[PGTips]

hey

firstly i run my computers into the ground before i get rid of them i still have a laptop running XP which i still use for just surfing the web

i currantly have 3

XP - 2005
Vista - 2007?
and antother from 2009 not sure what OS or the specs of either.

each of these laptops were first brought as gaming laptops and slowly dropped down a rank (gaming, programming, chatting/web surfing).

Obviously the computers which can still easily preform other tasks are used for everything, although they are all slow and out dated now. which is why i need a new one,

i was thinking of getting an alienware / razor laptop now it's not to "play games" but for its lifespan. if i still use a 11 year old computer for web browsing surely a new expensive laptop would take even longer to drop to this lowest point in this cycle? obviously being a gamer having these WOW graphics is a great plus.

i basically want a computer which will last me for a pretty long time the only time it drops out of the gaming rank is when the computer cannot even get past the loading screen of games. however it will also be carrying tasks such as programming (compiling), rendering videos etc after it has fallen out of its gaming lifespan and during.

it also benefits me that the 18 inch model has space for 3 hdds as i currantly carry around a 500gb laptop and a 2tb external hdd which is full i could make this internal and easier to carry.

the laptop have negiated with dell to be sent without hdds or ram, as it's cheaper and i have better alternatives to put in their place.

the specs from dell are:

Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M with 8GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Enabled OR Dual AMD Radeon™ R9 M290X graphics with 4GB GDDR5- AMD CrossFire™ technology (Help me decide?)
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4910MQ Processor (Quad Core, 8MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.1GHz)

neotiated by phone not on the spec site thing

the parts i will add are:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMSX...gb+1600+laptop

Two sets of those (32 GB ram)

samsung 840 evo 1tb http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5-...ng+840+evo+1tb

x2

+ my 2tb drive.

any other minor system information can be found here:

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-1...0aw812:6~98CXT

p.s i know i can build a desktop with these specs or better for alot less but it needs to be portable as im never in the same place and also be used for work which requires a laptop.

[Jese]

Please no Alienware, it's overpriced just no. The best thing you can get are ASUS gaming laptops. Take a look here: http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrab...ming_Products/

[TakeiT]

Razer laptops are good, though if you need a laptop for work/portability, get a cheaper one, THEN build a desktop. The reason is, you'll be able to upgrade your PC as needed. That's what I do. That way you can personalize. As you need to, upgrade the part that is out of date. If you are low on harddive space, pop another in. If programs start using most of your ram, upgrade your ram etc. Some parts will be good forever, it'll save you money in the longrun.

[toXioneer]

How about saving up for Razer Blade? I heard it's a beast laptop, even good for video editing.

EDIT: Actually nevermind, just read the price, for some reason I thought it was cheaper.

[IceCube!]

Firstly, to directly answer your question... for gaming (until you get to medium or low settings), they have been known to last 5 - 6 years. Which isn't bad, just don't rely on it as, end of the day although I would consider and actually do the same thing as you the gaming industry and computer industry are developing quicker than ever. I don't see it being long till the comes where software catches up, quickly.

On the other hand, I know a guy running a 10 year old AlienWare laptop, it still runs games on Medium... I've seen it, looks pretty good. He has tinkered a bit with it however to keep it going, both with the hardware and software hacks to fool the game into thinking the computer is better than it actually is so he can force the game to try to run at these specs.

Therefore if he is still running his? There's no reason you can't be running yours in 10 years time if software doesn't catch up, you seem to take care of your laptops keeping one 11 years! Therefore it should last. and would still compile programs with ease (again, depending on software development).

Being someone who needs a computer to be portable aswell, for privacy reasons mainly as I don't like people reading my chats or sitting in the same room all the time. I would as said before do the same thing,

There is however the price issue, they are over priced. However the hardware inside them is often build on custom shaped boards in order to allow them to actually fit the hardware inside such as small thing, which is why as said above Razor is the same price really.

