Just need a rating on it, money aside, I found a need for a gaming laptop as I am not home 6/7 days a week. Now I know most of you folks here are anti alienware, but I have had an asus g73jw and have had nothing but problems in it, I do not like Lenovo and I will not touch Sager ether leaving me with really one decent choice, aside from MSI anyway.
So here are my specs ($2100 all in)
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
4th Gen Intel Core i7-4700MQ
17.3 WLED FHD 1920 x 1080 AG 300 Nit
While I understand that this setup is basically a max out for the m17, I want to know if;
A) I can run WoW, Sc2, D3, CS:GO, Dota 2 and games of that caliber on max
B) Is it true that the 780m is on par with a desktop 680 GTX?
Will it run those games at max? Yes, but so will the entry level Alienware 14, LOL. Those aren't exactly demanding games.
16GB RAM is useless unless you're streaming, btw. 780M is absolutely overkill for those games. Save money and get an Alienware 14 if those are the games you want.
By the way, how important is battery life/portability/weight to you? Because Alienware doesn't really shine on those aspects
I'd only recommend that if you heavily value the lightweight form factor and battery life instead of a chunky behemoth of power
Edit: Because the $1200 Alienware 14 is at 1600x900 resolution, the 750M should be adequate for those games although you have a $150 option of changing the 750M on the 14 to the 765M. I'm pretty dang sure that the 765M will destroy those games at 1600x900. 1600x900 may seem negatively intimidating to you but on a 14incher its actually enjoyable in full screen games (dem frame rates)
The reason I got the 17 is because of the num pad, i work for a telecom company and will be using it for work, the 780 was offered to me basically for the same price as the 770 thats why i took it.
I plan to play more intensive games later on, I guess im just trying to futureproof a little
At the beginning of 2013 (just a few months ago) the GTX TITAN was announced at $1,000
Today the GTX 780 stands in close competition to the TITAN even though the GTX 780 is $650, much less expensive than the Titan
I'm using this as an example to show you how futureproofing is kind of an impossible feat given the rate of advancement these days.
Will the 780M destroy games in 2016? Nope.
On the desktop side (I'm sure a similar philosophy can exist on laptops), many people suggest buying $1000-$1200 systems and getting new ones every 2-3 years.
You know why?
Think about this:
if today I bought a $2500 rig and today you bought a $1200 rig, in 3 years time both our rigs would be dated, regardless of my build.
You now buy a $1200 rig again and have mid to high range state-of-the-art tech and even if I bought the same $1200 rig as you in 3 years time, I ended up spending more across the 3 years than you did. You might argue: the $2500 rig guy had a stronger with his rig while it lasted! While this can be true, if both people were running games at 1920x1080 (which the $1200 rig should handle quite well), then the $2500 rig was just overkill while it lasted and yielded no futureproofing
This is similar to your situation. You are getting an overkill system for the games you intend to play (780M for 1920x1080 World of Warcraft, lulz) when a 750M/765M can handle WoW at max settings at 1600x900 yielding similar visual experience and the justification for doing so is 'futureproofing'. You'll end up replacing either system in a couple years time, anyways.
I understand this, I am also planning to possibly play on a 42 inch HD tv, thus the better card, that being said Yes i know the 780 is overkill but its a gift for myself as well, I may end up returning it and ordering the 14 instead but only time will tell, I wanted a beastly system this time around, so dell gave me a decent discount and thats why I took it
I hope you know that if your HD TV is 1920x1080 (which it likely is) then it won't change the performance you get if you're playing on the Alienware 17.
If you're playing in such a non-mobile way (with a large TV), why not a desktop, again?
If you're going to play a lot with the 1920x1080 HD TV, then make sure the Alienware 14 has the 765M at least (although I'm not so sure anymore if the 765M will max out all games at 1920x1080. It should do well at high settings but not exactly 100% max, I think. Although I could just be paranoid and the 765m is fine, anyone with more gaming laptop experience should advise here)
Thats my issue the 765m does not max out with those games, and god knows wow will release a new xpac this year with higher graphics yet again, Im doing this once I think this is the last high end rig that Ill be buying so I guess i just want the best of the best right now
and this includes an operating system, overpriced headset+mouse+keyboard, an IPS HD 1080P ASUS monitor, an optical drive, a WiFi solution, an all-in-one CPU liquid cooler, a 250GB SSD, even a sound card
Costs the same as that Alienware 17 with a 780M, ey?
That desktop will destroy any and all games at 1920x1080. Can't say the same of that laptop.
Edit: I know you said you won't be home much so a desktop is almost out of the question but I just did it show you what you're missing out on with that price . If you have a half decent job then getting the Alienware 17 with a 780M will just be a treat and you'll enjoy it and it will kill the games you want to play, and yes its overpriced a bit and you can optimize different things to get the highest price-for-performance and we can talk about this all day but it seems you came in here wanting an Alienware 17 and I don't blame you. Its sexy and it is a beast in every aspect. Just get it
Edit2: By the way if I'm not mistaken, Dell's prices they show on the alienware Configurator don't include shipping/taxes, so look into that alright?
If I could run a desktop I would, truly, I love my tower but I travel so much that I cannot bring it with me. I may end up selling the m17 a year from now and building a tower instead
EDIT: Yes thankfully I do have a good job, and this is a treat for myself, I work my ass off here and for the first time I can afford something real nice, and the fact that dell is giving me 12 months to pay for it is even better
Year-old laptops (after possibly even newer processors and GPUs have come out) tend to lose a lot of their value so keep that in mind.
Read my edit to the post just above your most recent one.
Also, just remember: the laptop we're discussing is just called the "Alienware 17" There is no "m17", that is the old series of laptops and it was the "m17x" for the 2012 one
Last edited by Ripox; 2013-07-02 at 07:36 PM.
Reason: retarded typo, WTB Sleep
I was not charged for shipping I did incur tax but thats something I write off as business expense, all in all it wad 2487.53 and yes you are correct its the the alienware 17 now, force of habit i suppose
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. If you have a half decent job then getting the Alienware 17 with a 780M will just be a treat and you'll enjoy it and it will kill the games you want to play, and yes its overpriced a bit and you can optimize different things to get the highest price-for-performance and we can talk about this all day but it seems you came in here wanting an Alienware 17 and I don't blame you. Its sexy and it is a beast in every aspect. Just get it 
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