*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

hi nice adaptor
BUT is there same BUT MALE to MALE ?

 

I think this is what you are looking for:

http://www.cpustuff.com/microsata/

the one in the middle..

 

No I need exactly same but micro sata must be male ..

 

Update the link.. male to male..

(Google copy mistake..)

 

Found it on the same web... thnx so much
but this is only in USA?

 

OOOOhhhhh ssshhhtt
Wroong
I dont want male to male ...
I need exact same as him BUT big sata must be female and small male
Does exist adaptor like this ?
I need connect that on picture to MB as it was .. THEN ..
I need that adaptor female small and big sata must be female that I can connect my 2.5 ssd
Did you guys get me ?>

 

I Don't know where you from.. otherwise call these guys

http://delock.nl/?setLanguage=EN

i think those people can help you out

PS: But on the picture the flat cable (small one) thats micro sata ? dont think so...

 

he is just trying to put a 2.5" hdd where his optical drive is, so think what connector would be needed for that is all

 

I am planning to buy M17x. but seems very expensive comparatively other laptop. if I compare it with Asus G73JH-A1 model it is almost 1000$ more. do you guys think, it is worth buying it.

I am really interested in RGB LED option.

 

I got lucky and picked up my 17x-r2 used from here. Great laptop, but everyone knows that...

It really is well built and the LED screen is a must have!!

If you want a do everything laptop this is a great choice, I don't consider it a luggable as others may - it's not heavy to me but I know it's not light like my 17" macbook pro.

Keep in mind the fans are almost silent when just surfing and stuff but when you game the fans go full throttle, so you either need headphones (which I use) or you need to turn up the volume - - the speakers do put out some nice volume, so that's a good thing.

 

how much you paid for it?

 

m17x with 5870 is out!!!!!

http://www.alienware.com/

 

That happened a couple days ago...people are now waiting for 5870 crossfire

 

Anyone interested in getting their M17x to be able to game on battery? I was able to make some minor changes to the system which allows you to play almost all games on High settings at Native resolution and great frame rates while the computer is running on DC power, but didn't want to put all the steps together unless someone was interested?

 

you are looking at an hour to hour and a half max on battery with discretes enabled

it is technically doable, but not practical, if you want to run on battery, 3.5 hours on the 9400m is your best bet - I have been able to watch a full blu ray movie on the 9400m and still had about a hour left

that is with brightness all the way down, power scheme set to battery saver, and all alienFX led's turned off

 

M17X SLI problems:

For anyone that has done a clean install of W7 64 bit and installed all the latest drivers from the Alienware website and then a few days later had your Sli stop working randomly I found something that may fix it.

Apparently Alienware has the latest 260M graphics card driver but not the latest one for the 9400 so go to the dell website here

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_drivers.html

click the option to have Nvidia do a graphics driver test, download the latest one/s and then, hopefully your Sli will start working again like mine did!

Buona fortuna.

 

Hi M17x owners! I'm looking to buy one of these laptops but before I do, I have some questions to people that already own a M17x.

1. Is there a big difference in quality/color on these 2 different displays

17-inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 - Beyond HD (900p) - Dual CCFL
17in Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED

2. If I chose the red casing version, would the LED colors clash with the red case? i.e Red case with aqua LEDs. I realize its a matter of opinion so I guess I'll hear your thoughts about it.

3. If i purchased it with a single graphics card, could I purchase another in the future and add it in myself without needing any other extra parts? Would this void my warranty?

4. Would I need any sort of extra parts like a bracket of some sort to install a second hard drive?

Thanks guys.

 

1.) RGBLED is unanimously agreed to be far superior in quality
2.) You can change the LED colors to just about anything in the color spectrum so you can make it work. Just choose the case color you want as that cannot be changed as easily (have to order new parts)
3.) You should be able to add a 2nd GPU down the road at a reasonable price from dell - so warranty stays intact
4.) The system should come with the needed parts, if not you can call and request it (should be included so they will send out for free)

 

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding your 3rd answer, I could install the second card myself and still keep the warranty intact right? Assuming I order from Dell.

