Too good to be true? Laptop advice

[Knightshade Dragon]

Costco Dell M15 Laptop

I'm looking at this laptop and all I can think of is "It's full of stars" and stare at it in wonder.  The ONLY thing I can find wrong with it is that the resolution is essentially 720p and it has no VGA out.  I'm replacing my Dell M170 and from what I'm reading, this laptop would kick my M170's teeth in, take its lunch money, and then shove its face in the sand.  

Advice?   This would be a 'gaming in the living room' laptop, as well as my writing laptop for GT.  

[Dante Rising]

Costco Dell M15 Laptop

I'm looking at this laptop and all I can think of is "It's full of stars" and stare at it in wonder.  The ONLY thing I can find wrong with it is that the resolution is essentially 720p and it has no VGA out.  I'm replacing my Dell M170 and from what I'm reading, this laptop would kick my M170's teeth in, take its lunch money, and then shove its face in the sand.  

Advice?   This would be a 'gaming in the living room' laptop, as well as my writing laptop for GT.  

I believe my boss has that exact laptop. It is a real beauty. 720p is something of a drag, but on such a diminutive screen it becomes significantly less important. His only complaint was the usual Dell bloat that he spent an hour removing.

[Dante Rising]

I just tried to configure the same thing on Dell's Alienware website. It came out to almost $1700.

You can also buy the actual XPS you are looking at from Dell for the same price as Costco in case they sell out, but Dell screws you out of 2GB of RAM. Looks like it is currently a few hundred dollars off:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dndogx4&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=xps-15

[BuckeyeShane]

I came close to buying one of those off of Dell's outlet website, but ended up going with this instead http://www.amazon.com/G53JW-XA1-Republic-Gamers-15-6-Inch-Gaming/dp/B00486USL8/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1297091649&sr=8-12   It's definately worth the extra $150 due to the better graphics card (the 460m will as you said above take the 435m lunch money!)and the 1080p screen.

[rittchard]

It definitely looks like a good deal but I wouldn't say it's so good that it's too good to be true.  Once you've passed the $1000 threshold you have so many options open to you.  You could even get a nice Macbook :-)

Considering tax, the Costco unit is roughly around $1300, in which case it's competing directly with things like this unit from Asus, which has a 460M graphics card and 1080 graphics for $1350 (on Amazon).  No Blu-Ray though.

http://www.amazon.com/G53JW-XA1-Republic-Gamers-15-6-Inch-Gaming/dp/B00486USL8/ref=sr_1_15?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1297115084&sr=1-15

[Goldchamp]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

[JCC]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

[Goldchamp]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

Hard drives are easy to replace

[BuckeyeShane]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

That plus the ATI card in that model has had many reported problems.

[Goldchamp]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

That plus the ATI card in that model has had many reported problems.

Where's it been reported? I don't want to buy a lemon...

[BuckeyeShane]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

That plus the ATI card in that model has had many reported problems.

Where's it been reported? I don't want to buy a lemon...

Take a look here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/

[Knightshade Dragon]

The one i have been eyeballing for purchase towards the end of the month....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1257894.p?id=1218243761956&skuId=1257894

I'd be reluctant. That hard drive will be a real bottleneck. My laptop isn't even used for gaming and it's hard drive (same speed) drives me crazy.

That plus the ATI card in that model has had many reported problems.

Where's it been reported? I don't want to buy a lemon...

Take a look here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/

Wow....that's some pretty angry forum there.  Lots of problems with this line it seems. 

[Purge]

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SIL-DELL-XPSL501X-R&cat=NBB