Thinking of buying m17x R3

I am now considering buying the m17x R3. Atm I have got the m11x r2 witch also is my main computer. However with games like Diablo 3 probably coming out this year, I am thinking of getting myself a more dedicated machine.

I have made up my mind to get the 2760QM, but I am really not sure about graphics card.

2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 6990M
or
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M with the 3d screen.

Fact is I have NEVER tried 3D. How can I use the 3d in normal games (Or can I?) and how do they compare preformance wise? Is it possible for me to later upgrade to another card if I should feel like it?

Also I am thinking about going for the 320gb disk and 4gb of ram as this is cheap to upgrade later. Or am I missing something here. Dell prices seems a bit high on those upgrades.

When it comes to ram I see both 1333mhz and 1600mhz, what difference does that make to gaming and everyday use?

Oh and it has room for 2 harddrives? Can I choose to have two 750gb for a total of 1.5tb storage?

Thanks

 

personally 3d with shutter glasses gives me a headache within 15 minutes. Go to best buy or someplace like that and try to watch a movie with 3d glasses on. Then picture that on a 17 inch screen 2 feet from you.

As a quick off the cuff, you wont be doing 3d gaming with a 560... lots of people complain that they only get 15-20 fps with a 580 in 3d and a 580 is ~60% faster, so a 560 just isn't going to cut it for 3d other than watching 3d bluray. in games you get less than half the fps you normally would (~40%) with 3d enabled.

upgrading hd and ram yourself is a good idea. I went from 4GB to 12 for ~$50 while dell wanted 200 just to get to 8gb.

afaik there isn't a lot to be gained on most tasks with the higher bandwidth memory.

Yes, 2 hard drives will fit. you could do 1 ssd for your os and apps you want to open like lightning and then a 750 or even 1tb (I'm pretty sure they make 9mm 1TB now) Or you could put in 2 spinning drives for more space, but that would be slower.

 

Thanks, that is a great answer and what I needed to know!
I might place my order tomorrow going for the 2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 6990M.

Now.. what color to pick

 

Oh, one other aspect of the 3d panel I forgot is that it disables the integrated graphics, so you'll never beat 2.5 hours of battery since the nvidia is on constantly.

as for color.... personally I want to be able to sit in a coffee shop or a business meeting without looking (imo) ridiculous so I went black. But there are a lot of people who love having a bright red lappy. FWIW I also own a silver STI as opposed to rally blue or red or some other flashy color. That's just the way i roll.

 

I wanna take my m17x to Starbucks someday and sit next to a girl with a mac book.

And then take a picture and post it here.

 

Yeah, I do happen to own a Rally blue STI RA and a Black Defender SVX. Guess I am more of a flashy guy ;-)

But I do think black is "safest" and goes best with different alienfx colors. I do not want it to look like a christmas tree. But I do have my Dell mini and black m11x for business meetings.

 

Yea! STI owners on a notebook forum unite!

I admittedly would be less concerned with color if I had an m11x to tote around as well.

 

ive got my r3 now 3 weeks or so with the 6990 n im loving it lol.

got the red one as well its something different lol

 

-2760QM.
-6990m.
-FHD screen, this is a MUST HAVE.
-4GB RAM, you can upgrade this later and much cheaper.
-320GB HDD and add a SSD later, day and night difference.

Best bang for buck if you ask me. If you want to watch blu ray's you can add that as well.

Contact a rep. for some discount.

 

this. Brabostaan said everything quick and concise.

Forget the gtx 560m, i have an ASUS G73SW with a gtx 460m oc'ed to faster than 560m speeds...you won't be gaming at native 1920 with that...and 3d on a laptop is a sellling feature but in practice, it doesn't work well at all. In 3d, frames have to be rendered twice...which means you'll need double the power of a single gtx 560m just to get it to run at single 560m speeds. Then factor in that the gtx 560m will not allow you to game on demanding titles at 1080p with the graphics turned up...it soon becomes a double fail.

FYI...my 6990m oc'ed to 830/1100 is running Crysis 2, 1920x1080 at DX 11, everything on ULTRA...and its completely playable. You'll be getting 10 fps if you're lucky on a gtx 560m

 

did you flash your bios to get your 6990 OC or are you using TriXX?

 

i'm using trixx...830/1100 is actually conservative. I've run it higher during some benches. It ran successfully through the 3dmark11 tests at 840/1175

Stock voltage

 

what are the temps with your oc? what were yours stock?

Thanks

 

i don't know what they were stock...

but at 830/1100, the sapphire trixx log shows max temp at 82c during an hour of crysis 2 dx 11.

I'll be repasting and repadding soon to bring that down

 

Bad news and good news. I did not end up with a M17x, but I ended up with a M18x. Got a good deal through my workplace.

Processor : Intel Core i7 Processor 2760QM (2.40Ghz, 6MB,
4C)

Graphics : Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
SLI

Hope I will be as happy with this as my M11x!

 

I do wonder on the performance of dual 560m's.

 

I'd recommend going for the 6990's. Much better performance and not much different in price.

 

according to notebookcheck sli 560m's is equivalent to a single 580m

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M SLI - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Thanks for the tip, but that is 550USD more than my current config (maybe a bit less if I call). I have already stretched my budget as far as I can. Is it possible to install the 6990's later? And is it also possible to change CPU on this laptop?