Funny how things work out

[GeoTrail]

I have always wanted a Alienware laptop. And before that a Dell XPS. Awesome computers. I started to stop thinking about the Alienware computer since I would probably never be able to afford it.
About two years ago, I started working for a school in Bergen. They had a great deal with the local Apple dealer. So I got myself an iPhone 4, iPad 2 and a MacBook Pro 17" with antiglare and all the trimmings. But I still couldn't get that Alienware out of my head. So I went surfing the local papers online for people selling computers. Maybe I might find an older model that someone wants to exchange with my MacBook Pro. I found one. Alienware m18X, yes, the big one with the 18" screen. He was looking to sell it, but I thought it couldn't hurt if I asked if he wanted to do a deal with my against my MBP. Sure he said, the next day, I drove 40 minutes to a ferry, (He lives on an island outside of Bergen), walked on to the ferry, met up with him on the other side and took out the Alienware out of the box that he got 3 days ago from an insurance settlement. Brand spanking new. Dual graphics cars 560 SLI Nvidia. Just an awesome machine. We did the exchange and I am now a very proud owner of a brand new Alienware laptop.

So, as the title said, funny how things work out.

Just wanted to share that little story

[IdeasVacuum]

Awesome deal - that guy was crazy to let the M18X go!

[GeoTrail]

Yeah I agree. That's why I was so sceptical. Even up to the point when we opened up the Alienware box for the first time. I'm always really sceptical and careful when meeting unknown people from the net like this, but when I first saw the guy my fear about being mugged went away hehehe. He was a really geeky looking small skinny guy. I am just over 6 feet tall and weight about 230 pounds. Anyways, the deal was great. I have now installed a bunch of cool games I've had laying around for years. Like Battlefield 2. One of my favorites. And I bought Crysis 2 which is awesome at resolution of 1920x1280 with all settings on Ultra Sweet.

[Pureabc]

After reading your story, I really want one now.

[GeoTrail]

Yeah know what you mean. It's an amazing computer. I have just ordered 32 GB of ran. Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow or saturday. Than it'll be really kick ass

[Joakim Christiansen]

I have just ordered 32 GB of ram.

What games are you playing? :O

[Shield]

It's not that so much RAM makes any difference.
There is no real point in having that much RAM, at least not for playing any game currently on the market.
If you're doing specialized mathematical work or render videos, it might make a difference.

Then again I got my hands on RAM that was nearly for free, so my system runs 24GB.

[GeoTrail]

I have just ordered 32 GB of ram.

What games are you playing? :O

Mostly shooting games. Battlefield 2 and 3. Bullitstorm. GTA 4. Crysis 2 is one of my favorites.

[GeoTrail]

It's not that so much RAM makes any difference.
There is no real point in having that much RAM, at least not for playing any game currently on the market.
If you're doing specialized mathematical work or render videos, it might make a difference.

Then again I got my hands on RAM that was nearly for free, so my system runs 24GB.

No it doesn't make a HUGE difference, but it does load games quite abit faster. And I also do some DAC work and play around Vegas Movie Studio HD.

Btw, got the new RAM installed today and learned something new about Windows 7 Home Premium. It only supports 16 GB of RAM. Luckily I have a Pro license so I could upgrade and use all the 32 GB.
It's also great to do heavy work, minimize the programs I'm working with, and play a game for an hour, minimize the game and go back to the work with out have problems with memory

[MachineCode]

There is no real point in having that much RAM

Running all your apps from a RAM disk is a huge benefit, and you needs lots of RAM for that. Games, as you said, will benefitr a lot -- today's games need around 10 GB of space, so running those entirely from RAM will make them fly with no loading delays.

In fact, I think I once read that someone ran the entire Windows OS from RAM somehow... or maybe it was just Explorer.exe (the desktop) or something... whatever it was, their Windows PC basically ran like a bullet.

[Shield]

Even running games from a RAM disk doesn't make a huge difference because all the content still has to be copied
out of the disk into another RAM section. You'd be much better off investing into a solid state HD than into
a ridiculous amount of RAM.

Obviously there are advantages of having 32GB instead of 4GB, but that doesn't matter if applications
don't even take advantage of this. It's like having a great multi-core CPU and then only work with a single application
at a time that only uses one core...

[Danilo]

If you build a new computer you want to run for some years, it's a good idea to
give it some more RAM.
It is good for 3D rendering and for running some VMware machines as a developer.

My computer is several years old and has 8GB RAM only, i run out of memory a few times.
I think 16GB is minimum today for new system (at least for 'power users'), so 32GB is good for the future.