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

5870s are so much better....

 

well i only want 1 card as not many games seem to benefit much from my current crossfire, plus i seem to get micro stutters in crossfire

 

Hmm, my post went away. Oh well. Anyway, yeah, I am considering the same since a lot of the people here are also on Steam. BFBC2 the most played game on there?

 

except the gpus itself other reasons may cause this microstuttering. maybe even your cpu. 5870s are faster than 4870s in practise but games are not demanding yet to see the real horsepower of the 5870s. i can tell it by my own as i had 4870s then swapped to 5870s. But if you dont want to spent money then one 5870 should be enough for many games

Many games benefit from crossfire though and AMD updates approfiles regularly.

 

if its my cpu how can i fix it? also where did you get your 5870's?

 

Quadcore turbo is 3.2ghz i believe not 2.5. in anycase the 2820QM have shown it can sustain a quadcore turbo of 2.7 so the 2920XM should atleast be able to sustain a quadcore turbo of 2.8-3ghz since it has a TDP of 55w vs 45w for the 2820qm. But thats only from a couple reviews. Would need to have a few more samples before we can say for sure.

 

i was lucky enough to find them on ebay. The primary was new and bought directly from Dell from an ebay seller who sold it to me. thus the secondary 5870 was already tested and taken from a working r2 so i never had issues with ATI bios and stuff.

Ordering from Dell will result in waiting for ever and 99% secondary 5870 not working

 

Very true Aristotel.... dell will keep sending you master cards that will not work in the secondary slot cuz they are a bunch of tards... took me to convince them to send me a replacement system just so they would get the card matchup right (after 2 failed attempts of them sending me the secondary card alone, and then one failed attempt of them sending me the pair of cards which was supposed to solve the mix-up problem... it didnt)


oh and btw... nice rig aristotel almost there just trying to get my hands on a damn 920/940...soon soon

maxed out r2 is fun fun

 

lool i see we have even the same drives Hope you get an XM cpu soon. This machine will be on top for long.

 

Yeah, I hope I can EBay mine as well. I really just want the support for DirectX. That's all. I like the fact that it rounds out the edges, etc. I just know as time goes on it becomes harder finding a pair of working 5870s for my R2.

 

I hate seeing this repeated constantly. It's simply not true. Microstutter can happen but it's not always due to SLI or CF alone. Also, many games, actually almost every major game within the last 2-3 years will have SLI and CF support. Anything older than that you don't need SLI or CF anyway.

 

Well ill try another driver, does anyone know if dell's driver is the best to use or am i fine to use the most recent one from ati?

 

i have said that before. all the lates demandng games i have tried (except one or two like sega racing.. lool) all supported CF. some just may work slightly better on sli (talking about sli gtx460 and above) because they are nvidia optimized but nothing like not being able to play in CF or that CF doesnt work. and still ATI fights that with newer appprofiles. thats all i can say.

dell drivers are new just for one month since they were posted on their website. thats not only for the ATI drivers. i use 10.12 anyway and the latest approfiles (updated regularly). i always try the newest drivers. not always the best but worth trying. my benchmark was near 21000 without even overclocking the 5870s

 

A10 Bios is up with the following description :

i assume the second line is some kind of battery charging fix.. not sure about the first

 

Comments on A10 BIOS here please -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ugged-not-charging-fix-discussion-thread.html

Thanks.

 

Well I just got my M17x R2 yesterday its has

740qm, 8GB DDR3 Ram, 2 x 5870 Crossfire, 2 x 500 GB HDD in RAID, Blu Ray RE, RGB LED screen

It's replacing a R1 that was

T9550 @ 2.6Ghz, 4 GB DDR 2 Ram, 2 x GTX 260 in sli, 2 x 500 GB HDD in RAID, Blu Ray RW, WUXGA 1200p screen

I just thought I'd write up some pro's and cons of the new system vs the old one

Pros

I'd heard people talk about the monitor but oh my god it is a huge improvement, the colours are amazing compared to the old screen

Gaming performance, so far I have only tested black ops online and I must say it's way better. I was playing max settings 4x AA and was killing everyone. On the R1 with no AA it would have these weird pauses during intense shootouts affecting my killing ability.

Worked great out of the box! I didn't tweak anyting and the laptop works great!! props to dell for actually getting their software to work. On the R1 if I didn't msconfig off the alien fusion and facial recognition my latop would weird out I really hated that software!

