 1GB GTS 360m, which is not as fast but it's in the same class as the Radeon 5870, and this:

* 1.73 GHz Intel Core i7-740QM processor
* 6 GB DDR3 1066MHz memory
* 500 GB Serial ATA hard drive, Blu-ray Disc ROM and DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash, 64 GB SSD
* 18.4-inch HD TruBrite display, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M with 1 GB GDDR5 discrete graphics memory
* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 3.75 hours of battery life

And you can play the vast majority of current games with either the highest or 2nd highest settings for 40% of the price of the Alienware. It has 2 GB more RAM and a SSD HDD which the Alienware lacks.

That's just one example, HP has comparable ones as well.

 

[Guest]

Nice to see other NBR Members contributing to this discussion.

 

[5150 joker]

[citation][nom]Conner Macleod[/nom]Nonsense. Case in point, let's take a look at a Toshiba gaming laptop:http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosm [...] 081&sr=1-1For much less than half, you're getting a 1GB GTS 360m, which is not as fast but it's in the same class as the Radeon 5870, and this:* 1.73 GHz Intel Core i7-740QM processor* 6 GB DDR3 1066MHz memory* 500 GB Serial ATA hard drive, Blu-ray Disc ROM and DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash, 64 GB SSD* 18.4-inch HD TruBrite display, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M with 1 GB GDDR5 discrete graphics memory* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 3.75 hours of battery lifeAnd you can play the vast majority of current games with either the highest or 2nd highest settings for 40% of the price of the Alienware. It has 2 GB more RAM and a SSD HDD which the Alienware lacks.That's just one example, HP has comparable ones as well.[/citation]


First of all:

1. GTS 360M is an old DX 10 chip that has about 1/4th-1/3rd the performance of Crossfire 5870m.

2. Toshiba's display is a low end 16:9 WLED. The fact that you're trying to compare it to a 16:10 RGB LED just shows your ignorance on the subject.

3. 740QM performance is absymal compared to a 920xm, especially when the 920xm is used in conjunction with ThrottleStop to unlock it's multipliers and TDP settings. The 920/940xm can be clocked up to 3.4 GHz on ALL 4 cores (8 threads) using throttlstop which is as fast as a desktop CPU. Again, you have no clue what you're talking about.

4. The Toshiba is an eye sore.

5. Toshiba is cheap plastic.

And seriously, TOSHIBA? LOL.

 

[gmarsack]

That is one fuggly looking laptop. Great specs... ugly as sin.

 

[Conner Macleod]

[citation][nom]5150 joker[/nom]First of all:1. GTS 360M is an old DX 10 chip that has about 1/4th-1/3rd the performance of Crossfire 5870m. 2. Toshiba's display is a low end 16:9 WLED. The fact that you're trying to compare it to a 16:10 RGB LED just shows your ignorance on the subject.3. 740QM performance is absymal compared to a 920xm, especially when the 920xm is used in conjunction with ThrottleStop to unlock it's multipliers and TDP settings. The 920/940xm can be clocked up to 3.4 GHz on ALL 4 cores (8 threads) using throttlstop which is as fast as a desktop CPU. Again, you have no clue what you're talking about.4. The Toshiba is an eye sore.5. Toshiba is cheap plastic.And seriously, TOSHIBA? LOL.[/citation]

1. I didn't say it was as fast, I said it was in the same class as the 5870, see http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTS-360M.24058.0.html . Meaning it's in the category of one of the fastest mobile GPUs on the market.

2. 18.4-inch high-definition TruBrite display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and native 1080p support, that in no way in any sense of the phrase qualifies as "low end". No ignorance on my part since I knew what each had, I was merely offering up a comparison with similar stats. Oh and it's an 18.4" display while Alienware's is only 17", not to mention most games/movies support only the 16:9 aspect ratio so the 16:10 is superfluous.

3. Nobody's arguing that they're on equal footing, not sure how you reached that conclusion, but nevertheless, the 740QM also has turbo boost which allows it to go to 2.93 GHz which significantly increases its performance. I know exactly what I'm talking about, you're making an argument against something that wasn't proposed, in other words you're arguing with yourself, aka you don't know what you're talking about.

4. Eye of the beholder.

5. Plastic yes, cheap no. It's highly durable and withstands the elements rather well. If it was cheap it would break/crack easily and the colors would fade over time, that's not the case with this one, nor any of their laptops.

You can laugh at Toshiba all you want but you're merely displaying your ignorance. Fact for you, since you obviously don't know what you're talking about, Toshiba invented the laptop so if it wasn't for them, chances are we wouldn't even be talking about this very topic. They spend more money on R&D than most other firms in the business, and their high-end laptops, like this one, are a far cry from their entry level models, just like any other manufacturer.

Anyway, if you look over their components you'll see that it's top quality, the speakers are Harmon Kardon, for example, and they come with Dolby Home Theater virtual surround sound.

