Um, thanks for the fake statistics... but even if the OP had no idea how to match components he's got US to verify the compatibility of the parts. I've been involved in nearly a hundred self builds so have many of my friends, when you know you're doing there's a next to 0 chance that something will go wrong.
And lol at buying mass manufactures for stability; they tend to be anything but.
I'd advise to go ahead and buy a computer in parts, get the community to help you, or look up product reviews at Tom's Hardware. It's a fun process, and not to mention pretty simple and straightforward. Also a stationary is much more easier to upgrade than a laptop, as a laptop is pretty closed and you would have to go through a lot to upgrade it, and find parts that would work on it.
Plus when games get better graphics or you need better performance it's just to buy some new parts and switch the old ones out. It's worth the time and money, but up to you OP.
For a budget system, you want a Llano APU with no discete card. For a larger budget, you want a Sandy Bridge processor together with a Juniper or Turks GPU and no discrete switchable graphics. At the high end, you want a Sandy Bridge quad core together with a Barts GPU. I see exactly none of those combinations there. If you see one, then maybe you should give a more direct link. You can get Sandy Bridge from Asus, or you can get Juniper, but not both in the same system.
They do, however, offer completely idiotic things such as 5400 RPM hard drives in rather expensive laptops, mismatched memory channels, or 3 GB of GDDR5 video memory.
Some laptops aren't configured quite right, but are close enough that you could modify it yourself to get something sensible. Asus doesn't offer anything that is close enough to being a sensible hardware configuration for a gaming laptop that you can fix it yourself.
I heard a m11x could handle GW2. I'm getting a m18x soon to play GW2, and I need a little help chosing the component. My budget is $4,500. I'm looking to play GW2 on High/Max setting.
I know everyone else has told you the same thing but I'm hopping up on this soap box and giving you more of the same.
Dont waste your money and get a Alienware.
Build your own computer.
www.maximumpc.com <--make a forum account. Help Buy Build section. Ask for help and tell them what you are playing and what your budget is.
To be clear, at www.maximumpc.com you will talk to Techies via forum posts just like this. They will tell you what to buy, why, answer your questions etc
You will end up with a custom set of parts that compose your shopping list.
Picking out the parts is fun.
Making the order is a rush in itself. Tracking the parts is fun.
Opening all those presents and laying them out is a beautiful thing.
Why listen to me? I've built every computer I have owned. It is easy, even the first go around, its easy. There is nothing difficult to it. There are guides you can buy for 5-10 bucks that walk you through the process, there are guides on the site and there are tons of video guides online.
End result is you will have a computer that will KICK the Alienwares ass all over the place. Every component will be custom. Its the difference between buying a Camry and putting together a Race Car (except this race car will be more reliable becaues every component will be of higher quality)
And seriously, reality check, you dont need 4500 dollars to build a top of the line PC. If you want to spend that much be my guest. For all I know you or your daddy are loaded. But if you want to have a couple grand sitting in the bank for a rainy day, you could easily build a beast with $2500
Listen to me, you will thank me later
Edit-Dont buy a laptop. You push it off the bed, the desk, drop it--your screwed. Hate laptops. God forbid, something goes out--good luck with the bill to fix it. PCs-Much cheaper and easier to fix. parts are easier, you name it.
For a budget system, you want a Llano APU with no discete card. For a larger budget, you want a Sandy Bridge processor together with a Juniper or Turks GPU and no discrete switchable graphics. At the high end, you want a Sandy Bridge quad core together with a Barts GPU. I see exactly none of those combinations there. If you see one, then maybe you should give a more direct link. You can get Sandy Bridge from Asus, or you can get Juniper, but not both in the same system.
They do, however, offer completely idiotic things such as 5400 RPM hard drives in rather expensive laptops, mismatched memory channels, or 3 GB of GDDR5 video memory.
Some laptops aren't configured quite right, but are close enough that you could modify it yourself to get something sensible. Asus doesn't offer anything that is close enough to being a sensible hardware configuration for a gaming laptop that you can fix it yourself.
You don't NEED any of that to play 99% of today's games on the highest settings; especially GW2.
We just rebuilt a comp for under $1000, new everything except the case - we just gutted it and put new stuff in. Runs everything we throw at it at max settings.
For a budget system, you want a Llano APU with no discete card. For a larger budget, you want a Sandy Bridge processor together with a Juniper or Turks GPU and no discrete switchable graphics. At the high end, you want a Sandy Bridge quad core together with a Barts GPU. I see exactly none of those combinations there. If you see one, then maybe you should give a more direct link. You can get Sandy Bridge from Asus, or you can get Juniper, but not both in the same system.
They do, however, offer completely idiotic things such as 5400 RPM hard drives in rather expensive laptops, mismatched memory channels, or 3 GB of GDDR5 video memory.
Some laptops aren't configured quite right, but are close enough that you could modify it yourself to get something sensible. Asus doesn't offer anything that is close enough to being a sensible hardware configuration for a gaming laptop that you can fix it yourself.
You don't NEED any of that to play 99% of today's games on the highest settings; especially GW2.
It's not just performance. You know why the GeForce GTX 480M was such a horrible card? It wasn't the performance. The performance was fine. The problem was that the price tag and power consumption were vastly higher than the performance could justify.
That's the problem all up and down Nvidia's mobile lineup right now. A lot of the cards don't have as bad of a case of either problem as the GTX 480M did. But they're still not good products.
The difference between 100 W and 80 W doesn't matter much in a desktop. But in a laptop, it's a huge deal.
You're complaining about power consumption in a gaming laptop?
Some people are too priveledged...
And I'm sorry, but most people don't give a damn about the factors that concern you in this case.
Suppose that you could get one laptop.
Or you could get a different laptop that offers better performance, lower power consumption, and a lower price tag.
Do you really prefer the first laptop? Really? Because if you get Nvidia graphics right now, you're picking the first laptop. That might change when Kepler launches next year, but it's the situation today.
And if someone doesn't care about performance, power consumption, or price tag, then why is he coming here asking for advice?
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One other comment: get a desktop. Higher end gaming laptops don't make sense for many people. Of course, the original poster hasn't replied, so he might well have lost track of the thread. Maybe he's waiting a week to check back.
Hopefully he's not one of those idiots who will start a thread like this, come back a month later and basically say, I ignored all your advice and bought something random, and want to know if it's any good.
Id like to make a few points. First of all, m18x laptops start at 1999.00$, that is with SLI or crossfire and is one of the most unique laptops to ever hit the market. There are a lot of people that like to use laptops for gaming and that is why there is gaming laptops, its simple. Also asking here at mmorpg about anything to do with laptops will garner you a very deep seeded hatred for them, go to a website like http://www.techinferno.com, were a loving alienware community over there, you will get a better answer to your question there.
I find it funny, wen ever I come to mmorpg I always see a laptop bashing thread like this one, dont you people get sick of constently bashing laptops over and over. Your answers stink so bad of bias that I can read the first word in your reply and tell what the rest is going to say word for word. If you have something at all original to add to a thread like this but there isnt one reply here that even hints towards that. Its dribble trash that a 4 year old kid can figure out for them selves.
I dont know why I even bother replying to laptop threads at mmorpg, there are so many that eventualy I get drug into one of them like this one, but its always the same. You can search hundreads of others that are word for word the same as this and it gets sooo annoyying. When people bash alienware, your ruining the laptop market cause alienware is one of the founding companys to thrust mobile gaming to the forfront for gamers. Dont bash or hate on alienware, there doing a great deed for mobile gaming, theres no reason for it. There prices have went way down since the merge and have been doing extreamly well.
ps: The new alienware m11x revisin 3(R3) has an nvidia geforce 540gt graphics cards that scores close to 10k in 3Dmark06. It will be able to run guildwars2 very well in deed with maxed out settings.
