Alienware M17x R4 Pre-Order Configuration Questions... Ask HERE

In my opinion the 1st option has unnecessary upgrades. 32gb over 16gb of RAM is almost not noticeable on a laptop. Windows Ultimate over home premium isn't something to boast about either in my opinion. The 3D vision sounds like a good feature, not something I'd pay for, but it would be more used than 32gb ram and Win Ultimate.

I'd go for the 680 package, no doubt.

 

Hello

I have question what do you think about following configuration:
Alienware m17x R4
CPU: intel I7-3610QM
Ram: 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Drive: 128GB SSD+ 500GB 7200rpm
GPU: AMD Radeon AMD Radeon HD 7970M 2GB
Display: FHD
Warranty: 2 years (1y dell + 1y reseller warranty)
I' am little worried about the radeon HD 7970M driver support and reliability of the card. But right now the other option would be GTX660m and the price difference of the two is 100 EUR.
Should i be worried about the radeon 7970m?
PS the computer is for my brother and i don't want to buy lemon to him.
I would like to know what you people think about it before i push the buy button.

 

That's a tough place to be

From what I read (which of course it all the bad stuff!), the NV driver is a little more 'consumer', but you'll be sacrificing performance quite a bit. I think a lot depends on whether your bro' is PC savy (and which vid cards he has used).

 

While enduro has caused a few issues, people have found work arounds to make the card work without problems and drivers will be updated to resolve the issue ( looks like usually fn+f7 is most common fix). The 32 gb of ram likes others have said is not needed for normal use. I'd go for the 680 package.

 

No enduro at all on the 120hz package - but that would be my choice

 

So all in favor of the 680M eh?

Man I'd go with the 680 but only if I had access to the Igp, back when I was with the r3 coupled with either the 6970 or the 6990 with an ssd, I could get nearly 5.30+ off the battery, and I know the following statement is moot but if I really wanted to be portable a 14r2 could suffice but the battery life is ridiculous and With the larger battery multiple hdd's I really like the m17's

The issue is as big as it is the 17 on the power settings I deployed gave me 5 hours of realtime usage....and that is what I want, first and foremost also a powerful gpu, now here my life gets muddled is it truly worth the extra 200AUD to get a 680M and 3D with anywhere upto 3~3.5 hours when one can eke out 4+ hrs on Optimus with some users hitting 5+ hrs on the 7970M

Oh and I agree 32Gb and professional are useless upgrades, but I "bought" the r4 during that promotion and only due to "negotiating" with the rep, have I got the option to accept this promotion where the 2999aud with 3d gets a free upgrade to the 680m thus making it a 200aud upgrade from my existing package


FYI we are in Australia home to the most draconian taxes and overpriced electronics infact there is an oversight committee of sorts looking into this .... So it's taken me long to save up and since its too much of a hassle to get it flown in from else where i have to deal with dell, here. Also we do not have the liberty to configure a whole lappie, it has to be "configured" within the confines of the package offered

 

Like I said, for you the AMD may be the best choice. FYI, I rarely get more than 2.5 hours surfing on mine. Usually closer to 2 hours with a little streaming video as well. But, not having to deal with a second GPU is a big plus for me.

 

They won't let you switch out the 3D screen? I would take the second option without the 3D screen. It will get 4-6 hours of battery and be a really great machine. With the 3D screen your battery life is probably going to be much shorter, maybe 2-3 hours tops. However, 3D can be kinda nifty, and the 680m has the power to actually run it.

 

Oh no no, I don't have the laptop yet lol. I was thinking of buying a machine with a 680M but the dell card has rumors of scoring lower (sign of throttling) than clevo cards on the same clock.

 

Hey Guys,
looking at ordering a M17x. But was reading about mSATA, does this laptop have it and can it be used as a normal SSD to boot from?

Thanks
Jamie

 

Hi. Yes and yes, BUT the mSata port is sata2 not 3 so slightly slower, but not noticeable in real use in my experience.

