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

" but honestly it doesn't matter at all in daily life so get the cheaper one"

I would get 8GB x 2 simply because it sounds better than 4GB x 4...

Did people miss my previous post?? There's an Nvidia GTX 680MX now

 

The bandwidth is the same since Ivy bridge is dual channel, and does support for 4 DIMM slots so it won't matter.

Just go with the cheapest config which i assume is 4 x 4GB

 

This is insane/awesome :-D I mean the 680M was already shockingly, satisfyingly awesome, and now...more! :-D

 

WOW! Take it! That is one super cheap laptop!

 

What does that mean?!? And did you ever get your laptop?!

 

What do you mean what does it mean Nvidia released a GPU better than the 680M, like a week before mine arrives xD

No I did not get my laptop YET... but I talked to my rep, and they said they will be shipping it towards me at the end of the week. So I hope they're accurate by "end of the week".. because that would be in 2 days

 

The newer gpu of nvidia is 122watt instead of the normal 100watts.

I am curious if we see that videocard in the m17x r4......

 

So I think yesterday my order went from Pending, to Processing Due to the near 2 months wait, HIDevolution is expediting the order and customizing it in 1 day. Estimated shipping time is 3 days...

so the excitement begins...

 

Soo tracking number will be soon yours.. let the stalking begin!

Check your order status

I'm always super excited when waiting for new stuff, specially something like this.. Last time I bookmarked my tracking number

 

Hmmm I would definitely bookmark tracking number, but as you see I ordered it from the reseller HIDevolution... Will I get a tracking number from them?

 

You should check directly with Hidevolution.

 

Yeap I'm waiting for live chat to be online

 

oh my God!
please tell me where you got such an amazing deal..
cause I'm thinkin of getting one R4 for myself and I would love to order from where you're getting yours..

 

I placed the order 3 days ago. It's currently "in production". Can't wait till it arrives
I currently have the m14x r2 and love it, but the 7970m blows the 650m out of the water lol

 

I got it from Alienware Canada. There was a special deal where they were offering the i7, 12gb ram, 1080p screen, and radeon 7970m for $1699. I haggled over the phone for the bluray, killer wifi, and hardrive+msata

 

I would LOVE to know how you got that setup for $1699. As a fellow Canadian I ordered mine 4 days ago and it came out to $2150 with nearly $400 in discounts for the following specs:

i7-3740QM
7970 2GB
12GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
64GB mSATA caching SSD
750GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD

Share the love on what you had to do?

 

Hey guys,
I am new here, but damn sure glad to have discovered this forum.
I am thinking of getting a R4 for myself as well.

I've read around the forum about people getting nice discounts or extras by talking to Dell reps. How exactly is this done? And can it be done over the live chat?
Because I live in Turkey and I am planning to have it shipped to a friend of mine who lives in LA and then have it brought over by him.

I'd very much appreciate any and all suggestions and tips in this regard.

one other thing,
I asked via live chat to Dell reps if I could have a standard Turkish (Q) keyboard instead of the English keyboard and I was told that it was not possible. I had thought, tho, that it wouldn't be a problem since it's being assembled from scratch.
Hence the configuring to begin with, am I wrong?
any thoughts?

 

I think they just don't have a bunch of random keyboard lying around... otherwise it would be an option in the configuring. I think it's just resellers in different countries that will have the keyboard for that specific country. I don't know tho, I'm fine with standard.

 

Hey, was that before or after taxes? To get the $1699 configuration, you can go to alienware.ca and select m17x, and then under the $1699.99 configuration select "With Windows 8" and you'll get the configuration with the 7970m. Here is the link: Alienware M17x Full HD 3D gaming laptop details | Dell Canada

 

Mine was $2150 after taxes. $2500 before discounts. They had a 15% off upgrades sale last weeked. Yours was probably around $1850 after tax? I opted for the 3740 cpu and SSD which is the $300 difference.

However, reading your posts it looks like you got them to throw in the SSD and Killer Wireless for free. I should have called in and haggled... This almost makes me want to cancel my order and re-order, I wonder if I call and explain if they will just give me a discount rather than go through all that trouble.

 

I've always had a desktop with a Q8300 intel processor and a G210 Geforce graphic card, now I'll be getting a 3630QM alienware m17x with a GT680M graphic card. How much of a difference will I notice? Right now I can barely play any game at my native 1920x1080 resolution.. (even at lowest settings).

 

You will notice a huge difference the 680M can play all current games maxed out on 1920x1080

 

Does the processor also perform better?

