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

I'm planning to get an alienware after my acer broke, we're on the same boat xD

I've been lucky though, major motherboard fault 3 weeks before the end of warranty, acer is currently repairing it and i'll sell it as soon as i get it back.

 

No problem.

By the way you will be able to use the PM system after reaching five quality posts in the forums and your user status gets updated (~11PM EST).
It's an anti spam measure.

 

u were lucky. mine isnt in warranty any more (3 years old laptop). but i think i can fix it (prolly ac adapter broke, when i plug it, screen goes black, but laptop is still working).

i was thinking about changing it for a time now cause my t9400 and 9600M couldnt handle gaming like they used too 3 years ago. heard good things about alienware (except the prices) and i thought about buying one. but when i saw resselers prices in Romania ...

 

Hey guys, first time poster on here, have a spec in mind but not sure to go with mSATA, 500GB HDD then upgrade HDD to SSD myself, or go with normall HDD, then get 2 SSD's and RAID 0 them... Would appreciate any suggestions/comments on spec anything I should change add etc. I should say I will be using this for normal use plus Flight Simulator X while I am away from home (and my desktop) for a year . Many thanks in advance.

Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 7970M
8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
64GB mSATA Boot Drive + 500GB SATA (7,200rpm)
LCD 17.3" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n

Dell quotes £1685 GBP discounted from 1970GPB

 

Be sure you need this. If you have gaming in mind for this machine and don't want to overclock CPU then upgrade is not necessary

Generally it's cheaper to upgrade memory yourself.

This 64GB mSATA drive costs similarly to 128GB SSD. Be sure you need it.

Make sure you will take advantage of this. Remember that you have to have a wireless router capable of delivering the speed this card can provide, otherwise you will hardly notice a difference.


On another note, i would be interested to know if there is any way of buying R4 without RAM, HDD and OS?
Seeing as many upgrade their RAM and storage solutions anyway, it would be a nice money saving option.

 

Thanks for the reply, Flight Sim is very CPU intensive so I thaught the additional clock speed may help... Yes I agree with you on memory, I think i will buy some Corsair memory. So you reccomend sticking with the standard HDD and upgrading with 2 SSD's in raid 0? Wireless card was £15 so i thaught what the hey, might as well...

Thanks again

 

Hi guys
I've finally decided to get a m17x Although ill be ordering in mid of July ... i hope i can still get a nice discount from the reps , these are my m17x Stats.

i7-3610qm
1080p screen
500gb(7200rpm)
6gb ddr3 1600 ram
2gb 7970m amd radeon


--------------------------------

Now what i have in my mind is ... is the 6gb decent enough .. or do i get 8gb of ram from newegg .. ?
should i order 8gigs of ram or do i order 4gigs of ram and just chuck the 2gigs of ram out.but that is only possible if i know what brand RAM does alienware m17x use ? (cuz id like to have the same brands)

also will 8gigs make it dual channel automatically?(yea a noob question)

and any suggestions to what brand to use incase i buy 8 gigs?
--------------------------------

Also i was thinking to get a SDD (128gigs i guess) from newegg .. is that possible ??


thanks

 

What will you use the comp for mainly?
For gaming 4gb is good enough already, 8 is a sweet spot.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the R4 uses Samsung OR Crucial.
I haven't opened mine yet so can't say, someone else can verify that.

If you really want to upgrade it then buy the RAM from newegg and install them yourself.
Dell is overpriced for certain parts (HDD/SSD/RAM and some other stuff).

And it does not void your warranty to open up the comp.

 

yea im gonna install them myself .. i am not gonna give anything xtra to dell dell is OP for RAM's too

 

You are welcome and yes, if it were me, I would rather have SSD raid 0 then mSATA, but the choice is Yours. Raid is not so power efficient as non-raid configurations since both drives have to work simultaneously, but since drives in general are power efficient (especially non-sandforce controller) it should not make that big a difference.

 

any one else that could help a little ??

 

I'd get 8GB or 16GB of RAM from Newegg...

I regret not getting the i7-3720QM - It's a better processor.

I'd get the 500GB + mSATA option if you can, mostly because the OS is then installed on the mSATA, which saves you the clean install. Also, the mSATA, while only a SATA2 (as opposed to SATA3) connection is one of those things you're least likely to upgrade.

 

What I did was buy a 2gb stick and a 4gb stick so I could match everything up to get dual channel and not waste anything. As long as you buy ddr3 1600, 1.5v RAM, you're good. Brand isn't really important, even Dell ships laptops out with 2 different brands of RAM.

Keep an eye on slickdeals.net for the best SSD deal. 256gb crucial m4's have been going lower than $200 lately. You'll eventually run out of space on a 128gb and regret not getting bigger.

CPU is fine, but the next one up can overclock a bit, which I find super cool.

 

3720 is outta my budget ...

secondly what brand do i get ?? any specific ones .. could u please link me some ... and is msata also available on newegg?? or would i have to get it from dell itself ?
does dual Chanel make alot of difference?

 

and what exactly is the difference between a Msata and a SATA ssd ?