 

[5150 joker]

[citation][nom]Conner Macleod[/nom]1. I didn't say it was as fast, I said it was in the same class as the 5870, see http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDI [...] 058.0.html . Meaning it's in the category of one of the fastest mobile GPUs on the market.2. 18.4-inch high-definition TruBrite display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and native 1080p support, that in no way in any sense of the phrase qualifies as "low end". No ignorance on my part since I knew what each had, I was merely offering up a comparison with similar stats. Oh and it's an 18.4" display while Alienware's is only 17", not to mention most games/movies support only the 16:9 aspect ratio so the 16:10 is superfluous.3. Nobody's arguing that they're on equal footing, not sure how you reached that conclusion, but nevertheless, the 740QM also has turbo boost which allows it to go to 2.93 GHz which significantly increases its performance. I know exactly what I'm talking about, you're making an argument against something that wasn't proposed, in other words you're arguing with yourself, aka you don't know what you're talking about.4. Eye of the beholder.5. Plastic yes, cheap no. It's highly durable and withstands the elements rather well. If it was cheap it would break/crack easily and the colors would fade over time, that's not the case with this one, nor any of their laptops.You can laugh at Toshiba all you want but you're merely displaying your ignorance. Fact for you, since you obviously don't know what you're talking about, Toshiba invented the laptop so if it wasn't for them, chances are we wouldn't even be talking about this very topic. They spend more money on R&D than most other firms in the business, and their high-end laptops, like this one, are a far cry from their entry level models, just like any other manufacturer.Anyway, if you look over their components you'll see that it's top quality, the speakers are Harmon Kardon, for example, and they come with Dolby Home Theater virtual surround sound.[/citation]


Anyone that's familiar with gaming notebooks or notebook technology in general will realize your talking points above demonstrated your complete ignorance.

1. Notebookcheck is a horrible reference for GPU performance. The GTS 360M does not come close to 5870m Crossfire performance. It is at best 25-30% of the total performance. I brought this salient point up because you tried to compare cost vs performance to the AW and I aptly pointed out to you that even with dual 5870m's, a notebook of AW's caliber is only equal to a midrange desktop--thus a single weak GPU like the GTS 360M is far weaker and certainly does not play the latest games at high settings. You also conveniently left out the the fact that it's a DX 10 chip.

2. I don't care if it's 50", it's a low quality display. Look up it's specifications and then try to compare it to the M17x's RGB LED display. The RGB LED in the M17x bests even some of the top desktop displays because of it's >100% color gamut. You're just embarrassing yourself by trying to compare the two.

3. I said the 920/940xm can be unlocked to 3.4 GHz+ on ALL 4 CORES you noob. Turbo boost on a 740qm on all 4 cores is HALF that (1.73 GHz).

4. Yes, it's cheap plastic gaudy junk.

I don't care if Toshiba invented the laptop or not, their current products are crap.

 

[scook9]

The GTS 360m is NOT close to the 5870m...that site you linked is notoriously inaccurate.

TruBrite is what we call...marketing BS. 1080p does not qualify as "highend" at all since it is standard in larger laptops.18.4" is viewed as a con compared to 17" considering that they failed to pack more hardware in that space. ALL games support 16:10.....have never seen one that did not. The additional 10% vertical resolution is extremely useful in ALL scenarios except for games/movies (like web browsing, word docs, anything....)

That turbo speed you quoted is for one core....joker was talking about all 4 cores.....not a comparison. The 940xm has done 4.35 GHz on one core if you want to play that game.

As for Toshiba, there is a reason that laptop cost what it does - it is not in the same class as the clevos or alienwares being discussed here - period. It is not a deal like you seem to think it is, it is priced right where it belongs. And inventing the laptop does not make them the best at it ever.....and if they had not someone else would have.

 

[Conner Macleod]

Neither of you are getting it....My point was that you can get a very good gaming laptop that plays games at very high resolutions for a fraction of the cost. It's nice that these $4,000 laptops exist if people want to blow that kind of money, but it's ridiculous when you can get one that's almost just as good for less than half that cost. The only time you want a laptop like this is if you're dying to play Crysis on ultra, whereas the Toshiba one will play it and others on high just fine, and ultra for most other games.

Nobody's disputing that this Alienware is a kick-ass laptop, I'm talking about cost-benefit ratio.

 

[5150 joker]

[citation][nom]Conner Macleod[/nom]Neither of you are getting it....My point was that you can get a very good gaming laptop that plays games at very high resolutions for a fraction of the cost. It's nice that these $4,000 laptops exist if people want to blow that kind of money, but it's ridiculous when you can get one that's almost just as good for less than half that cost. The only time you want a laptop like this is if you're dying to play Crysis on ultra, whereas the Toshiba one will play it and others on high just fine, and ultra for most other games.Nobody's disputing that this Alienware is a kick-ass laptop, I'm talking about cost-benefit ratio.[/citation]


You obviously are lacking in reading comprehension. You said and I quote, "you can get a very good gaming laptop that plasy games at very high resolutions.." and "almost just as good for less than half the cost".

How is 25-30% of the performance of the M17x "almost as good" or even capable of playing at "very high resolution". Neither of your statements are true yet you're still making those misleading comments. Everything you have posted up until now has been without merit.

 

[dEAne]

nice laptop, expensive thought

 

[dr650se]

Well, I guess if we're going to compare wieners, mines the biggest I'd like to see a Toshiba pull of 1/3 of this score.

Vantage Benchmark P19291
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8044/92026mgpuoc10.jpg

 

[COLGeek]

If I needed a gaming notebook and this was the half the cost, I would consider one of these. Looks nice and performs well. Darn near impossible to justify laying down $4k for a notebook, no matter how great it is perceived to be. You get a substantial amount of performance these days for $1K. But....then again some of us drive VWs and others Porsches for the same reason.

 

[scook9]

[citation][nom]COLGeek[/nom]If I needed a gaming notebook and this was the half the cost, I would consider one of these. Looks nice and performs well. Darn near impossible to justify laying down $4k for a notebook, no matter how great it is perceived to be. You get a substantial amount of performance these days for $1K. But....then again some of us drive VWs and others Porsches for the same reason.[/citation]

You know you can save $1k right off the bat just getting a weaker cpu - this will minimally affect gaming it at all.