[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

They just left me a message saying it's a 1st day glitch in the system. They hope it will be fixed by the morning.

 

more to order, more to store, more to work on.
this is the first time ever i have seen anyone comment on the non-availability of a middle size screen...
from a biz point of view, i see why they offer just the two...
it was fine for the other units..and now its not for this one?

 

The manual refers to an edge-to-edge display, and does not say that there are different options depending on resolution. So I would say that both are probably covered by a lens. The Truelife display may have better color. On the M6400, the Truelife Display is listed as having 70% of the Adobe RGB color range, compared to 45% for a standard display and 100% for the RGBLED option. No telling if that's the case here or not.

 

I asked the rep today he said both are edge to edge.

 

Put's your EPP order 3 days behind standard customers who's systems are supposed to ship on the 30th.

 

I am inclined to agree about the 1680x1050. 1920x1200 is just too small for me on a 17" screen, now on my 24" monitor...

 

Yeah but I'm paying $300 less.

 

Why is there no option to configure a single 280M?

 

I don't even know why they bother with such a pithy resolution like 1440x900 on such a capable laptop. They should have scraped the 1440x900, for 1680x1050, Im sure a lot more people would be willing to pay 75$ extra for 1680x1050 over the 1440x900.

 

True.


A think this has been a bit of a sloppy launch in regards to the order forms and such. Seems like they were rushing a bit getting them up whcih makes you wonder what they were doing during the countdown.

I also think as Dell straightens things out we'll see more accessories options added to the order form.

 

uhm....because they decided not to...
similar to "why cant you NOT have mcafee installed"...

since dell is parent company now, there will be things that AW would have done that dell wont...

still a good unit, but it makes me wonder how commercial they are going to make it with limitations and bloatware.

 

Whizzo, the front page is looking great. With the manuals it looks like it's slowly turning into the owners lounge.

 

Probably because the cost of a single 280M would be too close to adding a second 260M which would offer better performance.

 

Heh luckily I have a post reserved on the first page then. ;]

 

now this i can see a valid argument for....better then the last comment of it being retarded...

 

minimal bloatware like with XPS's

price is down ... why do people complain about it most tech savy people Always format when they get a new computer.

i know it sucks but its not that big of a deal



@phinigale the 280 is only a 10-15 % increase over a 260, SLI 260 will beat a 280 very easy

 

Plus since my order is not official I can still change it. I've been trying to justify getting the QX9300 but it's hard to. I don't need the SSD but it's a cheaper option here than buying it on Newegg. Since this order is being dragged out now I'm starting to second guess myself.

 

Well... it is still retarded that a popular resolution like 1680x1050 is not being offered on a "gaming rig" ...

 

Does the glass affect the truelife coat at all? It seems it would only add to the glare...

 

yes it just causes more glare....

 

OK...find two friends. Between the three of you, order one with 280 GTX SLI and two with single 260s. Put the two single 260s into one laptop, and divide the 280s between the other two. Now you have 2 laptops with a single 280 and one with 260s in SLI.

 

because moo, AW was known for NO, and i mean NO bloatware ever...this was a large selling point with gamers.
yes this also caused higher prices, since AW never made deals with companies, but you knew you were getting a clean system, and no need to format once it arrived.

no its not a big deal, but if it starts with AV, then whats next?

 

Reports have been that SSD prices are going to drop a lot (by as much as half) by Christmas. That's kind of a long time to wait but seeing as I've never experienced the access times of SSD I can't really miss it.

 

once you have SSD, you never go back...lol

 

its a nuisance but if it means my system was cheaper hellz yea i take it.

this isn't AW any more

face it they are just being used for their name now

 

I've always been a Dell/Lenovo customer so it doesn't bother me. Never got to experience the good and bad of AW.

 

With an SLI rig there will most likely be one master card and one slave card, the slave card will probably not function without the master card installed.

 

and therein lies the issue.

similar when ford bought jaguar. they ended up killing the name becuase they did not keep the name seperate. they used ford frames, base looks from the then taurus, and tweeked a little to keep a bit of the jag look.
in the long run, they ate severe losses simply cause they ruined the name and what a jag was.

/off soap box

 

prior to removal and install, flash bios to master for both...(if this even has to be done)
they may have a default program where the cards decide on thier own who is master/slave.

