Which PC to buyFollow

I'm planning on starting world of warcraft within the next week. I've been messing around on the free version and am basically already addicted. I'm a freshman in college and buying a desktop wouldn't make sense for me. I'm torn between which of these two laptops to purchase. I'm basically asking which one will perform better for World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2. heres the specs.
Alienware M14x:
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5 2410M 2.3GHz (2.9GHz w/Turbo Boost, 3MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
VIDEO CARD 1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
LCD PANEL 14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
WIRELESSHD OR MOBILE BROADBAND None
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8x SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Slot Load Optical Drive
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio

OR

Alienware M11x:
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 a/g/n 1x2
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 2617M 1.5GHz(2.6GHz w/Turbo Boost, 4MB Cache)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT540M graphics with 2.0GB Video Memory and Optimus
LCD PANEL 11.6" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight

Go with the m14 if you can afford it.

TO be honest I've built my last 3 PC's and couldn't believe how surprising easy it has been. If your buying it and the most consuming game on your system is WOW then please I would suggest you build your own and save a ton of money. Now if you do decide to buy one I suggest STAYING AWAY FROM ALIEN WARE. Yes when they first came out they were awesome but once bought out by DELL they have gone downhill quickly and are severely overpriced. I know 3 people I work with who have bought either an Alien Ware laptop or PC in the last 2 years that have had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS within their first month of owning the system. Either one of the raid HD's crap out, bad motherboards, or bad OS installations.

Personally if you look up the specs for any of these computers you posted you can goto a site like NEWEGG.com Or TigerDirect ( which is pretty much Comp USA) and do a side by side comparison on the price your paying for said items.

Find a co-worker or someone who will be willing to help you for $50 build it and show you how. Once again if you can change a light bulb you can build a PC.

That is just my suggestion. Now if you decide to go with a laptop once again stay away from Alien Ware. Personally I've been using the same SONY VIAO for the last 3.5 years and I'm still able to raid without any lag and playing from Russia a few months ago and still being able to hold my own.

IF your Just going to play WOW you can build a computer good enough for hard core raiding at about $500-$700 that will still have a HD graphics card and decent processor. Now if you want over the top NO BS your computer will make the world cry your looking to spend about $2,000 but I'm talking PCIEXPRESS hard drives, water cooled, and other overkill items you really don't need.

My greatest suggestion to you is to not go with Alienware. You are more or less paying for a brand name pasted on to a dell laptop. If you go with HP you can get a comparable laptop for a good $100-$200 less for the exact same thing minus the fancy branding. You can get more for less. I've been gaming on a Dv6z for a year now and have had absolutely 0 problems with it. It has a bigger screen than the alienware equivalent and a comparable graphics card, processor, HD, and ram. Great performance. And I paid something like $300 less than the Alienware equivalent.

If you are still hell bent on getting an alienware, you're not going to want the M11x. They make it appear huge in the photos, but it is actually VERY VERY VERY small. It is hard enough playing on my 15.5in screen. Just to give you an idea of how small it is, I just bought a tablet this week. It has a 10.1in screen. You'll be getting a laptop with a screen the size of a tablet PC or netbook. That is REALLY small.

Former 10-year Dell design engineer here. The posts about Alienware are spot-on. What Dell did to that company is beyond belief - very little of Alienware left there.

I agree about building your machine yourself. Newegg has a lot of people who post reviews and tell you what components they used for their rig. You can score a pretty solid gaming machine on the cheap and with the same performance you'd get from the big boys. A lot of what you pay for in a Dell/Alienware/HP is the cost of labor, software integration, and bloatware licensing - and that's better spent on the hardware you want.

Good luck!

Jorge

You can't get HP's with AMD Processors and Nvidia graphics cards. Only ATI cards.

But I think what he wants is a laptop so he can use it around campus and in class. Since he can probably only afford either a desktop or a laptop, he wants a laptop so he can get more use out of it.

As long as he gets a laptop with a dedicated graphics card he should be fine for games like WoW. Mine is over a year old now and I can handle BFBC2 at medium graphics, WoW at highest, Team Fortress 2 at highest, Rift at med, etc. As long as you're not cranking up the graphics to max and not play cutting edge games the HP's will be more than enough.

With that said, the HP's are comparable to the Alienware's. Also keep in mind that the HP's start out with lower range stuff in their initial pricing. Many of the Alienware computers come already "suped-up" so the price is naturally higher. BUT if you build an HP laptop to be comparable in specs to an Alienware, you'll find you're paying a few hundred less AND get a bigger screen.

I have a Dv6z and I've been using it practically every day for over a year and have yet to have a single problem with it. I had bought one for my mom with identical specs and its still going strong too. They are solid, reliable computers. The only thing you may want to invest in is a GOOD lap top cooling plate for when you're gaming or watching videos. Having all of those high end components wrapped into a small space working at full steam generates A LOT of heat. Trying to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 would result in repeated slowdowns and emergency shut downs due to overheating. I bought a highly rated cooling plate from Newegg and haven't had a problem since.

Fact of the matter is, whether its an HP or an Alienware you're going to have cooling issues while gaming. Its not a problem exclusive to HP.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2011 8:23pm by ekaterinodar

Sony does many things right, but computers has never been one of them.