 

Yeah , I agree, but no cant remove the 3D screen, I'd like to give Optimus another shot, seeing how good the 680M is, but 3D would mean always-on-Kepler, and I would like something that is portable (weight excluded) and I did use the r3 as such,

Issue is if the 14r2 had a 660 and a better battery life and weight, I might actually have bought that, it's a great little rig to compare against a Mbp 15, but the whole kit 'n ka boodle of the 17r4 are very good

 

The first option no way. Windows professional is a complete waste, so is 32GB RAM...

The 680M is a better card overall, and you will not regret knowing you have a 120Hz screen + 3D if you wanna use the 3D or not...

The ONLY downside about the second option is that with the 120Hz screen you can't switch to iGPU... But honestly you are buying the best single GPU gaming notebook in the world. If we're comparing GPUs, the 680M has far better power efficiency than the 7970m and even on the dedicated GPU you should get at least 3 hours from what I've heard and some power saving settings used.

The second option is by far the better one. Don't worry about a tiny little bit less battery life compared to the iGPU... cuz its still got great battery life + much better stuff than the first specification.

First things first, I'll hunt you down if you go with the 660m

The 7970m has excellent performance... I don't think you should worry about drivers too much. If the card works great, and you've got stable drivers... there are no issues.

Even when new drivers come out, some people stick to the old ones due to stability or whatever. Get the 7970m and install latest stable drivers, and no problems at all.

The 7970m wouldn't be shipped if there was a 50/50 chance there was something wrong with it.

What I would suggest if possible, is ordering from like XoticPC or Hidevolution... dno about xotic, but once Hidevolution receives the computers from Dell and makes the customizations.. they run a full diagnostic to make sure everything is working fine before they ship it out.

 

Thanks Dude, that's some extra awesome

 

Like I said before, i totally agree with you on the RAM and the OS, but it is not in my power to be able to change that, the same reason why Crap'afee with 15mo. of subscription HAS to be included, I would rather let a virus infect the laptop if it meant it could completely erase the little bugger of a program, it took me 4 days (in terms of hours) with mcafee tech support and they still couldn't fix it ( we had definetly boiled it to their program that was causing BSOD's ) by which time i was already quite fed up with the rig and it was setup to be refunded. I agree with all of you on the 680M I would ve gone with it too... but I can tell you dealing with Optimus on the 460 and the 580M were hell, and I actually enjoyed the ATI 6990M , with it's hardware switch, there was actually some semblance of portability with R3, I know I can eke out 5+ hours with the IVY bridge and IGP with there is granular control..... I might've changed my option though (considering the mess with ATI drivers) had it been for the non 3D IGP included 680M. If I didn't need the portability I'd gone with a desktop...

 

Worth $2355? Best discount I was able to get.

225-2945
1 Alienware M17X R4 with Soft Touch - Direct $2,221.62 $2,221.62
317-9745
1 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
317-9739
1 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz
331-6912
1 English Keyboard, 101 Key, M17X R4
320-3275
1 17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
320-9376
1 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
342-4414
1 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
331-6859
1 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
421-7439
1 Alienware Command Center Software, M17X
421-5789
1 Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
318-2314
1 Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish
410-0548
1 Adobe Acrobat Reader
318-2006
1 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
421-5106
1 Power DVD 9.6, 3D
318-0424
1 Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
430-4712
1 Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming and Video and Bluetooth 4.0
430-4706
1 Internal Wireless Bluetooth 4.0
331-7193
1 Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
331-6865
1 Alienware Documentation
331-6868
1 Placement, M17X R4
331-6867
1 Shipping Material, M17X R4 - Black
461-8389
1 NO VIRUS PROTECTION REQUESTED
331-6909
1 Resource DVD, M17X R4
331-8045
1 Windows 7 OS Label, Alienware Notebooks
420-9691
1 DataSafe Local BackUp
420-9956
1 PC Restore
421-0092
1 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
421-3874
1 Camera Software 2.X, Factory Install
421-4289
1 Dell Support Center Software 3.0
421-7440
1 Quickset, M17X R4
421-4047
1 Dell Digital Delivery Client
421-9378
1 Windows 7 Browser Search for Alienware
312-1334
1 90WHr 9-Cell Primary Battery
421-8801
1 Microsoft Office Trial
995-6083
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
995-6103
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
950-3337
1 1 Year Limited Warranty
950-9797
1 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
421-1723
1 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
994-3730
1 Warranty Support, Initial Year
331-1349 1 Standard Nameplate
* -DISCOUNT/COUPON APPL
A5750525 1 Your Dell Advantage benefits have been applied and $1 discounted from your primary order. $1.00 $1.00

