*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M17xR2 Edition Owner's Lounge - Part 3

Yea I meant UNOFFICIAL support... Hopefully theWiz pulls this off... And of he does... It'll seriously be one for the books

There's no way Dell will support any upcoming Gpus in the m17xr2... It's at the end of it's product life cycle..

Yea spending all that dough to get 20% increase in DX10.. Isn't worth it considering there's aiready newer tech out... just save up for the M18x hehehe....

And dx11... Not many games use it yEt thankfully... But yea... The 5xxx isn't exactly your gpu of choice if your thinking about dx11... Yea it implemented it... But it isnt really capable of fully utilizing it... The 6970 does this much much better, and still isn't perfect... (btw have you seen the benches? The card is a beast!!! Gets surprisingly close to dual 5870 scores in benches ... Sheesssshh!! )

 

I agree, stereo.

I would prefer to have a single card graphics solution if the single card performed as well as a dual set up. There's really no glory in boasting about dual anything. It's only horsepower and speed that matters.

 

Sadly, I also meant unofficial support. I am not hopeful that TheWiz can get GPU support altered. That is not as simple as unlocking stuff that dell left in the bios and just tried to hide.

Not that I doubt him, but it is a whole other animal

 

ahh yes... The scook9 rain cloud has come... So so skeptical all the time ... Lol... even though I too have my doubts as this is some serious modding(it's actually not modding... But bios writing actually.. They have whole teams of supernerds assigned at Dell to do this and theWiz is just one man doing this on his spare time)... We must remain hopeful!

That being said I know the guy got some skill... Fingers crossed he's got what it takes! You never know what kind of super genius' are lurking around on this site... and maybe... He's a high profile programmer for some big company and this is childsplay for him, and just needs to find the time to work on it! Who knows!

Hopefully my sunshine is gonna dry up that storm cloud of yours one day... LOLLLL

 

I would love to see it work, don't get me wrong. There is just a large portion of a bios that is vendor specific/unique and you would need to have intimate knowledge of how the bios is structured to successfully manipulate it

 

Guys... I am searching for (but not finding) a thread with a CPU compatibility list for the M17x R2 motherboard and BIOS. If anyone knows if and where one is, please post a link for it. I know that DR650SE plays around with a variety of CPUs and I'm curious how many CPU options are "plug and play".

 

Anything from the 520M to the 940XM. So the CPU's that would work are the following.

i5 520M
i5 540M
i7 620M
i7 640M
i7 Q720M
i7 Q740M
i7 Q820M
i7 Q840M
i7 920XM
i7 940XM.

Anything else won't have BIOS support to the best of my knowledge. I tried an i3 330M, and an i5 450M with no luck.

 

DR650SE - thanks for the prompt reply! +1 rep

 

Anyone know why my Power DVD is playing Blu-rays choppy? I'm using stock Dell drivers. Rarely use the blu-ray drive and today I was giving it a shot, and playback was choppy. Any ideas?

 

Using the drive in a USB enclosure right? Maybe not enough bandwidth? Not enough power to the drive? Do you have Hardware acceleration enabled?

 

Yea, I am using it as an external. I just tried it again, and was going to plug in the extra power USB cord, but now it's working. Gave the same behavior for several discs and now it's working. Easy fix I guess, just odd.

 

At least it is working. I have had times when I could not get it to play back blu rays and it made me so frustrated haha

 

Lol, I'm sure. I've been lucky, and nothing had changed, so I was wondering why it was jumpy. I can't wait to get into a new apartment and get everything straight the way I want it.

 

On my HTPC it got so frustrated I finally bought a legit copy of PowerDVD....lol

It was THAT bad. Now I am just wrestling with getting a GTX 570 for my HTPC to play nice with my Sony AV receiver

 

Lol, I just use it because it came with the system, though I have bought other products, and end up using them once. Makes me feel like an idiot lol.

On a totally off topic note: I stopped in at MicroCenter here with NBR Member Darkloki. He showed me, I never knew we had one in here. Now I'm considering building a desktop. Watercooled GPUs/CPUs, nice big clean Corsair case... Just gotta pay off the bills and figure out whats going on with employment. EK GPU waterblocks looked nice, and that i7-990x was calling my name.

On Topic: But definately keeping the M17x for a while. Like having that portable powerhouse. Think it should be a nice compliment to the desktop, and great for travel. m11x is reserved for couch use and quick travels for the most part.

