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| list price: | |
| total savings: | $100 |
| coupon code: | for $100 off |
| Dell Home: | $1,399.00 w/ CouponJan 24, 2013 |
|---|---|
| shipping: | Free shipping |
| Get price drop email alerts |
This week you can find the 17.3-inch Alienware M17x laptop with Core i7 Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen) at Dell. Our coupon code knocks $50 off the listed price. You might think that's a small discount but this 6GB RAM config is actually $150 cheaper than last week's price for a weaker M17x w/ Core i7 Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen) and 4GB RAM.
| list price: | |
| total savings: | $100 |
| coupon code: | for $100 off |
| Dell Home: | $1,599.00 w/ CouponJan 24, 2013 |
|---|---|
| shipping: | Free shipping |
| expires | Feb 04 |
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Solid value because it is the very cheapest M17x base config with only one upgrade -- instead of the okay GeForce GTX 660M, it has the Radeon HD 7970M video card. It does add $200 to the price, but Anandtech says it's the best performance/price GPU option Dell offers for this Alienware laptop.
And Dell must have caught on, because they don't even advertise this config on their site. In fact, on the base config's customization page, they hide the upgrade option to 7970M. To get this GPU they usually advertise a config with other upgrades built in to drive up the price to $2,000 or more.
If you want the cheapest M17x but just want a better video card, this is the deal for you. The next most important upgrade to consider would be to add the 1080p display after you click through above.
| list price: | |
| total savings: | $204.95 |
| coupon code: | for $100 off |
| Dell Home: | $1,894.05 w/ CouponJan 24, 2013 |
|---|---|
| shipping: | Free shipping |
| expires | Jan 30 |
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| list price: | |
| total savings: | $344.90 |
| coupon code: | for $100 off |
| Dell Home: | $2,104.10 w/ CouponJan 24, 2013 |
|---|---|
| shipping: | Free shipping |
| expires | Jan 30 |
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Another price drop, now almost $300 cheaper than this M17x was the first half of January. Dell is taking 10% off this config with top-end GTX 680M video card (as well as 10% off any upgrades). Then make sure to use our coupon code for an extra $100 off.
If you have the cash, a souped up Alienware M17x gaming laptop is at it's lowest price ever today by $250. High end specs include a 17.3-inch 1080p display and GeForce GTX 680M 2GB GPU. This week it got a $200 instant savings discount and has a $100 coupon code. Previous low on this config was $2,399.
| list price: | |
| total savings: | $468.88 |
| coupon code: | for $100 off |
| Dell Home: | $2,605.12 w/ CouponJan 24, 2013 |
|---|---|
| shipping: | Free shipping |
| expires | Jan 30 |
| Get price drop email alerts |
Dell updated the M17x from r3 to r4 when they started using Ivy Bridge chips, the 3rd generation Intel Core processors. So you can tell it's an m17x r4 by looking for the "-3xxx" in the CPU model number. For example, the m17x base config CPU is Core-i7-3630QM, which Anandtech called a "healthy step up from last generation's i7-2720QM" (that was the Sandy Bridge chip in the Alienware m17x r3).
(You can also get Core i7-3740QM or Core i7-3840QM in the Alienware M17x r4.)
More importantly, "Revision 4" brings stronger GPU options. Here's a quick list of what video cards you can get Alienware in the m17x r4 laptop, with the important cliff notes from Anandtech's review to save you time. These are listed from cheapest to most expensive.
Now, if you're on a budget or very value-conscious, it's a good idea to go with the 660M or 7970M for graphics. But before you buy, there are a couple things you need to know.
If you want the GeForce GTX 660M and the best M17x r4 price overall, just grab the base config, which will be the cheapest deal we have posted above. And if we have a coupon code for it, you should grab it fast. Alienware coupons actually don't come around that often. When they do, it's usually a fixed dollar amount, so the nice thing is if it's for, say $50 or $100 off, you'll be getting the biggest percentage discount by using it on the lowest-cost base config (as opposed to only getting $50 off a heavily-upgraded system at $2400+).
If you want the Radeon HD 7970M for its value, it sure seems like a smart move to us. However, Dell has been making it a pain to get this video card without a bunch of other upgrades. For example, if you go to the base config customization page and click "video card," they usually don't even offer the 7970M. Here's a screencap.
Most of the time, the only Alienware M17x config with the 7970M already has hundreds of dollars in extra upgrades built in that maybe aren't so important to you, but you can't de-select. This often pushes the list price well above 2 grand. So if we have a deal with Radeon HD 7970M posted above, and it's under $2,000, it's actually a very decent value compared to what Dell usually offers.
Another option to consider...a few of our readers have basically said "All I care about is the video card, so I'm going big on that, and screw the other upgrades." Obviously you can find a variety of opinions on how important 8GB v 6GB RAM is, or the boost you get from 1TB RAID 0 storage over a single 500GB HDD. But if you really don't care about stuff like that, and there's not a deal for M17x with 7970M under $2,000 at the time, we can't blame people for going through the cheapest config we have posted (definitely grabbing the coupon if there's one available), and just upgrading the video card from 660M to the coveted GeForce GTX 680M for $550. Which makes the cost $2,049 minus any current discounts.
Most m17x configs we see have 1920 x 1080 resolution. The base config starts with 1600 x 900, and the upgrade to 1080p usually runs $150. Definitely nice to get 1080p to make the most of the HDMI in feature.
The 3D upgrade costs $400 (or $250 when upgrading from 1080p). It's a WideFHD 1920 x 1080p 120
The m17x is actually the only current Alienware with a 3D display available (3D is not an option on the current m18x r2).
You've probably seen or heard of laptops that offered 3D display but required you to select a certain video card. At least that is simplified with this system. You can actually get the 3D upgrade on M17x r4 even with the base config that has the cheapest GeForce GTX 660M discrete graphics.
If revision 4 of this 17-inch Alienware looks similar to Revision 3, don't be alarmed. It is actually built with the same chassis. As mentioned above, the bump to Ivy Bridge processors and improved video cards offer legit performance improvements. And the other big change is the addition of an mSATA port. So with that Dell is offering caching mSSD and mSATA boot drive enhancements a variety of standard, RAID 0, and RAID 1 customizations.
Along with mSATA, here are a few more changes in r4 from r3.
Well for one thing, the M17x is generally cheaper -- you can check M18x deals here -- and that's due to a couple key differences.
Finally, both models top out at 1080 vertical resolution (M18x no longer has display option with 1200 vertical) so the display is no longer a reason to pay more for m18x. If you want the metal and dual GPU, go for it. Otherwise, you can get mostly the same guts and performance with M17x as you'd get with many configurations of the M18x, but for less money.
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Dell released a rare Alienware coupon for $100 off $1499+ so you'll get the biggest percentage break using it on this M17x laptop with list price right at $1499. An upgrade worth considering is bumping up from 900 to 1080p display for $150. That would make your total $1549, $250 cheaper than the base 18-inch M18x config ($1799) with almost the same specs (with bulkier case it can fit slightly bigger battery, 12-cell v M17x's 9-cell)
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