First time Alienware owner with a few questions.

[Mustangdave]

Here is my setup which will arrive about a month from now.
M17x R4
- 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost 2.0)
- 6GB (1 X 2GB, 1 X 4GB) DDR3 at 1600MHz
- 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M
- 750GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
- Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
- Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0
- 17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED
- Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish

When I went to purchase the 1920 x 1080 screen option wasn't available in the Canadian market. I even called and was unsuccessful getting that option filled as well. Is there a noticeable difference between the two that I will regret? Considering the resolution on my current laptop is 1440 x 900. For gaming it will be running FFXIV ARR when it is released in August.

Also I plan on upgrading the RAM to 8 GB should I go with Gskill or Corsair vengence?
Way later down the road I plan on getting a SSD....Kingston HyperX or Corsair Neutron 120GB?
What should I do right after unboxing? First time I have ever dropped 3K on a laptop and I want to do everything right the first time before I load all my shit onto it.

Much obliged,
Dave

 

[Commy1]

Corsair is a good choice for ram and SSD, but I'd go price based. Among the more reliable brands it really doesn't matter what you get, just what's on sale.
If you have some software on a USB stick, like driver back up software, back up software, an anti virus and system clean up (e.g. Advanced system care). After that it doesn't make much difference what goes on it.

 

[AeonSoul]

Hi,
as far as it goes for the RAM, I'd go with Vengeance sticks. I haven't really tried any GSkill products, but I can tell you frist hand experience that Corsair Vengeance is a solid choice you won't regret. And if I recall correctly, it has the best timings amongs laptop RAMs.
For the SSD, among those two I'd probably pick the HyperX, but that's just based on my feelings. The only thing that I can tell you is that if I had to buy an SSD right now, I'd probably go for a Samsung 840 Pro.

 

[Dagger133]

I think they stopped making laptops with 1080 p because the r5 gen has to appear. And it depends... For users that have been long playing on 1080 p there might be a little regret. But as long as the resolution is an upgrade to what u have right now, you won't see the difference between 1600 p and 1080p

 

[Mustangdave]

No worries, I ended up canceling my m17x order and ordered an M18x R2 instead. The difference was a little over $300. I ordered a prebuilt system which included just a single 680m card and windows 8 on it. The only odd thing on this prebuilt system is has 24gb of ram on it...... I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all that ram.

 

[jorlanm]

No worries, I ended up canceling my m17x order and ordered an M18x R2 instead. The difference was a little over $300. I ordered a prebuilt system which included just a single 680m card and windows 8 on it. The only odd thing on this prebuilt system is has 24gb of ram on it...... I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all that ram.

hehe...the only way youll tap that much RAM is if you do alot of video editing and encoding provided its a 64-Bit software...but for games technically you wont need more then 4GB since majority of them are still designed for 32-Bit

But RAM is so cheap these days that you might as well have more so when you actualy do need it you wont have to run to the store and upgrade hrhe