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

alot of the inital reviewers have updated their scores on the Momentus XT. because they're finding that over time the performance benefits begin to dwindle when compared to the initial speed test results. Do some more research before jumping in. I cancelled my order and just bought the Intel G2.

Also as for the question of the mouse. I too used to use simple mice like logitech's and Microsoft lazer/optical mice. I just find that now with gaming without a capable mouse you are in trouble. Especially in FPS games like battlefield.

The ability to switch DPI settings on the fly is the biggest selling point for me. Switching from assault rifle to Sniper can have a huge advantage gain if you can slow down your mouse movements instantly.

Other things like being able to balance weight on some mice to customizing the different button combinations are all key to a winning mouse.

lastly ergonomics. I use a Logitech Mx620 at work, i've used it to game with as well for years. but when i put my hands on a deathadder for the first time I was hooked. Now the mamba takes it to the next level with its wireless connectivity. 124$ is what I paid and ya its a helluvalot of money to pay for a mouse. But for the moment I don't regret it. It compliments my G11keyboard and my new 27" monitor. All of whom which i use to game off my M17x.

 

You know what I just noticed while browsing the forum? That our resident AW rep focuses 99% of his time on M11x. Looks like Dell's new focus seems to be it's mass market plastic toy. A sign of times to come I think. We complain about 10.6's not working and there's zero updates in our threads but if an M11x owner says his fan is making farting noises, AW quality reps are all over it.

 

I'm pretty sure AW reps read over these forums too, less then the M11x section. If there isnt that's pretty pathetic.

Either way its just a corporation focusing itself in areas where the real money is, I.E. plastic mainstream affordable laptops. All good things come to an end.

 

ok it seems that me and all people with 4870s should stuck with 4870s.

 

Yeah they're definitely following the money trail though I'd imagine the M17x sales net them a handsome profit as well considering the markup. We have had threads on the 10.6's not working with the 5870s and not a word. If you go check out the M11x subforum you'll see the attention they get from AW. Pretty off putting for me as an M17x owner.

 

yea being a slave to dell's 5870 mobility drivers made me make the switch to an aurora desktop. I can't swallow the dismal performance on games i love due to the drivers being outdated, and then paying 3k for it.

 

i would set the question a different way. if the stock slow dell drivers reach 92 C or more how would that be with newer faster drivers? ok faster is not always more hot but this is the case for most of them.

 

The m11x is a great laptop for people with lower budgets.

$2500? Erm. No. Sorry Bobby.
$900? Cool! Looks like your getting a new toy Bobby!

Just like gaming computers to consoles.

$1000*-Infinity & Beyond for a gaming computer? HA! No.
$380 for a "Xbox Bundle"?. Much much MUCH for affordable.

*-Too lazy to figure a low for gaming desktops. Mines cost 2000ish.

Thus, more people will look at the m11x as a cheaper alienware. More people will purchase it, more cash for Alienware.

Anyway, the m11x (i series) is a fairly new item. Its not new for a brand to work crazily to fix a new product.

 

Joker i totally agree with you, pressure these alienware reps to push them. Merk1b2 i agree with you about that money is money but if you have enough expandability and if you want to play all types of games without restrictions cpu and gpu wise then go for a m17x and plus you can get some as cheap as 1,700 R2 i am talking about of course. Some of us like big comps and not small ones, and plus for godsake its their flagship comp just the G73JH for Asus, same for Dell. But dell is also going to focus on the dell mini 5 cell phone.... Where these companies are going i just don't know. Just pressure them and message them about the 5870s and their crappy drivers and i expect a lot of people are going to be using custom Vbios to use what drivers they want. When i get my R2 i will stay with 4870s cause i couldn't deal with drivers for such powerful gpus...

 

I'm kinda on the fence about the issue really.. I really expected the 5870's to support the amd drivers... this is really kinda stupid.. starting to second guess myself.

 

Still have high hopes that 5870s will be supported by ati drivers eventually. Maybe I will hold off on the secondary 5870.

 

yeah kinda glad my order of 5870s got canceled, the need bug got me, i guess i can focus on getting a 920xm now instead =)

 

The point is why they are not supported in the first place. Why do we (customers) have to deal with those issues and not a department from Dell/Alienware and on top of that we have to beg for support and spend endless hours to work around it or on the phone and deal with reps that just read a FAQ paper...