I find it funny, wen ever I come to mmorpg I always see a laptop bashing thread like this one, dont you people get sick of constently bashing laptops over and over. Your answers stink so bad of bias that I can read the first word in your reply and tell what the rest is going to say word for word. If you have something at all original to add to a thread like this but there isnt one reply here that even hints towards that. Its dribble trash that a 4 year old kid can figure out for them selves.
No one is "bashing" laptops. They have their purpose. And gaming (outside of browser/simple things) generally isn't, and shouldn't be one of them (for the time being anyways, in my opinion. I'm sure by late 2013 or so, we'll have some pretty decent gaming laptops that will have solved some of the heating problems).
To get a "gaming" laptop, you will generally pay (at least) triple the price of a great gaming desktop. And if you are getting it cheap, chances are it is, or soon will be outdated. Not to mention all the problems that are intrinsic to gaming laptops, particularly heat related ones. Maintenance is also usually a great deal easier with a desktop than it is with a laptop.
Now, if you are someone who is CONSTANTLY on the go, with long business trips, moving from hotel to hotel, etc, then yes, a laptop for gaming makes sense, otherwise, it's far cheaper and more sensible to go with a desktop. Even in the case of going to college, it's still far cheaper to get a gaming desktop, and a cheap laptop/netbook to use for notes.
Im sorry but your reasoning while very decent and reasonable dosnt convay my setiments. Your talking to the biggest laptop fan here, iv always loved laptops. Your reasoning to me is very well off the beaten track. I mean if you were just bringing up arguments to your average joe about the differences of desktops and laptops, sure but this isnt the case. I live,breath and eat laptops, Iv always loved them. I can obviously give you very well cross exaiminations to all your benfits that desktops have over laptops but Id be wasting my finger strength X a googleplex. Iv argued it to many times to count here at mmorpg, the only place really that I get any greif about it cause most of the other places I write are all dealing with notebooks. Its really not a big deal, but it does effect my beloved laptop business when everyone and there mother is telling everyone laptops are overpriced barginbin peaces of junk that are only usefull to a select higher few of airplane travelers, its non sence and stupid and lot of other things.
Im sorry but your reasoning while very decent and reasonable dosnt convay my setiments. Your talking to the biggest laptop fan here, iv always loved laptops. Your reasoning to me is very well off the beaten track. I mean if you were just bringing up arguments to your average joe about the differences of desktops and laptops, sure but this isnt the case. I live,breath and eat laptops, Iv always loved them. I can obviously give you very well cross exaiminations to all your benfits that desktops have over laptops but Id be wasting my finger strength X a googleplex. Iv argued it to many times to count here at mmorpg, the only place really that I get any greif about it cause most of the other places I write are all dealing with notebooks. Its really not a big deal, but it does effect my beloved laptop business when everyone and there mother is telling everyone laptops are overpriced barginbin peaces of junk that are only usefull to a select higher few of airplane travelers, its non sence and stupid and lot of other things.
Okay so you're a laptop fan, I get that. Now, why should anyone go for a "gaming" laptop over a gaming desktop? Aside from my previous mentionings of having the portability if you're someone who does large amounts of traveling, what are the advantages? Portability is pretty much the only one I see, and if you just leave it sit on a desk plugged in most of the time, portability is useless.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you purchased one or two high priced laptops (Alienware's perhaps) and are now attempting to justify it by ignoring everyone else's sensible, logical, and factual statements about the issue's that are intrinsic to "gaming" laptops.
Look, if it's as simple as, "Hey! I like gaming laptops. Plain and simple! I'm willing to shell out $2k+ for a portable machine rather than ~$800-$1200 for a desktop." Then that is fine. But it doesn't mean that everyone else should have to feel the same way and pretend that the issues are non-existant just because it hurt's your "beloved laptop business".
Im sorry but your reasoning while very decent and reasonable dosnt convay my setiments. Your talking to the biggest laptop fan here, iv always loved laptops. Your reasoning to me is very well off the beaten track. I mean if you were just bringing up arguments to your average joe about the differences of desktops and laptops, sure but this isnt the case. I live,breath and eat laptops, Iv always loved them. I can obviously give you very well cross exaiminations to all your benfits that desktops have over laptops but Id be wasting my finger strength X a googleplex. Iv argued it to many times to count here at mmorpg, the only place really that I get any greif about it cause most of the other places I write are all dealing with notebooks. Its really not a big deal, but it does effect my beloved laptop business when everyone and there mother is telling everyone laptops are overpriced barginbin peaces of junk that are only usefull to a select higher few of airplane travelers, its non sence and stupid and lot of other things.
Okay so you're a laptop fan, I get that. Now, why should anyone go for a "gaming" laptop over a gaming desktop? Aside from my previous mentionings of having the portability if you're someone who does large amounts of traveling, what are the advantages? Portability is pretty much the only one I see, and if you just leave it sit on a desk plugged in most of the time, portability is useless.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you purchased one or two high priced laptops (Alienware's perhaps) and are now attempting to justify it by ignoring everyone else's sensible, logical, and factual statements about the issue's that are intrinsic to "gaming" laptops.
Look, if it's as simple as, "Hey! I like gaming laptops. Plain and simple! I'm willing to shell out $2k+ for a portable machine rather than ~$800-$1200 for a desktop." Then that is fine. But it doesn't mean that everyone else should have to feel the same way and pretend that the issues are non-existant just because it hurt's your "beloved laptop business".
Have I mentioned that I despise laptops?
Laptops are good for 2 things, testicular cancer and a ridiculous repair bill when you inevitably drop'em
No your going out on the limb just makes you look dumber. The last machine I bought was 699.00$, check it out on my youtube channel if u like, http://www.youtube.com/notebookplayer, its the first video. It does a number of things well, it scores close to 10k in 36mark06, it has run every new game with 50+ fps well good for gaming plus it has things built into it that make it easier like a ambient light sensor that helps with sore eyes, you cant get that in a desktop. Listen its easy to say laptops are only good for mobility, but any more they are coming with alot of nice features that desktops dont have and frankly, never will. Your statements are dilusional on the basis of you have no insight what so ever to what the laptop market has to offer. You cant teach an old man new tricks that dosnt want to learn and the same principle stands here.
No your going out on the limb just makes you look dumber.
As does your poor use of grammar, but I have yet to resort to personal attacks. As for "going out on a limb" I was just responding to what you said. I suggest you stay away from forum's if you don't like that.
it has run every new game with 50+ fps well good for gaming
At what settings and resolution?
Originally posted by eycel
but any more they are coming with alot of nice features that desktops dont have and frankly, never will.
Like what? And why not?
Originally posted by eycel
Your statements are dilusional on the basis of you have no insight what so ever to what the laptop market has to offer.
I know exactly what it has to offer. I have the ability to read reviews, look at specs, compare prices, etc. To say my statements are "dilusional" is absolutely asinine.
