*NEW* M17xR3 Available for order... details and discussion here

Everyone beat me too it

Check the pic, if you can find a slot for a 2nd GPU, I'll ship my fully loaded M17x R2 straight to you free of charge

http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...able-order-details-discussion-here-m17xr3.jpg

 

I don't understand the debate on this. The manual confirms that there is no SLI or Crossfire possibility even a guy from Dell confirmed it on the forum earlier yesterday.

This is crazy that some people still believe it is possible even after Dell confirmed it and the manual clearly shows it is not possible.

 

This will be my first Alienware purchase. So, how long do you (Alienware owners) think the option for the 6970m and 120hz screen without 3D be available for the US? Will I be waiting for a week or a month or months?

 

My EDD just got pushed back a day to 2/8/2011 :cry:

Did this happen to anyone else?

 

Just so we're clear on the SLI/Crossfire possibilities of the R3, Here is Dells response to the question earlier.

 

"This will be my first Alienware purchase. So, how long do you (Alienware owners) think the option for the 6970m and 120hz screen without 3D be available for the US? Will I be waiting for a week or a month or months? "




Total crapshoot. Don't put off your life waiting.

 

How to get Crossfire for the M17x R3:

Step 1: Buy a PowerColor HD5770 Evolution
Step 2: Follow the instructions on how to build a DIY ViDock
Step 3: Connect the PowerColor HD5770 Evolution to the M17x R3 HDMI-In port
Step 4: Say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and hope the Lucid Hydra chip actually lets the cards work in Crossfire.


Disclaimer: I don't give this much chance of actually working, and even if by some miracle it does I doubt it will work well because of bandwidth limitations. Try this at your own risk, and if you can't get it to work don't come looking to me for answers....or compensation for the money you spent making the attempt. On the other hand if it does work right out of the box, I claim full Intellectual Property on the idea.

 

Just to be clear, GabeZ (yes, he's a helpful guy!) is not from Dell or a Dell rep. He has access to Dell's Certified Svc. Tech. documentation via his work/office/whatever. It is along the same lines as the information which appears on the support site.

As for the modding/workaround solution Phinagle posted, well thats for another thread .

Again, that link to the online documentation provided by support.dell.com is:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR3/

 

Didnt think Gabe was a Dell man.....not that it matters, as he seems to be a very nice helpful chappie...

 

I hope I can say this without getting into trouble or geting deleted.....I have nothing against the R3, its a great machine, some fantastic attributes including SB and other features.

But, the bottom line is, if anyone is looking at the R3 thinking of a possible dual card solution....the answer is NO.

What I posted earlier was by no means derogatory of the R3, it was a simple statement that if you think that this system, in any way shape or form, will now, or in the future, be able to offer you sli/crossfire performance, then you better look elsewhere. Its only fair that people who post here looking for advice are informed of what their proposed purchase will and wont do.

I agree that its already been done to death but I was not "dissing" the system....merely, making a factual statement.

Hope I dont get into bother now 'cos this is a great forum and its also a great knowledge base.....knowledge of something before you buy is a powerful thing....isnt it?.

 

IF it's the slightest bit smaller then the r2, and about or a smudge bigger then the current m15x, then I'm SOLD. I also hope the power adapter isn't incredibly big or over sized but i don't imagine it is, then I'll be SUPER glad, lol.

 

Someone posted the service manual for the m17xR3 here somewhere and the GPU is mounted in the centre back of the unit. So definitely no SLI or Xfire options. Dell are probably sick of warranty replacements from all of their SLI/xFire machines lol
At least i got an awesome R2 as a replacement

 

I think you are "quids in " fella.....certainly lighter than an R2, bigger than an M15x as its a 17" lappy.... obviously, has SB, likely the PSU is not the size of a house as it aint required.....given it doesnt have to power two gpu's....

All in all, I would say , for you , you are on to a winner. The ONLY thing that I would hold out on IF i were buying is more gpu options....if the 485m is gonna be available, that would be much better than the 460m obviously (IMHO).....and certainly the 460m is better than the 6870 in terms of performance. I would , for gpu, go with the the order of (best to worst) 485m/6970 then 460m then 6870 - as and when they become available.

 

Let's hold off on that until there are some benchmarks available for the 6870, I have a feeling you just might be surprised.

 

I think the 460m -vs- 6870 battle is going to come down to which card has a better overall overclock capability, I think there stacked close enough that after Dell reworks the cards they'll go the blows with each other. I do think one or the other will show a better overclock capability which will be the winner.

 

Does everyone know what is the 3D Bundle include from the 17.3" Truelife Full HD (1920x1080) 3D LCD Panel ?

