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I need one. I move around too much to build another desktop so I have no other choice.

I haven't kept up with computer specs over the last two years so I'm out of the loop. I've been looking at Sager's NP9850 and 9280, as well as Alienware's M17x.

I have $3k to play around with, though I'm willing to throw in a few more benjamins if need be. Choose the best of the three, pick the parts and turn my frown upside down.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/category_browse.php?cid=&price_s=1999
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...efid=laptop-alienware-m17x&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

If you think I should get a lower resolution, or if you have a better laptop in mind, by all means, show me the light.

Thanks, gents.
 
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Alienware's are overpriced and suffer from overheating. Most Sagers are based on Clevo laptops, and they are known for being the best value for money gaming laptops. So my advice, go with the Sager. You'll definitly want to check this board as well: http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1017

Personally, I would consider waiting for a bit though. The new nVidia GTX 285 will be released soon and will be added to the Clevo/Sager lineup. Might be in your budget.

That and if you move around a lot. Both the Sager 17/18 incher and the Alienware PC are quite heavy. Might be better to consider a 15.6 inch gaming laptop? (i7, 28(5)0 GTX, 1 HDD) The Sager 8690, also known as the Clevo W860CU.
 
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did you try ebay? they tend to have gaming laptops on sale and you might be able to get a good one for cheap.
 
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The problem is I don't know whats good and what isn't. For example, do I want dual 280m with a QX9300 or do I want a single 280m and an i7-975 Processor Extreme Edition? I don't know. I'm working with the options available to me through Sager, so I'm still trying to figure **** out.
 
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For gaming, you'll probably be better off with dual 280M cards. While the i7 is an awesome processor (especially if you also plan on doing video editing, 3d rendering, anything CPU intensive), it gets bottlenecked by the GPU. That, and the QX9300 is quite the capable CPU as well. That said, it is not exactly like you will be low on power with just one 280M.

Obviously, the i7 has some major advantages. A) it has a higher clock rating, B) due to the i7 architecture, it is a lot faster than a similar normal quad core (i7 3.0ghz > Regular quad @ 3.0ghz) C) it has turbo power. Basically overclocking 2 cores, which will be a major advantage in gaming (however, isn't the 975 one of the older i7 CPU's? I heard they had more 'trouble' applying the turbo properly?) Memory wise both the i7 as the Qx9300 'only' allow up to 1066mhz RAM.
 
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I want to go the i7 route, but it seems like I get screwed out of gpu power if I do. Anywho, here's what I have for the 9850:

Display: 18.4" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Display
- Video & Graphics Card: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory in SLI Mode
- CPU Processor: 45nm Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Processor QX9300 / 12MB L2 Cache, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB
- Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition
- Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB
- RAID Storage Options: Non-RAID Storage
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
- Optical Drive: 2X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

Good? Bad? Search elsewhere?

Thanks for the help thus far, Sicron.
 
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The extra GPU will help you with that resolution. It will probably allow you to play with full resolution and be able to keep a nice AA on as well. The Quad core will definitely allow you to play recent games, especially if they allow for quadcore optimization. 4GB of RAM should be enough right now. And you can always upgrade one of the sticks to 4GB when it gets a bit cheaper. Too bad you can't get 1066mhz RAM though. You are really paying extra for something you can't use.
 
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I want to go the i7 route, but it seems like I get screwed out of gpu power if I do. Anywho, here's what I have for the 9850:

Display: 18.4" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Display
- Video & Graphics Card: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory in SLI Mode
- CPU Processor: 45nm Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Processor QX9300 / 12MB L2 Cache, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB
- Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition
- Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB
- RAID Storage Options: Non-RAID Storage
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
- Optical Drive: 2X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

Good? Bad? Search elsewhere?

Thanks for the help thus far, Sicron.
That's not a bad computer.. If I was in need of a new gaming laptop, I would probably but that one :)
 

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