M17x purchase question - 940xm, SSD?

Hello, I'm planning to buy a new M17x (5870XF, rgb led) but I wanted to ask for an advice regarding the cpu and sdd.
-I definitely want the 940xm so my questuion is do you think I should wait until it's offered on the US site or just buy it with the cheap 520m and then replace it with 940xm ES from ebay (around $650)? I know some people did that but how does the ES work with the new bios? Can you do the 5% overclocking? What about stability, warranty, etc.?
-Regarding the SSD, did most of you buy the ones that are offered with the system or did you get it with the cheapest hdd and then upgraded with an sdd that you purchased separately. If so, does anyone know for any good ssd deals? I've looked around and the prices for the two SSDs that come with M17x seem about the same with the ones offered from other places.
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

 

Yes, yes, and yes. Get the dual 5870s and the RGB LED, and skimp on everything else, even the CPU. Get the 920XM for ~$450 (ES) on eBay. SSD, RAM from Newegg. The nicer 6300 wireless card from eBay. I believe you can even buy the BD-ROM aftermarket. I got the A-Data version of the 80GB Intel X25 SSD from Newegg for $200. I use it for my OS partition, and it's faster than my mechanical by a long shot. I haven't heard anything good about the Samsung SSDs that Alienware offers on the site. You can recoup some costs by selling the parts you replace. You'll save a ton of cash, and you'll have a VERY fast laptop. The only thing that would drive someone away from this is that you have to do the labor yourself.

 

Thank you Turbod. The labor I don't mind. I've taken apart M17x in the past, so no problem there. Also, I'm stuck with the RAM from Dell since the minimum they offer is 4GB 1333MHz. and that's all I need at the moment.
Regarding the 80GB SDD, is that enought space for the OS and games/software installations? I assume that games/software have to be installed on the SSD to take advantige of it, correct? Also what about the recovery partition that comes on Dell's drives, do I need to transfer it or can I keep it on the secondary hdd?
Thanks

 

The thing that would worry me about the buy cheap replace everything approach is warranty issues. Will Dell give you warranty service if you have replaced everything but the motherboard, GPUs, and LCD? It seems like the extra you are paying Dell for is so that they cover your components.

 

I have my OS, apps, and several games on there with 30GB left over. All of my music, movies, photos, etc., are on a 750GB secondary drive. If I want to watch a large .MKV file, I'll just transfer it over to the SSD and then move it back or delete it once I'm done. It's a PITA, but I couldn't swing the 160GB version. I don't ever keep Dell's recovery partition, so I can't help you there.

As far as your warranty is concerned, I think the CPU is the only deal breaker. You may want to throw it in an anti static bag and keep it until your warranty is up.

 

Thanks guys.
So, regarding the 940xm ES from ebay, I know a few people here have them. Can you share your experience, is this a safe route to go, are the es reliable, warranty, performance? And of course, we all know that there's always a risk with ebay but any suggestions for a buyer?

 

I've got an alienware M17 with a 940xm. dell replaced the 720 with it by accident lmao.

 

I saw them fit it and if you have any questions feel free to ask. it even unlocked the overclocking option in bios.

 

The M17 does not support such CPU.

Only the M17X R2 supports i7 CPU. Even the first version of the M17X named R1 does not support i7 CPU since the chipset is different.

The M17 a computer produced by AW over a year and a half ago does not support any i7 CPU. Can you please confirm which PC you have.

 

The 920XM and the 940XM are the same chip, but the 940 runs 133Mhz faster. Same stepping. Both fit in the M17x. If you've got money coming out of your gills, get the 940 I guess. I personally opted for the 920XM. There is a ton of debate regarding ES and QS chips. I have personally used half a dozen over the past couple of years, and all have served me well with no issues. ES chips are reliable, and will perform, but I can't speak for what kind of warranty you'll have. Depends on the seller. I bought my 920 from LaptopMonkey on Ebay. It was $428 shipped. It's been sitting in NY customs for a week now though. You'll see a few main sellers, all with high Feedback scores. Just find the best price. Also, you'll see some sellers that don't accept returns at all, so keep your wits about you.

 

Good way to go but remember anything you replace your self from ebay or newwegg is not covered buy you warranty. You need to keep the old part to swap into the system if you need to send in or tech to come out. Also they can always say your issues are because of the aftermarket parts and then what?

 

I have an m17x R2. I wanted the 2nd 5870 fitted but it kept failing so they replaced the mobo and cpu. (with a i7 940XM. ???????) its a absolute beast! I've still got the 2nd gpu to sort out but so far its been worth every penny.

if you were to find out how much i bought mine new for you'd probably faint.

today has been like Christmas....

 

If you get the minimum spec stuff, none of it is going to net you much on Ebay anyway. If I'm not mistaken, though, Moo did find a definitive answer on what would void a warranty and what would not. I believe he said that Dell/Alienware don't care as long as it has the original parts when/if you return it. So yeah, just stash the stuff somewhere in case you ever need to put it back. But that's still no excuse to pay Alienware's astronomical prices for stuff.

 

Read the 1st post man. He's definitely talking about the M17x-R2.

 

Nice one. Could you post a CPUZ screen of the 940 to see revision etc.

 

Ive just got to get the 2nd 5870 to work and then upgrade to 8gb of ddr3 and a solid state boot drive. Then I'll be in laptop heaven

 

Wow, thats not even an ES chip. Nice one. You should get into benching and see if you can beat my scores

 

lol one day...
when i get the 2nd gpu to work and upgrade the ram i will be ALL POWERFULL.....

nah.. thats a really nice system you've got there!

