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

in this case the real comparison would be for their desktops then. the real monsters of computer worlds then their much weaker portable machines

and what do you mean by quality? anyway if any issues appear on asus motherboards then they are responsible and they wont have to wait for third party companies to fix. this is an advantage by its own

on the other side i wouldnt trust in a motherboard called Dell, so i prefer the strength of the well known Intel.

 

Asus hands down makes (some of if not) the best desktop boards (my opinion). They pretty much never have any issues. The same cannot be said for their laptop boards which often have issues.

As for the support, Asus fixes Asus laptop motherboards, Dell replaces Dell/Alienware laptop motherboards. Either way you are getting a fix (although I am not aware of any next day on site repair with Asus)

 

I had an intel branded mobo on a P4 and it blew up killing my CPU & sound card in the processes. It wasnt the power supply or a power surge that did it. I'll buy intel chipsets made by other mobo manufacturers but I'll never buy an intel branded one again.

Some ASUS desktop mobos have had problems. Usually not reliabilit problems so much as compatibility ones. Their higher end enthusiast boards have always been tops though. GigaByte is also up there in quality too now & the better of the mid budget options imo. DFi seems to have slipped in quality for some reason, I hope they dont go out of business they used to make the best.

I wonder who makes the mobo in the m17X. I doubt if i asked them they'd tell me, probably just say Alienware. But Dell just outsources it to another company. For all i know ASUS could make it and just put a Dell BIOS on it. ASUS makes a lot of electronics. e.g. they made the original PS3s, the newer smaller ones are made by Foxconn now.

 

Hi,
I just got my M17x-R2 today.

Config:
Intel i7-740
4GB DDR3 RAM
1920x1200 RGB LED
2x ATI 5870 CF
256GB SSD Samsung
Intel 6300N
Bluetooth (was free)
Windows 7 Prof 64bit

All still out of the box - no new drivers, no ATI game profiles, no nothing except what was installed.

Tested games so far:
Civilization 4
Dragensang incl. Hightexture Pack
Mass Effect 2 Demo (from steam)
Mafia II Demo (from steam)

No issues with these games - wether performance nor CF issues as flickering, wavy lines, microstuttering... (Drakensang had some hard to notice anyways but was completely gone by activation v-sync)

On Mafia II Demo benchmark I score 31,9FPS all maxed out
On 3D Mark Vantage I score GPU-11200 and CPU-11600 (is this ok for CF ATI cards??) - was only the trial version so no idea if it did use both cards or only one.

Two issues so far:
1.) The colors (espec.) the blue is quite different from my other laptop - eg. the blue text in this forum is with i slight violet touch I think. The red is very intense red and the green has a slight blue touch - is this normal due to the RGB LED???

2.) Noise of fans - I must say in normal use this notebook is much more silent than my old simple Toshiba but under heavy use (playing Mass Effect 2 Demo all maxed out) it really gets loud - even after 5 minutes playing it goes into "turbo" and is then clearly to here even with 80% speaker and game music/sfx - if there is a game sequence with little ingame sound it is disturbing in my opinion - something I might get used to but thats the biggest issue I have so far and am a little disappointed. Also as I have not read so much about it in this forum maybe its just my system.
So I ask - can someone please post a link to a youtube video or sound file where I can here his/her M17x-R2 in all fans running on max so that I can compare it with mine.

Many thanks.

More reports to come as I find more time testing it.

Best regards
Nathan

 

The motherboards are most likely manufactured by Flextronics. They are the ODM for the "All Powerful" line of laptops. They also made many an Alienware laptop in the past. They are a solid company though with a good reputation

 

Yea, I'm pretty sure the M17x have flextronics motherboards, Intel PM55's. Would it be labled on the motherboard? Never looked for it, or took the motherboard out of the base. Atleast not yet.

 

Someone ask for links?
Joker's joined the party as well
Link 1 (This one's a bit older but started up again recently)
Link 2

They're starting to get scared. Its funny how they call us fanboys for defending Alienware's.. but they go running and tripping over themselved to defend Asus laptops.. so what does that make them?!