Subtotal: $2,222.62
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Tax: $133.36
Environmental Disposal Fee: $0.00
Total Price w/Discounts: $2,355.98

 

Hello NBR, I'm completely new to the forums here and quite new to the world of gaming laptops and I'm in dire need of some assistance. I'm planning on purchasing an M17x soon, and I was wondering which specs to get over others. I have capped myself a limit to spend and I'm wondering which of these I should get. Here is a list of the specs I'm certain I'm getting in bold and the ones I'm undecided with in red.

Processor
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Operating System
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Memory
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
Video Card
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M or 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M
Display
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Hard Drive
1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA 3B/s 7,200 RPM) or 256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s

Everything else is mainly stock. As for the Graphics card and Hard drive, I would only upgrade one or the other, not both. So if I had to choose between the two, which should I upgrade? And would it be a solid enough gaming laptop to run, for example, Guild Wars 2 on ultra smoothly?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

The processor will do you well and will keep your budget down, an upgrade to the 3720 is nice but not necessary for gaming.

I would NOT buy 16GB of RAM from Dell and it is very overpriced. I would recommend getting the default 6GB or at the most 8GB as you can buy 4GB Corsair Vengeance sticks for less than $30 bucks each and 8GB is more than you should need for gaming anyways.

Take the money you can save from the memory and bump up your video card to at least the 7970m if you're not worried about 3D and the 680m if you are going to do 3D but this is probably not in your budget I am guessing. This is the single biggest component that is going to make your laptop able to handle any game you want.

If you are thinking about going SSD, you can also purchase this yourself and just get the default 500GB or upgrade to the 750GB 7200RPM hard drive and install the SSD yourself later. It's not that hard and will also save you a lot of money.

Once you have decided on your config, try PMing the sales reps on the sales thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/669327-alienware-sales-assistance-thread-redux.html

and see what they can do for you. I was able to swing a sweet deal but I don't know if they still have as much power as they did. Definitely worth a try though.

Hope this is helpful

 

Definitely do not get the 660M... Preferably choose between the 7970M and the 680M.

Looks like you're not getting the 3D screen, so I'd suggest the 7970M it's a lot better than the 675M...

Considering your budget, you could easily reduce some components and buy them for a lot cheaper elsewhere or later... So for the hard drives I'd get the cheaper option then install an SSD after. Also to save some money get less RAM, super cheap and easy to upgrade later and even 8GB is overkill.

 

Thank you all who took time to answer!
Ordered the 7970m version It's being built right now, but the delivery time is quite long - 3 weeks.
This AW m7x r4 is going to be first ATI/AMD GPU system in entire family - so fingers crossed and hope for the best

 

Great choice, I believe most would agree that the 7970m is the best "bang for the buck". Outstanding performance in every game I've thrown at it lately. Haven't checked FPS though, but I can tell you each one of them was set to ultra settings and ran smoothly (Sleeping Dogs, Skyrim, BF3).

 

Awesome!

