*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M17x-R2 Edition Owner's Lounge - Part 2

Possible. But i don't think its needed. I think A02 can already support it. Besides that they arent up on the AUS Dell website. not that it phases me. I'll wait a little. Hey can't XF use two different types of cards? I was told it could. Might be wrong.

 

On the UK site crossfire 5870's costs close to 500$ USD. Ouch
BTW they call it a Basket not a Cart

 

I just picked the exact same spec that i did previously with the 4870's and its exactly the same price with the 5870's, no price change at all.

 

Once they make them avail on the US site I am going to try to locate part number and see how much I can order a set for...

 

Nice to see the good news and not be 100+ pages late to the game. Lol.

Edit: Yep, late to the game.

 

I would be VERRY interested in that info also.

 

What virtualization issue? I use my laptop to run VMs for work, don't tell me the R2 is going to cause me more pain...

 

See this thread, http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=473697&page=9 , but in a nutshell, if you need a 64bit guest os, it dont work

 

Fortunately, all the guests I run are 32bit, for now... Good to know anyway.

 

10.4a drivers
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATI-Catalyst-10-4-a-Hotfix.aspx

 

Those are desktop drivers, FWIW.

 

lol yeah just found out when i tried installing...
glad i have system restore on
want some working drivers for bad company 2 cause 10.6 wasnt a succes either. still slow loading times..

 

Proud new owner of my m17xR2 as of today

 

If you were REALLY proud, you will return it soon and reorder with the new 5870s

Same price should help make it an easy choice

 

I plan on doing that after I play with mine, hopefully 5870's aren't available until sometime after next week lol

 

Seems there will be alot of lightly used M17x w/4870 in dell outlet

 

lol.. just received my r2 ytr.. and now the 5870s are out... so damn pissed right now

 

Wait a week or to, return, reorder. Play with it in the mean time. Now your happy.

 

i cant really return it unless i have some problems or a valid reason.. its a replacement for my r1 cos it was so screwed up. and i doubt the 5870s will be available in my country before my 21 days are up

 

They were in the UK quicker then the R2 was. Either way depending how expensive they are. i might buy one and simply upgrade.

 

buy one? get 2 lol.. i wonder how much they cost.. the market here isnt really good for 2nd hand laptop cards.. dont think i can sell my 4870s

 

I am attempting to run 3 displays simultaneously now (running fine so far) but my CCC.exe is not coming up if I right click, or go to the Start Menu. I ran Vantage and the cards seem fine, temps are OK, and the Crossfire icon shows up if I play a game.

1. One card is running 13 to 15 degrees higher (non-gaming), this same card is also keeping its clocks at 550, compared to the other one at 250. Is this normal because I am using 3 displays?

2. From strags.com, are these the 10.5 drivers people are using?
4/5/2010 CATALYST 10.5 beta non-WHQL certified? ati873driverpackage.rar

I'm hoping to fix the CCC window installing new drivers.

Any thoughts, fellows?


PS. To save some time, 1 display is running HDMI, the other via USB-to-DVI, and the other is the laptop's display.


Edit: Well, installing the 10.5 I mentioned fixed the CCC issue (hopefully those were the right drivers) Now CCC pops up no problem. All three displays work great. Finally I can go out and buy some matching displays. I was using an old LCD of 1280x1024 for the USB and a 1080p HDTV for the second one.

Now the only thing it remains to answer is the difference in clocks and temperatures from one card. But enough testing for tonight. Once I figure out most of it I will probably make a new thread with pics, in the meantime if you guys have a clue on why the differences in temps and clocks, let me know.

Edit 2: Clocks was because of HDMI output. Once the HDTV is disabled all goes back to normal. Temps too.

 

Proud owner.

Not sure if I'll wanna go through the wait again for upgraded video cards. If it really is the same price I'll kick myself. Le sigh.

 

Finally I join the owner group. ^^

 

Sorry to anyone if that image is too big.

 

I will too. But meh i needed a laptop. I'll just upgrade once the cards become cheaper.

 

Totally agree. I need mine m17x R2 for my job, so I am not gonna retun it and wait another 2 month. I will just upgrade the GPU later.

 

That's what I'm thinking at this point. I JUST got it and I'm not a hardcore gamer. And now since I'm installing the SSD I'm getting all attached and stuff.

 

Stupid question wanna ask you guys. Anyone know is Mata BD-RE UJ235A is the correct blue ray buner??

