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

with the setup in my sig I get a WEI score of 7.4 with the weakest link being the processor. I personally would drop the ram down to 4 gig unless your running Vmware's or something that requires lots of ram. I would take the money you saved from the Ram and get the 6990m which is around 40%-50% faster than the 560m. Note that you will not be able to have 3D, but I personally think the tradeoff is worth it. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the info.

However, one thing I forgot to ask is this..
The ATI Radeon 6990M is only 60Hz for WLED, while the GeForce 560M is 120Hz on the WLED with 3D capability.

Am I losing alot by not having 120Hz compared to 60Hz refresh rate? Also, I'm not really a 3D buff, I get dizzy when looking at 3D stuff and get double vision anyways..

EDIT: One more thing. The hard drives. I don't know too much about hybrid solid state drives, are they any good? Reliable?? Or am I better off going with regular 7200RPM platter discs? I'm looking at 1TB Raid 0 (2x 500GB Hybrid Solid State Drives).

 

It's not really needed unless you want to run 3D

 

What about the hard drive options? I don't want the bottleneck to be the HDDs.. Tho, I'm not sure I want to shell out another 600$ for the 512GB RAID 0 Solid State drives..

 

just get a decent SSD as a boot drive and either a 500/750gb Platter drive and you should be good to go.

 

Like these guys said, get a 128GB or so SSD (Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 are my choices), and then get a 750GB for storage. I'd steer clear of the Hybrids. Too costly for such a small SSD partition.

Probably back down to the 2670 instead of 2760, VERY little difference in real world applications, use that on upgrading your videocard. If you are pretty adept at installing a SSD, dump one of the hard drives from your config, and go to newegg or amazon and buy a SSD for installation when you get the laptop. You'll be 100x better off.

 

I think I'll save money by going for a 750GB HDD 7200RPM for right now, drops the price tag on Dell configuration. And I'll buy an SSD after the fact from newegg.

Question, are there two kinds of SSD's?? Regular size for desktop and smaller form factor for laptops? I let me know. thanks.

 

Fantome, if you want the 3d option and you want to game @ 1080p, you should go with 580m. The 560m just doesn't have enough juice to run 3d properly. In 3d, the frame has to be rendered twice for the effect which effectively drops your fps in a game in half.

with a 560m, you will have to drop the resolution and/or graphical details to play the game "the way it was meant to be played"

 

I did mention that 3D stuff makes me dizzy with double vision, so I'm skipping out on that option and going with the ATI 6990M.

 

that's a very good choice. As mentioned above, the 6990m is around 50% faster than the 560m.

 

I think my wei is like 7.2 with my ssd

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50%???? lets see some proof =P

WEI scores don't mean anything, i can get my system to 7.9 with the worst components possible. in theory its a measurement of how well your computer will utilize windows, its not what you should base your purchases on. and FWIW the 6990 is a way better choice.

 

I went from a 460m in my alien to my current 6990m and all i can say is wow. I was getting around 9273 graphics score with the 460m pushed to its absolute limits, and my 6990m easily blows that away with a graphics score of 15925. I haven't really pushed my 6990m that hard though as I don't want to break it.

 

WEI is a good benchmark albeit a simple one. I just don't understand why people diss it... It's a number that means the same as any other benchmark number. Laptops can't do 7.9 overall, does that mean they have poor components?
Not mine, does as well as a 2700k w/ 560Ti plus super fast RAM n SSD

 

mostly because the tests ran to determine the score only test the hardware functionality as it pertains to windows. it doesn't run the hardware through its full paces, it only measures it proportionally vs the Windows software. In my opinion its not a good bench mark at all. it doesn't fully test the equipment or even simulate a "real-time" environment test such as 3dmark or PC mark, just for examples sake. it does provide you a number to achieve so i can see that attraction for some people i guess, as we have become an achievement based society.


oh and i can make my laptop do 7.9 across the board. easily.

 

truly? I would love to see that

it seems that windows 8 has raised the bar somewhat and you can get more than 7.9 there.

 

Mine is out for delivery right now. Looking forward to opening this baby up.

 

ACtually, 6990m is probably even higher than 50% more powerful to a 560m. maybe 60-70%. I'm basing these numbers on my own experience with a 460m overclocked to faster than 560m speeds.

If you want published proof...you can look at these FPS numbers...the 6990m and gtx 560m are in different leagues :

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

SCroll down do a compare on the ULTRA numbers to a 6990m

Summary for the lazy...all games at ULTRA settings:

Mass Effect 3

• 560m 44fps
  • 6990m 28% faster

Allan Wake

• 560m 16.2fps
  • 6990m 89% faster

Star Wars Old Replublic

• 560m 32fps
  • 6990m 45% faster

Anno 2070

• 560m 20.1fps
  • 6990m 70% faster

Skyrim

• 560m 21.3fps
  • 6990m 60% faster

COD...Modern Warfare 3

• 560m 44.5fps
  • 6990m 57% faster

BF3

• 560m 19.2fps
  • 6990m 30% faster

F1 2011

• 560m 33fps
  • 6990m 45% faster

Deus Ex human Revolution

• 560m 27fps
  • 6990m 87% faster

Dirt 3

• 560m 23fps
  • 6990m 67% faster

Crysis 2

• 560m 20fps
  • 6990m ~75% faster

 

Can't really trust too much NBC numbers because they use old/out of date drivers to test their laptops and GPUs and this don't really show the real performances, especially for NVIDIA GPUs.