You're gonna love it

 

Leo, did your M17x arrive yet? It seems forever? o.o I'm excited for you

 

Actually my brother will enjoy it i ordered it for him. I enjoy my M17x r3

 

Hi,
I've just started studying animation in a uni in UK and plan on getting the alienware m17x. I need to order it soon as I don't have any computer at the moment. But before I do I have a few quick questions regarding the hardware. We use softwares such as Maya, Houdini, Mudbox, Mari etc on our course. Do you guys think the base processor would be enough. And about the GPU, I believe 7970 is my only option as 680 is known to be the lesser card when it comes to computing power, regardless of CUDA, if I recall correctly that is. Please correct if I'm mistaken.

On another note could someone give a reference to the nebula red color as most pics I've seen seem to reproduce the colors quite inaccurately. It doesn't need to be a pic of the laptop but anything that gives me a good idea of the color when viewed off a screen

 

Hi all, long time lurker here with a few questions about ordering a M17R4.

First my backstory:

This week I had my ASUS G53JW break down and I sent it back to repair for the Fifth time in two years. The warranty is just about to expire and so I've already begun looking for a new laptop while its out a couple weeks for repair. Ironically, I had originally debated between the $1500 G53JW and the $2000 M15X at the time when my wife pushed me towards the former. We definitely learned the lesson "you get what you pay for". Now the wife is all for me getting an Alienware, and I'm aiming for the M17R4 for the combination or performance, build quality, and customer service.

Here's my initial build:

i3630
680M - I'll pay for the premium of not having to worry about driver issues over the 7970.
1080P 60hz Screen (got a 51" Samsung Plasma if I really want 3D)
8GB Dual Channel

Here are my questions:

I primarily use my laptop on my lap (Shocker I know). I most commonly use it in Bed gaming at nights where my wife is an early sleeper. Given that -

1. Is the M17 usable ontop of a bed comforter? Or will it block the intake vents?

2. Any recommended lapdesk that fit the M17X for extended use - I.E. keep me comfortable for those long WOW raid nights.

3. Hard Drive Configuration. I have a Intel 510 120G SSD that I used with my G53, is that worth reusing and reformatting it for the Alienware or am I better off with the 500GB + 32GB mSATA cache option?

4. Wifi Configuration. I primarily use Wifi as my connector. Are any of the upgrades really worth it? Either the intel or the bigfoot nic? I also don't want any external attenas, as since I laptop in bed, thats most likely something that could easily get snagged, broken off, or worse, bitten off by my dog.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide.

-Woot

 

1) I wouldn't. The intakes are on the bottom and it can get rather toasty down there.

2) No comment. I got a this one and it fits the M17x perfectly but there is no room on either side of it. It also isn't designed for lap placement. If you need it on a desk it's good as a cooler otherwise...

3) I don't know your particular needs so I can't comment on that. I personally didn't get the mSATA to save on cost and got a 750GB HDD then later installed a 256GB SSD that I bought after.

4) Well I can state for fact that the Killer Wireless adapter gets excellent range. I can go about half the distance of your standard corporate building and still get a full 4 bars and 54Mbit on a Wireless G connection. Most other adapters was hitting 2 or 3 and reduced speeds at that point. My Wireless-N router is spitting out 450Mbit for the first time ever which prior Intel adapters never did (they jumped between 72Mbit and 150Mbit usually).

 

Hi man, good choice!

1. Yes it will block the fan intakes. I use mine in bed almost constantly. A flat board and some sort of prop like a piece of wood is neded to keep it cool when gaming.

2. I got the Tragus 17' lappad. Perfect for lap use with a nice soft underside and robust build - but not a pretty as some desk cooler

3. In use I would say that performance is very similar so no real advice there

4. Ive had both the dell standard and now the Killer. Both worked just fine although the killer gives you control over application bandwidth - that I never use! Lucikly I sit very close to the access point so signal strength is not an issue.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the help guys. It's much appreciated.

