M17xR2: need Advice, Second SSD or 920xm?

So in 3 weeks my first shift here in Algeria will be over. Returning at home i'll find a little surprise, it can be either a second 180Gb SSD, in order to build my Raid 0 system, or an i7-920xm. The choice is up to me. I'm leaning towards the 920xm. What do you guys think? I'll place the order through ebay tomorrow or aftertomorrow, so i'll have some time to make up my mind about it.

Talking about the 920xm i saw a decent price at shirley for about 398 USD. Is it good?

 

Hi, i see u have 840qm already which is very good, the thing is slowest* component in a computer now is harddrive, ssd are better in most ways except storage capacity. I would recommend the ssd

 

Point is that i have already my system running on SSD. Afaik a single SSD is faster than a RAID 0 HDD array. Having a RAID 0 SSD array will only improve the system response and startup/shutdown (and i will loose trim). Which is already good at the moment. I'm thinking that the 920 xm paired with Throttlestop can give me the best improvement over the 2 options.

 

system response for what ??? boot time
it really depends on what you use your system for, what is it you are trying to speed up ? if it's gaming then another SSD will do nothing, if you are video editing or similar then you might see a slight performance increase although ram would have a bigger impact, if you are just trying to maximise your benchmark scores for ego then don't waste your money, get yourself an R3 with sandybridge cpu

 

LOL! ego... you sounded like an R3 fanboy here

Since i own an alienware for gaming i don't feel the need to go with an R3. dual 5870s vs single 6970 i can't see that big of a difference to make me change what i own. The upgrade is for improving overall my system and to max it out. A faster CPU will improve my Crossfire and also my existing SSD performance.

 

yes I know you will see an improvement but many different things will bare fruits in many different ways which is why I'm asking what it is you want to improve, boot time ? I'm not trying to be a fan boy of R3 or it's performance - if it does what I want it for then I'm happy, I post everything with a smile on my face so no insult or conflict intended, you asked for some input by posting here but you don't mention what you are trying to improve, different upgrades will improve on different applications so it really depends on what you use your machine for, I'm forever looking for disk space so I went for 1.5tb HD, I don't do anything HD intensive so I'm loosing nothing by not going for SSD, good luck with your choices and enjoy your machine and experience


it's a bit like a car, do you want to do a quarter mile or go round a track or be the fastest rally car, they all require vastly different approaches

 

Since you already have a ssd drive, i'd definitly go with the cpu upgrade. I doubt it will make any difference for gaming though, maybe for the very cpu intensive games like the Total War series.

Also, this is the month when sandy bridge is finally becomming more widespread (after that production error which you certainly know of). Maybe the prices of the first generation i cpu's (as intel refers to them now) will drop by quite a bit after a month or so? Since your current cpu is far from a bottleneck atm, waiting a bit couldn't hurt I think.

 

Geoffxx no offence taken at all.

For the disk part.. well i feel that with 1 SSD paired with a Secondary Storage (HDD) i have speed and capacity. Most probably i will replace the secondary with a 500 Gb one along the road. Boot time is good right now (win 7 load in 17.1 seconds last time i've monitored it). I Don't plan to OC a lot with the 920xm, neither i'm under the influence of the Benchmark Evil (yet ), but for sure at least make it running at it's full speed on the 4 cores is a go.

 

Hi,captain, If you compare the advantages and disadvantages of RAIDing it's just not worth it.
One of the drives fails => you lose everything(data)
and all of this for a little gain in load speeds.
My personal choice is the 920xm and a second 1Tb or 750Gb magnetic.
Have a nice trip back!

 

I found this 920xm

New Intel® Core? i7-920XM Processor 2.0GHz/8m/1333 - eBay (item 250789418409 end time Mar-26-11 11:03:38 PDT)

It is from shirley, from what i've read so far on the forum, looks like a good seller.

any advice will be apreciated

Thanks for the trip back!

 

SSD Raid is overrated and you will see a much better performance jump from the 920xm. I would much rather have 1 of each SSD and 920xm before i get a raid setup of SSD especially given the crappy crapola controller the M17x has for SSD. I can easily run 60 FPS in GTA IV using the 920xm with all settings on high and shadows on medium and 8x AA. On the i7 chips i have to reduce it all to Medium and Low shadows with 4x AA. I would be much happier with a 920xm as an upgrade after already have a large 180gb SSD.

Also go with LEE he is much faster and i have had better Overclock with his chips. Also he throws in a free Extreme sticker so you can swap out your old i7 QM sticker.

INTEL quad mobile i7 920XM 3.2GHZ 8M PM55 KING! - eBay (item 160561582016 end time Apr-18-11 16:26:13 PDT)

 

I bought mine from here.
INTEL quad mobile i7 920XM 3.2GHZ 8M PM55 KING! - eBay (item 160561582016 end time Apr-18-11 16:26:13 PDT)

I did him an offer for 375$ and it was ok.