 

How did you get that price?

 

I actually just priced the exact same system as I ordered last week for $330 less than what I posted beforenew promo price)
Only two differences are, the 3730 instead of 3740 and a 1TB 5400 rpm HDD rather than 64GB SSD+720GB. Cheaper system also comes with Windows 8 instead of 7. Would it be worth it to cancel and re-order?

Does anyone in this forum think the 3740 and 720+64gb ssd is worth the $330? Especially if guys like Mr Prodigy can get the ssd and killer wireless thrown in for free...

 

Yes it does. It's 4 years newer, it's got turbo boost and hyperthreading, faster clock speeds, more cache and I think can run faster RAM.. dont think the Q8300 can run 1600Mhz or can it?
Either way you're looking at a 4 year old Core 2 Quad, vs third generation i7 (ivy bridge)
Check this out, comparison chart between the two:
ARK | Compare Intel® Products

But still... you won't really notice any differences in daily life... But with the GPU definitely

 

Hey guys, I'm really not sure whether this is worth the price. but on the other hand, i REALLY want this laptop SO badly. 1) because it looks amazing and 2) because i'm in University and it's the first time my parents are willing to fund something this good. (they've given me a roughly $2.8k (negotiable) budget and said it should last me at least 4+ years.)

Another main question, should i upgrade it to the 3d thing ? it'd be like $350 more (200$ on 3d upgrade, $150 from 7970m to 680m for support) I wear glasses so I'd probably never use the 3d unless the 3d glasses fit over my own comfortably. the 120hz refresh rate seems nice though.

3740QM Processor, 12g ram (lowest option), 7970M AMD Gfx card, 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA 3B/s 7,200 RPM) + 64GB mSATA Caching SSD (cheapest hard drive option besides the 1tb 5400rpm), Blu-ray drive, Killer wireless card, 4 year advanced insurance plan (paying like $700 for this, not too sure if it's worth it like if i should just get 4 year basic, or just 1 year warranty which is free) . My total is $2898 + 376 tax, so 3275$ .. Which seems a lot compared to the deals i've seen some people post here. I'm in Canada though.

Any suggestions to lower the price or get the most out of my system is greatly appreciated. I've never had real issues with any laptops I've owned, except like most of them end up with worn out keyboards (i have sweaty palms). and the HP laptop i have right now has a fan failure (which i don't know why.. but apparently they stopped making the model cos it's defective and even though i'm still under the first year warranty, they won't fix it. cos i bought it in Dubai before moving here, which is ed up, so i'm never buying HP again, and after my friend got a dell xps 15 and he loves it so much, also got another friend with an m14x which he got for $1550 and they're like they've never had any kind of problems with the laptops in the past year they've had em)

Edit : I'd also prefer if there was anything i could do to make the laptop cheaper, if my parents don't agree to the $3275 current pricetag and ask me to drop it to like 2.8k or lower (10,000 dhs) then i'm wondering if i should remove the warranty or drop to the 3630QM processor with the 660m gfx card, normal drive. but then it kind of ruins the point of having an alienware if it has normal specs. Also, i really want it to have SSD's and i'm planning maybe around new years or so i'll buy an SSD and take it to a technician to install so i can save money (I don't mess with things even screen protectors cos of sweaty palms. T_T)

 

Well the 720+64gb is worth it... Definitely don't get 5400rpm, and who needs 1TB..

The difference between the processors however is negligible

Eyyyyyyy I live in Dubai best place ever

Okay well about the 3D, as far as I know it fits over normal glasses no problem. But if you don't plan on using 3D so much that would be the first thing I'd remove to drop the price. But personally I'm also excited for 120Hz

Definitely don't get the 660M. The 680M is beast but if you really gotta drop the price, the 7970M has insane performance as well especially with the recent new drivers
I would suggest against the 4 year insurance... That is way overkill (in my opinion) and way too expensive, but I'd probably suggest something a bit more than 1 year.
As I've seen dozens of people do on the NBR forums, call them and haggle over the phone that seems to be pretty effective in dropping price.. Since they are paid by commission.

