Alienware 14 (2013)
Well, after humming and hawing for two weeks I finally decided on the 2013 Alienware 14 from Dell.
The Inspiron 17R Special Edition (7720) I ordered back in May just didn’t cut it.
I sent back the Latitude E6540 without opening it.
I almost went with the Latitude 3540, but a few things just didn’t work for me.
I liked the size, 1080p anti-glare screen and AMD Radeon HD 8850m GPU. I didn’t like that it lacked any type of digital video output. At my desk I use HDMI to connect to a switch that also connects to a Blu-Ray player and HDTV Cable Box. I could have used VGA to connect directly to my monitor, but without HDMI or DisplayPort I would need to use the analog audio output to connect the sound to my stereo and I would already need the headphone/mic port for my headset.
I could have worked around this limitation (purchase a USB Headset), but I was able to get an extra $150 off of the Alienware 14 which was already on sale by $100. Plus with the Dell Advantage Loyalty Program, I will get another 5% back, which is only available on “Home & Home Office” purchases, not Small Business.
For 45% more in cost (over the Latitude 3540), the Alienware provides 70% more gaming performance (with the NVidia GTX 765m GPU), plus double the RAM, considerably faster CPU and fancy lights. I will miss the larger screen and better battery life though.
It should be here within 2 weeks.
ComputerAbuser
