My M17X R4 Custom build arrives tomorrow(or soon!) Some questions too.

Hey there the names Franbunny, and In just 24hours I should be receiving my Alienware M17X R4 from XoticPC. Its a "custom" build with artwork and hand upgrades that I'll be doing myself
I dubbed it a "Super M17X R4" because it has advanced upgrades that you can't get stock from Alienware.com
Its basically a stock HD7970M 1080P M17X R4 Nebula Red with an SSD from XoticPC installed, and my personal graphics artwork applied to the lid(Art by me, Vinyl application done by XoticPC)

Heres my concept art to real world imgur thread with photos from XoticPC: Super M17X - Imgur

The "super" upgrade that I'm doing
Base build
i7 3630QM
HD7970M
750GB HDD
1080P 60HZ Screen

XoticPC upgrade
64GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD for OS
Custom artwork Vinyl(120$ had to do a 2nd print)

My Parts list
12 GB DDR3 Dual Channel Kingston HyperX RAM
(Kingston HyperX 2x4gb 1866mhz Memory Modules
Kingston HyperX 2x2gb 1866mhz Memory Modules, 6GB per channel.)
Kingston SSDnow! V+200 60GB SSD
Intel Centrino 6250 Multiband WifiCard+WiDi compatable+WiMAX technology
Artic MX-2 Thermal Compound

"Soft Mods"
Login Tweaks wallpaper
Windows Manabí OS-Tan Windows 7 theme modified with my own changes
Intel SRT Technology(to be used with the 60GB SSD)
Windows OS Symbolic Links creation for SSD theory operation(see below)
Downsampling custom monitor resolution: 2160 x 1215(+15)(2.62 megapixels)<--starting with this will probably move up to 2208 x 1242(+18)(2.74megapixels) to emulate eyefinity workload.

Hardware Mods
ArticMX-2 applied.
Minor TDP increased "overclock" on the CPU(locked CPU but Turbo boost TDP can be changed.
HD 7970M "superclock" (just a small but effective overclock)


So before anyone asks about my storage solution set up here "Why 2 SSDs?"

One is for OS, the mSATA, its specifically for OS, Drivers, Communicators, and browsers. If something of that sort doesn't fall under that category I simply do not want it to be on that mSATA SSD, I want to keep it clean and as quick booting as possible
This SSD will be separate to operation of user applications and games.
However the 750GB SSD will be paired in raid operation with the 60GB SSD which will cash and pin programs from the 750GB HDD to give me maximum storage and performance ratio.
It's going to be a pain to set up all the symbolic links and moving around system files to keep files off the SSD but keeping everything operating to perfection is an absolute must for me.

I'm stoked to see this M17X R4 finally arrive, because It will handle every game I play without issues and will later on be able to support a 720P eyefinity set up which I plan on saving up money for.

I'll be doing an unboxing and overview video, along with an upgrading video as well.

But I have some questions about overclocking the GPU, I know the CPU is limited and i have to rely on the turbo boost increase to allow any form of "overclocking" but im not too worried about the CPU but more or less worried about the HD 7970M.
I've never used AMD graphics before, but since GCN 7000 series is better for high resolutions and multi screen performance, as well as my workstation projects and programs I desided to hang up my green and black for a red tshirt and wanted to get something that would fit my value and resources..

I'm curious on the difficulty of overclocking and tweaking the GPU to achieve and acceptable overclock to support the higher resolutions for downsampling, eyefinity and games in general.
Its an R4 so is there any advice for overclocking the HD7970M?
I don't want to push it hard, I just want to see a good 3dMark11 score pop up, and have acceptable frame rates at high to max@1080P.

And great frame rates on downsampled games from earlier years.

This will be my 4th Alienware, and my 3rd Alienware laptop, and I'm stoked to see it come to life.
I hope you guys enjoy my presentation, because I'm absolutely stoked.
I'll be posting more later! :thumbsup:

Photos from my crap cameras

 

Well specs aside, I like your DSLR

 

Well I think this is a fun Idea but not my style so good Luck and hope everything works.