 

Thank you Faiz23, i will place the order with him. Well i sent the link to my wife, she will .. after all it is a surpise for when i'll be back home

920xm on the way! eheh i'm happy

 

Why not go for a 940xm from the same seller: INTEL quad mobile i7 940XM 3.33GHZ 12M 1333Mhz > 920XM on eBay (end time 13-Apr-11 03:58:44 BST)

Make an offer, eh?

 

I believe that cost/performance wise the 920xm it's a better choice or at least is enaugh for my use. Anything higher will be in the future whenever the m18x will be released i believe

 

Well, yeah....there is the increased cost and that maybe doesnt justify the performance increase - just thought if you could get the 940xm for not too much more than the 920xm, it may have been worth condsidering.

Im pretty much in the same boat as you fella, looking at SSD or possibly an extreme cpu...or maybe both.

I havent researched fully the differences between 920 & 940 but I "think" its just 133mhz faster (like my 840 is slightly faster than the older 820) - dont know if there are any other differences between the two. If not, then a few hundred dollars/pounds just for 133mhz doesnt seem to be wise money spent.

Im also considering buying an OEM chip as have seen the 920's available on ebay for not too much more. I know it wont give any difference over ES/QS extreme chips (in terms of performance) BUT I did wonder about warranty....If I put in an ES or QS, thats gonna void my warranty unless I keep the 840qm OEM that I have......If I buy OEM, upgrade with it and it doesnt void my Dell warranty in the process then I am free to sell the 840qm OEM that I ordered with and recover some of the money I would spend on an OEM extreme cpu.....you with me?

You could also look here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Intel-Cor...333-/250789418409?pt=CPUs&hash=item3a6436d5a9 for your ES/QS 920xm - Shirley's are supposedly reliable and might be a bit cheaper? (if you are making "best offers" - I would be playing one off against the other for the lowest price LOL)

Also, Shirley's have the 940xm a fair bit cheaper than LaptopMonkey http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Intel-Cor...333-/250787827546?pt=CPUs&hash=item3a641e8f5a around £140 more than the 920xm from LaptopMonkey......not much more, is it?

 

I bought a 920XM from Laptop Monkey on ebay and installed it saturday. So far it is faster than my 720qm in just normal day to day operations. I have not had the chance to game with it yet other than 30 minutes on Black Ops. Temperatures are higher as expected but from what I read in the forums 49C in a newly installed system seems to be the norm until the AS cures. I think I paid 349 for it and it is worth every cent. For the price, I had a coupon that I used. 375 seems to be the best offer point he was working from earlier when he had a few left

 

I'm planning to keep my 840qm as a spare part and also for future warranty issues (one never knows, knock on wood!) the 940 of the previous link it's about 720 USD, as you said way too much for 133mhz (that i can get anyway with OC and having a lot of fun while doing it ) compared to the 920. Now it is just question of waiting untill i'll be back home (my trip back is planned for the 11th of April), the 920 will be there long before i'll arrive home. Down the road i'll also add a second (and bigger) storage disk, maybe another SSD with bigger capacity, but definetly raid is a no go. Also with raid i'll lose TRIM capability on the drives which is another deal breaker for me.

 

Agree with you on Raided SSD's - I was looking at 'em and almost took the plunge. There is no real world benefit to having a raid 0 setup, then only benfit is if you are into number crunching and benches. Im more interested in the real performance and raid is just too much of a hassle with no trim.

I plan on getting a 240gb+ single SSD and whatever I have left over, I may look at a xtreme cpu. I want to check with Dell prior to doing that to see if i am "allowed" to get an OEM cpu and put it in myself without voiding warranty. If they agree, I will probably buy OEM opposed to QS as im not likely to want to swap them in and out to do benching - the 840qm would just sit gathereing dust so if I can do the OEM swap, I would sell the 840qm.

And yeah, seen as how its only 133mhz, thats nothing when you can OC either xm using Throttlestop - like you say too, have more fun in the process!

Happy installing when you get back home fella!

 

Laptopmonkey already shipped the cpu

One of the best buy i've done over e-bay, shipped via DHL from uk, it will arrive at home in just 3 days (i live in mexico). Fast and reliable.

When i'll be at home (still a little less than 2 weeks...meh! i'm starting to hate the desert....) i'll find it there and will keep you updated. Faiz, thanks again for that link!

 

If I were in the same situation as you, I would pick i7-920XM (+ThrottleStop).

edit: oh, I see you already made that decision. Grats!

