Just Ordered, Any Advice?

Hey All,

Just had to return a 3rd Asus G73 on the 3rd day of ownership dead hard drive.

Anyway, I just ordered a Nebula Red M17X with the following specs:

* 9 Cell Lithium Battery
* 1.73GHz Intel Core i7-740QM quad-core processor
* 17" diagonal widescreen RGB LED display with 1920x1200 resolution
* 6GB tri-channel DDR3 SDRAM
* 1TB hard drive (two 500GB 7200 RPM SATA II hard drives)
* 8X CD/DVD+/-RW drive, dual-layer support
* Dell 5GB DataSafe online backup/storage for one year
* Dell 1520 802.11/b/g/n wireless
* Bluetooth technology
* 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M graphics
* High-definition speakers with surround sound
* 2 megapixel Web cam, facial-recognition technology
* Backlit keyboard
* 10/100/1000 gigabit ethernet
* 8-in-1 media card reader
* Four USB 2.0 ports
* HDMI, eSATA/USB combo, VGA, RJ-45, IEEE 1394a ports
* Headphone/mic jacks
* Three audio out connectors
* ExpressCard/34 slot
* Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit

My question is, is there anything I need to know about when I get this? I want it to last and not get remotely hot. So I will do whatever I need to, to make that happen. Thanks guys for any input at all and if you could post some temps I should be seeing while gaming on the GPU.

 

Well, here are a few pointers:

1. Graphics cards are a preference, but I would have stuck with with a 5870m, or two
2. you can save some money by staying with 4GB ram and upgrading to 8GB after market. It is really easy to install.
3. You got the right screen
4. Be aware that there will be a refresh expected sometime in the next 6 months. If you need a laptop now there is no reason not to buy now, but I just wanted you to know all your options.
5. And if you really like to modify computers, there are a few cooling tricks on the forum to reapply thermal paste to the GPU and CPU in the forum. Otherwise, just get a nice laptop cooler and you are good to go!

Congrats and welcome to the club!

 

Welcome to the family.

Any particular reason you didn't get SLI or 5870 Xfire (budget)?

Did you check out;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

With respect to temps you can replace the thermal paste and thermal pads on your CPU (thermal paste) and GPU (thermal paste and pads) and perform a retention clip mod.

Check out the following;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/507962-m17x-r2-full-internal-cooling-mod-huge-improvement.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/509377-photoguide-cleaning-replacing-thermal-compunds-gpu-cpu-m17x-r2.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/523915-pics-cooling-mods-done-tx-4-clip-mod.html

These may be of interest to you as well:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19354960.aspx

http://alienwarem17x.wikia.com/wiki/Alienware_M17x_Wiki

 

Wow great links and responses guy!

Thanks a ton for those. Yea there are a few reasons I went with that set up. One, I have ordered probably my last 10 computers from QVC, yes the online shopping network. They are top notch on their customer service, if I wanted to return that for whatever reason 6 months down the road, they wouldn't even ask why. So if for some reason it has a lot of issues, it is covered.

The other reason is that the configuration I bought was about 3100 on AW/Dell Site and with QVC you can do 3 flex pays of around 770.00 per month on the machine. It gets shipped to you as soon as you order, so you don't have to wait like a lay-a-way plan or anything. They have the m15x for a pretty good price right now too, you guys should check it out.

Anyway, yea I need a laptop right now pretty much. Do I need one? Well maybe not need as I am typing on one right now, but.....

I am under the agreement that if you keep waiting for the next version to come out, you will be waiting forever. I am sure the new one will be a screamer, but I seriously doubt their are any games this one won't play that will come out over the next couple of years. I don't go that long without a new laptop anyway so it doesn't matter.

Thanks again for the links, those are awesome!

 

Thanks for the great links devoidx.

 

Yeah, I've got a very good piece of advice if you're willing to wait:

Cancel the order. The next generation M17x could well be out in a month's time and even if it isn't, it'll be out soon after that.

The advancements provided by Sandy Bridge and the latest nVidia 5xxM/ATi 69xx graphics will be a hell of a lot better than what's available now. You could well be kicking yourself for not waiting when it comes out. I know I was when the first gen M17x was released just a few days after I ordered my M17.

 

But with great powers, comes great risks...... wait atleast 2-3 months after the initial launch...
Hence I would say Good decision... May be you can get R4 or R5 with even more power... I am happy with the R2 with its great components... If I can run everything smooth then why break the bank?? and if something goes wrong with my machine i can always count on Dell.... who knows I might actually get R3 as a replacement (happened with my old m15x, I got M15x instead)

 

Well,

I don't regret it at all. I mean look at the one in your signature. It will still run most all games pretty well and you have had it a few years. If the R3 comes out and I like it? I will just give this one to my daughter and buy one.

I do agree with oneabove, you never EVER, buy anything that is the very first model. Trust me, I have a 12k Buell 1125R motorcycle in my garage, 2008 model. I bought it for 12k and a month later they went out of business and started selling them for 5k. I have had nothing but trouble out of it......so yea, I will stick with the R2 lol.

Thanks for the advice though.

 

Here's some advice that's simple and probably will make a big difference (and I am now following with mine): When you finish and shut down, place a thin microfiber cloth cut to fit the whole top of the open machine over the keyboard and touchpad area. You will be doing a lot to help keep the polycarbonate glossy screen cover from getting scratched. The little rubber bumpers are not really adequate, so use the cloth all the time when it's closed and you may save some very annoying scratches down the road. Start on day one and you'll be way ahead of most of us.

 

You can also grab a ShaggyMac screen protector.

This is what I bought:

Products
------------------------------------------------------
1 x 17"-19" Custom Shop Laptop Screen Protector (SPCustom17) = $17.95
Color Panther
Width 15 3/4 in
Depth 10 5/8 in
Make & Model Alienware m17x-R2
------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: $17.95
United States Postal Service (First-Class Mail International Package): $6.52
Total: $24.47

I also bought a couple of silicon keyboard protectors off eBay for a few $$$.

 

You gave yourself the BEST advice already - ditching the Asus regardless of any problems and going for an M17x was by far the very best advice ANYONE could have given you

Apart from what others have said, I would recommend investing a few pennies in a good cooling stand - i'm using a coolermaster notepal u3 and find it very good and they are quite inexpensive. I would also download some good free softwares such as gpu-z / cpu-z / hwinfo32 to help you monitor your system temperatures - the cooler you can keep things "inside", the longer your components will last...

Keep your machine up to date as often as possible regarding drivers - lots of users also perform a "clean installation" of windows OS right away and there are threads on NBR about how to do that if you are unsure.

When you get your new system, test it out thoroughly by running various benchamrk softwares such as 3dMark 06 or 3dMark 11, 3dMark Vantage and so on....they will give you a great indication of how well your system performs during extremes and "may" point out any initial problems....again, lots of talk on NBR about these kinda things if you look in the M17x sub-forum.

Last but not least - if you are unsure of ANYTHING with your new toy - POST YOUR QUESTIONS / QUERIES HERE ON NBR!! - i found this foum and its members to be like an extended family and everyones willing to help each other out....so dont be scared of asking anything, regardless of how small or stooopid it might be....everyones here to help out!

Hope you enjoy your new toy when you get it - they are the dogs danglies....

 

Wow thanks for the advice on the screen protector! Ordering that now, that would have really been bad.

I appreciate all your guys help.