As for the Asus laptops mentioned above, I've never seen or owned one. Therefore I cannot comment, as I cannot be arsed to look through the site. However your looking to build a computer to maximum specification (32 GB RAM, and 2 x 1TB SSDs). I don't think Asus will send you an incomplete computer and will have to send you a computer of your choice with RAM and HDD included.

As for your other question, I would go with the Dual nVida cards without looking too much into it, why Nivida works well with Intel? It also has double the memory 8GB's, although I don't know the clock rates for these GPUs, and depending on what they are you need to choose the best one for you.

For life span, I would choose the one with the bigger memory, as this means it can pile up waiting to be processed when the computer becomes outdated instead of leaking over to system RAM. Although if the Clock rate is dramatically more, you would want to take that one as it can process through the information in its memory quicker.

I understand you don't want a desktop, and use your laptop where ever you are when you need it. Therefore I wouldn't buy a cheap laptop and build a desktop for home, as your looking to run a computer for everything for aslong as possible. THe lifespan of an off the shelf cheap Laptop is about 1 - 2 years. As you seem to know from your above post stating the dates of purchase I guess?

EDIT: I personally however would WAIT! This is because it's around the time where all the new stuff comes out for computers, and laptops everywhere (unless i'm mistaken). This can do 1 of 2 things for you:

Make the computer you desire currently ALOT cheaper.
Get you better hardware for probably a little bit more, than it is now. Hopefully the new hardware releases will be great, and be more than a little upgrade.

[TakeiT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceCube! Firstly, to directly answer your question... for gaming (until you get to medium or low settings), they have been known to last 5 - 6 years. Which isn't bad, just don't rely on it as, end of the day although I would consider and actually do the same thing as you the gaming industry and computer industry are developing quicker than ever. I don't see it being long till the comes where software catches up, quickly. On the other hand, I know a guy running a 10 year old AlienWare laptop, it still runs games on Medium... I've seen it, looks pretty good. He has tinkered a bit with it however to keep it going, both with the hardware and software hacks to fool the game into thinking the computer is better than it actually is so he can force the game to try to run at these specs. Therefore if he is still running his? There's no reason you can't be running yours in 10 years time if software doesn't catch up, you seem to take care of your laptops keeping one 11 years! Therefore it should last. and would still compile programs with ease (again, depending on software development). Being someone who needs a computer to be portable aswell, for privacy reasons mainly as I don't like people reading my chats or sitting in the same room all the time. I would as said before do the same thing, There is however the price issue, they are over priced. However the hardware inside them is often build on custom shaped boards in order to allow them to actually fit the hardware inside such as small thing, which is why as said above Razor is the same price really. As for the Asus laptops mentioned above, I've never seen or owned one. Therefore I cannot comment, as I cannot be arsed to look through the site. However your looking to build a computer to maximum specification (32 GB RAM, and 2 x 1TB SSDs). I don't think Asus will send you an incomplete computer and will have to send you a computer of your choice with RAM and HDD included. As for your other question, I would go with the Dual nVida cards without looking too much into it, why Nivida works well with Intel? It also has double the memory 8GB's, although I don't know the clock rates for these GPUs, and depending on what they are you need to choose the best one for you. For life span, I would choose the one with the bigger memory, as this means it can pile up waiting to be processed when the computer becomes outdated instead of leaking over to system RAM. Although if the Clock rate is dramatically more, you would want to take that one as it can process through the information in its memory quicker. I understand you don't want a desktop, and use your laptop where ever you are when you need it. Therefore I wouldn't buy a cheap laptop and build a desktop for home, as your looking to run a computer for everything for aslong as possible. THe lifespan of an off the shelf cheap Laptop is about 1 - 2 years. As you seem to know from your above post stating the dates of purchase I guess? EDIT: I personally however would WAIT! This is because it's around the time where all the new stuff comes out for computers, and laptops everywhere (unless i'm mistaken). This can do 1 of 2 things for you: Make the computer you desire currently ALOT cheaper. Get you better hardware for probably a little bit more, than it is now. Hopefully the new hardware releases will be great, and be more than a little upgrade.

I got a few things to counteract this.

