ALIENWARE LAPTOP

[wlfpck]

SSD provides a much faster speed in which information can be accessed.

Normal harddrives are notated with speeds of how quickly the platter spins. 7200, 5400, rpm. The higher the number, the more quickly the computer is able to access that information.

If you youtube the difference in the harddrive rpms, you can see that various things such as boot time and opening a LOT of things has a difference.

SSD is, from what I understand, the fastest harddrive available. There is no platter that spins. Videos show that the boot time is MUCH MUCH faster than that of a normal harddrive. Same with other tests that people have ran.

The durability aspect I believe comes from the fact that there are no moving parts. Newer laptops now have a locking mechanism that activates when the laptop is moved. (Clicking sound inside the lenovo and macbook pros when you pick it up and move it.) This helps to keep the harddrive inside healthy and less susceptible to movement.


If I got anything wrong please let me know. That's my understanding of things. :P

[brichard0625]

I just saw a nice a little 240gb ssd on new egg for $194 what do you think about that price? I have two portable hd and i believe i can put two hdd on the alienware i think

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by brichard0625

I just saw a nice a little 240gb ssd on new egg for $194 what do you think about that price? I have two portable hd and i believe i can put two hdd on the alienware i think

need MOAR info

you're essentialy asking "i just found a car for X-amount of dollars, should i get it?"

not all SSDs are created equal

[bestwheelbase]

@7thgear @wlfpck thanks for the great info!

Originally Posted by 7thgear

not all SSDs are created equal

In a nutshell, what makes a good SSD?

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

need MOAR info

you're essentialy asking "i just found a car for X-amount of dollars, should i get it?"

not all SSDs are created equal

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=Internal-SSD

not sure if this one fits the new laptop but it was 256gb sorry...unless someone can recommend one thats below $250 and has at least 200gb of space

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by bestwheelbase

@7thgear @wlfpck thanks for the great info!



In a nutshell, what makes a good SSD?

transfer speeds and reviews

some batch of SSDs seem to fail more often than not, so read the reviews.

if you are buying a brand new ssd there might not be reviews out, so you'll be a tester.

http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/b...an-ssd-primer/

[Allch Chcar]

Originally Posted by mechaghost

The Asus Republic of Gaming Laptops are better priced and have the same performance

Yes but the problem with Asus is you get a bunch of bloatware and their customer service sucks.

I went with a custom notebook, powernotebooks. There's a couple others that might have better options. I spent $1150 for a 15" with quad core I7 and a Nvidia based 560m video card. Essentially a mid-range and if anything breaks I have someone reliable I can call for support or repairs.

OP, good luck with alienware. Dell support fell off a few years ago but I heard they improved it at least somewhat.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by bestwheelbase

By SSD you guys mean solid-state drives rather than hard-drives (HDD) rig
@Dadhawk get in here. :happy0180:

SSDs are great if you can afford them and want the extra speed, portability. I know folks that swear by them but in my own machines I rather get the extra space for the price. Mechanical drives fail, but its not catastrophic as long as you are prepared for it.

As far as gaming laptops, my opinion anymore is you need to focus on video card performance. CPUs surpassed gaming needs about the time game companies started focusing everything on cross-platform. They have to code for the consoles, and any decent PC you buy will have more CPU. Get a decent CPU without paying huge geek tax and you'll be fine with a near top of the line video card spec.

Personally, I don't do gaming laptops for that reason. I don't play "serious" games on the move, just on my desktop. Both my last and current one have been Dell XPS models bought from the Dell Outlet for about 25% off list. With the ability to upgrade the video card, they easily last 3 to 5 years. You can often catch Alienware ones for the same level of discounts but you have to watch deal sites for a good coupon to get there.

I used to build my own, but the economy of scale just isn't there any longer for me.

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

SSDs are great if you can afford them and want the extra speed, portability. I know folks that swear by them but in my own machines I rather get the extra space for the price. Mechanical drives fail, but its not catastrophic as long as you are prepared for it.

