*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x R3/R4 Owner's Lounge Thread

Okay you need to download driversweeper and ccleaner, Un-install your drivers via control panel start-->Control Panel-->programs-->unistall a program and sellect both the amd driver and the igpu driver and remove it, once thats done reboot and push f8 at the boot screen so you boot in to safe mode, run driversweeper and only select the amd drivers, once thats done select ccleaner and run it several times and the reboot download your drivers from dell and install

 

Technically speaking, deleting drivers beforehand isn't necessarily required anymore, and hasn't been for a while as far as I'm concerned. Nowadays it's fine to just install the newest driver on top of the old one. Remember a ton of discussion about this a few years ago.

 

@BiH115 yeah I agree, was just explaining what it said on the web page he linked , but if all does fail a good clean install can't hurt

 

Oh alright. Was just saying. Had a few run-ins with driver issues and was constantly told that the whole driver-sweeper thing has sort of been phased out, but as you said (I agree too), it can't hurt at all.

 

depends on the drivers. Some play nice with being upgraded and others don't.

 

"AMD catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. The Version of your graphics adapter is not supported."

 

I just checked the BIOS, and I cannot shut off the IGPU. The photo I showed in the other thread is about all you can change next to the regular boot order and such.

 

ah alright, I think some people are gonna try to get the bios modded so ill see if that could possibly be included.

 

I'm always up for a modded BIOS

 

you should download the drivers from here:

Drivers – BenchmarK3D

12.3 whql seem to work good for most people that have used them. I'm on modded 12.5 betas

make sure you download the mobility drivers.

For example:

http://download.benchmark3d.com/AMD/Catalyst/12.3/12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

 

Joining Alien Club.

 

Welcome Dude!!

 

Thanks, Dude
Coming from Acer with Core 2 Duo T6400 and 9600m GS to i7 3720QM and 7970M I expect some improvements in my gaming experience

 

I was wondering if the 17x R4 has two dimms or four dimms sockets for ram. I seen on the configuration screen its possible to put 32 gb ram.

 

4 sockets. 2 directly accessible from the back panel, other two you need to take off the keyboard.

 

4 (so-)dimms allowing up to 32GB of ram. and only Win7 x64 Ultimate and Enterprise support that amount.

 

gonna be an owner by 23rd May

 

Lucky! I should be on the 25th

 

Ordered mine yesterday. Substantial elements are:
i7 3820QM
7970M Radeon
8GB RAM (Will upgrade afterwards)
750HDD (Will purchase a 250gb M4 soon)

Anybody played Crysis on this thing yet? I bought a second hand copy in 2009 for £18 and have never bothered to beat the first level as I am hard to please technologically speaking.

Yeah... a £1,800 laptop to play an £18 (in 2009)game.......... >.>

 

Ok guys, so I have a few drives I can put in this machine. Wanted to get your opinions on how i should setup my system:

• 256gb Samsung msata SSD
• 512gb Crucial M4 ssd
• 750gb 7200rpm HD
• 256gb Samsung 830 Standard size SSD

I know most of my games will go one on drive, data and OS on others. Just wondering what you guys would suggest.

 

If you can afford the 512gb ssd go for that!

 

Ok use the 512GB as the OS Drive?? Just want to know should I setup 3 drives in my machine??

 

I recommend a 250gb SSD for your OS and your games you play often, and a 750gb-1tb storage disk for things like work, music and maybe games you dont often play.

 

Ok so dont use the 512gb SSD or the 256gb msata ssd??

 

If you get the 512gb ssd will you still get a second drive?
Otherwise go with the 250/1tb combo.
256 msata is also fine.
512gb would be nice as you could most probably fit most of your games on it, and if you get a second drive, all your data like media etc can be stored on the HDD

 

Ah ok, I was thinking the 256GB Standard SSD for my OS and some games, 256gb MSata for documents, music, pictures and the other 750GB drive for games.

 

Music and document open pretty quick in general, so you probably wont really need the 256 msata maybe a 512 SSD and 1TB HDD/ 750GB HDD?

 

So hows this:

512gb SSD for OS/Music/Documents and other drive for Games??

Or

Get 2x 750gb drives and Raid them!!

 

Will those 2x 750gb RAIDed drives be HDD or SSD? Or, are you saying that 2x 750gb SSD drives in a RAID configuration is an option for you (must be nice, if so!)? RAIDed HDD drives aren't going to offer superior speed when compared to SSDs.

I'm running 2x 750gb HDDs that are in RAID0 now...I selected that option when I ordered the system. My setup won't offer SSD-like load times, but I was aware of that when I bought it and am happy with it (I prefer lots of disk space over load time reduction).