 

+1, i have the RAID 0 SDD AND the 920XM, 920XM definitely was more noticable then the upgrade from single- to RAID SSD (although it looks quite good in your WEI score that 7.9 )

 

No issues enjoy the chip and get yourself some mx4 paste. When you install heatsink just screw it on enough to grab then put everything back together but leave keyboard and power strip touch panel out. You want to adjust the heatsink in windows using prime 95 and throttlestop. I noticed when I used variable tension on each screw and checking temps in windows I was able to achieve 7 degree drop instead of tighten each screw all the way. Skip the retention mods till you get experience tweaking the heatsink in windows.

 

Arrived!!!!

The Wife sent me a picture of it. Now i can't wait to get back home!!

 

Enjoy

That's a monster chip, you should see quite some performance gain, i went the same road.

 

What seller did you get it from on ebay? Just curious cause Im thinkin of buying one too.

 

LaptopMonkey if I'm right wasnt it Xabaras?

 

Yes, it was Laptopmonkey... and i'm a bit late on the answer too lol!.

I'm home and already installed it... yes there is a good difference on performance .

I'm still tuning it with throttle stop and prime 95, yesterday i spent a good time with the laptop opened tuning the heathsink screws while running Prime.

For the moment i'm using as a daily basis 25/25/19/19 (the last two are 4 and 3 cores running). I'm not yet satisfied with temperatures, may as well do a repaste. with 4 cores running @X19 i'm in the upper 80's.

I've used AS5 just put a drop in the middle of the cpu and spread it with my finger evenly. I may need some help from more experienced guys here... wich is a correct ammount of thermal paste that should i use? has anybody some picture of a repaste to have the idea?

Anyway, without ThrottleStop and 5% bios OC my temps doesn't get past 77 degrees celsius

This thing is giving me tons of fun

 

Don't try to spread it since that will cause uneven application and air bubbles. I would put a half grain of rice size thermal paste on the middle of the die and slap the heatsink and screw it down in the correct order and let the heatsink spread the paste. You will get better temps and keep adjusting the heatsink in windows using Prime 95 and real temp or throttle stop. Temps in the 80's is fine and you should worry when you get into the 90's when overclock and full TDP. Also change your paste to Mx3 or Mx4 and you will have better results and won't have to wait for AS5 to cure

 

Thanks Faiz, i'll do as you sugested and report back.

 

Ok, i did as you sugested Faiz, temps are much better! i have the laptop opened in front of me with external keyboard plugged in and secondary card removed (the CF cable is on the way with one of the heathsink screw), Also Prime95 is running while i'm writing here. I had half of an heart attack lol! at first switch on, the led on the media bar where blinking crazy and the screen was black.. i though i had screwed things up... resulted to be only the LCD connector not properly seated... i think i lost some year of life... .
now i'll fine tune it and see what i can get out of it.

 

Well everything is working fine. Under load during game i get 67-66 degrees. better than my old 840 with stock paste. How long the AS5 will take to cure?

 

Hey, Cpt. good to see you back
well what i do to accelerate "curing" is use Mumak's Hwinfo32 to stop the fans while appling load, temps will go high (normal ) and the paste should find its place.

 

Overriding BIOS fan control can result in serious complications if used improperly or if implemented incorrectly (why its best to let the BIOS handle it). This will kill your warranty - know what you are doing and be sure you are willing to risk losing warranty support if something should go wrong. If you fry your GPU(s) as a result, you have only yourself to blame. Be careful!

We're not going to debate if doing this is ok or not, only the user can decide on what they are willing to do to their system.


If you guys want to discuss specifics on Mumak's HWiNFO32 app, please do so here -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/557441-m15x-m17x-r2-fan-control.html

Thanks.

 

Posts have been removed concerning third party fan control.

Let it go folks...

 

a quick question off topic, srry !

would OCZ Vertex fit M17x R2 and would work fine? thanks...

 

Hi Katalin! yes finally back at home

I chose the game method to cure it spent an excelent gaming night yesterday eheheh. As far as what batboy said, thanks for your concern and for the hints. I do know what i'm doing, i can say if Mumak allow me that i helped him a little bit with the test of the fan controll of HWinfo32. And i don't mind if people want to talk about hwinfo32 on my own thread. Mind you?

About the warranty issue... well, how comes that a software may kill my warranty? it is not a permanent mod. Even if i reach the point of breaking something while using it, it can be eliminated without trace.. and lets talk frankly, latelly Dell don't care that much about damaged R-2, they just propose fully loaded R-3 (wich i DON'T want) as a replacement...

Dj, what you mean if it will fit?

 

i'm in bidding one, so i'm confused about that Vertex 1, its a bit old and I don't know how it would perform like its TRIM compatible or not, I think its not lol

Edit: Oh yes it supports TRIM

 

i have an Agility 2, it is the mainstream model from OCZ, but it perform really well, as to fit, it will fit, but i don't sugest you to go with a Vertex 1. Agility 2 or Vertex 2 should be your choice if you want an OCZ drive

 

yeah I see your point about it, thank you for suggesting, Im going to search more for another option and price

+rep