EDIT: Again, I just want to say that I think laptops are fine, and in terms of gaming laptops, they do have their purpose, particularly when you're someone who wants to play a lot of games while doing lots of traveling. But if all you're going to do is leave it plugged in and/or on your desk and you're not doing lots of traveling, you'd be better off going with a desktop.
dude there's no use in responding to your replys, they dont give any efford to coming close to a reasonable debate. Im not attacking you, I gave you your credit, I said your thoughts and ideas were reasonble but you keep on at it with your mundane observations between desktops and laptops which I dont care about. This isnt a thread about what is the best desktop for gw2, its about an alienware laptop. Your way out of line. You also cant get the nessasary info by reading crack pot material on the internet, you have to lead the charge and go out like you said on a limb and make some purchases and feel the water for your self. Thats why your information means nothing to me, even if you did those things your attitude towards my feelings about being a laptop fan isnt warranted in any way.
As far as my laptop goes, it was replaced by the ideapad Y460p along with the Y470 machines a few months ago when sandy bridge made there comeback after there debacle. Its a 14 inch laptop, the resolution is 1366x768. I have a written review of all my benchmarks here, http://forum.techinferno.com/lenovo-ibm/905-3dmark-ideapad-y460.html.
ps: The new alienware m11x revisin 3(R3) has an nvidia geforce 540gt graphics cards that scores close to 10k in 3Dmark06. It will be able to run guildwars2 very well in deed with maxed out settings.
The GeForce GT 540M is a low end GPU chip that was never meant to be much of a gaming card in the first place. Only 4 ROPs? Integrated graphics had that several years ago. It is highly probable that it will run Guild Wars 2 well at low to moderate settings. But max settings? Only if ArenaNet makes max settings in the game improbably low.
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Gaming laptops have their place. If you need to take it with you a lot, and play games in a lot of different places, then sure, a gaming laptop makes sense. But a lot of people seem to have the idea that a laptop is just as good as a desktop, except smaller. And that's what they need to be warned about. If you're going to use it like a desktop, then get a desktop.
If you want to have a look at Alienware in particular, then let's have a look at their lineup:
The M11x starts at $750, but that's only if you get an older Clarkdale system that really isn't a gaming laptop at all. As in, some games won't run smoothly at any settings. If you want something that will at least be able to run basically all games smoothly, albeit sometimes only at fairly low settings, then you need the Sandy Bridge model that starts at $1000. And there, the GeForce GT 540M isn't that much faster than Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics. That means you get all the drawbacks of a discrete card, without the performance to justify it. The only reason to consider the M11x R3 at all is if you really want the 11" form factor, and even that vanishes instantly if someone else decides to put a suitably configured Llano system in an 11" form factor.
The M14x starts at $1100, and is junk that should be avoided. Alienware offers all sorts of upgrades to inflate the price further, but a decent gaming video card isn't among them, as you're stuck with a GeForce GT 555M. There are much better options elsewhere. For example, you could get a superior Radeon HD 6770M in HP's dv6t for several hundred dollars less.
The M17x starts at $1500, and the only real problem with it is the price tag. Make it $200 cheaper and it would be a much more compelling product. It has the Radeon HD 6870M by default, with upgrades to the Radeon HD 6970M and 6990M offered. At the higher end, the problem for Alienware is that you can get a rebranded Clevo P150HM or P170HM elsewhere with the same processor and video card for cheaper, and with better configuration options, too. Clevo laptops don't offer the cheaper 6870M, however.
The M18x starts at $2000, but getting the base model is completely ridiculous, as that means paying a ton of money for a laptop designed to handle a CrossFire/SLI setup, but not getting the video cards to take advantage of that. Upgrade to a pair of Radeon HD 6990Ms in CrossFire and you're looking at a starting price tag of $2500. It goes up from there if you want other upgrades, and someone with that kind of budget likely would want a faster processor, more memory, and a good SSD.
What makes the M18x unique is that it offers both CrossFire/SLI and also a Sandy Bridge processor. As laptop CPUs go, mobile Sandy Bridge is by far the best on the market. The problem is that the chipsets for it don't let you split the PCI Express 2.0 x16 connection into two x8 connections, as necessary to use two video cards. The main competition for the Alienware M18x is the various rebranded Clevo X7200 systems that use a desktop Bloomfield or Gulftown processor. 130 W TDP for a processor alone is awfully high for a desktop, even, and should not be allowed in a laptop. I think Alienware uses some PCI Express splitting chip in the M18x, such as Nvidia's NF200. I like that solution better than Clevo's.
The upshot is that if you have $3000+ to spend on a maximum performance at any price laptop, then the thing to get today is an Alienware M18x, and then add your own SSD when it comes. Even that won't be as nice as a properly configured $1500 gaming desktop, though, except for when you need to move it. But the problems intrinsic to gaming laptops aren't Alienware's fault, and for the very few people for whom it makes sense to spend a fortune on a super high end gaming laptop, the M18x makes sense.
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"The last machine I bought was 699.00$, check it out on my youtube channel if u like, its the first video. It does a number of things well, it scores close to 10k in 36mark06, it has run every new game with 50+ fps well good for gaming"
A Mobility Radeon HD 5650 made sense for a budget gaming laptop when you got it. But if it lets you max settings with a smooth frame rate in every game you play, then you haven't played any graphically demanding games.
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"I just spent $800 on a comp, has dual vid cards running crossfire with a I5 cpu. Honestly, just build your own...not hard."
If you bought two video cards in CrossFire while paying $800 total for the system, then you bought sufficiently low end cards that you shouldn't have gone CrossFire. One higher end card is bettter than two lower end cards in CrossFire or SLI. CrossFire and SLI are only for people who think that one high end card isn't good enough.
Building your own is great for desktops. It's not such an option for laptops, though.
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I'm not saying that the problem is with Alienware in particular. There are some problems intrinsic to gaming laptops. And there are some models of gaming laptops that are just badly configured, such as Alienware's M14x, no matter how you set the options. It's not as comically idiotic as this:
But it is pretty bad. If you're not familiar with hardware specs, then you might not see what is wrong with the laptop that I just linked. It has integrated graphics and a discrete card, and can switch between them. The integrated graphics is faster than the discrete card. The laptop would actually get better graphical performance if they had skipped the discrete card entirely, in addition to being cheaper, lighter, running cooler, and having fewer driver issues.
Now, if Alienware were to properly configure a budget gaming laptop (A8-3510MX or A8-3530MX APU, no discrete video card, 4 GB or 8 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 memory with the channels properly matched, 7200 RPM hard drive, $800 or less), then I'd tell everyone and his neighbor's dog who comes in looking for a budget gaming laptop to go get one. Indeed, the reason I point people to Hewlett-Packard's dv6z quad edition isn't that I like HP; it's that it's the least bad Llano configuration for gaming purposes currently available, at least if you configure it properly (which the default doesn't).
The problem is that laptop vendors assume that their customers are idiots who have no clue what hardware specs to look for. Well, I guess the real underlying problem is that that assumption is usually correct. Their customer base is a self-selection sample of people who don't know what to get. For desktops, it's because people who do know what to get usually build their own. For gaming laptops, it's because a lot of people who do know what to get know not to get a gaming laptop in the first place.
I guess Ill coment on a few of your opinions. My laptop plays all games well, and Iv played very demanding games. Its just like any gamer, when you get into games you find ways to make them run better the more competition there is. It just depends on what type of gamer you are. I wont be running everything maxed out obviously but I havent had any troubles with any game yet with a little tweaking. New games like brink, crysis 2, rift etc... they are demanding games but I play them competitivly with a little tweaking.
