M17xR3 First Impression

I wouldnt want to do 3d on SC2 not with a 460 atleast I would go with the 2720 RTS games love Strong CPU's and the 2720 is significantly better considering the price difference you put in the other thread( lets finish this convo their as to not hijack Mandrakes thread. You will be happy with it I am sure.

 

how come nobody says if they have bluetooth, does it? lol

 

I do not think so It doesn't list it when you customize it on the site

Code:

Congratulations! You have finished personalizing!
Software & Services
PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)	edit
OPERATING SYSTEM	Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit	edit
MEMORY	4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)	edit
VIDEO CARD	1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M	edit
HARD DRIVE	320GB 7,200RPM HDD	edit
LCD PANEL	17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED	edit
WIRELESS CARD	Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology	edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE	Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)	edit
SYSTEM COLOR	Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black	edit
My Software & Accessories
PRE-INSTALLED GAMES	Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed	edit
ALIENFX COLOR	Quasar Blue	edit
Personalize
WARRANTY AND SERVICE	1 Year Basic Plan	edit
My Accessories
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
SOUND OPTIONS	Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio	
POWER ADAPTERS	Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter	
AUTOMATIC UPDATES	Automatic Updates: On	
Standard Nameplate Trigger	Standard Nameplate

 

I don't know that this has been answered/covered anywhere yet - if I order the 120hz 1080p screen with 3D, can I disable it? I would probably never use 3D, I just want the nicer screen and as others have pointed out, it's cheaper with the $1700 package.

 

You don't have to use it. You can turn it off and just use the 120hz screen with the 460.

 

No BT? You kidding me? Meetcha in the other thread

 

You can always buy an Intel Wifi 6230 which has bluetooth in it as well

they are about $25 and come out next week I believe. Getting one for my M11x

 

Will do that, and look forward to the Sibeam upgrade in the future (if I decide to buy it within the next hour or so lolz).

 

Excellent point scook!

 

There is blue tooth. Must be a standard option.

 

mandrake, will you be returning your set to upgrade to the 6970 instead?

 

Thanks! I had been wondering about this for a few weeks now.

Now if only my school would award me financial aid already so I can order myself one of these beautiful laptops...

 

No. I will buy that or the 485M separately if I decide to upgrade.

 

Does having the 3D 120Hz screen with "special" connection to the nVidia card concern your ability to upgrade the graphics card to AMD or otherwise?

 

Does Mandrake (or anyone else) think it'd be worth it to upgrade from 460M to something higher for users like myself who don't do much besides SC2 on ultra?

USShell made an excellent suggestion in asking Dell to send out someone to upgrade it for us (by paying extra afterwards).

 

Unless you are a benchmark Junkie why fix what is not broken?

 

GTX460 get 32-33 frame on ultra (Reach 37 when you OC GTX460m)
GTX485m get 52 frame on ultra but it will cost about 500-600$ more to upgrade over GTX460

If i were you i'd keep 460 then upgrade by the end of the year when nvidia releases their new 28nm/new architecture cards which will be much faster or you can get GTX485m for cheap by then since they will be obsolete market wise since 28nm cards consume much less heat/power too

 

I am guessing that upgrading now to the 6970 or gtx 485 will be a big upgrade and the one thing i hear on this board a-lot is INVESTMENT & FUTURE PROOFING...well having a video card that has more power processing power will make it a wise INVESTMENT and will FUTURE PROOF your laptop and extend the MAX RES gaming life of the laptop by 1 yr and at High/medium to 1.5 years. If the upgrade cost $150-$200 than i would say it is worth it but if the upgrade is $350-$400 then you might have better options upgrading down the road once prices fall. Either way you have the option to upgrade now or upgrade later and extend the life. Decide how much $$$ you have to play with and give up silly accessories like MICE, COOLERS, 16gb RAM, and Back packs to get the GPU upgrade now then regret down the road when you have to bump your games like Crysis or Metro 2033 to medium instead of HIGH.

I am sure there are other arguments like CUDA, Cost, Hassle and Fanboism that come into play and you will have to make your own decision in the long run but when you buy ALIENWARE you buy BLEEDING EDGE....well GTX 485 and 6970 is BLEEDING EDGE.


EDIT: Forget about Resale value but that is another can of worms i do not get into right now =p

 

No, I have a ATI 5870. When I have time I can test it.