 

It's $150... if you can afford to buy ram on the side you can buy the 3720 and upgrade the ram later.

I just think it's one of the more valuable upgrades (buy parts you're least likely to replace later)

 

well the problem is .. id be getting this from the US to India .. and I wont be visiting US sooner and no one would be coming to visit me soon ... so what i need to buy is like one time(and then id be stuck to it atleast for an year) .. I do not like purchasing things in India ...

And how much difference does 3720 make to 3610 ??

 

SATA SSD looks just like a normal 2.5 hard drive and fits in the HDD caddy. An mSATA looks like a PCI-Express Mini card.

Educate yourself: Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Awesome rig you ordered! Now the waiting game begins.

 

mSATA is mostly a waste in the 17x since you have 2 hard drive slots. They are more expensive, and slower in a lot of cases. And a lot harder to install.

 

The main difference is that it's easier to overclock, and it's slightly faster. Both are very fast.

8GB of ram is more important to you than the 3720 v. 3610, so if you're going to be in India and no way of getting new RAM once you go, maybe you get the 3610 and live with it. I mean, I didn't cancel my order (which as you can see is a 3610) because ultimately I decided I wanted my computer sooner.

It's a good CPU, just not the best option available.

 

Looking very good. I would have gone with the i7-3720QM (even though I didn't, but with the knowledge I now hold, I would have)... but overall, I think it's an awesome setup and I think you'll be very happy with it.

I know I'm looking forward to being happy with mine (a very, very similar setup) once it arrives this week

 

This is exactly what i was looking for .. i knew what a mSata was .. but i wanted to know what should i go for .. now that i know i know its a SATA3 SSD that im gonna buy ..

BTW .. What RAM brand did you buy off Newegg ??

 

I bought this from the Canadian site (was slightly cheaper, $130).
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10

If you only want 8GB, this is $50.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233242

EDIT: Note I provided you with the U.S. links (since I believe you're in the U.S.), not the Canadian links.

 

I bought a
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-2GBSQ
and a
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-12800CL11S-4GBSQ

Then when I installed it, I switched it all so I was pairing the 2gb together and the 4gb together.

 

how much did you pay $ for your system?

also guys...what does 3617qm have over the higher processor upgrade 3720qm?

and i mean if u go even higher....what benefits?

 

Hi guys,

Ok so I am still unsure of what I should do,

- Order the mSATA SSD and the 500gb HDD, and then buy a crucial M4 SATA 3 SSD and replace the 500 GB HDD, will I still get 6Gb/s speeds?

- Order standard HDD the buy crucial M4 SATA 3 SSD, will just using alienrespawn make the SSD load everything just loke when I got it.

Sorry for the noobish questions

 

Depending on how much effort you want to put into it after you get the laptop lol. I'm personally going for the second option to save $$ because I will be getting an SSD anyway and don't need the mSATA, which runs at 3Gbps and not 6Gbps.

If you want to go with the first option though, it saves you the trouble of installing windows, drivers, etc everything all over again because it will all be on the msata drive. And you don't have to replace the 500GB hdd because there is an empty upgrade bay for your ssd, so you will have 3 drives in all

hope this helps you make up your mind on this matter, if not feel free to let us know!

 

When configuring the m17x memory part, what is the difference between 2DIMMS and 4DIMMS? Does 2DIMMS only have 2 RAM slots and 4DIMMS has 4?

 

LOL thanks for the quick reply, as long as i get 6Gb/s speeds from the SSD (Crucial M4 probably!) I will be happy. I think I will go for mSATA and if needs be in future take that out and do a Alienrespawn onto a fresh SSD...

Apparently the R4 comes with 6Gb/s 64GB mSATA as standard in UK according to the sales rep I was speaking to... Just to throw that out there lol. Thanks again for the great advice and support

 

For 2DIMMS, it will only use 2 of the 4 slots. For 4DIMMS, it will use all 4 slots.

Lets say you want 8GB. It'll be either 4GBx2 slots or 2GBx4 slots.

 

I see. So doesnt matter what option you pick, the laptop will have 4 RAM slots available hey. Thats what I wasnt sure about. Thank you.

I just configured two identical m17x's on the Dell site. The one I configured I started out at alienware.ca, the other I started at Dell's website then clicked on the free xbox360 promotion for students. The free xbox(4gb) m17x was priced at $2,249.99 and the identical m17x without promotion was $1,999.99. I dont understand this.. Dont those xbox's they are giving away only cost $100? So they are making $150 on 'giving' them away for free?

I forgot to ask, is there any performance difference between the example you posted?

So all m17x's have two 2.5" drive bays? Where is the mSata drive located?

 

The mSATA drive is not in a bay.... It has two + the mSATA slot.

 

How does the performance degradation of unmatched or single memory sticks compare to the benefits of more memory? In other words, if I start with the 4/2/0/0 configuration from the factory and want 8+GBs, would buying a 2x4 kit and making it 4/4/4/0 or 4/4/4/2 be slower than replacing the original memory and making it 4/4/0/0?

 

You could buy a 2+4 and do 2+4 and 2+4.....