The m14x is revolutionary as it stands. Your claim that it is junk is classless. The Nvidia Geforce gt 555 is a powerfull top of the spectrum in the middle class of graphics cards and have never been seen in small laptops like a 14 inch m14x. Here is what notebookcheck says "We tested the gaming performance of the GeForce GT 555M with DDR3 graphics memory in a pre sample of the Dell XPS 17. The synthetic benchmarks show a performance slightly above the old GeForce 9800M GT. GDDR5 versions should be slightly faster. Therefore, nearly all current demanding games should run fluently in 1366x768 and high detail settings. Only extremely demanding games like Metro 2033 will only run in medium detail settings. Older and low demanding games like Fifa 11 should run in high detail settings and Full HD resolution." Yes a amd 6770 would have been nice in that system I agree but saying the 555 is shit is not right by any means lol... Its a very powerfull card that is non mxm if you knew, which means that its soldered onto the mobo in the first place. Any gamer would be very happy with its performance, only your select few niche hardcores would want more. Plus its a beautiful laptop.
Fitting in a 540 card into an m11x is extreme and very powerfull. I think your reasoning behind TDP(thermal design power) in laptops is a bit off. You should be praising alienware for making such small laptops with the amount of power they have in them, no other company has been able to do that. Its an achivement that should be looked upon with delight not dismany.
Honestly I couldnt bare reading past your first 2 paragraphs but I did. Saying that most people think that laptops are the same as desktops is mind boggeling. If anything thats your own misconception. Also you cant blaim laptops for having the added advantage of being easy to be strew around the place, more so you should look at desktops inability of being anything more then a heavy heap of metal shards waiting to be sent to the dump cause no one wants to buy old desktops, certainly not me but thats another story. Go to ebay and find the hundreds of thousands of custom shit desktops that no one wants lol...
Its no fun chating with people that dont like your pasion any way, and your setiments only make that harsher.
OP, do you really need a laptop? With your budget I would suggest a desktop. Also, I would suggest companies other than Alienware, and definitely not CyberPower or IbuyPower. Both of those companies have horrible track records with the quality of their products and are known for horrible customer service. If you don't want to build a PC yourself I would suggest Digital Storm. I bought my last PC from them, simply because I wasn't learned in overclocking and such. The PC is amazing and their track record is great. Here I will show you some configs. With your budget you have a lot of room to work with. So there are some questions that needed to be answered, what resolutions does your monitor support and are you gonna play other more stressful games than Guild Wars 2?
This system is a pre-built. Why am I linking a pre-built? Simply because it offers a very good price for the parts you are getting. Also you are getting free stage 2 overclocking that will take this bad boy up to 4.8 ghz. This build isn't a moderate build, it is fully equipped to run all the new Dx11 games at high settings.
This setup is not a prebuilt, and is a bit more expensive. The replacements are, a better case, a better SSD "Intel's New lineup", and the two GPU's are upgraded as well. Again, this is not a setup that is just to play GW2, this is if you are going to play the newest Dx11 games on 1920x1080 resolutions or higher at high settings.
Now I will give you a more moderate setup that will handle all the new games as well, but with some of the more stressful new games you won't be playing at the highest settings at 1920x1080.
Anyways all the rigs I posted should fit your needs and are well under your budget. The DS rigs come with free 3 year warranties and are well built machines. You also get really good overclocking with the machines as well.
OP, do you really need a laptop? With your budget I would suggest a desktop.
Dito.
And Alienware is not a good budget solution, they are pretty expensive.
The chepaest thing is to build a desktop yourself instead, it is not hard if we just help you out with the parts you need.
Otherwise I would walk down to my local geek store and let them build me a machine with the right speccs instead, that gives you a lower price than a brand computer and usually better parts as well. A local geekshop is almost always very helpful with advices as well.
Even most rather expensive laptops will not run GW2 maxed out good while a desktop for half the price will do it. If you need something mobile for travel and work/school buy a second hand one cheap for just that instead.
So basically, your stance is that any criticism of Alienware, no matter how throughly justified, is illegitimate? Stop with the ad hominem arguments and stick to the hardware specs.
"The Nvidia Geforce gt 555 is a powerfull top of the spectrum in the middle class of graphics cards and have never been seen in small laptops like a 14 inch m14x."
Is the difference between 14" and 15" really that big of a deal? Really? Because you can get somewhere around triple the graphical performance of a GeForce GT 555M if you move to a 15" form factor. For example, see here:
15" laptop with a top of the line Radeon HD 6990M available. Now, that's rather expensive, of course. But if you can get triple the performance in a 15" form factor, then is the M14x really such an impressive engineering feat? At most, only in the sense that some things can be hard to do, but would still be pointless even if they were easy.
And if you want to go cheaper, you could try this:
Outfit it with the same Core i5 2410M as the Alienware M14x, a 1 GB Radeon HD 6770M, and a 7200 RPM hard drive and it comes to $835, or $265 cheaper than the Alienware M14x. That gets you the same processor, a considerably better video card, and a Blu-Ray player, for $265 less than the M14x. Is losing an inch on the form factor really worth paying so much more for a system otherwise so far inferior?
If you want more memory, then HP will charge you $60 to upgrade to 8 GB. Alienware will charge you $120. If you want a higher resolution, then HP will offer 1920x1080 for $150. Alienware doesn't even offer anything above 1600x900.
"Fitting in a 540 card into an m11x is extreme and very powerfull. I think your reasoning behind TDP(thermal design power) in laptops is a bit off. You should be praising alienware for making such small laptops with the amount of power they have in them, no other company has been able to do that. Its an achivement that should be looked upon with delight not dismany."
Sure, fitting a GeForce GT 540M into an 11" form factor is quite a trick. The problem is that it's a pointless trick. Stick an A8-3530MX into the same form factor and skip the discrete card and you'll have a little better processor performance in exchange for a little worse graphical performance, while using far less power and far less physical space.
Now, that wasn't available when the M11x launched, so it had a point in its day. But if anyone else decides that they'd like to offer an 11" gaming laptop and does a Llano system configured right, the M11x will be thoroughly obsolete the day that the competition launches. The hardware to do it is out there already. The question is whether anyone will bother, as gaming laptops in an 11" form factor is a very narrow niche market.
"Saying that most people think that laptops are the same as desktops is mind boggeling."
I've seen a lot of people start threads saying they want a gaming laptop. Ask about their intended usage model and a gaming laptop only makes sense for a relative handful of them. Some should just get a desktop instead. Others should get both a gaming desktop and a cheap laptop. Explain the reasoning behind it and a lot of them agree, and weren't aware of the drawbacks of laptops.
Now, you're likely aware of at least some of this, but let's rehash it here anyway. As compared to desktops, laptops offer:
1) Far less customizability. In a desktop, you can get exactly what you want. In a laptop, this usually takes modding it yourself. Sometimes, you can't even get something close enough to what you want in a laptop to be able to modify it yourself to get what you want.
2) Far lower performance. The smaller form factor of a laptop means it's safe to dissipate far less power, and that means clocking things much lower. Some high performance CPUs and GPUs aren't offered in laptops at all, and those that are usually have to be clocked much lower.
3) Far less upgradeability. In a desktop, if you think it would be good enough except that one part is insufficient, you can upgrade that one part. In a laptop, that often means replacing the whole thing outright.
4) Far less reliability. There are several reasons for this. One is that in a desktop, you can pick high quality parts that will be reliable. In a laptop, you're stuck with whatever cut corners that the OEM decided on. Another is that it's much easier to keep everything properly cooled in a desktop form factor. Yet another reason is that laptops get jostled around a lot, while desktops tend to just sit there, and it's only practical to do so much to accommodate this without pricing getting way out of hand. (Look up fully ruggedized laptops if you want to see pricing way out of hand.)