 

Sounds like you will have a set up pretty similar to me haha

M17x R1
M11x R1
Desktop with watercooled i7 EE and watercooled dual 5870s

Let me know if you need any tips/advice on the desktop

 

Your right! I will definately be hitting you up for advice. Might be a while before I get to it, but I definately want to.

 

Watercooling is fun, I took about a month to re-do my desktop, but it was worth it! Will take an updated picture of the monster now

Here is my little world

 

hey community,

i'm set on getting an r2. i have seen some listings for 1200p lcd screen and some listings for 1200p rgb screen?

did alienware switch screens at some point of production of 1200p r2's?

or is the exact same screen, just labeled differently?

thanks.

 

There is the 1900x1200 CCFL screen & the Better 1900x1200 RGB which is the one to get.Also there is 2 RGB screens from different OEM's mine is from Samsung with id "K1NFP€170CT" .

 

Definately a nice setup. I'm pondering moving to D.C. for a job, and if I do, I may have to get rid of my 2004 R6, and if I do, I'm going to put the money into a watercooled desktop pretty much like yours. All high end parts.

 

If you end up in the DC area hit me up, I live outside Fairfax

 

Nice, defiantely will do. I'm hoping to get the job, career wise it's exactly what I want. Fingers crossed.

On another note, on the phone with tech support trying to get them to ship parts directly to me. They refuse on my motherboard, but at least the M11x keyboard is being sent to me. 5870s I think are out of stock

 

Seems like the 5870s are perpetually out of stock

 

how does the nvidia 285 sli stack up against ati 5870 crossfire?

any advantages of 285 sli over 5870 crossfire?

thanks

 

Only advantages are if you must have Cuda or PhysX or if the game heavily favors nvidia architecture, otherwise, the 5870s are MUCH better and drivers are much more available and updated more frequently

 

i searched and found some answers but did not address my q specifically:

i see some m17x r2 listed on dell outlet w/ slot load blu ray , slot load dual layer blu ray, and other just w/ blu ray combo (no slot mentioned).
Is this a typo and all r2's are slot load or some are tray load? and are all r2 blu ray player dual layer compatible or some are only single and others dual?

thanks

 

From my humble understanding, the M17X does not have enought room to accomodate a tray load optical drive.

 

thanks, so all are slot load.

now to find if all slot load blu ray players on r2 are dual layer or some are single while others are dual?

 

There is plenty of room, but there is no physical opening in the chassis to accommodate at tray loading drive, so it's not a matter of "enough room."

I don't believe they offer a variety of Blu-Ray drive models... just the BD/DVD-RW combo and the BD Rewritable drive. I have the Blu-Ray burner and it is dual layer. Both are Panasonic MATSHIiTA and the rewritable model is the MATSHIiTA BD-RE UJ235A.

I had to add the extra "i" in the name because the system would not allow a single letter "i" between SH and T.

 

I have a unique issue-I have a 1920x1200 screen that I sold once on Feebay. It worked perfect for me before selling bc I had it in my old R2. The buyer said it was bad and I have no way to check it as I now have an R3. My question is-1) Is there any way to test the display w/o hooking to a lappy? (NO) and 2) Does anyone want to volunteer to check it for me if I ship it to them?

 

^^ where do u live ?

 

This question might seem overly cynical, but the depth of dishonesty and treachery of many people is boundless. Did you do anything to permanently mark the part you sold before shipping it out? It would not surprise me in the least to have someone send you a different (defective) screen back in an attempt to defraud you and steal your screen. I would be very wary of the claim that the screen is bad if it was working on the machine you pulled it from. I learned my lesson with the trolls on feeBay and started marking anything I sold in a very inconspicuous manner that nobody would ever notice. Don't give them a refund until you get it tested. Hopefully, you can confirm it is the same part you sent out.

 

Are you sure about that ? Did you ever fully disassemble your unit ?

I might be dead wrong, and if so, I sincerely apologize, but I thought tray load optical drives were a bit higher than slot load ones, and I know for sure it's really tight in there; if the two units have the same dimensions, of course it would then fit; else, it won't...

This being said, it's true that the chassis has been made for slot load optical drives, and there's actually no M17X that comes with a tray load optical unit.

 

Yes, I have completely disassembled my M17x R2. In fact, the first time it was dismantled was to install the Blu-Ray rewritable drive that Alienware had to send me later because they were out of stock when the order was placed.

