Finally recieved my M17X R3

so it finally arrived. was so excited about receiving it. now i can actually play a few games without hassle unlike my HP peice o junk.

anyways, couple annoying things.

first off, i get the S key having bumps. but thats really annoying lol. nothing i can do about it, just wanted to point it out and see if anyone else felt the same. other than that, keyboard feels AMAZING, since i'm coming from a generic "media" laptop if you wanna call it that.

second, my specs for the laptop i ordered are: 2630QM-i7, 4gb ram, 320 gb HD, and the 6870M. i didnt have a real choice in selection, due to the fact that i ordered through AAFES. since i'm in a deployed location, its hard to actually get on the phone with a customer service rep to place an order and haggle like the thread i read earlier. how should this system perform? should i consider sending it back and upgrading and rehaggling? my deployment ends the 21st of july (will probably be back to the states sometime around the 22nd late at night). how long do i have until i can send it back?

it also only has the 1 year warranty - can i upgrade? i know i definately SHOULD upgrade, but it wasnt an option during the building. really the only choice i had was between windows 7 home/premium and either 32bit or 64bit. one of the cons for anyone ordering through AAFES (if your stateside, SERIOUSLY consider ordering straight through dell, you'll get more options, then ask for a discount because your military, it'll probably be about the same)

now, i'm not planning on hardcore zOMG graphics, i got this laptop to mainly play games like Starcraft 2, Dungeon Seige 3, Diablo 3, maybe a couple FPS games but i'm not looking for the "ultra high settings" however i am worried about longevity (aka future proofing).

third, is there anything i should do software wise? i'm going through the standard update and install routine, but already i can tell that Roxio is gunna me off. how do i get it to leave me the hell alone? i popped my SC2 dvd in, and it immediately popped up and had an icon in the corner. i dont wanna install it, because at some point i'll probably use it to burn some stuff, but how do i get it to be less annoying?

is there anything else i should consider installing/uninstalling? i mean, other than the obvious stuff like AV, K-lite codecs, driver updates, software i use...

 

You could turn off roxio on start up..

Windows orb > search for run > double click run > type msconfig > click the startup tab > disable anything you don't want to pop up

 

I like the s key bumps. I play with them constantly..... did that come out right?

As for longevity, is it possible you can claim part of the cost back on tax? This is what I do. In Malaysia, since I also use my laptop for business, I can claim RM3000 per year on laptops. If I sell it for 4k or 5k the real cost is only about 2k (on a 9.7k laptop). With the tax claim and selling it second hand for 1/2 price after a year, I can afford to by a new one every year and keep up to date.

 

ah yea, i guess i'm kinda growing used to the s-bump locator... even after only a couple uses.

i would claim my laptop as part of my job, as my job in the US military takes me everywhere, so i cant always necessarily have access to a computer (this this thing becomes part of my job). but - also because of my job, i get tax free for about 3/4ths of the year due to combat zones anyways.

oh and thanks for the startup, totally forgot about that. havent used that feature since win-XP lol.

how happy do you think i'll be with the laptop, so far i'm like in love with the thing, and i cant really see needing to upgrade anything immediately. i'm perfectly fine with the screen, its just as bright as what i'm coming from (bit hazy i guess? sorta feels that way but still somewhat impressive on what i'm used to) and the 1900x600 resolution is fine for me.

i will be upgrading the ram, obviously 4g is fine for now, but once i get to back home ram is relatively cheap comparatively to double it up, and i'll be grabbing a crucial M4 128gb SSD as an OS drive, and using the 320 as the spare for space. how well will the 6870M perform? i havent seen any benchmarks or anything for it paired with the 2630QM?

will i regret buying it in this configuration?

 

oh, and how do i turn off alienrespawn updates off?
seriously, i was playin SC2, and it minimizes randomly and its like "UPDATE ME" and i'm like ?
so i paused, updated it, and it KEPT minimizing on me randomly during the install process... rather rude..

 

You ordered through AAFES and didn't have a good selection? I just ordered as well and it had multiple options for each part, but only decided to go with the 6970. I have a SSD already that will be for the OS.

 

The best bang for your buck config, imho, is a base machine with the 6970m and 1080p screen as the only upgrades. If I had to buy my machine again, I would have went for the 1080p instead of the 750gb HD. Hard drives are easy to upgrade/replace, the screen is much harder.

And trust me, the 6970m would have no problem drawing games on the 1080p. It totally dominates the 1600x900 resolution.

But....the doesn't mean you will regret your purchase. The base machine is still a very good laptop.

 

You do know that if you bought it with visa/amex, etc, they extend your warranty by one year as well?

 

^^Dude, what he said. Ferrealz, OP.

Anywhoo,
1) I agree with the S key. You get used to it after a while though. You prolly have soft hands Mine are rugged like my dad's (he's been doing construction for over 20years).