5) Far shorter useful lifetimes. This is a direct consequence of items 2, 3, and 4.
6) Far less useful monitor space. In a desktop, you can easily get a big monitor. Or two. Or three. Or six, though that's getting expensive. In a laptop, you're stuck with just one monitor, and a tiny monitor, at that.
7) A very limited ability to reuse peripherals. If you like your keyboard, monitor, and speakers, and replace a desktop, you can keep the old ones. Sometimes you can even reuse the old case. In a laptop, replacing the laptop means a new keyboard, a new monitor, a new touchpad, new speakers, and so forth. That adds to the cost.
8) Far worse ergonomics. In a desktop, you can position the keyboard and monitor wherever you want. Hardly anyone presses them up against each other, as among other things, that's ergonomically terrible. It's also awkward to use. In a laptop, you have to do that, as it's dictated by the form factor.
9) A far higher price tag, if you need high performance. At the low end, laptops and desktops can be competitive on price. But once you get into high power parts, the demands of the form factor mean it costs far more to get a given level of performance in a laptop than in a desktop.
10) Far less security. The portability of a laptop makes it easy for a thief to grab one and walk off with it. Desktops don't get stolen nearly so much.
So what advantages do laptops offer in exchange for all of the drawbacks?
1) Far greater portability. For some purposes, this genuinely does outweigh all else. Gaming is rarely one of those purposes, however.
2) Lower power consumption. The demands of the form factor mean that vendors go to great lengths to reduce power consumption. This does mean that laptops use less power to offer a given level of performance. For most purposes, this isn't a big deal, and even if you're into saving the environment, it's likely that a desktop would be more environmentally friendly due to its longer useful lifespan, which means using energy and resources to replace it less often.
Comments
@Lord.Bachus
Um, thanks for the fake statistics... but even if the OP had no idea how to match components he's got US to verify the compatibility of the parts. I've been involved in nearly a hundred self builds so have many of my friends, when you know you're doing there's a next to 0 chance that something will go wrong.
And lol at buying mass manufactures for stability; they tend to be anything but.
@Quizzical
"The problem is that Asus doesn't offer any products suitably configured as a modern gaming laptop."
Wat?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740%2050001315%20600003982&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel%20Core%20i7
Take your pick.
I'd advise to go ahead and buy a computer in parts, get the community to help you, or look up product reviews at Tom's Hardware. It's a fun process, and not to mention pretty simple and straightforward. Also a stationary is much more easier to upgrade than a laptop, as a laptop is pretty closed and you would have to go through a lot to upgrade it, and find parts that would work on it.
Plus when games get better graphics or you need better performance it's just to buy some new parts and switch the old ones out. It's worth the time and money, but up to you OP.
For a budget system, you want a Llano APU with no discete card. For a larger budget, you want a Sandy Bridge processor together with a Juniper or Turks GPU and no discrete switchable graphics. At the high end, you want a Sandy Bridge quad core together with a Barts GPU. I see exactly none of those combinations there. If you see one, then maybe you should give a more direct link. You can get Sandy Bridge from Asus, or you can get Juniper, but not both in the same system.
They do, however, offer completely idiotic things such as 5400 RPM hard drives in rather expensive laptops, mismatched memory channels, or 3 GB of GDDR5 video memory.
Some laptops aren't configured quite right, but are close enough that you could modify it yourself to get something sensible. Asus doesn't offer anything that is close enough to being a sensible hardware configuration for a gaming laptop that you can fix it yourself.
I know everyone else has told you the same thing but I'm hopping up on this soap box and giving you more of the same.
Dont waste your money and get a Alienware.
Build your own computer.
www.maximumpc.com <--make a forum account. Help Buy Build section. Ask for help and tell them what you are playing and what your budget is.
To be clear, at www.maximumpc.com you will talk to Techies via forum posts just like this. They will tell you what to buy, why, answer your questions etc
You will end up with a custom set of parts that compose your shopping list.
Picking out the parts is fun.
Making the order is a rush in itself. Tracking the parts is fun.
Opening all those presents and laying them out is a beautiful thing.
Why listen to me? I've built every computer I have owned. It is easy, even the first go around, its easy. There is nothing difficult to it. There are guides you can buy for 5-10 bucks that walk you through the process, there are guides on the site and there are tons of video guides online.
End result is you will have a computer that will KICK the Alienwares ass all over the place. Every component will be custom. Its the difference between buying a Camry and putting together a Race Car (except this race car will be more reliable becaues every component will be of higher quality)
And seriously, reality check, you dont need 4500 dollars to build a top of the line PC. If you want to spend that much be my guest. For all I know you or your daddy are loaded. But if you want to have a couple grand sitting in the bank for a rainy day, you could easily build a beast with $2500
Listen to me, you will thank me later
Edit-Dont buy a laptop. You push it off the bed, the desk, drop it--your screwed. Hate laptops. God forbid, something goes out--good luck with the bill to fix it. PCs-Much cheaper and easier to fix. parts are easier, you name it.
You don't NEED any of that to play 99% of today's games on the highest settings; especially GW2.
We just rebuilt a comp for under $1000, new everything except the case - we just gutted it and put new stuff in. Runs everything we throw at it at max settings.
It's not just performance. You know why the GeForce GTX 480M was such a horrible card? It wasn't the performance. The performance was fine. The problem was that the price tag and power consumption were vastly higher than the performance could justify.
That's the problem all up and down Nvidia's mobile lineup right now. A lot of the cards don't have as bad of a case of either problem as the GTX 480M did. But they're still not good products.
The difference between 100 W and 80 W doesn't matter much in a desktop. But in a laptop, it's a huge deal.
...
You're complaining about power consumption in a gaming laptop?
Some people are too priveledged...
And I'm sorry, but most people don't give a damn about the factors that concern you in this case.
Suppose that you could get one laptop.
Or you could get a different laptop that offers better performance, lower power consumption, and a lower price tag.
Do you really prefer the first laptop? Really? Because if you get Nvidia graphics right now, you're picking the first laptop. That might change when Kepler launches next year, but it's the situation today.
And if someone doesn't care about performance, power consumption, or price tag, then why is he coming here asking for advice?
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One other comment: get a desktop. Higher end gaming laptops don't make sense for many people. Of course, the original poster hasn't replied, so he might well have lost track of the thread. Maybe he's waiting a week to check back.
Hopefully he's not one of those idiots who will start a thread like this, come back a month later and basically say, I ignored all your advice and bought something random, and want to know if it's any good.
Performance and price tag aren't an issue in these laptops, power consumption is the main gripe you mentioned.
Also you've offered no cheaper alternatives to back up your argument.
Id like to make a few points. First of all, m18x laptops start at 1999.00$, that is with SLI or crossfire and is one of the most unique laptops to ever hit the market. There are a lot of people that like to use laptops for gaming and that is why there is gaming laptops, its simple. Also asking here at mmorpg about anything to do with laptops will garner you a very deep seeded hatred for them, go to a website like http://www.techinferno.com, were a loving alienware community over there, you will get a better answer to your question there.
I find it funny, wen ever I come to mmorpg I always see a laptop bashing thread like this one, dont you people get sick of constently bashing laptops over and over. Your answers stink so bad of bias that I can read the first word in your reply and tell what the rest is going to say word for word. If you have something at all original to add to a thread like this but there isnt one reply here that even hints towards that. Its dribble trash that a 4 year old kid can figure out for them selves.