 

Where can I find the RGB optimize thread?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-m17x-r2-rgb-led-display-calibration-how.html

 

thank you

 

dell just used difference DEV Id's ... shouldn't be a hard fix

 

Moo, nobody said it's hard, these is an issue it shouldn't exist in the first place, they had those cards for a long time to experiment before they started selling them.
The question here is when will it be fixed...

 

Yes i get sick of tired of speaking to Parrots who speak from cue cards and not only Alienware or Dell, also Asus, God they are worse then dellienware!! Wanna speak about brain dead people call them up... Anyways, whatever happened to the techs from Rosewell days?? Dell has been firing plenty of Alienware people and they talk about they will give us more freedom etc... Yeah right!! We should have the right to speak to people from your country you are from and have a knowledge of the machine instead of me knowing so much about it. Also they should be testing these things out thoroughly before it even comes out! I do agree how long will it be fixed? Also will it be like the R1 owners just to get a replacement of an R2 and then replacement of a R3?? That looks like the line this might be going.

 

So far there aren't any serious issues that would justify a replacement for the R2.
On those kind of things only time will show...

 

what makes me wonder is that even an ebay seller, official reseller of Dell still doesnt have the Dell 5870s and he still gets the 5870s spare parts orders cancelled. Even Dell still promotes the machines with 5870s on them or there is an underlying process with faulty 5870s spare parts. To take this further its a fact that 5870 CF as we all know were initially removed as a configuration, this means issues. some of them may still exist. high demand may have led to their decision to release them even with issues.

What i think is that i may buy just one 5870. just to test dx11. my dual 4870s will always be there for gaming.

 

Isn't this the nature of early adoption? Shouldn't this realistically be expected? Its not as if the 5870's Crossfire don't work for most all games. And fixes and updates are guaranteed to come based on our complaints.

What i really don't get is why people will opt to buy older "working" video cards rather than get the newer "in progress" cards knowing full well some type of fix is in order.

Maybe i'm just missing something in the thread somewhere that explains this.

 

well except from crossfire issues how much could the temps be reduced if ever reduced? i would really like to see the manufacturer highest limits for the temps. because something that many people ignore is their lifetime.

taking older gpus (In m case it was a replacement -so free) gives you the time to check if Dell will fix the issues or not. Because when you buy something you agree with their policies, and noone tells you its going to be fixed for drivers other than Dell ones. TBH i wonder if it can be fixed anyway (meaning the temps). and actually its not in progress gpus but working gpus. just use the dell drivers, the drivers that Dell gives support for. i wonder how you are so sure that a fix is in order. if you know something let us know too. by the way i have never seen a machine with games running in windowed mode only. apparently this is a driver issue but something may limit this for other reasons as well...

watching the absence of Dell people in this thread doesnt give me any hopes, even in the case of R1 latency (which again was never fixed), there were people that sent our reports to techniqal team.

 

just a question to you guys with the m17x 5870 crossfire.. Ive noticed alot of people got very high scores in 3dmark 06 but i get around 12500p with a single card wich i think is ok. But crossfire enabled 10500p . And in games the crossfire indicator that should be in the right corner, sometimes its there sometimes its not( in the same games that the indicator was shown before). still without crossfire enabled i get higher frames than with crossfire.. far cry 2, Dirt 2( work sometimes) .. In games and in ccc i dont see that the anti alaising is working.. Anybody seen this, or am i alone with this.. Had this problem with my R1 single 4870 too.. For example bfd bad company2, everything max and still bad edges.. Hopeful for any answers....Anyway..... Glad midsommar everyboddy

 

I'm getting my m17x tomorrow,

and I was wondering what cooler is optimized for the m17x.

Judging by the vent alignments and the massive size,

I think the Cryo LX should be the best bet, right?

Do the coolers play a huge role in dropping temperatures?

Thanks.. Alienware newbie here.

 

I never use cooler pads as the laptop's cooling should be adequate. Others report 5-10C drop in temps with Cryo LX.

 

If you raise the back end, then temps will drop dramatically. I use laptop riser from Targus. I don't remember the name of it.

 

yes Cryo LX is very very good.

 

I do that as well. I have two rubber feet off an old desktop (about 1/2 in tall) that I have stuck to my desk where I set up the laptop. Raises the back up enough to get a larger volume of cool air in there, and since its rubber and not too tall, the stock rubber feet in the front of the laptop still touch. Laptop doesn't move and stays cool.

