I am at the point to where i am going to buy a really fast (and big)laptop.
Both the alienware and mtechs are very fast, have raid capable laptops. BOth have 17's and 20ish screens available. I MUST have raid0!
I dont want dell, compaq, gateway, or any of those.

They both seem to cost about the same once i add the features i want, so why don't you all help me to decide which one I should get.

Do a little research if you dont mind, cause i have spent countless hours personally, and i see pros/cons with both...lol


Thank for any input.

Links are

http://www.m-techlaptops.com/
http://alienware.com/

 

My money is on Alienware

 

Alienware = Dell...

 

before I vote, 4-5grand is Alot for a laptop. Why ya need such a jacked up laptop?

 

Maybe so but my experiance also taught me that:
Alienware = FAST

I dont know about the other one, I do love my Alienware though.

 

yeah, we also use dells at work and don't really have issues with them, i am a support tech, but don't take this the wrong way, its kinda like he's saying I refuse to buy a ford, but i'll buy a lincoln...

 

johntucker09...lol I know dell own alienware, trust me, I watched the whole time that acquisition was in the works. Alienware was exclusively amd untill dell took them over. I own a ford and a lincoln. hehe but the normal dells and what not don't offer raid which is one prerequisite i have in my next laptop. I dont care about battery life, I even have an inverter in my lincoln towncar and the 65 f100.


Jake00, One of the reasons I want one of those hotrod laptops is because I do a lot of photograph rendering, and that Raid0 makes one heck of a difference. I built a desktop raid0 before, and the performance of them is uncanny. I also run virtual computers, and a lot of severe and intensive processing, and I just don't like being tied to a desk with a desktop. I know that is an expensive prospect, but it is what I need.

I am leaning towards the alienware, but just want opinions on possible others.
lol

 

Alienware was bought by Dell last year so if you buy one you are buying a Dell. We have a Alienware desktop computer that we bought last year before the buyout, but to be honest I can't say that it is that much better than the Dell we had before and it is already making noises. I'm not a gamer but my son plays a lot of WOW and the biggest improvement was when we bought the 19 in LCD monitor.

 

i know dell owns alienware, and I have known that since the day they took over. but alienware and mtech are the only 2 companies I know of that produces a raid laptop. Raid is the only option for me. I do many rendering types of things, and raid quickens that by 100% or there about on systems that are not raid with like configurations otherwise. if it werent for that, it would not matter, but I have to have raid.

If you dont know what raid is, it takes 2 identical hard drives, and makes them into a single drive. Raid0 is for performance, raid 1 makes one hard drive mirror the main drive for a constant, on going real time backup, so if your main drive crashes, the other one kicks in instantly without so much as a hiccup. I have ran raid before on desktops, but desktop is no longer an option for me. hence the super powerful and fast computer im gona buy. it costs more, but thats what I need, because even with a 64 bit laptop with 2 gigs of ram, i can ground this laptop to a crawl with some of the things I do. Raid helps a lot.

Raid stands for redundant array of independant devices...multiple hard drives, that are not in a normal config. shows as 1 drive. raid 0 merges performance, raid 1 mirrors.



Dell started skimping with alienware when they first took over, but have since started migrating back from what I have read.

 

right, just know that if you run Raid 0, and you don't back it up on a regular basis, you will loose half your data, as striping basically puts half of a file on one drive and the other half on another drive.

 

Not sure about their laptops...but I know that Alienware's Desktops are top of the line. Back when I was researching a computer for myself, You could build the Alienware to be much more powerful and faster than any other system out there (Dell, HP, ect...), not to mention all the extreme gamers chose the Alien over any other system (not including home-built)

I ended up going with the Dell XPS600 Desktop because my college was giving a student discount on them, and it was cheaper than the Alienware of the same performance.

 

My friend has an alienware area-52 m7000 or was it 7500? Laptop anyways it’s a biggin with raid 0, P4, dual DVD writers, awesome laptop speakers, camera… basically all the trimmings. It’s almost 2 years old now and still stupid fast, but he has to clean it often and take care not to block the vents otherwise it’ll overheat and shutdown, plus your lucky to get an hour of battery life. It works for him though because he’s always moving around between hotels for work and just wants a mobile desktop.

 

Thanks for the heads up johntrucker09, backups are very important on a raid0 without a doubt. I ran raid0 for a long time(desktop), and had 1 drive go out on me. the good thing was, I set it to single drive, and reformatted and was still running till i got replacement drives. I am pretty good about backing up to dvd, and a portable hard drive on a regular basis.

ATC, aliens are good pieces. I like to build my own desktops, but with lappy's, it is more expensive, and you get less of a system for the price. plus the quality is lower. Uniwill is one of the suppliers you can get laptop barebones with, and I heard that alienware was using them for a while. uniwill is cheaply made stuff. thin lids and all. They are getting back to the orig suppliers though, so im lead to believe.

yea screwy..lol I carry an inverter in my cars for charging on the go. battery life isnt much of a concern. unless of course the one in the car starts to go out..lol Raid is a wonderful thing in the performance world. rendering movies, graphics, games and what not, you cant beat a raid for those..

 

You are buying one in name only. Alienware laptops are still far superior and have more features than anything Dell designs.

No, you will lose *all* your data. Unless being able to recover every other 16KB of a 15MB TIFF file is something you can work with.

I would also go with Alienware. Their batteries are more like portable UPS's than actual laptop batteries though - but you seem to know that.

 

yup..lol I had a raid0 crash on me before..... there was nothing salvagable, but thats what i got backup drive for..lol Anytime i save something on here thats inportant, onto the port hard drive it goes, and if it is really important, it goes on dvd/cd too.

as far as the battery, i use that mainly for transporting things.... I will suspend it if im not going to be long before fireing it back up, or hibernate it when its going to be a while. I rely on the battery only for roughly 40 minutes a day otherwise, so an hour is plenty of time..lol

Bring on the alien.
i will most likely get the alienware aurora m9700 as i like amd processors for rendering.

kool, i just got another idea for a poll...lol