[Advise needed]: Alienware 14 & World of Warcraft

[Deleted]

Dear all,

since I am nto a tecnic expert I would need your advise. I am planning to buy one of the new Alienware 14 notebooks. Now I understand just saying Alienware will cause controversy and yes I know if I built a system myself it'll be 800 pounds cheaper but I need the Next Day on Site support if something breaks.

I am currently playing on a 5 year old M15x Alienware with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 260M, 4GB Ram & Intel i7 1.6 processor.

I am planning to buy an Alienware 14 with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 765M 2GB GDDR5, 8GB Ram & Intel i7 3.4 processor.

Link to Summary:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...wleadtime=True

My question would be do you guys think this system will allow me to play on Ultra setting with at least 30 fps?

Thanks a lot for everyone who is answering

Anoukee

[Deleted]

Quick answer, yes.

It does have an option for a 1080p screen (not sure if you'll be going for that - I would) but 1080p on Ultra (possibly turning shadows/view distance down a notch, I do that on a radeon 7970 for smoothness' sake :-P) you should be able to get at least 30fps.

EDIT - for comparison I can get a pretty solid 50FPS+ on my laptop when away from home (a Dell XPS17, couple of years old now, Intel i7-QM2820, overclocked nVidia 555M, 8GB ram) on high settings at 1080p (without FSAA) so I don't see why you wouldn't get more on a considerably more powerful system.

Also, the configuration in your post links a GT750, not a GT765 - change it :-P

[Deleted]

Quick answer, yes.

It does have an option for a 1080p screen (not sure if you'll be going for that - I would) but 1080p on Ultra (possibly turning shadows/view distance down a notch, I do that on a radeon 7970 for smoothness' sake :-P) you should be able to get at least 30fps.

EDIT - for comparison I can get a pretty solid 50FPS+ on my laptop when away from home (a Dell XPS17, couple of years old now, Intel i7-QM2820, overclocked nVidia 555M, 8GB ram) on high settings at 1080p (without FSAA) so I don't see why you wouldn't get more on a considerably more powerful system.

Also, the configuration in your post links a GT750, not a GT765 - change it :-P

Thanks a lot - if there are any more people that might be able to help me would be great

Thanks
Anoukee

[Deleted]

Seeing as its only 1366 x 768, it should be able to play just fine.

[Deleted]

Seeing as its only 1366 x 768, it should be able to play just fine.

I have updated the correct built - also added 16 gb ram - what do you mean by 1366 x 768? (sorry I am not good with pcs) - also if I would buy an external monitor what would I have to pay attention for (only wow relevant things as I never play anything else).

[Deleted]

1366x768 is the resolution of the monitor/laptop screen. And usually when you increase the resolution, things will look better because you have more pixels to fill stuff in. But it also means you need more power to play at the same settings.

I see you have increased the resolution to 1080p, this will mean that you probably have to turn down some settings to play smooth in 25 raids. But I dont have enough experience with the new laptop CPUs. But you should be fine, and otherwise just turn down some settings. Thats not the end of the world

Small sidenote, your gpu is still the 750 and not the 765.

As for an external monitor. Be sure it has the proper connections. The laptop probably has a hdmi out, so your monitor should have that aswell. And than you have to decide for yourself if you want ips or tn

IPS: better image quality, better viewing angles, lower response times, and could have some input lag
TN: Lower image quality, lower viewing angles, better response times

(These are just short pro's and cons for both. There are some threads going around about IPS vs TN. My personal preference lies with IPS.)

[Deleted]

1366x768 is the resolution of the monitor/laptop screen. And usually when you increase the resolution, things will look better because you have more pixels to fill stuff in. But it also means you need more power to play at the same settings.

I see you have increased the resolution to 1080p, this will mean that you probably have to turn down some settings to play smooth in 25 raids. But I dont have enough experience with the new laptop CPUs. But you should be fine, and otherwise just turn down some settings. Thats not the end of the world

Small sidenote, your gpu is still the 750 and not the 765.

As for an external monitor. Be sure it has the proper connections. The laptop probably has a hdmi out, so your monitor should have that aswell. And than you have to decide for yourself if you want ips or tn

IPS: better image quality, better viewing angles, lower response times, and could have some input lag
TN: Lower image quality, lower viewing angles, better response times

(These are just short pro's and cons for both. There are some threads going around about IPS vs TN. My personal preference lies with IPS.)

