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

Thanks. I just dont know how much of a difference it would make. It might be unnoticeable.

Since you owned an alienware for quite some time, do you know a where to point me to check out the AW return policy? I'm trying to avoid the 15% restocking fee.

 

I've only had my system since March. Wouldn't say it's been a long time. As for the return policy, all you have to do is search the Dell site.

Dell Terms of Sale, License Agreements & Policies | Dell

 

you will only notice it when running like windows 2008 with hyper-v and then run virtuals machines, or run vmware esx directly on the laptop.
running with vmware workstation it's in my opinnion a worthless upgrade.

on the 3610qm i can run 4 VM in vmware workstation and still play battlefield 3..
SQL/Domain controller/sharepoint 2010 and a windows 7 client.

 

I'm looking at an M17x to replace my old Thinkpad. Here's the config I want to get:

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Win 7 Pro, 64bit
AMD 7970M
17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Killer Wireless-N 1103
BluRay Drive
Accidental Damage Service, 2 Years

But I can't get any rep to budge on the price, even by $100. They all quote me around $2500. Is it even worth it at that price?

 

There should be a thread in here on how to haggle.

I actually got a very good deal.
i7-3610QM
7970M
1920x1080

Total was $1850

I had to sign up for a dell preferred account (12 months no interest) line of credit.
came out to:
$1650
+5% ($82.50) gift card
+$200 gift card

The gift cards I can always sell to plasticjungle and grab an amazon or paypal funds in return then buy myself accessories.

I used reference to haggle: "oh ive read on this forum that bla bla discount bla bla"
They gave it to me with no hesitation.

 

I've been speaking to a rep as well, and he explained to me that the pricing on the new R4s is tight at the moment, which is why they have little room to budge with respect to the price. My advice is keep haggling, they will budge eventually, if they see you as a sure customer. They make a commission off your sale too, its a win-win haha. If you see no progress with that for a while (but you will ), ask them to throw in some other stuff like the backpack or sleeve for free, or extended warranty maybe. They should give you that. Don't forget to ask for next business day shipping either, from personal experience I can say that its very easy to get this.

If you want to save, why not get the 1year accidental warranty instead? You can always upgrade later at any point (says my rep). Also, how much RAM are you looking at? More than 8GB is unnecessary and more than 16GB is, in almost all scenarios, pointless. Don't go above 8, save some there. You can also install the Killer Wireless card aftermarket for less (from what I have heard on these forums; I can't confirm it but I trust what people say here - would still appreciate evidence, guys , and you probably won't need it with the M17x right out of the box. Its a good card, but you can get it at your convenience later SAVE $$$ ! I've seen various videos and posts by people who have $2400+ configs, some above $3000 and those are pretty cool, but I can't think of spending that much haha, not that crazy for the most powerful tech.

I suppose the first step towards saving is to start separating what you want with what you need! I wanted a lot, but this is my final, final config - the base config, but with the 7970m, 1080p screen. I will be adding aftermarket parts (ssd, ram) later for much cheaper. With this, my price (without discounts) comes to around $1990 with tax, and although I don't want to put any figures here I assure you I am getting a considerable price reduction, plus free NBD shipping. Never give up, keep talking just make it clear that you want it and they'll budge good luck!

*sources* AW/DELL Ordering Advice - How to save $$$ - by DR650SE

I hope this helps you plan a course of action!

That's pretty sweet I wasn't approved for DPA lol so am going the regular way. Enjoy your laptop and I'll join you guys in the Alienware club soon! DONE with my HP lol

 

I'm planning to upgrade the RAM and install an SSD myself, so not a lot to save there. I'd rather spend the $70 on the Killer Wireless card now, than take a chance at doing it myself. I've gone back and forth with the warranty, because I plan to keep this laptop for a few years at least. 1 year seems like it isn't nearly long enough, considering the caliber of laptop (not like it's a $400 inspiron), but $300 to move up to 2 years? That's crazy.

Any tips on getting a US-based rep? That request got shot down by the rep I spoke with yesterday.

 

Ok so this is my first Alienware, let me start off by saying there is a lot of great information on here and I appreciate everyone's input. I recently placed an order for the following M17X. These are the questions I have if anyone would be so kind to answer them for me:

1. Is the motherboard capable of running the newer 3rd generation processors, ie the 37XX and 38XX?
2. Is the motherboard capable of running the AMD GPU's and will I have to get a different heat sink?
3. Is this an R3 or R4?

