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

prolly silver is the best for finger prints.

 

I got a silver R1 because it will show virtually NO fingerprints and also hides scratches extremely well (from things like a backpack zipper)

 

My silver M9700 hides finger prints and scratches very well, but the m9750 that was black shows scratches and fingerprints like a champ. Now they both had a plastic magnesium case so it may be a little different than the anodized aluminum.

 

I think i will go silver then, although i prefer red and black more as colour, i do hate stains, scratches and fingerprints and i clean my system like a maniac to make it look all new and shiny. I already guessed it would be silver, because my silver M1710 was way better to mantain as my black M1730 ...

 

i had R1 silver which was replaced with my current black R2. it was difficult to see fingerprints on the R1 cover (i never scratched it so i can say about that). My R2 show fingerprints but i dont regret i got black insted of silver because the machine shows smaller and illumated colors show better.

 

Psyloid I would suggest get the color you want. When I bought my m9700 I could only get silver and it bummed me out because you think what if. It seems like most, or at least I am, you and Alienware users are extremists when it comes to the cleanliness of your computer.

 

i'll tell you what black looks awesome but picks up every finger print!
drives me mad lol

 

Ok guys another question for you, this time in the accessories department. Do regular 17" laptop bags and sleeves fit the r2? I am slatted to get my laptop by the end of the week but was hoping to pick up an appropriate travel bag for my trip next week. Any suggestions, and as always thanks is advance.

 

It should fit anywhere a normal 17" would.

 

Thanks for the tip Batboy it turned out that the lighting on the touchpad was disabled due to the external mouse. So theres nothing defective on the new R2 yay!

@ ((STEREO)) I had a look on Amazon and the Orochi is $65 and the g700 was $70. I like the idea of the extra buttons on the g700 cos I play Dawn of War 2 and it's useful to have lots of extra buttons for that game. I ended up getting the g700 for $90 AUD delivered to Aus one of my mates got it locally for $160 so I'm pretty happy

I benchmarked Dawn of War 2 on the weekend and it was min 18 Ave 45 and Max 100. On the highest settings @1920 x 1200.

I was expecting a bit higher but it's definitely better than my R1, I'll have to get my buddies with desktop PC's to bench it to see if they do any better.

 

Have my R2 and as much as I like it, its having problems with the power supply. They send me a 210W power supply and its not recognized by the PC.

Lots of throttling (stealth mode is off) and Dell has not even yet activated my warranty. Little disappointed with the whole thing...

 

Call Dell tomorrow and they'll have someone take care of the warranty. I ran into the same problem but AW tech took care of it. Just tell Dell to send you the correct 240w charger.

 

@ villosa, was there any throttling with the 210W adapter? I am curious because if it is only due to the adapter, then its fine.

 

I wouldn't know cause my system was full of problems. I can verify that I wasn't even able to run the WEI assessment because the system thought I was on battery power even when the charger was plugged in....

 

you're right, it should.

but it doesn't. the angled front and back sides make it's fit seem bigger than other 17" laptops - and then there's the thickness...

My old Inspiron 9400 fit just barely in my old trolly roller. The XPS 1730 that replaced it just barely didn't fit in the roller and easily fit in my swissgear backpack. My M17x doesn't even come close to fitting in my roller and just barely doesn't fit in my backpack.

It's mainly about the corners and edges....

 

That is true....try putting the M17x in a TSA bin haha....it literally has 0mm free space. Wonder if that was a design consideration on their part....lol

 

I was able to, I pulled out the battery and just ran it on outlet power. Then the WEI worked. This is of course a work around and I think the scores were on the lower side as well.

 

Hmm, i hope the M17X will still fit my crumpler bag then, the M1730 was like a tight fit already .....

Prolly, if i leave out the sleeve it will fit ...

 

@ GoodToGo, How were you able to tell if your power brick was a 210 instead of a 240? I read on other forums that this was an issue.

As far as the cases and sleeves, my neoprene sleeve fits pretty snug on my m9700. I'm hoping that my Alienware Orion backpack fits the system, it has a little wiggle room for the m9700.

 

as far as what i have seen on the forum, the orion backpack will be able to fit the M17x with some space leftover.

 

AW orion backpack is awesome i use it every day for mine. plenty of space plus it doesn't feel that big!

 

yap! that why i got it for my R3. so now, i have an empty alienware bag sitting at home, just waiting for my R3 to arrive.

 

anyone knows if i can and where to buy bluetooth 3.0 for the R2? i mean an internal one..

 

For my R1 I have the Slappa Velocity Matrix and it fits perfectly

 

ok if noone can help me does anyone know the bluetooth module model used on R3? i have devices using bluetooth 3.0 and i want to take advantage of it

 

Not 100% sure but I think the bluetooth module for the r2 is proprietary for that system. You should be able to find some on ebay. If not you can always get a usb one, I've seen some that are the size of dimes. I hope this helps.

 

I don't know if it's proprietary or not. I've opened my R2 up a few times, and right there under where your left palm rests is the slot for the Broadcom card.

 

ok anyone knows if the dell 375 bluetooth can be installed on R2?

its this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Wireless-3...047?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33644eb9b7

 

I would check the part numbers and see if they are compatible. With laptops you have to be careful and make sure its still in the power range and if it can be recognozed by the mobo. With most dell systems though they usually have the same parts floating around different systems. I hope this helps.

