alienware m15x i5 vs i7

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babarooni

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#1 babarooni
Member since 2003 • 26 Posts

hey guys, i've got a hypothetical to discuss with everyone here. feel free to give your opinions and feedback served cold on a plate. a buddy of mine is about to resign from dell and asked me if i wanted anything with his employee discount. i've been eyeing the alienware m15x for some time. at first i was checking out the m11x but decided not to go for it because i'd end up keeping my current laptop (dell xps m1530) and that...whereas if i get another 15 inch laptop i get to sell my dell for whatever price i get and i'd be okay with that.

so indulge with me here for a moment. i'm just posting for the sake of discussion. let's pretend that we're not going to talk about any other laptop brands out there (asus, msi mainly). i've priced out the m15x with an i5 cpu and an i7...there's a pretty decent price difference. since i wanted the high end graphics option, which is the nvidia gtx 260m i figured i could survive without the i7. what do you all think? everything else is secondary...i'm more concerned about cpu/gpu. they have other gpu choices but they're both ATI and lower in terms of performance (and price).

i tried researching online with people that have configured the alienware m15x with an i5 instead of an i7. sometimes i think it would be crazy NOT to get the i7.

so yeah...basically do you think i should be more than okay with an i5 cpu and nvidia gtx 260m gpu? the rest of the specs would be something along the lines of 4-6gb of RAM, 7200 rpm hard drives (doesn't matter what size, i'm just going to switch it out with an SSD that i have), and what else...that about covers it. i've got my own OS and apps so it's strictly hardware that i'm curious about here.

let's see what you guys have to say...here goes...

(ps - i know it's hard not to blast alienware here but let's just say i've made and heard those comments before haha. now that i've cleared that up we can now proceed)

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Roggirek

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#2 Roggirek
Member since 2007 • 1103 Posts
I assume the i5 would be a dual core? If so, I would definitely spring for the i7 (which is most likely a quad). Also, the GTX260m isn't all that powerful, is it the best option? You should ask your friend if there's any options about to be released, I bet there would be something like a GTX460m or a 5850m coming soon.
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babarooni

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#3 babarooni
Member since 2003 • 26 Posts

these are the video card options they have available in descending order in terms of price:

- 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M

- 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850

- 1GB DDR3 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5730

honestly, you're right i'd expect a more powerful graphics card option too. hmmm that is something to think about. i already asked to see if he can find out anything. so i'm waiting to hear back from him now.

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babarooni

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#4 babarooni
Member since 2003 • 26 Posts

alright he just got back to me. he says they already did the refresh and that was with the core i series processors.

hmmmm