Includes M17X notebook, nine-cell lithium-ion battery, AC power adapter, and manual
2.2GHz Intel Core i7-2670QM processor, up to 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost
17.3" diagonal widescreen HD+ WLED display with 1600x900 resolution
8GB dual-channel DDR3 1600MHz RAM
750GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
Slot-loading dual-layer DVD burner
802.11g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIAGeForce GTX660M
High-definition 5.1 surround sound audio
3 megapixel video/picture webcam
9-in-1 memory card reader
Two USB 2.0, USB 3.0/2.0 combo ports
HDMI 1.3 input with audio
HDMI 1.4 output with audio
VGA, mini display, RJ-45, eSATA+USB 2.0 combo ports
Three auto-sensing jacks for line-out
Power/DC-in, microphone jacks
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit

Again I appreciate any and all info that can be provided. I didn't order this directly from Dell therefore I cannot make any changes to the laptop until I have it in hand. Due to my limited financing options this is the only way I could get one.

Thanks again

 

1) If it is indeed an R3, then I don't think the motherboards are able to run the new Ivy Bridge processor.
2) Yes you can install an AMD GPU, but you'll have to get the correct heatsink for it.
3) From reading your specs, it sounds like it's an R3. If it's an R4, then you'll have no issues upgrading to Ivy Bridge.

 

I appreciate the response, I have read in some places its an R3 and other places an R4. How can I tell when I get it? Will it have R3 or R4 somewhere on the model number on the laptop itself?
Here again I just ready this not 5 mins ago:

Alienware: M14x, M17x, M18x -- available to order now; estimated shipping date May 28. (Dell says this morning that anyone who has recently ordered one of three models above with a quad-core Core i7, and whose orders have not shipped yet, will get an automatic Ivy Bridge upgrade.) Article was written Apr. 30 on cnet.

 

Excuse me for barging in like this, but one of the main external differences between R3 and R4 is the USB ports. The R3 has 2x USB2.0, 2x USB 3.0 and eSATA/USB 2.0 combo, whilst the R4 has 4x USB 3.0 and eSATA/USB 2.0 combo.

Consireding that you wrote it having 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0 it would suggest that your version is an R3.

 

Simply put - no R4 would be shipping with a 2670QM processor. Alienware made the switch at the beginning of May.

You'd be ordering an R3. Not sure why you would want to do that.

 

Well that did it, cancelled my order and ordering directly through Dell, whew just about messed up didn't I.

 

right now i want to get

PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3820QM (8MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit
MEMORY 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS) edit
HARD DRIVE 750GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
VIDEO CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M edit
LCD PANEL 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED edit
WIRELESS CARD Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0 edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

all this comes total of.. through $2,614.00 if paid by website,

if i call them, what do i need to do? first i am trying to chat with someone then call on later

 

Drop the RAM to 8GB - upgrade it yourself. That will save you some money. Switch the Hard Drive to a 500 GB 7,200 RPM HDD with a 64 GB mSATA boot drive... it'll make it easier to expand later (and the OS will be installed on an SSD).

 

will alienware install os on ssd for me on the 500 GB 7,200 RPM HDD with a 64 GB mSATA?

also i have no clue really..adding/removing things from laptop, and i buy ramm im afraid i may do something wrong
.

texting chat i got...with current config i have

"Subtotal # $2,561.72
Taxtotal # $224.16
Shippingcharges # $0.00
TotalPrice # $2,785.88"

 

Well now so that everyone knows, and with the help of everyone on this thread I will now be ordering the following:

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 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
VIDEO CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970m
LCD PANEL 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
WIRELESS CARD Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

And yes I will be upgrading the ram myself as well as adding the crucial 256m SSD.

Final price will be $1989, saving 200.00 over the R3 I was going to be getting shafted on, I mean ordering. I have a rep going to call me to place the order, at a minimum I will be getting a Military Veteran discount, only 2% but hey I'll take it.

 

WORTH dishing the extra cash?
what can i expect from 3820m that 3610m cant provide?

gaming,web browsing,,,etc

 

Ram is easy to upgrade, its just getting the right type of RAM. You will have to take the laptop apart both to and bottom. There are several videos on youtube that you can reference.

Ram is easy to upgrade, its just getting the right type of RAM. You will have to take the laptop apart both to and bottom. There are several videos on youtube that you can reference. I think I posted that in the wrong place.

