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

yes i got it the first time and i didnt mean this hdmi but something extra which could be bought

the CLEVO X8100 has hdmi input and output...

Follows an extract of it's user manual downloadable from http://www.xxodd.nl/manuals/XNi8100x.pdf and you'll be with me:
"This computer features both HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) input
and output ports... The HDMI-In port allows you to display external sources such as Blu-ray players,DVDs, set top boxes and games consoles etc. on your computer screen... Make sure you install the HDI-In driver in order to support any HDMI input sources (see “HDMI-In Driver” on page 4 - 6). When the HDMI-In driver is installed the GameMate Media Player will be installed..."

 

Oh man you almost gave me a heart attack...I thought you were pointing out 8G sticks......I was soo gonna be all over that

 

oh sorry my friend. i meant 2x4GB memory modules so 8GB as total.

is any of the display port, vga, also inputs?

 

None of the video ports on the M17x are inputs, all output only. That hdmi in on the x8100 is very rare to see on a notebook (think that is the only one) and aparently it has some pretty big quality and performance limitations (thus why it is not available on american x7200s)

Your best bet would probably be streaming it to the laptop somehow using wifi?

 

i dont own one but is this laptop the best for gaming?

 

that is a very loaded question there, but yes, lots of people here are going to tell you that it is the best for gaming. There are other options out there like the Asus G73J series and various Clevo models have similar specs, all with competitive prices, but for the total package or style, reliability, service, speed, and the best LED screen on the market, the m17xR2 is really hard to beat for the price.

I suggest you look really hard at the forums. here, we give tips on how to fix the laptop yourself, save 20% or more on the price, performance tweaking, over-clocking, you get the idea. I would recommend that if there is any way you can try it in a store first to do so. How a laptop feels is one of the most important factors in buying one ( I have no issues )

 

For absolute performance its #2. The much more expensive Clevo X7200 with dual 480M graphics cards and i7-980 desktop processor is faster than the M17x-R2 (between 20-40% depending on the game and application). For build quality, service and features (e.g. RGB LED display) the M17x-R2 is the best notebook around.

 

i dont know any way to stream via wifi. i know some mobile apps i could try but nothing compared to direct hdmi. i believe this hdmi input feature is a must nowdays. its a portable machine meaning that we dont always have an external monitor. Pity that the amazing M17X screen cant be used for this purpose..

 

hi everyone...i had a little question in my mind lately after reading one of your fellow post about usage of ram in m17x. I have 8gb of ram in my m17x but i am not sure i am fully utilizing it...how do i utilize it or maybe assign certain amount of that ram to certain programs to boast up my rig?

 

Quick question, a while bck my FN+F2 acually worked, now it doesn't. Is there something that needs to be done in order for it to work?

Right now I'm waiting on my i7 920XM (ES) CPU to get here as well as my CPU heatsink ordered on ebay. Going to see if that works better than the one I have now that has some bends and causes the CPU to heat to much just browsing the web. Might bench the ES a bit too.

 

guys i am looking for a usb solution to add digital audio output on R2. would you buy the Creative Sound Blaster External SB X-FI Surround 5.1 ? does it deserve the money to expand audio on a machine like R2 (i mean isnt the intergrated one good enough)? i am also thinking of zalman ZM-RSSC refurnished as a cheap solution just to add 5.1 digital ouput. would you recommend me another one? i want 5.1 and above sound as i have the logitech Z5500 speakers.

 

I tried to hook up my laptop to my tv via HDMI cable so that I could watch a bluray movie.

But when I started to movie PowerDVD said that I couldn't watch bluray movies like that and closed the movie.

Does anyone know of a solution?

