M17xR3 First Impressions and Review-DaneGRClose

9.6lb eh? Imma go weigh a case of soda real quick. brb with an edit to this post

EDIT: LOLz. A 12pack case of root beer weights 10lbs exactly. I guess that WOULD be pretty heavy. Meh, time to work out more.

 

lol...okay but you need to remember your scale is not my scale. I'm 4lbs heavier at my sister's house

 

LOLZ. Well, my scale's pretty accurate, cuz it says I'm 132lb, which is accurate.

Either way, it's just a rough estimate anyways. Approx 10 is what I guess we should expect.

 

10 pounds is a good estimate, keep in mind that's without the power adaptor, mouse, etc you may pack with you in a bag. I'd imagine my bag probably weighs in at about 15 pounds with the stuff I pack. If you want heavy try an R2 + gear, basically like packing around a 2 year old lol. I don't think it's heavy but I'm also not a small guy, ringin in at about 220 now a days

 

So 15 lbs eh, on my 5'4" ~135lb frame. Dang, gotta hit the p90x haha.

I'm thinking that I should be fine though, considering the G73 I picked up at BB wasn't too bad (even though it didn't have a battery inside).

 

I have found that with a good backpack the weight of these large laptops is very manageable. I am about 200 and 5'8" and I can man handle my M17x pretty well. Sometimes my backpack when loaded up is a little heavy to hoist but once on my back, it is easy to move around with.

 

Very good point, a backpack distributes the weight quite a bit better, I use a briefcase style bag most of the time for business so it's kind of a pain lol.

 

Just came back from Walmart, and while I was there I was trying on some of their "17inch" laptop backpacks. Their dimensions were 19"H x 12-14"W for all the ones I tried. Not bad actually. Here I thought I was gonna look like a geek or a freshman lolz.

Anywho, any updates for us Dane? Anything to keep us drooling?

 

I got the Orion backpack from newegg for ~$75. It seems to be very well built and a very good quality. Only weighs 2lbs.

 

In the newegg pix, it's 2 compartments. Elsewhere, it's 3 compartments. So the one you bought from newegg, which is it actually?

TYIA!

 

LOL, don't know why you'd be drooling, it's a nice rig but it has it's ups and downs. I've got a few things I'm working on but there a little more in depth than just an update on a game or something simple. As always if there are any requests just ask

 

Mine has 3 larger compartments (biggest, medium, smaller) and then some extra pockets around the outside.

 

I dont know if you'd know this, but how does the 6870 match up against the 460M when both are OC'd? Also, how does an OC'd 460M match up against the 6970? You can put it like this if you like: "A>B>C" or something simple like that. Don't need crazy facts and/or figures.

The reason I ask you this, is cuz you probably have the most experience with the 460m in the r3 thus far.

TYIA!

So is the picture on newegg wrong? Or is there another link for the 3compartment one?

 

Lets keep on track of the Danegrclose's lappy so the thread keeps going. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/496087-need-bag-my-new-alienware-m17x-r2.html or
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/470469-alienware-orion-backpack.html

I'm living vicariously through Dangrclose with the R3.(-:

 

Honestly there's not enough info yet to answer that very well, I have yet to see anyone be able to OC the 6870 due to lack of support on the new card with OCing utilities. I can tell you the 2 are very close at stock levels with each edging each other out in various situations. Now on the 460m vs stock 6970 I don't know if the 460m can match 6970 levels without MAJOR overclocking that would including flashing the vbios to higher voltages to achieve those clocks, and even then I don't know if it's possible. The 6970 is a wicked card, in some situations in beats the Xfire 5870's in the R2 so you do the math If I had to do the A<B<C I would say it would be 6870~460m<6970.

LOL, you guys are funny, one person is drooling while another is living vicariously through me without me knowing it I don't know why you'd be living vicariously through me with that R2 in your sig Getfound, you've got a beast of a machine there.

