M17x R3 RELAUNCHED! (w/460M/6870M/6970M)

My region is Australia / New Zealand, or ANZ as Dell would put it. I went through two reps, until I got the right one. Their emails were coming from a call centre in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore. Therefore I was dealing with non-American reps.

In any case 15% discount on a new release item is good, especially when you can't confront the person face to face like you can in a retail store.

I would believe that anyone can haggle. I'm not sure what the rules are in USA in regards to Dell and their customers, but rules can be broken, and from what I gather, the chances may be greater for people of the USA in a sizable market. Anything is possible.

 

I tried to order in the UK but it was going to be a huge amount of money 2x the USA price so I ordered from the USA, also a few upgrades and 3yr warranty

 

Can anyone link mr via pm that r3 with 6970 review? Think it was notebookcheck or something. I can't seem to find it.

 

Here is what you are looking for:

Alienware M17x (2011) Review - A Review of the Alienware M17x (2011)

 

what firewire chip is being used in r3? is it the same used in r2?

lastly, any r3 owners who still or at one time owned the r2, feel that they should have stayed with r2?

 

...just checked my order status, I ordered about a two weeks ago, and my delivery date is April 1st >_< Oh well... I wanted to update everyone with my little experiment putting in a Nvidia 485m, but it looks as if you will just have to wait a little longer. They say it was because of the other things I ordered (AW keyboard, headphones, case, ext) but will not show up later than April 1st.

I will start a thread with a "cant miss" title... something like "Putting a 485m in an M17x R3" with pictures, and maybe a youtube video. Cross your fingers, I hope this works.

 

In Australia, the is NO discount offered at all with the base system....i.e $0

However is you are a member of an automobile club, or able to get EPP from your company, you can get an automatic 10%

From there is where the haggling starts. I was able to get 15% from one of the reps i was haggling with, however i also had 20% offered to me as well (subject to manager approval).

Even with the potential 20%, it was still far cheaper for me to order through the US, including shipping and import taxes. The prices for the systems over here (including NZ) are grossly exagerated.

Depending on your company, the EPP discount can also be applied to the US, but its only 2%, compared to 10% over here.

 

I would think the 6970m is a better option if you want more portability with the whole igp/switchable graphics/thing. Can you still have switchable graphics with the 485m?

 

What firewire chip? I just doublechecked all the ports on my r3 - there's no firewire port anywhere. Has it been disguised to look like usb or mini-display port?

 

Man, 120F? The bottom gets hot!

 

Man, the 17xR3 with the 6970 looks very strong. Seriously impressive.

 

Yeah, I am loving this setup. The 6970 is an awesome gpu. My only complaint of this machine is the noise. It is so loud compared to my G73 when gaming, lol.

 

Did you re-paste the gpu/cpu? I wish there were some detailed user reviews about this laptop. Where are the user reviews?

 

Nope. My temps are fine so didn't really see a necessity.

 

What kind noises? Fans, Hard drive?

 

It gets great frames, demolishes source engine games and gets 60-80 FPS on BFBC2 high with a few tweaks and AA off. Normally I HATE running with AA off but the pixel density of 1920x1080 is so much that its hard to notice a difference between AA and no AA.

Coming from a high performance desktop this is QUIETER. I honestly don't think its too bad if you look at the temps its keeping down. My GPU temps are SERIOUSLY impressive.

I re-pasted after fiddling around with CPU temps earlier today.. Very simple job

Unless something is broken he should be referencing the GPU fan... No clicking or anything. Just high RPM.

 

What X3NIA said. This is quieter than my desktop also. Just a comparison to the G73 because a lot have one.

 

@How much battery life do you get with your 6970 switched off? How much on idle? How much while wlan is on? How much with wlan on + 50% brightness?

Please share the values for those, as well as anything else you'd like to share.

'Ppreciate it !

 

Oh yeah. The G73 was really quiet. Hardly noticed it was on. A little high rpm noise wouldnt hurt right?

 

which would be a good temps? I want to know when use mine.

 

I've only tested one case which is what I would use while traveling (on airplane). Power-saving profile, 20% dim and wireless off. It gets 5.5 hours if I do absolutely nothing on it and keep the monitor/HDD on at all times. My M17x isn't my main computer so I don't know the battery life if I was watching a dvd or something.

 

5.5hrs? Then how the heck did laptopmag get 5+ with their "battery test", which has wlan on and 50%(or 40% I forgot) brightness?