 

You shouldn't need more than the 8GB ram anyway.... and if you do at some point, for $100 you can buy 8x2 RAM and swap them into slots 3 and 4. There are four RAM slots on the Alienware M17X.

As to the mSATA, yes, the OS is installed on that by Dell. You want it on the mSATA (faster boot times, etc.). The other thing is if you buy an SSD at some point, you can slide it into the empty bay and easily upgrade it.

If you went with the 750GB HDD alone, you'd have to reinstall Windows and that's a pain.

Looks good, though I would upgrade to the mSATA ($75 upgrade) for convenience sake. Might be worth the upgrade to the RAM too just to avoid the incredibly irritating combination Dell gives you (4GB stick + 2GB stick)

 

i see, i will greatly consider that,few questions
1.is removing ramm hard? is it just removing the bottom plate, slide out the ramm and plug in the new ram?

2.and is it the same with upgrading the graphics card

3. for near future is it beast to upgrade the processor? i7-3610QM VS i7-3820QM ?

 

Neither.

3610QM = 2.3ghz
3720QM = 2.6ghz
3820QM = 2.7ghz

You're gaining 400mhz from the 610 to the 820 and its $350. If you go for the 3720QM its $150 and you're gaining 300mhz for $150.

100mhz isn't worth $200 to be fully honest.

Completely up to you nonetheless.

In regards to performance boost, you won't gain anything in web browsing and simple applications. Gaming, you may see a ~5 FPS increase on CPU demanding games.
You'll benefit mostly in CPU intensive applications such as 3D rendering, CAD, video editing / rendering etc.

 

what are cpu demanding games? like crysis? im tyring to plan ahead.
will near future games like dark souls, borderlands 2 need a better card than 7970m?

 

The 7970m will hold its ground for 2-3 years. The worst circumstance you can see yourself in is 2 years down the line you will be playing on Medium settings. Maybe low on some VERY demanding titles.

 

If you will consider to upgrade the RAM remember, that Win7 Home Premium does not support more than 16 GB or RAM.

You can find a guide on clean installing windows in http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...lienware-m17x-r3-r4-owners-lounge-thread.html, 1st post.

Again don't forget that:

So, no matter what mSATA drive you got, it will be 2x slower than SATA 3 SSD (considering the max throughput of SATA 2 vs SATA3).

 

I agree that the mSATA drive will be slower than an SSD in Bay 1 or Bay 0, but so what? It'll still be an incredibly fast boot, and it avoids having to reinstall Windows.

 

Can any one tell me if its worth getting the 32gb caching mSATA

I'm not getting the 64gb boot dive as I'm buying a 256gb ssd later and putting it in the second bay

Sent From My Rooted EVO 3D

 

Is there an advantage one way or the other on the mSATA being used as a boot drive vs. as a cache drive? Would the cache drive not help with boot times and also with other programs as well that are on the HDD?

I'm asking because I'm not sure the answer, not because I disagree with anything previously posted.

 

Ordered mine today after cancelling a previous order. Mine came with the recon3d, no choice, as for the network card I upgraded to the Killer network card due to the fact that I just upgraded my router to the Cisco 4550 and curious as to how that will work out.

 

Just wanted to throw this out there - I know people are getting the Killer wireless card, and personally I'd like to go for it but the additional $70 being asked for it is rather overpriced (just like any other upgrade, lol). If anything, I probably will add it myself along with the ssd and ram upgrade I am giving my future R4, but I just wanted to know where I could possibly buy it? Just curious. Couldn't find it on newegg but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

Also wondering, the 1202 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO is just $30 on the M14x's config. Will this card work on the M17x R4?

 

1.

2. No, graphics card changing is more complicated as the new card has to fit in the slot properly and the old heat sink may not fit the new card. You should check SlickDude80's guides for more info.

3. No, for the near future it's not necessary, but as many before have stated, it is up to you. CPU upgrade is not required if you are mainly going to play games. You can check this article Intel Sandy Bridge Processors Gaming Performance: Part II - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Just do a google search for it, or check ebay/amazon. Seen a few on there in the past.

 

I'm not familiar with ssd\mini ssd etc...
I know that if I install the os on a hdd and then want to add a ssd i'll need to do a clean install. But what about the msata+500gb hdd? Would it be enough to simply move everything from the small msata to the ssd?

So with that configuration there would be:

mSATA by himself
slot 1: 500gb 5400rpm hdd
slot 2: empty, waiting for an ssd

And adding an ssd would mean os and most used programs\games on the ssd, whatever is left on the msata and the hdd basically for multimedia stuff, is that correct?