So yeah:
Dropping 3D
Reducing warranty
Switching to 7970M (so no 3D either would be big price reduction)

Pick out the best option or combination of those, and haggle over the phone and you should be set but get a second opinion haha my budget was way too high so I'm not sure what matters most to you so get tips from other NBR members

 

Hi, I'll say that the 3D is great, I tried it a few years ago and was disappointed with ghosting and headaches, but nowdays it really adds to games. You WILL need to go for at least the 675. Although the 680 is quite an increase it's a lot more money and I find the 675 runs everything perfectly at high settings. The glasses are designed to go over prescription glasses so unless you have some outrageous, large, designer frames, you should be fine. Getting the 120hz display and locking your machine into Nvidia is not worth it if you don't use the 3D, quite a cost for a tiny difference in normal use and if AMD come out with a killer you won't be able to upgrade.

The processor is not as important in a gaming rig so the entry level will be fine, they are all (i7's) fast enough.

Biggest gains are from either an SSD or the caching drive + mechanical drive but if you are not 'screwdriver friendly' you should cost up getting this done as it might be cheaper to order what you want.

You can start with the 1 year warranty and renew it further down the road.

8gb of RAM is plenty but is sounds like your dell site does not allow this?

HTH and good luck

 

Sorry for posting this on a couple threads but

Could anybody check out my thread regarding a keyboard and help me out would really appreciate it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/695308-keyboard-playing-tv-couch-bed.html

 

Okay, there's a misunderstanding, I've already got the 7970M on it, and was thinking if it's worth getting the 3D. (it's not already with 3d)

 

Well that'll bring your price up way beyond budget won't it /:

Definitely wouldn't suggest switching for 3D.. and having to drop every other component and warranty a ton :S the 7970M is a beast, and there's pretty much no difference between 60Hz and 120Hz for the naked eye. If you won't use 3D much, which I probably won't... I think 7970M and the overall better computer would be the best choice

 

If I were you, I would spread that budget over every 2 years. So I will stay at tip-top shape instead of pouring all the money into 1 basket. That or get a 4 years warranty and hope they will give you a new machine when your laptop is beyond repairable ( And yes, they do that in US because I've seen some people got new R4 because their R1, R2 broken down ).

 

I am looking at buying a M17x R4 and have a few questions. My goal is to purchase and then do various upgrades myself (memory, mSATA, HDD, possibly WiFi & WHD).

The purchase configuration I am looking at is:

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3740QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Operating System: Windows® 7, 64bit
Memory: 6GB (1 X 2GB, 1 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Hard Drive: 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
Video Card: 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
Display Panels: 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Wireless Networking: Intel® Advanced-N WiFi Link 6250
Optical Driver: Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader

I have used this forum, the Alienware site, and the following to obtain the specs and configuration options

What are the specifications of the Alienware M17x R4 computer? | Dell
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR4/en/specs/specs_en.swf

My questions are:
I'm leaning toward getting everything from Alienware except the mSATA, 2nd HDD (I have it already), & RAM. That said, what are the critical parts to get from Alienware with the laptop purchase? I'm guessing: CPU, GPU, LCD (and obviously Mobo, PSU, case...)?

It appears that bluetooth is seperate from the wifi card. Thus, could I install a Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 and retain bluetooth?
From the specs, it appears that the mSATA slot can support up to a 512 GB SATA 3.0 card, is that correct? I have seen a lot of posts on here saying it is SATA 2.0 only but the Alienware spec sheet above says SATA 3.0.
Can the system be booted from the mSATA?
Is it worthwhile to replace the thermal compound on the CPU / GPU?
I believe the M17x uses a SATA 12.7mm Slot Optical Drive, is that correct? Is there a way to order without an optical drive?

Historically, what has Alienware done for Black Friday / Cyber Monday?

Thanks Much - Spere

 

mSATA drives are slower than regular SATA III SSDs though, why would you want to get a huge mSATA drive? I am not sure how a 512 mSATA SSD compares in price though.

 

1. You pretty much get the main idea. Depending on your usage, even the minimum CPU is suffice.

2. Bluetooth is not separate from the wifi card. It is included with the Intel card. As far as I know only Killer 1103 do not have bluetooth and thus, need a separate bluetooth card. A quick search told me that the Ultimate-N 6300 does not come with bluetooth either, you may want to verify that.

3. The mobo of M17x only supports 2 SATA 3.0 which are the hard drive bay 0 and 1. Thus, the rest of the ports ( optical drive and mSATA ) are SATA 2.0. The BIOS should be able to recognize the mSATA as a hard drive. So I think you can boot with mSATA. However, it is not very efficient. mSATA tend to be more expensive than a 2.5" SSD and due to the limitation of the system, it only utilizes SATA 2.0. If you have tons of money to spare, feel free to customize it however you want, in the end, it doesn't matter if you are booting with mSATA or a SSD, you won't be able to recognize the difference in speed of the twos.

