*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

I personally think the i7 will eat the battery quickly. But who knows, maybe it's more energy efficient. As far as gaming, there might be some increase depending on the game I would say. If you processor runs 2 cores at 2.8 and the i7 Turbo-boosts at 2.8 2 cores, then it would be the same. Get my point?

 

Gadgetboi, it was more of a stale joke.

Of course there's tons of threads. Look at the OC and benchmark threads. Man.

Cheers, Nick. I'll give your solution a try. Hopefully, it'll work.

And no, I don't use a mouse. Never have, and probably never will. I am a casual gamer who is mostly won over by cheap gimmicks and fancy visuals. I don't play online, so the competition has never forced me to go mouse. Heh. I even play Crysis with my 360 joypad, sometimes. Yeah. . . sad.

Anyway, nice to hear from you guys.

Take it easy.

 

I am with you

 

I'm interested in the i7 because I want to see what kind of benchmarks it will put up. Thats really why I'm bummed I didn't wait. Oh well.

 

Well a 360 joypad is better than nothing but i'm surprised, I just find it easier to navigate windows and make quick commands and movements with an external mouse let alone gaming. But at least you've got a 360, I just picked one up and they're great for Games for Windows titles.

It is a mystery to me why the Synaptics touchpad drivers are so horribad and are designed to make the touchpad stuttery. Luckily though, the windows 7 drivers work with sidescrolling and all you have to do if you ever do have an external mouse in is hit FN F7 or whatever the touchpad disable key is.

 

yeah I do not use the touchpad at all. It's not in an ideal spot for my hand and as others said, it's tough to figure out where exactly you are on the touchpad. I did find that removing the synaptics drivers helped (and also reduced dpc latency), but at the same time, I lost the option to turn off the touchpad when a mouse was connected...

 

Right on, Nick. F.Y.I./O.T.: I removed the X9000 from the M1730. Heh.

Yeah, I don't have a single issue with the placements. Then again, I adapt. I've used some of the oddest designed machines. Thing that's getting to me is the stuttery and laggy performance of the pad, which I am sure is probably something driver-related. Hey, maybe this is why Alienware give the mouse pad. I'll give the driver change a shot. All I need is smoother and responsive mouse movement without the lag or the stuttering.

On the I7 topic I think there's plenty to gain. True CPU-driven apps. will show new benefits, as well as synthetic benchmarks. . . which is an alternative sport now.

Although you should keep in mind that if you're talking dual-card solutions, the efficiency of the performance will come down to the sheer speed of the CPU. So whatever this new I7 M17x can do, it'll have to do faster than a fine-tuned QX9300 in order to get the most out of the two cards. I don't know for sure. I wasn't even aware of the I7 coming, but I am somewhat concerned that in all the hype over the word 'I7' people have not discussed the true bottle-necks of dual-gpu solutions and the implications an I7 would have on such a solution.

Edit:
Dude, Nick. . . perfect suggestion! The driver uninstall worked like a charm. That's all I was asking for; I'll get used to the harder feel of the touch-pad buttons. Thanks.

 

is there anything AW do about these faulty 230gb HDDs im getting? I have already had it replaced 3 times and the one i have now stalls my computer when installing or encoding videos.

 

Is it me/my M17x or is the touchpad a little too sensitive and fast? I rarely use it though but when I do it jumps around the screen too much.

 

you can adjust its sensitivity, mine is really slow at the moment haha

but I am always using my Logitech VX Revolution anyways

 

im just curious, when the new i7 M17x gets launched do the current M17x we own become discontinued? how will warranty support be carried out if they run out of parts like the motherboard since the i7s would probably be having intel chipsets.

will the refreshed m17x get new graphic cards as well? if yes then there might be a problem if they run out of gtx 280s to replace faulty ones as well like the
m1730 having insufficient 8800mgtxes.


i get the feeling its going to be another long long problematic arguement for me should my system breakdown beyond repair and they refuse to replace the new m17x because its "more expensive and higher end" despite the warranty terms


oh and another unrelated question. does overclocking the cpu by multiplier or fsb cause more heat?

 

Question about alienfx.

I set alienfx to change colors when I play certain games. If I dont set each effect to loop it only stays on for 3 seconds or so then the keyboard just goes black. Is this normal? I've had it set to loop but im just wondering unless this is a glitch.

 

don't worry your perfectly fine ... besides they replace m1730s with M17x 's

dont't worry about the extra heat

 

took me a year to get my m1730 replaced..

 

Very valid concerns, ruby. I think Dell/AW will have some old-gen m17x's to hand out when ours burn out before they get into the new stock with the i7's. Eventually it will become a confusing ordeal. Dell to this DAY continually makes an error in replacing one of my parts with an Inspiron compatible part from four years ago...

 

I was able to find a matching Samsung SSD. After some research, it appears I have to reinstall the OS in order to do RAID? Given the higher performance of an SSD over a spindle drive, anybody think its worth the hassle vs. just using two SSD's that appear as separate volumes? I have a 2.7TB NAS.....I don't need storage for content.

