Finally ordered M17x R3...What should I do when I receive it?

Hi Guys,

Thank you all of you wonderful ppl to help me decide on my purchase!! Following are my specs:

210-34877 Soft Touch - Stealth Black 1 4,439.25 4,439.25
200-80469 T512021SG-Dell(TM) Alienware M17XR3 1
213-13029 Intel® Core? i7-2720QM Processor (2.2GHz, 1600 MHz DDR3, 6M cache)
370-15392 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM(2x4GB) 1
400-22256 256GB Solid State Drive
429-15616 8X DVD + /-RW Drive with DVD + R double layer write capability
490-12577 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon? HD 6970M
555-13528 Intel® WiFi Link 6300 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
619-21521 Genuine Windows(R) 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
754-50858 3-year Premier Service with 3-year CompleteCover 1
754-50882 3 Years Priority PC User 24x7 Support (Round-The-Clock Technical Assistance) 1
754-50884 # Include Yr 2 To 3 Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis 1
754-50886 # Includes Year 2 To 3 Parts Exchange Service 1
754-50889 3 Years Complete Cover Accidental Damage Protection

I believe Dell ships Samsung PM810 (470 series) as their 256GB SSD. I requested Dell to change SATA operation mode to AHCI from RAID after reading about it on this forum as I am planning to add second HDD later on.

I will be getting my machine in 2 weeks time. So what should I do after I get my system?

-Do I need to install certain programs or run some tests n stuff to check my system? Basically how can I verify if everything is all right?
-Is there any known rubbish softwares pre-installed which needs to be uninstalled immediately?
-I am not planning to reinstall as I saw some of you guys experienced BSOD after clean install.
- Do I need to enable TRIM? If yes, how? Or is it auto-enabled for Win 7? Any tweaks to improve on SSD performance?

For now I have this much questions Just hoping to get system within 2 weeks !

 

How much did you pay??? Is that $4,439.25 I see? EEK!

 

Grats! I hope you will make the maximum use out of it.
1, Test it with any random demo game to see if the performance is as it should be, and that the fans are working as they should.
2, there is no trash software preinstalled
I hope my answers will come to use, and have a great day!

 

first thing you do is take a bunch of pics of you unboxing it...........second thing you do is post the pics...........THEN you enjoy it!!!!!!!

 

Steps?

Unbox it
Re-paste it
Install and verify drivers are up to date
Tweak Windows if you aren't reformatting
Install game
Install FRAPS
Test framerate
????
Profit

 

Oh how i envy you!
I would
A) Format the SSD and reinstall clean windows 7 with all drivers you need. I always do this everytime i get a new PC. There are always bloatware and programs you don`t need on the harddrive when it comes from the factory

B) Do this with your new SSD: The SSD Optimization Guide | The SSD Review TRIM, AHCI etc, everything is described there
And i would check if any new firmware is available for the Samsung SSD and flash it.

 

I paid total S$4750. After converting to USD it is $3,779.

It is expensive in singapore because of the importing charges n stuff i guess.

thanks! will definitely test out the fans by installing some games!

haha...I have a Canon 500D..I guess its time to put it to use

I am not a expert of repasting n all so I won't be touching on that.

I am not going to do clean install after seeing some of you guys having BSODs after re-formatting for various reasons. However, what kind of windows tweak are you talking about? Can you give some details? Thanks!

A) Not planning to do clean installation as I read few posts about having BSODs after they did a clean installation.

B) I will definitely go through all the details on this link. Not sure how you flash the firmware n stuff...will read up on it tomorrow!

Thanks alot for your quick replies guys! Will keep you guys posted in this thread regarding my order. Gonna go sleep now...will check this thread tmr!

 

Ahem. Scrutinize the hell out of that screen. There's a peice of dust under mine and its burning itself into my dreams at night.

Anyway's, Dell's stock install is reasonably bloatware free. If you're somehow worried that your sandy bridge quad-core with 8 freaking gigs of ram is going to be slowed down by a couple preinstalled applications...hehe...then go ahead and reformat it. But really there's only a few things to uninstall.

 

Do what this guy says.

Also what this guy says is true too You'll experience massive lag when AlienFX or the switchable graphics window comes up though, cuz they're just slow like that, I think. Have fun when it gets here

 

I am sorry but i am kinda a noob here but what is re-paste it? Thanks !

 

It means scraping (clean gently) off the clumpy mess on the CPU and GPU and reapplying your own thermal paste. That's not to say that the clumpy mess doesn't work though, its just some users have the finesse to do such a thing and they appreciate improved thermals.

 

take video pointed at Mrhappyyy's face when removing from box

 

Thanks ! So is it ok if i dont do it as i am not a pro in dissembling a laptop.

 

Repasting is super easy. No worries

 

I have a R3 on order with similar specs (256GB SSD) EDD 4/15. I also want to add a 500GB HDD for a data drive. What if the laptop comes set to Raid in BIOS? Can you simply change it to AHCI without doing anything else?

 

@dookie11 - Can you please enlighten on the Windows tweak?

Also, I was going through the link Cloudfire gave, it says there is no need to do any tweaks for SSD if you are using Windows 7. How far is that true or have they missed out on something for Windows 7?

If you want to change from RAID to AHCI in BIOS then you need to do clean install if i am not wrong.

Btw, congrats on the order!

haha...good one but I think lot of ppl will hate me if I don't point the camera towards the box

 

There's a couple ways you can "tweak" win7. The first is to remove/uninstall/disable anything you don't like/use, which on the R3 is nothing I can think of atm, cuz there's very little bloatware thankfully. Secondly, you can use BlackViper's guide to optimizing windows, if such a thing exists for win7. I used it for vista and xp, and things got a bit smoother running/bootup was faster. Other than that, there's not much else you need to do I didn't even install SP1 yet.

 

Well I just got off the phone with Dell. The ESD is 4/13. I have NBD, so I should get it by my EDD 4/15. That's the good news I guess. Bad news is I am too late to change anything such as set to AHCI. I will have to deal with it when I get it. I do not know why I did not think of this earlier.

 

If ESD is 13, then EDD should be 14, cuz you're still during the workweek

 

I just took a look at this Black Viper's Windows 7 Super Tweaks. Usually, I will do most of the things mentioned thr for all new systems.

I think mine should come with SP1 installed as I ordered very recently.

 

Hi Guys,

Im receiving my system in 1 hour time. Is it safe to run some of those tools mentioned in benchmarking thread? I am also thinking to run the Unigine Heaven test.

Please recommend me what all should I run to test out my overall performance of the beast (especially HDD and GPU)

EDIT: What i mean by "safe to run" is..is it safe to run when system is just out of the box?