*OFFICIAL* M17xR3 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 2

Gosh, every time I see someone post their package and price, I cringe. I do hope that the OP enjoys his/her unit though

There's an SSD section/thread on NBR.

 

Haha so did I, believe me. But I feel as a software engineering major I have to have a pretty sweet laptop. Overpriced? yep! Worth it? ...we shall see

 

I bought my SSD first, still saving up for this and maybe hoping to get it for lower. Was able to get Vertex 3 for $272 CAD by price matching on ncix.com. Not sure if you are specifically into getting a certain brand, but just fyi.

 

Hey all. I am a little hesitant to use the switchable graphics card option on my m17x r3 for fear of it messing things up or maybe getting stuck on the IGP or something. Is this fear unfounded? Probably, right?

 

I would call that a silly fear

 

haha ok, thanks man.

 

@Dookie I think I paid more for mine than anyone on here, UNLESS they ordered it with the SSD from Dell...

Mine was right over $3000 shipped.

 

I Just ordered my first ever alienware - - was a m17x r3 and it cost me $3500 thats with standard warrenty - as usual the uk gets ripped off lol

 

@All of you: GOD DAM, SON!

I guess in terms of the savings I got with the aafes deal, it may have been worth the headaches, grey hairs, and split ends... Right?? LOLZ

Oh yeah, discovered something new today. I can hold the lappy like a textbook while walking. It's as heavy as my calc or econ book from college lolz. Not bad at all.

 

I just got my m17xr3, but I'm having this issue which i am not sure everyone else is having?

Everytime I boot up my system, the numpad lock is always off even after i shut down with numpad lock on, no matter what, updated bios, still to no avail, even calling the technician wasn't of help.

Is anyone having the same problem? I know its a small problem, but it's still a problem..

 

I assume you are running windows? I ask because I use Fedora Linux at work and have the same problem haha

Check for a BIOS option on it? I know some BIOSes have that as a toggle

 

Yea I'm running on windows 7, the bios doesn't have the option! it's kind of irritating when it happens all the time :/

Even the technician doesn't even know how to set it on.

 

Hey guys, new M17X R3 owner here, just thought I'd share my new specs and experiences with it

I went with the 2720QM, 8GB Ram, 6970m, and 2x750GB in Raid0. I've swapped out one of the 750s and replaced it with my 60GB G.Skill Falcon II which I've had in my old desktop for the last year or so. Successfully reinstalled and set up on the new drive and it's running great.

Aside from copying all my Steam games (350gig odd worth!) and other files over, I've tested it out with Bioshock, Fallout: New Vegas, Portal 2, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - runs all of them happily on max settings at native res. Looks awesome as well hooked up to my 50" Panasonic.

Battery performance seems good too - watched a 1 hour episode of Game of Thrones running on battery with the Intel graphics enabled, and only used around 25% of the charge, which seems pretty solid to me.

All in all, very happy with the system!

 

Guys I'm having some extreme issues with major lag spikes in online gaming, never had a problem with my previous laptop, seems like it may be my card or a problem with my cards packet transfer to my router. my parents bought a freaking apple router -_-, and its really been nothing but trouble... anyone experienced any problems with wireless problems?, I have a 6300 ultimate N router

 

Hey guyz,

I've always wondered: What's the button on the farthest right of our media bar for? The one that's to the right of the WLAN button?

 

Hey!,

New M17x owner, well, future owner, my laptop arrives on monday, if UPS deliver it at time...

I choose the following config:

i7 2630
4GB RAM
Full HD Display
ATI 6970M graphics card
320GB HDD (will replace soon with an OCZ Vertex 3)

the other specs by default.

I'll post my impressions as soon as I taste it!

 

Welcome to the community. Please ask questions if you need help---the folks on here are wonderful!

 

That one opens Command Center.

