Yet another "is this laptop good enough" thread

I don't much care for laptops in general and gaming laptops especially. You'll drag me away from my tricked out tower after your pry it from my dead hands.

BUT, I have a friend who, for valid reasons, can only use a laptop. She likes Dell's in home service so she's leaning in that direction. I know AlienWare isn't what they used to be since Dell bought a name. . .But here's what she selected.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DKCWFW1&s=dhs&~lt=alienware

For those who'd rather not follow a link--here is the most important info

Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) + Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon - English
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M
15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED
3GB DDR3 at 1066MHz
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM

The processor, video card and memory are all upgadeable through the configurator, but I'm not sure I'd say that the upgrades are "worth it" at the price.

SO, my fellow hardware geeks--will this show her the sparkles on the water and the pretty clouds? Will a mall full of hootchie hair, blingy jewelry and flexi skirts be sending her into clientlagland?

Like I said--I bypassed all these mobile trade offs by going for a new big box under my desk.

*I heard* (keep in mind that I'm deaf so maybe I misunderstood) that anything Alienware is the absolute best you can buy, no matter what it comes with, that it's awesome for SL. I'm not one of your fellow geeks, but, that's what *I heard*.

Yep. once upon a time, Alienware was a well respected no nonsense name in the gaming rig field. Now, they are somewhat subject to Dell's "can we do it cheaper?" mentality.

This computer is better than what she has now. But I'm not sure I like the processor or the low end of the 200 series mobile gpu.

Well, the processor is pretty good considering it will run SL perfectly fine (and not be the bottleneck at all). Sl runs great even on older C2D's and X2's and aren't the bottleneck.

Think you're right for looking a little sideways at the GT 240M though.. The GTS 240 (and GT 240M) is a rebranded version of the GeForce 9800 GT, also a rebrand of the older 8800 GT, which was powered by a 65nm-based G92 GPU. I should remind you that many of the G92's and G94's still on the market are the ones that suffer from the heat stress/early failure problem, which is due to the high lead content of the solder bumps going brittle with heat cycling. Ever notice how many people say they've popped a laptop far too early when it has a 8800/9600/9800/GTxxxM/GTS1xx or 2xx based video card in it? That's why... Everything from 8800GT to GTS250 is the same damn chip, tweaked and rebranded to get rid of inventory. IMO it's either GTX series, or ATI.

Turbo Mode? There's a term I haven't heard since the i486 days, more than 12 years ago!

Your listed configuration here will handle SL in Ultra mode with everything maxed/enabled without even breaking a sweat (though your lap might). Even though the GT 240M is a Class 2 GPU, it will play such graphics-intense games as Crysis pretty comfortably.

She got it with an upgrade to 4gig memory, and an upgrade to the 260 processor. Thanks everyone for your input.

Oh, and she talked the telephone sales guy into a 7% discount.

My 2 cents:

If its not in the Nvidia GTX line up.... Meh.

Only one catch..... LL isn't fast enough or caring enough to include those, along with other stuff, in their lineup of hardware to run SL.

It should be a solid laptop. The new Alienware systems are fully integrated into Dell, so you will get Dell support including in-home service and transferable warranty (I have had Alienware systems both before and after the Dell buy-out, and I would not say that Dell just bought a name...AW designed the new systems, and is finally taking advantage of Dell's production facilities and support). The new aluminum chassis is also well designed for cooling. The Turbo Mode on the new i7's is very cool...the chip will shut down two cores when it is not running an application that can use more cores, and will automatically increase speed on the other two. Plus they finally followed AMD's lead and built the memory controller into the CPU. And the GTX 260m is great for SL. I have the Asus G51 which has a downclocked version of the chipset, but I can run everything at Ultra and get excellent framerates.

Wow. OK--Thanks for the correction about Dell/AlienWare. I'm not up on mobile hardware, but it's been my observation over many years that mobile hardware is the stuff that has problems. But the things you folks who know better are saying make me feel better.

I have been using the previous generation of this one for months now :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152126

It runs SL, Champions Online, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and most other games.

And it is quite a bit cheaper than the one she is looking at. I am using an USB keyboard, just easier for me to sit in the recliner and use.

Maybe have her wait a few weeks for Windows 7. Or have her make sure she's signed up for the upgrade. Also mak sure it's a nice color.

If you order an M15x now, the preliminary ship date is 10/26. It may have Win7 preloaded if it ships after the 22nd. If not, this model comes with the free upgrade.