What do you think of red case and aqua lights? would look horrible right?

 

If it does look bad, you can just change the lights

I think they will send a tech to install the card but they are usually incompetent and just watch the owner do it themselves. Sometimes they will just send you the part - either way, warranty is ok.

 

Thanks mate. Last question.

Both LED's or just the first one?
M15x
15.6-inch Wide HD+ (1600 x 900) WLED display
15.6-inch Wide Full HD Display (1920x1080)

Hate it when Dell doesn't give you all the details.

 

You originally were asking about the M17x and are now talking about the M15x screens.

Both of the M15x screens are WLED screens. The M17x WXGA screen is CCFL backlit and the WUXGA one is RGBLED. The RGBLED is agreed to be the best.

 

Cheers. Yeh, sorry about not asking in the right thread. Just want to understand all the screen malarkey.

 

Does anyone know if Dell UK sells parts for M17x's. I've contacted them about it and I haven't heard anything back. You would think they would want to sell something =P.

 

I talked to a technician yesturday about something similar. I plan on purchasing a single 5870 video card and when they offer dual 5870's in crossfire my plan is to purchase another from them and upgrade it. The technician told me that if I buy the part from them and have one of their technicians install it it will not void the warranty. Upgrades aren't covered under your warranty though and it costs about $200 for a technician to do this upgrade. The technician I'm ordering from is going to give me free upgrades when I get my 2nd 5870.

 

If you purchase a second card down the road I think you'll also need to order the x-fire/SLI cable, a fan, and a heatsink. I'm not sure the unit ships with those if you don't order a second card.

 

Hmm.. Does anyone find this sell suspicious? (Link Removed) I mean fully maxed out spec BRAND NEW for $2500? Should I pick this up b/c I paid a bit lower than $2500 for spec in my sig. I'm just not sure if this is too good to be true..

**I wish I never found this.. I'm back into a dilemma sigh.. Though Red isn't really my taste..**
***I just got a reply back and he said just put the color you want and they can ship the one with that color meaning they have more than 1 in stock... Hmm I don't know..***
****Didn't want anyone to get scammed.. If anyone is interested Just type in M17x in ebay and look for one that's up for $2500 buy out.****

 

I'd be weary of it. Send an email. BUt I suggest staying away. Thats just me though. Feeb back is pretty good but that person buys a lot of random stuff.

 

Yeah that's the thing.. I wanted to see what else he sold on ebay but everything is private listed. Pretty sure I'm not going to buy it though... Just sounds so fishy.. Only if that location was close to me I would've drove it and tested it out first. 6 hour round trip isn't worth it. haha. I did reply to him why he's selling it for cheap.. let see what he says !

**He just said he's having a warehouse clearance sale and it is indeed brand new.. Nope not going to believe this. Too cheap for such a high end product. Should I take the link off just in case someone might get scammed in this forum?**

***Nevermind Link Removed***

 

I would ask him if you can drive down and have a look at it before purchase, just to see what he says. Say your willing to make the trip, or you'll be in the area tommorrow because you have some business in the area..

 

Hi guys, I am new to this forum and I am thinking of purchasing an M17x since the latest 5870 is out... But I still have some doubts:

1. Anyone know when the 5870 crossfire is coming out? And will it be paired with GDDR5 vram or regular (G)DDR3? since I heard that the current 4870 crossfire is with DDR3 vram. Although I talked to one of the dell agent today and she told me the single 5870 is paired with GDDR5, but if they make dual 5870 crossfire with DDR3, I think it will be worse than dual 4870s due to it's 128-bit bandwidth.

2. if I wait and go with dual 5870s, how much more weight it will have compare to single 5870? The spec on website says it's about 11lbs, but I guess with dual graphic cards it will be around 13lbs? Has someone weighted their m17x with dual 4870s? Thanks~!

