[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

*Sigh* I guess the world can't be perfect enough to have a laptop built fast, with good GPU's that supports PhysX, and still have the rights to brag....

 

Yeah, the build time is going to be painful.

Add to the fact that this is the first time Dell is taking over an AW system = even longer, unfortunately

 

We'll see.... I hope your right

 

I do plan to do some benchmarks once i get it, estimated delivery date is july 9th so it'll be awhile.

 

I wonder how many orders came in on the first day....

Anyone with any Dell hook-ups want to inquire?

 

I think I will buy an ssd drive later on and install vista on it and use the other hard drive for storage.

 

the only thing i did is go to www.dell.com/epp and got 7% off .. i did use a DELL Credit account as well but i dont think that mattered because my limit is only 2000.00

 

About 10 systems were sold on the French site yesterday, according to a customer who enquired with Dell Casablanca this am. Take the info FWIW...

 

Thanks, sneaky...

 

Just finished ordering mine, now it is in production !

 

wow you guys are really getting taxed overseas. For once something is cheaper in the USA. It's about time we get lucky. Mine was only like 1900 after tax than after my 2 ssd drives and my t9900 ill have about another 800 into it so 2700 for a 3.06ghz 35 watt t9900 single 260m and raid 0 120gb ocz vertex drives all for 2700 thats an amazing price for the upgradability this system will provide. DELL has hit a home run if the build quality is truly up to par. This system is going to sell tens of thousands in the US. Alienware actually priced a top of the line laptop they have exclusive design rights to at a cheap price. It's a miracle.

 

Hey i am going to rewind, but who was it who forgot to put their name ont he laser engraved nameplate? I think I did the same! crap

 

I got my handle LastStop on it

 

well that sucks... i think you have AW send you a new one. contact AW-James or -Armando.

 

You did it over the phone with EPP and got the complete care warranty?

 

I cant wait to get my new laptop, its going to be awesome. Its pretty upgradable too, 8 gigs of ram, 2 hard drives, you can switch to ATI crossfire 4870's if you want, and the qx9300 being overclockable is great too, it should last me a nice long time.

 

Yeah, and the custom nameplate engraving.

 

I see alot of people complaining about size or text on a 1920x1200p res screen. Can anyone please put a screen shot of text on that res screen so I may see? It would be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks. I'll call them when I get home.

 

Same thing i was thinking that why i got the 500 for video storage and running apps off an ssd when i can afford it

 

To remedy that, you just increase the DPI. It is really worth getting the 1920x1200 screen, I have the 1440x900 screen right now on my m5750, and although it is fine for the m5750, for the M17x I would definately get the 1920x1200 screen.

 

its killing me i'll have to wait til 7/7 everyone else anxious?

 

Won't do any good.. a screenshot of text on a 1920x1200 res screen doesn't depend on the screen dimensions. The reason text is hard to view on a smaller screen like 17" is because each pixel is that much smaller; I have a 23" monitor with 1920x1200 resolution, and text is perfectly readible, but when compressed to a lower screen size, the actual pixels/text that you see when viewing the screen is smaller. You'd have to take an actual photo with a camera to get a feel for the relative text size; unfortunately, doing this decently well is easier said than done.

 

btw, that being said, I'd definitely still go with the higher res screen -- it's just bound to look friekin' beautiful!

 

so is this going to get changed to the owner's lounge???

 

i got the 1440 x 900 because the 1920 x 1200 makes text too small in my opinion on that native resolution so even if I own the 1920 x 1200 screen i am going to lower the resolution to around 1440 x 900. Since screens look much better running at thier native resolution a native 1440 x 900 is going to look better running at 1440 x 900 than a 1920 x 1200 could look running at 1440 x 900. And like I said 90% of the time it will be hooked up to a 16:9 24" at 1920 x 1080. Thats just my opinion. If you want a 1920 x 1200 screen dont let my opinions change your mind

 

Still trying to work out my order with Dell so I have time to make a few switches.

I'm thinking of having the T9600 instead of the P8600. I figure the extra cache will come in handy as I do A/V work. I'd like to eventually upgrade to a QX9300 if Windows 7 shows good performance with it.

Going with the Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB as that should give me more than enough power when rendering.

17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p) for the screen option but I'm still unsure if the WideXGA+ would be better for my line of work. I'd really need to be able to see some the knobs on Pro Tools so any advice would be appreciated

4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz should be ample enough for me and upgrading to the 1333MHz doesn't seem useful right now

Going with the 128GB Solid State Drive. This should be enough to keep me going as I have a 1.7TB NAS

Other options:
No AlienRespawn...everyone said it's pretty much worthless

 

avgjoe i highly suggest going with the 250GB HDD and buying OCZ Vertex 120GB Drive. They are much ebtter than the ssd's AW provides and its a super simple install.

 

Agreed, and they are cheaper too !

