Call me stoopid but need clarification on a simple thing

Hi folks

Im on the brink of ordering an M17x with the spec as follows

I7 720qm
win 7 hp
1yr wrrnty
c/f 5870's
4gb ram
1tb raid 0 stripe
17" uxga 1920x1200 rgbled
blu ray combo
bluetooth 370 module
lan 6300
9 cell battery
no a/v

Now this is a silly question but going through the configs on the site, its asking me to choose an avatar, alien fx colour and wallpaper.

What are these and where are they gonna be on my new laptop!!!!!

Please help the thicko out here........god knows i will probably require shooting for asking this ........

 

Avatar is your icon picture at your welcome screen. Alien FX color is your laptop color at start which can be changed anytime. Wallpaper is.. just your wall paper after your welcome screen. Everything is changeable anytime so don't worry too much.

 

Ahhhh....so its nothing thats gonna be emblazoned on the back of the lid or anything then?......i wasnt sure if it was for some logo embedded on the chassis but if they are just that then i wont worry too much....

So alien fx = colour of keyboard etc?
wallpaper obvious!
avatat = picture on screen upon boot?

 

Yes yes and yes

 

Thanks guys for answering a stooooopid question for me......i think thats it for this thread but probably have more questions about this laptop coming soon.

Cheers
Stevie

 

Ahhhh just thought of another......im looking for a surge protector for the power supply....is it cloverleaf of figure of 8?

 

it's cloverleaf/3-prong

 

Great news - my surge protector will fit!

BTW, does anyone know what level of "bloatware" is installed on these m17x's....ive read alot on here about manufacturers cramming systems full of usless crap but do alienware do the same?

Do they have any useful software on them such as adobe reader etc?

Also, do they ship with factory recovery disks or do you need to do your own?

 

Alienware doesn't install any junk software.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is pre installed.

You can also choose to have a few games pre installed, like portal (with Steam) and wow.

Yes recovery disk comes in package, called alien respawn along with a hat, and a mouse pad.

Hope that helps ^^

 

A HAT!.....lolol....how handy is that

 

FREE Hat FTW!!!

 

Another question for you guys in the know......

Have heard/read stuff about the m17x getting nvidia gtx480 (dont know if thats single or sli or what)

Does anyone know if this is true or when it will be.....

Also, im trying to compare before buying so any info regarding comparisons of the following would be great.

c/f ati 5870 vs single gtx 480m
single ati 5870 vs single gtx 480m
c/f ati 5870 vs sli gtx 480m

Surely sli gtx 480m would be too power hungry and too much heat for a laptop to cope with?
Thanks in advance from a newbie....

 

No one knows yet a lot of speculations atm about AW building a new m17x for 480m sli for E3, or single card. There is an sli connector on the card though. Again nobody knows here when and if 480m will be on m17x just speculations. If AW decides to make 480m in sli they'll need better cooling and better pwr supply, that's where speculations of a new m17x are coming from. Otherwise only time can tell, if you can i would suggest waiting til E3 it's only in a few weeks.

 

Im being offered a good deal ( i think ) from dell atm but have been told it cant be held for that length of time.

It includes c/f 5870, 720qm, 1tb raid 0, 1920x1200 rgbled, 4gb 1333 ram.

I guess when (or if ) gtx is released in sli on m17x, its gonna be ALOT more expensive and for what exactly....im not a hardcore gamer (just want the ability to game well) so should i really be that concerned about getting sli gtx's......

 

Is it a tinfoil hat?

 

Damn.........i hope it is one of them! - Alienware obviously think of their customers needs in every department huh?

 

I wouldn't hold my breath for the gtx 480m.

Surely a 5870 is good enough for non hardcore gamer (and I guess most hardcore gamers too).

NVIDIA has a big problem with the Fermi product line they need too much power and are way too hot. They need to fix it very fast or they will damage their business a lot. The Desktop cards already are semi flops, they get booted from supercomputers and I don't think they will get any significant share of the Notebook market.

Too bad because the graphic quality is great and the tesselation is very fast.

But how !£à!^must one be to develop power hungry cards when the competition already is better on energy consumption, and hot cards when so many notebook problems are related to overheating?

 

This is exactly what i was thinking about the 480's - too hot and too much power consumption for notebooks....imagine having 2 in there, i bet you would be able to fry an egg on the keyboard.
I dont think (in my meager novice opinion) that any notebook will be able to cope with sli 480's without ANY problems.
Im thinking that as the c/f 5870's appear to be alot better in this department then i will be going for them instead....why wait for something that is probably gonna turn out to be a complete disaster eh?

And as you say, cooling and feeding these gpu's is gonna cause major problems so i would doubt we would see a good solution any time soon to allow it in the m17x - unless they completely redisgn the whole laptop around the nvidias.

