Expert: Bobbert - 11/22/2009

Question
I am ordering an Alienware m17x computer. These are the specifications that I customized into it:

Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
1TB - 2x 500GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0

Two questions:
#1 Is there anything here that I should change or an upgrade beyond this I should consider?
#2 Will I be able to play any game I want on high settings? (I'm not sure how much you know about gaming.)

Thanks a lot,

-Gunnar

Answer
Well, what do you intend to run on the system? If games, which titles? GTX 260M SLI does offer considerable power for a mobile solution (At the expense of weight, battery life, and heat (I cannot stress this last point enough)), however it does not translate into "any game on high settings", as there will be a number of titles which will slow this system with settings maxed.

If the goal is no compromise gaming, I would have to suggest a desktop PC, as you'll be able to install far more powerful graphics hardware, have much less of a problem with heat and reliability, and upgrade the system at will (consider that GeForce GTX is presently being phased out, and the upgrade options for a laptop are generally zero, you're more or less stuck with the hardware it ships with).

If you're not intending to run anything overly demanding, I would probably tone it back to a single GTX 260M, to save on heat and battery life (and a bit on the budget), although without knowing which games you intend to play, I can't really make this suggestion (for example, World of Warcraft will have few, if any, issues with a single GTX 260, whereas Crysis will have poor performance regardless of one, or two, GTX 260's being installed).

-bob