 

hi aristotelhs2060, well, i am currently using the xi-fi 5.1, and yes, in my experience, it really do make a difference when i am using roccat kave 5.1 headphone. Trust me, without using the xi-fi, you can surely hear the difference. I am not sure but overall m17x-r2 original soundcard and idp codec, didnt blew me away in my music and movie experience, it was rather simple nothing special. But with the xi-fi 5.1, i really did had good treble, bass and awesome surround. It you are planning to get the 5.1 external soundcard, make sure to get the complementary 5.1 headphone and external speaker to get your moneys worth, or not, there is no need to get the xi-fi 5.1. Plus, creative also brought a better driver i felt compared to the idt codec in m17x-r2 which lets you tweak the hell out of the sound card to get the maximum juice of it! Just my 2 cents.

 

Did you do the update it prompted for? There was a 97mb update that I had to download. Also when I started the movie I had to get another "update" to play the disk properly but I think it was more of a rights deal since it was instantaneous. After I went through that it plays perfectly on my external HDMI connected display (I am not using HDMI for audio though).

 

thanks my friend. I have the Z5500 speakers (really amazing) with THX and want to use digital input on them that only the xi-fi does have. I dont have 5.1 headphones as i dont use them. I guess a good comparison would be if someone uses triple analog on both IDT and creative. Ok i ll go for it. Thanks again

 

If anyone cares, I might be testing to see if two GTX 460M cards in SLi will work (and if it does, benchmarks) in the M17x-R2 pretty soon.

 

Please keep me updated I'm interested.

 

Both of mine show clocks and such in HWinfo32. Are you using the latest version of HWinfo32?

 

PMing you interested

 

How much for the GTX 470Ms because Eurocom is selling them on Ebay for around $650 with $70 shipping. Funny enough, you can get two GTX 460Ms from them for much less than that (which is why I snagged them).

I know they'll probably be slower than the 5870s, but I wanna test how well they scale in SLi on a notebook platform. They could make up enough ground to perform just as well as 5870s CfX, but we'll see.

 

can someone post the slave vBios for the 5870 for me? prefer the A01 bios if possible.

thanks!

 

here is a re-post of a guide that Mandrake gave to using atiflash. obviously you need a bootable usb drive to use atiflash but that's easy. you can also click on the card looking icon next to the Bios in gpu-z and it will prompt you to save it. i prefer to use atiflash because you are telling to specifically take the card1 bios(which is the slave bios)but either way should work

if you want i can remote into your computer and show in gpuz how to do it as well.

 

hey guys

I saw something about this earlier in this thread, but i didn't see an answer

If i unplug my 17x-r2 from the power and get the battery low, the next time i plug it in it will not charge..

I have to shut it down, take the battery out and then it'll charge...

I checked the FN-F2 and it says Enabled

 

it doesnt...

i waited 2 hours.. it just sat at 8%... not charging....

just shutdown, popped the bat, fired it up and presto, charging!

 

Not to insist over and over on this, but remember the Green enabled icon doesn't mean it is charging. It's actually the Blue enabled icon that does.

Anyway, there is a sticky with a test BIOS that apparently fixes the real issue if you have it.

 

Talking of this battery charging topic. I'm actually trying to figure out how to disable the battery on a long-term basis? I want to let it sit at around 50% all the time. And whenever I restart or put it into sleep and/or wake it up, it starts to charge again.

Anyone got any idea?

 

and by the way, another little issue here on R2. I got SLI 285 (for now =p), and the EVGA Precision can't be used. I launch the software and it freezes the hell out of it, i have to force shut it down, and of course, I uninstalled the precision Is this a common issue on 285? Or is it just my machine?

 

Sounds like a driver issue. Have you tried reinstalling the 285m drivers via driver sweeper and then using ccleaner etc etc (its a long winded process)

 

Any word on that 460 sli test?

 

Post I was refering to was removed, so my post is now irrelevent. In that case, I'll just take this post to gloat about my new 3DMark06 score Actually I was just looking for something to put here since my post made no sense as the one above me was removed.

I'm off to work at the Buy More! Adios for today

 

Cards are on the way still. They should be here by tomorrow or friday (if I'm there to sign for it). However, I need an SLi cable to test the SLi, and that should arrive on the 8th (next tuesday). So I'll be doing single GPU tests till the SLi cable comes in.