It does though say LCD - 14.0 inch (355.6 mm) WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display - I usually play in this resolution on a 15 inch screen 1600 x 900 would that work on the new system as well? I actually never raid 25mans but only 10m

[Deleted]

It does though say LCD - 14.0 inch (355.6 mm) WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display - I usually play in this resolution on a 15 inch screen 1600 x 900 would that work on the new system as well? I actually never raid 25mans but only 10m

I assumed a 25 man raid, because that is more taxing on a system than 10 man

Yeah, that resolution will work as well. You will even get better performance on the monitor due to the lower resolution. So when you keep the settings the same but with the different resolutions. You will get higher fps on the external monitor.

[BruceG87]

-snip

Let me get this straight. You are willing to pay what most consider a high price tag mark up for "Alienware next day on site support". Are you expecting major hardware malfunctions daily/weekly? 99% of all the "computer issues" that are brought to my attention daily can be diagnosed and solved in minutes with a little google-fu. That is up to you, but I could not justify telling ANYONE to pay for such support as it tends to come with a hefty price tag.

Not only are you willing to pay the large price tag for the support, but you are doing so for a laptop sporting sub-par equipment as well as refurbished parts. Here's a little secret, most companies that sell pre-built systems and "custom systems" will sport refurbished parts. You need to keep this in mind as it commonly shows with refurbished GPU's and more so with HDD's. Nothing worse then a HDD failing a week/month after the warranty expires.

I'm shocked no one brought up this point yet. You mentioned you decided to go with 16GB of ram. There is still currently little to no reason to go with anything above 8GB in performance desktops except in cases of enthusiasts with money or situations outside of gaming. As you have only been asking about WoW related questions, I am going to assume this is solely for the purpose of WoW gaming. 8GB is far more then enough, anything above that is a waste of money.

Next, you are missing what most consider a requirement these days to play MMO's. An SSD (Solid state drive), which is a quality of life improvement in general as well as a substantial QoL improvement in WoW.

Will it play WoW at ultra settings in 10 man raids SUSTAINING(Not just looking at the ground or idling with the raid) 30 fps. At a resolution of 1366x768, definitely. At 1920x1080, probably.

Could you accomplish the same with a much smaller price tag. YES, you can. Could you in fact get more, even out of a CUSTOMIZED "gaming laptop" with a smaller price tag. Most definitely.

If you will post the region you are making this purchase from, then perhaps we can provide you with alternatives that will are solid for gaming for a cheaper/similar price tag. I can't do so right now, but I should be able to come back to this thread later today with a few choices.

[Deleted]

Let me get this straight. You are willing to pay what most consider a high price tag mark up for "Alienware next day on site support". Are you expecting major hardware malfunctions daily/weekly? 99% of all the "computer issues" that are brought to my attention daily can be diagnosed and solved in minutes with a little google-fu. That is up to you, but I could not justify telling ANYONE to pay for such support as it tends to come with a hefty price tag.

You are right in this case - it does come with a hefty price tag but the actual service is quite good. I bought my last system in germany and when the backlight of the screen broke (after 3,5 years) they came to my holiday place in Holland to fix it. Also when I lived in London for quite some time it was not an issue for them to send a tecnician (ventilator broke after 4 years). Another advantage is that they do this service for 5 years - I am not sure how long the standard warranty usually is maybe it's 5 years too. I udnerstand that for standard warranty you don't pay 100 pounds/ year but I only buy one system every 5 years so it is not that much of a problem for me.

I'm shocked no one brought up this point yet. You mentioned you decided to go with 16GB of ram. There is still currently little to no reason to go with anything above 8GB in performance desktops except in cases of enthusiasts with money or situations outside of gaming. As you have only been asking about WoW related questions, I am going to assume this is solely for the purpose of WoW gaming. 8GB is far more then enough, anything above that is a waste of money.

I was wondering if there is actually any point in chosing 16GB RAM as I am mainly playing World of Warcraft - I guess for day-to-day activities it doesn't make much of a difference between 8 GB or 16GB. I do wodner where you would start to utilise the 16GM RAM.

Next, you are missing what most consider a requirement these days to play MMO's. An SSD (Solid state drive), which is a quality of life improvement in general as well as a substantial QoL improvement in WoW.

I don't know if the Hard drive is any good that I linked in my specification :/

Will it play WoW at ultra settings in 10 man raids SUSTAINING(Not just looking at the ground or idling with the raid) 30 fps. At a resolution of 1366x768, definitely. At 1920x1080, probably.

