Requesting the expertise of those familiar with laptops :)

[Xtremepayne]

I dual box Lotro on a M17 Alienware laptop. Its the basic setup with one exception, the video cards. I went with Ati Crossfire. Then after I got it I upgraded the memory to 4 gigs and also added a 2nd hard drive. One of the great things about Alienware laptops is that more of the parts in them can be upgraded or changed out. I also find heat is not near as much an issue as each video card has its own fan. Only 1 drawback to owning one, the weight. about a 3rd more weight then other laptops and the power supply is about double the size of the other power suppies.
Now as far as playing, This laptop rocks. When ordering one you get to pick what you want it to have. Sure you will hear people says Alienware is overpriced, but if you ever play on one, you won't want to play on anything else because they won't be able to do what Alienware's laptops do. If I ever buy another, its going to be an Alienware. Whats also great you can use their customize button to see what is available to put in one.
On my laptop the CPU is even upgradeable. However the bios to overclock remains locked unless you get one of the extreme mobile cpu's. I thought I would wait a while after I bought mine to do that cpu upgrade in hope of cpu prices would drop and it gives me time to get mine paid off. Cost of the one I have 1799.00

ime of this report: 6/5/2009, 15:37:57
Machine name: TELETRANTWO
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium Service Pack 1
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: alienware
System Model: Alienware M17
BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBL;
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 3066MB RAM
Page File: 853MB used, 5479MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9509)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Display Memory: 1785 MB
Dedicated Memory: 507 MB
Shared Memory: 1277 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (61Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor

That's part of the listing of my DxDiag to show you what my system has in it. It works great for multiboxing Lotro. And the video card setup is 2x on the Ati 3870.

[echo]

Ty to everyone for the insightful feedback! I bugged one of my friends with this question also, and he ended up pointing me towards this setup

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218044029168

for $850 USD.

On paper, everything looks much better (esp the video card. a 9800m GS). The only drawback for me is the kinda 14 year old-ish lightning bolts on the case of the laptop. Thanks to everyone for posting on their experience with laptop gaming!