*OFFICIAL* M17x R3 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 3

Looks like a cool game. Thanks for sharing, bro. +1 Will have to check that out. Trailer looks pretty sweet.

 

It feels like Deus Ex on steroids without all the silly RPG stuff/walking around. Loads of action, explosions and epic weapons/abilities. The interface is sooo tasty too, yummy.

 

Those are great temps, almost as good as mine...you must be using PK-1

 

SWEET! I don't like all that RPG dialogue, so that sounds pretty great to me. I also go for the pulse-pounding action rather than story-line. I could not find it on Steam, but did see it on Origin. At $59.99 I will be waiting a while... I generally refuse to pay more the $20 for any game, but I'll definitely be picking this up when the price drops to the point I am willing to buy.

 

I agree completely with Slick. I use a T520 at work and it is a very well built laptop. I think the Alienware is just as well or better built. It is much larger and heavier so I would not recommend picking it up with one hand but it does not feel cheaply made to me. The M18x has a metal housing and is even sturdier but much heavier.

I have the 580m and have no problem at all with heat management. When I game in 3D it runs in the mid to upper sixties. My old Asus with a 5870 would run in the upper seventies to eighty degrees Celsius while gaming.

It does get a little warm on your lap if you plan on sitting on the couch and gaming. I do this myself but it does get warm. The cooling system is very efficiently removing heat from the GPU and CPU but it is depositing this heat right on your knees. I have a lap board with a mouse pad that takes care of that problem. I can only use it on my lap without the board if I'm surfing the internet. If I start playing a game it gets a little warm at the exhaust ports.

 

Sally,

I paid $2036 delivered to an APO address so there were no taxes or shipping charges. I have the 2760 processor, the 1920 X 1080 screen (non 3D), 6990m video card and 8GB of 1600 RAM. Those were the only options I took.

I'm having issues though, until I get them resolved I can't give an unbiased opinion on the machine, too pissed off right now.

 

Does anyone happen to know if there is an L-shaped adapter that I can use with the AC Adapter? Like the one in the picture?

 

Sure, here you go:
Dell Right angle adapter

Bought a couple myself.

 

Thank you!

 

I got an Alienware a couple of weeks ago. Sadly the dvdrom is becoming a headache. It wont allow and cd-dvd to be inserted. The feeding mechanisim seems to be faulty. Its impossible to get a cd inside. This is the second time I try using the drive.Any ideas ?

 

m17x is here and already installed the 2 x 256GB m4's and 16gb HyperX. The ones under the keyboard were a little scary, especially the ribbon cables!

Overall impressions - it's a much better fit for me. Very noticeably lighter - thats the biggest issue for me. Can't really even pick up the m18x with one hand to lift it onto your lap. If you don't need dual GPU's I see no reason to get the 18 over the 17 unless you want that extra inch. But I mainly use it attached to my U3011 and the rest of the time hauling it to the couch when watching tv.

Strangely enough, the trackpad on the m18x was horrible at 2 finger scrolling but works perfectly on the m17x. Im guessing it's just a fluke or bad trackpad, or wrong drivers on the m18x but Im happy this one works well.

I will miss the macro buttons though!

 

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Congrats on your new system. How is it running for you?

I was debating between the m18x and the m17x myself. It really came down to price for me. It was really hard to justify to my wife the reason I needed to spend so much for a laptop. With around a $500+ difference in price, the m17x was easier to sweet talk her into. The m17x has more then enough of everything for me. I can easily use this laptop for 2+ years before needing to start thinking about an upgrade. If the newer GPUs are compatible, then this system could potentially last me 4+ years. Of course I would love an m18x with dual 580m GPUs, but that's overkill for me. Plus the m17x is a little more mobile as I will be using it for school too.

Seeing how fast most of you that ordered with the 6990m, kinda makes me wish I would have ordered that instead of the 580m. O'well, I'm hopeful it'll be here next week. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Wrong place!!

 

I have recently started gaming, and was looking for great quality combined with 120Hz screen and powerful graphics.

Upon live chat with Dell outlet, they gave me options to 2 configs.

Alienware M17x R3 Laptop
Processor: Intel Core i7-2760QM Processor (2.4 GHz,w/Turbo Boost,6MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz, (4x2GB)
750 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 120Hz WLED
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate
Soft Touch Stealth Black
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
9 Cell Battery

Alienware M17x R3 Laptop
Processor: Intel Core i7 2820QM Processor (2.3GHz, 3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz)
500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
6X Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 120Hz WLED
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Soft Touch Stealth Black
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
9 Cell Battery

I decided to get the 2nd option due to the Blu-Ray and the dual HDDs, and the lower price.