All a bit of silly fun end of the day.. no1's gonna re-convince anyone lol.

 

It is the same argument I have always seen. The people who cannot afford the top-end performance try to bash it to justify there cheaper configuration and feel good about themselves. When I worked at Microcenter one employee there would swear that the ATI cards just had better picture quality to help justify to him that they were the better (cheaper) choice over the proven more powerful GTX 200 series nvidia cards

You are not going to get through to those people. They see nothing but a bottom line and do not think about stuff like technical and customer service or build quality or cooling......How many Asus laptops are in service YEARS after purchasing (like 3 or 4). Alienware laptops regularly make it that long, although of course, they wont believe you if you say it

They simply read a spec sheet, look at a price, and make up their minds. They would be perfect working at BestBuy.......

 

I completely agree - the build quality of the Alienware is amazing. The keyboard, the display all made and fit perfectly.

Only one issue matters me a bit and I stated this in my above post already - I find the noise of the fans rather high when they run on maximum what they do rather fast (eg. after 5 min. playing Mass Effect 2). Should I get used to this?? I mean I know such a powerful machine needs proper cooling and there are notebooks out there much louder (I guess) but I had hoped or thought that Alienwares are a bit more quiet than all the Clevos, ASUS G73 and so on.

Still would appreciate a comparision or feedback on experience.

THx
Greets

PS:
Also what tool shows me, that both my cards (ATIs) are used while playing.

PPS:
If I set AA in the CCC @ max (16x) and in the game I set AA "off" - what do the cards do - render with or without AA - what has the priority in the settings of the quality??

 

The game should override the CCC setting. And for crossfire indicator, right click on the ATI symbol in your taskbar, go to one of the cards listed, and crossfire, then select show indicator and it will show up in games that utilize crossfire

As for the fan noise.....I got a nice pair of Alienware TactX headsets haha

 

GOOD NEWS PAL...​

You actually do NOT need to PRY anything to replace your wireless card....​

All you have to do is this, just did it myself...:​

1. Remove the battery;
2. Remove the 3 screws lying there;​
3. Turn the laptop upside down and gently pull the palmrest toward you;​
4. Change your wireless card.​

That's it that's all, while you might want to replace everything before using it again... ...then you're done ! ​

​

eYe​

​

 

^^ " Brothers and sisters, let us pry!" -
Bender Bending Rodriguez

 

:smile: :laugh: :laugh:

 

hey guys is there any way for me to check and see if all my drivers are up to date and that the system is running as it should ?

 

Check the driver page on Dell.com to see if there are new versions. But normally, I'd stay away from jumping on every new driver unless experiencing some problems.
If your games run smooth - relax

 

ty. I was watching a video on youtube of a R2 disassembly and I'm glad I dont have to remove everything he did before the wifi card.

I also love that Alienware actually posts official videos
YouTube - Alienwareservices's Channel
showing disassembly, really shows they go above & beyond with their product; makes me happy that I chose AW.

 

So I ran 3DMark Vantage and then HWMonitor and GPUZ after. My CPU reached 114F and my GPU 122F.

Is that normal or hot?

edit: Ran it two more times, the second time with the programs running simultaniously. The CPU maxed at 65C (149F) and the GPU at 85C (185F).

It dropped to CPU 45C (113F) and GPU 51C (124F) after about 2 minutes of 3DM Vantage ending and the computer idling.

p.s. When the fans kick in they REALLY kick in, wow it's like a hurricane coming out the back of the laptop! :wink:

 

CPU reaching 114f (45c) is very very low. Did you put any load on the CPU?
The gpu temps are equally low.
I suggest you instal hwinfo32, open sensors window before you start the load test and when it finished post a screenshot of the sensors window.

 

The 114 was after it had ended a few minutes. I ran them during the third benchmark and the CPU hit a 65C (149F) high and the GPU actually averaging around 72C (161.5F) with a a brief max of 81C (178F) and 85C (185F) when the GPU fan first started to spin down after the program had ended.

edit: Here is the offical spec page for my CPU
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122
100C is the max thermal according to intel so I think I'm fine there, although I believe you can still damage your CPU if you run it hot enough; even if it doesn't reach the shutoff point. I don't know what the max safe/recommended value is for a mobile i7 Quad is though.

