I'm looking at Alienware's Aurora m7700 as a possible notebook purchase for when I go to college. I want it to have superior gaming functionality on the go while still being a decent laptop to do my studies on.
Anyway, being that I'm incredibly inept when it comes to anything AMD (I'm an Intel convert), I need some advice.
First things first, I want at least the AMD equivalent to the Intel P4 3.2GHz w/ HT processor, or better. I don't like asking the alienware livechat people since you can never trust salesmen when it comes to these things.
I'm not totally sure what that is, the salesman said the 4000+.
Then, I saw that the 4000+ was slightly more expensive than the dual core 3800+ that I hear also supports the new 64-bit technology AND that it will yield ~34% more performance than a single core. So, which is the better choice here? The slightly cheaper dual-core 3800+ or the single core 4000+?
Next question I have is harddrive RPMage. My current desktop has two WD raptors in raid 0 at 10k RPM each. It is insanely fast and I love them. However, this laptop is becoming quite pricey and I can only afford an 80GB 5400 RPM at this point (not even a 7200 much less 10k RPM). Will the 5400 RPM's be sufficient for playing games, and doing other work? I will have a gig of ram to accompany the pagefile, and I don't plan to do heavy multitasking (if I'm playing a game, I'm playing a game, not chatting on AIM/MSN and having 20 firefox windows open).
Finally my last question is, if you have done business with Alienware in the past, what are your thoughts about them? Besides being very expensive please, I just want to make sure that I'll be happy with a high powered notebook from them rather then ... eww Dell.
For those that may ask what I plan to use as its specs:
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ w/ HT (or the dual 3800s)
Windows XP Professional SP2
17" Widescreen UXGA 1920x1200 LCD
1 GB DDR in dual-channel
NVidia GeForce-Go 6800 Ultra 256MB
80 GB 5400 RPM
CD-RW/DVD 8x Drive
Integrated hi-def surround audio
Extra batt
External wireless card
Alienwares respawn kit
Extra logitech mx500 mouse
Thank you all in advance.
Edited by Novaprospekt, 10 December 2005 - 10:07 PM.
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