I have been thinking of hacking together a peltier and a couple of small fans to make a makeshift A/C setup on my desk to sit the laptop on. I have many of the parts, just not the heatsink (have an old CPU heatsink with fan, going to see if the size is right). Will turn it into a project if I get all the pieces.

 

My Cryo cut down my CPU temps by about 5 degrees C, while it didn't do anything to my GPU temps, maybe 1 degree C. So I don't think it makes a huge difference, Im in the process of modifying my cooler with some 90 CFM fans, so maybe that will yield better results.

 

May I recommend to give a look at http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/486526-custom-made-laptop-cooler-joebarchuck.html ?

 

Where did you see information about this ? I cant seem to find any thing like this....also, regarding the G2, while my speed boos would be fantastic, I cant justify the cost, where as with these, I get a significant (ok not SSD speed) speed boost plus storeage boos, more so if I raid 0 them....

 

I was looking for those "recent" reviews and the only thing I found was that one of the buyers got a bad disk and gave Newegg 1egg for that
In fact, there are couple of members on this forum with 2 XT's in RAID with no complaints so far.
So dunno.

 

Have seen that, I am hoping to come up with something a little more compact with even cooler air. So basically expounding on his idea.

 

I was looking at his pics for ideas also.what about a freon cooled laptop table?maybe using some freon and a charge kit like this.
R12, R-12, Refrigerant 12 Air Conditioning RECHARGE KIT - eBay (item 390190053928 end time Jun-29-10 19:35:34 PDT)

 

I just going to get my r2 within 2 weeks i was thinking on refund but Hell not authorized not even autorized the 5870 cfx upgrade for me so i forced to take a i7 720qm cpu with crap ati 4870 cfx when i said i would rather take a full refund i been told is take 8 weeks after i returned the laptop someone examine the condition and i get a partial refund (f off) as soon i get the new just wack it on ebay in the sealed box if anyone interesting send me pm should have warranty until 2012
never again HELL or any alienware "ALL"spacejunk...
for me that is the 2nd time tooke 3 months to get a replacement from Hell is just ridicuolus

 

Seriously, I don't understand a word that you are saying.

 

Guys, I have a question.

I just need the power of an i5, will I be void of the warranty if I swap out the 720qm with a i5?..

 

If you do it yourself it will void the warranty, no matter what CPU you will install.
*EDIT*
My bad, I need to check the website more often... the i5 is supported...

 

The i5 520m is the starting option for the M17x isn't it?

 

It is /10 char

 

WOW...uh..yea ok. Couple things if I may.....

1) I would not classify a i7-720 as crap by any measurement.

2) The 4870 crossfire is FAR from crap......you seen my 3dmark scores with the 10.6 driver, if thats crap for a laptop, bring it on baby.

3) if youre gonna sell that on ebay, and youre so pissed off about it, I will give ya 1k

4) I am (and several others are) verry happy with their systems, I am sorry for your experiance, but....chill

 

^^that and learn punctuation!

 

The peltier will do that without using freon. It is what is used in the tiny little single soda refrigerators. I have heard of some people trying to use them to cool a CPU directly, don't know of any successes though. I will see if I can find the engadget article where the user made a cooler for a soda...

 

All of sudden my AC adapter has become a "non-dell ac adapter". What do i do? Reinstall osd or something?

 

Days will come when Peltier cooling will be adopted into laptops..



The problem is when?

 

Condensation will never let peltier's take off in notebooks. They can implement a form of water cooling like some Japanese notebook makers have. That would be a nice next step but that would severely limit people's ability to upgrade their components themselves since they could easily mess up the cooling and cause spills etc.

 

The condensation is definitely a problem. What I was thinking of doing is having the cold side of the peltier attached to a large heatsink (with short fin's) that the laptop sits over. As the fans draw air into the machine, the air is passed over the heatsink and cooled before it is pulled into the unit. The hot side of the peltier is under the desk with its own heatsink and fan and the hot air is passed through a duct to the rear of the desk, away from the user. If I can find a thin enough heatsink, I may be able to make something along the lines of a notebook cooler for the laptop to sit on, without modifying my desk at all. I have everything except the heatsinks. I have some ideas on what to do about the moisture, but I don't know how much will be put off in this configuration. That will come after testing.

 

Well, as long as air cooling is adequate for cooling,

we won't have to worry about anything else.

 

False, there will always be zombies to worry about


Watercooling just seems like a costly luxury to me. A well circulated room is good enough for me