2) You should've upgraded, like what Trapt said, and also what Technos said is true too. It only applies if you use Amex though. Visa doesn't have that program, I don't think. Also Amex covers the return period too, up to 90days if the retailer won't accept the return after their return period. Amex will refund you the entire price and you send them your product and they'll take care of it, I think. But yah, I ordered through aafes, and check out my specs in my sig. I don't understand why you didn't have the option to upgrade??? Lastly, you CANNOT haggle through aafes (or at least I don't think you can, cuz they already give you the xx% discount + no tax + free shipping which is 7day, but you can just call dell to upgrade to NBD cuz you "need it for work/school/your trip to [insert country here]."

3) You can leave the computer stock, but I'd visit the R3 drivers page on NBR and update all yer drivers. Importantly, try to search for the thread that has instructions on how to figure out that damned sound driver program that doesn't open by default. Roxio is troublesome, but you can shut that off, I think. You don't need your SC2 disc in the drive anyways.

4) Install hwinfo32, gpu-z, cpu-z, hwmonitor, batterybar, rainmeter, and you're good to go. If you want to reformat, see this guide which I just found like 10minutes ago lolz (thanks to the OP: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7602641-post12.html. I especially like that "guide" cuz it's short and simple.)

Lastly, ENJOY your computer and visit NBR more frequently

PS: Welcome to NBR if you're a new(er) member.

 

i ordered OCONUS. thats probably what limited my options so much.

still gettin used to the keyboard. i think i need to make myself a makeshift laptop stand using cardboard so that i can angle it. flat on my lap while in bed it seems hard to hotkey stuff in starcraft sometimes. really hating the F keys. wish there was just a tad bit of space between them and the number keys.

i think i'll just stick with it for now. seems to chug along just fine, altho i did notice a couple stutters playing SC2 on medium? that might just be the driver though, new driver has caused a couple new problems (windows gives "display driver has halted" thing every now and then). might try and revert back.

i bought it using the military star card. think its mastercard? not sure. wonder if i can work some deal with dell to extend the warranty.

just checked again, and this is the exact link i used.
http://premierconfigure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=RC1256664&oc=rcRC1256664-2842423

same price, still no options. i just checked, and the M18X has upgradable options.

and i just checked, the CONUS option, gives upgrades... dunno why OCONUS doesnt get any upgrades :/ i already sent an email to dell and asked wth was up with that and if there was anything i could do.

 

If it's giving you problems, please post and ppl here will try to help you. We don't want you to miss your 21-day review period and not be able to get refund/replacement unit(s). Knock on wood about the plural units lolz.

 

thing that sux, is that i'll be back in the states the 22nd of july. not sure how that would affect them between shipping. it'll probably take 2 weeks just to get from here back to them. maybe i could just use it until the last day of my review period, then send it back, and re-order through CONUS with upgrades?

 

Since you're going to reorder anyway, just send it back now for a refund. And order again when you have access to CONUS. Also, hopefully there'll be a bigger discount next time around

But please, before you do anything, try to seek solutions on here first. NBR folks are the best I've ever met.

 

yea. i'm glad to have found a forum where people are actually friendly. alot of forums have people that are just plain rude.

when exactly do i have to ensure my product is returned by? it takes 2 weeks or more just to ship from here... is it by postmarked date? and when does the trial period start? i tried to go through the dell chat to find out but the service agent was VERY rude, not giving me any information.

of corse, that means i have to go without starcraft 2 for another month and a half :/ i wonder... i could just keep it and upgrade to the 6970 later couldnt i?
just trying to figure out the best course of action that has the most benefit. i have a desktop at home, so i doubt i'd get a ton of use out of this while home, but i mainly got it to have something to do while i'm on trips... mainly SC2...

 

6970 purchase will be quite expensive, probably $400-500 alone instead of an extra $200 tacked onto your price.

Also, not sure how military discount works on Outlet but my config minus the SSD is/was going for about $1900 on Outlet.

 

not sure if i should create a new thread on this or not-- but i remember using alternate drivers back when i had a 9800 Pro (as well as some of my early nvidia cards) but what about Omega drivers? wondering if anyone uses them on a mobile based vid card?

 

zero, I suggest you send it back right away and just order again once you get back in the states. You will have more options! If you don't, you are just going to be kicking yourself down the line for not upgrading.

I did my research and decided only to upgrade to the 6970M because I can get the 2820 or the 2720 cheaper elsewhere, as well as better RAM, and as well as wireless card.

Though, if you have never messed with computers before I would not go that route. Just order everything that you want once you get back so you will be happy and not second guessing your choice. What is a month without StarCraft 2 when you will have the computer for a couple of years at least?

 

a month in the sand with a crap laptop is a lifetime, lemme tell ya. lol. i've decided to keep it, and i'll either sell it later and upgrade if i feel like i need to.

 

I know. I'm prior service. I wasn't able to get AAFES without being military.