*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge - Part 4

ok so hello im new here now i know this will be a dumb question forgive me im new to alienware and have always wanted one.

so i bought one alienware and had to give it up the day i got it (today)
so i could get mine and my moms care fixed but i also bought a new one today. can you tell me which would possibly run final fantasy 14 better? or if you have any benchmarks? cause i cannot find any.
Now i figured the new one i just bought but people are saying go i5 for gaming and go 5850 also. is this completely true?
or am i ok in the gaming department?

Alienware M15x (one i gave away) this one was a refurb for 1k
intel core i5 2.53ghz
4GB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 5730
250GB HDD
Win 7 Home Premium

new alienware

Intel core i7 840QM 1.86 Turbo 3.20 this is brandnew
4GB RAM
Nvidia gtx 260m
500GB HDD
Win 7 Home Premium

 

I'll try to explain step by step.

Nice one but you lose due to your GPU. 5730 is a good one but it may not be good enough for high settings in FFXIV. I'd seriously consider replacing the 5730. Your CPU is fine, just because it isn't quad nor i7 doesn't mean it is bad.

Nice choices but again you lose due to GTX 260M. 260M is a great card but it has SERIOUS issues(throttling) in M15X. It is 50 bucks expensive than 5850 but way worse than 5850. 5850 is 50 bucks cheaper, support DX11 and SM5, has 1GB GDDR5 and 1 year newer than 260M. 260M supports DX10 and SM4, has 1GB GDDR3. Now if you are going to ask what is the difference between GDDR5 and GDDR3, it is a *huge* difference mate. Basicly 5850 is the newer and the cheaper one.
Your CPU selection is really fine, if you are targetting gaming, I'd recommend going for 620M or 940XM(yeah I know its expensive :/).
Also as I see, you'll use this one for gaming mostly, therefore IMHO you won't need 1080p screen(if you are getting it, I don't know because you haven't mentioned) and it may be a "weight" for you(performance-wise), go for 900p.

As a note for both configs, you may want to go for 6GB. I don't know what will be FFXIV's memory consumption (it will be probably below 4gb) but with other programs running in background and FFXIV loading your system, you'd get a smoother performance from 6GB. FPS-wise, I don't think you can feel a big difference between 6GB and 4GB but you may have areas that load after a while or similar stuff due to limited ram. However my ideas about memory are just based on theory.

 

yea i have noticed that..but its already order im going to call dell tomorrow and reorder or change think ill swap out the gtx for the 5850 then upgrade the 6gb ram cause itll be the same cost i believe thanks a bunch.

 

So the rep told me that my estimated ship date for the 5850 was going to be the 20th when i ordered it yesterday. But i just logged into my Dell account and it said that my order was shipped. I checked the tracking number and to even more of a surprise they just tried to deliver it to my house like 15 min ago

2010/08/12 12:10 Attempted Delivery - Receiver Unavailable via TORONTO (EAST/EST), ON depot

Looks like i have to pick it up later tonight at the depot then it's off to install and test it out with SC2 and Cata.

 

Ahah! No luck dude!
How much did you pay for the 5850?

 

Ya i know I was thinking about working from home today too...

After taxes was just under $350.

 

I just called dell to switch the 5730 for the 5850. I called and they said ya no problem, what's your email address we'll send you the updated order. Then after receieving no confirmation after an hour, I called back again, got transfered 3 times.

The lady pretty much told me that sorry for the inconvenience but they can't change the order. I asked even since I ordered it 2 days ago, they can't just swap out a tiny chip within 11 days that it's suppose to take to produce it. She said sorry no, so I asked to speak to the head of the department. Another 20 minutes go by and I ask the same thing to the department head. Asking how is it that I can buy a $1800 computer but you can't even change a small piece within 11 days that would make you more money. She just said sorry we can't do that but for the inconvenience we can rebate you $50. I just said fine thanks and have a good day.

