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

That only matters when the display is off, meaning when you're not using the laptop. It doesn't help at all with internet browsing battery life for instance.

 

Stand corrected

Hi,

Whats the difference between the Intel and the Killer wireless cards?
Will I notice any difference using Killer?

 

I haven't tried the Killer or the other Intel card, but the Intel 2230 card SUCKS so far. No 5 Ghz support and I only get 50-150 Mbps connections sitting 2 feet from the router. My other 2 laptops both get 300 Mbps. Quite a disappointing machine overall.

 

Any word on enduro or any other battery saving tech for the 7970m?

 

The automatic graphics switching seems to work pretty well. I was seeing an estimate of 3.5-4 hours battery life doing basic web browsing with low brightness and most of the power saver settings on.

 

That is really good. Guess it as good as Optimus.

 

Will the killer card be an easy swap, or do we have to run a third antenna to the chip?

 

Quick question for people that have received their AW with the 64 gb msata drive. Did the laptop come with the OS installed on the msata drive or did you have to make it into the boot drive?

 

Should come with the third antenna. I still have the stock card that came with my alien and it has the extra antenna tapped to the inside of the chassis. I don't see a reason for them to omit that from the r4.

 

I have a question regarding the hard drives in the M17x. Seeing as I'm going to order this with the standard 500GB HDD and install my SanDisk Extreme SSD with Win7 on it, how many hard drive bays does the laptop have?

As in, will I be able to have both drives on my laptop without having to remove the optical drive and having to use a caddy?

 

There are two standard HDD bays and one mSATA slot.

 

Thanks Does that mean that if I choose the single-hdd option, there will be one vacant bay for me to insert a second drive? That would be perfect!

 

Hello all,

Thinking of getting one of the new m17 r4 laptops. The 7970m would be my card of choice along with 8gb of ram.

Would a change in CPU make much difference?

The laptop would be used in the home and for gaming (fps, rts and flight sims)

Had a mare on first post - typed out and posted but thread blank! - good start.

 

The default 6GB is enough, but if you want more you should buy it yourself. It's much cheaper that way.

The default CPU is good enough for gaming. The more expensive ones won't help.

 

yup all you gotta do is have a second drive to install. The secondary caddy is included.

 

noooo way hahaha This is great news! I'm getting the M17x and this was one of the things that I was concerned about - being a student and all I can't really afford Dell's upgrade options so I was hoping to put in my own speedy SSD and aftermarket RAM (Corsair Vengeance is good, eh?)

Aftermarket upgrades FTW !

Also, I was thinking of sticking to the 3610qm instead of picking the 3720qm. Is that going to be a noticeable difference? (I'm taking the 7970m for sure )

 

For gaming, the 3610QM will basically perform just as well as the more expensive options since you'll be limited by the GPU.

If you do any other CPU intensive tasks, then the 3720QM is worth considering. I will be folding with my M17x, so I got the 3720QM.

 

GTRagnarok - thanks for the info, having a good read through the thread very useful.

 

Got it, thanks man. I'm going for the 3610qm and will see what I can do in terms of overclocking it

 

i have a question about the 7970m and the 3d screen if i get the 7970 and the the 3d screen will the 3d work or does 3d only work with nividia gpus

 

Won't work. You can't even choose the 7970M with the 3D screen - you get a compatibility error message when you try to do that.

 

huh i swear i had clicked both of those and didnt get message think ill go check that again (guess ill go with the 680m when it comes out then)

another question how hard is it to install more ram after getting the computer i watched a few videos on youtube and from the looks of it looks like a pain in the a** to put everything back together

 

If I ordered the 500gb hdd that comes with a 64gb mSATA boot drive, does that mean both hard drive bays will be taken up?

 

of course since both of those are diffident hard drives

 

Right, but I assumed that the 64gb boot drive would go in the mSATA slot!? Wouldn't that leave a bay with my 500gb drive and an empty second bay?

 

to my understanding there is only two bays the ssd would go in one and the hhd in the other

 

Just to clear things up, the M17x R4 has two standard 2.5" HDD/SSD bays AND one mSATA slot. mSATA SSDs are tiny cards that go into the mSATA slot directly on the motherboard. They do not go into the 2.5" bay.

1 HDD + 1 mSATA SSD leaves one empty bay.

 

oh that is vary good to know

 

Excellent news. Thanks for the clarification! Rep'd ;-)

 

I have a question about the msata drive. If I buy one aftermarket, how easy is it to get to the slot? Is this a hard drive upgrade or keyboard ram upgrade difficulty wise?

 

The images I saw showed it under the keyboard Alienware M17x R4 mSATA SSD²å²ÛλÖÃ_´÷¶ûAlienwareÍâÐÇÈËÂÛ̳

I think that's it anyhow.

 

Stretching my budget already but I am about to order a new M17x in the following specs:

Intel Core i7 3820QM Processor
FHD Display
8GB RAM
750GB HDD (7,200 RPM) (Don't worry, I will purchase an SSD at a later date )
BluRay Drive
AMD Radeon HD 7970M 2GB
2 Years Repair etc service

Totally £1,639.06 - Is it worth it?