 

pau1ow, those numbers are meant as an example. i know you can optimize per game plus overclock to eeke out max performance on both the 6990m and 560m. But simply put, the 6990m is significantly faster than the 560m

 

my comment was mostly was ment as a joke, the 6990 is a FAR superior card, but i felt obligated to Defend my budget cards honor =)... does your 6990@ stock meet the Benchmarks i have set with my 560m?( see my sig) we can do a real world comparison to get the actual numbers, we can do GPu only benches in Vantage and 3d11.

yeah here is a Screen shot of my 7.9 ; )

 

I can now say I am officially an owner of an R3. It came "Certified Refurbished". I'm assuming they went through, made sure it was in tip top shape, and sent it back out?

All in all, other than picking up a SSD for the unit, I'm pretty happy with it. Build quality wise, I'd give the edge to the GT783, but the M17x is a pretty sturdy piece of machinery. I think the vents on the bottom are what give it as much "flex" as it has. Screen is very nice, keyboard is very comfortable. The track pad feels a little rubbery to me, but overall not a detraction.

After the SSD gets installed... I'm perfectly happy with my $1300 machine, haha.

 

LOL...the hard part of reading text is that its so hard to see the sarcasm sometimes.

hmmm, stock? The last time i ran a stock bench...vantage was about 16+k...somewhere in there. Can't remember exactly cause its been quite a while. I didn't run 3dmark06 because its so old.

3dmark11 scores around mid to higher 3k's, but its been so long since i ran a stock bench.

excellent specs for a $1300 pricetag

 

lets do it all stock so we can see the true difference i think 50% is a high estimate, but id like to know for reals =)

 

You're meant to include a GPU-Z and CPU-Z window with benchmarks ^^ Also for the love of God resize your damn screenshot

And 50% is right on, benchmarks at stock are at notebookcheck and they are accurate. No need for stock benchmarks

Max Vantage GPU score for 6990M is 16,500 and about 10,500 for the 560M?

 

^^^ what i think Clever is hoping to see is that the numbers are alot closer so he doesn't have to go out and upgrade

 

HAHAA.....nah im just trying to bring back the old days of benching when we had new benches to try to beat everyday. now its like people only want to bech the TOP hardware and they only do it once or twice then done. DR650 & Johnk where are you!!!!

the screen of WEI is a joke, chill out. it can be edited in Windows, my real score is 7.3 .... i know the interwebs is srs business but cmon.....

stock on my 560m was around 11k vantage, so yeah id say that's close, idk what the 6990m stock is. and realistically there isnt a need for any benchmarks, but id like to see the real world scores from real people, in real time. if he doesn't want to then that's cool. No need for negativity even on an Internet Forum...

 

ha, you just have to understand GEO, he's not giving you a hardtime, it's that British in him

let me see if i can dig up an old screen shot of a stock vantage run

 

its all good =)

 

WEI is not a joke.. how many times do I have to keep telling you? You can't edit it, it's a very good benchmark.

A 560M gets like 8k GPU score at stock.. max overclock score I seen was around 10,500K for the GPU. Overall Vantage scores take CPU into account, not what this 50% thing is about?

 

Got a quick question if ya'll don't mind? I'm completely new to SSD's and would like to put one in my new R3. Can someone give me an opinion on these two drives?

Samsung 830 128GB - $139 shipped

or

Patriot Pyro 120GB - $109 shipped

Thanks!

 

Hey guys, I have a potential problem w/ my new system. In the ad that I purchased it from, it stated 120Hz FullHD 1920x1080p 3D display. Now, it's in 1600x900 resolution, and that's the max resolution that it's displaying. When I go into the Device Manager, under Display/Monitor it just says Generic Monitor. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect. Should tell the type of screen, etc, correct?

Can anyone link me to the correct driver for my system?

9CWCT1MODULE..., LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY..., 17.3HD+WLED, LEGEND...

Is what it says on the Dell Original Configuration site.

 

Is it at least 3D?? That sucks though. And for the driver, just go to Dell.com and at the bottom, there's a link to "drivers and downloads" and then type in your service tag and find the driver for the 580m and the Intel HD3000

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Sent from my SGS2 Skyrocket using Tapatalk

 

On my GT783, when you went into device manager, under monitors it gave the actual name and type of monitor instead of Generic PnP monitor. Should it give me the mfg and model? Just seems odd. I contacted the seller. I paid for 1080P 120Hz, that's what I expect. We'll see.