I just had a look I am currently playing on 1600 x 900 and it works fine for me so I guess that would also work on the other system I am planning to buy.

Could you accomplish the same with a much smaller price tag. YES, you can. Could you in fact get more, even out of a CUSTOMIZED "gaming laptop" with a smaller price tag. Most definitely.

If you will post the region you are making this purchase from, then perhaps we can provide you with alternatives that will are solid for gaming for a cheaper/similar price tag. I can't do so right now, but I should be able to come back to this thread later today with a few choices.

I am buying it either in Germany or UK and am always open for any options the one reason why I do like Alienware systems is purely because of their next day support - I used it in the past and it was very, very good. If a part breaks it is not the end of the world as they are replacing it I did never think though of them using refurbished parts but guess that makes sense.

Thanks a lot for your information his is the kind of stuff I am looking for. I have a new question - the person above wrote this:

Yeah, that resolution will work as well. You will even get better performance on the monitor due to the lower resolution. So when you keep the settings the same but with the different resolutions. You will get higher fps on the external monitor.

I do get that if the screen is smaller I might get a higher fps performance but why would I get a better fps performance on a larger external screen? .x I would have thought it's the other way around.

Kind regards
Saaraae

[Deleted]

I do get that if the screen is smaller I might get a higher fps performance but why would I get a better fps performance on a larger external screen? .x I would have thought it's the other way around.

Kind regards
Saaraae

The size of the screen itself has nothing to do with the performance. It is all in the resolution.
A 27 inch monitor with a resolution of 1080p will require the same amount of performance as a 22 inch/1080p screen to run WoW.

So while your external monitor is larger, the resolution is actually lower than on your laptop screen. So that should improve your fps

And the point Bruce made about the RAM is true. I missed that and I was thinking in desktop prices. 8 Gb is more than enough, and knowing dell/alienware they probably ask way to much for that extra 8GB.

About the SSD, it might be cheaper to actually buy that later on. Im not sure how much Dell charges for them, but probably a lot more than local stores. Altho, you would have to install it yourself. Which might be a problem for you, no offense. But maybe you know someone who can do it for you.

[Deleted]

Next, you are missing what most consider a requirement these days to play MMO's. An SSD (Solid state drive), which is a quality of life improvement in general as well as a substantial QoL improvement in WoW.

About the SSD, it might be cheaper to actually buy that later on. Im not sure how much Dell charges for them, but probably a lot more than local stores. Altho, you would have to install it yourself. Which might be a problem for you, no offense. But maybe you know someone who can do it for you.

I can just add this Hard drive for £100:

750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching [add £100.00 or £5/month1]

or this for £250 but that wod be too expensive to be honest:

256GB mSATA Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s [add £250.00 or £13/month1]

I don't even know where thedifference is :x

Thanks a lot for helping - if anyone plays on Stormscale EU let me know and I donate you some gold

Thanks
Saaraae

[Toffie]

64gb would fit Windows + WoW, it will be tight though :/

That laptop seems quite expensive though.

[Deleted]

If it has an msata slot. Just buy yourself an msata SSD. Should easy enough to install, just slide it in.

In the Netherlands, msata SSDs are about 100 euro for 128GB. Pretty much the same as normal SSDs.

But TBH, I got a SSD in my computer and I wouldnt dream building a next one without it. It feels faster etc. But I have WoW installed on my HDD (no room on SSD). A couple of months ago I had it on my SSD. So I know the difference between playing WoW on a HDD and SSD, and for me it isnt game changing. Loading times are longer, and some textures take longer to load (altho I barely notice it).

So in short, you dont have to get an SSD if you dont have the money now. You can alway add one later. And seeing as the laptop has an mSata slot, it should be easy.

(To bad I dont play on stormscale.... :P )

[Deleted]

64gb would fit Windows + WoW, it will be tight though :/

That laptop seems quite expensive though.

You need to take off around €300 euros for the Next Business Day supoprt so basically the laptop would be around €900 - €1000

Zeara

If it has an msata slot. Just buy yourself an msata SSD. Should easy enough to install, just slide it in.

In the Netherlands, msata SSDs are about 100 euro for 128GB. Pretty much the same as normal SSDs.

But TBH, I got a SSD in my computer and I wouldnt dream building a next one without it. It feels faster etc. But I have WoW installed on my HDD (no room on SSD). A couple of months ago I had it on my SSD. So I know the difference between playing WoW on a HDD and SSD, and for me it isnt game changing. Loading times are longer, and some textures take longer to load (altho I barely notice it).