1&2. I figured as much about the air intakes and lapdesk. I did have a XPS 17 before I went down to the G53 which had a similiar intake pattern. I'll take a look at the Targus lap desks on new egg and amazon.

3. Hard Drives - If performance is nil I'll save myself the money and do what I do now - keep the OS / work apps and 1 or 2 primary games on the SSD and put my big steam directory / music / download files on the HDD

4. I probably wouldn't use the Bandwidth application of the Killer, but the range benefit sounds nice. Thanks for the recommendation.

One last question - How is the heat and noise of these beasts, given the combo of i3630 and 680M. I've read a variety of feedback on these forums, ranging from it will be very quiet and cool to loud and whiny. Is this just subjective YMMV? Do the fans take awhile to spin up while gaming / spin down afterwards?

Not a deal breaker, just curious. Without a way to see one of these in person and try it out for myself I have to rely on you current owners in the forums for the simple tactile feedback.

 

Sure

One advantage of going the cache drive route is that is you later decide to add a dedicated SSD you can leave the caching on the mechanical second drive and automatically get your frequently used data at SSD speeds as well as your OS and core apps from the dedicated SSD, but just an option.

It seems the 680 runs a little cooler or very similar as my 675, but I don't know the fan table. My CPU fan never gets more that 'noticable'. The GPU fan starts to sound over a game at around 63C which is for me in most games. If it ever hits full blast you really need headphones (the other half might have something to say about it ) but I only get that when overclocking . They do go up and down in some games depending on if it spans a trigger point (but not annoyingly), others are just stable at a single speed. Really depends on the games strain on the card. Very quick drop when leaving a game.
You're right though it's very subjective HTH

 

No It didn't!

It's BS... according to Hidevolution, Dell backordered the 3D screen M17x... and I'm not gonna get impatient and just grab the 60Hz one.

Hopefully it'll just come asap, super frustrating

 

I found that with the default settings, the GPU fan got quite loud when playing almost any game. I would be surprised if it did not bother your better half. I was disappointed to find out that you can't set a custom fan profile with Afterburner on these laptops separate from the CPU fan.

What I did was install HWInfo64 and set up a custom fan profile based on GPU temp. The only problem with this setup is that the CPU fan won't increase speed if only the CPU is being stressed. For me that is not a big deal because gaming is the only real time that the CPU gets stressed.

I have managed to set up a fan profile that does not get obnoxious when gaming but sometimes the CPU cores may push 80 degrees depending on the game (not often though and my CPU is overclocked). From my research, these temps are still within range and will probably be less at standard clocks.

 

1. I would definitely not recommend using it on any non-solid material like a bed without something in between it. As far as I know they get really hot.

2. No clue :S you would probably want a fairly thin one like the Targus, but from what I've heard apparently the Coolermaster Notepal U3 is pretty good... dno about on your lap tho

3. Just get any single hard drive with it... and then yeah definitely install the SSD in the other slot

4. Definitely get the Killer. If you're gonna be using internet 90% of the time on wireless, dont skimp on the wireless card its barely more expensive. Especially since its made for gaming and you'll be playing WoW... no reason to not pay the extra 30$ or something..

Hope this helped in any way

 

Hello,

I think for animation the best way to go is Nvidia, It'll do a better job in animations and rendering work, as for the color, any unboxing video on youtube will give you a good idea of the color.

 

The Nvidia card? Really? I was told because I do a lot of transcoding that the 7970m card would be better suited because its processor is better at GPGPU than the 680m.

Nightslayer: Go with an i7-740QM or i7-840QM. You be happier with their performance as opposed to the base CPU. Can't say much about the Nebula Red. The color always looks different in actuality than what you see in the photos.