 

They will probably add USB 3.0 as well, not a huge thing atm but will be soon... 5870's seem like a huge disappointment right now, as they get very low FPS running WOW, with high setting in CCC. The issue is most likely drivers or BIOS that need to be tweaked, so I have no motivation to buy this laptop atm just going to wait for fix, and E3.

 

What kind of low frame rate are you getting with WOW? - not that i play it but out of interest would be good to know - what settings are you running at?

 

Not me, I haven't ordered mine yet waiting til E3. Here is the thred about it with a video: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/487852-improving-framerates-crossfire-5870-a.html

 

Oh sorry.....what do you think il come out of e3 then - would i be right in saying that anything new that is unveiled wont actually be available for quite some time here in the uk?

I mean, if AW say they are releasing a refresh with gtx 480m and usb 3.0, is that gonna be available right away.....im ready to order now ya see, BUT.....and its a big ole butt if something is gonna come out better and will be avaialble to buy, i would hold off.....

Just read the link above re: frame rates and seems the fix is easy....assuming this, how do the 5870's stack up against a possible gtx 480m single/sli combo?

 

Not sure hard to say how fast AW will start selling, but UK usually gets the parts soon after US or at the same time as 5870's came out.

Haha I under stand how u feel I'm in the same boat, I really hate waiting but I rather not rush buying either since I want this thing to last me 3-4 years of school. I'm just going to wait til 15th see if there's anything new, worth waiting for, if not I'll just order as it is.

I just don't want to order now then regret it few weeks later, and don't like dealing with Dell, so rather not waste time with reps atm then return it.

Besides that I have a gaming comp atm that runs games fine so not in a huge hurry to get it, but still don't like waiting that much.

 

Yeah, we are in the same boat....i want mine to last that kinda time....mainly cos £2500 is alot to have to replace in 12/24mths!

Im kind of wanting to hold off, but im also thinking that even if a refresh is released with gtx 480 / usb 3.0, its not gonna be a MASSIVE improvement over what i can currently order (and i am getting around £400 off the AW list price)
Assuming something bigger and better does come along, its not going to be a huge milestone gap (i would assume) and you can guarantee that the price for the newest stuff will be marked up considerably i would imagine.

It really is a shame that i cannot find any REAL comparison of the two gpu's . the usb thing isnt a biggy for me...

 

Fixed but at a loss of quality, not too happy with that.

You can't really compare a since card to a duals, 480m dose have a huge video ram (2gb) If their in sli I'd assume they would be way better, however the heat they produce and power they need not sure if AW will do it.

 

Maybe something that will be fixed with a driver release (from reading the thread).......as far as im aware, the AW m17x in the UK has only just been released with the c/f 5870's so im expecting some teething probs.....seems unreal that another release so soon with gtx 480 would be in the pipelines as AW would have to upgrade all the cooling and power supply to cope with the gpu????

 

Is that discount with the deal they have on their website? If not I'm sure you can get something close to that with some haggling.

Otherwise If you are not a huge gamer and don't really care about USB 3.0 then go for it, I mean its really up to you (don't really want to make decisions for you or convince you just saying what I'm doing and reasons behind it) I think the 480m might be pricey from what ppl said, although I'd assume they would try to competitively price with 5870's.

 

They usually try to show something new at E3, but now were just speculating as well lol

 

the price for the web configuration i like is £2650 and after speaking with a rep, i got him down to £2217.....he has told me he can only hold it for a few days tho......

 

Oh I was saying that because on US website we have a $300 sale atm on m17x

 

I think AW will try to get 480m in SLI though if they want to stay "All powerful"
New Clevo Notebooks Surface w/ GTX 480M, SLI

 

ahhhhh...well over here in the uk, best deal i found was a free HDD upgrade from standard to 1tb raid 0 stripe.....saves £230 gbp

 

with gt480m it will be "all overheat".

 

Just to let you know.....have taken the plunge and ordered my m17x with the following spec:

I7 720qm / 4gb 1333 ddr3 ram / 17" uxga 1920x1200 rgbled / 1tb raid 0 stripe hdd / blu ray combo / ati crossfire 5870 / bluetooth 370 / intle lan 6300 / win 7 home premium

Came to £2200......sounded like a good price to me .....(around $3180 i think)

 

How do you change the Avatar? I have an R2 and still cant figure out where to go to change the avatar. Is it done in the bios?

Thanks

 

from what ive been told, all things like alien fx , avatar and wallaper can be changed via command centre.....but how do i know, ive only just ordered lol.....hope im right!

 

Well when you figure it out can you tell me. I havent seen it in the command center though. I'll look again today.

 

Ive only just ordered mine so its gonna be several weeks before i get the chance to "play" with it.....maybe give dell a call, im sure its really simple to do and they will tell you how to do it...

Best of luck with it although im sure its not luck you need, just someone in the "know"!