M17x "All Powerful" General Information Thread

I can guarantee that the GDDR5 XT's will be faster.

I'll bet my M15x on it

 

As long as they are GDDR5, then hell ya they will be faster. But, not fast enough to warrant anyone paying to trade their 280s in. I bet at least a 5%-10% increase in performance. Benchmarks will be higher, but gaming, maybe just a few frames more a sec. This will be a fun point of discussion up until we see actual results.

These new ATIs will beat out the nvidias till the new series on a new architecture debut sometime next year, betting Q1 2010.

 

Did anybody take a look at this yet?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4870-X2-Crossfire.14406.0.html

 

What about the X2's?

They've been listed forever just don't expect to see any X2's w/GDDR5 in the M17x

AW should have put one in the M15x. lol

 

Not sure if this was posted, has anyone see this Maingear laptop said to be the "greatest gaming laptop in the world"? It's pretty amusing when you examined its specs.

 

It is an X2 once you have both a slave and a master card. So the "X2" still takes 2 MXM slots to exist. Remember the M17/whitebook showed as 3870x2 once both cards were installed? You cannot get 2 GPU's and memory and all other circuitry onto one MXM board haha....they are just too small. Sorry Sleey0

 

Not entirely true

My M1730 had 2 8800's on 1 pcb

 

and that was not MXM was it?!

 

AFAIK it was.

Lemme check....

 

Doesn't state (Dell's spec lists back then weren't very good lol).

 

lol I see

Well, I am doubtful that it was MXM spec given that the spec only allows for one GPU per card. But I still hold that we wont be seeing any two m98 gpus on 1 MXM card due to sheer space limitations

 

You are right scook.

I think they could do it with the upcoming 40nm parts (less power draw per card).

Will it happen? Not likely

 

the package for the GPU (not the silicon die) is not getting any smaller though, and between that and the footprint of all the power circuity and ram it just cant happen

Would be a cooling nightmare as well I am guessing

 

hi people!
i received my m17 last week and today i tried overcloking my t9600, so i went in the bios overclocking option to up the fsb by 10 saved it and restarted and it didnt start, the scroll and number button where red and the caplock blinking, nothing else apened, so i restart and it does it again, restart agian and i get a message saying overcloking function has failed and i need to restor factory setting so i did and tried overcloking less, so i up the fsb by 1! did the same!
do you guys know what i am doing wrong
thanks for your help!

 

increase it to 1250

 

thank moo i did it and it worked this if funny how come i could not do it by little chucks? (it would of took me ages to get there anyway ) thanks man!

 

no seems to not like 1-10 but if you up it like by 100 works just fine

 

When you increase your FSB by 10 or something like that the BIOS just use some crazy divisors which cause instability

 

I hate crazy divisors! putting that in my sig

 

Wild divisors, they gonna catch u!

 

Hey folks- another question. What (if any) fan control software are you guys using on the M17x? Have never liked Speedfan too much, don't know if I8k will work on an Alienware (even if Dell makes it) and would really like to be able to stop the fans on the beast from kicking on just because the integrated chip starts running hot (which seems to be an issue) especially now that it is sitting on an Antec cooler that is next to silent.

Cheers!

 

There aren't any fan control apps that will work with the M17x, AFAIK.

 

yup haven't seen a fan control program that works with m17x

 

Well today I had to call Tech support, my left side gpu makes noises, they are going to send a tech in on monday.

Now a issue im having is that when i press FN+f4 or FN+f5. My screen wont dim? The osd comes up and shows that its lowering the brightness, but the screen wont go dim or brighter?

 

What kind of noises? Electrical whining?

 

Hey do all M17x's come with freefall sensors on the hdd's? My documentation didn't state "with freefall sensor" next to hdd. I need to know because AW is building me another one due to the fact that they screwed up on the processor...

 

The freefall sensor is built into the HDD not the laptop it self. I believe all the seagate drives they use come with it.