4. If you feel comfortable taking it apart and repaste, I would say it's worth. My temp dropped 2C after I repasted which is kinda okay.

5. There is no way to order a system without an optical drive, not at Dell. However, Xoticpc offers Caddy hard drive in replaced for your optical drive.

Hope it helps.

 

Hi!, Agree. The only bit I can add is that the chipset supports 6 sata3 ports BUT 4 of them are in use for the fast USB ports. Note the 'ss' on the icon next to each port. This leaves the 2 for the drive bays

 

So yeah my Alienware will be at my home when I get back from work

 

Would you guys say that the 7970m is worth a 210 euro (300ish $) increase over the 675m?

 

Yes! You get near 680m performance.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

By far. The GPU is the most important component, don't skimp on it.

 

Definitely worth it, about a 40% performance improvement from the 675m to 7970m. Works great by the way, chews on anything I throw at it.

 

Hey guys, am looking into ordering the M17R4. I only play starcraft 2 (but played BF3 on Ps3). I might actually move to the AW for my BF3 as the 64 players option is very appealing. Given this requirement， would you guys say the 3630QM will be good enough for GTX680M combo? I am trying to save close to 180USD by not moving to 3740QM

Also, any idea where the GTX675MX is coming? Thought it will be good to save 300 USD by moving to 675MX.

thanks

 

The 3630QM is definitely good enough to play games. You only need a better CPU if you are running some CPU-extensive programs which I assume you don't.

No idea about the 675MX but looking at the specs, the improvement doesn't seem to be that good. I can assure you that 680M still be one of the best, if not the best, option. If you are looking for a cheaper solution, I think you can try 7970M. And you can always disable Enduro if you don't like it. One of the few things people can't do with Optimus.

 

Here is the spec I built out in HK for 2750 USD all inclusive

3630QM
1080p screen
8G 1600 ram (upgrade to 16 is 200 USD, I will do it myself)
256 SSD + 1TB
GTX 680MX
Killer wireless
DVD drive
3 years warranty with next day onsite service

The only thing really preventing me from order now is I thought the 680MX is over kill and the 675MX with 300 USD cheaper price tag, seem like a great deal....

Oh an you can't order 7970 in HK. Not available.

 

Well if you think the 675MX is good enough then by all means go for it. I really don't see any reason why you must go for 680MX when you don't want to. And you can always install the SSD on your own. It should be cheaper and you can choose your own brand instead paying Dell to do it.

 

Guess the wait starts, hope Dell puts the MX line in the options soon.

 

The 3630QM is definitely good enough. You might experience a couple fps more at best in CPU intensive games like GTA or Skyrim with a faster processor but otherwise you won't notice a difference whatsoever.

The 680M is a beast of a card, been playing on mine for a few days now and it just blows my mind, you'll be able to max out BF3 no problem.

However... I'm not sure about this but if you think you'd play an okay amount of 3D or watch 3D movies etc..... You could go for the 675MX which offers a fair improvement over the 675m (which is enough for many people), and get an insane 120Hz screen + 3D... If anything just don't pop 4xMSAA or Ultra shadows on some games like BF3 and you would be fine. I personally can't even see the difference between 1920x1080 and 1600x900..

So if you'd like a 120Hz screen and 3D (which is by the way the best 3D technology I have ever seen in my life x100), the 675MX would suit anyones gaming need just fine for while

But seriously, the 680M, holy s***

 

I need advice please on which hard drive to get on m17xR4.... 750gb +64gb mSata caching SSD or 1TB Raid 0 (2 x 500 gb SATA 3 B/s @ 7200).. I don't even know what that means ??
Should I just go with the 500gb @ 7200

The 7970 or 680 card

2 or 3 year warranty plus same # year of accident coverage... I have small children around..so I need the accident coverage

Budget is 3000 including warranty & I have to pay sales tax

Thank you

 

Hey guys im new to site so mu apologies if this is not the right forum..but I REALLY need yall wisdom and help..I was literally about to order my m17x R4 today November 11 2012..but my friend who works for a legit tech blogging and review site told me that there will be a new design and model coming out very soon...I love the design and specs of this model so that wouldn't bother me as much as the that he said that it being so close to the holiday months and Black Friday that the price will drop significantly as well..any1 that could offer me some insight and answers ill seriously greatly appreciate it and send iTunes gift cards to the ones that answer my questions in detail..thanks happy gaming my friends..you can also email my gmail account which is [email protected]