So in short, you dont have to get an SSD if you dont have the money now. You can alway add one later. And seeing as the laptop has an mSata slot, it should be easy.

(To bad I dont play on stormscale.... :P )

Will the 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching be sufficient? Is the 256GB mSATA Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s so much better that it is worth to spend €250 more?

again thanks for the replies.

kind regards
Saaraae

[Deleted]

Will the 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching be sufficient? Is the 256GB mSATA Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s so much better that it is worth to spend €250 more?

Thing is. With the 64 GB SSD it is used as a cache. So technically there is nothing on there, and you cant install anything on there.

Here you can read something about
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/art...D-Caching-148/

Now, the 256 gb ssd is actually used as storage. So windows is put on there, and you can put other stuff on there aswell. And you enjoy the full speed/performance of an SSD.
I do not know how much the standard HDD is etc. But paying 250 for the SSD is to much imo.

http://tweakers.net/categorie/674/so...qYWlsZKsbW1tQA

These are the prices in the Netherlands, and as you can see a 256 GB ssd costs 170 euro's. You can probably put it on yourself, that shouldnt be to difficult. Annoying thing is that windows isnt on there, so either you have to reinstall that or just let it be. But than you will lose the snappy-ness of having your OS on a SSD.

If you are confident enough with computers or someone you know is. You could just buy a msata SSD later on. Thats what I would do, but I like to tinker with computers so :P

[Deleted]

Thing is. With the 64 GB SSD it is used as a cache. So technically there is nothing on there, and you cant install anything on there.

Here you can read something about
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/art...D-Caching-148/

Now, the 256 gb ssd is actually used as storage. So windows is put on there, and you can put other stuff on there aswell. And you enjoy the full speed/performance of an SSD.
I do not know how much the standard HDD is etc. But paying 250 for the SSD is to much imo.

http://tweakers.net/categorie/674/so...qYWlsZKsbW1tQA

These are the prices in the Netherlands, and as you can see a 256 GB ssd costs 170 euro's. You can probably put it on yourself, that shouldnt be to difficult. Annoying thing is that windows isnt on there, so either you have to reinstall that or just let it be. But than you will lose the snappy-ness of having your OS on a SSD.

If you are confident enough with computers or someone you know is. You could just buy a msata SSD later on. Thats what I would do, but I like to tinker with computers so :P

The problem is the moment i touch the hardware my warranty expires instantly so I can#t really do anything like that :x apart of the fact that I don't have the tecnical knowledge. If I would have it I would never burn money on an Alienware system which I am aware is overpriced by default. I just wonder how much difference will an SSD make.

So basically you are saying that there is almost no improvement between:
750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s and 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching so in order to gain a significant improvement I would have to opt for 256GB mSATA Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s ?

thanks
Saaraae

[Deleted]

No, what i meant is:

The caching SSD doesnt work as a normal storage drive. You dont have access to it, its just there doing its thing.

So in order of performance you would get:
Standard HDD --> Standard HDD + Caching SSD --> Standard HDD + Storage SSD.

Im not sure what your total budget is. But if you have room for it, I would at least get the caching SSD.

[russ555]

Do you actually need the next day support? Why not just take it down to a local shop to repair? Also I have no idea how the support works but if its something important that breaks like the CPU or GPU I imagine they would have to take it with them, do they leave you with a replacement in that situation?

[Deleted]

No, what i meant is:

The caching SSD doesnt work as a normal storage drive. You dont have access to it, its just there doing its thing.

So in order of performance you would get:
Standard HDD --> Standard HDD + Caching SSD --> Standard HDD + Storage SSD.

Im not sure what your total budget is. But if you have room for it, I would at least get the caching SSD.

My budget also allows me to take the one for 250 extra - 256GB mSATA Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

russ555

Do you actually need the next day support? Why not just take it down to a local shop to repair? Also I have no idea how the support works but if its something important that breaks like the CPU or GPU I imagine they would have to take it with them, do they leave you with a replacement in that situation?

Let's say my graphic card is broken - they come to my house where I am in that moment (I travel between three countries) and they will not only leave me with a replacement they will also send me a tecnician who will put the enw graphic card in my system and checks that everything is back in working condition. I used them three times in the last 5 years and I had no issues with the service - normally if a graphic card breaks you have to send it to the manufactor wait a few days/ weeks and get a replacement card or refund - which means I have no system for this duration. I also don't have any tecnical skills so the Next Day On Site support works great for people like me.