 

I can think of a few ways.

1. down-clocked the cpu (the tiny 5% possible) and gpu
2. Dell could have included a higher density battery in their unit
3. they over-exaggerated
4. All battery's are not the same, I have seen different runtime's on brand new laptops that were all the same model.

But what I think is the most reasonable answer is that they really didn't do much with it. They just said that they used the laptop for surfing the web; for all we know they could have just had this thread open and just refreshed the page every couple of minutes.

Besides if they gave the laptop a bad review then Dell wouldn't send them more laptops. So it makes sense for Laptopmag to "courteous". Make of it what you will, but I trust user reviews more than some paid reviewer.

 

I knew it. They're exactly like EGM, or GamePro, or gamespot, or ESPECIALLY these two: Game Informer and CNET. So shady. I was totally in doubt about laptopmag's review, and now I'm assured that it may have been overexaggerated/bogus. That's a damn shame.

So what do you think battery life will be with wlan on, and 50% brightness? How about wlan and 20% brightness (something adequate for lecture halls)?

 

From what I have seen and read, a bit over 4 hour is totally within reason for both those setups. Can't say with absolute certainty, since I just ordered mine. Any one else who has a m17x r3 WITHOUT the 3D care to chime in?

I am also a student, so I am quite interested in the battery life myself.

 

I am at 65% with 2 hours left. I am also on high performance. 4 hours would be easy if one wanted to with the right power plan etc.

 

Most likely going to put a review covering everything out in 2-3 days.. I'll do this tomorrow

 

Gj thx mang! Also, purp and yellow request! Thx!

 

What is EPP?

I don't have that, or a company I can get a discount through.

I was going to push for 20%, but I didn't push that hard, I just wanted to get on with ordering, after 4 days of constant emails and phone calls, I settled on 15% which I thought was ok.

Yeah it is major rip off over here. Base systems are higher spec and priced than the USA starting point.

It's not like I know anyone in the USA anyway, for to get it for me. How do you order from USA if you are in another country?

 

Check thread, edited the post and put in pictures ages ago.

 

Ah. Thanks!

 

Exactly, for example, i didnt want 2x1.5TB hard drives, but they could/would not remove them. If they did, i could have knocked maybe $300 off the price, and then it may have been worhtwhile ordering locally.

I got family in the US, i just send to them, and they send to me......no problem.

You can go though PRICEUSA but they will slug you comission etc, although others still reckon its worht it.

Locally is apparently a 5 week wait as well.......

 

Just let it be sent to your family's house. And the next time you visit, go grab it. Or have them mail it to you or bring it to you the next time THEY visit

It's well worth the wait, I'm beginning to learn. Day by day, I'm getting slightly more patient. Just kinda impatient with the lack of a true update on the order status page though. I dont mind it arriving on the 30th, cuz that's what they told me = what I have to accept. But the fact that it's been "In Production in the Build Stage" basically the day after my purchase was put in by the dell rep @ aafes, is inexcusable. Don't they have a special dept at their manufacturing facility that ONLY builds the AWs??? seriously.

Anywhoo, I like this thread. It gets updated way more frequently than the User's Lounge does

 

Yeah I didn't want all the extra's either. e.g. excessive RAM, two hard drives, 15 month of antivirus software that I don't even like...

I could of saved heaps if the New Zealand site had more options for lower end parts.I could of then put the savings towards parts I otherwise would of wanted.

I had no choice, I upgraded to the best I could, given what I had to work with on the New Zealand website

Anyway, I look at this way. I configured the same spec system as mine on the USA site and it was $3118 usd

So with saying that, $3349 usd for New Zealand isn't too bad consider how much I got of been ripped off, at full NZ pricing.

If I had family overseas, yeah for sure I would go that way. Some of us don't have that luxury.
With the price difference that close, I am better off buying in my own country, for support and warranty purposes.

 

Very true, for a difference of only $230 its debatable if its worth the hassle.

That being said, it all depends on config and region. For me, the difference was about $450, so its worth it. As i said, Australia has not default discount applied yet, dunno why NZ would and OZ wouldnt tho.

If we had a decent basic discount here, and could downgrade some components, it prob would be cheaper here.......

 

btw. my ETA is 31-Mar-2011.

