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

Yeah but there's also images with the bottom plate on.

Dane's pictures are nicer though.

 

Not my pics, someone else posted it first but thanks I know the whole "She-who-me-must-obey" thing well, I nearly dropped something messy in my pants cause it was her that ordered it for me lol With no notice and no stipulations, something is in the wind though I can feel it lol.

 

I just saw the pictures of the bottom opened.. I think that they made the upgrade easyer than R-2, Video Card/memory/HDD/CPU are all accessible by just removing the bottom cover.. as far as the image can tell.. would be nice to know if it is really this way. Also, i like the heatsink over the gpu, looks massive (laptop wise of course) and since both heatsink (cpu/gpu) are facing the bottom, the keyboard will most probably stay cooler than R-2 (which is not hot, but yes it can be warm after playing for a while). Now this make me think that if they put some vent under there, cooling will be much more effective (imagine for example a notepal U3 blowing air almost directly over the heat sinks

 

I think it's important to note that in your config, much of the additions made are to colouring, approx $170 worth. While this is included with AW systems, it is disingenuous to bulk up the pricing for the sake of comparison, even if you're trying to make the AlienFx option in the G73. It comes with a backlit keyboard, in white. In truth, the G73SW provides as part of a base price much of the upgrades you would have to pay for when spec'ing out a r3. (RAM, screen, dual harddrives). On a G73 one has to pay for the lighting, on a r3 one has to pay for the hardware.

They both have their market segment, and until the r3 comes with WHDI and the 6970m/gtx485, it will be close, with a price edge to the G73. But why you would say that about prospective g73 buyers is beyond me. The future upgradability is what makes the r3 so attractive.

 

The reason he says that is simple:

1. Alienware warranty beats all others
2. Design
3. HDMI in
4. And many other little things...

So yes the g73 has a slight price edge but just the warranty alone from Dell is worth the small increase in price. He is right you would have to be brain damaged to get the g73.

 

The things that make me buy AW over Asus every time are: Asus doesn't offer NBD in home and their phone service is horrendous, AW usually outperforms Asus with the same hardware, and AW has always had a higher build quality than Asus does. You can show me anything in comparing the two but until Asus changes those things or beats the AW price by at least 30-50% I will never touch one again.

 

I completely agree with Joker5150 here, and his thought of the target market segment for this Asus G73 (vs M17x).

The quality/price ratio of M17x is miles away from G73. I also see absolutely no point in buying R3 now if all you want is upgrade it in the future and aren't satisfied with options it comes right now (why not just buy it in the future, then?). Call Dell and ask how much would it cost to upgrade R2 with 1 GPU to the one with 2.

 

The one thing I definitely think Dell should have done with this computer is to rename it, as the "M17x" implies it's the successor to the R2 and it's not, it's crosshairs are on a completely different segment of the market. I think it will be a great rig and have it's place just not with the guys that have owned the M17xR1/R2 and want a successor to it that follows the same "decimate all" line that it has.

 

Have we figured out whether the R3 has two hard drives or just one?

 

It's definitely 2 hdd's look at the pictures through the thread or in the service manual and it shows 2 hdd's.

 

I know that I will buy the R3 if the 485M shows up.

 

With a top of the line GPU (6970m/485m) and the 2920xm processor it is a VERY solid notebook, but unfortunately not until then

Still fills a nice niche for the 17" single GPU crowds

 

I'm just wondering if you could disclose the coupon? At least give us an idea where you got it from, so we can try search it out. Maybe we can haggle the sales rep with your pic for price match, hahaha

 

Please Joker, would help us a lot =D

 

Why will you change the 2 500gb momentus xt hybrid drives for the 320? And why would you include the effects from xotic? You can get it for $1865. Not $2000+.

 

correct me if im wrong but...

