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

When I had M17x-R1 (QX9300, 4870XF, 4GB Ram, 1920x1200), I OC'd the CPU to 3.06 and then tried FSX Acceleration all maxed out (w/ latest patches) and here are the fps results.

over 30fps - while flying over smaller cities and overall generic landscapes and smaller airports.
15-20fps - in dense cities and big airports with a lot of traffic (NY, LA, London, etc.)
5-10fps - when flying through clouds. ATI cards (notebook and desktop)
have issues with FSX clouds, no matter how good the card is. I tried both XF and single GPU and got same results. I heard that the 5xxx series don't have that glitch, so maybe when 5870xf comes out, the clouds problem will be gone.

My M17x-R2 is in boxing, so once I get it (hopefully by the end of the week), I'll see if the i7 920xm CPU would give me better results than the qx9300. I would guess that the 720qm would be close to the 920xm.
I hope that helps.

 

Thanks for that, hopefully the 720qm will be able to run it well too. I guess I will know soon enough, since my system went into boxing today as well.

 

Sounds like FSX needs some serious optimization work... 5-10fps in the clouds???

 

To make all of non AW owners envious again

 

Guys, did any of you notice that we cant press as many keys at the same time on the r2 as the r1 ??

 

Confused what do you mean?

Has anyone noticed that they have left the F7 (GFX) key details on the R2 even tho it does not have hybrid graphics

 

I mean that when I play a game, I cant press more then 4 keys at the same time. Otherwise the others dont respond.

 

Have not noticed.

 

Yes, and after messing with the M15x I couldn't help but try it again

Good key to map to something custom!

 

FSX can be really demanding. Its like GTA and crysis.

 

Oh yeah, I got this email from blackhawk on Feb 25th. Its a reply to me asking them when the M17x R-2 Bios update that resolves flickering will be released.

"Hello,

I talked to the technical contact and this is what I got.

“There is a prototype and it is being tested now. No definite ETA but they are saying at least a week.”

As you know we are working hard to get this update out ASAP. When it is available I will let you know.

Thanks,
Logan - Team Blackhawk"

 

Thanks. that's the first good news for every 920XM campers . Waiting on the second news rumored 5870 comes out.

 

Speaking of the 5870s has anybody heard any news from CeBIT regarding the matter? I can't even find Alienware as an exhibitor at the event, though of course Dell might be making the announcement and they have a booth there. Honestly I hope AW does a soft launch so that early adopters and those in the know can get them before marketing the cards to the general public. I will be sticking with the 4870s for now, but I wouldn't wish the endless Dellays on anybody else.

 

Someone PM'd me a few days ago with some photos he wanted to see on the RGB LED. I just got around to it tonight and compared it with the 1080P WLED found on the Dell Studio XPS 16:

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width='800' height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F109631313223265896524%2Falbumid%2F5443905216321294721%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

 

Awesome comparison. The XPS 16 has a blue tint over its screen. The 17x has a good representation of the right colors.

 

Very nice, from the pics the M17x looks like it's got slightly too much red, but that can be adjusted and fixed very easily. Overall the M17x looks like it has a much better color gamut than the XPS. It looks impressive.

 

I haven't bothered tweaking the display since this unit will be going back to Dell eventually. Once I get my replacement I plan to tweak it a bit.

 

Joker, +1 That has me sold on the RGB. The skin tone on that last pic is amazing. The differance is a lot larger then I thought it would be. It would be sweet to see a similiar comparison to the M17X with and w/o RGB

 

One word.
WOW.
rep++ for the effort!

 

just wondering. how much different is ocing the i7 from the previous core series?

and does ocing manually increase the turboed speed or does it turn turbo off totally?

is it possible to keep the processor at the turboed speed permanently?

 

Thanks for doing the pictures! A world of difference between the two screens. Did the camera accurately capture the two screens or are the screens even better in real life? I tried to take a picture of my screen and it looked nothing like what was actually displayed on the screen.


Thank you

 

I'd say its fairly accurate but some pictures made the RGB LED look slightly more red than it does in person in some shots. The WLED's colors for some of the photos look better than they do in person (e.g. the elf girl looks more pale in reality). Nonetheless, it's a pretty good approximation.

 

Wow how impressed am I just called to try and find out about the bios fix and they told me the server is down lol go figure.

 

If there's some program that really won't run under 64-bit 7, could you just run it through a VM? I'd hate getting stuck with XP.

Remember though that it'll clock itself up if it's only using a couple of cores, and it's faster at the same clock speed. I can't remember for sure when that came out, but it may be faster than any CPU that existed at the time of it's launch.

 

Can someone tell me is there any difference in performance between:
256GB Solid State Drive and
256GB Raid 0 (2x 128GB Solid State HDDs)?

 

On this note isnt there suppose to a new feature on the samsung ssd they use ? older samsung drives did not have it. I remember reading about it but i dont remember what it was called. it seemed important.

 

The second option would be marginally faster, but also marginally riskier.

Also "Solid State HDDs" sounds like an oxymoron.

 

Also No TRIM with RAID

 

Is it normal that when I close the lid, the pause button seems to get pressed? It's not actually touching, just if the music is paused it plays, if it's playing it pauses.. kinda wondering.. sometimes it hits the rewind button aswell

 

THATS it TRIM. So my m17xr2 that ill be getting later in the month should have this ?

 

Not normal, it doesn't happen with my R1, and the R2 is the same design except the internals.

 

Any idea's on how to fix?

 

Call Dell and tell them about it, see what they can do, maybe they will offer a replacement touch strip, or a full replacement after they do some troubleshooting with you.

 

Hmm I always thought A M17x would get me Plenty of TRIM. AMIRITE...

 

Yes. It'll support it

Don't install Intel AHCI driver. Use M$ driver and make sure your SSD firmware support it

to test TRIM

 

I've beem waiting for you, Stupifyed.

 

looks like the Bios Update is up on the support site! Go get it people!

Wish I still had one to test out....

 

^Sweet thanks!

 

ZOMG NEWS FLASH!!!! ZOMG ZOMG NEW BIOS!!! oh yeah i dont have a computer

 

Hey whats up? What are the more advanced way of using the alienware fx, like to make the lights flash with the keyboard or when you play music? Also more advanced settings for e-mail through yahoo etc, be nice for a oled indicator i miss the old days of those.

 

Let me google that for you freedom16!

 

lol I didn't know ATIs could do SLI. Must be some new technology sharing with nVidia

Sheesh.

 

Do the 9.12 modded graphics drivers still freeze the comp when the plug is pulled out?
Thanks
Haha that Google thing is funny lol

 

It was determined that is an issue with the graphics card drivers. Download the catalyst 10.3 beta drivers for the cards and it won't do it anymore. Not to mention the up in the FPS

 

Lol I see the new BIOS is up, but it is stated as an optional download

 

Cool, are they able to be modded with the modder
?

 

Its already capable without it. No mod required. Works great. I was actually shocked at the performance.

 

Yep, I was surprised about it being optional. Maybe it's because some processors are not affected by the flickering.

 

The new Bios is crap. I downloaded it, burned the ISO, booted with CD, installed the new BIOS. Went in Catalyst ( 10.3 ) turned Xfire On, Fired Crysis, then BANG, flickering as if nothing changed !!!

SOOOooooooo pissed off... I will have a loooong call with Dellienware tomorrow... thinking of returning the monster for something that works

 

I downloaded and installed the 10.3 beta...but it's not there? The install seemed to have done nothing
Does anyone know whats wrong?