But, that's really not relevant. You find the answer to your question about installing a tray loading optical drive by simply examining the chassis from the outside. It's a no-go. There is no opening in the chassis for an external loading tray. The aluminum chassis has only a slot large enough for discs to be inserted. You would have to physically modify the chassis by cutting a larger opening for the tray to eject discs, and then you would have no bezel for the end of the tray to fit the shape of the chassis, just a gaping hole for the tray.

Whether the physical dimensions of a slot load and tray load are the same would be largely irrelevant the way the chassis is designed. I suppose for someone ambitious enough to butcher their beautiful R2 chassis, it might be doable with enough effort... with little or nothing to be gained in the long run.

I see your point about "enough room" though. It would stand to reason that a tray loading drive would need to be slightly larger to account for the extra space occupied by the tray. So, on that basis there may not be enough space even if the chassis were made differently.

 

setPLL .lut request

Wondering if a m17xR2 owner with setfsb would like to generate a setPLL .lut file for these systems? Then others could overclock for free

 

Georgia, USA

I did not mark it, and the buyer filed a claim with Paypal and even though I had emails stating he altered the screen and pics showing where he 'chipped/cut' metal off, they still ruled in his favor.

The issue he said is colored vertical lines across the screen. I've seen it before when cards cause the problem. It may be the screen is bad, but I KNOW it was good before.

 

So paypal already ruled in his favor ?
What can u do at this point ?

 

Hey !

We're on the same page pal, guess I just did not express myself properly... It is absolutely true that the chassis is NOT made to accomodate a tray loading optical drive, it's so obvious I just didn't think of mentionning it !

However, and you got it at the end as you said, my point was that a tray loading drive wouldn't fit in the space occupied by the slot loading drive, and this, EVEN IF the chassis would provide a larger opening for a tray to be able to open.

Cheers !

 

Things like this are pretty much why I never sell on ebay.....to many dishonest people in the world. And PayPal is unfairly biased towards buyers as if all sellers are automatically scumbags which is obviously not true

 

man, i'm sorry to hear that. i hear horror stories about people abusing and paypal not doing too much. did the buyer have a positive high rating on ebay?

 

Dang! I'm so sorry about that. That really stinks. It might be hard to prove, but I'll bet the buyer either screwed it up or is sending you back a different display than the one you sold.

 

^^ how do you protect yourself from this kind of scam? i mean even if you mark your screen it's still his word against yours and paypal is usually ruling in favor of the buyer...

 

Take pictures or make a video before you pack it or ship it.
And even so PP doesn't always go with the buyer , a guy sent me a broken portable DVD player and declared it as the laptop I paid for. I sent photos with the unpacking process and everything and they didn't do anything (lost 2000+ on a piece of plastic).
My advice: do business with the ones you trust, high feedback doesn't always mean good seller/buyer.
I personally think they take the "lesser paperwork route" in times like this.
Sorry for the off topic reply .

Pmassey hopefully he only has a bad GPU and the screen works. Sorry for you mate, I really hope everything will be ok for you.

 

Wow that's ridiculous and just another reason I hate dealing with ebay/paypal. I made my R2 sales terms stricter because of it and am limiting PP from only established NBR members with prior sales--newbies gotta pay me via money order or wire transfer. This scamming is getting worse lately. I recently sold an i720qm on ebay for $200 three months ago and last week the guy filed an unauthorized claim. Too bad for him I had all the shipping details + the moron left me a positive feedback so PP ruled in my favor. Still was annoying to deal with.

 

Yeah seems that some people are made of ice with no conscience( well the money's gone now even after trying 3rd party options,lesson learned) hope your lappy sells with no issue .

 

I only use PayPal for relatively cheap stuff and only buy on forum from people I trust. Love the internet.....

 

just orderd my r2 off from dell outlet w/ coupon.
i'm pumped.

only thing, on outlet page and w/ speaking w/ rep, both said screen is 1200p rgb.
but after ordering, then looking at order details it lists the screen as:

8WG28 1 Module,Liquid Crystal Display,17WUXGA,Light Emitting
Diode,M17X10

is this the rgb 1200p or 1200p ccfl?

also, anyone know where i can get an actual r2 manual as opposed to the pdf version?

thanks.

 

LED is light emitting diode

So that is a vote towards NOT ccfl

 

@scook9,

thank u. in my hunt for my r2, i have been looking at many r2 service tags and all of them have mentioned rgb in service tag specs, but i believe all were bought as new and being sold to 2nd hand not being sold as refurbished.
so, in alil confusion i wanted to be sure about the screen.

another example of difference, on refurbished order specs they listed the crossfire 5870s as dual all in one line vs buying as new they list each 5870 on their own line. weird.