Own Magic, Star Gazer, Batman Forever, STTNG, Mystery Castle (project)
Gone Fairy, Secret Service, Meteor x3, Title Fight, Eight Ball Deluxe, Bone Busters Inc., Seawitch, Starship Troopers, Strange Science, Arena, Hook, Pin*Bot x2, Time Warp, Motordome, Robocop, Black hole, Jurassic Park , Wipe-Out, Pinball Pro: Challenger I, Swords of Fury, Stargate, Party Zone
Model G73JH-A1 Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Processor Intel Quad Core i7-720QM (1.60GHz) Memory 8GB DDR3 1066 Mhz (2GBX4), 4skts, max 8GB Hard Drive 1TB (500G 7200RPM x2) Optical Drive BD Combo Drive Display 17.3" FHD 1920x1080 LED Graphics ATI 5870 1G GDDR5 Wireless 802.11B/G/N Wired 10/100/1000 Bluetooth Yes I/O 4xUSB, 1xVGA, 1xHDMI Card Reader 8-in-1 Webcam 2.0M Battery Li-ion 8 cell Color Black Dimensions 8.0lbs/16.4" x 12.8" x 0.8" - 2.3" Warranty 2 Yrs Global/1st Yr Accidental Damage/30 Days ZBD Acessories Gaming Bag/Gaming Mouse Special Features Numeric Keyboard, Dolby Home Theatre
It's not for me it's for my son. I take his hand me downs which this time is a two year old lesser gaming laptop.
Surprisingly the cost to build a desktop with the same specs is not a hell of lot less than the laptop. I wouldn't call this unit easily portable as it is big but portability wasn't the main issue as it primarily goes from desk to desk. The integration aspects of a laptop are why I now prefer this platform. That and a changed opinion on upgrading systems.
In terms of upgrading, I've learned my lessons. Upgrade to me is complete new system. Lesser systems get handed down to those of us with lower system demands. I call it life-cycling vice upgrading. Makes more more sense to me from my experiences rather than throwing costly band-aids on aging systems.
I am guessing that Alienware with a processor upgrade of about $1000 and dual crossfire GPU's cards must be coming in over the $3K mark. I was looking at the Alienware for that aspect but from what I have read Crossfire doesn't deliver the kind of performance improvement you would expect with multiple GPU's.
Model G73JH-A1 Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Processor Intel Quad Core i7-720QM (1.60GHz) Memory 8GB DDR3 1066 Mhz (2GBX4), 4skts, max 8GB Hard Drive 1TB (500G 7200RPM x2) Optical Drive BD Combo Drive Display 17.3" FHD 1920x1080 LED Graphics ATI 5870 1G GDDR5 Wireless 802.11B/G/N Wired 10/100/1000 Bluetooth Yes I/O 4xUSB, 1xVGA, 1xHDMI Card Reader 8-in-1 Webcam 2.0M Battery Li-ion 8 cell Color Black Dimensions 8.0lbs/16.4" x 12.8" x 0.8" - 2.3" Warranty 2 Yrs Global/1st Yr Accidental Damage/30 Days ZBD Acessories Gaming Bag/Gaming Mouse Special Features Numeric Keyboard, Dolby Home Theatre
It's not for me it's for my son. I take his hand me downs which this time is a two year old lesser gaming laptop.
Surprisingly the cost to build a desktop with the same specs is not a hell of lot less than the laptop. I wouldn't call this unit easily portable as it is big but portability wasn't the main issue as it primarily goes from desk to desk. The integration aspects of a laptop are why I now prefer this platform. That and a changed opinion on upgrading systems.
In terms of upgrading, I've learned my lessons. Upgrade to me is complete new system. Lesser systems get handed down to those of us with lower system demands. I call it life-cycling vice upgrading. Makes more more sense to me from my experiences rather than throwing costly band-aids on aging systems.
