M17x "All Powerful" General Information Thread

No need to get nasty guys... it is true that as of now ram above 4 gb's really doesn't effect performance... and as for the future Moo is fairly correct as you have to realize almost all games besides GTAIV are almost completely GPU dependent, and probably will continue to be so... even though it would be cool to see more games that can utilize your whole system

 

So not that Chaz will allow any of the above posts to stay for long ... but I figured I'd chime in on this.

If you browse futuremark's benchmark results for the highest scores, many of them (record breakers) have just 4GB, while some have 6GB for triple-channel DDR3 purposes. Reason being, too much ram has a negative affect on performance in many cases. Also, I use Alias Maya for 3D authoring from time-to-time and once tried to max out 4GB of DDR2 by opening multiple instances of the software, then simultaneously rendering multiple scenes that take as many as 10 minutes per frame... long story short, it took 4 simultaneous renders before XP 64-bit would resort to virtual memory. Given, Vista takes up 1GB to do nothing, most things run out of processor resources before memory starts to get tight.

 

Im also not just talking about games. I multitask quite a bit. I could definitely make use of 8 GB. Some people seem to have a problem with that.

 

no but the speed from just 4 gb is going to be incredible, you would not see the difference between the 4 and 8 gb currently... the money would be better suited on a good processor or HDD (SSD)... Quad core cpu is what you want for multi-tasking btw I'm not saying in the next 2 years or so it won't be beneficial but I would seriously recommend waiting... when you actually get a benefit from it the prices will be considerably lower, right now it is superflous (that's why you see everyone buying their M17x's with 4gb)

 

what are you doing running 4 windows of PS while encoding videos ????

like i said the effect is minimal 800x 600 vs 1900 res



I am not sure why (ill be the first to admit it ) but whenever i couldn't run games due to not having enough RAM i bumped down the res and i was usually fine

 

You should be able to figure out exactly why by doing a quick bit of research on frame buffer. If you're in the mood for self-educating that is

 

Show me a desktop using 8 gigs of ram to play games.....:wub:

now anybody can fill up ram with program desktop or laptop ...... but i am specifically talking about gaming here


I went into vram because you mentioned i didn't know about the GPU being burdened, which is why I mentioned Vram and why its more important then RAM for gaming

 

questions here, can someone please answer?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5112581#post5112581

 

8GB Ram is for bragging rights. Crysis and GTA4 currently consume the most RAM of any video game, but that's only ~2GB tops. 4GB is more than enough to have some IE tabs, music and chat software, and either game running.

The only people who need 8GB are those who run multiple VMs and professional software. If that was the case, you should probably be looking at a D900f anyway.

 

I got 8 gig, but i'm doing video editing as well as playing games.

plus its braggin rights!

LOL!

 

sorry to breakup the heated debate about RAM but someone said that on most games only one graphics card is used... is that true? and if so and i don't get the dual gpus, do i have to buy a SLI cable when i do upgrade?

 

90% of games use SLI

if you already bough the system you will need a SLI cable

 

no i haven't bought one yet moo... im getting it next month though so im just trying to make sure i get the best deal possible...

 

get the deal i posted in notebook tech and bargains

 

added a few links on page 1

 

Maybe I have missed it but... Has anybody installed some flavor of GNU/Linux on the M17x?

 

hey what warranty is the best.. i figured complete care but ive never had a dell...

 

Complete Care is worth it.

 

i really want an ssd but their soo expensive... i don't really want to carry around a hd either... is there a $350 256gb ssd? i can't find them that cheap...

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...oductdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=341-9999

Cheapest you can find now. Sign up for new dell account and they'll send you a 15% off coupon.

 

thanks for the link 4st3risk... i think ima wait on getting the m17x w/ssd and buy it later... i hope they drop in price soon...

 

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=dkcwqt1&s=dhs&~lt=alienware

tell me what yall think? im trying to stay under $3000 with shipping its a little over $3000...

i have two ?s for the gurus, is the alienware recovery dvd important? and is 4gb1333mhz that much diff than 4gb1066mhz?

 

No, and No.

 

thx marvie

 

Hi im purchasing mine next week just wondering if I should pick of T9600 or Q9000 with my sli 280m config for

crysis/gta at full res 25-30 fps
and editing music and video
thanks

 

Q9000, you can still OC it to ~2.4ghz

 

is the p8600 a good processor? i mean i wanna get a q9000 but... im kinda broke lol. I've seen moo's oc'd p8600 thread but is the q9000 that much of a diff than the p8600? i plan on getting the qx9300 when i can get more cash (and when its a bit cheaper)

 

In haven't owned an alienware laptop before, so in this new M17 is it possible to safely overclock q9000? or do i need to buy extra cooling materials. thanks) if its safe then I'm definitely getting the q9000

 

Yes the cooling system is more then adequate in the M17x for overclocking, no "extra cooling materials" needed.

 

Honestly you can't go wrong with a Montevina proc. Get the P8600 now and upgrade later of you wish.

 

a dual will run ANY game out even GTA 4 if you overclock it

 

Quick question:

If you had the choice due to budget in between the following which would you choose?

- 6gb of RAM
- RAID 512gb SSD

For my brother it will be either or and honestly I have no clue...

 

I would probably go with the SSD. I think it will boost your performance a lot more than the RAM, unless of course you will be doing something that will actually fill up all of that RAM.

 

None of the above. Even if you've got the extra money to spend neither will provide enough of an increase to warrant the cost.

 

awww Phin...the SSD would increase performance over a HDD any day really...while arguable to a degree, they are faster without a doubt.

 

One SSD is great over a HDD. He wants to RAID SSDs though and that I don't think is worth the money...or the loss of storage for files that really don't need super fast load times (movies, music, etc.)

 

Q9000 or T9800 and is it worth it to get a Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M over a single card?

 

Q9000 if you're doing things like video editing. T9600 if you're just playing games. T9800 isn't worth the extra money over the T9600.

 

I will be playing games. Some photo editing.

 

T9600 & Dual 260M

 

to bad they dont offer the x9100 for this puter

 

Too bad they don't offer the P9700 and T9900 you mean.

They cost the same as the T9600 and T9800 respectively and offer a larger difference in clocks.

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

What do you plan on doing with your proc when you finally get one? Going to change it out for the T9900 or P9700?

 

Who the Hell knows. Right now I got too much time to think and I'm like a woman picking out which shoes to wear with which outfit.

If Dell sold them with the M17x I'd just get the P9700 and be done with it....but since they don't I may just order the QX9300 if I can get a good deal on the system.

 

I was thinking on the RAID 1 config. I read that the drive cage for 2 drives isnt included if you only get 1 drive. I really dont want RAID but would like a second drive..

 

Enough people have complained about not having the second cage when ordering the laptop with one drive that we think they're now sending them out with a spare second cage, so I wouldn't worry about that unless it actually arrives without a spare cage, then call them up and get them to send it.

 

they will send you a second drive cage with next day shipping a simple searchof M17x hard drive would of told you that

 

Yes, I did read that. but as Marvie100 said, they should include it on all systems.