Which would you choose? I still have both in my cart.

Thanks guys.

 

Take the cheaper system and add your own ram(cheaper then Dell can give for you) the BD reader with tha t3d Screen is a must really. Proc isn't such a big deal for gaming.

 

Def get the 2nd cheaper option...processor is more than enough...and upgrade the RAM on your own for cheap...also, you may want to think about upgrading one of the HDs with an SSD if budget allows at some point...regardless...I think they are giving you a decent deal!

 

Thanks! I thought so so I just went with the second option.

Can't wait.

 

Yep, second one is the best choice.

Grats on the new system

 

Thanks, it's awesome. Really not any different when it's hooked up to my monitor. But at night time when I take it to the couch and work there and do things on it, its noticeably different, primarily the weight, portability factor. I also don't play any games on it, primarily just memory intensive work stuff, and sometimes some handbrake etc. The loss of screen size is not even noticeable to me unless I had both on my lap back to back. The palm rest is better (for me) on the m17x also - the m18x had a deeper palm rest and when I was typing on it dug into my wrists - guess it depends on how long your arms are though

However, I will give the m18x one more up on the 17. The m18x fan virtually never ran. The m17x runs often, albeit not very loud, but still enough to notice it. The m18x was dead silent. I'm guessing the extra space in there with just one GPU helped cool things off. But, I'll bet if you had dual GPUs it would run a lot more.

 

Evening All

I promised to report back when I'd finished arguing with dell, and finally I now have a working M17x again

Unfortunately Dell point blank refused to supply replacement 830s as "the M17x R3 does not support SATA III" as "after extensive testing in our labs, we have detected stability issues with these drives". I appreciate this just confirms what was already being said here about the A09 bios locking down slot 0, but I'll admit to some satisfaction in badgering a reluctant Dell support technician into admitting it.

For the record I settled for a pair of 810’s and some financial compensation (for two months with no laptop) and in fairness to Dell, once I got past their normal support channels the chap who took charge of my case was as helpful as could be (at least 5 days delay was thanks to my good friends at UPS ).

Anyhow, I just wanted to give a heads up to any of you with Dell supplied SATA III drives that if you have any problems you won’t be getting a like-for-like replacement from Dell.

I also want to say a big thank you to bigtonyman (in the A09 Bios thread), YodaGoneMad and remedy1978 for their clear thinking/advice and the link to the board of directors email address

Right, I’m off to finally get some gaming done on this beast as I’m waaaay behind having bought half a dozen titles in the last steam sale despite not having a laptop to play them on

 

Was the compensation for the lower priced drives and the wait time or just the wait time? If I was given cheaper drives without the compensation of the difference, I'd be super angry

--
Sent from my SGS2 Skyrocket using Tapatalk

 

glad to see you got your machine all fixed up. sucks that they wouldn't give you another 830 though.

 

It's certainly not been the best customer service experience I've ever had!

What really blows my mind is that I got better service from Dell when my laptop bag didn't arrive. It amazes me how I got world class service from the free customer support for a missing bag (seriously, as an ex-service desker I was genuinely impressed with how they handled that call), then get ignored, lied to, ignored again, accused of fraud (in essence at least), ignored a bit more and finally have to start emailing the board of directors when I try and use the primo expensive support I paid for!

Anyhow, thanks again for your support

Ferrari353 - It was a bit of both. Again credit where its due, the figure Dell offered (without prompting I might add) was pretty much exactly what I was geared up to argue for and by that point I just wanted my machine working again so took their money and ran . FYI it worked out to about 8% of the actual cost of my laptop (ie, not counting what I paid for support, bags etc) which near enough paid for a new HP Mini for the Missus. I took great pleasure in sending Dells cash straight to HP

 

That is a shame, but at least you got a good resolution. I kind of suspected that they were ditching the 830's when people buying new systems started to get 810's again. It is annoying, hopefully my drive doesn't die. So far it is solid, and I think if it was gonna die it would have already. Samsung rates these drives at 16 years of use if you write 40 gigabytes per day, so with luck mine will last the 2-4 years I will keep this laptop.

 

Finally got my 6990m in the mail and installed. Downloading drivers now, but so far so good.

 

Congrats man! Finally you got no problem this time round huh?

 

For those that have read my rants in the "Freeze on Boot Up" thread here's an update:

I had a 500GB 5400rpm Seagate that I dropped in and installed a fresh copy of Windows and all drivers on. This appears to have resolved the issue, at least to this point.