 

LOL, you guys are funny, one person is drooling while another is living vicariously through me without me knowing it I don't know why you'd be living vicariously through me with that R2 in your sig Getfound, you've got a beast of a machine there.[/QUOTE]



I'm a latest and greatest kind of freak. Ive got like $300 ingaming mice at home since everytime I see a new one I have to have it. It's kind of the same with laptops too. I have to wait another year to upgrade again, so I have to live thru you.

 

dane, i noticed in some of your post, you said you noticed some cpu throttling. is this true or did i misread it.

hahah getfound, i think i'm the same, maybe even worst, hehehe
i even have a custom painted r2 case here and i don't even have an r2, hehehe.

 

DaneGRClose,

Did your system come with a recovery disc that included the OS? I am curious because I ordered mine with a 750GB HDD and I am planning to add a 256GB Samsung 470 SSD and I would obviously want to install the operating files onto the SSD to get the quickness and have the HDD for the space for other files.

Thanks

 

Yeah there's been a few things happen that leads me to believe there might be an issue there. I was running CPU stress testing(Prime95, In Place Large FFT's) with good results including temps never breaking the 80's and about 30 minutes in the CPU slammed on the brakes to idle clocks of 800mhz and wouldn't budge. I had one other person tell me they saw something similar so I'm trying to find more info on it now.

Yes it came with one but it's not what I call an OS disk, it's one with the AW styled OS on it not a clean copy of Win 7 retail. I ordered mine with a single 320gb and have dual 256gb SSD's in it so I had to reinstall, I chose to do a clean install of slightly stripped windows myself from a usb drive though.

 

The only dumb question is the one you don't ask, right?

Could you send me the information on how to do that for myself? (whenever you get time)

 

Dane, not sure if it might be it but I was in game and noticed an instant drop in performance. After a minute of searching I found my power jack had slipped ever so slightly which turned back the performance considerably.

 

wow that really sucks, have you heard it happening with other cpu/gpu combos. also did tstop help with it?

 

At DCs request, I tried to replicate the glitch he noted and could not on two different R3's. No doubt he has had an issue but until he has more data, no sense sending up a red flag as yet.

 

thanks dr.j
but have you guys tried the furmark/prime combo, stressing both components at the same time to see if anything gaves.

 

I've never had a high performance laptop before. What's the reason why they "throttle," and is there a way to shut that off permanently?

 

They either - draw too much power, so they can't run at 100%, so they "throttle" down in order to compensate for the lack of power. Or they get too hot and they "throttle" down to lower temperatures to a point where they are not detrimental to the CPU/GPU. But I from the looks of it, it shouldn't be doing this. A 240W PSU should be more than enough for a cpu + single gpu....

 

DaneGRClose - did you M17x R3 come with the HDMI in that is touted in this review or is it a newer feature?

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

 

Thank you for taking the time to post a report. Good solid numbers, I think the best improvement though is the temps of the GPU @ 60 C!!! Nice. I have the OLD Area 51 M17x and my 3D Mark Scores are in the 12000 too. I really want a new system but I guess I have to wait for AW to unleash some kind of unholly beast before I do. Again nice job, thank you.

 

They all have HDMI-in. The only thing that most of us is unsure of is how good it is (the screen as a monitor/tv). There's no def answer.

Speaking of which, Dane, can you bust out your video camera/camcorder and film your monitor while it's got something plugged into the HDMI-input? Props if you could plug in a PS3

Thx!

 

Dookie- The reasons computers throttle are typically because of the reasons miahsoul mentioned, I think with some of the info I've found this may actually be something directly related to the SandyBridge cpu's themselves though as I've had a few people direct me to places that show similar throttling on desktops as well. This shouldn't be a power related issue as a 240w adaptor is plenty for the hardware I have installed right now.