Cons

When Idle the R1 is really a lot quieter. If you are using the R1 to browse the net or something other than gaming its pretty much inaudible. The R2 however just idling is about as loud as the R1 during games. During games the R2 cranks up and is seriously loud.

the R1 is also a lot cooler at idle and a bit cooler gaming, the R2 is pretty warm at idle and heats up a bit during gaming.

The light around the mousepad doesn't work, considering how great the rest of the system is i'll let this go.

No integrated graphics. I haven't really tested the R2 on battery yet but I really did love the integrated 9400GS in the R1 it allowed a ludicrously powerful laptop to get over 2 hours battery life! I'll miss this feature.

Anyway I am really happy with the R2 best laptop I have ever used by far. The heat is obviously a result of the great performance and I'm happy to put up with the noise if it will result in a more reliable system.

Anyone think its worth getting dell to fix the light around the mousepad?

 

Do you have an external mouse plugged in? if so, unplug it. Does the t-pad lighting come back on? Did you try depressing FN+F12?

 

^^^ Definately... call them up asap!

as for the heat... the r2 stock has a crappy paste job done to its gpus... and the heatsink doesn't sit flat on the gpu... with a few quick mods... your gpus will be running cooler than your r1 Search " Retention Mod " on the forums and it should find the thread im talking about... might need some aftermarket thermal paste though (mx4 is top notch)

oh and congratz... this laptop is a beast

 

Thanks for the quick replies! Thats a really good suggestion Batboy I do have an external mouse plugged in and the touchpad is disabled, boy would I feel stupid if I got a technician to come in and the light actually worked

@ (((STEREO))) I'm confortable working on my destop pc but I am intimidated by the numer of screws and complicatedness in pulling apart the m17x. I have seen a tech do it and I think i'll just leave it unless it becomes a real problem. I'll keep an eye on the temperatures with my g15.

I'll do some benchmarking over the weekend if I have some time. I have Metro 2033, Dawn of War 2, Farcry 2, Dirt 2, Black Ops and Dead Rising 2 so I'll post my results.

Finally I watched some of the avatar Special Edition on the screen last night and oh my god it looked good. This could be a problem though cos I have a 55" 720p rear projection tv and it looks so primative compared to the RGB LED. So I may have to buy a new tv. I just wish I lived in the US where tv prices are a bit more affordable

 

lol well thats cuz your tv has 720 pixels spread across 55inches.... and you M17x has 1200 pixels crammed into 17 ... Can you say... Pixel Density? Plus the colors are juicy

 

Speaking of TVs, I'm getting ready to buy a Sony 55HX800 through my work since there is a good accomodation. Should get it for around $1300 Be nice to hook the M17x up to that. Then I can just get a wireless keyboard and do some gaming Thats the TV I'm leaning towards but still need to look at the other Sony options, though truth be told, I like the Samsung LEDs better since they appear brighter, but Sony is who we have an accomodation for. Still a great TV though, especially for some gaming.

 

Have the same TV, got it through Sony (no interest with 3 year financing and a free PS3 and games and 3d blu rays). You'll love it, looking foward to 3d gaming with it and the 1.4 HDMI out with the M17X.

 

Samsung tvs just look outstanding... better than sony sharp and lg imo as well... my first tv was a bravia...it was good... but then i tried a samsung and it looked so much crisper... now every tv i have is a samsung... it seems they just got everything right with their tvs ... and gaming on 55" would be sweet ;P ... i game on my 46" led samsung in my room sometimes and yes... it is awwwwwwsome ... even bought a xbox controller so its almost like im playing an xbox 360... but with 100X better graphics hehe ... that being said... nothing beats ye ol' keyboard + mouse for FPS though

 

Yea gaming on a nice tv is pretty cool especially car games, saved me a lot on money in fuel and speeding fines . I use my g15 corded when gaming on the tv cos g15's are awesome don't know whats a good wireless keyboard.

If you want a good wireless gaming mouse get a logitech g700 I just ordered one and have used them before most comfortable mouse ever! with 13 buttons! I have a microsoft sidewinder x8 and I don't really like it don't buy that one.

Also the wireless reciever for the xbox 360 controller is a good investment heaps of pc games support it and you can play 4 player blur on a big tv with 4 xbox 360 controllers which is pretty fun.

 

g15 is awesome... and for half the price of the g700 you can get an orochi... and its awesome

 

Glad to hear that. Definately looking forward to it

Yea, I see Samsungs next to Sonys and all the other makes, and the colors are just so much brighter and vivid. Makes me wish Samsung had an employee accomodation.

