Ordered new m17xr2 .... Newb questions !!!!

I ordered my new m17x almost 2 weeks ago and am expecting it any day now. I have some basic questions I'm hoping you guys can answer for me.

My setup is :

740qm
8gb ram
5870 +fire
120 gb ssd
19x1200 rgb led
Black

I'll post tons of pics when I get it. I'm pretty good with my slr so I'll be posting tons of sexy pics soon

Anyhow my questions are basic. I've been reading lots on here over the last week and wanted to ask about all this bios updating, SSS issues and driver stuff. I'm not really a new I built my first desktop a few years back so I'm confident I can do anything I just need some guidance cuz all this can get intimidating on the forums.

1. Since I ordered mine right at the end of the r2 life cycle will my bios etc be the latest or will I still need to upgrade?

2. Will it have the latest gpu drivers?

3. Do I get the gpu drivers from aw/Dell or ati?

4. Probably should have been my first question but to all you pro guys out there that know about all this updating etc .. What steps would you take if you were in my shoes and just received your new machine??

Did I mention I'm excited? Lol!

 

1) Your laptop will likely ship with AO8 bios and you don't need to upgrade to AO9 since all it has is an enhancement/fix for extreme CPU's. However, you can if you want.

2/3) It will likely ship with the latest vbios and dell gpu drivers. Use gpu-z to check and see if you have the latest vbios. If not just download and create a bootable drive and upgrade. The dell drivers are pretty outdated and I would recommend getting latest drivers from ati (don't forget to install the profiles as well)

4)I would do a clean install as soon as I receive the laptop. As a rule of thumb I stay away form the driver resource cd because a lot of times those drivers are out of date. Use the dell support page.

 

I agree the driver disk is waaay out of date. Just down load all the drivers from the dell driver site to a usb and keep it you may need sometime and don't have internet.
The other thing I would do is play with it and stress it some before you change everything. I see a lot of new pp here do a fresh install first thing and get lost as far as was it ok before or did you do something? Also back everything up first thing or you may lose Alienrespawn if you don't. best of luck

 

First of all; welcome to the family!

Your laptop should work out of the box. Mine did; though a couple of issues have arisen since then which are annoying at times but don't really interfere with the day-to-day running of the system (Battery Charge, Transistor Noise, etc.).

Since unboxing I've upgraded the CPU and Wi-Fi as well as applied the latest BIOS (A09) and ATI drivers (10.12) . If you are considering doing the same, I suggest you start here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/538603-official-all-powerful-m17xr2-edition-owners-lounge-part-3-a.html

Note: As I understand it, the A09 BIOS is only necessary if you have a 920XM or 940XM CPU.

Many in this forum have made additional modifications to their systems including replacing the thermal paste and thermal pads on the GPUs along with a 'retention clip mod' to reduce the temps and therefore the fan speeds. I haven't found it necessary to improve the cooling of the 5870s as I'm happy with my temps.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/507962-m17x-r2-full-internal-cooling-mod-huge-improvement.html

I don't plan to reformat my system and re-install Windows (Until SP1) since it's running fine at the moment, however, if you plan on doing this, refer to;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/541378-full-nuclear-option-wipe-rebuild-your-m17x-r2-full-detailed-description.html

Some of the tools we use include:

GPU-Z
CPU-Z
HWiNFO32
Furmark
Prime95

Enjoy your new toy!

 

Thanks so much for the replies i feel much better already knowing all that. I do tend to whine a bit about how my MacBook experience was a goo one but man I can't wait to see the performance of this machine I know it going to blow the 9600gt to bits !

On a side note... Is the i740qm a very low end CPU? Is it decent? The 920(or 940 I forget) was a THOUSAND dollars more... There's no way in he'll I could justify a grand for a CPU upgrade unless it was from an IBM 386 dx to a sandy bridge!! Is the extreme option CPU like 50x faster or something?

 

Does Dell give you a Windows dvd that lets you install on a clean drive, or is it a recovery disc? I don't think you can do a clean install with a recovery disc, so what would you recommend?

 

you should receive a win7 install cd... so u can start from scratch. which is what i always do, the respawn cd didnt even work correclty on my last machine...

 

They only ship with a OS disk and a driver disk now. The i740 is the choice around here best bang for the buck. I believe the 740 is over clockable where as my 840 is not. So I read most want the i920/940 or your 740. You will be very happy I am sure. The m17x is like no other notebook, very special indeed.

 

If you really want to upgrade your CPU, you can still find 920XM 'ES' chips on eBay:

New Intel Mobile Core? i7-920XM Extreme 8M Turbo 3.2GHz (eBay item 110626339941 end time 18-Jan-11 12:44:01 AEDST) : Computers Networking

New Intel® Core? i7-920XM Processor 2.0GHz/8m/1333 (eBay item 250744571696 end time 29-Dec-10 03:06:51 AEDST) : Computers Networking

In relation to the performance of the 920XM and 940XM CPUs, check out:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/455435-official-m17x-benchmark-thread-part-3-a.html

 

Great to hear it's an option. I don't think I need it I was just thinking that for the price the base CPU should be decent and by the sounds of it it's not bad. Any big performance increase because it's a quad core? Any care to venture on how it compares to the i7 in the macbook pro 17?


Oh and I just got my 'Order has been shipped' confirmation!!! WOHOOOO!!!