Sk3tch- Yes all of the R3's have HDMI-In but I don't personally use it at all. The only devices I have in the house with HDMI are: other laptops, dvd player, bluray player and for some reason it doesn't even pick them up as being there when I tried to switch to them

So sorry Dookie but I can't film it as I don't have a console at all and none of my other HDMI devices will even pick up.

usmc1488- you bet, it's a good solid computer but if you're after all dominating power like the R2 was/is then this isn't the computer for ya. If you want an all around compromise of features, portability, and power then it is.

 

Here's a video of someone using the HDMI-IN with their Xbox 360:

YouTube - Alienware M17x R3 - HOW TO WORK 3D? & ETC.

Around 3:00

 

With the Sandy Bridge CPUs being so new, it's possible the throttling is just a driver issue, putting the breaks on too early due to heat, or goofing up the turbo (like downclocking the wrong cores). This sort of thing could be fixed via a software tweak once they figure out why it's doing it.

 

Why do you want video of hdmi in? it looks exactly like it does on a decent LCD TV, except with worse color gamut (at least on mine - it's blue shifted and I've already posted pics).

 

I don't get it--why don't they pick up/work?

Wanted to see if it's great or not. I haven't seen your pix yet

Thank you will watch it now.

 

semi-decent 5 year old LCD TV


HDMI in @r3

 

Wow that's really disappointing. No ability to tweak the colors/etc.? Just as-is? Have you tried any other devices and have you had the same result? What is connected above?

 

Oh yeah, I remember now.

Unfortunately, there's never been any mention of it functioning like a tv, where you can mess with settings

Kunekaden, please advise.

 

Well, even the most basic computer monitors have that functionality. So it would not be out of the question.

 

I would imagine that you can adjust color, but then you have to change it back when done. Only functionality is via windows color adjustment app
What's connected? PS3 / Final Fantasy 13

 

Finally got the HDMI in to work with my BR player. I tweaked the settings in the Nvidia Control Panel just slightly but I have to say it looks awesome, almost as good as my Vizio RGB panel does. Watched a few scenes from Angels & Demons and Avatar(non-BR) on it and it looks awesome with a little color/contrast tweaking.

 

Can you post photos + instructions on messing with the settings (is there buttons on the monitor, do you do it through windows control panel (windows color adjustment app), do you do it through nvidia config, or do you do it through something else, etc.)? Also, is the refresh rate on the monitor the same as it would be on a tv? (i.e. my 60hz would be like a 60hz tv at my bestbuy)?

TYIA

 

I can a little later, the adjustments I did are through the Nvidia Control Panel itself, I don't know if the settings are there in all drivers or not as I'm running modded 266.66 drivers/Control Panel. The settings are about the same but for some reason the bluray discs duplicate the image so I still need to mess with it a bit, it almost looks like it's trying to do 3D but it's a ghosted image that's further spaced than what 3D does.

 

oh yeah, nvidia CP.
Didn't think about that haha

 

Thanks guyz. Looking forward to it!

 

Hey somebody knows if the Gtx 560m is more powerful than 6970m? Because the new G74SX comes with it.

 

Not really the place to ask this Sub6, you'd want to ask that question here:
Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)
As far as the info I found it's a guess this point, neither the GTX 560m or the G74SX actually exist yet, there a showcase at CeBit but until someone gets the card in their hands you can't really tell, I would ignore what Nvidia releases as a lot of their top end products get hyped up a lot more than what they actually perform in real life.

 

Can you tell me if WirelessHD is available in all configurations or is it dependant on choosing a particular wireless/video card combo.

 

You can use the Intel wifi display with the switchable graphics models and the intel wifi card, the actual WiDi option they touted at CES is one that no one knows about yet as it hasn't been released.

 

def. looking forward to video drain (xvid vs. drive, on battery) tests if/when opportunity may present itself on this 120Hz/3D rig - all great stuff here dane, thanks!

 

Intel's widi also requires the 2720 or 2820. The 2630 does not support widi.