Hi! I'm really torn between the M14x and the M17x and I was hoping that the more tech-savvy people here can help make sense of the specs and help me choose one.

Aside from the usual work done by a university professor, gaming is the main consideration :). Also, I'd probably be carrying it to school (I live 2 blocks away). I'm leaning towards the M17x although the price and the weight is making me cringe. :| I did hear that the M14x has heat problems though.

Current build:

M17x

3rd Generation Intel® Core(TM) i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit

12GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)

750GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M

17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED edit

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0

Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)


Any comment on the specs? I'm torn between Nvidia and AMD as well. Also, would you recommend getting the wireless controller? And what mouse would any of you recommend?

P.S. I am a 5'2 female, 110 pounds. I'm a therapist though so I can most probably handle the weight of the M17x. I think. :))

Thanks for all the help! :)

ahem ! (u know y i did that :P :P :P)

so wat i say is go for M17x

and do not, i mean it, do not, by no means get the GTX675m at higher price than 7970M

7970M is more powerful and cheaper
get that instead

12GB is not necessary for RAM. Get 8 unless 12 is the lowest option. Get the AMD card for the lower price and lower power consumption. Everything else looks really good.

Consider getting the Orion backpack to make carrying the rig a little easier.

1. Get the cheapest ram available then upgrade it yourself. Its way too easy and the Alienware manual shows you how. The Kingston HyperX memory from Newegg.com runs much much cheaper and will outperform the Samsung memory Dell uses.

2. Listen to the other posters about the 7970m. I run Xfire 6990's on my M18x and they are amazing. Sure the 580m SLi was a little better performance wise, Nvidia has been having issues with heat on those laptops. The smaller the laptop, the worse issue heat becomes. AMD's drivers aren't the greatest but they've worked for me from WoW, SC2, BF3, and even D3 beta! Save yourself the money and get the AMD.

3. As far as weight is concerned, 10lbs may not seem like alot but with my M18x being nearly 12lbs, I don't want to lug it much of anywhere without a backpack or messanger bag. Like me, you may be overly cautious about the aluminum finish. It can scratch easily if your not paying attention. Be sure to not fumble around when plugging in speakers/headphones and usb plugs as they can easily scratch the red or black almuminum paint. Luckily its not too noticable if you do, but it bugs the heck out of me!

Note: Not sure if they fixed the Headphone/SPDIF 7.1 jack yet. Best rule of thumb, throw out the SPDIF Optical 5.1 jack adapter that comes with the laptop (small black plastic jack thingy). For the previous gen M17x/18x the jack was too big and bent the headphone metal pin inside the plug too far so that it always recognized the SPDIF as being on. This tells the motherboard not to use the built in speakers and unless you uninstall the sound card, you can't get sound from the speakers. Learned this the hard way but decided to keep the laptop since I use headphones or external speakers anyways.

you go girl! I am putting an order in for the m17x here in a week or so. I know the 17 is heavier but no over heating problems and just all around bigger and better.
I will be getting the 7970m too, I am super excited and you should be too!

Also tons of ppl on the site know lots more than I do, anyone will help you, if you just ask them :D

go for 16 gigs of RAM

Whew, never expected a lot of people to comment on this one. Thanks a lot, guys!

M17x it is! I need to get a good bag though to save my backbone from the strain. :) I think I'll get the 7970M after all because of the very potent persuasive powers of the awesome people in the forums :)). My friends keep telling me to get the Nvidia but I've had problems with their drivers before. But doesn't AMD have tons of driver problems as well?

Any recommendations on what mouse, headset and gaming controller to get? My mouse just gave up on me one day and my headset decided that it should go into early retirement. Go figure.

