[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

whoa to acess GPU's you have to remove the keyboard

 

well, duh... on a side note, Moo, we got the GPU and CPU layout right just by looking at that one pic

 

well i was starting to freak because i was thinking since we only saw that big fan and 2 little ones. I heard some one say something about 2 280 on one PCB board and i thought to myself thats a big fan in the middle....

Glad we were right though .....

wonder how i should do these guide seperate the PDF or screen shot them ?

 

i'd just wait for AW to make them.

 

i unno if they will this service manual is pretty in depth. I think its very werid AW isn't selling this either ....they may not make the manuals

 

es . Now I cant get it shipped . Does anyone know if they alienware will be sold elsewhere ?

 

No...all they said is they would contact me at home which is where I'm at now.

 

Ive been told that its NOT a bug...and is not available to EPP customers at this time....:C

 

$2091.57 before tax/shipping

It inherited it from the XPS m1730



Also as a heads-up looks like shipping isn't free anymore on the EPP site either.

 

still haven't seen many 260 benchmarks

 

yeah they're still "fixing" everything. Hopefully the warranty stuff is next.

 

If I end up buying the new M17x I think I'll go with a config like this (main specs highlighted):

Starting Price $2,874
After student discount- $2,673
After California's REDICULOUSLY HIGH TAXES *huff huff huff*- $2,893



Preliminary Ship Date: 7/2/2009

Space Black – Anodized Aluminum
Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
1TB - 2x 500GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
My Accessories
McAfee® VirusScan Plus – 15-Month Subscription (English)
My Software
Quasar Blue
Alienhead 3D
Alienware RSS Feed
Also Includes
Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR
Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n Wireless with MIMO Technology



Depending on how much I save up, I think it would be a good idea for me to get the extended warranty as well, it's just that tax is such a huge frickin' burden.

 

That's a solid spec JWest but did Dell University's order page also not offer CompleteCare and name plate options?

Also what school info do you need to apply for student discounts?

 

I can't believe they're charging $200 over the actual converted price for Canada, that's bs!

 

No, the nameplate options aren't up yet, and I'm not sure about complete care. As for the school info, they don't ask for any. I was honest of course, but I'm not sure how many checks they'll put in place before actually giving the discount to you.

 

I know what you mean, I already wrote a bad review about it, they probably wont approve the review, but there is a chance they will, I've seen some pretty bad reviews get by on dells site before, maybe you should do the same, I cannot buy this laptop now as it has become almost 400 dollars over my price range, what a depressing day...

 

I talked to a rep today and said the nameplate option isnt a bug, its just not available to EPP members...yet

Why? I dont understand myself

 

Excuse my ignorance p), what's EPP?

 

employee purchase programe

 

Employee Purchase Program

It's the student discount for after you graduate and get a job.

 

Well I'm not under EPP, so why isn't the nameplate option showing up? I assumed it was a bug. Unless the university portion is tied to EPP in some way.

 

EPP and University discounts are exactly the same. They just have different gateways/specials at various times.

 

Nameplate and CompleteCare warranty aren't showing up for EPP, Dell Univ. and AAFES

 

i think imma end up with every thing stock except GPU's

 

I'd at least upgrade the CPU as well. The 2.8 really is the best performance to price option on there.

 

Only because I'm a stubborn SOB, I kept prodding and poking at the Titanium Account issue. Below is the official response from Alienware.

Figured you guys may want to know. I imagine there's going to be a few other people out there who, like me, are stuck with an Alienware line of credit that they can't use. =P

 

Dell is paying for all this and using AW name to sell it

 

Yep. Changed my order today.

Base everything except 260's and 320GB RAID 0 option for $50 upgrade

 

I have some time before I can get a new laptop (late August), but unless I catch a good sale, I'm thinking of ordering everything stock except the screen and the 500 GB HDD. I can easily replace the processor and video cards later (as I'll already be about $300 over budget), and buy a small SSD for the OS and keep the HDD for my data drive.

