Questions on R3 that dont seem to have any definitive forthcoming answer...

I am currently in possession of an Lunar Silver - Alienware R2, i7840 ,6Gb Ram, RgbLed ,Blu Ray Rom , Crossfire 5870 ,Intel 6300.. which I took delivery on November 2010.

Without goin into further details, let me put it out there that Dell/Alienware owes me either a brand new machine or a choice of doing some minor tweaks on the R2. The choice of option is absolutely mine.

Given the above scenario, I have been in a dilemma since the end of January as to whether I should pursue a new machine which would be R3 or anything other model.

Of course we are disallowed to discuss both R2 and R3 as in a competitive comparison. But I think its very much in the interest of people who are in the same boat or circumstance like me.

Though many have put up photos and discussed or even sort of reviewed the R3 system, I find it most of them do not give a very clean and definitive view. It vague and times contradictory. I know for a fact most of you here are vastly more experienced and have the technical know, so it would be great if those of you who can spare some time to patiently answer in a more objective manner than weighing in more subjectively.

Let me hit a few queries of my own...

What would those of you who have handled R3 recommend? I have the luxury of waiting as I already have a R2 system in hand. I am most definitely not interested in M18 even if it truly the successor of m17x R2.

So I figured perhaps I should go for R3 if despite being a single GPU machine it can perform better than a Single GPU 5870. As all of you have repeated so many times Dual GPU only matters for benchmarks and gaming FPS. Many of us do buy Alienware for more than gaming too.

Should I proceed on R3 once the chipset issue is ironed out?

Which GPU is more worth of being dependable for real world workload? Nvidia or AMD Radeon?

The reason I am considering R3 is because I have the opportunity to do so.

Alienware R2 is a wonderful piece of hardware but its not without pitfalls.

Its awesome with Aluminium chassis. Great for gaming. Available with RGBLED and it can be customised with i7940 Extreme.

But its EOLd...meaning its at the end of its life. So no matter how great the shell or chassis is you cant do much with the insides in terms of upgrade unless Dell has a change of heart and gets a Sandy Bridge motherboard for R2 as well.

Yes we can overclock i7 940 EX etc...but its something we need to do. Sandy bridge i7 2820 clearly out guns it in real world processing even at stock level itself despite being locked in. So no arguments there right? PLEASE CORRECT ME IF AM WRONG!

The dual GPU is useless apart from being used in gaming more so Ati 5870 because it has poor tessellation abilily.

So that leaves the the RGBLED screen as the 2nd positive point apart from Aluminium chassis that would be sorely missed compared to R3.Plus the ability to change the LED lighting on the Alienhead on the screen chassis.

I am wondering how R3 owners are to know if the system is charging or not with the lid closed as the color is fixed to white. Does it pulsate while charging? In R2 we could make it out even if the lid was closed as it mimics the lighting on the start button.

R2 also has a very badly designed touchpad. The touchpad remains to be quirky. The right and left click buttons are the worst of designs. Try comparing it with a Dell Studio XPS 1640/45/47.

The borders are not distinct as well and do not correspond to the actual functional touchpad area. This is a big flaw.

The media capacitative touch panel above the keyboard is also not as effective or sensitive. No volume mute function.

The LED color lighting in R2 is not clean when set to white or a few other colours. For example, when set to white the touch buttons above keyboard have a pink or orange hue in mine.

The battery backup is bad. and the chassis is pretty heavy. The sharp pointed edges of the chassis can be quite dangerous!

Now the R3 has USB 3.0 , sata 3 , sandy bridge, HDMI 1.40 both input and output. way longer battery life, lighter etc etc much of which we know.

Now what is the exact take on R3 chassis? I know its not aluminium, but that doesnt mean we shud get biased. Is the current magnesium alloy sturdy? How is the quality of the base cover? Is merely plastic or alloy too? Plus please give the feedback on the main frame. Is the lid solid or appears to be flimsy?

We all know the glory of RGBLED? How good is the 60 hertz and 120 Hertz WLED HD screen. Are they very good in viewing quality? What is the difference between the 60 and 120 hertz? And if I may ask wats the percentage of colour gamut covered by these screens.

Are you able to run the 3d screen at 120 hertz when we do not use the 3D function?

Are the media keys touch sensitive? Or are they meant to be pressed as a button?

What is the quality of the touchpad in terms of functional area and the ergonomics of the right and left keys? I believe they have split the keys this time around. Are the borders of the touchpad discernible as you move your finger without looking?