 

I'm ASSuming the panel and a pair of the glasses form Nvidia's site as well as any preinstalled separate software not a part of the standard driver package.

 

Okay this isn't really too important of a detail... but from the looks of it the alien head on the lid of the r3 looks like a solid piece... will the eyes even light up on it? I mean I hope they do cause if they dont... well I'll be sad loll.

 

I've been wanting to buy one for a while and the price of the R3 really pulled me in. I only added the NVIDIA 460m otherwise it's the standard configuration which will be plenty good for me.

However, i've heard that these things don't run right out of the box and need some work before you can have your fun.

So what are some things i need to do when i finally get my laptop? (which isnt supposed to arrive for almost a month)

 

No more rumors folks... going to post, back it up.

Questions, pm me.

Thanks.

 

If you over clock the 6870m to 700mhz same as 5870m, will two have the exact same performance?
also, I think 6870m has better DX11 support than 5870m, which I think makes it better than gtx 460m, and the notebookcheck.net also listed 6870m above gtx460m.
AMD claimed that the 6870m has the 2nd generation of DX11 support:
AMD Radeon? HD 6800M Series Graphics

Also, can anyone confirm the case for m17x r3 is metal or pure plastic or plastic + metal? If it is pure plastic, it is definitely a deal breaker for me, I would rather get rubberized G73 with a cheaper price.
Thanks!

I really doubt gtx460m is better than 6870m, it is $50 more expensive probably because it support those fancy things like Physic X and CUDA etc. if you look at the m15x page gtx460 is $150 more expensive than ati 5850, and I heard they are about on par except heavy tessellation jobs. Even the gtx 285 sli is more expensive than 5870 cf for m17x r2 but we all know that 5870cf is better, right?

 

you are lucky the gtx460m is only $50 more expensive, here in Malaysia, it's RM 688 around USD $ 220.

 

Rubberized lid and magnesium chasis. Definitely built better than a G73.

 

Welcome to the forums! None of my Alienware laptops have come with much bloatware. There are really two schools of thought on your subject. One being to immediately reformat and don't look back. Two being to just make sure the video card driver is up to date and don't fix it if it ain't broken. You should of course make sure that Windows is set for Max Performance, and that your Nvidia control panel is as well. I hope you're happy with your machine, and congratulations!

 

The R2 didn't really work right out of the box, the R3 may or may not have any issues. A huge problem with the R2 was the crossfire, which won't be an issue on the R3.

We really won't know until they start being delivered, but I assume it will go much smoother than the R2 at launch.

 

If i were you guys i'd hold out on the buying right now... the 460m is already available in the m15x... and its performance... is disappointing to say the least.

I'd wait for better card options, as you're already limited by one gpu... mind as well wait for the Beefiest one to become available... cuz the 460 is pretty weak... and the 6870... well...still not so great.

There's much better single card solutions out right now, and WHY dell hasn't released the R3 already with them available doesn't make any sense to me... to keep pricing afordable? maybe... but thats dumb... after-all isn't alienware an ENTHUSIAST laptop? I dont remember when enthusiast-level performance meant cheap.

Anyone else think Alienware is hurting their rep with the r3? Geeze has the g73 stolen THAT many costumers away form them?

Anyways my point being... i'd wait a couple months to see what happens... 2 things to keep an eye out for, that might be worth waiting for for anyone who wants to jump on a hot new r3 right off the assembly line....

1. the 6970 or 470 or 485 (basically ANYTHING better than what weak options they have now)

2. An extreme CPU! C'mon! WHERE'S THE i7 2920xm!!!!

Just throwing it out there. After all, they do say good things come to those who wait.

 

Count me in! I'm definitely in for a group buy! Especially at that good price. I'm waiting for the 6970 if it gonna ever available.

BTW, I'm in Melbourne, AU. Who else in AU wants R3 but don't want spend $4000?

 

Hey Joker does this appear in the documentation anywhere? And when you say rubberized lid magnesium chassis are we talking all magnesium or magnesium internals with plastic rubberized external?

 

6970M is solid for March availability.

 

How do you know?

Gosh, I can't seem to wait that long. We only have one desktop and a crap laptop that can barley run a Facebook flash game. Im joining my guild in a game soon. I was hoping the 6970m and the 120hz would come out before the end of the month.

 

Your alternative is getting an M17x-R2 with xfire 5870 which will still be faster than any card the R3 gets or buy a Sager 8170 that has the 485M. If I were in the market for a single GPU system and wanted performance at a reasonable price, I'd go for the Sager 8170.

 

Or, a Sager NP8150 with a GTX 485. It probably won't run you as much as the Alienware M17x with same specs (assuming that HD6970 will be slightly weaker or on par).