 

might've been already discussed but i saw a couple of questions about making itunes respond to media buttons when not in focus and i wanted to save people the search :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3606127&postcount=2

 

Man, I am lovin' this thing so far. Lightning fast and even more so with the SSD in there.

Too bad I have to wait until Monday night to play more.

Nice! I'm sure that's something I'll be looking for later.

 

Yes! Just a single 5870 available, but still!

So, have the kinks been worked out of the BIOS yet? That flickering problem fixed?

Does Dell still include system restore discs? (Asus JUST stopped doing it.) I may upgrade to Pro or Ultimate for work reasons...but not if they don't include the discs so I can reinstall easily.

And does it come with a caddy for a second hard drive, even if you only order it with one drive? Otherwise I guess I'd need to order it with RAID, take both drives out when I get it, disable RAID and slap my SSD and other drive in.

EDIT: Oh, another question-what type of bag do you need for it? I'm assuming some 17" ones won't work (and almost certain my new L.L. Bean backpack I've been using for my 14" one won't work :-/ )

 

Whooooa...wait a minute-I just configured one, have it in my cart, and it says "also includes 150 watt power supply". That's not right, is it? I mean presumably they're not including the wrong PSU :-D

I configured it with a 4 year premium warranty to get the U.S. based warranty...might drop it to 3 years, not sure.

Also not sure if I don't want to try to hold out for an Nvidia based system for the better drivers...but I guess you guys haven't had any major issues, I hope. (Heck, even just for video playback the vivid option is helping a TON on my Nvidia GPU with some ATSC shows that are too dark.)

 

Did you get a single GPU system?

If so, it comes with a lower wattage PSU (same as the M15x's brick).

So I'd say it's normal as long as you didn't get a CF setup.

 

wow I didn't know that, is the a/c port on the mainboard the same? Didn't even cross my mind when you upgrade from a Single card to dual you'd need a new brick.

 

Whoa, thanks for the info! I had no idea. I suppose that makes some kind of sense, although for my second AC adapter I'd just get the bigger one. Honestly I'd never upgrade the GPU anyway (I've built my own computers, but am NOT comfortable doing a replacement like that in a notebook.)

Does anyone have an idea about my other questions?

My notebook's OPTICAL drive just randomly started not reading too. Two days ago the USB system completely went out. I wonder...if maybe my southbridge is somehow partially dying (seems weird that it could stop accessing things, yet not crash the system...)

Apparently Asus has a 1 year lifespan? 14 months in and I go from zero problems to... :-D

 

Yeah, they just pack the 150 in the box instead of the 220(?).

You could always purchase the more powerful brick from Dell or ebay if you need it.

No biggie

 

Are you sure all M17x come with a 150w PS, they sent me a 240w with mine and I just got a single 4870. I did go i7 so that could be why...

 

Anyone has any idea how much the 240w brick would cost?

 

The config I did was with a quad too. I just double checked and the power supply does change from 150 to 240 when you select or deselect a second GPU (of course who knows what they'll actually send you...maybe a free upgrade? )

 

I don't know what's going on-I had a link saved to a 240 watt power supply, but now the link is dead. I DID find a 210 watt power supply, which...I guess is what they're using now? Anyway it's $120.

 

Hi everyone,

Has anyone experianced issues installing the 10.3 ATI driver, as when i install the screen goes blank and does not come back on until i power off then on. I have search through the threads but did not find anything relating to this.

 

I have experienced the same thing, the reason, i don't know but i would like to find out.

 

Nope. I have the 10.3 preview and they install just fine. Never have issues waking from sleep either...

Make sure to clean any previous installs of drivers

 

I'll try that, the screens on both our systems are the same but different on your system kilthro.

 

Well the screen shouldnt have anything to do with it. Its the driver/video card that would cause it.

 

No sleep issues or black screen here either. I was on 10.3's before, and now on 10.5. Same result on both.

 

Doesn't the screen have an auto dim feature or something like that, i think that was a problem in the R1, if i remember correctly?

 

Not to make it go completely dark. There is a built in feature of the monitor to dim/brighten to help the contrast of the monitor from dark to bright pictures but it would have no effect on what you are describing.

 

Its only when installing the driver, i dont have this issue at any other point. I was going to try 10.5 if someone could PM me a link, as i am currently running Dell version of the website.