GPU power will be the least of your concern when gaming. Drivers and the quality of the game will affect your performance more. You can get the most expensive/powerful mobile GPU you want but there is still no guaranty it will work properly when gaming.

 

Does anyone know if you can replace the 460 with a 485 without buying from dell? Is there somewhere i can order this card when it becomes available?

 

Yes, there are a few vendors in this forum like RJtech, GentechPC, BabyHemi....etc. No guaranty it will work until someone tries it or Dell officially supports the card.

 

OCZ just posted this in their support forums...

Now that I finally got mine working.

Just need to figure out if I need to go back to the Windows 7 SATA controller driver or not. Haven't found that info yet.

 

looking forward to what you can do with the R3

 

I think I've played with it enough to know it's a keeper. Now I need to setup the M15x to sell.

 

Hi Mandrake, you say you've played with it enough for it to be a keeper. Is the 3D one of the reasons? As you know the 6970M is hours or at worst days away since it is available on the UK site but it is not offered with 3D. If you had a choice what would be yours:

1. 6970M no 3D
2. 460GTX with 3D

 

or 3. 485GTX with 3D

 

There is no indication that it's coming. Not even close...

 

I would first try and see if my existing ATI card works in it. If it did then I would get the 460 knowing I can jump to the ATI if I wanted to at a later time and still have 3D.

485 would be nice....for benchmarking. I don't think it will help me play Star Wars Force Unleashed II which still has issues.

 

so we will be seeing some insight into CPU overclocking soon?

 

Yes, probably tomorrow. I need to go to work soon.

 

looking forward to it.

BTW. just had a closer look at the full res photo you have of the back of the R3 and it seems like the cooling fins are definitely aluminium where as the m15x ones look like copper. hopefully it doesn't effect the temps too much. alienware is all about the CPU overclocking for me.

 

The fin material makes very little difference for cooling

Notice in the R1/R2 that the GPU fins are aluminum while the CPU fins are copper.

Showing better proof, in the desktop world, there is a great tower cooler. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. It is normally copper base and heatpipes with aluminum fins. They made a "special" ALL copper edition (weighed a TON) and tests showed that it only performed like 2c better (meaning pretty much nothing when talking about 80c temps or so - within margin of error)

 

just get a chest freezer then you don't have to worry about temps at all. lolz

 

Or just live in Alaska.

 

But do not leave the fan you put IN the chest freezer on accidentally when you are done benching.....then you just get a huge nasty stew of thawed food and their juices since you overheated the compressor and it turned off

(speaking from personal experience)

 

wow that nice didn't know i could use my aw to defrost food. thats another plus for me.

 

So I guess the potential of it being a food processor are looking more promising huh?

 

Yep, this is the only thing that matters.

Hopefully it is possible to raise BCLK a lot. And set a higher TDP limit.

 

Mandrake will answer that question over the weekend.

 

If it's like the desktop models you wont be able to raise the BCLK too much

 

Yeah, probably only the 105-107 range. Almost pointless.

But at least I hope one can make the Turbo Boost frequency stable by raising the TDP. That would be nice enough for me.

 

what issue are you having...there are some known control issues, you HAVE to unplug external keyboard to play, if that is your issue.

 

I do have an external keyboard attached but I play with a xbox controller. The main issue is the game will freeze occasionally (with sound going into a loop). Sometimes it's bad enough to crash out the game. I haven't played it on the M17x long enough to see that but I did see the momentary hang ups.

 

Mandrake did you solve your sad woes? If so, how? Installing with bios settings for achi maybe?

 

I am using AHCI.....I responded to your PM with additional info.

 

Interesting tidbit about the memory. I'm using the model KHX1600C9S3K2/4GX and as you can see if you use profile 1 you get 1333@CAS7. In the bios of the M17x you can explicitly set the memory bus at 1600 and use profile 1 for CAS 7. It doesn't switch you back to 1333.

 

Interesting tidbit #2. Model KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX (2x4GB) that Newegg sells isn't on the Kingston HyperX website. Under ground memory...lol

 

Maybe an overseas batch. A lot of the stuff i see in China are not found in the states and vice versa.

 

Mandrake, thanks for getting back to me with your solution, where did you get working NVIDIA drivers if not from dell? I downloaded from NVIDIA and they won't install.

 

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