M5550 Owners..

Hi commish, you've been around these boards a while now....

I must say that I like my 5550i, it really is a powerful medium range laptop. If I could have anything better, it would definitely be a more powerful graphics card. The 7600 can handle most of what i throw at it, but it's not meant for playing games at high settings.

an 8xxx series card would be nice! and may be possible to upgrade at a later stage, but thats hear/say for now.

The m5550 is as fast as i expected. About the only thing i don't like is the speakers - very tinny and cheap sounding. Plug in some headphones or good speakers and you forget about it, though.

Newegg currently shows GeIL and Patriot memory for the 5550. It runs about $200 (after MIR) for 4gb.

Don't have an answer for your ATI question.

Overall i wouldn't hesitate to buy the m5550 again ... oh wait, i did!

One is a dual-boot Linux/XP system that i game on and other stuff. The other is integrated into my home audio/video security system.

This also allows flexibility if i ever had to send one of them back to AW for repair since they both have the same specs.

With XP 2gb of ram is plenty. Can't say for Vista - i won't be running it anytime soon.

As far as video card upgrades go, maybe we will see something new this fall. Your guess is as good as mine. The 7600go works great for me. If you're looking for something that has more graphics power just grab an m9750.

If you're not going to use the machine for gaming then the X1400 will suffice, bearing in mind that it's only 128mb. I did a lot of hunting around before I bought mine and the reviews with the X1400 weren't too bad.

Ah yes, the speakers, they are weak and need tweaking with software.

why down grade to a 128 mb vid card when that wont even play a DVD at good quality. You would have a hard time playing Starcraft with that vid card. 128 is way to low to being using, its too outdated. I wouldnt even buy a laptop unless it had a 256mb or higher... 2Gigs of RAM is fine for the m5550 I dont even think if you bought 4 Gigs of RAM that it would even recognize all of it...

slight exaggeration here

256mb should be the minimum sold in any computer. Ive owned a 128mb vid card on my old laptop back in the 90's and it sucked just watching videos. I wouldnt use cassettes now days to recorded music on it when there are cds around now.

I assume that you are asking this question because you are on the fence on whether the M5550 is a good buy or not. Well, let's knock the first round of questions out of the way. Anything you read on the forum about the M5550 overheating or random shutdowns has been fixed through a bios update.

To answer your question, I love my M5550. I love the configuration (see sig) I picked out. It does everything I wanted it to with no problems. The Nvidia card is worth the money if you are going to do ANY gaming. It will make any game run smoother than the 128 x1400. As for RAM options. Going with 4GB of ram is way too much. First off, Windows XP won't recognize 4GB. It only recognizes a little over 3GB, so it is over kill. Save the money. If you are going to do RAM, get the lowest you can from Alienware and upgrade yourself. It is quite easy, cheaper and is even outlined in the owners manual.

This machine is wonderful. I've played games on it, even with the little built in speakers, and it is good. The speakers aren't the greatest or loudest, but if you are playing in a quiet place, you really don't need much else.

About the only thing to watch on this machine is to make sure that when you have it under load (ie playing games, or multitasking) make sure you keep the exhaust ports clear. If any of them are blocked, the system gets hot to the touch. Other than that, I love it, and would easily buy one again. Also, if you're going to be using it away from an outlet alot, I would suggest investing in the 9 cell battery they offer for it. The 6 cell leaves a bit to be desired for length of use. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

actually, for XP max recognized RAM is 2 Gb's and for Vista it's 3 Gb's. It's actually slightly more, but 2 and 3 are nice round numbers.
no matter what, 4 Gb's is pretty much worthless, unless you're going to be running 10 VM's on it..

and so far I've had no issues with my 5550, the Superman on the other hand.. big POS

You won't be able to notice the actual difference in speed or cycles. If you run a benchmark program then yes, obviously there will be a difference between the two proc's, however, for real world difference, I would just save the money from that and only getting 512mb of ram and use both towards a RAM purchase online to get to you're desired GB size.

If you plan on playing any games on it, then don't upgrade to vista yet. As far as I know, they are still having problems, and I don't know if they are all solved yet. My philosophy for upgrading is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". XP is still the most stable operating system for general use. I don't plan on upgrading to Vista until MAYBE next year, if even then. Though by then, it may be required by some of the games I want to play. 2. The config I have works great. Even playing games. I can play games like Need for Speed Carbon and FEAR with most of the bells and whistles. Not all, but enough to make the game truly enjoyable. I went with the 1.8 to save a few bucks as well. If you are still looking to go to 2GB of RAM, then only get the minimum from alienware and upgrade it yourself later. That does not void the warranty. I actually priced the difference between getting 1GB from alienware as opposed to going with the minimum and upgrading to 1GB, but the cost is almost the same, so i figured, let them do it. 3. As for Warranty, I went with 2yrs. I figure that is about the worth of having a warranty on a laptop, as they become fairly obsolete after about 18 months. However, for what I mostly use it for, it will probably suffice for at least 3 years, if I'm nice to it. My current desktop I've had for a little over 3 years and am just now going to upgrade. So to sum it up: Personally I would steer clear of VISTA, but again, that is personal mostly (some knowledge though). The configuration I have plays games pretty well, so long as you don't block the fan bays. I have not had any issues with it freezing during game play, and I have played games for at least 1.5 hours or more on it. 4GB of RAM is way too much for this mid range lappy, I would stick with 2 at the most. If you want more power, then go with a more powerful model. If you're looking for the compromise between gaming and portability, then the M5550 is your laptop. And for warranty, I wouldn't go more than 2 years. Just seems common sense to a tech geek like me.

That is why I build my own desktops. I save a few bucks, get the exact parts I want, and only deal with manufacturers. I did too, until I heard about all the problems gamers were having with it. So I finally made the decision to wait a while before taking the plunge. (like maybe until the first service pack comes out) But again, that is just my personal opinion. I have heard from some people that haven't had problems with it, and I've heard from people that regret the upgrade. So the choice is yours, ultimately.

If you have a copy of XP lying around then I would definitely get the Vista and then dual boot.

Or just get the vista, then wipe the hard drive and boot xp until the smoke clears from the vista fall out....