So psyched to get this thing ordered and shipped! Apparently, I don't look like gamer so this rig is the perfect statement of war >:). Then again, this face is the perfect deception when engaging in battle. :))

Seems like you already got some great advice:) However you might want to take the cheapest 3rd gen i7 processor. It is plenty fast for gaming, it will last much longer than HD7970m.
Definately go with 7970m over GTX675. AMD is improving their drivers rapidly. They used to be lagging behind Nvidia but in the past 1-2 years they made a huge step forward and AMD drivers are almost as good as Nvidia's. There used to be some installing issues but it seems like now they have been resolved so don't worry about drivers problems.
About RAM, go for the minimum 6GB. It is more than enough for gaming for now. Future upgrades are easy and cheap ($70 on newegg for 2x4GB HyperX). So if you ever feel the need to upgrade, its better to do it yourself. Besides, no game requires more than 4GB right now.

If you want a good bag for that beast i suggest the Orion bags. They look great, very high quality finish and protect laptop perfectly while offering plenty of additional space.

Now, a good mouse... I assume you have small hands and would prefer a small mouse, right? I'm using Microsoft Sidewinder. Excellent mouse but it's a little big. Razer usually is smaller so you could take a look at that. Would you like a wired or wireless mouse anyways?

Headset, well it all depends on your budget. If you are willing to spend a lot, take a look at Logitech G35 or even higher models. If you are on a budget Gamecom Plantronics 367 is an excellent choice and can be bought for about $30-$40

yuukichan said: Whew, never expected a lot of people to comment on this one. Thanks a lot, guys!

M17x it is! I need to get a good bag though to save my backbone from the strain. :) I think I'll get the 7970M after all because of the very potent persuasive powers of the awesome people in the forums :)). My friends keep telling me to get the Nvidia but I've had problems with their drivers before. But doesn't AMD have tons of driver problems as well?

Any recommendations on what mouse, headset and gaming controller to get? My mouse just gave up on me one day and my headset decided that it should go into early retirement. Go figure.

So psyched to get this thing ordered and shipped! Apparently, I don't look like gamer so this rig is the perfect statement of war >:). Then again, this face is the perfect deception when engaging in battle. :))

what kind of games do you play fps or something else? if you play fps or something in that genre, go for the razer mamba (expensive) or alienware's opticx mouse (it has the awsome future to change your sens. of your mouse in battle if you play with a mouse) for MMO, RPG ect. go for the razer naga series (link:http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_IE/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.35208800)

headset: I have the cmstorm 5.1 sirus it's great for FPS and you can switch between all kinds of profiles (one for music ect.) it has an easy interfase and some voice transformers XD. also good gameheadset builders are turtlebeach (more for xbox ect. link: http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/pc-gaming-headsets.aspx)

razer has a very good one its a TRUE 7.1 surround sound headset (link: http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_IE/pd/productID.242705100/categoryId.35096300)

tritton are also pop. in the netherlands and some lan-events: http://www.trittonusa.com/prod/pchead.asp

I have no experience with backpacks because I have the area-51 alx (84ibs) but Alienware sells some backpacks (if you wear one, the gamers will reconize it)

everything depends on your budget all these are expensive.

sgman1343 said: go for 16 gigs of RAM

Please don't listen to this ^ guy, 16GB of RAM is waaaaaaaaay more than you would ever, EVER need for gaming; 6GB or 8GB (which ever is the lowest option) is good!

But it seems that besides that, you have everything sorted out! You will enjoy carrying that beast around, trust me!

Awesome system man... I have the m17x R3. Enjoy it! Plus you are getting the new third generation processor. Enjoy the more efficient overclocking.

krishnooof said: Seems like you already got some great advice:) However you might want to take the cheapest 3rd gen i7 processor. It is plenty fast for gaming, it will last much longer than HD7970m.
Definately go with 7970m over GTX675. AMD is improving their drivers rapidly. They used to be lagging behind Nvidia but in the past 1-2 years they made a huge step forward and AMD drivers are almost as good as Nvidia's. There used to be some installing issues but it seems like now they have been resolved so don't worry about drivers problems.
About RAM, go for the minimum 6GB. It is more than enough for gaming for now. Future upgrades are easy and cheap ($70 on newegg for 2x4GB HyperX). So if you ever feel the need to upgrade, its better to do it yourself. Besides, no game requires more than 4GB right now.