1. Xfire 5870s > 1x 6970/485m (if they even ever become available)
2. 940xm OC'd with Throttlestop pushing 25x across the board > i7 2920xm (if it ever becomes available..and if it does.. who knows if TS will be compatible..although unclewebb is GENIUS)
3. 17" 1200p RGB LED > 17.3" 1080p WLED (even if its 3D... 120hz is a plus though...but i rather have RGB personally)

So the r3 would give you... hdmi in (how many times you gonna use that?)
usb 3.0 (not many devices use this.. and Intel's lightpeak is just around the corner anyways... usb 3 is just a gap filler)
longer battery life... how much exactly?? this i'd like to know
3D options... but im nto a fan of 3D even on my new samsung 55" in the living room... imagine on a 17.3" display...
umm what else am i missing... oh yea 32gb RAM possibility... why is it still dual channel? shouldn't it be quad channel or something? That would be insane... and how many of you would spend like...600$ on 32gb of ram? when the majority of consumers need 4gb?

basically we now will have to settle for AN EVEN BIGGER laptop... to get top performance... if the M18x rumors are true..

Geeze like the M17x wasn't big enough... anyone else pissed about this?

I have an r2 max spec'd... and kinda wish the new r3 was slimmer... with xfire 6970s... with a 1200p 120hz RGB led screen... ohwell guess im dreaming huh...

 

I was able to get a $75 discount on my configuration using a discount code that my wife had from her company. Not much off a $2800 unit but its something.

 

Would you mind of sharing it, if its not a unique use coupon?

 

Congrats on your new laptop, I'm about to buy mine...

There is any problem on you sharing this discount code?

 

A little bummed out to see the Wireless Display Streaming feature was not an available option. hoping this can be added later.

 

Congrats on the purchase JackEtienne, welcome to the forum. I'm really hoping Dell pulls a rabit out of their hat and beats all the EDD's on these R3's, I know the wait is already killing me and it's only day 2 lol.

 

congratz on the purchase Dane Can't wait to see you bench the hell outta it

 

Thank you, it was a bit of a surprise from my wife. And bench the 7734 out of it I will!

 

New to the community and just pulled the trigger, after 5 years of drooling at that alien head and making it the background of whatever crap pc I had here is my new baby on the way!

System Color Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
A/C Adapter Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
Display Panel 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 120Hz WLED w/3D Bundle
Video Card 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
Hard Drive 320GB 7,200RPM HDD
Nameplate Personalized Plate (Driazen)
AlienFX Quasar Blue
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
Optical Drives Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless Wireless 802.11 g/n
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On
Security Software McAfee® Security Center – 30-Day Trial
Service 3 Year Basic Plan
Factory Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed

 

mine's the exact same as yours driazen

 

Congrats draizen, what is your EDD or do you have one yet?

 

2-7-2011

 

LOL, seems to be a pretty popular EDD, no one elected for faster shipping huh?

 

mine is 2-7-11. date i ordered the estimate was 1-31-11... guess dell preferred accounts take time? love the no interest financint for a year. beats hp's 6 month with bill me later.

 

Faster shipping does not get it shipped faster, just gets it to you faster once shipped

 

I know that. But an earlier ship date likely meant I was higher up on the build list.

 

Should I have gotten the 3d? on mine? I'm not really intrested in the 3d, but I've noticed that it's 120 hertz instead of 60, thus I wonder if the display is better overall or maybe it's just the same...

 

Yeah this is my 3rd Dell. Figured it was just easier to run it through my preferred account than try to find 2% better deal with a credit card, hassle with cash, etc.

 

IMO only and we can always take this to a new thread for debate in the Hardware section of NBR as it can quickly spiral into 20 pages of replies ( ), a 120Hz display will always look better than a 60Hz. Again, IMO.

 

K, Thanks, I'll make the adjustments, but for $350 makes you wonder if i could just buy an RGB and then install it in there myself, lol.

 

I waffled back and forth between a build with the middle processor, a cool alienware backpack the 1080p 60hz, and ati card, and this build with the starting processor, 120hz monitor + 3D, nvidia card and no backpack. I think there was exactly 1 penny difference. In the end I sat back and imagined walking through Tython later this year when SW-TOR gets released and wondering if I wanted to see it in 3D or if I wanted to look over at a cool looking backpack hanging off my chair. Guess which image won..