 

Nvidia cards are not CPU dependent

and games at a high res are GPU bottleneck.... i can afford it i just dun wanna lol

 

What do you guy prefer for the LCD opts?

WideXGA+ 1440x900 (900p)

or

17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)

The WideXGA+ has the gloss finish and looks clearer right?

 

I need to have a high power CPU for my virtual tech... thes question now is are 2 280m's in sli completely overkill... I really want to be able to play any game on high and fluid, as well as have killer CPU performance for video encoding and cad work

The 1920x1200 for sure, all though I am really pissed they are charging it to us as an upgrade... I'm sure they only did that to make it look like it was cheaper than it is (standard)

 

Keep in mind that even the best laptop hardware is fairly underpowered compared to their desktop brethren. So no, I would not rank 2X GTX 280Ms as being overkill. They'll last longer and age more gracefully than the 260Ms (which are solid). I think $300 is a small cost to pay for an estimated 15 to 20% boost in performance. Laptops tend to age like skydiving bricks, so being able to squeeze additional performance out from the get go is important.

 

this laptop has MXM 3.0 slots you can upgrade

 

check to see if the issuing bank is the same for both cards/accounts.
you may be able to call the bank and have them drop the titanium and re-issue you a dell account...

 

2x 260M's will max out anything on 1920x1200 except crysis/crysis warhead, but it will run them both on all high (gamer) settings without even flinching so your best buy is 2x 260M's, no matter what anyone says, 32 stream processors and slightly higher clocks really do not make 300 dollars worth of difference, definitely not worth the upgrade to 2x 280M's for someone who is tight on cash IMO.

 

True, but if you have dual GTX 260Ms it's going to cost a lot more than $300 to upgrade to dual GTX 280ms. =P

Oi, if I could only use GTX 260s in my m9750. :|

 

i was wondering this as well.
on the m15x i have the larger rez has a matte finish.
everything i ahve seen only sayd glossy for this screen with no mention of rez size.

 

They're funded via Dell Financial Services, and I called and checked that already. Plus, it's a credit hit to do that (a small one) but in this economy a credit hit isn't worth it.

 

Not sure if this applies to the M17x

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PVdpZGVYR0Er&p_li=&p_topview=1

 

So the wuxga is 2 ccfl? or the wxga+?

 

I'm torn as well. If the lower resolution is antiglare and 2-CCFL, it should (at least if it's consistent with Dell's other offerings) be daylight viewable, while the Truelie screen will have significant glare. Dell also lists their Truelife screens as having a wider color gamut than standard displays.

So on the one hand, lower resolution is cheaper, and gets better frame rates in games. And I have a nice 22" monitor that is my main display at home. I am also not ordering BluRay. The pixel pitch is still better than my larger monitor.

On the other hand, higher resolution dies have it uses, and the screen is the hardest part to upgrade later, especially since the other parts are available from multiple sources, but the screen is a Dell part that has to come from them or eBay. And it should have better color, possibly.

So I keep going back and forth, but I have the luxury of waiting until some of you have computers in hand, and more reviews from typical users to consider. I'll let the early buyers figure out which is better and learn from your experiences/mistakes.

 

but dell financial is backed by a bank no? unless dell is its own bank...which i highly doubt.

as far as the xfer....i can xfer from a platinum, to a cash back, to a points, and more with my bank. the account number stays the same, just the type of account i have changes.

this is what i was refering to...but if they are totally seperate issuing banks, then this is mute.

 

According to the detail specs, both displays are 2-CCFL. The higher resolution display has a true-life coating.

 

this is all i see under specs. wonder if chaz or other peeps at the E3 can validate this...

 

Isnt it supposed to have a edge2edge glass ontop of the whole screen? so either way it would look truelife.

 

It is retarded that they dont offer 1680x1050, that should be a must to throw in there as an option and a happy medium.

 

from the gallery pics, it seems the unit is glossy...

 

So then go with the WideUXGA since it has truelife coating and play in the dark, right?

 

it is true ... just read the manual