 

Imo both the 460M and 6870M feel like a temporary filler. It's fine on a 15 incher - a bit like the slow 8700M for M1730.

 

Depends on your resolution, I'd say. I mean if you go with the cheaper screen and lower resolution I'd imagine the 460 or 6870 should be more then sufficient, I mean any other 15 inch laptop would have that resolution as well. And keep mind that the dimensions of this laptop are actually much more comparable with the M15x as compared to the r2, and this already being DIRECTLY compared to the Asus 73 or whatever that stealth laptop is, and that's a 17incher.

 

Hey brother, I'm with you. I'm thinking to buy from HIDevolution

 

man, im ready to order it and its not up on the canadian website. i was up until 6AM on the launch night.

and what the hell is their problem they said it would be available in 32 gb of ram and its not even there for US or UK

 

Not sure if any has noticed but when you go the alienware's page and select the m17x R3 then go to the tech specs below the price then finally click back to tech specs it shows the gtx485 as a video card option. I wish they would hurry up and list this as a option or at least say if it will be in the future. I plan on pulling the trigger on a new R3 soon and would rather have the 485 in it. Either way it will be a big upgrade from my sager 5791.

Alienware M17x Laptop Product Details | Dell

 

o dang you are right..
they even have the screen option "17.3" 120Hz WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD" without the 3D bundle..

 

"2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M"
Now that's something. Gonna be waaaayyy overpriced though.

 

I hope that the 6970M released by March. More specifically, March 10th. Because that's the day I'm likely ordering. (Provided a certain set of results come out well...)

I also hope that it'll support 3D.

Does anyone know if Dell would be able to sell the 120Hz outside of the 3D bundle? Because if it turns out the 6970M is out but not configurable with 3D, I'd still want to buy the 120Hz screen and get the ATi 3D kit when it's available.

 

if you'd read the 2 post before you you'd know about the 120hz option w/o the kit and the 485gtx.

 

Wow guys i must tell you, i am so dissapointed in DELL i dont even got words to explain it. i sold my old laptop at very bad time i guess. why on god's earth would they put 2 not-so-much performing cards as options!? i just want to look an alienware manager n ask em "why man, why" but actually i'm losing heck of a lot... Sager 8170 is very nice looking in terms of well just having it as a station, but for mobility it looks too bulky. same problem with r2, its very massive and really heavy. I mean i am only buying the r3 because i got no better option, how do you buy something you're dissappointed before you even buy it ? iono... am just praying it will be possible to change GPU after, manually.

 

I'm a bit confused when they released this they said it would go for 1500 dollars while it goes for a minimum price of 1999€ here in Belgium. Which at the current rate is 2,632.89 USD !!!, for the minium configuration. This is way beyond the normal unfair 1 dollar = 1 € price proportion in the computer market.

And ofcourse, still no azerty keyboard option (yes alienware..., part of belgium speaks dutch but we do not use the dutch qwerty keyboard lay out lolz).

Still, if you get a full hd screen (not the one with 3d) and a normal hard drive, the price is about similar to the m17x r-2 here (if configured with 1 gpu ofc).

 

For azerty keyboard in Belgium just call Dell to order an M17x R3, you will be able to get an azerty keyboard for it and a french windows

 

btw, who can help me out on this one:
i am ordering a 4gb memory version, so if i buy additional
8GB 2 X 4GB DDR3 SODIMM 204PIN 1333MHz PC3-10666 LAPTOP
will it work inside? or i need somethin else specific?

 

so you are all saying that the 5870 is still better than 6870?

 

Will work.

 

Well, That's what we're thinking. Because, the 6870 desktop wasn't as good as the 5870 desktop. This was mostly due to the fact that the 6870 was actually meant to replace the 5770. The new 6970 was meant to replace the new 5870. So that should be the same on laptops because they also went ahead and changed up the name.

 

If there is an azerty keyboard, it won't have to come with french windows right? I need an OS with English or Dutch language settings. (normally i'd just download a language pack but I don't wanna get stuck with a french Alienware control panel (or however the alienware software is called that lets you tune up your system).

Also, sry for bringing another brand to this thread but since the price of this R3 is soo high a comparison is inevitable. I could get a clevo x7200 with 2 gpu's (nvidia's 460) and a desktop gpu for the same price.

Do you guys have any idea if it will be worth the bulkier package? Since SB is supposed to be quite an improvement, will the difference between a desktop and laptop cpu still matter for gaming purposes?

I'm also unfamiliar with alienware driver support, (for example, will xfire/sli run better in an AW compared to a clevo/sager/kobalt with the exact same gpu set up? or do both just use basic drivers directly from nvidia or ati).

 

Now there's a card. If they can just add a RGBLED option, then I'm sold.