M17x vs M17

M17x Specs
AW-M17x Nebula Red
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core Mobile Processor (QX9300)
Kingston HyperX 1333 CAS7 4GB Memory
Intel X25-M Gen2 160GB SSD
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4870 Graphics - Crossfire

Pros
Fastest mobile GPU available on the market
Big beautiful E2E display
Anodized Aluminum exterior
Brightly lit up keys
Switchable integrated graphics
Unlocked over-clockable bios
Top of the line cooling

Cons
Heavy and awkward to use as a "regular" laptop
Auto-contrast cannot be turned off
Time consuming upgrades when it comes to the CPU and GPUs

M17 Specs
AW-M17 Skull Cap
Intel® Core™2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor (T9900)
Kingston HyperX 1066 4GB Memory
OCZ Summit 60GB SSD
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4850 Graphics - Crossfire

Pros
Lightweight for a 17" notebook
Great gaming GPUs
Easy access to GPUs and CPU
Smooth touchpad, very easy to use and scroll with
Over-clocks easily with Intel XTU program. I've hit 4Ghz with a QX9300 and 3.5Ghz with a T9900.
4850s rival the nVidia 260M SLI setup of the M17x

Cons
No copper on the heatsink for the northbridge
GPUs share the same heatsink
Keyboard lights are very dim
Speaker is on the bottom
QX9300 and ATI 4850 does not mix. Too much of a power draw causes stuttering. T9900 and 4850s works well.

and what's wrong with black and red?

I've officially retired my Thinkpad. The M17 has replaced it as my everyday system.

I love my Thinkpad. Worked perfectly for the first three years and now the screen has died on me twice this year. Still have a year left in warranty on it.

I added the Pros and Cons of the two systems. I will expand on the M17 the more I play with it.

The M17 OC's nicely.

4Ghz!

yeah. The M17 OC's very nicely.

Only if price is an issue. The 4870s will still perform better than the 3870s and I assume better than the 4850s but probably not by much. Until get my hands on them I won't know but then the price skyrockets and is no longer as big of a gap in price.

OK, I just called Alienware and they sold me the ATI 4850 cards for my M17. NOW my M17x will have some competition.