 

Someone confirm the core voltage for the qx9300. The intel page says 1.05 V to 1.175 V.

CPU-Z v1.53.1 says it's 1.163 V. And it's not changing when the CPU steps up/down.

 

it goes from 1.05 to 1.1625 on my machine, but when not overclocked only goes up to 1.125 I believe

 

Oh, I wouldn't treat this so lightly.

Amazing, one part of sentence to summarise threads worth of agony for M1730 users. Yes, they are now replacing with M17x units, even in Europe, the M1730 is out of production now. However, everything has a starting point, and that's when things are at their ugliest.

There is an entire army of M1730 owners who have been to hell and back--myself included--thanks to Dell's latest ploys of abandoning support for older machines and moving on to newer ones. I could hope that such idiocy doesn't continue, but that's only hope, not rational thought.

It will quite possibly be another ordeal where you people get jerked around, but not as much as it was with the M1730, since now you own an actual Alienware machine. You guys are just going to have to rely on composure and patience, as always.

 

Thats correct. It's different from one QX9300 to another QX9300. Believe me, i've been through sooo many of them...just to test my theory.

 

thats the prob, i have the feeling we'll be getting refurb parts by the time the i7 ones come out and id hate to have a refurb part considering 9/10 of the refurb parts i received had problems which caused even more problems than before.

i hope mine lasts long enough for all the old refurbs to be gone

 

oh and does ocing the processor by fsb or multiplier cause higher cpu temps?

 

its causes the cpu to run faster so yes

BUT DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT. Like i said in the other thread you posted in the M17x cooling system is the best there is

 

er i think i phrased my question wrongly. i was asking which ocing method would cause more heat, the fsb way or the multiplier way. i know the m17x cooling system is really great but for some reason hwmonitor shows that my cpu hits 80 max on almost every boot and goes up to 60-70 on idle(on hot days with room temperature of around 30 degrees) and im only oced via [email protected] which gives me 2.8ghz.

when i try to oc via fsb the temps are around the same so i was wondering which method would theoretically give a lower temperature.

 

Both ways cause the CPU to run faster. The temp is based on the speed at which the CPU runs, therefore, multiplier is just a differant way of OCing. Weather its running at 3.06GHz via Mult or FSB, it's still running at 3.06GHz, so the temp should be the same. Also if OCing by both ways shows no differance in temp, as you have seen, then it doesn't matter which way "theoretically" gives lower temps.

 

Quick one. If you have an external monitor plugged in. I know you can pick where you want to focus the SLI (to the main display or the external monitor), but is there a way to make games go fullscreen on the external monitor and not the primary screen (laptop's screen)?

 

Hate to tell you this ruby, but the M17x has been in production long enough where refurb parts/replacement systems are most likely available. If there are M17x units in the outlet, then those are candidates for use as replacement systems. Owners have had GPUs replaced, so, as you know from experience, those GPUs go back to Dell for 'testing'.

 

yea ive realised that but i hope there arent THAT many refurb parts and that they still have brand new ones or just completely run out of both and replace the new one..

@war

i think you can select which monitor to be primary by right clicking on the animation at the control panel. i dont have my external with me right now but i can test it out when i get home.. in about 12 hours time

 

That's the thing. I was hoping I could leave the primary monitor in my laptop, and just fullscreen the games on the external display without making the external display the primary screen.

 

lol no idea then ill give it a try when i get home.. have you tried like putting the game in windowed mode then dragging it over to the external then making it full screen there?

 

No I haven't. Can you try it? I won't be at my displays until Friday. Thanks. Post back when you make sure.

 

My touch buttons are not working! None of them except for the eject button works, and stealth mode is enabled (I think). I was able to get the buttons to work a while ago, and I was able to disable stealth mode, but I suspect that for some reason stealth mode has reactivated. My games are very slow, with WoW running at 7 FPM at max settings, and fluidly at low settings. I just upgraded to Windows 7, could this be an issue? I just need to somehow disable stealth mode and get my buttons to work. Thanks in advance!

 

When I upgraded to windows 7 my fn+F1,F2,F3,etc didnt work and I couldnt get out of stealth mode. I fixed it by installing the OSD Driver and all my fn keys and all my touch buttons worked.

 

As far as CPU temps go, raising the speed by a fixed amount will result in a fixed temperature increase. Thus, if you run at 3.06GHz, the CPU temperature will be the same regardless of whether you raised the multiplier, FSB, or both.

However, looking more big-picture... Increasing the multiplier affects ONLY the CPU, while increasing the FSB will affect ALL components, including processor, memory (assuming the memory bus is running synchronous to the FSB), GPU, and bus cards (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.). Thus, the multiplier will affect OVERALL heat less than FSB, assuming the same resulting CPU speed, but the FSB will theoretically provide better results. The reality, though, is that timing issues between components will often reduce, if not eliminate, the performance benefits of FSB overclocking, especially if any of these components (e.g. memory) are running asynchronous to the FSB, or if any given component is running close to its thermal limits, so your milage may vary when it comes to FSB overclock performance.

