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

I just remembered that I have a beast for a machine that is my M17X R2
Although, Dell/Alienware has madd problems getting efficient drivers out to us all. I have to say, it has been fairly quiet on the homefront.

I really hope that Dell/Alienware grants SLI for us all, then I could honestly say that the "all powerful" really does exist

 

Even if AW comes out with SLI
people who have already got there AWm17x
will not get it lol

They have to buy New

 

Anybody getting positional audio on an R2 with headphones? In games I can't tell left from right on the "Speakers/Headphones" setting in the control panel and it won't let me set "RTC Headphones" as the default for audio (it's default for communications).

I've gotten this to work on my R1.

Any ideas?

 

what? if they come out with an SLI setup, i doubt they will change anything other than adding bios support, i which case any one could buy the cards & cable from dell or aftermarket if they were so inclined.

 

Where's the 480M? Nothing yet for the M17x?

 

I paid for the advanced warranty for the m17x, but i checked it online and i saw this...


So is it complete care?

 

The advanced IS complete care I think

 

hmmm, thought there were three: basic, advanced, complete care.

A rep called me the day i made the purchase, and upgraded it from 3 to 4 years, so i thought maybe it changed

 

Odds of existing M17x-r2 owners getting a GTX 480M upgrade option are about as bad as the odds of Dellienware resurrecting the Aurora m9700 line to start offering AMD CPU based multi-GPU notebooks again.

 

WOW - just played the new R.U.S.E Demo (Steam powered) on my new M17x-R2 - now I will keep it. Played smoothly in 1920x1200 with "Insane" settings for graphics which incl. very high AA and AF sets. It truely is "all powerful".

Greets

 

guys

do think ill be happy with the 720qm proccessor? im spec'ing out a Crossfire 5870 r2 and if i can save money somewhere i will. will i regret not getting 920 or 820

 

The 720QM is great but if you want more overclocking abilities and more performance go for a 920

 

OK, not a m17x-R2 question per se, but since I own one of them, I figured why not ask here anyway....my wife's laptop just died and we are shopping for a new one. I kinda like what dell has to offer but would like some advice. Her use is basic word processing, email and web. She definately wants a 17 inch screen, was looking at one of the i7-520 procs.......opinions ?

 

After being a long-time groupie, I am now a fully-fledged member of the M17x-R2 Owners' Club.

I made sure that mine arrived at work. I'm a software developer, and I had about 10 people come and watch the unboxing. Another 5 or 6 have stopped by my desk to have a look afterwards. I love working with geeks!

Looks like I have a long few days ahead of me. Recovery imaging, reinstalling Windows, installing apps and games... FUN!

 

Just my opinon, I used to reformate all my new systems too. Alienware does not have any junkware loaded on their sytems, except for their Alienware apps. It is more hasel than it is worth, you see many posts on this site saying "I can't get this to work" (driver issues). Anyways, you would be better off enjoying your new baby, than all the time you will spend reformatting.

 

don't show them you using the trackpad lol

 

My only issue is the annoying recovery partition that they put at the start of the drive. I would prefer the extra disk space, and the easiest way to get it back is to completely wipe the drive and start fresh. Otherwise I'd probably just go with what's there.

 

OK I ORDERED..... couldnt pass this up


M17xR2 Lunar Silver
1920x1200 RGB LED
i7 720qm
Crossfire 5870's
4gb ddr3 1333
320 gb 7200 rpm
blu ray
6300 wifi

PRICE $1749

question does the secondary hard drive slot have a bracket already in it? i have a 128gb SSD that im not using and i plan to put it in.



OMG... ive been researching for the last 2-3 weeks every day for hours and hours and hours and i finally just pulled the trigger. sooo much weight lifted off my shoulders. I really hope im not making a mistake.. this is my first Crossfire machine and first alienware.

 

1749??? how did you get that price?

 

oh is that an outlet item

 

oh i forgot to add its from the outlet. sorry i thought i typed it. should i be worried?

 

I see, that makes sence

 

not really that's a great price.

 

I agree the Outlet has some pretty nice deals, I spec'd this out on the Alienware page and it came out to over $3k, this system was just $2k from the outlet:

Core i7-720QM
8GB DDR3 (1333 MHz)
2x 128 GB SSD in Raid 0 (I assume it is setup in Raid 0?)
17" RGB LED (1920 x 1200)
ATI HD 5870m
Blu-ray Combo (not burner)
Win 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Intel 6300 Wireless-N

Difference in price is probably the two SSD's, 4GB memory and possibly the OS upgrade (dunno if yours is Ultimate or Home) - but with the CF 5870's that is still a good deal (not sure what the upgrade is for that normally). I was looking at few CF units but will only be using it for gaming maybe 15% of the time, the rest it will be for work.

 

yeah they are some great deals. plus they come with warranty so i snagged it.

are you gonna get yours

 

yeah I ordered what was configured above, probably should have done more reading, I am sure the SSD's will be fine for me performance wise, never had 1 before. Will also build a gaming rig for eyefinity, I wouldn't want to use my laptop for that since I don't need portability for 3-6 monitors

 

@ nycgags monster lappy

 

thanks Skate!

what kind of service plans do people usually sign up for? I just went with the default 1 year (I think) for now.

 

I usually stick with 1 year as Dell are usually quite keen to get you to renew when it is about to expire, and that spreads the cost out.

