Future M17X R3 owner my first AW,questions

Ok new member here, future owner of the M17X R3, Im one of those older guys thats always been into computers, built my own for years now upgrading now yearly. Had several laptops over the years but never a gaming one as my desktop always took care of that. But for years Ive always wanted an Alienware laptop since Ive first saw them. I never wanted to spend the thousands it took to get one but now I have the means and its the right time to pick up a 2011 model (Sandy Bridge). Ive always had AMD probably always will for my desktop just prefer it. This will be my first intel CPU since the Pentium II 400mhz from 1998. Currently on my desktop I use a quad X4 955 at 3.6. 8Gb DDR3, a single Asus 5870, and 2560 x 1600 res 30' Super Ips panel and play Bad Comp 2.

- My questions are can these laptops be upgraded on your own and can the parts you use come from a third party ie Newegg etc.?
- Is the 3 year warranty worth it over the 1 year?
- Do you need to get a laptop cooler to help keep these cooler than the stock fans?
- How much of a boost in performance can I expect with an i7 over my current amd quad 955.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and your input. I'm excited to get my first AW and expect good things for what 2 grand gets me.

 

Upgrading parts on your own will be limited to:

Memory, HDDs/SSDs, Wireless cards

These parts can be purchased from any third party. CPU can be changed out and GPU can be changed out as well. These two will be a bit more involved of course and for the GPU, in almost every case, it will have to come from Dell (simply due to the heat sink design). Full documentation on the M17xR3 can be found here (including the service manual) -

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR3/

On the warranty question, I suggest the longest warranty you can afford. Whenever spending this kind of cash on a new Dell/AW system, you want to protect your investment for as long as possible. The Dell/AW warranty is top notch and you can't beat it.

Laptop coolers... well, since the R3 has not landed yet we have no idea on thermal range. Going from past experience, I was (and still can) able to compete with the rest in terms of thermal range with my M17xR1 and I do not use a 'cooling pad'. I prefer a notebook stand which elevates the system and provides plenty of unobstructed airflow. I wouldn't worry about a cooling pad - if its needed, then pick one up.

IMO, its not worth comparing laptop vs desktop. Will BC2 play well on the 17xR3? Absolutely. Will it look the same as on your super duper 30" desktop display? Probably not but it will still look superb. I suggest the 3D panel as you'll have the 120Hz resolution. This does make a difference.

 

I can't give you specific answers on all of it, especially since we don't have a lot of data on real world Sandy Bridge / Radeon 6xxx use yet, much less the R3 (that data should start coming in the first few weeks of February when people start getting theirs), but here it goes:

1. Sort of. If they use the same MXM slot as the R1 and R2 you should be able to use most video cards for that slot (they have to be supported in the BIOS). These cards are difficult to find third party vendors for, but they do exist. The processors use the FCPGA988 Intel socket, so any matching Intel processor from the Sandy Bridge family should fit. TDP and power usage are both a big deal in laptops, you can't go over the max. I'm not sure what the limits on each in the R3 are, but the power supply that comes with it right now is a 240W, which likely means the limits are similar to the R2. RAM is much easier, any PC3-10600 DDR3 SODIMM (max of 8GB in each slot and 32GB total and 1333MHz (more than DIMM 1 and 2 slots requires 4 core processor, dunno why the manual mentions this as I believe all three processors available are 4)). Hard drives are simply 2.5" SATA 2.0 (3Gb/s) or SATA 3 (6Gb/s), up to 2, SSD or HDD.

I've messed around with many of the parts in my R2 with little problems, and from what I can tell by reading the service manuals on Dell.com for the R3, it actually looks like the GPU and CPU are MUCH easier to get to on that model. CPU, HDD, and GPU are serviceable from the bottom panel.

2. Especially as an early adopter of a brand new system on a brand new generation of hardware, I would definitely suggest the 3 year warranty. It is upgradable at the end of the warranty if you don't at first, but it's much cheaper if you do it when you buy the machine, as I found out the hard way.

3. We don't know with the R3 yet, but Sandy Bridge and the new Radeon 6xxx's are supposedly to run cooler than the previous generation. My R2 has never needed a cooler to run, but I do have to clean out my heat fins/sinks and fans fairly regularly, and I ended up applying some aftermarket thermal paste to lower my temps quite a bit as my secondary GPU started overheating a little in some games. Otherwise my laptop runs quite cool enough on its own.

4. Hard to say. We don't have many real world tests of Sandy Bridge yet. IIRC, the X4 955 wasn't a desktop CPU to sneeze at, and the CPU in your R3 will be a mobile one. So far Sandy Bridge is looking ok tho.

Edit: Batboy beat me to it while I was busy trying to find benchmarks on the new Sandy Bridge CPUs. Hehehehe.

 

Well thanks for the info, its a big purchase/decision to make. Want it to be the right one.

 

Anybody might know when the 6970m gonna be available on m17x R3?
I can't wait............................

 

Simply put, no - nobody knows but Dell.