I dont know why I even bother replying to laptop threads at mmorpg, there are so many that eventualy I get drug into one of them like this one, but its always the same. You can search hundreads of others that are word for word the same as this and it gets sooo annoyying. When people bash alienware, your ruining the laptop market cause alienware is one of the founding companys to thrust mobile gaming to the forfront for gamers. Dont bash or hate on alienware, there doing a great deed for mobile gaming, theres no reason for it. There prices have went way down since the merge and have been doing extreamly well.
ps: The new alienware m11x revisin 3(R3) has an nvidia geforce 540gt graphics cards that scores close to 10k in 3Dmark06. It will be able to run guildwars2 very well in deed with maxed out settings.
No one is "bashing" laptops. They have their purpose. And gaming (outside of browser/simple things) generally isn't, and shouldn't be one of them (for the time being anyways, in my opinion. I'm sure by late 2013 or so, we'll have some pretty decent gaming laptops that will have solved some of the heating problems).
To get a "gaming" laptop, you will generally pay (at least) triple the price of a great gaming desktop. And if you are getting it cheap, chances are it is, or soon will be outdated. Not to mention all the problems that are intrinsic to gaming laptops, particularly heat related ones. Maintenance is also usually a great deal easier with a desktop than it is with a laptop.
Now, if you are someone who is CONSTANTLY on the go, with long business trips, moving from hotel to hotel, etc, then yes, a laptop for gaming makes sense, otherwise, it's far cheaper and more sensible to go with a desktop. Even in the case of going to college, it's still far cheaper to get a gaming desktop, and a cheap laptop/netbook to use for notes.
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LOL alienware.
There is reason why there isnt such thing in EU. OVerpriced crap.
Everyone here gets custom made pc that have same performance for over half of the cost :DD
Im sorry but your reasoning while very decent and reasonable dosnt convay my setiments. Your talking to the biggest laptop fan here, iv always loved laptops. Your reasoning to me is very well off the beaten track. I mean if you were just bringing up arguments to your average joe about the differences of desktops and laptops, sure but this isnt the case. I live,breath and eat laptops, Iv always loved them. I can obviously give you very well cross exaiminations to all your benfits that desktops have over laptops but Id be wasting my finger strength X a googleplex. Iv argued it to many times to count here at mmorpg, the only place really that I get any greif about it cause most of the other places I write are all dealing with notebooks. Its really not a big deal, but it does effect my beloved laptop business when everyone and there mother is telling everyone laptops are overpriced barginbin peaces of junk that are only usefull to a select higher few of airplane travelers, its non sence and stupid and lot of other things.
I just spent $800 on a comp, has dual vid cards running crossfire with a I5 cpu. Honestly, just build your own...not hard.
It will run BF3 on max and should blow GW2 out of the water.
Actually, I cant see someone spending that much on a comp. PST me if u want a carbon copy of what I am ordering.
Uhh... what?
Okay so you're a laptop fan, I get that. Now, why should anyone go for a "gaming" laptop over a gaming desktop? Aside from my previous mentionings of having the portability if you're someone who does large amounts of traveling, what are the advantages? Portability is pretty much the only one I see, and if you just leave it sit on a desk plugged in most of the time, portability is useless.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you purchased one or two high priced laptops (Alienware's perhaps) and are now attempting to justify it by ignoring everyone else's sensible, logical, and factual statements about the issue's that are intrinsic to "gaming" laptops.
Look, if it's as simple as, "Hey! I like gaming laptops. Plain and simple! I'm willing to shell out $2k+ for a portable machine rather than ~$800-$1200 for a desktop." Then that is fine. But it doesn't mean that everyone else should have to feel the same way and pretend that the issues are non-existant just because it hurt's your "beloved laptop business".
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Have I mentioned that I despise laptops?
Laptops are good for 2 things, testicular cancer and a ridiculous repair bill when you inevitably drop'em
No your going out on the limb just makes you look dumber. The last machine I bought was 699.00$, check it out on my youtube channel if u like, http://www.youtube.com/notebookplayer, its the first video. It does a number of things well, it scores close to 10k in 36mark06, it has run every new game with 50+ fps well good for gaming plus it has things built into it that make it easier like a ambient light sensor that helps with sore eyes, you cant get that in a desktop. Listen its easy to say laptops are only good for mobility, but any more they are coming with alot of nice features that desktops dont have and frankly, never will. Your statements are dilusional on the basis of you have no insight what so ever to what the laptop market has to offer. You cant teach an old man new tricks that dosnt want to learn and the same principle stands here.
As does your poor use of grammar, but I have yet to resort to personal attacks. As for "going out on a limb" I was just responding to what you said. I suggest you stay away from forum's if you don't like that.
Never heard of it before. But the site: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/ideapad/y-series/y460 doesn't carry it anymore.
At what settings and resolution?
Like what? And why not?
I know exactly what it has to offer. I have the ability to read reviews, look at specs, compare prices, etc. To say my statements are "dilusional" is absolutely asinine.
EDIT: Again, I just want to say that I think laptops are fine, and in terms of gaming laptops, they do have their purpose, particularly when you're someone who wants to play a lot of games while doing lots of traveling. But if all you're going to do is leave it plugged in and/or on your desk and you're not doing lots of traveling, you'd be better off going with a desktop.
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dude there's no use in responding to your replys, they dont give any efford to coming close to a reasonable debate. Im not attacking you, I gave you your credit, I said your thoughts and ideas were reasonble but you keep on at it with your mundane observations between desktops and laptops which I dont care about. This isnt a thread about what is the best desktop for gw2, its about an alienware laptop. Your way out of line. You also cant get the nessasary info by reading crack pot material on the internet, you have to lead the charge and go out like you said on a limb and make some purchases and feel the water for your self. Thats why your information means nothing to me, even if you did those things your attitude towards my feelings about being a laptop fan isnt warranted in any way.
As far as my laptop goes, it was replaced by the ideapad Y460p along with the Y470 machines a few months ago when sandy bridge made there comeback after there debacle. Its a 14 inch laptop, the resolution is 1366x768. I have a written review of all my benchmarks here, http://forum.techinferno.com/lenovo-ibm/905-3dmark-ideapad-y460.html.
The GeForce GT 540M is a low end GPU chip that was never meant to be much of a gaming card in the first place. Only 4 ROPs? Integrated graphics had that several years ago. It is highly probable that it will run Guild Wars 2 well at low to moderate settings. But max settings? Only if ArenaNet makes max settings in the game improbably low.
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Gaming laptops have their place. If you need to take it with you a lot, and play games in a lot of different places, then sure, a gaming laptop makes sense. But a lot of people seem to have the idea that a laptop is just as good as a desktop, except smaller. And that's what they need to be warned about. If you're going to use it like a desktop, then get a desktop.
If you want to have a look at Alienware in particular, then let's have a look at their lineup:
The M11x starts at $750, but that's only if you get an older Clarkdale system that really isn't a gaming laptop at all. As in, some games won't run smoothly at any settings. If you want something that will at least be able to run basically all games smoothly, albeit sometimes only at fairly low settings, then you need the Sandy Bridge model that starts at $1000. And there, the GeForce GT 540M isn't that much faster than Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics. That means you get all the drawbacks of a discrete card, without the performance to justify it. The only reason to consider the M11x R3 at all is if you really want the 11" form factor, and even that vanishes instantly if someone else decides to put a suitably configured Llano system in an 11" form factor.