I am guessing that Alienware with a processor upgrade of about $1000 and dual crossfire GPU's cards must be coming in over the $3K mark. I was looking at the Alienware for that aspect but from what I have read Crossfire doesn't deliver the kind of performance improvement you would expect with multiple GPU's.
Very nice . I also am getting mine with the 720QM but ordered the 940 and installing it myself for 1/2 the price. They say you will not get a 50% increase with xfire but 25-30%. Dell is replacing my XPS 1730, so the AW is costing me nothing, since I had high specs with my old machine they had to give me Duel 5870s. The machine is around $3300 with the 720. Can't wait since my 1730 cannot play SC2 without overheating .
I've owned 2 ASUS laptops now, I love their stuff...but I will never own one again.
Their tech pairings are good, components rock solid...but build quality on everything else? (ie the housing) UTTER a**!
My bezel on current is cracked in not one, not two but THREE places. Think I can get a replacement? Nope...they had parts available for less time than the product was available on store shelves.
I'm on my second keyboard for this unit, previous unit also had a replacement inside of 14 months. The cooling fan on my CPU is on it's last legs, gets noisy as hell until the system is warm enough that I guess the bearings in have heated the grease enough.
I'll stick with ASUS in my desktops, but I'm not touching another one of their laptops with a 10 foot pole. Considering I don't even use it outside of my home more than 1 or 2 days a year, they are mess for what they are intended for, portability.
That's another 50% leap in cost to up to the XM and dual GPU's in an M17. Don't think he really needs the power quite frankly, at least immediately. The computer was selected on a price/performance basis based on realistic expectations of performance from a single 5870 and decent i7 CPU. Take price out of the equation and I am into what your building, but another grand + I am having a tough time justifying.
I suspect the furnace could be left off this winter with dual 5870 GPUs running.
Ken. Not saying it's any better than what you have, experience will tell, but the case on this system is completely different from it's ASUS predecessors.
Cobra, any reason for siding with ATI over NVidia?
That's another 50% leap in cost to up to the XM and dual GPU's in an M17. Don't think he really needs the power quite frankly, at least immediately. The computer was selected on a price/performance basis based on realistic expectations of performance from a single 5870 and decent i7 CPU. Take price out of the equation and I am into what your building, but another grand + I am having a tough time justifying.
I suspect the furnace could be left off this winter with dual 5870 GPUs running.
Ken. Not saying it's any better than what you have, experience will tell, but the case on this system is completely different from it's ASUS predecessors.
Cobra, any reason for siding with ATI over NVidia?
Yes I agree but since this is a replacement I can splurge and buy the fastest processor. ATI over Nvidia well the only choice is the ATI for the 17x but there are rumors of the 620 coming but I have to get the replacement now since the one I have doesn't work 100%(m1730) and I am alittle miffed at Nvidia for the 8800 issues I have now.
In terms of upgrading, I've learned my lessons. Upgrade to me is complete new system. Lesser systems get handed down to those of us with lower system demands. I call it life-cycling vice upgrading. Makes more more sense to me from my experiences rather than throwing costly band-aids on aging systems.
The biggest problem with "upgrading" is that very often the CPU/memory/Motherboard are tied together. By the time you want to upgrade, you'll usually need to replace all three of them, since the CPU and memory specs would have changed, so new CPUs won't work in the old board and vice versa. Yes, you can save on not replacing things like a case/hard drive, and you can breathe some new life into an old system with a graphics card upgrade, but major upgrades almost always end up being pretty close to new system builds anyway (maybe within $100-$150 of the same price).
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, Wipe-Out, Pinball Pro: Challenger I, Swords of Fury, Stargate, Party Zone
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. I also am getting mine with the 720QM but ordered the 940 and installing it myself for 1/2 the price. They say you will not get a 50% increase with xfire but 25-30%. Dell is replacing my XPS 1730, so the AW is costing me nothing, since I had high specs with my old machine they had to give me Duel 5870s. The machine is around $3300 with the 720. Can't wait since my 1730 cannot play SC2 without overheating 
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