 

Yep, struggled with that for a while. Fire up your registry editor (regedit.exe) and look for HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard in a left-panel tree and select the Keyboard "leaf". Once you're in the Keyboard section, either find or create InitialKeyboardIndicators key in the right panel. Double-click on it and modify its value so that the second bit of it (in binary) is set to 1. In my case it was 2147483648 so i modified it to 2147483650. If yours is 0 then just set it to 2.

Exit the registry editor. It should kick in next time you either reboot or log in.

Let me know if you need help with regedit. Just don't do anything with regedit other than what I mentioned here!!!.

 

Ah thanks!

 

Ok, a few things. I'm not extremely computer savvy, so I was wondering what programs I should download to ensure that my computer (GPU/CPU) are running as they should be, as well as any other software all of you can recommend. Secondly, I read a post in another forum which said that the 6970 should be able to play games on high settings for about another 6 months?!? Is this true? That seems fairly short for the kind of money I put down on this computer. Thanks for your insight!

 

6 Months is actually pretty good for modern games. I expect it last until the end of this year. The reason is that notebook gfx cards are usually one generation behind desktops.

 

Thanks for the reply. When I feel like upgrading my GPU in a year or two, would you expect there to be GPUs on the market that will be compatible with the r3 (physically/bios)?

 

Physically yes, bios no

Do not expect anything beyond what Dell supports officially

 

So, I won't be able to upgrade? Or dell will support some cards in the future, but not all?

 

There will only be bios support for cards dell sales for this laptop. Do not count on anything else beyond that.

 

I've heard it is easier to upgrade GPUs on desktops. Is the bios different or is it just the easier access to the cards?

 

The BIOS is wide open to accept ALL cards, not the case on laptops. With laptops you can only use what the system maker approves in the BIOS.

 

Hey just a note for people thinking about ordering in the UK.

I originally had correspondance with a sales rep over the net. They told me there was no way i could get any discount or freebies as its now Dell policy not to.
Anyway when i made my order over the phone, i waited untill the guy wanted to confirm my specs before i hit him with a load of crap about the Asus g73sw coming with a bag, mouse and windows ultimate as standered. Just for that he gave me the Egro back pack and the Tactx mouse for free.

Im pretty chuffed with that because its a saving of like 150 GBP.

So, i guess the moral of the stroy.......dont be afraid to ask, and really push it if they refuse, and if you cant get it, be prepared to walk away(for 5 mins and then call again for a different rep) They definatly do discounts, just persevere!!! Just dont waste your time with the knuckleheads on the net chat.

Oh and i ordered the Stealth black, 2820qm, 6970 Ati, with 8gb ram. 1080p screen 60hz, that was approx 2400gdp.

I reckon i would have got cash off if i asked for that instead of freebies.

 

Could you give an example of what GPUs were offered as "upgrades" for past-AW computers Also, maybe a hint as to what GPU would be offered as an upgrade to our 6970s?

TYIA bud!

 

I am not going to speculate as to future releases. I will comment on the past though, the M17x R1 received 4870 support later on after being released. The M17x R2 received 5870 support down the road. the M15x received 5850 and then GTX 460m support. Despite still being around, the R1 would not work properly with 5870s. The R2 would not work well with GTX 460m's or 6970m's

Do not count on proper functionality without dell themselves supporting the cards

 

Does this apply to future-gen CPUs? Should we expect to be able to upg. to the "Ivy-bridge" or watever it's called?

 

It would probably require adding "CPU micro code" to a new revision of BIOS which Dell may decide against doing to avoid erosion of new sales. As of now, Ivy Bridge DESKTOP CPUs are slated to share the same socket as sandy bridge (LGA 1155?). I personally have not read anything about mobile, but I sure hope it's the same case! Ivy performance gains should be impressive to say the least.