Is the quality of sound equal to or better than R2? Does the palmrest vibrate and give out audible noise at high volume?

The palmrest is said to be given a rubber like finish. Do those of you who have R3 do you feel it may get worn out or slough off as time goes by? The reason I am asking is, the sebum or oil from our skin can cause deterioration of rubber. Some of you may look at you gaming mouse which may be rubberized.

How is the white lighting? Is distinctly white and uniform or still gets polluted with other colors?

Only Mandrake seems to identify the infamous flex in R3. But a Dell person told him on You Tube that it was not normal and should get it fixed. So was Mandrake's caR#se an isolated one? What about the rest of you? How bad is the flex if there is one? Even R2 has some flex but only demonstrable on heavy and purposeful pressing.

Have you all checked if the battery pack in R3 belongs to the latest generation? Something to do with wattage. It was a break through in technology by Dell and was to be incorporated in R3 for battery life improvement.

What is the exact weight of R3 and by how many kgs or lbs is it lighter than than R2?

Is the power adapter of R3 the same size as R2's?

Finally as many of you I am also wondering...if Nvidia 485M will appear on R3. I have all the time to wait. I guess we can only know if someone tries on their own or if Dell indeed does what it should have in the first place.

I know AMD 6970 is great. but still for processing and real world performance Nvidia beats AMD. Right? Is AMD 6970 great for tessellation? Or Nvidia 460m is better cut out for that? But of course we know the current Nvidia card is not the best for 3D, and it makes every1 wonder whats cooking in Dell's mind. Are they trying to clear the 460m stocks? I know Dell doesnt ever stock internal parts except for those in warranty hubs.

Edited 13/2/2011 : Is it true that if you accidentaly plug in the earphone jack into the SPIDF socket of R3, it gets damaged and a motherboard change is required!!!

So in a way I take the current chipset issue as a blessing in disguise. I hop Dell does feel that same way too. They would definitely hit a home run if they improve the single GPU offering. Ah! Dell....ooorah

Thank you for reading. Kindly offer your opinions.

 

Wow, vads, this post is so filled with deep and philosophical questions that I don't know where to begin. One could write a novel in response to all this and still have said little! Uh, in the end, you have made this so nebulous that I don't think you are going to get any meaningful responses. Could you maybe try this again differently, with a few tighter questions that actually have factual answers we could objectively determine? You are asking lots of questions that are deeply personal and could only be answered by you, in how you want to use the machine(s). "How is the white lighting? Is distinctly white and uniform or still gets polluted with other colors?"... Eek! I can't help with stuff like this...

 

Lol! Figures....Well its Saturday night and I am stumped..Thanks for ur suggestion. I figured I will just highlight or make the queries in bold for those who don't want to waste time reading the whole post.

 

Here's another decent (but loaded) question you ask: "Which GPU is more worth of being dependable for real world workload? Nvidia or AMD Radeon?"

This one goes for MILES, all over this forum! They are both excellent, and it depends on so many "personal things". What is real world anyway? Everyone is doing different stuff, tweaking different ways, etc. I'm not touching this.

Does the "exact weight of the R3..." really matter that much to you? I'm sure it's heavy, and so is the R2. I gotta go...

 

vads24, your post basically is summary of all what I knew/wondering about the R3. I cant answer all of those because I didnt have a chance to get my R3. However, I am pretty sure about some things:

- RGB is definitely better than 120Hz (not for 3D purpose LOL)
- If you dont need dual GPUs (yeah, I dont need dual GPUs too. 460M is already good enough for my purpose) and not gaming (like me) then nVidia is better overall. I do Photoshop/Lightroom a lot so I prefer nVidia than ATI in any case.
- The white lighting of R2 is a little pinky, yes. For R3, im not sure
- 120Hz can be run WITHOUT 3D enabled. Those are 2 different things.


Some other questions such as weight/size you definitely can find them on Alienware website. R3's weight (which is no longer officially available on aw website) I believe starting at 11.68lbs.

 

Rather than answer all of your questions let me jsut say this:
i have an R3 (nvidia 460/3d/120). I have desided to keep it even though i am within my time period to return it. I play most of the "newer" games but i dont get obsessed if i cant run everything at MAXX. i just dont care that much..My only rall issue with the laptop is the video card. i really hope we get an option to go to the 485 someday.....if they released support for it tomorrow, i wouldnt pay the 700 dollars for the card, but i would like to make that move once the price moves into the sub 500 range. I love the laptop. the 3d is cool, althogh i dont find myself actually gaming in it much due to eyestrain. But it is a wow factor that i love to show off to people. Come april, i will get my motherboard replaced and i plan on litterly video taping the replacement. if the tech so much as misses a screw, i am getting a new unit, end of story.

