A Graphically Troubling Decision...

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Untouchable_Dom

Ok heres the situation people.
I am trying to look for a nice Laptop Desktop replacement system, and I am also a gamer, I love my games but my computer currently can't spell "neverwinter nights" let alone run it.

I was looking over all the regulars, Dell, IBM, Compaq/HP (Whats up wth that?) and I finnaly came to a more lesser known website Alienware.com Its not a huge site like Dell and its not nation widely known, but they have nice gaming laptops!

I have cut it down to two decisions.

Alienwares Area-51m

or alienwares Hive-Mindm

The only diffrence is the price, (which is customizable)
but also the Video Card.

Area-51m had a Radeon 9000
and hivemind a Radeon 7500

So my question is, is the 9000 really neccisary? Will the 7500 be able to handle most of todays games? I am not looking for huge graphics and perfect shadowing or whatever, since I am not a TOO techy guy, I am just wondering will I be able to be happy with 7500?
 
Alienware is a highly respected gaming PC builder.

I read about their new line of notebooks they claim they will be upgradeable which would be nice.

I would definitely go with the 9000 the 7500 is only direct X 7 hardware. the question is are you going to want to play Doom 3 when it comes out this year? I dont think the 7500 is going to be able to play that game. I have both the 7500 and the 9000 pro and believe me the 9000 is a far more powerful card than the 7500.
 
Bah, Alienware makes the best gaming rigs out there today, IMHO. It is a quite good site, they have excellent prices for what you're getting. I can't spew enough good praise for them. Excellent PC company.

Keep in mind the Area-51m uses the full Pentium 4, not the mobile, and it's designed for Laptop Desktop replacement - which is what you want.

For gaming goodness I would highly reccomend the Mobility 9000. Especially if you have the money.

I would reccomend Alienware over any of those manufacturers.
 
Definitely go with the Radeon 9000 if you can. One of my friends recently got a Dell with a GF4Go 32mb and he liked to play games at the TFT screens default resolution (1600x1200). Naturally the 32mb card couldn't do with for more modern titles (CS worked fine but newer games couldn't run at this resolution), so he managed to pick up the Radeon 9000 and is a lot happier with its performance than the GF4. I've heard rumours that a GF4 Go4200 is meant to be on the horizon but not heard anything more since the initial rumours. As stated previously the Alienware laptops use the non mobile P4 so don't expect to run their machines from batteries. If you just need a portable system rather than something you can use on the move it should be fine. Being somewhat more upgradable than the majority of laptops is a big plus as well. I think one of our members and moderators LNCPapa bought a fairly powerful Dell laptop and one of his colleagues got an Alienware machine. I can't remember clearly but I don't think he was all that impressed with the Alienware machine overall.
 
I remember that too Arris, but I couldn't find a thread on it, maybe it happened in the irc channel? Anyway I did find Papa talking about an Alienware laptop here.
Originally posted by LNCPapa:
Lemme just say that I recently spent $3600 for my new Dell - and how I wish I knew of this alienware before I did so. The only thing I don't like about that alienware is the fact that you can only get a Radeon 7500 in it - and from benches I've seen comparing that to the GeForce 4 440 (8.4 gb/sec) card that I have in my laptop now it would get smoked. Also, several of the small additions I had put in my laptop are not available - like MiniPCI wireless, a better combo drive, higher resolution screen, etc. But imagine the raw speed of that machine!

LNCPapa
Click to expand...
But now apparently you aren't limited to the 7500
 
With the addition of the Mobility 9000 to the Alienware laptops I think (personally) that this is the lappy of choice now. Sure, I love my laptop and I can run some games (Quake 3) at 1600x1200 all settings maxxed noAA @ 130+ fps - but I don't think I'd try that with a Radeon 7500. I just configured a laptop that I would be thrilled with (missing a couple things that I'd add myself later) at Alienware.com for $3014. Had to have the 9000 in it of course [it's a must] and a second lithium battery just in case you ever need to use it without being plugged in (believe me, you'll need it), but I left most everything else default. I did also raise the processor up to the 3.06 from 2.8 - why not? Might as well take advantage of hyperthreading. If you have $3K to spend on a laptop this is what I'd get.

LNCPapa
 
Actually I found a site with BETTER prices then Alienware and its basically the SAME LAPTOP same chassis and all. ALMOST the same options, cept you can't have the two smart bays, ones a floppy disk drive and the other you have a choice, but I was gonna say,

You use the second smart bay for a secondary battery and buy another primary battery thats three batterys for about 6 hours of play....i think....or mabe 4.... anyhow, yea Alienware is DOPE

also this other site is http://www.hypersonic-pc.com


its OK, but I don't have the confidence to just GIVE these people money like I do with dell or alienware...just not big enuff...also theres no way to order extra batteries...??? hmmmm better stick with alien..
 
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