*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

you can do this with movies so may could be possible... give it ago and let us know how it goes

 

Sounds like a cool idea, I need to try that.

 

Usally the game, most games, will run in prioty mode meaning when you mouse out of the game it pauses while you msn etc. Of course there's always excepections like most MORPG's I've played will let you mouse out. Also If you set the game to "window" mode then they usally act like a normal window.

 

I have tried in the past to play half life 2 episode 2 while watching a 1080p video on youtube. It's fine the game was average 200 FPS

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5839/hl2f.jpg

If you plan to play on the external monitor you need to define the external monitor as the main desktop and the laptop screen as the extended.

 

Half Life 2 is not really a GPU demanding game compared to what the GPU can deliver today and definitely compared to what power the CPU deliver today, the game would run fine with 1000 videos at the same time...

 

Yeah not the latest game for sure, but he asked if he could browse the internet and move things around while gaming, so this example has served its purpose well, don't you think?

Even with crysis at max settings, he could have a browser open and do other stuff (I don't know how he can play and do those other things at the same time though... you better ask him) LOL

 

Hello, all. I'm new to the forum, and this is my first post. I ordered my first AW on May 19th, had it shipped June 1st and (according to Dell, which isn't very reliable) my M17x will arrive July 9th. I'll be using this beast to render music in real time (I write music for flash/XLA games) and playing things like ArmA II and such. I've been reading about the dual 5870s, and the problems that users have been having with them. Does anyone have a similar system to mine, and if so are you having any problems?



Space Black - Anodized Aluminum l Intel Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) l 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz l Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter l 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p) l Crossfire 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870 l 256GB Solid State Drive l Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit l Blu-ray Reader

 

wait, ordered May 19th, Shipped June 1st arrives July 9th? is that right? Or did you mean June 9th.

 

Oh, no. I meant July 9th. You read it correctly. I'm at an APO address so I don't have shipping info, either. It's incredibly frustrating.

 

hey guys im new to the site and i just bought my buddys m17x cuz he broke the screen and i am looking info on how to take the screen portion of the laptop apart. currently alienware is say it will cost me a 1000 to get it fix which is crap cuz i know i can do it my self. if anyone has info on how to take it apart let me know please

 

So you know you can do it yourself yet you have no idea how?

 

nevermind, i have the whole screen taken apart, now my new question is does anyone know where to order parts

 

[SORRY WRONG PLACE TO POST,SHOULD BE IN R2 post]hey guys, i just find a dead pixel on my screen one week after i recived it. i am sure it was perfect in the past week. i am in AU and doubt they will replace it.what will u do in US?or i can choose to return it. will they charge me even a dead pixel is there.

 

Anyone knows what the response time of the RGB LED screen is? I remember reading on Dell's website that the dual CCFL one was 8ms...

 

Its not 8.. That would be horrible for gaming. 5ms is unbearable for me. With having multiple monitors it noticeable to my eye.

The last i read they were both 2MS

 

ok I have a few noob questions about the m17x, if I get the new 5870 card and not sli 5870's can I add the second later?, if I can is it easy,( just remove the bottom) or do I need to take it all apart, also If I go all the way with 2 cards is it like double the performance or like 20%, how does it work?, also I read that a 5870 is like the 5770 desktop is this true?, if so 2 of them should be pretty nice, thx in advance

 

So, lets start with this.

Nvidia does SLI, ATI does Crossfire X.

Yes you can add the second card later but its probably going to be cheaper and easier to configure it with the second card rather than doing it yourself. Especially if the 5870's dell provides are different in any way from other manufacturers.

It is fairly easy and Dell offers hardware replacement manuals which will guide you through a complete teardown of your system (as well as rebuild however I would still recommend you know a little about what your doing before attempting anything).

Crossfire does not tend to double the performance. It will however improve performance more than 20%. The actually benefits will be determined by the game your playing and its ability to make use of the dual card setup. Also Drivers will impact this greatly. Currently drivers available for the 5870's are only available from Dell (but this should change soon).

People do compare the 5870 to the desktop 5770, crossfire will bridge that gap and make it at least equal to the desktop version.

I would just get the upgrade to 2 cards if you think you'll want them later. Save yourself alot of headache and always remember that anything you upgrade is not considered under the replacement warranty as part of the "Original system configuration" so if ever you need a system replaced its going to be a nightmare convincing them to replace your second video card along with the rest of the system. (I've had to deal with this with processor changes/memory/operating systems and video card upgrades all done through tech support).

Hope this helps.

 

you said right here

People do compare the 5870 to the desktop 5770, crossfire will bridge that gap and make it at least equal to the desktop version.

did you mean that 1 5870 is like the 5770 but with 2 5870 it will be like the 5870 dektop version?

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. My cousin actually has an alienware aurora, i'll have him run a vantage benchmark to see what his single 5870 scores and compare it to my 2 5870M's.

 

wow, thx for the info man, im tryin to do the larger lappy so I have the gaming of a home and yet I can take it to work if I feel like it sounds like this one will do this, also theres that IR thats located in the front can I use any remote or a special Alienware one?, thx again for your help

 

you can use most any infared remote. If you get a harmony remote you'll have not problems at all. (or just pickup a bluetooth keyboard with a built in mouse)

 

hey I like to have vsync turned on when I play games, do u know if with crossfire on can you can put vsync on or does the two cards not let you do it?

