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

You can buy a 485M for about $775, from RJTech.

 

Yea i saw that but i'm not sure if i want to buy a 2500 laptop and a 775 card just to find out the card doesn't work in the laptop and they don't take returns on those cards. I was more or less asking if anyone who already owns a vlevo with a 485m would try it lol

 

To me 3D is not important therefore the 6970M is the only way to go for me.

 

Thanxxx for the info, I have been looking all over for one. When my R3 comes in I will buy one (485m) for testing. I'll let ya all know how it goes. I may want some time with the 460m first, so it may take a month to get around to trying to put the 485m in. I'll document, and photograph/film the process.

 

Sounds good, I'll probably personally wait, if it works Dell is bound to make one and in the past year or so the Dell/AW cards have always outperformed the Clevo/Sager/Msi/Etc cards. If it doesn't work then the chances of Dell implimenting the card are slim.

 

Sounds great ill keep an eye out to see your findings, if it works i'm going to get it asap.

 

Ugh, My India sales rep is going crazy because I told him I wanted to order 2 computers (One later)

He then told me "Installing an HDD will void the warranty!" when I asked him if they still came with two mounting brackets.

Hopefully he'll give me the discount, he keeps coming back every 30 seconds saying DO NOT DISCONNECT PLEASE FROM THE LINE DO NOT DISCONNECT. Thinking he mas a major sale.

I also am going to ask him about that wireless HD Video / Audio but I don't see it listed.

 

Changing an HDD DOES NOT VOID warranty.

 

No, I know. I just want to BE SURE I get 2 brackets. Hes now saying "aren't you good enough with 256gb!!?!"

 

Yeah, definitely doesn't void the warranty. I hope it comes with an extra bracket as I'll need it.
Edit: That's funny, X3NIA. Is it not good enough for you!?

 

There's nothing on the site about the wirelessHD. The reviews of this laptop made it seem like all models of the R3 had this. Anyone know how it works?

 

It's an optional card that is not available yet. You have to wait if you want that option.

 

Thanks for clarification, I won't ask him then as its taking him 10+ minutes just to see if the HDD mounting comes in the other bay if I only order the SSD.

Do you know if the emitter is built in and I only need the receiver or the whole system will have to be added later? I was REALLY looking forward to queuing up a hulu episode from my bed LOL.

 

So who else is freaking excited about their new systems?

 

ME! =^_^=

By the way; I have never seen a thread grow this fast! "better than television" =^_^=

To bring back a question someone asked, but was not answered... something like "has anyone used the 3d-vision, is it worth it over the ATI cards?" It really depends on your gaming... Go to an I-Max movie, that will give you some idea of the 3D experience. Nvidia 3D-vision is crisp, clear, and well... just great =^_^= BUT you will have to decide for yourself if you want a bit more power, or the 3D-vision.

 

About to finish sale.. Moment of truth... Lets see how much he takes off.

I'm hoping he understands because I DID tell him I was tight on money and "couldn't order my second system today"

 

Just ordered this:

System Color Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS)
A/C Adapter Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
Display Panel 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Video Card 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M
Hard Drive 320GB 7,200RPM HDD
Nameplate Personalized Plate (Joebarchuck)
Optical Drives Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On
Service 3 Year Advanced Service Plan

 

I don't know if you can count on being able to add this later. This might not be something they would sell and support out of the parts bin.

Hmm no wireless HD, no 485m. It sounds like this early R3 configuration is going to be the least disireable.

 

pshhh, not by me! lol, i can live without either, although since the dual GPU option is completely out of the question, it kinda puts a spin on perspective though, i think that would be the only bummer.

 

485M is a great option if you want the 3D bundle but many people including myself do not care for it and the 6970M is all we want.

Also, the wireless HD is a module that can be added at any time in the future from my understanding of it. Just like you could buy a bluetooth module and add it later.

 

I want 485m AND wireless HD but both aren't dealbreakers, 485 I can add later and wireless HD was sort of a nice feature but not needed.