The short answer is that Multiplier overclocking usually provides the best results in terms of stability and thermals, proportional to the performance gain.

 

Man!

I just had by far -the worst- experience. I guess it was a concentrated moment of frustration.

I bloody hate slot-load drives, and don't no body try to tell me different.

Yes, sure, they look. . . COOL! But they take the bloody cake when it comes to 'gimmick and misery'.

I had that misfortune of having a DVD-R go funny on me mid-session. Ah, but the drive refused to respond. The computer had to be rebooted, and this time, it took literally 15-minutes for windows to load because the DVD drive was acting funny.

Was the digital-gimmicky eject button any good during this situation? Hell no. Pressed the damned thing as many times as I could. Even tried it at BIOS logo screen and no luck!

Was the gimmicky-slot-load with no emergency eject options any good in this situation? Hell no.

Was any of this worth the agony of having my machine reduced to a slug? OH! HELL! NO!

I'd take an old fashioned plastic P.O.C. traditional-style drive, any friggin' day.

I just managed to get the disc out and save myself the bane of going through Dell support.

Never again.

I know I am pent up here, but I had to get this out of my system.

Slot load? EEESH!

 

when you upgraded did you reinstall all the drivers. make sure you reinstall all the drivers again after install new os.

 

@Kade Storm:
I don't like slot loads either. And they are more for looks than anything else. They definitely need an emergency eject. But I can see how they had very little vertical space left on the side and a normal dvd/bd drive would not have fit. It would have come very close to the bottom, possibly becoming an area of structural weakness.

Haven't had a disc get stuck in the slot-load yet. Well...I did but they could be ejected at the BIOS screen.

My problem is different - many discs won't read on my DVD-RW drive. Most comical of all, the Dell/Alienware rescue disc won't work. It loads up to a point, but that's it. Doesn't actually boot my system or do anything apart from showing the logo. Just lots of scratchy sounds. Ofcourse, I only found out when I needed to 'rescue' the stock install. Ended up doing a clean install since that disk could be read. And clean installs are good for you

My HL2:Orange Box disc didn't work either, but fortunately could steam-download it when I was at a high-bandwidth location.

 

Right on!

How does the eject work in the BIOS? The buttons did not work for me. Please, do explain further.

 

You can also just drill your own pin hole lined up with the one on the drive (it will have the same one you are used too) on the outside of the machine, will be discrete yet functional!

 

. . .seriously? Does the drive even have an eject hole? Makes one wonder why Dell did not put a hole in place.

Anyway, my drill is reserved for work, wood, concrete and guitars.

This is why other companies make my laptops, and take large sums of money from me in the process.

 

now that I think about it, not 100% that there is one on the slot loads like there is on tray loads, should be a physical button though on the drive that you could line up with

 

I didn't mean "in" the BIOS, though that should work.
I meant the pre-boot, memory check/POST screen. You can try hitting pause and then try eject. I was quite impressed that it worked, so at least it's a low-level connection and not software related.

To others in this chain: Yes, I would also like a manual eject button. But...the way slot loads work, I think they require power/electricity to push the disc out. It's not 'free' like a tray-drive where the eject just pushes the lock and then it freely moves on the rails/gears.

Still...the manufacturers could've made a light 'spring' which can be accessed/connected on the outside to gently push "anything inside" out. I'm looking at you, evil mini-CDs!

 

Yeah, true. But like I said, I really tried on all screens in the pre-boot scenario, including BIOS.

The only way it worked. I waited 30-minutes to navigate slowly through windows. I 'disabled' the dvd-drive, and voila, everything started moving fast, and then the stupid disc ejected. FINALLY.

 

My replacement M17x's T9600 clocks to 3.5ghz at the full 1333 mhz..!!! so far i've been gaming at 3.5 no problem. My old computer crashed at 1300.

 

Dude, I need to know more about this 'replacement' M17x.

With all your praise of the system, I couldn't imagine you having to move to another M17x. What happened?

Also, I got 1333 RAM. Does that mean I can push it further?

 

Something went down and they replaced my motherboard. The tech couldnt update the serial number and the computer started freezing off battery power with the new motherboard. They shipped me a new machine after that which behaves much better.

which i just unpacked 1 week ago (it was new 6 days ago and is already outdated

You might be able to push it further, maybe the new RAM will help your CPU be more stable, match the FSB and the MHZ on the ram as you overclock.

 

Meh. Outdated stuff for the win.

Nice. I didn't know you were having issues of that sort, but good on you, mate.

 

3.5ghz solid with 1333mhz FSB and gamed for the past couple hours watched a movie no stutters or bluescreens

 

isn't it amazing? I'm having the same luck w/my T9600

 

the i7 refresh is looking really attractive.. i wonder if dell would allow me to get the new mobo and i7 from them to upgrade..

anyone know if the chasis and other components are place at the same locations?