 

Hi there, congrats on your custom build, looks very cool!

I'm a bit confused with your disk config. I only see one 750gb drive and that is a HD not an SSD. To use the 60gb SSD as a cache AND a stand-alone drive for the OS you will need to split it in IRST so your boot drive will be smaller and so will the cache. I think the best option is to just set the 60gb to cache the 750HD. The performance will be very close to a separately installed OS on the SSD and you don't have ANY symbolic links or location of OS files to be done. In fact you won't have to do any OS work, just turn it on and go.

Just keeping it simple since the gains for all your work (IMO) are quite small. If you feel you want to chase that extra couple of seconds at boot later you can add another SSD and re-install to that. You'll then have a super fast storage drive as you want along with a 'clean' OS on SSD.

Enjoy your new purchase (I can feel the anticipation!)

 

Whoa! You sure did take your time to think it out.
Personally, I was also planning to add an SSD to improve the performance of my M17x R4. Just waiting for the cash to flow in.

Congrats on your Alien-Machine,

 

I think you missed that there's 2 SSDs.
One mSATA 64GB(not in raid configuration)
and one 2.5inch 60GB(in raid configuration with the 750GB to provide caching)
Here's the drive theory


It makes all the drives run at "theoretical" SSD speeds, with the high capacity drive being cached for my most used programs, my OS being separate of storage and cache.
Only non frequently used applications and games will take time to load as they wont be on an SSD source.

 

I did - doh

Cool setup :thumbsup:

Edit: You may prefer to use the msata drive as the cache and install the OS to the other one. Only because the msata port is only sataII...

 

I opted to go with the msata as the OS because boot wise it will only be like 1~3 seconds and the msata drive was 4gigs larger.

 

Fair enough you know all about it , my testing between sata modes on an SSD did only produce that couple of seconds at boot.

I'd be interested to hear how it goes

Edit: If you wanted to get real tricky with it you could allocate only half the caching drive and add the remaining to the other one in RAID.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032826.htm

 

Lol no thanks. setting up this OS file system will already be a significant pain in the .
I have to set up symbolic links and change default file paths on multiple locations which I've never done before, and try to get my current method of using a PC to work with the msata boot drive.

I just need to make sure as user level and yet autonomous as possible.
Most of my computers are run on a heavily user required set up, leaving many options manual that people usually have automatic, but I don't want to have to mess with file folders everytime I want to save something, that I want to be autonomous.
I've already got a lot as it is, and I just would like to get the project completed so I can get to gaming and video editing with the efficiency and affect I have planed out for a very long time now.

 

LOL! I understand what you want to achieve and that is quite a bit of work alone. I just change defaults ad-hoc to put all my games and anything else I want on the HD

It's gonna be gooood

 

Good indeed, this girl knows what she wants out of a computer like that Not many people are such heavy powerusers and into doing customization to the extent that I'll be doing with this system. I'll be putting Alienware through their steps for the 2nd time, haha.

I'm just hoping I can overclock the GPU without much hiccup, because I've got a need for some serious mobile graphics compute power.
Any advice on OCing the HD7970M would be great, because I've got a 2160 x 1215(+15) downsample resolution to run games in.

Tracking: Seattle, WA, United States 06/04/2013 3:32 A.M. Out For Delivery
DAMNIT get here already :/

 

Bump! I added photos

 

Here you go AMD 7970m - modified VBIOS backup original VBIOS.

 

I have to say your Laptop look great now. But i have a question about warranty, how will Dell approach it if something brakes ? Will they honor it or will they say that you broke it. In Poland I know tons of company's that would use such a modification to say that warranty don't apply anymore.

 

Alienware covers first party parts and services for the life of the warranty of the system. 3rd party and intetional damage are not covered, nor is accidental damage that is clearly obvious. IE a noticably cracked screen from abuse or being misshandled.


LOL I've not even overclocked it yet.P6600 XD
I can't wait to see me push it to P7000

 

How would I go about doing that?