The M14x starts at $1100, and is junk that should be avoided. Alienware offers all sorts of upgrades to inflate the price further, but a decent gaming video card isn't among them, as you're stuck with a GeForce GT 555M. There are much better options elsewhere. For example, you could get a superior Radeon HD 6770M in HP's dv6t for several hundred dollars less.
The M17x starts at $1500, and the only real problem with it is the price tag. Make it $200 cheaper and it would be a much more compelling product. It has the Radeon HD 6870M by default, with upgrades to the Radeon HD 6970M and 6990M offered. At the higher end, the problem for Alienware is that you can get a rebranded Clevo P150HM or P170HM elsewhere with the same processor and video card for cheaper, and with better configuration options, too. Clevo laptops don't offer the cheaper 6870M, however.
The M18x starts at $2000, but getting the base model is completely ridiculous, as that means paying a ton of money for a laptop designed to handle a CrossFire/SLI setup, but not getting the video cards to take advantage of that. Upgrade to a pair of Radeon HD 6990Ms in CrossFire and you're looking at a starting price tag of $2500. It goes up from there if you want other upgrades, and someone with that kind of budget likely would want a faster processor, more memory, and a good SSD.
What makes the M18x unique is that it offers both CrossFire/SLI and also a Sandy Bridge processor. As laptop CPUs go, mobile Sandy Bridge is by far the best on the market. The problem is that the chipsets for it don't let you split the PCI Express 2.0 x16 connection into two x8 connections, as necessary to use two video cards. The main competition for the Alienware M18x is the various rebranded Clevo X7200 systems that use a desktop Bloomfield or Gulftown processor. 130 W TDP for a processor alone is awfully high for a desktop, even, and should not be allowed in a laptop. I think Alienware uses some PCI Express splitting chip in the M18x, such as Nvidia's NF200. I like that solution better than Clevo's.
The upshot is that if you have $3000+ to spend on a maximum performance at any price laptop, then the thing to get today is an Alienware M18x, and then add your own SSD when it comes. Even that won't be as nice as a properly configured $1500 gaming desktop, though, except for when you need to move it. But the problems intrinsic to gaming laptops aren't Alienware's fault, and for the very few people for whom it makes sense to spend a fortune on a super high end gaming laptop, the M18x makes sense.
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"The last machine I bought was 699.00$, check it out on my youtube channel if u like,
its the first video. It does a number of things well, it scores close to 10k in 36mark06, it has run every new game with 50+ fps well good for gaming"
A Mobility Radeon HD 5650 made sense for a budget gaming laptop when you got it. But if it lets you max settings with a smooth frame rate in every game you play, then you haven't played any graphically demanding games.
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"I just spent $800 on a comp, has dual vid cards running crossfire with a I5 cpu. Honestly, just build your own...not hard."
If you bought two video cards in CrossFire while paying $800 total for the system, then you bought sufficiently low end cards that you shouldn't have gone CrossFire. One higher end card is bettter than two lower end cards in CrossFire or SLI. CrossFire and SLI are only for people who think that one high end card isn't good enough.
Building your own is great for desktops. It's not such an option for laptops, though.
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I'm not saying that the problem is with Alienware in particular. There are some problems intrinsic to gaming laptops. And there are some models of gaming laptops that are just badly configured, such as Alienware's M14x, no matter how you set the options. It's not as comically idiotic as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215113
But it is pretty bad. If you're not familiar with hardware specs, then you might not see what is wrong with the laptop that I just linked. It has integrated graphics and a discrete card, and can switch between them. The integrated graphics is faster than the discrete card. The laptop would actually get better graphical performance if they had skipped the discrete card entirely, in addition to being cheaper, lighter, running cooler, and having fewer driver issues.
Now, if Alienware were to properly configure a budget gaming laptop (A8-3510MX or A8-3530MX APU, no discrete video card, 4 GB or 8 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 memory with the channels properly matched, 7200 RPM hard drive, $800 or less), then I'd tell everyone and his neighbor's dog who comes in looking for a budget gaming laptop to go get one. Indeed, the reason I point people to Hewlett-Packard's dv6z quad edition isn't that I like HP; it's that it's the least bad Llano configuration for gaming purposes currently available, at least if you configure it properly (which the default doesn't).
The problem is that laptop vendors assume that their customers are idiots who have no clue what hardware specs to look for. Well, I guess the real underlying problem is that that assumption is usually correct. Their customer base is a self-selection sample of people who don't know what to get. For desktops, it's because people who do know what to get usually build their own. For gaming laptops, it's because a lot of people who do know what to get know not to get a gaming laptop in the first place.
I guess Ill coment on a few of your opinions. My laptop plays all games well, and Iv played very demanding games. Its just like any gamer, when you get into games you find ways to make them run better the more competition there is. It just depends on what type of gamer you are. I wont be running everything maxed out obviously but I havent had any troubles with any game yet with a little tweaking. New games like brink, crysis 2, rift etc... they are demanding games but I play them competitivly with a little tweaking.
The m14x is revolutionary as it stands. Your claim that it is junk is classless. The Nvidia Geforce gt 555 is a powerfull top of the spectrum in the middle class of graphics cards and have never been seen in small laptops like a 14 inch m14x. Here is what notebookcheck says "We tested the gaming performance of the GeForce GT 555M with DDR3 graphics memory in a pre sample of the Dell XPS 17. The synthetic benchmarks show a performance slightly above the old GeForce 9800M GT. GDDR5 versions should be slightly faster. Therefore, nearly all current demanding games should run fluently in 1366x768 and high detail settings. Only extremely demanding games like Metro 2033 will only run in medium detail settings. Older and low demanding games like Fifa 11 should run in high detail settings and Full HD resolution." Yes a amd 6770 would have been nice in that system I agree but saying the 555 is shit is not right by any means lol... Its a very powerfull card that is non mxm if you knew, which means that its soldered onto the mobo in the first place. Any gamer would be very happy with its performance, only your select few niche hardcores would want more. Plus its a beautiful laptop.
Fitting in a 540 card into an m11x is extreme and very powerfull. I think your reasoning behind TDP(thermal design power) in laptops is a bit off. You should be praising alienware for making such small laptops with the amount of power they have in them, no other company has been able to do that. Its an achivement that should be looked upon with delight not dismany.
Honestly I couldnt bare reading past your first 2 paragraphs but I did. Saying that most people think that laptops are the same as desktops is mind boggeling. If anything thats your own misconception. Also you cant blaim laptops for having the added advantage of being easy to be strew around the place, more so you should look at desktops inability of being anything more then a heavy heap of metal shards waiting to be sent to the dump cause no one wants to buy old desktops, certainly not me but thats another story. Go to ebay and find the hundreds of thousands of custom shit desktops that no one wants lol...
Its no fun chating with people that dont like your pasion any way, and your setiments only make that harsher.
OP, do you really need a laptop? With your budget I would suggest a desktop. Also, I would suggest companies other than Alienware, and definitely not CyberPower or IbuyPower. Both of those companies have horrible track records with the quality of their products and are known for horrible customer service. If you don't want to build a PC yourself I would suggest Digital Storm. I bought my last PC from them, simply because I wasn't learned in overclocking and such. The PC is amazing and their track record is great. Here I will show you some configs. With your budget you have a lot of room to work with. So there are some questions that needed to be answered, what resolutions does your monitor support and are you gonna play other more stressful games than Guild Wars 2?
