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Does this rig look alright? (m9750)

post #1 of 15
11/7/07 at 6:20pm
Thread Starter 
Basically I just wanted some opinions on this rig. Ill be using it primarily for games and I want it to be able to handle anything. I know Crysis is coming out and this should be able to run it quite well. I also know the 8700m cards are out now, but i think Dual 512MB NVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX cards in SLI should work fine? Also I really dislike Vista and I don't think it's worth it just to get it for the 8700m and Dx10 when the game can be run on Dx9 with XP. (Note: I'm not getting this rig just for Crysis, ill be using it for plenty of other games with far less system requirements as well) I would greatly appreciate some feedback on how this rig would work out for what I want to do with it:

Alienware m9750
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled
17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Stealth Black
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
120GB SATA 1.5Gb/s 7,200RPM 8MB Cache
8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW Burner
 Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card High-Definition Audio with surround sound
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post #2 of 15
11/7/07 at 7:39pm
Only thing I would say is why spend this much on a system and not bump up the stats a little to make it more "future proof"? It's an argument I went through when I bought my 7700, and I'm glad I got a 7900 GTX down the road. You *should* be able to upgrade, but it will be more than buying the 8700s up front. Just food for thought. Looks like it will be a real killer either way.
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post #3 of 15
11/7/07 at 9:49pm
Yea nice setup. Just one question:

Why the 4GB RAM? I don't believe AW offers any 64 bit programs and I believe that there is a system limitation with the chipset that will only allow it to see 3 GB RAM even with a 64 bit OS. Although I think thats what I read some where here on the forums but I'll have to hunt around to find you the thread...
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post #4 of 15
11/7/07 at 9:59pm
Ok found it on the notebookreview forums:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185131

Its 2 pages but the meat is on the second page concerning the RAM

Also, for your enjoyment there is a nice pick of Yang with his finger shoved up his nose...classic
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post #5 of 15
11/7/07 at 9:59pm
Thread Starter 
Well I just thought getting 4GB would be better than getting 2GB since the required amount of ram is always going up for things. Are you sure the 3GB is the max that XP can use? or just the max it can see? Either way 4GB should make the whole comp run more smoothly right?
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post #6 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:02pm
AW will charge a lot more for RAM than if you upgraded it yourself. If you can unscrew a compartment, pull a stick out and put a new one in, you can upgrade your RAM. It won't void your warranty (call and tell them) and it will be MUCH cheaper. Also, XP can only see/use 3 Gigs of RAM. If you're looking to play games that need 4 GB of RAM, I think you'd want to move to Vista at that point.
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post #7 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:04pm
i would buy the RAM from like newegg and save some money and install it yourself... but if money is no option then go ahead... but the OS with the chipset you will only see alittle over 3 gigs of RAM... No fix to see all the RAM...
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post #8 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BFisch06 View Post
AW will charge a lot more for RAM than if you upgraded it yourself. If you can unscrew a compartment, pull a stick out and put a new one in, you can upgrade your RAM. It won't void your warranty (call and tell them) and it will be MUCH cheaper. Also, XP can only see/use 3 Gigs of RAM. If you're looking to play games that need 4 GB of RAM, I think you'd want to move to Vista at that point.
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post #9 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerWilco69 View Post
Ok found it on the notebookreview forums:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185131

Its 2 pages but the meat is on the second page concerning the RAM

Also, for your enjoyment there is a nice pick of Yang with his finger shoved up his nose...classic
I read the link and I guess the end conclusion is the the intel 945 chipset just cant use 4GB. Which dosent make sence since they are offering 4GB in a chipset that can never even use it...So my main question is this:

Get the 4 GB ram (even though I will only ever see 3 GB unless the mobo is upgraded) or get 2GB because wasting my money on the 4GB is not worth it? However I wouldent really want to upgrade later since i would have to buy 4GB anyways...the two slots are already being used by 2 sticks of 1GB ram and I would need to buy two 2GB sticks.
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post #10 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:14pm
Well it's really up to you...but...if you are gonna get 4GB RAM then I would get it from newegg since it would be MUCH cheaper. So save the money and get the min RAM from AW and then buy from newegg and install it when the lappy arrives...the RAM will get there before the laptop does...again just my thoughts
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post #11 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:18pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone know if you can see 4GB w/ vista? or does the mobo restrict it to 3GB either way?
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post #12 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:25pm
it doesnt matter if its vista or XP or 64 bit or 32 bit OS its will only see 3 gigs due to chipset....
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post #13 of 15
11/7/07 at 10:26pm
the reason alienware offers the 4 gigs is to get the total amount of RAM the chipset can see and also be able to have dual channel...
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post #14 of 15
11/7/07 at 11:56pm
Thread Starter 
So if it can see a little over 3GB that is how much it will be using correct? or is it really using all 4GB, you just can't see it?
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post #15 of 15
11/8/07 at 6:23pm
Windows will only use what it can see, but 3+G is huge.

Other programs that run in non-windows environment can use the full amount as long as the bios sees it.

I think 4G is overkill for a laptop personally, I've got 2G, and my pagefile is rarely used.
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