 

I am going to use the 256gb msata for the OS and 2x 750gb in raid 0 for Games, Music, Documents, etc..

 

Sounds like a decent plan.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah thats a great idea! sorry didnt think of it earlier

 

I have an R4, what's the best chillmat for prolonged gaming for this Chasis?

Thanks

 

That's open for debate...you're going to get MANY different answers to that question. It all depends on your needs and taste.

I use the Notepal U2. It has two fans that you can move anywhere on the pad. I also use a Notepal LapAir for when I'm sitting on the couch with my system.

There's also a thread on cooling pads somewhere...I'll post it when I find it.

EDIT: here it is.

 

A good cooler is the notepal u3 and its not expensive

 

My cores are running in the high 60C while playing Diablo 3, is this regular?

And that's WITH a re-paste...

 

Thats normal.

 

View attachment 78074

Hopefully this pic works... I noticed this function on the f7 key and when pressed I get this message

View attachment 78075

So maybe no bios option but would this work for those that don't want to mess with IGPU?

Personally I am finding the autoswitching enduro to work perfectly. Meaning the first time I run every game it runs IGPU, then I hit properties, exe file is in all recent, and enable high performance. Scrim then on its always the dedicated card.

 

@Hookerlips. so when u switch the gpus. would all programs open with the selected GPU?

 

I am installing a solid state drive and will do a clean install of W7.It will be the only drive in the system.Are there any advantages to installing in RAID vs AHCI?

 

I have a quick question. I'm planning on pulling the 512GB SSD out of my mac and putting it in my M17x when it arrives next week.

I'm wondering... am I going to need to download drivers for this thing or should it just work once its plugged in?

Some info it it might help:
The model number seems to be: THNS512GG8BBAA
Below the serial number it says: 512GB Galas 655-1590A

View attachment 78081

 

You'll need drivers, but you might need to check whether the drive is HFS+ formatted too and if so reformat to FAT32.

 

I think the SSD will be recognized without any drivers. To install windows you will need to reformat it though, The windows installer will guide you through this process.

And you will need the regular drivers for the M17x.

 

Thanks Majik,

I'm definitely going to reformat, but do you have any idea where I might find the drivers? I don't think this model was ever offered directly to consumers and I'm having a difficult time tracking it down.

Hopefully I'll pop it in and it will just work, but if it doesn't, it'd be nice to have the drivers at the ready.

 

Anybody have a detailed guide on the best possible way to back my new R4 UP? I do see that I have the Alienware Respawn icon on taskbar, but haven't touched it yet. Should I make a DVD with the software or? How's it work? Perhaps a traditional hard-drive backup might be more beneficial?

I want to make sure that IF I reformat, that everything will look like it did when I first pushed the power button, which includes the Alienware intro theme, wallpapers, etc.

 

It should come with a factory restore image setup in AlienRespawn. I would recommend as soon as you press the power button the first time to back it up to a disc or thumb drive. Then, store it somewhere safe. For your personal data, I would recommend backing it up on an external drive or something of that sort.

Those are just my personal recommendations, but it works for me.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Playing with it and as far as I can tell all that switch does is turn off the 7970 completely. I guess that would help with battery life but otherwise not sure what use it would be. When I used it again ( each time requires a reboot ) it went back to the enduro option where you have to specify performance options for each application.

So basically its not what you are looking for, sorry.

 

Okay, so I was here looking to see if there was an easier way to swap out my 500GB HDD with my 128GB SSD besides just doing a clean install with fresh drivers and re-establishing the alienware look and feel. If someone knows of a way, that would be great, otherwise, I don't think going the manual route will kill me.

On another note, as I was reading around, I see all these questions regarding how to configure multiple HDDs. All I have to say is you do NOT need 256GB let alone 512GB dedicated to your OS. That's overkill. IF you have tons of games, that you play often enough to justify loading them all on your SSD, you would even have a hard time filling up 256GB. SSD is only for OS and games/programs. Documents/Music/Movies are all fine on HDD. mSATA 128GB/256GB SSD + 2x HDD in RAID if you want the best of both worlds.

 

For those that are interested, I just opened up my R4 to add some RAM, and noticed that there is still an empty PCI slot, even though I have an mSata SSD equipped. I haven't found the mSata yet...

I also noticed a second conenctor next to the video connector, so for those wanting to do a 3D conversion this might be interesting.

 

+1 rep for you!
This is the WiHD slot!
Yeah it's possible now i have to tell that the Dell technican then i can get a WiHD card!!

If the BIOS supports it...