ATi's spec sheet doesnt list their thermal max however, does anyone know of any whitepapers or other sites that might list it?
http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/ati-mobility-hd-5800/Pages/hd-5870-specs.aspx

 

Your max temps are fine. You have nothing to worry about. If you want you va do the retention clip mod that ash suggested. It's linked from the thread in my signature.

 

Tested my temps yesterday. Used HWinfo32 and Furmark(mulitgpu).
Tested it with 1920x1200 res and 2xAA for 20min.
CPU Temps never above 50°
GPU Temps - and that was interesting to see - switched - it seemd that when furmark in multiGPU mode was running it did never use both cards at 100% at the same time but always 1 card on 100% and the other sometimes even under 5% but max. 30% - when card one reached approx. 95° it switched the usage to the other gpu to give the "hot" gpu time to cool down and so the "cool" gpu went up to 95°. The absolut max i got on one card in the 20 min Furmark test was 97°.

Are the temps OK?
Is the switching of the cards normal - does the system this in games too?? I mean with this mode it never uses the full potential of both cards at the same time - is it meant to do that or did I miss something / do I have a problem with my system?

Performance on the Furmark was apprix. 42fps on avg. with both cards and 26fps when using Furmark in Single GPU Mode.
OK???

Greets

PS: OH and jeah the fans are quite "interesting" to listen to - I would call it a the Scram-Jet engine of notebooks

 

Nathan, 95 degrees for gpu is super hot, you should read the guide in my signature! you can see temps in furmark there for comparison.
Furmark multi gpu should utilize both cards to 100%.

Can you post your laptop config ?

 

Hi,
config is:
i7-740
4GB RAM
1920x1200 RGB
CF ATI5870 Xfire
256GB Samsung SSD
BluRay Combo
Intel 6300N

Maybe I did something wrong with HWinfo or Furmark (MultiGPU) but I swear it used both cards at 100% but not at the same time - it even switched down the card that it sent to "relax" from 700/1000 to 300/500 eg.
Found this very strange myself!

 

you def. have a cooling problem. the cards were disabled due to excessive heat i guess. Could you install the latest hwinfo32 beta version,start the sensors window, and then run furmark for 5 minutes and post screenshots (when the gpu's throttle and in the end)

 

What settings should I use on Furmark?? Is "this burning mode" necessary or should I go for "stability" mode or benchmark???

 

Well seems like I found the error. Is it possible that if running Furmark and I - during running furmark - "alt-tab" to HWInfo to see the acutal results it deactivates CF mode and runs furmark in the background with only one gpu because now - after installing the bete of HWinfo32 - I did not switch and got the following results:

ATI on-die [gpu#0]: max celcius: 82° with gpu usage 93,678%
ATI on-die [gpu#1]: max celcius: 79° with gpu usage 93,688%

Sounds OK?

 

GPU-Z has a logging feature (you start the log and when youre done shut the program down it will be in a txt where you saved it). Which is what I used during 3DMark Vantage. So you can go back and see the load, mem & core speeds, & temps throughout the test. That might help so you dont have to alt-tab.

 

i7 920XM
6 gb ram
1920 x 1200 RGB LED (of course)
5870s in CF and slightly OC'ed (still tinkering)
256GB SSD

just got it earlier this week, and i wanted to thank the people at this forum for their efforts in putting together "how to" guides and videos. i'm ashamed to admit it but i've stalked the lot of you, across websites, forums, and even the beloved youtube. looking for everything you guys had on the m17x, from amazing benchmarking tools to seemingly mundane information all of it was gold for me. thank you all!

can't say i'm not disappointed in the whole driver issue. i found out about it the day of its arrival and even though i had frequented this site before while doing research, i never bothered to look xD still, i don't think i would've changed my mind because there is no question that even with dell's limitations, this machine is a beast. like i said earlier, i'm still tinkering with the damn thing and will most definitely come back for more.

edit, i'd like to keep the stock drivers for now, any suggestions on OCing with such a harsh decision?