 

no no nothing yet. and they still dont sell 5870s as spare parts. this is a company that wants to be said as one of the biggest ones in the world. i am stuck with the 4870s. no complain about their performance but i just want to check dx11

 

It cost ALOT more to add a year later than upfront though......it was $400 for me to add a 2nd year of complete care to my M17x...that would have been like $100 at machine purchase. Lesson learned there for me

 

Hi all,

I am about to receive a new M17x and I'd like to know what the best drivers are right now. I am not a complete noob to computers, but I am just coming back into the game after maybe a 5-year hiatus

I have found this thread on intial setup: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/491153-how-check-my-new-alienware-m17x-r2.html

The first post in this thread has some links to the wiki showing the updated drivers, but they link to A06 BIOS and I've been seeing the sticky on A07. I also see the ATI 8.763 drivers, which seems like the best route for my 5870 XF setup.

The system I (will) have only has an 256 SSD drive. I have read here that it is best not to use the SSD for everything. Do you recommend a 2nd HDD?

Lastly, do you owners feel like a laptop cooling stand/pad/thing is good for the system or redundant and unnecessary? The laptop will be sitting on my wooden desk, which isn't the greatest resistor to heat..

There is just so many moving parts here, I do not want to brick the system!

Thanks!

 

quick question, since I got this from the Outlet I am not sure of the answer.

This is what is listed as my display in the Dell Order Acknowledgement email:
17 inch UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) LCD Display

Can I assume my unit has the RGB Display? I'm going to be very disappointed if it doesn't but I did not see any differences in the name of the display on the outlet so I assumed they all had it. I purchased a M17x R2 if it matters. Also the main Alienware site only had 1 option for 1920 x 1200.

 

my acknowledgement says this

-- 17 inch UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display

i do know they had two 1200 displays... damn that sucks man im sorry

 

thanks for confirming!

Just cancelled my order and I am in the process of speccing out an i7-920 system.

 

Well folks, its official. Just received my brand new m17x-R2. Specs in signature. I had an R1 previously with the dual 260GTXs... and this R2 is just SO much better than the R1.

I am thinking of doing the following upgrades:
- i7 720 or 820
- Blu Ray Player
- Intel Wireless
- SSD
- 8gigs

Any suggestions are welcomed Cheers!

 

haha might as well upgrade!

 

1. Processor upgrade is good and usualy always bring a benefit (speed);
2. Blue Ray is only good if you watch BlueRay movies...
3. Intel Wireless is useless unless you wanna share your internet connection with other people (as far as I know, the third antenna only serves to allow another computer to use YOUR wireless connection, it's called Intel-My-Wi-Fi), and I tried both Intel and Broadcom: Absolutely the EXACT same speed between my Access point and my R2;
4. SSD is the best upgrade in your list as disk access are the bottleneck of any computer;
5. 8GB is superfluous unless you do CAD/Heavy graphic files rendering/handling.

Hope this helps !

eYe

 

What SSD do you guys recommend?

I am looking to replace the 320GB SATA HD that comes with my refurb with these two:

OCZ Vertex LE 100GB SATA II MLC SSD
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive - 4GB SSD)

 

I have the Intel 160GB G2 drive and the WD6400BEVT and love that combo in my machine.

 

Same setup I got. I tested out RAID 0, and though the sequential speeds were nice, 4K is still bottlenecked so not much benefit, plus I like space. Too lazy to change the sig cuz it looks sweet and I have a 160GB Intel G2 SSD collecting dust and depreciating in a drawer till I get home.

 

new system:

17 inch UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display
Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
Win 7 Ultimate
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
Blu-ray Combo
CF HD 5870m

Just need to upgrade the RAM and HD and will be good to go.

 

that cpu is a desktop cpu.....not the 920xm for laptops

 

You think my setup (specs in sig) is good enough to play any of today's games without a hitch?

I am just thinking because Im kinda having second thoughts on throwing money on upgrades

 

I will get a replacement from my last notebook becouse of warranty and here are the new specs (i can't change them):

---------------------------
Alienware M17x MLK
Intel Core i5 520M
17in WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 - Beyond HD (1200p) - RGB LED
4096MB (2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
320GB (2x160GB) Raid 0 "Stripe"(7200RPM)
8X DVD+/-RW
Dual 1GB ATI GDDR3 MOBILITY RADEON HD 4870
Dell Bluetooth 370
Dell Wireless 1520 (802.11n)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
1 year of Next Business Day coverage
---------------------------

These is a nice upgrade from my previous XPS 1730 but i'm thinking on spending some money to make it a little more powerfull. So i came up with:

1) Intel Core i5 520M -> 940xm
4096MB (2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel -> 8GB 1333Mhz (2x4Gb)
The processor would be a QE version from ebay which are much cheaper and memory i will have to upgrade it to 1333Mhz to match the processor rigth?
And i'm not sure if it would be better to wait 1 year or so for prices to come down since i5 520M is quite good for now and buy a 940XM retail later, what would u do?

2) 320GB (2x160GB) Raid 0 "Stripe"(7200RPM) -> 2x seagate momentus XT 500GB 4GB SDD.
I know SSD are the most powerfull rigth now, but they are expensive as hell. So i read that these Hybrid HD gives much more performance than usual HD's and its quite cheap (130€~).

3) 8X DVD+/-RW -> a blu-ray burner
do u know any place selling any blu-ray burner for M17x?

4) About the graphic card... from what i've seen 5870 aren't doing that great becouse of drivers and dell isn't selling them alone. Maybe wait untill a new one comes for M17x ?

5) suggestions?

 

I would not waste the money on the momentus XT drives or the ram. Only get the blu-ray if you plan to watch blu ray movies with the laptop or burn your own disks. The graphics cards are doing fine. Rest of the system looks nice

 

You should be fine. If anything, get a 620m, beyond that is unnecessary for todays games

 

What about the cpu? would it be worth to upgrade it to one of those 940XM QE?

 

that is up to you and what you want to do with the laptop

for benching and highest performance in games, yes get it

for productivity and regular use, a 720 or 820 should be plenty

 

better upgrade with an ssd than upgrading ram. needless except if you run programs like autocad ( i don think so)