So I'm in the market for a new laptop as my gateway FX laptop is starting to show its age.  The diffrences are really only the size of the screen and the x17 I only have 1 GTX 560m and the x18 I have duel  GTX560m SLI. However the price diffrence is almost $800 diffrence.

Thing is I plan on useing either one of these for 4-5 years at least.  So for thoes of you that know a hell of alot more than me is the preformance of duel 560m's over a single one big or is it more of a "hey look at what I got" type thing? The size diffrence I need to make up my own mind on.

I know the x18 looks a hell of alot cooler than the x17 but I dont want to concider that when looking at such a large price diffrence since Looks dont effect preformance lol.

Anyway all thoughts and opinions welcome. Oh and I play everything from FPS's to MMO's so when I'm lookin to drop $2500+ preformance is what I'm lookin at.

I'm guessing that you mean the Alienware M17x or M18x.  If so, then two GeForce GTX 560Ms is SLI doesn't make a bit of sense.  It's much better to have one high end card than two cards in SLI/CrossFire that are each only half as powerful as the high end card.

The choice of the M17x or the M18x is really a choice of one video card or two.  At the high end, you should go with a Radeon HD 6990M, and the question is whether to get one or two of them.

If you prefer Nvidia to AMD, tough.  Nvidia simply isn't competitive right now.  A GeForce GTX 580M will get you about the same performance as a Radeon HD 6990M, while using a lot more power and costing hundreds more.

At the high end, an Alienware M18x with two Radeon HD 6990Ms is $2500, plus whatever upgrades you want.  For comparison, you can get a laptop with a single 6990M and all the upgrades you want for about $2000.  Just not from Alienware.  Check out the Clevo P170HM, aka, the Sager NP8170.  It's rebranded and sold by a variety of companies.  For example:

http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=19611

For example, you could get a Core i7-2760, a Radeon HD 6990M, 8 GB of memory, a 128 GB Crucial M4, a 500 GB WD Scorpio Black, and a Bigfoot Killer Wireless-N 1103 for under $2150.  Or less if you don't want all of those upgrades.

You can find other companies selling the same thing with Google.  Do shop around, as prices and configuration options vary.  AVA Direct offers the most versatile configurator, but if some other site offers the configuration you want for cheaper, then get it from some other site.

But if you're serious about high performance, get a desktop.  The fastest laptop video cards on the market are only about on par with a desktop Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460 that you can get for around $160.  There are much faster desktop cards than that available.

Yea I was lookin at the alienware sorry for not adding that in the post. I'm willing to switch video cards unfortunatly I'm not willing to go desktop. At least not right now.  I'm on the go to much so its a laptop for now.

What do you plan on using the laptop for?  High end gaming laptops make sense for very few people.  Probably the main target audience (apart from people who don't know any better) is people who travel on business a lot and want to sit and play games in their hotel rooms.

Do note that you could get both a desktop with better gaming performance and also a far more portable laptop for less in total than a high end gaming laptop alone.

Originally posted by xenogias

I'm on the go to much so its a laptop for now.

unless you are deployed over seas or are on business trips on a weekly basis, there is no reason for a high end gaming laptop...   most people would find a A8 with a 1080p display more then sufficent for their gaming needs on the go.   you DON'T need a benchmark machine when you are on the go, you just need something that would allow you to play at med/low settings with good frame rates. 

personally i doubt you actually traveled that much with a laptop in the past since you are looking at 17"+ form factor and the additional weight that comes with alienware.  I traveled with a 15" form factor laptop in the past and the weight and size makes it uncomfortable after awhile.   if you need to take the laptop with you on a daily basis, go with a 14" form factor.   if you just need to have it in a hotel room and not carry with you on a daily basis, a 15" form factor with a 1080p screen upgrade would be best for you.   you dont need a "desktop replacement" to carry around with you if you actually travel ALOT like i did. 

If performance is what your looking at why not get the new 6990's.  You can get a m18x with CF for around 2599.00$ or something close to that, I configured one just the other day. 

This isnt the best place to ask about alienware laptops either, laptops are hated on these forums and alienware even more, its a double wammy.  I use http://www.techinferno.com, its mainly an alienware fan site but its for all notebooks.  Your going to get a much more logical responce there. 

I seen an m17xr3 on the refirbished outlet section today for 1300, in case you want to test the watters before you plunk down on something more, http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=2201&fid=1760.  You can usually find 20% off coupons floating around the internet also for the outlet, im sure reselling it and buying new after could work with transferable warrantys also.

I own an alienware laptop, it was before the dell move though.  I personally wouldnt buy an alienware thats been used by someone already but since there is returns and transferable warranties on all dell outlet machines its like buying new.

You really cant beat what lenovo has going atm though, they have a decked out 14 inch Y470(heres link if you want to take a glance )  with an nvidia GT 550m in it for 649.00$.  It screams, I own the first version of it, you can see how well it runs on myn, http://www.youtube.com/notebookplayer.

Okay, For Gaming Alienware beats the ENVY BUT in Ram the Envy has more ram in a Stocked Machine(Already included) The M15X has 3GB of DDR3 Ram and the M17X has 4GB of DDR3 Ram, and the ENVY has 6GB of DDR3 Ram and can be upgraded up to 16GB of DDR3 Ram so easily it kills Alienware in Ram, Now Aesthetically the Alienware is Bulky, Heavy, and looks like a desktop Replacement.

The Envy is more compact, smooth, and much better in terms of material usage and overall quality. I never liked alienware because of the amount of plastic. Now the speed of rendering itunes and media in other terms everything minus gaming the ENVY beats the alienware since the amount of ram is more. Also the Alienware with exact specs of the HP comes out to be more for just gaming. The ENVY Can handle gaming but not the 100% Best at it but not bad by any means. The ENVY also features the Beats by Dr. Dre Audio Speakers inside so easily the best audio vs. Dells(Alienware) Sound.

Now the Alienware has its edge with the Lights on the unit which are cool but not worth the performance. I purchased the HP ENVY Beats Limited Edition yesterday and have to wait about a week to get it and I'll be using it for everything that is mentioned and for my DSLR card as well so its a very good computer. In the end you can't go wrong with either of them but My choice is the ENVY I heard stories about Dell and the Customer Service ranks last in Surveys which is kinda sad since they outsource it to india. Alienware department I'm not 100% sure about but it still can't be much better.

This Alienware m17x unit is amazing. Upon arrival my unit had a bad secondary 5870M GPU. I called Amazon up at 2AM Alaska time and the CSA overnighted me another unit that works perfectly.
I'm not going to rave about all the specifics because if your here reading this then you're already an enthusiast.

x17 with 6970 is best bang for buck

Originally posted by drbaltazar

x17 with 6970 is best bang for buck

Except that they don`t even offer that anymore. For the short period of time that they /did/ offer it, it was still overpriced. For the short period of time where they still had 6970Ms in stock and had to get rid of them, they 6990Ms were /still/ $50 cheaper (in Canada; $50 more expensive in the US). Either way, the 6970M on the M17x was a terrible deal.