You people are godsend. Been gaming for as long as I can remember (4, I think) but never got into the whole tech specs shizz until recently. Learning a lot right now from you guys! :)

AMD, 6Gb, cheapest Ivy Bridge. Gotcha :)

krishnooof said: Razer usually is smaller so you could take a look at that. Would you like a wired or wireless mouse anyways?

I prefer a wireless mouse but performance always comes first, I suppose. I'm just partial to wireless mice because of a bad history of cords getting pulled out.

alienpup said:
what kind of games do you play fps or something else? if you play fps or something in that genre, go for the razer mamba (expensive) or alienware's opticx mouse (it has the awsome future to change your sens. of your mouse in battle if you play with a mouse) for MMO, RPG ect. go for the razer naga series (link:http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_IE/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.35208800)
headset: I have the cmstorm 5.1 sirus it's great for FPS and you can switch between all kinds of profiles (one for music ect.) it has an easy interfase and some voice transformers XD. also good gameheadset builders are turtlebeach (more for xbox ect. link: http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/pc-gaming-headsets.aspx)
razer has a very good one its a TRUE 7.1 surround sound headset (link: http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_IE/pd/productID.242705100/categoryId.35096300)

The only games I don't really play are sports and GTA. :)). Otherwise, any title is fair game - DA, Skyrim, D3, L4D, Crysis, and the like.

Hmm, intriguing headsets you got there. Will start stalking them on the internet.

Eirreann said:
But it seems that besides that, you have everything sorted out! You will enjoy carrying that beast around, trust me!

I hope my back enjoys it too. :))

Wireless gaming mice are not cheap. If you want high performance in wireless mode you really have 3 choices. Razer Mamba (very good) RAT 9 (also very good) and Microsoft Sidewinder x8 (good, but does not perform at its best at high dpi in wireless mode)

Sidewinder X8 is definately the worst in wireless mode. In wired mode it is excellent, just like mamba and rat. It is also the cheapest, about $80 if i remember well. If you have about $100-$150 to spare you can take a look at Mamba and RAT.

If it would be possible, i suggest you go to a pc store and try these mice out. I also have a small hand but i got used to Sidewinder in around a week.

Yuuki-chan, I'm glad our tech-savvy members helped you out on deciding a powerful and affordable rig. I agree with what most of our members said. You're going to have an awesome machine. I do worry about you lugging it around though. It will gradually put a lot of stress on your back so please take it easy when you carry it.

krishnooof said: Wireless gaming mice are not cheap. If you want high performance in wireless mode you really have 3 choices. Razer Mamba (very good) RAT 9 (also very good) and Microsoft Sidewinder x8 (good, but does not perform at its best at high dpi in wireless mode)

Sidewinder X8 is definately the worst in wireless mode. In wired mode it is excellent, just like mamba and rat. It is also the cheapest, about $80 if i remember well. If you have about $100-$150 to spare you can take a look at Mamba and RAT.

If it would be possible, i suggest you go to a pc store and try these mice out. I also have a small hand but i got used to Sidewinder in around a week.

I was actually considering the Mamba but the price is a bit steep. Does anyone have any experience with the Orochi? I'm fine with wired mice as long as the cord is sturdy enough to not separate from the body of the mouse. For some reason, I have that effect on my past wired mice. :|

definewikipedia said: Yuuki-chan, I'm glad our tech-savvy members helped you out on deciding a powerful and affordable rig. I agree with what most of our members said. You're going to have an awesome machine. I do worry about you lugging it around though. It will gradually put a lot of stress on your back so please take it easy when you carry it.

Yeah, I'm kind of expecting that already. I guess the most I can do is get a backpack with godly weight distribution abilities and not hike up a mountain with the rig. :)). I'm used to lugging around heavy stuff so that's a plus point, I guess. The most I need to walk with the laptop is around 2 blocks which is somewhat tolerable. Plus, being a therapist has its perks as well :)). Thanks for the concern!