Not too pissed but it would have been nice to be able to upgrade, hopefully in a year or so when I do upgrade the card it will be around $50.

 

Just return it when you receive it, and tell them you want a better system.

 

actually try calling customers support to cancel the order and just reorder. i did that on my original purchase. they told me i had to wait for the system to ship, but i told them that was retarded, and that it would save them time and money just to cancel it.

 

Bah so, they sent me the desktop card not the mobile card.... Time to call them back....

Edit* So full refund coming but unfortunately the 5850M is out of stock. They will call me back when it is in stock to put my order through. Boo I was all excited

 

so i decided to stay with the 260m.
i heard its a power setting issue.
and worse case i upgrade later but i hope this will do for ff14
but maybe i should reorder...think i will tommorow swap out for 5850 then get 6gb..what do you guys think?

 

"The lady pretty much told me that sorry for the inconvenience but they can't change the order. I asked even since I ordered it 2 days ago"

sorry ima noob but yea lady said i could then they told me i could not i was mad...dell needs to get it together

 

wow just tell them to cancel the order, getting the 260m is doing yourself injustice. they will let you cancel as long as you tell them your gonna reorder.

 

ok ok you talked me into it...but it sucks ima have to wait longer...so ill just get 5850 and 6gb ram along with intel core i7 840qm...i better get least high 3000 in final fantasy benchmark score or ill be p****ed

 

trust me the little wait is gonna be worth it. look at the throttling thread, the 260m is a big fail right now. and there is no real eta on the fix.

also i don't think you will even get close to the 3k in ff benchmark, sorry to be a downer. i think you will get around 2k, but the benchmark is not really optimized.

 

LOL. More like 3700-3800, 4K+ with mild o/c (Low Res).

 

oh yea i did run the bench at 1080 so that could be why i got a 2k score. thanks for clearing that up rev.

 

nope dell got a deal today where i get 225 off so ima get one day shipping!

here is my new specs for lower price =)

M15X cosmic black
Intel core i7 840qm
ATI 5850 (thanks guys)
1080p res =)
6gb RAM
9 cell battery


that sound better?
sorry im a very underprivilaged person i work my off and i never really get anything
so this is mine damnit sorry for language but i hope i get 3700 i would be happy with that. someone else got 3200 with the lower i7 model maybe mine will boost atleast 200 especially with the 2 more gb ram

 

wow looks good congrats, welcome to the family.

 

You will be loaded for bear. That's exactly what I have, except you have 2GB more RAM. I think you're going to love it. Enjoy, my friend.

 

much appreciated i tend to tune mine for performance so i might run a few benches and see what happens..anyone got resident evil 5 benches for it?
i sold my desktop for this one 2200 and im hoping to out perform 60fps

 

Here's a RE5 benchmark inap did. *LINK*

Somebody else might be able to find a newer one with a 5850/5870.

 

Yeah thanks im going to run alot of benches when i get it. then im going to OC and tune and bench again see what happens im kinda excited first alienware i hope i will be a customer for life if it goes well



By the way thanks alot you guys help me make a decision much help ill be sure to return the favor to others

 

yeah these 5850 are a beast. i just ran a few benches today. pretty much no difference from my 5870.

 

Stock clocks?

 

What did you end up doing? Cancelling and reordering again? How did you get the $225 off also?

 

yea its worth the wait.
and i got the 225 off cause alienware is doing some kind of deal.
i hope this has a lot of OC to do....im so excited anyone really have any problems except with gtx?

 

Dude the 5850m OC's Very well... U should be able to oc it easily past 850/1050... Which would already blow a stock 5870m outta the water... If I'm not mistaken I think ppl have already reached 875/1100 with the 5850m....either way I'd just Oc it to stock 5870m clocks ( ok fine maybe just a TAD higher ) for everyday gaming as it'll be more than enough to rip through the latest games....