Main reason for this thread though is, basically, my mom has a new baby girl on the way and because I have just finished university and I'll taking a year sabbatical until I join the BBC - I'll be living back with my mom for at least a year. Would you spend the extra £77 for extra damage coverage, given my mom's new child? Bearing in mind, I'm already pushing my limit! I only work in Starbucks 20 hours a week! >.<

Last question, which colour? Red or Black?

Thanks.

 

i don't think you need the 3820, go for 3720 or even 3610 as most will tell you, id personally go for the 3720. better if you could buy more rams, or pay for your ssd now instead of later.

 

Can I get the new M17x or M18X with Wireless HD built in?

Thanks!

Rob

 

Will there be a GTX 690M or whatever the high-end model will be called.
As impressive as the 7970M is, I'm not really a fan of AMD so rather have a nVidia card.

One that is on par with the AMD or better.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/658185-amd-7970m-vs-gtx-680m-123.html#
There you'll find all the answers (or not).

 

Nah, it's not that.
nVidia has more mobile GPU coming out this year (what's the model number?).
Wondering if Dell will offer the M17xR4 with those cards.

 

Getting the 3820 due to having that processor being cheaper for the whole configuration that I want than the lower specced processors.

Is the 3820 noticeably better though?

 

Only 100Mhz faster isn't it?
The 3720QM offers the best value for the money IMO.

 

Yeah I can understand that...

Thing is, with the 3820 and my spec it roughly £1,800 before 10% discount as part of an evalue bundle I found on dmxdimension.com

Had I gone the none evalue route the same specification would have cost roughly £2,500.

Having the 3820 processor as part of the bundle meant I only had to spend £50 upgrading the GPU from the GTX 675 to the Radeon HD 7970M. In the none evalue, upgrading to the Radeon meant paying £230.

Here, check out the difference:
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Would any of you think taking out 2 year accidental damage repair be worth it?

 

Something good to keep as a reference. I got access to the msata slot on my m17x r4 as its under the left palmrest

Alienware M17x R3 R4 complete teardown / how to take apart / disassemble - Hidevolution.com - YouTube


Also its only SATA II.

 

I got the stock warranty and ended up upgrading it so I could get my machine fixed. I would personally get the best warranty you can get for as long as you plan on owning the system. you never know what could go wrong.

Aw I thought mSATA would be SATA III.... oh well. Guess I would go with a standard SSD + a regular HD for now.

 

Yeah it was a pain to install my pm830 256gb msata drive and then to find that out it was a little disappointing. Now will I know a huge difference between the 2??

 

I think I asked this the wrong way before so I'll try again.

When I buy my AW I plan on also buying a Crucial M4 256GB SSD with transfer kit. If I use the kit to clone the standard 500GB HDD it ships with will I be set and good to go without having to install any drivers, Alienware FX, or anything to the SSD? Also, will I be able to put the HDD in the secondary hub right away or will I need to format it and stuff first?

 

You shouldn't need to re-install anything at all, but you will need to change the boot drive to the SSD in the bios once you've cloned the original boot drive and installed it.

 

If any of you ladies/gents could cast your eyes over the following and let me know if you have any suggestions or spot any glaring mistakes it would be greatly appreciated. Intended use is mainly as a games machine but it could also be running a number of sizable virtual machines (hence the RAM overkill) and used for CS6:

Intel Core i7-3820QM
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M + 1080P screen
Blue Ray / Killer Wireless-N 1103
32GB RAM would come from 2 x Corsair CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10 packs (opinion on this would be great, it is compatible right?)
I'd probably also get a Crucial M4 as a boot drive and use the hard disk that comes with it as a filestore for music.

Thanks in advance

 

You could save by going with 3720QM. According to some information on this forum starting with 3720QM you can OC CPU multipliers in BIOS, basically making it 3820QM.

 

Nice, let us know what $$ you ended up at.

 

It's UK prices so I'd feel a bit embarrassed to post it

I've got a one-time 10% off voucher valid for the next couple of days so I'll carry on researching and will probably take the plunge over the weekend I'm trying to find any tangible evidence that for non-games stuff I'll see any practical benefit with a 3820QM rather than a 3720QM. So far I haven't found anything so I'll probably go for the 3720QM as it represents better value and put the savings towards the SSD or maybe some extended cover

Has anybody gone for the 3 year cover + 3 year accidental damage cover? I didn't bother for my M14x R1 but as I'd be expecting to keep this longer and maybe travel around with it a bit more I'm considering it - though since I'm swapping the memory and disks out anyway I guess that diminishes the value a little.

// Edit: Found this on Google [ http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-3720QM-Notebook-Processor.73455.0.html] From my perspective the performance difference doesn't justify the £230 extra so 3720QM it is!

 

sure. I understand. Enjoy that hot rod

I've ordered a 3720QM with 32gig ram and SSD, So if you want me to run any tests on it I might be able to. But I imagine the difference between the 3720/3820 is minimal.

fyi, you link didnt work for me