 

Built a pretty nice M17xR4 with these stats:
Alienware M17X R4 Alienware M17X R4 with Soft Touch
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Memory 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
Keyboard English Keyboard
Display Panels 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Video Card 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
Hard Drive 500GB 7,200 RPM Storage + 64GB mSATA Boot Drive
AlienFX Quasar Blue
Hinge Up Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat X Reader
Optical Driver Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Audio Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
Wireless Networking Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0

The price was $1,989 before taxes (does dell make you pay taxes for Cali?)

Now, the same laptop on powernotebooks (including gpu pasting) was $2021.
They say they don't have any taxes in any state besides nevada, but can anyone confirm that? I read some odd stuff that didn't quite seem right in their TOS that was talking about shipping/tax prices being on other invoices.

Anyone got some feedback on which to choose?

 

(I think he means 2+2 and 4+4)

 

Yes, they charge sales tax in CA and the tree huggers get you for a $10 environmental fee!

I'd ditch the mSATA and go with a standard 2.5" SATA drive...if you can afford it.

When you get your laptop, upgrade your RAM to 8GB Corsair or Kinsgton...its priced fairly at newegg.com. You'll be much happier with 8GB.

Wireless Network Killer is a definite must. Its been getting killer reviews.

Are you paying for Adobe Acrobat? Is it something you absolutely need?

 

No. Adobe comes free. And for the sata I just feel safer knowing everything will be on there and working properly. most of the boot drives I was looking at are around $80 + shipping and I'm willing to pay a bit extra for security. As for RAM yeah, I was going to get 2x 4GB hyperX 1600mhz. Do you know if I can still keep the 2 stock sticks in + the 2 new ones? or just the 2 new ones?

Also, anything on the powernotebooks tax situation?
Thanks for the help.

Edit: and believe you me, I would definitely get a pure sata for storage if I could afford it, sadly limited to $2,000.

 

With powernotebooks, they are a reseller. As I understand it, they won't usually charge sales tax to an item they are selling & shipping to another state. Sales tax is for intrastate commerce only. That's how if you're in Nevada and buy the laptop at a Nevada website, you get charged Nevada sales tax. The weird part is if you buy the laptop and have it shipped interstate you, you no longer have bought something in Nevada that will be used in Nevada so they can't charge sales tax. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. My office manager tried explaining it to me and I still don't get it entirely.

For the RAM, if the two stock sticks are 6GB (2x3GB), then no. It will only take 2x3GB sticks or 2x4GB sticks. After than you have to do 4x3GB, 4x4Gb, etc.

 

the stock sticks are 1x2GB 1x4GB, so I could actually use the 2x4GB HyperX + the one 4GB stock? would that mess with the dual channel or anything?
And thanks for the clarification. Looks like powernotebooks will be my place to buy.

 

The laptop will come with 4 slots. 2 of those slots will be populated with 1x2gb stick and 1x4gb stick. You can place your 2x4gb sticks in the 2 empty remaining slots. This will retain a dual channel setup.

This will give you a total of 14GB of ram.

Also 1x3GB stick doesn't exist.

 

I've read that the R4 mSATA slot only supports up to SATA II speeds. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, does the R4 have any keyboard ghosting issues?

Finally, I'm not a big fan of the glossy cover on the display. I noticed that some people were removing the cover on the M18x, is there anyone doing that on the m17x? If so, are there any guides or videos. I was hoping I could get a reseller to do it and replace the bezel. Is there any chance for that?

 

I think 2+4 and 2+4 will run better than 2+2 and 4+4, no?

I believe you are correct about the mSATA.

 

I wouldn't combine the 2Gb stick with the 4Gb sticks, it can lead to problems. 12Gb of RAM is likely MUCH more than you can ever use (unless you do a lot of photo or video editing or use things like Maya).

^3Gb sticks of RAM are very real.

 

Yes the mSATA is SATA II where the two drive bays are SATA III

Sent From My Rooted EVO 3D

 

3GB RAM modules do exist...unless Dell is selling make-believe electronics on their website (wouldn't be the first time they did!) Trust me, you'll be more than satisfied with 2x4GB of RAM. In the event you do a LOT of gamin or video editing, then add 2 more 4GB modules of RAM for 16GB in total.

 

you want to do 2+2 and 4+4 or the other way around i.e., 4+4 and 2+2. It is important to keep the pairs the same value. This will maintain Dual channel.

If you do 2+4 and 2+4...you will be running 4gigs in single channel (2 gigs of each pair is going to be in single channel)

 

So I got this question concerning the memory slots:

I know there are 2 easy accessable slots at the bottom like in the R2 for example but also 2 underneath the keyboard.

Now since I ordered one with 2 sticks, would they be inserted underneath the keyboard or the other ones?

I hope they are putting them underneath the keyboard so I can easily upgrade when I want to.

Thanks in advance

Sent from my Ipad using Apptalk

 

I've never seen one and I'd appreciate it if you guys could link to a product page maybe? As far as I know, most (if not all) manufacturers include 1GB+2GB for a 3GB config and 2GB+4GB for a 6GB config. I'm yet to see a 3GB stick so I'm really really curious and might look further into it...