 

The xbox controller is a good call, been doing that myself for 4 years now.

 

Haha it's like we're all on the same page. I just purchased a replacement receiver for my logitech wave 2.4 ghz keyboard and I plan to use my M17x in the living room with the 46" Samsung I got. Should be great for games like street fighter 4, devil may cry, emulators, driving games and the occasional fps.

 

I game on my tv with my htpc (Q9550 and a 4890). Crysis on a 52" (720p) looks good. Next week I am upgrading to a 60" 1080p, imagine how it will look then!

Since the TV is 3D capable I may get a GTX 460 to try it out down the road, need to update the 4890 anyways I think. I want the best card that is 9.5" or less (chassis limitation) and right now that is the GTX 460 FTW. When I got the 4890 it was that.

 

Is that 60" a plasma? If so, watch out for burn in. It's reasons like this I wish the R2 had wireless HD.

 

60" DLP

I know LCD/LED can look better, but $700 for 60" is pretty good to me

 

^^^ Damn right! I friggin lovvvvvve how cheap tvs are gettin ... hey while wer on the subject, anyone try any of those 1080p projectors out? would love playing life-size COD black ops in my room on a 150" projection onto my wall with the logitech z-5500's cranked hehe ... now thats serious!

 

Crankin' my Z5500s right now

Got a Bose home theater set with the TV/HTPC though. They are over a decade old and still sound awesome.

 

Nice! Honestly these logitechs are one of the best buys of my life. HUGE sound for such a cheap setup.... and they sound about 100x better than any home theatre in a box setup you can find... even the 1000$ ones...

 

I paid $200 for mine brand new

Was some fluke sale on TigerDirect summer 2008.

 

^^^ hahaha sweet! funny cuz i got mine for 200$ also in a pawn shop near my house brand new in the box love that guy who chizzed it and pawned it... he got me a great deal! lol

 

Got my outlet R2 today...and riddled with problems...most likely going back. This is in addition to Dell holding my order since last Thursday and making me wait an entire week even though I paid NBD shipping. My wait continues.

 

Ask for a factory replacement. They gave me one.

 

I tried and the supervisor, Ricardo, told me to accept another outlet replacement or get a refund and go buy from someone else...I only loled and told him ok, I will talk to your escalation team. Which I did.

Aren't these things tested before they leave?? My god...and telling me they don't want my business and buy elsewhere...ok, so they don't want my M11x, M15x, Studio 14, and M17x orders either huh? Ridiculous.

 

That's surprising to hear. Try calling back and getting in touch with a different supervisor. Don't mention any previous calls you made.

 

Yeah me too. He even argued with me too, telling me he can get me the same config on the outlet when I know for a fact he can't. There are so many things wrong with the system right now. I'm especially concerned about the bottom on the laptop chassis being uneven leading to wobbles every time I type. I know it's crooked too because the lid closes unevenly LOL.

 

Hi guys, I am mouse clicks away from buying a M17x R2 from the outlet. I just have a few questions. Should I get the Nvidia GTX 285m in SLI or go with the ATI 5870 Xfire option. I heard that they both have pros but I think experience from actual M17x owners is better than looking at a data sheet. Also for those the received an outlet laptop what are your takes on it? Thanks in advance.

 

The 5870s seem to work better with drivers, they should also perform better.

 

Fantastic, that was the impression I was getting when reading the tech sheets. How does the system hold up with xfire and heat. I heard there is a cooling mod, is it necrssary?

 

It is not necessary, but it helps ALOT

 

Nice. Bought mine at CompUSA a year and a half ago. Got my Desktop computer and my PS3 hooked up to it via Optical (swap out the cables for one or the other). Only thing wrong with them is the backlight went on the control pod. I am just too lazy to follow through with my warranty claim. One day I will.

Otherwise, I absolutely love the Subwoofer. The other speakers are "meh" though. Mostly because of the poor midrange.

p.s. I also found out that if I use the optical cable, I don't get any cellphone interference noise through the speakers. Good stuff.

 

The backlight thing is a common problem. They will actually have you send in your control unit and they will send you a full new set of speakers haha. The old set is useless with out a control unit of its own though sadly (which is why they ebay for like $150 haha)

 

Hey guys, thanks scook9 for the advice. I purchased the system and is slated to arrive 1/27/11. Now I play the waiting game.

 

^^ aww man that's the hardest part! Hang in there bud

 

Which colour attracts the least finger prints red,silver or black?