SSD and other new owner questions

Newbie here, just ordered a M17x scheduled to arrive April 2nd. Probably not very typical, older guy getting it primarily for my astronomy hobby. Needed a solid built machine with lots of USB ports to control equipment (mount, focuser and camera), download images, provide plenty of power and space for image processing, and the ability to have a red-backlit keyboard for use in the field. Also my company has an employee discount program for Dell. Plus what more appropriate than Alienware for astronomy? And it's just darned cool. And I do still game, Skyrim right now.

I Ordered the 256GB SSD with 750 gig second drive. Couldn't find any info on what model they use, does anyone have that info? I also got the 3d option and BluRay DVD-ROM. I assume it's a 3d player for movies, although it doesn't say on the website. How well do 3D movies work?

Also looking for any general advice for when I first get going? Plan to do all the Windows updates, but what about driver updates etc?

Thanks in advance!

Hobneb (Gamer tag)

 

Hi wayne, welcome. To answer a few of your questions: the SSD is usually the Samsung 830 which is a very good SSD. I've one and it is speedy to say the least. The Bluray drive will play 3D movies provided you installed the appropriate software, we can get into that when you get your machine. 3D works as it should. The screen is decent but not amazing but unless you've laid eyes on the RGBLED display of the M17x R2 then you'll be fine.

When you get your laptop, it should be in fine shape in terms of software. Alienware/Dell don't put a load of crapware so it'll be fine. It should come with the latest drivers apart from the nvidia driver which you can get from their website. Naturally, run Windows Update and install any updates

 

Thanks! I had hoped it would be the 830, I'd heard good things about that. I'm really excited about getting the machine, I'd been looking at Alienware for a long time - in fact when I came here and tried to set up a forum account, I found I'd already set one up - in 2007! I'd always gone "cheaper" though. Decided not to do that this time.

 

welcome Wayne. when i received my alienware and i opened the box, i was really impressed. I had that involuntary laugh like a 5 yr old at Christmas

My initial impression was that they didn't spare any expense

My advice? Load some benchmarks like 3dmark11 and run it just to see if you are in the ballpark and the system is performing. Then, load your game and start killing bad guys

Your new laptop should be plenty of power for your Astronomy work

 

Thanks! I will definitely test it out. What I'm looking forward to most (maybe other than the keyboard bling) is the SSD drive. I'm also interested in the 3d feature. Astronomy isn't too compute intense, but I do typically have 3-4 programs running at the same time. All are talking to the equipment on USB or USB -serial connections, with a lot of communications traffic and images being downloaded. Plus I use Photoshop so that will definitely benefit from all this horsepower! I can run them all on my old laptop, but it gets sluggish at times.

Wayne

 

One thing, and correct me if I'm wrong. Since you'll be using it in the field, you should be aware that if your getting it with 3D, the M17x R3 with 3D is not able to use the integrated graphics, and this may drop your battery life. I don't know the figures, but though you should know. Although if you have all your equiptment plugged in, changes are you'll be able to plug in the R3 as well. Congrats on the purchase, and enjoy it. Pretty cool you'll have an Alienware for astronomy

 

I thought Alienware was appropriate! I'm looking forward to comments when I go out to observing events this summer.

I guess I didn't know about the integrated graphics limitation, but would still have gone with the 3D feature. In the field, I have a couple big (100 AH) 12v deep cycle batteries for power and a solar panel for recharging in the daytime. In the past, I have run my computers off an inverter - it works but is inefficient. if there is an adapter/converter that I could run the M17X directly off 12V battery power that would be cool. Are you aware if such a device is available?

Wayne