Also Mr. India is currently giving me a "custom quote" and "wants to be my dedicated sales rep"

Total: $3500
Hoping For: $3000-3100

He was like I DONT KNOW I CAN DO THIS BECAUSE THIS IS AN ONLY THIS DAY OFFER ON INTEL SECOND GENERATION PROCESSOR!

*waits on hold*

EDIT: Just got quoted from 3500 to 3288. Trying to get him to take another $50 off.

 

So what is the Radeon 6970? Looking it up, it almost looks like it's actually two 480 core parts? Lists as a total of 960 cores, but....

If it is actually a 960 core single part, that would be awesome...nice bump from the 800 core parts (although I'd still rather have an Nvidia equivalent in the 200 core range) BUT I assume the M17x has audio problems like the M15x does

 

So how is the 485M in terms of performance? Could it handle WoW at 100% max settings? Sorry if this has been answered a million times, but things tend to get buried, and I can't tell anything from benchmark tests since I am kind of a noob when it comes to this stuff.

The only reason I wan the 485M is so I can have the 120Hz screen. But if the 6970 performs that much better, then I will go for that.

 

The 6970M can perform WOW at max settings. Heck outside of the shadows the 5870M could do that too with shadows at good.

 

Even the top systems struggle with 100% ultra settings, If you set shadows to "Good" (but everything else max) with those specs you will see 100+ FPS nearly everywhere.

And don't worry about setting shadows down, it isn't that the system is weak its that WoW is unoptimized towards shadows. My 2x 580 i7 920 4.42ghz DESKTOP system struggled to run it with 40+ FPS.

 

Just stop talking about the 485M. Best to assume that it's not coming, and move on deciding between what's available.

 

I wanna get r3 because of ssd sata 3 supported but I don't really like the look of r3 , venting system doesn't look that good either, because is hard to take off & clean.

I think I'll get 6870 xfire , unless someone wanna watch in 3D

I was wondering what is the battery life for 460m?

6870 xfire are 5hour battery life? (better then r2's battery life )

 

Alright, he couldn't take more cash off and I could afford it but when tax came into play (+$170) its out of budget.

$3143 total: 2720, 8gb 1333, 2x 750gb (Dropped the SSD, cost too much), 1920x1080 Screen, 2gb 6970, Blu-Ray, 3yr Advanced Protection, Fully upgraded wireless.

I should get it by March 29th , guy was really good with the sale. Wish he could've taken more off so I could've gotten the SSD but whatever.. I'll add my own 80 or 120gb x25-M from Newegg when I get it and give the second 750gb one to one of my family members, who needs more HDD .

Also kind of lol'd how he always gave me the subtotal "At the very low price of XXXX.XX"

Was easy enough though, now I just have $600 to foot in 12 months from Dell preferred account (no biggie)

 

There is no xfire/sli @r3

 

Not sure what you are saying about 6870 xfire... The R3 only has 1 as in ONE video card.

 

Ahh! I'm sorry! I meant the 460M--the one that we can choose right now. I wanted to know how that handles WoW. Didn't mean to reference the 485.

 

I can squeeze out just under 4 hours on mine and it's the non-optimus, I'd imagine with some tweaking the Optimus should be able to reach 5 hours maybe a bit more, but I think you're confused this is a single GPU rig only no Sli/Xfire.

 

Anyone know about he wireless streaming option? when and where !!

 

Aaaaaah, I totally missed that! Yeah, I'd much rather just have a faster single chip than two slower ones...960 core GPU? Not bad at all! Of course it would be nice to have the 270 core Nvidia one available too.

Okay, so does this mean the R3 is any smaller than the R2? That would be a nice bonus...

So how's the sound though? If this is an all new system, maybe Dell has finally fixed the crackling audio problems the M15x and other systems have?

Dang, this could be awesome...

 

anyone got any good discounts on their's?? i'm waiting on a quote from the rep atm.

 

2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M , it self with 2GB graphic card?

I was thinking that was xfire awesome!