 

L.M.A.O.! video taping ftw! hahah, thats just hilarious to me!

 

I think the answer is that you just need to weigh the pros/cons of the system. What do you use it for? do you benchmark ? do you upgrade? are you looking for the latest and greatest and/or to be futureproof?

In my opinion, an r2 works better IF you need the rgb display OR you play a game that is xfire/sli compatible and you NEED it to run the frames you like to play the game at. Otherwise all the advantages lie in r3. I tried not to make that a r2vsr3 just saying how I looked at it when I bought.

 

Forgive if I'm wrong (and that's a big possibility) but I was under the impression that the weight listed on the dell site was wrong and it was really around 9.4lbs. I believe there is a video on youtube of one of the AW techs holding it and saying it weighed under 10lbs.

Anyways, having neither system I can't do a big recommendation, but future proofing with the r3 would be in your best interest if you're not a die hard gamer.

 

Hey guys, zombiegoat raised something to my attention on another thread and I am looking to find out if this potentially horrible news is true.

Is the M17x R3 made out of plastic, or is it still an anodized metal chassis like the R1 and R2? From vads24's post above, it sounds like it may be true.

I travel extensively and the metal chassis is the only thing that holds up well enough. I've had too many cracked plastic cases and will be scratching the R3 off of my list of potential purchases sometime down the road if it's being built with a plastic chassis. That would just stink.

 

Mandrake and Dr.J and others have said that it is similar to the m11x, soft touch plastic over magnesium, not the same as the m17x r2

 

Oh, man. How sad. Well, I'll just scratch that one off my list of special things.

 

I think you guys should be looking at the FAQ that has been posted to answer most the questions that you have stated. In all fairness most people have had to return there product so nothing official has been made. If you read the owners lounge you would see that there are also links to reviews that have been posted on the net.

 

Yep, I did some snooping around and found that FAQ thread after posting above. Sad that the R3 doesn't have the same build quality in the chassis as the R1 and R2... sigh

 

From the reviews I have come to gather the chassis is mainly magnesium alloy..But I am not sure of the top lid (Soft Touch) is once again alloy metal or rubberized Plastic. The bottom panel looks even more flimsy from Mandrake's you tube video showing his attempt at installing an ATi 5870 Gpu.Only 2 screws are required to remove this bottom panel. Inside you can clearly see they have placed metallic meshed cushioners at various locations to support the bottom panel from any flex. I did not like that concept at all. I maybe wrong but only those who have worked with it know....

 

I do agree with on that. But the Faq seems to be like a yes or no session and rather non specific. Some are even contradictory. The main reason I posted this was to get relatively better perspective from those who actually had it since now that the initial glee over the specs etc has died down. The questions do come into play when you start using this maching over a period of time.

For Eg. I know the Touchpad in R3 is a huge improvement over R2's. I would like to invite someone who has played with used to give their expanded opinion it rather than just saying " Yes the touchpad is larger, or NO, it doesnt have honey comb patterned."

As for the review links, none mention much about the build. Only one or 2 lines saying its a solid built machine. Trust me after having a R2 in your hand, you become really aware of what a solid machine means. This R2 really sets the benchmark. Everytime I carry it, I wonder if I am going to regret future proofing with R3 if I chose to. R2's bottom is so nice...just so nice!

Ha ha!

 

I love the R2's lid as well, vads24. I agree with you, the R1/R2 chassis most definitely set the bar. Like you said, "after having a R2 in your hand, you become really aware of what a solid machine means." +1 rep for stating the truth so clearly.

If the R3 chassis is inferior, then I will not consider purchasing it. I can buy a plastic chassis'd laptop elsewhere for less money. The R1/R2's anodized alloy chassis is a gigantic selling point, and so is the edge-to-edge bezel-free glass covered 1920x1200 RGB display.

From what I've read so far, I'm not interested in owning an R3 after being a very happy R2 owner. For anyone that has not owned an R2, ignorance might be blissful.

 

Agreed. Until Dell starts shipping again, most of these questions which are not answered in the FAQ thread will have to wait. Check the FAQ thread and if you still have a question, post in the R3 owners lounge or in the FAQ thread.

REMINDER TO ALL -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/551755-r2-vs-r3-debates-no-more.html#post7111014