 

Consumer Reports recommends against extended warranties. They say that most electronic that fail, do so within the first year. They also suggest you'd be better off putting the money you would have spent on the extended warranty in savings--if it makes you feel more secure.

On the other hand, there are always exceptions. No one can tell you for sure what will be best for YOUR situation.

 

so...has anyone offered a good reason why they would even offer 1333 ram when the board and cpu max at 1066?
(and the OC does not really make sense since the RAM would downclock to 1066 as it is...)

so unless i missed something, is there any other reason?

 

My Thinkpad needed a new motherboard and LCD 3 months before my 3 year warranty expired. Lenovo did it within a week for me after only a couple questions regarding the issue. Needless to say I extended it another 2 years.

I would definitely not extended it initially but once you know you plan on keeping it for the long term then extended it.

 

so if anyone would help me out would the P8700 upgrade be worth the $50?

 

Could be that the memory bus is asynchronous to the FSB, so it could run at full 667mhz x2.

 

I did but only because it was $50.

 

Here's a good article on ram speed.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ddr3-1333-speed-latency-shootout,1754.html

 

that is/was the nice thing with AW...you could extend year by year as long as you did it with 10 days of the ship date/arrival date.

 

yea that was the same thinking i had behind it why not lol

 

Most likely the only sure future proof addition to any computer. Only the price is an obstacle.

 

Seems it's pretty much worthless upgrading to 1333 RAM unless you go for the Quad Extreme...

 

From the article I posted...

"Yet, many users have found small performance benefits from running RAM at up to 1.5x the CPU FSB clock, violating the concept of "synchronous clock speed" superiority."

 

we have been saying that

 

thanks...makes sense i guess...reading more at this time.

thanks...reading now.

 

I did read that, but looking at the benchmarks and tests performed the bottleneck seemed to be more CPU bound. Then again to move to 4GB 1333 it's only $50 more

 

Hmm, could wisdom had been the cause of that decision? Actually, there's nothing wrong with offering options when it comes to colors (just look at HP and Asus for example). However, the gray/silver is still the best all around acceptable color in just about any application. As for black, it never goes out of style.

Considering it's main market is gamers, red would not have been that out of touch with it's purchasers.

On the other hand, with all it's LED's, this machine already has the ability to mimic Tokyo at night. With these fully engaged, a bright fire engine red chassis might have been considered a bit too ostentatious even for AW?

 

Dell's secret to get people to spend a little more...bump it by $50, they got me twice...lol!

 

It's generally a bad idea to go with a memory speed that doesn't match up with the FSB => I'd recommend sticking with the 1067MHz. With the upgrade options available, ordering anything more than the default 4GB of RAM (whether its 1067MHz or 1333MHz) would be a waste of money.

By the sound of things on Driverheaven, the reviewer seemed to think that his preproduction unit would undergo more changes before the final version shipped -- it also seemed to be written very recently, which makes me think that the ship date will be later rather than sooner Add to that they also seem pretty disorganized with their launch.. That being said, I am really excited about the new M17x and plan on getting one -- I just think it might be prudent to wait a bit til more reviews are out and some / any Dell coupons become applicable.

Speaking of which, I ordered a notebook from Dell about 4 years ago, and back then, they always had ridiculous coupons that you could stack and whatnot -- i.e., 20-35% off systems when you spend > $$$, etc. Looking around online, the current Dell coupon offerings seem rather sparse. Does anyone have any idea if this is a thing of the past, or if waiting around for these types of coupons is a good idea?

 

Welcome to NBR. The coupons still come around but with my experience with the M1730 they weren't stackable with the money off offers displayed on the site. So they will come just who knows how long it will take.

 

tough times proably and dell is looking to keep what it can

 

Of course it more prudent to wait until all the bugs have been shaken out. However, you lose the opportunity to be the first one on the block with the flashy new toy!

The best incentive for discounts is competition. Just look no further than the auto industry for proof of that. Think about who's AW biggest competitor and see what discount--if any--you can get on their product.

Generally speaking, the best prices on laptops come during peak sales times--i.e. back to school, Christmas etc. Although I'm not sure if this applies with a boutique brand?