 

Go with the 256GB SSD. The 128GB is much slower (the Samsung PB22-J, which Dell is using, is one of the fastest SSD's on the planet).

DO NOT BUY the Vertex drives!

They are plagued with the JMicron crappy controllers.

In the case of SSD's - you get what you pay for.

 

or you can buy my one of a kind pentium 3 900mhz with 256 meg of ram. It's a workhorse

 

Oh yea i dont want to put anyone through that trouble. I was just trying to get a feel for what it looks like. So I could make a better decision if i do decide to get this laptop, or any 17" laptop for that matter

Yea i understand. I was just wondering if for school this would make it that much harder for reading and other things involving text.

 

bdkillaz..

I go to school and I specifically wanted the 1440 screen. I LOVE WUXGA, but not at the expense of my eyes.

Another thing, DPI might work well, but it messes with icons and graphics on webpages (makes them more blocky). I don't care for the effect.

 

I don't know what the speed comparisons are between the Samsung or the Vertex but the Vertex drive uses the Indilinx Controller.

Edit: 250GB Vertex is $800, The Dell upgrade to 256GB Samsung is $400....good deal if you ask me.

 

Yeah, the Samsung 256GB SSD's are ~$700. You can't buy them direct yet (maybe ebay) because they are being sold directly to OEM (Dell ,etc).

 

finally available to order in Canada!

 

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Alienware M17x Qty 1
Space Black – Anodized Aluminum, Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1 Unit Price $6,039.00
Catalog Number: 70702 NXM17X_R_1E
Module Description Show Details
System Color Space Black – Anodized Aluminum
Operating System Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9100 2.26GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz – 2 x 4096MB
Mouse Pointer Mouse Pointers, Standard
LCD 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
Video Card Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
Hard Drive 640GB - 2x 320GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0
Name Plate Standard Nameplate (Alienware M17x)
AlienFX Color Quasar Blue
Avatar Alienhead 3D
Windows Style Windows Style, Default
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
CD ROM/DVD ROM Slot-Load Dual Layer Blu-ray Combo (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n Wireless with MIMO Technology
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates ON
Power Plan Power Plan, High Performance
Time Zone (GMT - 6.00) Central Time (US & Canada)
Software - Antivirus McAfee® VirusScan Plus – 30-Day Free Trial (English)
Service 4 Yr Limited Warranty with 3 Yr NBD Onsite Service with Complete Care and 3 Yr Tech Support
Direct Line Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Misc 5 Please contact me with more details
AlienRespawn DVD AlienRespawn Image Recovery DVD
Dell Remote Access Dell Remote Access, free basic service

Total Price
Sub-total $6,039.00
Shipping $0.00
PST $475.57
GST $301.95
HST $0.00
Total Price 1 $6,816.5
AGHHH !!! I guess I need to start doing overtime!!

 

I know it would save a lot of money going with the regular HDs, but SSD performance would really help with the A/V work on the machine. I'll go with the 256Gb since it has better performance. Wallet won't be happy

 

Nexuscom I would have gotten the better quad or a higher dual core, many programs are not multi threaded and therefore won't use more then one core :/.

 

If you EVER spend that much on your laptop in the end, please don't do it without the QX9300 or an SSD.

(Tip: Buy your RAM elsewhere, AW/Dell are extortionists.)

 

Unless your doing something that requires tons of memory or you are running a server, just get 4 gigs of ram, thats my recommendation, and you can always buy more later a lot cheaper.

 

+1000000 on the RAM.

If you do need 8GB, get it somewhere else for 70% less

 

What state would be the cheapest to ship to?

 

Florida i think.

 

@Shuya or anyone else
Did I miss something relating to the expected delivery date? I thought they were expected to arrive much in very late June / early July, but your sig says differently. If so, I'd be much more inclined to order sooner -- and much more excited, of course!!

 

Delaware.

No sales tax

 

i don't like opening stuff. I'm afraid I might break it that why i buy everything.

 

Hi, I'm going to order a DELL/Alienware soon, and I'm still considering the M17 and M17x. I'm going to buy it in France, my price limit is around 2k Euro.
I can get a basic M17x with WUXGA, Q9000, GTX 260 and 4 GB ram @ 1333 for 2094 Euro.
A similar M17 config (with Dual 3870, T9550 @2,66 Ghz, WUXGA and 4GB ram @1033) for around 2100 Euro.

I'm not that happy with the quad, but it's in the base config; the T9550 would be probably a lot better. Though, I'm probably going to upgrade the CPU to the QX9300 later.

What's better for gaming, the GTX 260 or the 3870 x2?
Would it be possible to add a second GTX 260 to the M17x?

Overall, what do you recommend? Is the difference is performance between the M17 and M17x configs big?

 

They designed the M17x so that RAM and HDD could be easily upgraded by the owner. There's not even any screws to remove.

 

ZING!!!!