I got absolutely NO help from Dell beyond an offer to exchange the system and that is what I am going to do when I get home. Dell customer support is beyond horrible and while I fully intend to retain the computer, I can assure you that once it dies I won't be buying another.

 

nope worked like a charm, only problem im having atm is I don't know what driver to download from dell to get the graphics switching to work as there are 3 different AMD drivers listed?

 

Get the one that have 6990M in its decription. IIRC it is from July as well.

 

alright thanks man

 

First of all, i'm not defending anybody here, but from what you wrote here:

I believe they're doing their best. When you buy a Dell product, it's stated that they can't ship to APO and i can tell you it's not only Dell, good luck finding an OEM that not only ships to an APO but also free of charge or without asking you to send the system for a few weeks!

I guess that it's due to limitations as to what can be sent to an APO if not, they would've shipped parts or sent someone over by now.

 

They shipped an entire computer to an APO so I fail to see why they couldn't ship a repair part for that same computer.

As for the reps on this board, as of this point, they are not Dell Customer Service as far as I am concerned, they have not given me a run around, but they haven't responded with any positive action to this point either. Not saying they won't do so, only that they haven't as of yet. Then too, as I said before, even should they want to assist me, if the company they work for won't allow them to ship a repair part to an APO there isn't much they can do aside from offer an exchange which I have already been offered.

The bottom line is that I ordered and paid for something that doesn't work and the company I paid for the product has bounced me from person to person for 2+ days without giving me a satisfactory resolution. Why on Earth would I buy anything else from them knowing this is the likely outcome if I have more problems?

I'm sure the computer is fantastic when it works, but since I had to use old parts from another computer to make it work, and those parts are not of the same standard as the parts I paid for in this computer, I see no reason to sing their praises.

 

now it seems my temps are crazy the top of the laptop doesn't seem to warm, but furmark is reporting 105C and hwinfo is pretty much sitting at around 64C during idle and during a furmark run. Not sure what the heck is going on at this point

 

Furmark must be wrong. Doesn't that card execute a thermal shutdown trigger at 104C? Do you have one of those handheld IR thermometers? You can shoot it at your exhaust port to see if Furmark is anywhere in the vicinity of correct. The air coming out of the vent should be over 90C if the card is really at 105. I'm betting it's not because your card is not dead.

 

Check your thermal pads, they seem to not get in contact with the card at all. And paste.

 

I am waiting for the swap. I have at home the R3 with GTX580M, 3D screen, but I want to go for the M18x. It's more expensive, but I would have SLI 580M...

 

OK, I have to ask.

I noticed that my 500GB 7200RPM drives are actually Momentus XT 500GB Drives.

In fact they both are.. does Dell always provide the Momentus XT when you buy a 500GB HDD?

 

No, not always, but it seems there has been a shortage of the regular drives since the flood, i waited for a replacement mechanical 500Gb for ~ two weeks.

 

Very cheap and brand new OEM 2920XM

Look at this on eBay:

Intel OEM Core i7-2920XM Processor Extreme SR02E (NON-ES)

Intel OEM Core i7-2920XM Processor Extreme SR02E (NON-ES) | eBay

BID!

 

Hi all! Just bought my first Alienware. Wow am I giddy! Basic specs, but I got the biggest upgrade I wanted and a compromise on the other, for an ok price after haggling. (<--great thread on that) I'll upgrade a lot on my own over time, which I enjoy doing anyway. This is going to be the best machine ever, I'm so happy I'm still shaking a little.

Just wanted to say hi, and thanks for all the great knowledge and articles here that helped me inform my purchase.

ESD: March 19th. Yay!

 

Welcome to the club. I'm awaiting my first Alienware also. Should be seeing mine this week sometime. Glad to see you got what you wanted. I would think you'll see your system before your EDD.

 

Welcome Salticid!

 

welcome to the club

 

Thanks so much for the welcomes.

Really wish I could have gotten the top-of-the-line GPU, but hope I can fix that in the next year.

See you around the forums, I hope.

 

hey guys , can an ALienware M17x r3 have two graphics cards?

 

It already does if you count the Intel HD 3000.
But if you are referring to dedicated graphics cards, then no, it can't. The motherboard has only one MXM slot.

 

Hey guys is this a good deal? Was on the phone with a rep and he could get me this:

i7 (the base stock one)
4GB RAM
750GB 7200RPm hd
GTX 560M
900p screen (I really wan the 1080p tho )

All of this for $1467...should I take it or no?

 

not really...get them to throw in the 1080p screen.

 

I tried everything...the manager was even listening to our convo and said 1467 was lowest they could go. Is there anything else I can do? Refurbished maybe?