3. One last question, is it worth it ($300 and more weight, more heat compare to increase in performance) to upgrade to dual 5870s?

Thanks a lot~ any thoughts is appreciated!

 

The card/heatsink and cf cable will only weight a few ounces.

 

Hi guys, I am new to this forum and I am thinking of purchasing an M17x since the latest 5870 is out... But I still have some doubts:

Be careful not to walk into the trap I have walked into. A lot of the m17x has not been stable machines due to latency. I have even heard that the m17x R2 which are the system you will get(I think so) has had some flickering issues as well. Think carefully before investing this kind of money as Dell has not been very nice to people with this issue. I would say that you have 10 percent chance(standard chance rate of defect hardware in the hardware industry) of getting a flawed machine and if you get it then prepare yourself for a looong time with bureaucratic procedures and waiting. I wish I could say that this machine is worth the money but due to the bad service Dell is providing for people who end up with flawed, defective m17x then I would suggest you to reconsider. Just my opinion which is build on my own case as well as all the issues on this forum and http://en.community.dell.com/dell-b...-alienware-m17x-customers.aspx#commentmessage. Then again you might be lucky

 

What ??? I jumped from HP to Alienware just thought Alienware has one of the best build qualities, I had a HP envy 15 but it has so many problems and I returned it twice. Now I am about to make this big investment on m17x, but according to what you said, I really don't want to go over the whole return/replace process again...

 

I wish I could say that I had a flawless machine and that Dell had an excellent service but build on the threads about latency, warranty/repairs in here as well as my own experience(which is latency, stuttering, lock ups as well as hardware crashes) then I can only say that since I bought this machine back in January I have had nothing but trouble and each time Dell tried to repair it by changing the hardware the problem was still present(the worst part was that the hardware the nice man brought with him did not work up to several times, yes new parts that was defect too). Now I have an escalation case running and have waited for answers for 3 weeks. I mean they could have fixed this problem by giving me a new stable system a month ago... I love the design and the hardware profile in this m17x, but it is not worth the trouble or the money as long as Dell is so slow to react when the machine breaks down and keeps on selling systems with that many flaws. The worst part is that I have a complete care insurance which is of no use unless my son pour a cop of milk down into the keyboard!? I am currently doing my first year project in computer science and therefore need a strong machine for the math part and have told Dell that too, but they simply do not care. So based on mine and other unlucky peoples experiences in here I cannot recommend you spending so much money on so poor hardware quality and service. By god I wished I could say that what I am saying here is an evil dream... Anyway you might be one of the lucky ones... I can only hope/dream that Dell one day will realize that a machine so expensive should come with tested and high end quality hardware as well as first class services when the machine breaks down(which should not happen very often if the hardware quality was the best of the best).
UPDATE:
After sending an email to Michael Dell(it is his secretaries and managers who are reading this mail and not himself) and explained my case I got an answer around 40 hours later and they agreed to offer me a nice replacement. The fact that my machine had so many issues made them understand my disappointment. I can only say that their decision made me happy and I am relieved. For a while I thought no one cared about my case and found myself to be jinxed with an evil sentient m17x. A new one is now booked for me and my nightmares seems to be over and I will soon be able to join the happy m17x owners club as well. However my current unstable sentient m17x R1 system is sending me some evil looks occasionally.

 

I reported my Inspiron E1705 (maxed specs when bought new in 2007 & still 1 year on the service contract, including complete care) to Dell in February for shocking me whenever I would grab the sides to move it. After 3 refurbs that were damaged (hole in screen), malfunctioning (would not boot) or not "equal to, or better than" the original system (lower resolution screen), Dell decided to provide me with a new M17x of similar specs. Since I have been an owner of an M17x (R1) since November 2009, with minimal lockup issues (maybe 3 times a month), I decided to try out an M17x-R2. We came to an agreement on the hardware they would allow & they placed the order on March 18, 2010. After it taking 5 weeks for the order to ship, they then shipped it to the wrong address, causing an additional 4 days delay.

