m17x r4 or 17

okay, I think that is old question but
I just need r4 with 680m and i7, but it seems to be that is not easy to find some sellers in the uk.
I dont want to go with the 17 cuz of the design.
btw, do you think that 17 is more better than m17x r4?

 

Hi man. Is difficult to me answer cause i have only the Aw17 and i never seen a m17x. But i think an updated model is always better. Especially for gaming that we need always recent hardware.

 

I would get the new 17... The R4 has too many problems with creative audio etc... My R4 has been absolute junk.. had to replace Mobo/keyboard/heatsink and now it works.. Thank god I had warranty... I'd personally not recomend another alienware to anyone... Asus G750 is quite good too but warranty wise Alienware is better...

 

yeah I knew there are many problems with the old r4 and the 17 is good at least I see the keyboard is quite good.
I''m having a g53sx for about nearly 3 years, and it has some problems with usb3 and I did replace mainboard 3 times, vga 2 times.. i dont know why .
But how about the new sager/clevo np8651, I see from HWTingnut 's review its a good machine .
because I'm waiting for the 17 with maxwell too long time ago, and I cannt wait more.

 

I have had both the M17 R4 and AW 17, overall they are similar, and I prefer the more muted look of the AW 17. Both have been reliable for me, no issues at all, just a repaste needed on the AW 17. The R4 I have still running stock paste and its running at acceptable temps. I did have slight issues with the wireless card of the R4, but thats Killer Networks fault, giving badly optimised drivers.

 

I have owned both (in my sig) either way you cant go wrong, at this point I would prefer the 17 over the R4 though. I was in the same boat as you when it came to the new design/style but it has grown on me, I actually like it quite a bit.

 

I thought your budget was like £700 last time you tried to low ball for my 17x R4... In the UK, P650/651 with 970M is 1100 min... I think you'll be dreaming for a while if you want to get the P650 just like I am for the P771... Not enough dollllaaars..

 

Its hard time for me at that moment,
but no I dont wanna try lb u bcause in my hometown there was 1 m17x r4 deal with the same price but I've missed .
mu budget now is around 700-900gbp , I think I could buy something with the amount of money

 

Idea! Just buy both .....and resell which you dislike

 

I've owned both as well - the Alienware 17 wins my vote.

It's newer, built much better, and has less problems. The new design will grow on you. Once you feel that quality, you'll love it. :thumbsup:

 

oh man, I hope that I have enough those amount of money to spend

Thank, but does the m17x r4 come with different issues?

 

I've used both, and I much prefer the M17x R4. It would be the second most awesome laptop (behind the M18x R2) if it weren't for the creative sound blaster issues, which warranty has yet to fix.....

Ivy bridge > Haswell
New design SUCKS. I don't know how you guys like it, but I personally can't stand it.
Keyboard is better on the R4
Lighting scheme is better on the R4. Really, on the new one...why bother putting lights on it at all. It looks like any other laptop now.
The edge to edge glass on the R4 > the stupid bezel on the 17

Really if you can find a R4 under warranty or one without sound issues, I would jump on it in a heart beat, especially since they can take the new GTX 980M whereas the M18x cannot.

 

yeah I agree with u, the new design sucks
that is exactly what I wanna get for my self, but finding a m17xr4 with warranty or can renew warranty now is not easy, I try to find on ebay but overprice .

 

I would keep mine (not selling until I have a replacement), but I need to move to a M18x R2 or even a R1 for dual radeon graphics support for rendering.

 

They both have their ups and downs....I have had them both now and the new design has grown on me but it does have it's downs as well. As others have already mentioned it comes with muchly hated haswell lineup of CPU's which many consider far inferior to the previous lineup due to their overly hot running temperatures. The R4 had a better sound system in terms of actual sound quality but then you had to deal with the faulty Creative chips that failed left right and center. If you can't get past the design well then you should just go with an R4 but if you can learn to live with it or even like it then the 17 isn't all that bad. The lighting isn't inferior IMO but you do lose the white color option and the keyboard while containing the same feel IMO does not look as good as they took the outline around each key away. I was a bigger fan of the glossy screens as I thought it provided a far better color representation but I have upgraded to the 120hz screen which also provides an equal experience.

I preferred the speakers the way they were before with the lights in them and angled up instead of down and in so you can't see them but I prefer the lighting strip on the bottom running all the way around as well as the strips on the top instead of just the solid never changing color on the top of the lid.

This one is a little easier to get at some components like the WiFi and BluRay drives while the other one was easier to get the keyboard out so again , trade off's for each one.

Honestly unless you despise the new design and don't think you will ever learn to live with it then I don't see any reason to pick up the last gen model but ultimately it is going to be up to you. Do I prefer the R4's design more? Probably, but now that I have the 17 I don't hate it.

 

you could pm Codenamefa, he had offered me about his m18 with xm cpu, but I dont need that power. And then

thank you mate, the r4 has problem with the speaker, i can ignore it because I use headphone all the time with my laptop when playing
and anything else about r4 faulty?

 

Its not actually the speaker. Its the sound chip itself that screws around when power state changes (like sleep, soft reboot or hard reboot). It takes a sleep cycle or a hard shut down or a switch of graphics to get it back online, but when it DOES work, the speakers/sound quality is magnificent. That is the ONLY fault i've had on the R4, everything else has been flawless.

I'm only considering a R2 only for myself, no R1 b/c no PCI express 3.0 and no ivy bridge support, plus the heatsink design is better on the R2.

 

hope your get your r2 soon .
and 1 more thing, the cpu heatsink for r4 is 2 pipe, can I have 3 pipe for the cpu like the gpu heatsink?

 

No, I don't think so. You can buy thermal tape or solder additional copper to the heatsink to increase thermal capacity/transfer.

 

oh, quite disapointed, bcaue I saw on the m18x can has 3 pipe for extreme cpu