 

Most likely bios support will be needed as kune noted. DR650SE bought a bunch of different CPUs and some of them would just not work in his R2

 

Hey guys i have a question. Im going to buy a solid state drive for my m17x. I want to get the smallest one possible and just put the operating system on it so it boots faster. how big should i get one? i want the smallest one possible because i only have about 80$ to spend.
i was looking at this one but didnt know if it was big enough.
Newegg.com - OCZ Onyx OCZSSD2-1ONX32G 2.5" 32GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I think only Windows 7 with some basic softwares should take up to 20-25GB. I suggest you check how much space you can actually use on this 32GB drive.

 

Hey all,

Started a thread for all BT/Bluetooth discussion. Please use it so that we can avoid cross posting/clutter. Thx ! http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-bluetooth-discussion-thread.html#post7566140

 

Hi all...
After many months of waiting, I've finally (today) taken possession of my new R3. Already, by comparison, I feel as if any efforts made towards achieving anything on my outgoing laptop amounted to banging rocks together, in the hope of creating fire... theoretically possible, but death from freezing far more likely.

Anyway... as a (very much) newbie to the owners club, I have a question regarding the 3D functionality...

I was able to use the NVIDIA glasses, to great effect, when viewing a few stills from that own company's website...

However, when I downloaded a few of their 3D video samples, I was unable to find a player/option within a player that would allow me to view these in steroescopic 3D, as required by the glasses. I read that Win Media Player 11 allows this, but, if so, I can't find the option selection.

Would appreciate if anybody could advise on this. Cheers folks

 

I think you should try using Cyberlink PowerDVD which comes with the system. I don't have 3D but just give it a shot.

 

... Unfortunately, that programme appears to offer options for DVD playback only - as opposed to playback of non-disk sourced data... thanks though

 

download nvidia video player, it should enable you to view all sorts of 3D video including mkv, I'd also recommend you install the latest Klite codec pack, I have a thread related to this somewhere if you do a search

 

Well the fun just keeps coming with my laptop maybe I just got a bad egg who knows..... So in addition to my wireless card not liking staying connected to any router anywhere. My computer is intermittently just shutting itself down, and now the best part lol, my GPU may be bad... I cant play any games or watch video without incredibly choppy gameplay or playback. I thought it simply might be a problem with the drivers, so I wiped and cleaned with driver sweeper. then reinstalled, now when I try to update I get the message " The graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware". Anyway I'm guessing, I'll probably just have to send my laptop back. But I thought I might check and see if you guys know anything about related issues and fixes etc.

 

If you've done no hardware or software mods, then this definitely calls for a replacement. Any product (especially a computer) be ready-to-run straight outta the box. Unless there's something I'm missing here with regard to Alienware computers (like, are they supposed to be targeted to comp-sci majors or the geek squad guy @ bestbuy?)

 

Which drivers are you trying to install? Some of the AMD drivers on the website won't work with the 6970M. The 11.5b hotfix RC5 DOES work with the 6970M.

Also, install the stock Dell M17x R3 AMD drivers and THEN install a new version over them.

 

You do not have to install over the dell drivers for the M18x...sure that it is necessary on the R3?

 

guys, are there any SSD out there that are on the same performance level as a OCZ vertex 3 that i can just "plug and play"? i dont want to encounter problems while using a SSD

 

Hi all... Can AlienSense/Fast-Access be installed within the R3 Command Centre? Even if not, is it worth the effort/expense?
Opinions appreciated... Cheers

 

I dont think so. They can just use your recent picture then they access your laptop pretty easy.

 

A while back I came across a thread with a link to a website with great wallpapers for the RGB LED screen on the R2, I can't find it now... Can someone link it to me please. Thanks

 

All the Sandforce controller SSDs have had reliability issues. Unfortunately they are also the fastest SSDs, so choose what is most important to you. Reliability wise Intel is the way to go. Also according to Anandtech.com, the intel 510 series is just as good if not better in real life application than a Vertex/Agility 3, plus it is more reliable.

I would get a Intel 510.

Here is my source.

AnandTech - The 2011 Mid-Range SSD Roundup: 120GB Agility 3, Intel 510 and More Compared