 

I would just leave the OS on the mSATA, which is an SSD.

 

Ok, thanx for that!
I've prepared my config with the 500gb to replace it with an ssd, but the msata option has a reasonable price. I know it won't perform like a samsung\intel ssd but it's heaps cheaper, maybe I could start with that and in the future get a full sized ssd when I need it.

I just have to wait for some offer from dell australia xD

 

You realize there are 2 hard drive bays in the m17x right? In addition to the mSATA slot (so really, a total of three...)

The mSATA you get is Samsung, it's pretty quick. The main drawback is that its SATA2 not SATA3 (like both hard drive bays), so you end up with slightly slower speeds. I don't think it's a big enough difference to matter, but some do.

If you get the 500GB HDD and mSATA option, the Operating System will be installed on the mSATA. This allows you to do one of two things when your system arrives:
(1) You could purchase an SSD and install it yourself, which is much cheaper than buying it from Dell. If you do this, you could simply put all your programs on the SSD and leave the HDD for files (music, video, documents, etc.)
(2) You could hold off purchasing an SSD, installing programs on the mSATA until it is full, and using the HDD for files. When the mSATA is full, decide whether it's worth buying an SSD or installing things on the HDD.

You shouldn't need to remove the HDD, unless you want to (to avoid it spinning, for example). I might eventually remove the HDD in favour of an SSD, but it's $300 I don't want to spend right now. On the other hand, I could just put the 7,200 RPM HDD in my Dell XPS, so it would not be a total waste.

 

I spoke to my rep and he said he's fine with me sharing contact details. If you're interested, let me know and I'll shoot you a PM

 

I am looking to buy the m17x r4, and i have a 2 price quotes for two different setups. I would like to get some opinions on what you would go far, and if i am paying to much.

first setup:
m17x r 4
3720qm
6gb of ram
1080p screen
7970m card
500gb hard drive
bigfoot wireless n
3 year accidental warranty

price including tax - $2100

second option

m17x4
3720qm
6gb of ram
3d 120htz 1080p screen
675m
500gb hdd
bigfoot wireless n
3 year accidental warranty

price including tax- $2500

which would you choose? Am i getting a fair price quote? should i hold out for something better to be offered by alienware?

Please let me know ASAP may pull the trigger this weekend

 

sorry moderators but can you move this thread to the m17x section? I thought i was in that section and not the general one.

 

I'd go the first. I prefer the 7970 and i hate 3D screens so that's a non-issue. Easy $400 savings.

 

is it a good price?

 

First setup hands down. The 7970m blows the 675m out of the water and the novelty of 3D screens wears off after a week. Basically with the second setup your paying $400 more for a less powerful GPU with a 3D screen....doesn't seem great to me.

$2100 seems reasonable so if I were you I'd totally bite the bullet and get that beast of a laptop ordered ASAP!

 

2100 is about 18% off which is much more than most people get.

 

Yeh, it's alright. Can you downgrade the RAM and HDD any further? Dell charges absurd prices for their upgrades, you are always better off getting the base model of the CPU & GPU that you want and upgrade the RAM and HDD later with better aftermarkets for half the price.

Are you using a discount code? If not, get them to find one. You should be able to get 5% off with at least free NBD shipping and maybe a peripheral thrown in.

 

$2100 w/ taxes & 3yr accident protection?! If my math is correct, the list price on that system is ~$2500. And that number is without taxes. I personally would take that deal in a heartbeat. Just my opinion, though.

 

I actually just doubled-back because I for some odd reason thought these were M14x's we were talking about. Yes, for an M17x R4 that is an excellent price, i would get the first setup with possible RAM & HDD downgrades (and put in 8GB 1600MHz Kingston Hyper-X for $70 and 256GB Crucial M4 for $210).

 

thanks for all the help guys. Yea it took a lot of haggling, but I got them down to those two quotes. Also the HDD and ram is the base. I havent upgraded those at all. I was planning on doing aftermarket upgrades on both.

Most likely I will go ahead and go with the first quote.

Thanks for all the help you guys.

 

m17x r 4
3720qm
8Gb of ram
1080p screen
7970m card
750gb hard drive
bigfoot wireless n

Just looking for a reseller in EU now

 

Hello, welcome to NBR!

Checkout hidevolution.com they ship to Romania. I advise you to give them a call.

 

my first good news for today after my acer aspire 6935g just broke
thnx for the info.