Also just found out that my r2 is being shipped with a dell 370 bluetooth card dell part #ctx0x. On google search and watched the teardown vid. The cards look different in size and pin count, look for the wpan section. Sorry dude.

 

i know all those my friend. mine has the 370 bluetooth too and i know they are different. thats why i am asking. R3 uses 375 bluetooth. i am trying to find a mini pci bluetooth 3.0 (without wifi) but cant find any

By the way for those interested i started updating my drivers from R3 drivers webpage . i tried the new intel 6300 driver (13.3 A00) and bluetooth (Bluetooth 6.3.0.6900 A04) ones and working flawlessy. thats the good point of new M17X releases. Dell remembers to update drivers

 

Hmm, I just noticed something that I wish I had thought of a while back. When I start my system with crossfire disabled, Windows boots in 12-13sec (windows boot timer). When I boot with crossfire enabled, it boots in 16sec. I've been trying to figure out what was the cause of the added 3.5 sec. Guess I found it Just thought I'd throw it out there in case some else would find the info handy. I don't much care about my boot time (it's plenty fast), but I do care about how differant changes affect the system, and I thought I was looking for a hidden process from some program installs. I've been scrubbing my services and msconfig setups

 

@DR650SE
I have noticed this to on my SLI m9700. I noticed that windows boots a lot faster with only one video card fired up, I had assumed that it was the Nvidia SLI firing up, but the m9700 is the first SLI system from 2006 so I expected that.

Just one question, how much programs and processes have you been able to get rid without getting any errors for program faults.

 

Yeah I noticed with crossfire it initializes the second card right before entering Windows.

 

Yea, and I'm not sure why I never thought of it, but it just came to me when I was cleaning my system so I can create a perfect low maintanance OS image. I restarted my system a few times to test the theory and just as Joker said, it initializes and recognizes the card during the windows boot process.

As far as processes and services, everything I don't need I set to Manual, everything I want launched, but not right at startup, I changed to Delayed. I'm down to around 70-72 or so services at startup. As far as programs that boot, I disabled all that I don't need like iTunes, Things I kept to boot at windows were Acronis Tru image, Logitech set point, bluetooth, my USB 3.0 adaptor, Intel Pro wireless, Catalyst Control, McAfee Antivirus.

I'll probably keep my second card disabled and just manually enable it for specific games. things like Modern Warefare 1 don't really need it as it runs plenty smooth on one GPU.

 

^^ nice idea
running on one card will also save battery life, or is it on even if not used ?

 

On a desktop simply disabling sli and I believe cf doesn't turn the card off, it only stops it from being used. I'd figure is the same for a laptop.

 

Hey guys im looking to buy a 5870 for my m17x r2 any ideas where to get one i cant seem to find any on ebay, if anyone is selling theirs id be down to buy.

 

Try a site called ztronics.com they carry parts for alienware and clevo/sagers. That and mxm-upgrade.com they carry forums and a parts store for mxm cards.

 

Hey, mxm has one 5870 its type B and im not sure if i need type b or type a.
I also need to know if i can use the same heatsink as on my 4870 and if it will work straight out of the box or will i have to do things to it?

 

just wait a little bit for this. If you read the article , it says the card will be upgradable to BT 3.0 later one, or maybe it has released already, didn't bother to check that actually.

 

this is a -half- sized mini pci and the dell 370 bluetooth is fully sized. Thus i have the best wireless chip (intel 6300) and i dont want to change it. Actually i am planning to do a mod using a mini pci to usb adapter

mini pci to usb items - Get great deals on Computers Networking, mini pci to pci items on eBay.com!

and usb bluetooth 3.0 device ( i bought trust bluetooth 3.0 device) . so it will be detected as usb device but in fact it will be internal And all those because noone released a simple mini pci bluetooth 3.0 (without wifi) and i cant find the reason


Somethin like this has been done on an acer

The Acer Guy Blog Archive Add Bluetooth to Aspire 5920G

but this guy didnt have the adapter yet

 

Wow, i never seen those, they look bloody interesting !!! rep +1

 

disabling secondary gpu? for 3 seconds faster? aaaa you are getting craz my friend. Thus why none uses eset? its must faster i believe even in loading and operation. I guess i am the only one who likes this instead of preinstalled mccafee

you are free to try you welcome

 

Never tried Eset, but Avast is freakishly fast
I have no love for mcafee, nortons, panda's and bitdefenders

Avast memory imprint = 15100 Kb

 

you saw this from task manager? have a look at this

 

woot !!! is it free, like avast?

edit: no it's not, it's 47.50€ per computer ... I'll stick with the free one

 

well i never bought it. i use trial licenses all the time.

 

On the site they have a chart that tells what each system is. I believe that the M17x R2 is a 3.0 type B. I also think the heat sinks are the same because of being system based. The 4870 cards are identical to the 5870. Try and stick to cards that support the m17x and m15x. I hear that there is some vbios or something that is on the card for the mobo to accept it.

Hope this helps, and if wrong somebody correct me.

 

I wish Dell called me already to say they will swap me M1730 for an M17x, why is it taking so looooong ........

 

I will have to check these out. I have always used AVG because it was $FREE.99, but when a scan starts it just bottles my system. Its great software and constant updates but on a single core not so much. Here's hoping when the R2 comes in (today maybe.....yaaaaaa!!! ) the quad wont sweat over it.