 

anyone is getting a blue screen with error atikmpag.sys after playing games for a while?

my gpus are at stock clocks but i get this on almost all games. thus this occurs with all drivers i tried. i believe it may be due to faulty gpus. anyone knows something more?

 

most probably faulty gpus man, sorry to tell you that...
try to run furmark multi gpu for a while while monitoring temps.. maybe there's a correlation between temps and when it happens...

 

mfractal

Did you sell your 820 already see its gone from marketplace?.If so that was quick.

 

No, i didn't sell it. mods deleted the message because i need a picture with my name next to it, and for that i am going to have to open the laptop again.
I'm lazy to do it so i put it on ebay.

 

dont know for temps but it seems its related to fraps running simultaneusly with games. right now i tried playing witout fraps (i always had it runnig to check fps) and i didnt get this error. if i see this atikmpag.sys again i will call Dell after a long time.

 

Ah ok was just being nosey .What you planning buying after you sell the 820?.I am contemplating buying a 940xm ES from Laptopmonkey on Ebay but still unsure as the 620M does everything i need and more effortlessly ,While having super low temps & low power consumption.

 

that's exactly what i am planning (either 920xm or 940xm).. selling the 820 oem and buying one of those (the es version) is almost the same price.
True that mine does everything i need, but i want to mess with overclocking a little and unlocking the tdp on those extreme processors and overclocking them gives a substantial advantage over the qm processors.

 

ok here are my temps after running benchmark (default settings)



and here are my temps after running stability test (again default settings) for 10 minutes



so any conlusions ?

 

Has anyone came to a conclusion as to why setfsb don't play with the 820?.Can you change TDP/TDC using Throttlestop?.Both setfsb & Throttlestop TDP/TDC work no problem with 620M & i have seen in Benchmark Thread that it was working for Lozz with his 720 so why not the 820?

 

here's what unclewebb has to say about it

It won't work on 820/720 but it does work on the 620, something to do with it being dual core (?)

 

I dunno.That's a bummer.Now i know why your fancying a 920/940 .I just fancy a 940 for a new toy to fool around with Thanks for info.

 

just to let everybody know, i got the razer megasoma pad and it's everything i expected and then some (the packaging was AWESOME )

 

Can somone give me an idea on something?

Currently I'm not getting sound from my notebook speakers, but I get sound when I have headphones plugged in, what exactly am I doing wrong?

 

Right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar, then Playback devices, then set Speakers to Default, then click OK.

It's worth a shot dude.

 

Given how often you are in and out of your laptop, did you make sure that they are still connected? When the laptop is booting up do you get a beep when entering the BIOS? (if that is normal, it is normal on the R1)

Also check the windows sound settings and make sure that you have speakers and not headphones as the default

 

Yea that might be it, I'm not getting the beep entering the BIOS and thats where it first got my attention. Looks like I'm going in one more time if I can't poke around and find anything. Stupid slow internet. trying to tget it set up for everyday use and these slow downloads are killin me. Actually, I can get to the speakers with out turning off the computer

 

All you should need to do is take off the palm rest (and battery and bottom cover of course)

To see the motherboard end though you may need to remove the main plate under the keyboard

 

Is it the red/orange/brown/black plug? If so it's plugged in near the neft speaker and into the mobo next to the broadcom card. I'm thinking I'll have to take off the plate in a few hours when all these downloads finish. I'm so impatiant

 

I do not remember the colors. You would have had remembered if you moved one of those plugs though....pretty much only necessary if replacing the motherboard

 

Yea, looks like I'll keep diggin on the software side of things.. Thanks though

 

The only issue with that is the BIOS Beep....that is outside of anything effected in windows.....did you upgrade or change the BIOS recently? Possibly the new bios has different sound settings?

 

Hmm, nope. Still running A06. I know I have Audio enabled because of when I was installing drivers, and I made sure it was on, so now i'm confused. I might have something unplugged still, but it'll be tommorrow before I get to it. I had a lot of stuff disconnected, although I had the BIOS beep a few days ago. Maybe something came loose when I put the 940XM back in it.