Despite all of those headaches, as of April 26, 2010, I can now say that I am the proud owner of an M17x-R2 too!

Excluding ATI graphics glitches in a couple games I love that are pre-DX9 (but work without having to use XP mode), everything else I do on the R2 is putting the R1 to shame. Now that I have an RGB LED screen on the R2, the lamp glow on the R1 is often annoying. The funny part is that I rarely noticed the glow before the R2 arrived. I've already added a second hard drive to the R2 for a little extra storage until the prices of RAM & SSDs drop to a reasonable amount. Especially since neither system is currently set up with SLI or CF, I just can't convince myself to spend a couple grand in upgrades at this time to make both systems scream with 8GB RAM & 256GB SSDs in a RAID 0 for each. Once those prices drop I can't wait to see what these systems can really do.

Anyway, since I now own one of each revision, I just wanted to take a moment to post in the "regular" M17x owner's thread & thank everyone for all of the great information that is provided by this community. It has been very helpful in tweaking both systems.

Thank you.

 

I've been an Alienware owner for 3+ years. They are a solid company.

There is a reason people pay a premium for their products.

 

It has been said on here before. Once you get the working laptop, you tend to forget the issues you had with it before. It really is a great machine. I wish they had more quality control when it comes to the Original Sale of the laptop so they could reduce the returns/etc, but in this economy, that is not justifiable.

Such a shame. Can't wait to load Bad Company 2 and a few other new games that I cannot wait to come out on PC.

 

What is the best driver for the 260 cards to day?

 

Hi
I just wanna ask something.
Does M17x makes some noise like spinning noise and stuffs when it's idle?
like is it noticeable?
it's not from the fans.
I've been using this laptop for 9 months and i just noticed it today.
maybe it's just me though.
The temps are all fine. It's just the noise that's annoying me.
-----------------------
Actually, temps are not fine.
I just cleaned up the vents and fans. Reapplied CPU thermal paste.
And CPU is 55C idle. 60C on load.
And the area between the keyboard and the touchpad is really warm.

 

Someone please?
It's obviously very noisy.
And I think it's coming from CPU area. (not from the fans)

 

Yea it does. The coil noise?high pitched? If so its normal.

 

It's not high pitched. it's a different sound.
Kinda like the sound from fridges.
And I'm starting to think it's coming from the Hard drive.
Lemme try booting up without it.

 

It's still there. So, it's not from the hard drive for sure.
Anything else that could be making that annoying sound around CPU area?

I guess R1 is history for everyone now. :[

 

Ok, after opening up the laptop a gazillion time and checking everything,
I'm quite sure the noise is from the CPU fan.
I don't know why though.
It's not like it's locked at full speed.
It's working normally and still making noise.
Anyway, I guess I'll stop flooding the thread.
---------------
lol, i said i wasn't gonna flood but this is just too funny.
I called them and they said they would replace the fan.
But they have to have their 'technician' replace it because it's really hard to reach since it's directly underneath the keyboard.
I just basically said "lol, nvm"

 

I have a Question, is it possible to upgrade the gpu from a dual 280M to dual 285M?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Current Notebook:
Alienware M17X R1: Black on Black
CPU=QX9300 @ 2.53ghz
OS=Vistax64=Win7x64
GPU=GTX 280Mx2 SLI
LCD=1920x1200p
RAM=4GB @ 1333mhz
HDD=160GBx2 @ 7200RPM in Raid0
DD=Blu-Ray Combo
I want an R2 soooooo bad, oh well!

 

Is it normal to have one speaker light, not as blue as the other? I just got my M17X today, what a nice system. But my left speaker is lighter blue than the left, and if I turn it yellow, it looks kinda green? Any ideas?

 

hey fly, how's it going?
still buying all the new toys i see...lol

say, you dont have an e8600 tucked away over there...do ya?

 

wow, long time no see, yep, I stepped up to this system, it's sweet! Nice to see old friends. Nope no parts laying around

 

Call Dell, get it fixed. That is not normal.