 

I want to say it does let you do it. I also want to say its not necessary. But in this case i'm not entirely sure on the answer. Vsync is really only necessary if you see alot of screen tearing.

 

for anyone who cares- i finally got 10.6 install on the 4870s without BSOD, and it works fairly well. i saw an increase in Vantage of 800 pts in my gpu score and in 3d06 i saw a 400pt increase. very nice

 

what was your install process and were those gains steady across multiple runs?

 

i just used driver sweeper, & CCleaner, used the actual install from AMD for once =). yeah that's an avg gain for both bench's on my machine. i ran 4 of each one over the last few hours. i had a gain as high as 1400 pts in vantage in one run. but i averaged the scores. i haven't done a clean OS install like i usually do, so this my take the place of the gains i might have seen when i get around to doing that.

sadly the scores are not that much better than the m17 so far, but in game performance is better. i was able to get into the 17ks with the m17 in 3dmark06

it drives me CRAZY that i cant overclock the cpu!!!! i might have to change my mond on the 5870s i ordered and get a 920xm just so i can join the party

 

ya without the 920xm your 06 numbers wont be impressive

that being said....I plan to break 20k in my R1 with 4870s

 

yeah with the ability to adjust the voltage now your qx9300 is a monster. i think you can do it. would be epic! gonna be hard to stabilize long enough to run the benchmark

 

just ran this one with no cooling or anything

 

Hmmmm...I got 11,100 GPU score with 9.12 back in february at stock speeds...

Will run a few vantage runs now

 

i think it has to do with the i5 cpu, was running 10200 consistently, went as high as 11750 with 10.6
but like i said it may have to do with me not doing a fresh install of win7 when i got the machine, historically i will see 200-300 pt gains from that, nobody else with an i5 is benching, i think there embarrassed =p

 

I am running some tests now, I will report back when done

 

Yeah but so what just do it dude push it to its limit!! lol I don't think you can overclock the processor like the R1, I just love how you can overclock the Q9000 but why is it always freezing up on me when i just pushing the fsb a bit and how come when i do it in the bios i always boot on a black screen?

 

hey clever, i love that wallpaper with the tree, it looks nice, do you have a link? thx

 

hmm i dont remember where i got it ill upload it for you to rapidshare in a minute and post it.

 

well i started a push it to the limit session, but i had a scare so i wrapped it up. i basically had the thing disassembled and had the 4870s in the 750/1200 range, but when i went to move the keyboard the thing just blacked out and wouldn't start again. im thinking until i can mess with the CPU ill wait...ehh i doubt it ill probably try again when the 5870s get here. hopefully someone will crack the oc ing issue, there has to be a way to raise the bclk or manipulate the turbo multipliers.....

 

Yeah i agree with you, that's pretty high for the 4870s, yes they don't have a PLL clock like the quad series, they have a blc, no fsb. There is a way to do it, the guy named betaflame did it with setsb overclock the core i7 720Q to 3.4ghz, i told him to make a guide but he never did he always been a pain in the but to speak too. But there is a guide to do it, its on a G51J though. Well anyway just search there and you will see. I hope there will be less problems with this machine, there is voltage settings in the bios for the R2. Its ATI's fault for the some of the current problems with the 5870's.

 

Report time!

Since I do not want to double post, read here!

To sum it up for the lazy, I saw a good boost from 10.6 vs 10.3 drivers and 10.6 scales the gpu power well with more cpu power (overclocked cpu)

 

can you tell me if this is good value please? Alienware m17x i7 620M 2.66GHz | 1440x900 | Dual 1GB ATI 4870 HD | 4GB | 1TB (2x500GB) | Windows 7 64bit | £1400

 

I would not get that screen. You definitely want the 1920 x 1200 resolution.

 

Please refrain from posting the same question across multiple threads.
Thank You.

 

How do you fix not being able to turn on sli from the nvidia display control panel?

 

BCLK has already been cracked by me. The problem is the other half of M17x's that use a different PLL. Anyway, I'd like to compare my OC'd 940xm against Scook's OC'd QX9300. I've managed to get 2.56 GHz stable on all 4 cores.


Edit: Lozz figured out that all you need to do is set your fonts to normal (default alienware is like 125%) and setfsb will work for everyone using the method I originally described.

 

You want to compare to me stock or overclocked? Also, if your bclk is boosted you will have an unfair advantage in memory bandwidth if I am stock

That being said, what do you want to run?

 

OC vs OC just to see how the 940 stacks up against the QX9300. Keep in mind with A06 my 940xm should perform even better since it runs at 24x multiplier right now (instead of 25x). Head on over to the benchmark thread, we'll run coremark, wprime 155 etc

 

you paid for coremark?

 

It was free with my 940xm.

 

lol
i knew it was something else!

i for the life of me was thinking on that since when you posted it..why would he buy that...now i know...lol

 

So recently I visited my parents and I sure as hell wasn't going to leave my M17x home. Boy am I glad I brought it with!

This was the first time I tried using this beast's 9400 processor. I'm AMAZED that I got this thing to nearly 4 hours on battery. WOW.

I watched TV at the airport, played NES roms on the plane, turned a hell of a lot of heads, and was able to chill w/the parents and browse/play more games. Never realized how portable this thing is! I almost feel bad for the R2 owners

 

That is one of the reasons I have not tried to get dell to replace mine with and R2

Mainly that and the fact that I will get like a 720qm for the proc since I added the qx9300 myself