Using normal Nvidia.com drivers (Optimus problems?) + Clean audio?

I wrecked my otherwise great G74's keyboard while cleaning it, and I *THINK* I'm going to replace it with something cheaper, probably HP's DV6z since it should be "good enough" for me for quite a while, and the AMD + AMD setup means AMD's normal drivers work.

BUT...I thought I'd just check about the M17x-R3 in case I decide to go nuts!

The main (only?) thing I don't like about the R3 is the use of Optimus-the reason I got a G74 in the first place was to avoid that. I'm wondering if the kinks have been worked out now, and whether with NO hacks or anything Nvidia's normal drivers install fine? They push it so much you'd think it would work, but then Intel CPUs + AMD GPUs don't let you use normal drivers, so...

Also is the audio output through the headphone jack clean on this thing? I briefly had an M15x a year or two back, and sent it back because it had such horrible hissing, while my Asus systems are basically clean, but I'm pretty sure people have said the newer ones like the M14x and M17x-R3 don't have this problem?

Thanks!

Sorry, I just thought of another question-do you have to buy the M17x with two drives installed in order to get the caddy or whatever else you'd need to have two drives in the system? I'd want to just throw in my SSD and large mechanical drive from my G74.

(The G74 by the way is going to be set up this week to run Folding @ Home 24/7 )

EDIT: Daaaaang...this thing is so tempting...2.2GHz Sandy Bridge + 384 core Nvidia GPU for <$1900 for me I'd actually have double the GPU performance of my G74 for not much more than I paid for it....

 

haven't had to many issues with optimus other than GTA 4 and some older games. The newer nvidia beta drivers install fine on my machine so i wouldn't be worried about that. in the end, if optimus really ends up preventing you from doing something, you can install the modded bios and either run just the integrated card for like 5 hours of battery with windows set to power saver and the lights off, or you can switch the discrete card on from the bios and enjoy easy gaming. All it takes is an easy bios switch

the laptop should come with the extra caddy even if you don't get an additional HD. The beauty of Alienware over asus is the ability to upgrade the GPU, down the road, and also be able to use the higher end cards. Hope this stuff help you out.

 

Wow...you know, I SHOULDN'T buy this, so technically these are "bad" answers LOL

I didn't notice this until after I posted, but for some reason they don't have Blu Ray available in the Alienware stuff! I almost wonder if it's a shortage of slot loading drives or something, versus the normal loading drives of cheaper systems.

Hmm...well, if newer Nvidia drivers are just installing without incident, then...maybe I should do this... I mean presumably if betas work now, then the next official release will work too. 384 cores *drool*

 

you could just go with the 6990m and not have problems with optimus at all. It allows you to do manual switching and have comparable performance to the 580m.

 

The 6990m has 1120 cores and 32 ROPs I think? It's a monster too! I prefer Nvidia's drivers normally, but...

Here's my confusion though-I've been under the impression that now all systems with AMD GPUs use switchable graphics too, and that Intel CPUs + AMD GPUs you can't use the normal AMD.com drivers, have to resort to hacks? (Which is why one of the notebooks I'm considering is the AMD CPU + AMD GPU DV6z, since all AMD lets you install AMD's normal drivers.)

Am I wrong about that? That seems to be the case for HP's Intel notebooks, but does the M17x-R3 with a Radeon 6990m just disable the Intel garbage and only use the Radeon and work with AMD's undoctored drivers? If so, that's the way I'd go I think. I really do have better luck with Nvidia's drivers, but I also really don't want to mess with weirdness from switchable graphics...

 

i think it works fine if you install the AMD reference drivers over the dell version. Thats what i've heard anyway.