 

Definitely the 7970 as Nvidia purposely did the worst job ever regarding GPU compute with their consumer Kepler cards, besides gamers all other communities were heavily criticizing this Nvidia forum when it got hacked and still down.
For the processor would stay out of the stock 3610QM and go for 3720QM or 3740QM.
Memory stock 6 or 8GB then aftermarket Corsair vengeance as they are cheaper than Kingston same quality&performance full 32GB 2x16GB kit, so you have the option of creating a RAMdisk.
If budget allows and you could wait for the new Samsung 840 pro 256GB & OCZ Vertex 4 512GB.
I'm wrapping up post production of my latest project and Alienware is a cheaper but reliable option to the overpriced Dell Precision HP workstations.
Good luck!

 

Just chill around, trust me, it's worth the wait

 

Thanks for your answers Natalia_J, radji and j95. Yeah I remember that the 7970 bested 680 in GPGPU benchmarks quite significantly and that many found 680 quite disappointing on that regard when the m17x R4 was announced. A 7970 it is then!

And when it comes to the processor I think I'll go with the 740qm.

Another quick question, I don't know if anybody can help me with this or if this Is even the appropriate thread to ask but I'm in a situation that I could order my laptop either to Belgium or UK, which do you guys believe would give me the best deal. Are the reps better in one country better in the other? I know the prices are a bit steeper in UK due the course of pound but would the transferring of the warranty to UK be too much of a hassle? Note also that I'll be ordering through the alienware sales assistance thread here, on the NBR forums.

 

7970m is a great choice! plus you'll save a couple of bucks

The international warranty transfer is not a hassle at all. You just need to go here and fill out the form and in about 15 days the transfer will be complete.

 

Thanks for your quick reply Luis_Pardo but I think I'll order to UK anyway as it seems 740qm is not an option in Belgium at moment.

 

Well I've been anticipating getting my order in for half a year and now the transaction was made 3 weeks ago, and Hidevolution still hasn't received their shipment of 3D model

Will still be 2 weeks probably but yes, worth the wait

 

New to this forum, but finally bit the bullet and got the M17x R4

specs are

16G
i3820QM
120Hz 3D Display
Nvidia 680M display card
Killer 1103 Wireless card
BluRay drive

It comes with 2 x 1TB in a RAID 0 configuration. Don't really want that, but the local dell reps can't change it. I plan to remove the RAID and replace the boot 1TB drive with a Crucial M4 SSD.

The laptop has arrived (eventually!) but I can still ask for changes to be made if needed. Anything I should be adding to this or removing?

Thanks,

Raj

 

Don't change anything That is the perfect spec, but yes definitely add an SSD to it and you're done!

 

Processor : 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0

Memory : 8192MB (2x4096) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel

Hard Drive : 500GB 7,200rpm SATA 3Gb/s HDD

Graphics : 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M


Because of the budget, these are what i can afford.

My question is that "Is my alienware m17x going to be good?"

 

I believe most people love their Alienware when they get it. yes it will be good but "good" depends on what you define as good. I honestly would of gotten the 7970M graphics card instead of the GTX 675M, it almsot doubles the performance, everything else is good. When i got my Alienware i loved the design, look and feel of it.

 

oh no , 7970m doubles the performance ? Damn !! This Laptop costs me 1477 pounds I feel so stupid now.
I just online track my laptop status it is still in pre-production, u think i can call them and change the graphics card?

 

It's worth a shot, reborn, yeah. But 7970m is better than the one you have ordered. I will ring them ASAP. The ram is fine, no games require more than 8 anyway really. I would get a SSD in the future though when your HDD is starting to get full; which is what I am going to do very soon

 

so is 7970m much more expensive than gtx 675m ?

 

It's not much more than the 675m. Call them now and cancel your order. Don't get the gtx 675m. Get the 7970m, it's so much faster, although it doesn't support 3d... it's actually nearly twice as fast in some games.

 

The only thing holding my back is that if i do call them and change the graphics card to 7970m, the delivery date will extend.
I ordered the m17x on the 02/10/12 and the estimate delivery date is 26/10/12. It is already killing me to wait that long.