3 weeks from doing the deal , bit better than 5 weeks

 

I'm from New Zealand wanting to get an m17x r3. Was just on Dell chat and the most discount they would offer me was $100! This is after I explained to them that the same config would cost me $1300NZD less from Dell USA. How did you get such a good deal? Do you mind sharing who you spoke with at Dell so I can contact them directly? Thanks

 

No sorry I wouldn't do that, would be unethical in my book. Just keep trying, I know the reps are pretty mean at first with pricing. The first offer on a $5025 nzd M17x, they just took $80 off the price. It is going to take a bit of hard work on your part, Dell will try and make as much money as possible. Get them working hard too, and the price will go down.

If you are a student, you can get 6% off the price right off the bat, think you need to be in a large uni although.

Read page 55 of this thread, I wrote a small guide that will help New Zealand and may be Australia buyers too, you should (likely will) be dealing with the same call centre.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/559223-m17x-r3-relaunched-w-460m-6870m-6970m-55.html

 

Mate, im happy to pass on a good rep, i know he would have no drama as they all out to make a sale.

PM me and ill pass on deails.

 

Anybody?

I won't visit Gamespot/CNET after what they did to Jeff Gerstman.

Game Informer though? I see a lot of critical reviews in that magazine...seems like they actually use their scale more than many.

 

I am a Asus G73 owner and am thinking about switching to the M17X R3 with the Radeon 6979 card. The only thing I am worried about is the system emission since I am used to the low volumes of the Asus. What do you who own one have to say, is it loud during gaming?

 

From what others have said, it's louder, but also has phenomenal cooling.

From my experience with the M15x, if that's representative of the M17x-R3, it isn't that loud even under lode (quieter than 'normal' notebooks under lode).

But two things:
1) Don't buy an M17x-R3 until a few people have confirmed the audio doesn't crackle through the headphone jack. The M15x seems to have a widespread problem with that, which is why I had to return mine (didn't know about it until I had already heard it on mine, then after the fact saw tons of other people reporting the same thing).

2) Personally I wouldn't upgrade from a G73 to an M17x-R3. I mean the jump between the CPUs and GPUs used just isn't that big. I'd wait a couple years anyway before upgrading what's still a near top of the line system.

 

Who here has the earliest ETD, on a machine w/ the 6970M.

 

I am getting some decent customer service from my rep, during and after the sale, so I am going to remain loyal throughout the entire process.
Although I could recommend you both, maybe enquire a starting point price in advance, and then pass you both on to the rep if you are seriously keen, then you could tweak what may be on offer?

 

You can not have "switchable" graphics with ether the 485m (if the M17xR3 can use one) or the 460m... but I dont care about that, I never run on batt-

Man, do I ever feel ripped off! The Canadian dollar is almost on par with the US-Dollar... and I payed way too much, should have just got one in the US, and picked it up there 0_0 I even have some family there that would have done it for me! Oh well... not much I can do now.

 

its quite big actrully. Well, the cpu anyway. Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

from my 720qm with turbo on at 1.73ghz on 4 cores vs 2.6ghz? yea..... and an upgrade to 3ghz (4 cores) is only $150.

trully worth it. The next processor (ivy bridge) is just going to be a more slim version of sandy bridge or so I've heard.

 

There's a difference, but most of the boost is just from going from 45 to 32nm. Ivy Bridge will be the same type of boost presumably.

But anyway, the point is I don't think it's worth buying a new system just to jump up one CPU generation...even 2 maybe.

 

Ditto. I have an M17x R1, I was thinking, (fun to think of it), of getting a M17x R2 when they were new, but the money for the power just was not worth it. The increase in gaming/editing just would not, (for me at least), be worth it. Then again, everyone is different. Some have no problem spending the extra money. As for me, my M17x R3 will only cost a fraction of the buy price as I am selling me R1. I am sure many people are doing the same.

 

guys I hate to spoil your ATI rush but there are 2 things that produce performance then attached to those there are many variables like memory speed SSD etc, for me right now the perfect system must include the sandy XM after that a Nvidia 485m would just be unbeatable, coupled with 3D and 120hz would any of you argue that this would be the perfect system, as for battery power - in all the 9 years I have used a laptop I have never relied on the battery for more than an hour and on top of that even aircraft have mains now if you want it, for now I have a system waiting for the 485m or even a 470m with options beyond and they are not limited

 

Well, I don't want the '3D' part at all, and I don't need and wouldn't pay for the Extreme Edition chip, but yeah, I'd like the GTX 485 as an option. (Or 470)

Right now it's only available on a few Sager systems, only they don't work with Nvidia's normal drivers for some reason.