This system is a pre-built. Why am I linking a pre-built? Simply because it offers a very good price for the parts you are getting. Also you are getting free stage 2 overclocking that will take this bad boy up to 4.8 ghz. This build isn't a moderate build, it is fully equipped to run all the new Dx11 games at high settings.
http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadode.asp?id=566405
This setup is not a prebuilt, and is a bit more expensive. The replacements are, a better case, a better SSD "Intel's New lineup", and the two GPU's are upgraded as well. Again, this is not a setup that is just to play GW2, this is if you are going to play the newest Dx11 games on 1920x1080 resolutions or higher at high settings.
http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=584900
Now I will give you a more moderate setup that will handle all the new games as well, but with some of the more stressful new games you won't be playing at the highest settings at 1920x1080.
http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=584903
If you just plan on playing GW2 and not really any other new stressful games then I will point you to this pre-built they have going. http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadode.asp?id=580852
Here is one of their laptops, but if you want to just get a laptop I might suggest also looking at Asus as well. http://www.digitalstormonline.com/laptoploadx17E.asp?id=568653
Anyways all the rigs I posted should fit your needs and are well under your budget. The DS rigs come with free 3 year warranties and are well built machines. You also get really good overclocking with the machines as well.
Dito.
And Alienware is not a good budget solution, they are pretty expensive.
The chepaest thing is to build a desktop yourself instead, it is not hard if we just help you out with the parts you need.
Otherwise I would walk down to my local geek store and let them build me a machine with the right speccs instead, that gives you a lower price than a brand computer and usually better parts as well. A local geekshop is almost always very helpful with advices as well.
Even most rather expensive laptops will not run GW2 maxed out good while a desktop for half the price will do it. If you need something mobile for travel and work/school buy a second hand one cheap for just that instead.
"Your claim that it is junk is classless."
So basically, your stance is that any criticism of Alienware, no matter how throughly justified, is illegitimate? Stop with the ad hominem arguments and stick to the hardware specs.
"The Nvidia Geforce gt 555 is a powerfull top of the spectrum in the middle class of graphics cards and have never been seen in small laptops like a 14 inch m14x."
Is the difference between 14" and 15" really that big of a deal? Really? Because you can get somewhere around triple the graphical performance of a GeForce GT 555M if you move to a 15" form factor. For example, see here:
http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=19610
15" laptop with a top of the line Radeon HD 6990M available. Now, that's rather expensive, of course. But if you can get triple the performance in a 15" form factor, then is the M14x really such an impressive engineering feat? At most, only in the sense that some things can be hard to do, but would still be pointless even if they were easy.
And if you want to go cheaper, you could try this:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Intel+processors&v1=Intel+2nd+gen+Core&series_name=dv6tse_series&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/notebooks/Intel_2nd_gen_Core/dv6tse_series
Outfit it with the same Core i5 2410M as the Alienware M14x, a 1 GB Radeon HD 6770M, and a 7200 RPM hard drive and it comes to $835, or $265 cheaper than the Alienware M14x. That gets you the same processor, a considerably better video card, and a Blu-Ray player, for $265 less than the M14x. Is losing an inch on the form factor really worth paying so much more for a system otherwise so far inferior?
If you want more memory, then HP will charge you $60 to upgrade to 8 GB. Alienware will charge you $120. If you want a higher resolution, then HP will offer 1920x1080 for $150. Alienware doesn't even offer anything above 1600x900.
"Fitting in a 540 card into an m11x is extreme and very powerfull. I think your reasoning behind TDP(thermal design power) in laptops is a bit off. You should be praising alienware for making such small laptops with the amount of power they have in them, no other company has been able to do that. Its an achivement that should be looked upon with delight not dismany."
Sure, fitting a GeForce GT 540M into an 11" form factor is quite a trick. The problem is that it's a pointless trick. Stick an A8-3530MX into the same form factor and skip the discrete card and you'll have a little better processor performance in exchange for a little worse graphical performance, while using far less power and far less physical space.
Now, that wasn't available when the M11x launched, so it had a point in its day. But if anyone else decides that they'd like to offer an 11" gaming laptop and does a Llano system configured right, the M11x will be thoroughly obsolete the day that the competition launches. The hardware to do it is out there already. The question is whether anyone will bother, as gaming laptops in an 11" form factor is a very narrow niche market.
"Saying that most people think that laptops are the same as desktops is mind boggeling."
I've seen a lot of people start threads saying they want a gaming laptop. Ask about their intended usage model and a gaming laptop only makes sense for a relative handful of them. Some should just get a desktop instead. Others should get both a gaming desktop and a cheap laptop. Explain the reasoning behind it and a lot of them agree, and weren't aware of the drawbacks of laptops.
Now, you're likely aware of at least some of this, but let's rehash it here anyway. As compared to desktops, laptops offer:
1) Far less customizability. In a desktop, you can get exactly what you want. In a laptop, this usually takes modding it yourself. Sometimes, you can't even get something close enough to what you want in a laptop to be able to modify it yourself to get what you want.
2) Far lower performance. The smaller form factor of a laptop means it's safe to dissipate far less power, and that means clocking things much lower. Some high performance CPUs and GPUs aren't offered in laptops at all, and those that are usually have to be clocked much lower.
3) Far less upgradeability. In a desktop, if you think it would be good enough except that one part is insufficient, you can upgrade that one part. In a laptop, that often means replacing the whole thing outright.
4) Far less reliability. There are several reasons for this. One is that in a desktop, you can pick high quality parts that will be reliable. In a laptop, you're stuck with whatever cut corners that the OEM decided on. Another is that it's much easier to keep everything properly cooled in a desktop form factor. Yet another reason is that laptops get jostled around a lot, while desktops tend to just sit there, and it's only practical to do so much to accommodate this without pricing getting way out of hand. (Look up fully ruggedized laptops if you want to see pricing way out of hand.)
5) Far shorter useful lifetimes. This is a direct consequence of items 2, 3, and 4.
6) Far less useful monitor space. In a desktop, you can easily get a big monitor. Or two. Or three. Or six, though that's getting expensive. In a laptop, you're stuck with just one monitor, and a tiny monitor, at that.
7) A very limited ability to reuse peripherals. If you like your keyboard, monitor, and speakers, and replace a desktop, you can keep the old ones. Sometimes you can even reuse the old case. In a laptop, replacing the laptop means a new keyboard, a new monitor, a new touchpad, new speakers, and so forth. That adds to the cost.
8) Far worse ergonomics. In a desktop, you can position the keyboard and monitor wherever you want. Hardly anyone presses them up against each other, as among other things, that's ergonomically terrible. It's also awkward to use. In a laptop, you have to do that, as it's dictated by the form factor.
9) A far higher price tag, if you need high performance. At the low end, laptops and desktops can be competitive on price. But once you get into high power parts, the demands of the form factor mean it costs far more to get a given level of performance in a laptop than in a desktop.
10) Far less security. The portability of a laptop makes it easy for a thief to grab one and walk off with it. Desktops don't get stolen nearly so much.
So what advantages do laptops offer in exchange for all of the drawbacks?
1) Far greater portability. For some purposes, this genuinely does outweigh all else. Gaming is rarely one of those purposes, however.
2) Lower power consumption. The demands of the form factor mean that vendors go to great lengths to reduce power consumption. This does mean that laptops use less power to offer a given level of performance. For most purposes, this isn't a big deal, and even if you're into saving the environment, it's likely that a desktop would be more environmentally friendly due to its longer useful lifespan, which means using energy and resources to replace it less often.
And that's it.