What I would recommend.....just dont drop your $1800+ laptop.....that will only be one of your problems if you do, the bigger they are the harder they fall

 

The Seagate drives used in the M17x will have a "G" at the end of the device ID in Device manager if they have the free fall sensor. The 500GB Drive for example shows up as an ST9500420AS G ATA Device. The Non-Freefall sensor drives don't have the G. I have one of each in my M17, but the non-freefall sensor one I bought and installed after the face.

What scook says it true though, just don't drop it lol.

 

I'm running RAID so all I get is the RAID array -

SCSI\Disk____NVIDIA__STRIPE___596.18G
GenDisk


Would the BIOS show it?

The only reason I'm asking is because I had it on my old xps m1730 which was replaced by the current M17x. But since Dell screwed up on the processor, AW is building me a whole nother M17x - apparently, they are unable to dispatch better parts - only replacements. So while they're doing that, I want to make sure my drives also have the free-fall sensor in them.

I do have accidental warranty coverage, though, so if I did drop it, I'm still covered

 

Hardware monitor will show you the DEVICE-ID as well

 

accidental damage wont recover the data you loose from the hdd getting damaged though

If you want to know your hdd model number, take it out and look at it...it is pretty easy to do

 

Nope - again, RAID so only shows ACPI.

Thanks though

 

Then do what scook said and just take them out and look, its not that hard.

 

It sounds like the fan is hitting something. some time its a loud whirring. Wierd thing tho is i never move my laptop, and just one day when i went to move it to my living room, it started all of a sudden.



Can any of you tell me why my screen wont dim??

 

This is exactly what happened to me as well. I picked up the laptop to move it to another room and the left GPU fan went postal - grinding/rubbing noise. I powered it off and back on again and same issue. Ended up opening up and found the grill was rubbing against the center section of the fan. The grill material is actually quite pliable and can easily be pushed in if you arent careful. I removed the GPU and pushed the grill back down and problem was solved.

My suggestion is to not grab it by the GPU intakes (if that's what you did).

Anyway, something to check. Just do a visual inspection and see if it looks like the grill is making contact.

 

Yeah I've went over and the grills look perfect, i try to grab it from the sides but more in the center. Its something definitely internal. The tech should be here tomorrow.

 

Did anyone else see the special on IGN and wonder who the unnamed 'overclockers' are that are blowing the benchmarks out of the water?

Here it is if you're interested. Yay NBR Forums!!!

 

no one has gone to 15k+ in vantage like he said....

Me and Mandrake are the 2 highest scores in the world right now (unless someone is doing something amazing and not bragging about it - not likely). We are the only 2 who have gotten over P12k without PhysX as well as GPU scores over 12k

 

He probably confused scores he saw with 3dmark06.

 

pretty lame for an IGN reviewer haha

 

Can any of you tell me why my screen wont dim?? I can get it to dim in the BIOS screen.

 

just pull the ac power, it will dim lol

 

Guess what?

It won't...

It won't dim no matter what. Only in BIOS.

 

Odd, the dimming setting should actually be in the bios haha (maybe not visual to be set, but coded in)

 

Isn't the dimming setup somewhere in Command Center?

 

It is in the command center but it happens before the OS even loads meaning there is a BIOS control over it

 

mine is brand spanking new and the gpu on the right makes that noise. i took it apart and checked out the blades and they're not contacting anything. manually spinning it makes the noise also. the fan itself rattles, which has me thinking there's a bearing going out.

this plus the fact i can't dim the screen - may be enough for me to send this thing back. i've got pretty sensitive eyes the screen's really killing me.

 

the screen dims itself haha, many people do not like it

but if it is an issue (it SHOULD be dimmable by user using the fn+f4/f5 keys) get Dell to replace the machine

 

i witness no auto dimming on mine. i'm near total darkness and the screen is bright as heck. i put a flashlight on the webcam and no brightening occurs... is there another place that a sensor is supposed to be?

the light is so freaking bright that i see a terrible amount of bleed at the bottom of my monitor.

if i have to send it back for any repairs i won't be taking it back.

 

So Jive, you can't dim the screen using the FN buttons?