Hey yalls! Need some info on an Alianware Area 51.

[daminibeast]

Hey all! In the process of getting an Alianware Area 51 M15x and would like to know how good of a gaming rig it is. I know its old and a laptop so its going to be less than a desktop but most of my knowlage is in Desktop rigs and not lappys. I have a desktop with basically the same specs and it plays all the games listed on maxx with a Dell 22in 1680x1050. (yeah its a low res but Im not a rich man. (I know the lappy will not be as good as the destop cause its well, a laptop...)

Would like to play MW3 2 and 1 (would love to be on high...)

Battlefield BC2

Dirt 2 and 3

Prostreet. (haha)

NFS WORLD

FSX and Wings of Prey

SO here are the specs,

AREA-51 M15X 15" WUXGA W/CAM SIL-RIP-PNT R1

CPEN,INTEL T9300 CPU,2500/800,6M,FCPGA6 SCREENED

ELPIDA 4GB DDR2 PC2-5300 SO-DIMM 667MHZ Y9535

M15X PRIMARY 120WATT AC ADAPTER-ACCESS

M15X ODD SMARTBAY KIT-SILVER-PNT

M17X / M15X NVIDIA 9800M-GT2 512MB

SILVER BRACKET FOR MD2GTX, MD2GT2

SEAGATE 160GB 7200RPM FFS HDD REV3

8X DVD+/-RW NEC AD-7590A

INTEL PRO WIRELESS 4965 A/B/G DRAFT-N MINI-CARD

INTEL MOBILE INTEGRATED HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO

Just hoping I could get lots of ppls ideas please. Thank you all in advance!

Like I said I know its not the laitest and greatest, but for $405 I dont think its to bad! Or is it??

[el_corsez]

Well, the m15x seems to be the higher end, you can't go much better than that for this machine. My guess is it will let you play all of the games you listed at at least medium to high levels depending on the resolution of the screen.

When you say your desktop has basically the same specs, I don't see why the laptop wouldn't perform the same in this case.

I'm not a pro when it comes to prices, but I think that 400 bucks is all right. Just make sure the screen hinges are ok.

[whitrzac]

IMO thats a little much considering the issues that the m15x has... drivers/hinges/heat/etc...

[daminibeast]

I would be playing at native resolution. (1920x1200). Well the gpu does about 51.2gbs and my desktop version does 57.4gbs... also because of heat, the laptop gpu will downclock after a certain point... (at least thats what I have heard...)

Also the gpu was replaced on 8/10. (to the 9800mgt2) and the hinge system was replaced on 1/11...

[daminibeast]

also I am sure this question has already been asked but what is the best/fastest gpu I can (if I ever wanted to) drop into this laptop? Thanks for your help!

[FragZero]

Nvidia cards have problems with the drivers, no way to use recent drivers - which causes problems and reduces performance a lot (no tweaks for recent games).

Raw performance - geforce 280m

But considering the driver problem i'd say a HD3870 mobility - less powerfull but it has decent drivers.


An alternative may be a mxm 2.1 4850 from an alienware M17 - hasn't been tested as far as i know - but if it works it's as powerfull as a 280m with recent drivers!

[daminibeast]

I see, but older drivers work on the gtx 280m right?

Have you any idea what the memory bandwidth is for the HD3870?

Ok about the 4850, is this what you are talking about? : Alienware Mobility Radeon HD 4850 Master MXM2.1 III-HE 1GB vRam | eBay

Does it not fit physically? Also sometime I would like to drop 8gbs of ram into it, will the mobo support that? Or am I limited to 4gbs?

[FragZero]

Check Area-51 m15x and Nvidia GTX 280M for 280m info - it does work with older drivers.


That seems like a 4850 from a M17 - it has the correct slot. You might have to modify the heatsink a little but no real problems.

That's if there is biossupport - noone has tried sofar! someone has tried the asus W90 4870's but those are asus-specific cards that did not work.


No idea about the memory bandwidth - but that is not a good way to compare card performance anyway

[daminibeast]

Ok, well looks like the GTX 280 runs a little hot for my liking... still, if I get a little adventurous...

Ok. I might have to do that sometime down the road!
Well what is a good way to compare card performance?
Also any info on the max amount of RAM I can put in? Thanks for the help!

[FragZero]

Here is someone with 8GB

Alienware Area-51 m15x, 8800m GTX, 8GB ram, Win7 64bit - YouTube

and i'd say benchmarks.

The 8800mGTX /9800m GT will score a bit higher inn synthetic benchmarks then a 3870 but since the latest working nvidia drivers are 3 years old there are no profiles/driver tweaks for recent games. Some games might not even work on these old drivers!

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

the list on the right is a very rough indication.


Ultimate m15x configuration

X9000 - but i see no reason to upgrade from a T9300
8GB
4850 - assuming it works
SSD in hdd bay
Big HDD in DVD-bay