 

Yeah I'd contact him right away. That's still a killer deal though..I wish I had seen something like that when I was in the market for one. I paid 1450 for mine without the ssd and a little over 500 days of CompleteCare.

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Any good free utilities that will tell you exactly what is in your system? Namely the LCD/LED brand/model?

I tried using the Dell "Current Configuration" utility, but it just hangs up.

Also, looks like I'll be repasting the CPU/GPU, as it's running pretty warm just using Chrome.

 

Im not sure if this will work, but go check the "tech bargains" subsection forum here and there's a post about aida 1.85 for free and its a system utility that tells you everything you need to know about hardware and model numbers and everything. That might help

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Sent from my SGS2 Skyrocket using Tapatalk

 

you don't want the pyro...has the sf 2281 controller and cheapo 25nm nand memory...that's a recipe for disaster.

The samsung on the other hand is very stable and is quite quick. I would go with that.

Also, look at the Crucial M4 and Plextor M3 and get prices for those.

 

Yep Aida64 Extreme Edition does tell you display stuff. It gave me the model which was LG Phillips something and it says the max resolution. Here's the link to the thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...on-1-85-free-wednesday-3-28-downloadcrew.html

 

Any way to tell for sure whether or not you have a 3D screen? Going to do the video BIOS update, but since the screen isn't what it was supposed to be, I'm unsure of what I actually have.

 

Yes, aida64 extreme edition should tell you that. Go to the link I posted a couple posts back.

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Sent from my SGS2 Skyrocket using Tapatalk

 

Yep, doing some researching, looks like it's just the standard 1600x900 screen. Not overly happy at the moment. Otherwise, very nice laptop. Need a SSD and a 1080P FHD screen. Don't care about 3d, but do care about the higher resolution for my 3DS Max and Blender fun.

 

yes you can edit it. as shown with my 7.9 scores. its not a good bench sorry. Ive been doing this a LONG time,ask any real bencher if its a good bench. but if you believe that is not editable, ill post a screen with 7.9 with gpu & cpuz no problem

my stock vantage gpu run on my 560GTX was 9k+, but if you read the posts i was making a joke at him, obvious i know the 6990 is a WAY better card.

 

Just an update. The seller is giving me a $180 refund, so I "can" get the 1080P screen from ebay if I want. I'll take it. Now not sure if I want to go for the screen, or grab a SSD. I'm thinking I want the 1080P screen.

 

sucks man. the screen is a hard thing to change from what i gather, i was looking into getting a RG+b 95% gamut screen and from what i can gather there isnt a way to do it without damaging the PLexiglass LCD cover, hpe im wrong but this is what ive been able to decipher... considering the price of the system, i would probably accept the $180 too.

 

Clever, you damn hacker! lol

A stock run on a 6990m is about 15k...more than +50%?

 

Oh wow. Seriously? That does stink man. I just received the $200 (he threw in some extra, wow) refund on it, so now I guess I'll hold onto it for the time being.

So for now, I have the system in my sig, minus the 3D 120Hz 1080P screen, for $1150. Not bad for a 580M i7 system.

Need to do a little research on the screen. I DEFINITELY don't want to damage the plexiglass cover.

 

If you find anything let me know, I'm stuck in a similar situation as I haven't been able to find a 1080p replacement screen other than straight from dell, and they want $700 even for the non-3d one.

 

You've been editing WEI scores for a long time Mr Real Bencher? Dayumn I can't be messing with your 7.9s.

The whole point is to see that your system is functioning correctly, it's fairly easy to do and doesn't require any other software. Editing the scores in the registry to post here is a bit silly. We can clearly see through them -_-

And if you knew the 560M was poor compared to the 6990M, what was the point of making a joke out of it? OH EM GEE YOU SO SO SO FUNNY MAN!!!

Also, yeah, you seem really convinced WEI is awful. It's not designed to be a comprehensive benchmark. It's not bad for what it's designed for.

I was just wondering how far he would go, lol... "Oh hi thar, I'm cleverpseudonym and I edit my scores to prove that WEI sucks!"

I'd take the cash too. At least you'll be getting insane frame rates, lol.

 

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I don't know if that ones 1080P, but if you search for m17x lcd, it'll bring up several new and used options. I'm contemplating it, but I don't know if the hassle would be worth it. Doesn't look like it's too difficult to take apart the assembly to slide another one in there, but man....

Stinks that "this" is the one part of the listing that was messed up. I can't complain, I still have an awesome system for cheap... but there's something about this screen that I just don't know if I can't take.

Likewise, if you find any other alternatives, let me know. There are several listings on there, some new for $399 and less, so I'll see if I want to take that plunge, or just buy an external monitor for home, and throw in a SSD or two.

Here's a brand new one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ALIENWA...ltDomain_0&hash=item3372e891fb#ht_1858wt_1163