 

sandy bridge is about the speed of a desktop core i7 920 clocked at 3.5ghz according to anandtech. Although i think thats an exaggerated figure i still think it would be a bit faster than your X4 955 in most conditions, especially in single or double threaded application where it would be significantly faster . the 6970M should also be nearing the performance of the desktop 5870, it's based on a desktop 6850 card. According to benchmarks its about 20% faster than a desktop 4870 1GB. I can only play mafia 2 at around 45FFS on my 4870 + 3.6ghz i7 920 where as the 6970m seem to get around 67FPS with a sandy bridge CPU. I believe you will be able to play any modern games at 1080p on that card. simply amazing

Its scary to think a notebook is this much faster than my 1 year old desktop with expensive after market cooling modest overclocking and top of the line desktop GFX card from a year and half ago. I think its about the same performace as a desktop 460GTX......a card most people would say is enough to play anything at normal resolutions on the desktop.

 

Keep in mind this is a boutique notebook! It's big and heavy...I travel with mine but it takes a certain state of mind to do it. Also there are bugs...like all compy's there are ALWAYS bugs. These forums will show you many of them. If you feel that fixing the bugs and doing your own upgrades are part of the challenge you will love this machine! I'm doing major upgrades to my R1 right now!

But keep in mind that ebay is littered with the leftovers from people who "just wanted an Alienware" but weren't really prepared for what they got! They paid THOUSANDS of dollars for these machines new and then had to sell them for HALF what they paid when they found out all they really did was netsurfing with a $5K computer. If you're not sure buy a low end one on ebay for $1200 dollars and try it out. Dell will ALWAYS be there to sell you a brand new shiny one for $5000 if you decide it's for you but if you don't then you can resell the one you bought for $1200 for $1000 and call it a day rather than reselling that $5K unit for $1999!!! That's about what you will get for it. I'm just sayin'.....

 

Yeh orionz thats what Im a little afraid of, I love to build tweak and fix up my systems for top performance.. But after I lay down 2 grand on one next month will it really be worth it, or should I just get an 8 core desktop cpu, another SSD drive, motherboard, faster memory and a AMD 6990 4Gb card for my desktop for the same money and call it a day. Ive always wanted one of these for years but at the end of the day will it be worth it to have one and occasionally take it out of the house to the local books a million and browse the tech sites lol...decisions decisions...

 

I was kind of in the same boat as you (OP) as an older guy who has liked AW for a while.

I took the plunge on my system in my signature, not really knowing what I was taking on...It has been a steep learning curve but I have enjoyed every step of the way. If you are already computer literate as you obviously are, then owning an AW laptop shouldnt be that much differnt from any other system - they all require love and attention.

Regards warranty, I would go for as long as you can get according to your budget.

I would definately use a cooler with it...I mean it cant do any harm can it? - I use a notepal U3 with mine and it lowers temps quite a fair bit. For a small outlay, its worth every penny to take away some of the cooling load from your gpu/cpu fans - it will help to prolong their lifespan - thats how i look at it....i want to protect my investment so buying a cooler is no big deal.

Regarding cpu - obviously the SB cpu's are the latest best thing....cant go wrong with one of them under the hood....they are superior to the older core I series in every way....If SB was about when i ordered mine, i would have been made up, but it wasnt and you are the lucky one now who has it as an option to you should you choose to go R3 over R2 (which im thinking thats what you are thinking too...)

Finally, I have to say it, but 2k on an R3....i dont know what kinda use you have for the laptop...if its predominantly gaming, you cant go far wrong with the R2....better gpu options atm, better screen (unless your into 3d)...then only thing is that it doesnt have SB. If you game alot, bearing in mind most games are gpu bound (limited by performance of your gpu), then the R3 may not be the best choice for that particular usage (depending on what new gpu options come out - I would hold off until the 6970m is available as you are an AMD guy - would be the pick of the crop for you I reckon). ALso, it would depend on hwo much you can get an R2 for....if you can dtrike a good deal on one, hmmm...id be very tempted if you didnt need the cpu power so much.....its also noteable that you can actually get an older core I cpu to perform quite comparably to a new SB cpu if you use the right software/program (throttlestop) as posted by Joker5150.

If you want to use it for heavily cpu intensive tasks, then R3 is the way to go......more raw processing power oviously. If its gaming, I would hold out till its seen that 6970m is available in the new R3. If it is, then it will likely perform as close to an R2 with crossfire 5870m's as you can get....still maybe slightly behind, but for a one gpu system, thats a heck of a gpu and you would have the benefit of SB too....

Its a tricky one isnt it? - I know I felt like I was in a minefield...quite glad I settled ont this one though and I wouldnt swap it for an R3 now because it suits me.....question is ...does the R3 suit you?

 

Well to be honest the only reason im considering Alienware is because the R3 is much cheaper than past alienware. Without the R3 it would probably be a G73 from ASUS for me or even a XPS 17 since i prefer a dell warranty. The R3 made most of my wishes come true.

I know exactly what i need in a laptop and how much im willing to pay. alienware was never in my sights until the R3 came out. the R2 had an extra GPU i didnt need and the M15x was too bulky for what it offered.

 

R2 wasn't that much expensive if you chose to go with the default screen and 1 GPU. And btw, it's obviously bulkier than m15x. It's a real beast. And I love every bit of it.