Okay, so I've mentioned it obliquely in a couple other threads, but I work in market research for the game industry. This means that I tend to travel a lot (cross-country 1-2 times a month, sometimes more or internationally in crazy months) to talk with gamers and developers. And I also tend to be playing at least one or two closed betas at any given moment.
I've been at my current job long enough that in a couple months I can have my assigned work laptop replaced. It's an Alienware m14x, and while I like it, it's really uncomfortably heavy when you're going back and forth between offices, airports, and hotels all the time.
I would have liked an Alienware m11x, but it got discontinued. This is also an issue, because (like most businesses) my company gets a lot more frowny-faced about equipment that doesn't come from pre-approved vendors with excellent corporate services (Dell and Apple, in this case).
So my options (in no particular order) seem to be:
1) Get a new m14x - Not a bad option, but the whole "uncomfortably heavy" problem remains (though not quite as much; the newest version is actually a little over 1 lb lighter than mine)
2) Get a 15-inch Macbook Pro with a GT 650M, dual-booted with Windows - In an ideal world, this would probably work perfectly, but this is definitely into maybe-pricier-than-willing territory, especially as the other Macbooks we have are all Airs. I like Airs, a lot, but they're not gaming machines at all.
3) See if I can get either Newegg or CyberpowerPC on the approved vendor list (we've bought small things from them before), and get some variant of a Clevo W110ER - This is an intriguing possibility, but I don't know enough about the Clevo variants to gauge whether they're a good buy or not.
4) Get a Razerblade 2 - On paper, this seems a great solution. Light as a MBP, great design, runs Windows, has power, but in practice not only have I heard that the build quality is inconsistent, Razer becoming an approved vendor seems pretty much impossible.
5) ???
Thoughts?
I've been at my current job long enough that in a couple months I can have my assigned work laptop replaced. It's an Alienware m14x, and while I like it, it's really uncomfortably heavy when you're going back and forth between offices, airports, and hotels all the time.
I would have liked an Alienware m11x, but it got discontinued. This is also an issue, because (like most businesses) my company gets a lot more frowny-faced about equipment that doesn't come from pre-approved vendors with excellent corporate services (Dell and Apple, in this case).
So my options (in no particular order) seem to be:
1) Get a new m14x - Not a bad option, but the whole "uncomfortably heavy" problem remains (though not quite as much; the newest version is actually a little over 1 lb lighter than mine)
2) Get a 15-inch Macbook Pro with a GT 650M, dual-booted with Windows - In an ideal world, this would probably work perfectly, but this is definitely into maybe-pricier-than-willing territory, especially as the other Macbooks we have are all Airs. I like Airs, a lot, but they're not gaming machines at all.
3) See if I can get either Newegg or CyberpowerPC on the approved vendor list (we've bought small things from them before), and get some variant of a Clevo W110ER - This is an intriguing possibility, but I don't know enough about the Clevo variants to gauge whether they're a good buy or not.
4) Get a Razerblade 2 - On paper, this seems a great solution. Light as a MBP, great design, runs Windows, has power, but in practice not only have I heard that the build quality is inconsistent, Razer becoming an approved vendor seems pretty much impossible.
5) ???
Thoughts?