Why would you go for 2x1TB SSD? That seems like a waste to me, especially on a laptop. I would go for like a 100GB SSD and then a 2TB regular, it's cheaper, and makes more sense in my opinion. Also, nVidia doesn't necessarily work better with intel than radeon. You have to look at what you're doing. Each outperform the other in certain applications. So really, look for benchmarks. I know for what I do, my R9 270 works better than a GTX 760. Do your research, you can't compare computer hardware without knowing exactly what you're doing. Some components will be better in certain cases, others will not. Do your research, and decide for yourself is the best way.

However, "Gaming" laptops have crappy batteries. They don't last very long (due to the high amount of power drawn) and they aren't rated for high amount of charges anymore (in account to the companies scam you)

For example: I have an Acer netbook I bought 7 years ago. It's battery is still strong, and it's rated for something like 5000 charges. I bought another laptop 2 years ago, It's battery was rated for only 300 charges (that's less than 1 year, charging only once per day) and i've had to replace it. It was a cheaper computer, though my $800 Toshiba which has less than half the hours of the HP one ALSO had the battery fry..

So if you get one, make sure to get the extra warrenties on your chargers and batteries. They're not cheap.

[Pottus]

I would never buy another laptop again myself money pits.

[Patrik356b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pottus I would never buy another laptop again myself money pits.

I don't buy laptops, people literally throw them at me...

Granted, they aren't new they still work well for surfing the web and playing old games...

[IceCube!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakeiT I got a few things to counteract this. Why would you go for 2x1TB SSD? That seems like a waste to me, especially on a laptop. I would go for like a 100GB SSD and then a 2TB regular, it's cheaper, and makes more sense in my opinion. Also, nVidia doesn't necessarily work better with intel than radeon. You have to look at what you're doing. Each outperform the other in certain applications. So really, look for benchmarks. I know for what I do, my R9 270 works better than a GTX 760. Do your research, you can't compare computer hardware without knowing exactly what you're doing. Some components will be better in certain cases, others will not. Do your research, and decide for yourself is the best way. However, "Gaming" laptops have crappy batteries. They don't last very long (due to the high amount of power drawn) and they aren't rated for high amount of charges anymore (in account to the companies scam you) For example: I have an Acer netbook I bought 7 years ago. It's battery is still strong, and it's rated for something like 5000 charges. I bought another laptop 2 years ago, It's battery was rated for only 300 charges (that's less than 1 year, charging only once per day) and i've had to replace it. It was a cheaper computer, though my $800 Toshiba which has less than half the hours of the HP one ALSO had the battery fry.. So if you get one, make sure to get the extra warrenties on your chargers and batteries. They're not cheap.

Brief reply to this:

An AlienWare battery will last you around 2 hours gaming... It will last you around 4 - 5 hours in a low power setting for word, etc. It can last longer if you deativate some cores therefore they are no longer going to be stuck on idle. Also most laptop batteries are rated at around 300 charges purely to make your warranty expire quicker, the 10 year old alienware owned by my friend still has its origibal battery. Besides when your at home with ANY laptop you're suppose to charge the battery and remove it, to prolong its life.

Charge ratings for battieres mean nothing really, other than liable your manufacturer plans to be. I have a laptop with a battery rated at 1000 charges, it's gone way past that due to good care and disconnecting the battery when I'm at home.

As for the SSDs I was purpley going with what he was saying, I wasn't going to go and make recommendations I was purely leaving that to someone else.

Then the GPUs I did say purely going by the information posted, which only stated the names and the memory. Therefore I did admit to an uninformed choice, and told him if the clock rate was a lot better on the other GPU go for that one. Although ultimately I did say get the one that suits you.

As for Pottus who "would never buy a laptop again". Some people need laptops for portability that's ultimately what they are designed for? If they are well maintain and cleaned every 6 months and rebuilt every year. A laptop can last you quite a while without hardware failure. If you mean becaue you can't upgrade, sometimes you can eapecally if it's a gaming laptop.

[IceCube!]

Fail. Sorry www editing my post (mobile) however clicked quote and didn't relise.