Notebook Choices

[advocate]

To be brief: I quit TFC a while back but now I'm looking for technical advice so naturally I returned here =). I'm looking for a Notebook that will run World of Warcraft with decent settings really well to flawlessly. (Keep in mind, if you know anything about WoW, I'm an active raider so 40+ objects doing different things is going to be common) I'm offering two different competitors I'm looking at, Dell or Alienware. Feel free to give your opinion on either company and let me know which Notebook in the two price ranges is the best choice. I've lost touch lately with the newest graphics cards and processors so I'm not sure how anything compares anymore.

~2000 Dollar Range

Dell Machine:
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)

Alienware:
AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ with HyperTransport Technology
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
256MB Single Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 1 x 256MB (+120 =1gb)
60GB 5400 RPM SATA (+160 = 7200 80gb)
24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder
No Wireless Card (+30 = Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card)
256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 6800
Alienware® m7700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack

2000$ Summary:
I prefer AMD personally, and with the easy 280$ upgrades with the alienware it seems like it becomes superior to the Dell machine. However the video cards still differ (I think a lot). Your thoughts?

~2800 Dollar Range

Dell:
Upgraded Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 780 (2.26 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Increased Ram: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
Expanded HD: 80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive

Alienware:
Upgraded Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 3800+ with HyperTransport Technology
Increased Ram: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz
Improved Video Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 6800 Ultra
Expanded HD: 80GB 7200 RPM SATA

2800$ Summary:
It seems Alienware is able to do more with the same amount of money, getting a video card upgrade as well. Which do you prefer?

This is basically a comparison between the XPSM170 and the Aurora m7700. It's more likely I'll be getting the 2000$ ranged one, but incase my parents feel generous I configued two for the just under 3000$ range =)

*edit* and I have a 60 rogue 60 druid and 60 warrior on mannoroth alliance side =), in case anyone is interested I hear there's a few WoW fans here and there still into TFC.

[Direhit]

While at was at Quinnipiac University, the vast majority of my friends who were business majors (which laptops were required of) had DELL laptops and all I can say is that they are terrible. I saw so many of them have to get not only major repairs but full replacements because they were such poor quality. They are not tough at all, I literally brushed my hand over my roomate's laptop once and I took off ten keys... terrible.

[thrash_head]

Dell isn't bad. I just got a XPS M140 for work and it works awesome. For gaming, go alienware, i love alienware laptops for gaming. I would also look at the video-card.. The dell uses 7800GTX and the alienware only uses 6800go. BTW whats up advo? i haven't heard from you in a LONG time. Leave me your vent channel so i can come in and make fun of you wow faggots :D

[advocate]

yah i was leaning to alienware myself, I love their designs a lot and they have a rep as a pure gaming machine company.

hey thrash <3, i knew you'd respond. i'll drop you my vent info in a forum PM, (a lot of the IKK members split to different WoW guilds but we all know each others)

[thrash_head]

Sweet, I'll drop by and see whats been going on. I'd go with alienware over XPS myself because they do have a better rep. and they are awesome machines.

[pos]

you can add a 7800 now i believe with Alienware. The only problem with Alienware is the batterylife and the fans. If you play a game for more then 20 mins or so you can actually smell it burn the desk (not like actual burn marks and such, just can smell it heat up the wood). Their tech and support for Alienware is amazing tho, way better then Dell's. Go with Alienware ;)

[DuM]

Get a dell xps M170 and this will save you rougly $350. It's what I just did recently and it owns.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=590751&newest=1#last