 

Yeah, looking it up I got confused and thought it was actually two 480 core GPUs stuck together and sold as a single part, but it is apparently just one GPU, which is awesome!

Theoretically I could get one of these if I just knew if the sound system's been fixed on this new model.

 

It's not available yet so no one knows.

Here's the specs:

M17x-R3:
Height (front): 44.5 mm (1.75 inches)
Height (back): 44.95 mm (1.77 inches)
Width: 410.0 mm (16.14 inches)
Depth: 304.0 mm (11.97 inches)

M17x-R2:
Height (front): 51.31 mm (2.02 inches)
Height (back): 53.59 mm (2.11 inches)
Width: 405.89 mm (15.98 inches)
Depth: 321.31 mm (12.65 inches)

Sound is awesome, they're Klipsch audio, not quite as good as Beats or JBL but still a lot better than the R2 or M15x.

 

$100 off here, he said the system wouldn't let him take any more off.

Couldn't get the 256gb SSD (went for 2x 750gb raid0 instead) but I only wanted to add an 80 or 120gb myself anyway so no real loss.

All that spare vram will run heavily modded oblivion and vram heavy games (GTA4) REAAAAAAAAAAAAL Well!

 

Yeah I am really excited about this system I just wished the build was still Aluminum. Anyways, I am glad...

 

I got $50 off + free 3 days or something like that shipping which is basically the same as your $100 off. I am really surprised by this Dell attitude of no more discounts.

 

The only major complaint I have is I do wish it was magnesium with powder coating rather than the soft touch, don't get me wrong it's attractive but I see it as a long term issue with reliability of the finish. Man looking at these discounts I'm glad I dealt with the AW crap and kept mine

 

Isn't it "magnesium with plastic/rubber coating" ?

Soft touch is crap, If anyone has used a razer peripheral you'd know what I'm talking about when I say "Razer Rubber"

And yeah, I'm jealous of your discount... I REALLY was hoping to get into $3000 as opposed to $3140. I think (and I feel bad doing it) I'm going to call my Sales Rep back when I get it and tell him I want to return it and see what he says about giving me some cash back. All I want is another $100!

 

Yeah but the coating comes off after a while. That's what I have on my Latitude Z and what people experienced with the M11X.

 

Sorry, I should have asked specifically about the headphone jack...the M15x I had...a LOT of them (though possibly not all?) have very obvious static/hissing through them. I've heard that on a number of Dell notebooks, and that's why I sent back my otherwise perfect M15x

But anyway thanks for all the info!

What the heck IS that "soft touch" stuff made out of? I assume that's like the Asus G73?

 

Same thing as g73, same thing as Razer peripherals. Soft, thin coat of rubberized plastic stuff that tends to wear off with use (palm rests under keyboard) and scratch stupidly easily (like if you run a finger nail over it hard enough)

I'm planning on finding SOMETHING to stick over it.. like a case or skin or something thats just clear and unnoticeable. I don't plan on using the keyboard / mouse when I'm "Set up" at my desk anyway so it isn't a huge deal for me.

 

I think you mean 460M not 485M, because 485M is the fastest mobile card at the moment.
As far as 460M and WoW go, with everything maxed out you will see some slowing down in the most crowded and really demanding sequences, but other than that it will handle it quite nicely, just like any other game really

 

Thanks...that's weird that they're using that stuff. I don't even get how/what it's made from, or why they'd do it. Figured it would rub off...

 

Regarding WoW, did the system requirements on that jump up or something with the expansions? Because I played that for a while on a Geforce 4 with max settings except no AA at 1168 or whatever by 9xx and it ran in the 40fps range and looked great.

 

Yeah , I don't know.. Too many gaming items are covered with the crap now but I guess I shouldn't complain. Its (IMO) better than the glossy plastic that would scratch without even being touched that they used to use (Razer did, I mean)

"EXTRA GRIP FOR SUPERIOR GAMING SESSIONS UNDER THE MOST HARDCORE OF TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS!"