I believe this is what you're looking for:
http://www.crucial.com/store/ssc.aspx

I wanted a SSD, but I didn't want to format my machine and start from scratch. I also didn't want anything less than 512GB, since if I'm doing this, I'm putting all of my games on it. Currently I have the Adrenaline linked to the 1TB drive in my desktop, and there's one in my wife's computer as well. No formatting, no need to start over from scratch, and all the storage of my platter HDD. Not quite as fast as a standalone SSD, but load times decreased noticeably (the second time the application is run, hence solid state caching drive.) Windows boot time (to desktop, ready to go, all services/startup applications running) dropped from ~50 seconds timed from POST to 12.

I heard a lot of iffy reviews on these, about data corruption and whatnot, and that gave me pause, but I have a 2TB NAS so no huge deal if everything went poof. I went ahead anyway and thought, never happen to me. Well, it did. I booted one day and it had to rebuild the cache, warned not to power off, etc. Got to the Windows logo and hung.
I disabled the Dataplex software when the warning came back up, rebooted, un/reinstalled Dataplex, and that's the only hiccup I've run in to. My wife has had none.

Other companies have their own versions too, but pay attention to if you're getting a sata 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s version.

[IntotheOcean]

Don't do it.
From my experience, (mind you this was 3 or so years ago so technology is now different) when it comes to laptops I hate them all. Sure they are always good at first but never last. That's the only thing I like about apple, shit is expensive but their macs(do not waste your money on a air) they last for a long time. As for pc, I said screw that and built one with some help of my nerdy friend.

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by IntotheOcean

Don't do it.
From my experience, (mind you this was 3 or so years ago so technology is now different) when it comes to laptops I hate them all. Sure they are always good at first but never last. That's the only thing I like about apple, shit is expensive but their macs(do not waste your money on a air) they last for a long time. As for pc, I said screw that and built one with some help of my nerdy friend.

Im not a laptop fan either but most certainly need one when i want to datalog when i do the tune, and also i needed one for school and work. As for mac i havent had a great experience with them... My dad has a mac pc thats about 7 months and barely used and we've sent it into repair 4 times already. Keyboard and mouse stopped working(replaced twice due to defective parts), screen would blank out(graphics card was faulty). My sister has macbook about 2 years old and we've taken that back to apple at least 10times. Their customer service is excellent tho, they never asked questions they just took the pc and fixed them each time.

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by IntotheOcean

Don't do it.
From my experience, (mind you this was 3 or so years ago so technology is now different) when it comes to laptops I hate them all. Sure they are always good at first but never last. That's the only thing I like about apple, shit is expensive but their macs(do not waste your money on a air) they last for a long time. As for pc, I said screw that and built one with some help of my nerdy friend.

A lot has changed in 3 years... mainly ivy bridge and affordable SSD

3 years ago i would have agreed with you but as of July or so a properly built laptop can be a serious piece of machine.



also to the dude that said he has issues with bloatware, bloatware is only an issue if you don't know how to clean your system, .

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

... Both my last and current one have been Dell XPS models bought from the Dell Outlet for about 25% off list. With the ability to upgrade the video card, they easily last 3 to 5 years....

Speaking of this, I just noticed Dell is having an Outlet sale right now through 10/31. You can get 25% off XPS and Alienware units in the outlet which ends up at about 30 to 35% off new, coupon is on the front page of the web store. Not advocating but since we were having the discussion....

By the way, is it OK to quote yourself in public, I feel a little dirty now....

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by IntotheOcean

Don't do it.
From my experience, (mind you this was 3 or so years ago so technology is now different) when it comes to laptops I hate them all. Sure they are always good at first but never last. That's the only thing I like about apple, shit is expensive but their macs(do not waste your money on a air) they last for a long time. As for pc, I said screw that and built one with some help of my nerdy friend.

Let's get this straight. Apple laptops use a lot of the same, if not the exact same components as a Windows computer. You pay for the name and the preloaded software. And the name. Yes, that's right, you pay for the name twice.

Laptops don't last long because a lot of people treat them like disposable items. But with Moore's Law and the furthering of technology they really are anyway.