 

the display will likely be brighter than the 60hz one. My Envy 17 3d screen's drop dead gorgeous, brightest screen i've ever owned. I'd be happy if dell uses the same screen here.

 

There is no 1080p RGBLED and the WUXGA RGBLED screen is about $1k.....it really comes down to whether or not it is worth it to you the added visual quality (which some eyes wont even notice). Assuming of course that 3D is of no interest to you

 

Not wanting to throw a spanner in the works but you could always keep the 1080 screen, save the money and buy a dedicated 3d external monitor such as the Optx by AW....best of both worlds. - also if 3d isnt an issue, save the cash, put it towrds an IPS monitor (quite pricey tho)....absolutley gorgeous (but lower response times than TN panels, so not necesarily better for gaming....depends on on how good your eyes are lol

 

The reason I added the lighting options is because it's a default feature on the M17x-R3. So to make both systems as close as possible, it needed to be added. If I had created the sheet and listed Light Fx as "YES" for Alienware and "NO" for Asus, then I'd be hearing arguments that it can be added to the Asus thus I decided to add them to start with and tally in the cost. Even with those lighting effects added, they are nowhere near the same quality as the alienfx. As far as upgrades, you can see that both systems in my comparison are configured almost the same and the point was to have a cost analysis of both with similar configurations and features.

And the main reason I said what I did is because the G73SW does not support switchable graphics like the M17x-R3 does (6 hrs battery life). That alone makes the M17x-R3 a much better buy considering the portability factor is quite important for a lot of people.

The default drives add a $150 premium to the price. By selecting 2 x 320 gb it dropped the price for the G73 and made the HDD size relatively the same (750 gb vs 600 gb).

 

Hmm I fear that a screen replacement or switchout will not be possible due to the HDMI in, playing too much with that screen might really mess things up.

 

If you look at the service manual for the R3 screen, it has a separate cable that comes from the display and attaches at the top to the wireless hd card. The connectors also look different than the ones used in the R2. You could take apart the display and reuse the cable on a compatible aftermarket display but why bother? The 120 hz display should be good for what it is.

 

One thing no one has really mentioned about the new R3 is that SATA 6Gb. That will make a big difference with SSD I think.

This is one major advantages of the PM67 chipset.

 

It only makes a difference on a single line of SSDs out right now.....once the next gen sandforce drives are out though it will be big

 

I thought the Vertex 3 was SATA 6Gb compatible from OCZ and even the non SATA 6Gb SSD might still slightly gain from the faster "pipeline".

 

The Vertex is not even a finalized design yet It is a prototype that was demod at CES and that is it (they said that that was not even the final nand version they will use)

No clue on your 2nd statement until we start seeing some numbers

 

I guarantee it has a second slot, but just like when the 5870 first came out and it didnt have crossfire options... so too, they're probably tweaking these cards to work with their chipset and also developing crossfire and sli drivers that work with the cards.

 

Just ordered two of the new 17's with ETA of 2/4/11 with NBD shipping. I can do some benchmarks unless someone gets one and posts sooner. I just asked for the NBD shipping and a $50 discount for each machine.

Base I7, AMD graphics, and higher res non 3D screen and best network card, 4gig ram, 320 HD with Nebula Red.

FYI, the alienware concierge rep told me they were working on a dual graphics card option for this laptop. I read all the threads about how there could be none with this r3 design but that is what he said. Before anyone argues or complains please remember you got what you paid me for this information.

 

Why is this still being discussed? You guarantee it has a second slot? Where? In the 3rd dimensional space rift? Go back a few pages or look at the service manual, there are no additional mxm slots.

 

And I can guarantee that you are wrong.......please look at the pictures of the laptop taken apart for more detail This topic has been thoroughly exhausted at this point and probably does not need to be discussed any more?

edit: Joker beat me to it lol