Any soldiers deploy with a M17x?

I am leaving to Afghanistan in Feb, and was wondering if anyone on here has deployed with a 17x before. How well did it hold up? I do have the 3 year complete care but just wanted to know how well it did with baggage abuse and maybe harsh air. It will be in most likly a hanger or tent that is climate controlled, sand and dust will be unavoidable. I bought a screen protector from Radtech and a padded carrying case from targus so I hope it will be protected on shipping but mostly I was wondering how it will do for a year in no mans land. Thanks, any input will be greatly appreciated.

 

Good luck there,hope you and you're AW will come back safe!

 

Wow, good luck to you, and thanks a million for your service to us all! Please keep posting to NBR and let us all know how it holds up. If you keep a new high-quality paintbrush around for dusting in the nooks and crannies, that might help. I just went to Home Depot and bought a very fine bristle brush for that purpose.

 

I would ask DR650SE I'm pretty sure he took his with him on deployment(Iraq if I remember right). And here's a pat on the back, a thank you, and +rep for serving.

 

Yea, I actually ordered the M17x R1, M11x R1, and M17x R2 while I was in Iraq. Given living conditions today, at least where I was, the only thing was light dust. But I was in Iraq, in the Green Zone. But you should be able to get a can of compressed air at any P/X. But they won't let you buy them in bulk for fear of you trying to kill yourself by "cleaning out your lungs with a little dust of" lol. But as far as travel, I generally keep mine with me. Never really left the pod. Not sure what type of conditions or where in Afghanistan you'll be, and I know you can say much for opsec reasons, but I think it should be fine. Just do what you can to minimize dust. Hopefully you'll be in a pod rather than a tent or hanger. But if something happens, hey, you got the warranty. May want to take it apart once in a while for a through cleaning as well.

My only problems were the M11x Hinges blowing out, and frying a GPU due to some crazy benchmarking. But once I got home, Dell replaced both of those. So best bet might be to carry it with you, and if that isn't possible, see if you can stick it in a Foot locker thats well protected. If all else fails, consider having a family member ship it to you, but make sure it gets insured. From what I was told by some contract postal workers, insured items go in seperate boxes that basically throw up a hands off flag. Makes it a hard target. I know you won't want to put whats in the box on the label, but thats the best thing to do so that if it comes up missing, you've got the reciepts and copies of the postage papers stating exactly what you lost.

Maybe a few other members will chime in, as I know a few NBR members that were out in the worlds litter boxes. Best of luck troop and don't get complacent.

 

Im wondering the same as i will be deploying soon also.

I did think of the artist brush trick, but as DR605SE has said, try get some compressed air, that should reolve the issue i would think.

 

Thanks for all the input, was palnning on having compressed air shipped to me, just diddnt want to go there with it due to the fact its not seen as a good thing. I do have a M11x R1 that I used for the field (training) and it did awsome but a year on a 11" screen I think will get to me sence my laptop will be my main scorce of entertainment. So a good brush and a few cans of compressed air should do the trick then? Thanks again!!

 

A good brush with fine bristles will get fine dust out of cracks that air alone won't. But make sure it's something like a trim painter's brush. If you have a Home Depot around, the Zibra brand brushes are excellent, and the small-size Purdy brushes are great too. The cheaper "disposable" paint brushes have bristles that are too coarse and probably won't get into the finer crevices. Probably those super small artist brushes (Michael's, etc.) will have short and very fine bristles, probably made of some animal hair, but then those don't reach in as far and their bristles are so flexible that they don't clean as effectively.

The air cans, in my experience, don't clean as effectively. I'm sure they are gentler, since only a gas jet hits anything, but I never seem to get keyboard crevices and gaps really clean until I get in there and firmly brush them all out.

Edit: Here's a link to the Zibra brushes (Home Depot) I most like for cleaning:

http://www.homedepot.com/Paint-Brus...1&catalogId=10053&Nu=P_PARENT_ID&omni=b_Zibra

The bonus is you can actually use them to paint trim around the house too, for which they are also excellent!

 

Not a soldier but a contractor here at BAF. If your going to be here in BAF a good amount of service members are in some type of hard structure. Even in the tents you'll be fine as long as you put the bad boy up after use. Hit me if you ever want to do some gaming. Would love to see your machine too.

 

Will do! Thanks everyone for the advice looks like my 17x will be coming along with me now that I am pretty confident it will be fine.

 

Just got back from a 9 month deployment in Kuwait with mine and I am going back for another deployment in 3 months. I highly recommend a 1495 CC1 Pelican case! When you spend as much coin as you do on a laptop like this, the extra for a top notch, water tight, dust tight case is worth it. I ended up going on several missions while I was over there and took the laptop with me.

Brian

 

^^
That's a really nice case,it does look very solid too. How's space inside with the m17x?

 

Most things pelican makes are fantastic, the cases are indicative of the brand.

 

Will the m17x fit in this case, the Pelica ... ... Will the m17x fit in this case, the Pelican 1495CC1?

This thread led me to purchase the case. Has pictures showing how the M17X fits.. its tight but do-able.

 

I use pelican cases myself, they are the best IMO