In the meantime, Tomshardware has a review of the Clevo X7200 with the 460Ms in SLi here, but I'll be doing more tests with the added benefit of both GPU systems (I'll be comparing them with my 5870s) using the same CPU/Chipset platform for a fairer comparison.

 

^^ Looking forward to your test. And while at it, could you also check the latency (DPCLat Checker) of the 460M's?

 

Sure thing

 

Odd little problem here, I have a 2nd monitor hooked to my M17 via HDMI cable, it is a Alienware AW2210 external monitor, and every now and then I will get a little flicker across it, enough to be noticible and annoying. The desktop is extended....any help would be appreciated

My drivers and card info attached below.

 

Show off your screen with this wallpaper:

http://i.imgur.com/Wwjxs.jpg

 

^^ dude, post a link or a thumbnail, this thing is huge.

 

Here's some news on the M17x GTX 460m SLi project:

Installed one of the two cards I got and it works. Boots up with no problem. I haven't installed both in SLi yet because I don't have the SLi cable yet. I'm in the process of downloading the right driver (hopefully) because the one I thought would work (260.99 notebook drivers) wouldn't install.

 

Can't wait for the results. You said the sli cable is coming on the 8th? And how much did the pair cost you?

 

$550 total. Without shipping it's around $480 for both.

Ok, I installed the 263.09 drivers from laptopvideo2go, but I'm already running into some issues:

GPU-Z crashes when I try to open it

Fan doesn't seem to respond to the increase in core temperatures and therefore I hit 93 degrees C when running Vantage. The GPU doesn't throttle down though.

Aside from that, already tested a few games:

EDIT: GTX 460M is a bit slower than the 5870 in NFS Shift and Hot Pursuit (before I said the GTX 460M was faster in NFS shift, but I was comparing the wrong settings before)

In Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2, the 460M is significantly slower.

Gonna try a different driver to see if I can get the fan issue fixed.

 

@ichime how does the bios show the card ?

 

The BIOS doesn't say anything about the card (I have the A09 BIOS). But I did notice a quick screen after the Alien bootup screen, but it's really quick. The only word I caught from it was PhoenixBIOS, which would make sense.

UPDATE: Still having issues with the drivers. The ones from Lv2go won't install fully (and thus, won't install). Going to try the ones from Dell (M15x support section).

 

Are these clevo cards? If so tried the x7200 drivers?

 

Yeah these are clevo cards. I've tried all the latest drivers so far, but either they won't install or they have the same problem with the fan control. It's probably the limited support for the card by the current BIOS...

 

Ok, I reinstalled the 5870s. I think either the BIOS doesn't fully recognize it or the VBIOS needs to be edited. Either way, I won't be able to do any long-term testing unless the fan issue is fixed. So I guess this project is on hold for now.

 

i would try the new *TEST* bios from the battery not charging issue. i have a pair of these coming too, so ill try it if you don't want to, but it may have updated support in it,
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19355423.aspx

 

Hey Ichime, did these cards come with their own heat sinks and fans that actually fit into the M17x, or do they use the same heat sinks and fans? This is quite intriguing, especially since I am quite fond of this laptop. This could be a step in the right direction as far as the 470s and 480s. Thank you for your research.

 

how do you post a thumbnail

 

I can try it sometime this week. I have a busy schedule coming up.

It didn't come with any heatsinks, but the heatsinks in the M17x fit them with no issue. I had to remove the underbracket from the 5870 (the X shaped piece, which doesn't come with the 460m) and place it under the GTX 460m in order to screw on the heatsink.

 

No one has any ideas here ?

 

I get occasional flickering with the ATI drivers. I never had any sort of flicker with the Dell ones, but they crashed to the desktop once and a while. I just learned to live with it, only certain apps do it in my case, others never do it.

Edit after reading Talon's post below:
I have never used extended desktop, only eyefinity 2x1 and 3x1 using externals. If the problem really is extended desktop then my case is probably irrelevant/different.