And I noticed everyone talking bout final fantasy coming out... Now I haven't played ff since ffvii, since I tried playing viii and vix and they both sucked... So all you ff fans out there, is the new one supposed to be any good? is it online? Thanks as I might just jump back into that game if it lives up to the hype (like sc2 did )

 

Where have you been man? Inap and I have gotten it to 950.

 

Lmao yea I have just visited the benchmark thread...Woah trying to catch up since I CLEARLY Haven't been on the forums in a while and Mann.. U guys made sum progress...real quick mah baddd

 

its official just put my 5870 up for sell in the marketplace.

 

How high could you o/c that one?

 

honestly i don't know, because didn't have time to bench that card at all. over half the time i had it in a box, because i was doing testing with the 260m. and i had it downed clocked most of the time i've used it too. ahahahah

 

It's only been 5 days, but I feel like my laptop has been "In Production" forever.

 

hahaha yeah waiting is the hardest part. but really worth the wait especially if your first alienware system.

 

Each day is actually torture right now lol, it's going to be so horrible because I have terrible luck, I know that no one will be home when it's delivered and I'll have to wait another day. I work a pretty boring job where I can just daydream for like four hours, so I get to think about this laptop all day lol.

 

Yea i get mine a few days sooner now if dell would ever put the money back on my credit

order mine tomorrow i would get it the 27th =) but actually sooner hehehe

 

ok sorry for so many post but here is my official order.

Intel core i7 840qm 1.86 (turbo 3.20ghz)
windows 7 home premium
6GB RAM 1333mhz
ATI mobility radeon 5850 (that GDDDR 5)
1080p Screen
500GB HDD

ahh i get it the 30th...so i will post back then with my benches...ahh you guys really saved my with the gtx so thanks everyone

 

awesome setup congratz bro you did the right thing going with the 5850m.

Its BEAST

 

yea, i can OC though the BIOS right?

 

oc what? through bios, no. M15x bios doesn't support any ocing. you will need 3rd party software to oc.

 

what would you reccomend?..im use to the BIOS through my quad core desktop. im going to try to get GTA IV to play very well at max settings..(i dont play GTA) but its demanding i just wanna be set for newer games (as you guys can tell im not very sure of anything)

 

gta is poorly optimized for pc from what i've heard. the M15x doesn't have and oc'ing support in the bios. if ocing your 5850 then i recommend amd clock tools, as for cpu there is setfsb but that doesn't work for eveyone, only the 920/940 are truly capable of oc'ing.

 

Does anyone know how I can OC my ram? Also for cpu overclock (I have a 740qm) is setfsb the only program? One last thing, to increase the voltages on my 5870m, I have to use rbe to flash the vbios?

Thanks in advance for the help, and sorry for all the questions =)

 

yeah setfsb is your only option, and it but it doesn't work for everyone. if you have the clevo 5870, your card will be at 1.1v already. but if you want it higher then you will need rbe to make the custom bios. and atiflash on a bootable usb stick to flash it.

 

alrite thanks a lot. Do you know how to use setfsb with the 740qm (what do i select from all those number/letter combinations?)

 

You should be able to raise it to 1.15v.

Thats the max so far on 5870's, otherwise the comp BSOD's. Too much heat for them to be pushed any higher. Least on the M17x's thats what it is.

 

hello, I write to explain my experience with the audio through DisplayPort with updated drivers from the nvidia page. I tried all the drivers that have come from to purchase the m15x, and the only more stable and offers more performance has been according to 197.16 and I have read in the forum, people will not work for audio through DisplayPort, but if you do right click on the audio icon Just write as the default audio DisplayPort works perfectly, do not know if this will work for ati 5870, but I think this will, hopefully help you

 

Hehe, I said the same thing a while ago. I don't know why they call it a problem O_O

So, what is up M15x owners?
I just got a new 47'' HDTV, it's rockin
Setting up a new place for my beloved M15x

 

Actually, the stock voltage for the Clevo 5870's is 1.15v.

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