 

Thanks for the info.Your one lucky fellow

 

much luckier then you think, my staff discount at an "un-named" local retailer meant i got my alienware for.... wait for it..... £906 and the 2nd card cost me £300 from dell. bringing the total price to £1206.

seen as i haven't worked out how to make a sig yet here the full spec.


Alienware M17xR2 || 940-XM | CF ATI 5870 (when the 2nd one works) | 500GB 7200rpm | 4GB 1333 MHz | RGB LED 1920 x 1200 |

upcoming upgrades: Working CF | SSD | 8GB 1333Mhz

 

Your one Jammy Bas Your quid's in big time.

 

Wow thats an awesome deal. As for the sig, go to the top of this page and click the little button on the top left (in the blue bar) that says " User CP" if you have priveliges, you should be able to get in and edit signature. Welcome to the forum btw.

 

Lol i know, its the best receipt ever, i thinking of getting it framed lol.
it reads:

Alienware laptop 1@ 1,999.99
Employee Discount -1,093.18

Total discount -1,093.18
Total £906.18

Just goes to show you how much margin there is on these things.

Thanks, Im just going to make a post to see if anyone can help me with my CF problem.

 

I'm still a bit hesitant to buy an ES from ebay? But I still want to hear if people that bought the 940xm ES have or had any issues with them? Please help...

 

sorry to get in the way of your original post vradev.

surely it would run the same as mine.

 

DR650SE has a 940 ES ask him he will be able to give u the info you require

 

The 940 is a great CPU. I perfer the 920XM OEM for overclocking. I have an OEM 920, and a 940XM ES. The 940 when I really increase the TDP and the multiplier, doesn't run as efficient as the 920 at the same settings. I couldn't score as high in Vantage with the 940. My scores in my sig were both 920XMs. I'm actually in the process now of putting my OEM 920 in. But if your not going to overclock real hard, then I'd go with the 940, as it would have a faster freq. It would run perfect at the 5% bios overclock. When I'm done benching, i normally leave everything in my notebook at stock clocks for the GPU and only 5% OC for the CPU. I keep it like this for gaming and everything else. But I'll probably keep the 940XM in it for the extra speed. But this is just my experience with a single chip.

 

Thanks for the info DR650SE. I'm not planning to do benching, just running games, aps etc. so I guess I should be fine. I'm just still debating whether to by it with the system (when become available) for the higher price tag and more warranty securituy or risk it and by it off of ebay for about $600. Decisions, decisions

 

Just make sure the seller has a return policy, that's all man. If it's not stable, or doesn't work, send it back. I've never noticed a difference between OEM and ES/QS other than what CPU-Z says. The mailman brought my ES 920XM while I was typing this. 650, you've got a benchmarking buddy now. Just gotta install it.

 

Nice Turbo! Thats awesome. I just put my 920XM back in. You even got the stickers? my M17x has an i5 sticker on it it's a sleeper. with plenty of juice under the hood.

Vradev, as long as your doing it for gaming and such, then I would say go for the 940XM off ebay. Pretty easy to install, and if your not overclocking hard, no reason you should have a problem. get it from laptop laptopmonkey on ebay, and it's a good deal. Use the money you save to buy an SSD that will load up your games faster. Just keep you i5 520 or whatever you got, so if you need to return of have the system worked on, you can put it in ahead of time.

Also took a pic of my OEM 920XM and ES 940XM side by side.

 

I am helping my friend overclocking his m17x and have a question. Is the m17x compatible with 1666mhz mem?

 

probably compatible with it, but it's not going to operate at 1666MHz, it's going to be downclocked to 1333MHz. No sense it spending money on 1666MHz

 

I guess 8gb is the way to go then. Thanks.

 

If you want to OC the M17X and run high benchmark scores as outlined by the best benchers of the forum, the ideal is 4GB. You actually loose bench performance with 8GB of RAM.

And thus far the best RAM is the Kingston Hyper X.

 

I use 8BG in my top runs Although I'm testing things now to retain power to the GPU/CPUs

 

Maybe with 4GB you will hit 20K vantage... LOL

 

I'm workin on it. Got a lot of stuff pulled from the notebook at the moment lol

 

If someone upgrades the processor from 820QM to 940XM do you have to flash the bios? What do you do to unlock the overclocking features? Does anyone know what the price of a 940XM is running these days.

Thanks

 

I believe you do nothing. The BIOS recognizes the new CPU and unlocks the OC features...

 

Just go into the bios and select 1%-5% overclock. For prices check ebay. Theres a few on there

 

Hey 650. Got that CPU in. Several of my programs, including 3DMark'06 and Vantage just hang on the screen where they check out your computer configuration. Some programs start, but just run in the background. No icon in the task bar, but the task manager says they're running. Something I need to do to get the system back to ground zero? I already reset the CMOS.

 

Hmm, caught me on my way out, check in the msconfig and make sure you don't have the 1,2,3,4 cores box checked. Did you also restart? I know it has to install drivers once it's in. Also try resetting the bios back to default and restarting. I was doing some runs and nothing good was coming out of it tonight.

CPU-Z should read 4 cores 8 threads in the bottom left. Not sure what could be going on. Try the bench thread too. johnkiss and scook might have some ideas.

 

OK guys, I did it.
I bought M17x-R2 (i520m, 5870XF, 1200p RGBLED, 3 yr adv warranty, 4GB and 250GB HDD). I used EPP and a bit of negtiating with the rep and the total came to $2300 ($2450 with tax and free nbd shipping). I also bought 940xm from ebay for $600 (no tax and free shipping) and 160gb intel x25m ssd for $430 from amazon (no tax and free shipping).
So the total came to 2450+600+430=$3480, which seems like a good deal compared to the price I would've gotten if I got the 920xm from dell.
Thank you for your advices.