[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

Probably depends on drivers, and the type of video ram, maybe 4870's if they had gddr5, but we have to see how the drivers mature, and run more tests.

 

depends. i can max out Tom Clancy's HAWX (a recent game) at 55-60fps at full settings, even with my 8800m-gtx.

 

So phinagle if they are very playable. with a 280GTX. 260GTX SLI vs that, 260GTX SLI outplay a 280GTX or no

 

they are both even 4850 vs 280m the only answer is crossfire vs sli. if they do release gddr5 which theyare it will be king for a long while. period

nice pictures.

 

9400M is usually a chipset IGP such as in the SXPS 13, Studio 14z, Macbooks, and the Ion.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9400m_g_us.html

 

Thx for the info Whiz. The performance will def be close, so it will come down to how well each system deals with the heat. Dunno how well the M17 and the old M17x systems did with cooling the system as I never kept up with AW ever since the massive amounts of problems the M15x had, but hopefully like I said, this system will cool just as well as the M1730.

EDIT: btw those engadget pictures make the system look really long, this system looks bigger than the M1730 from those pics, but hopefully its significantly smaller than the 18.4" Clevo

 

Wow, the design really looks classy, imo red LED in the first wave of photos didn't bring out the design well.

Though m980nu does have 3 HDD slots, so if you put in 3 SSDs in RAID 0 as oppose to 2 HDDs, the laptop might be even faster...

 

GTX 260M SLI will perform better than a single GTX 280M in any game that supports two video cards.

 

yup. of course, two GTX 260M will cost more than a single GTX 280M, and a single card is always more efficient.

 

super exciting stuff

I'm just wondering if a service like OnLive (coming out later this year) will make our money spending here...unnecessary

 

Well...I am still sticking with 280GTX single, hopefully I will be one of first to order. Granted it will take weeks, possible a month+ to get it finally. Once it comes out.

 

GTX 260M = 112 shaders (same as 9800M GTX with die-shrink)
GTX 280M = 128 shaders (same as Quadro 3700M with die-shrink)

difference in performance between the two is ~10%.

 

Scrub question..What is die shrink?

 

I'd really prefer just a single GPU; but given 9400m is there cos underclocked 280m still takes too much power, we aren't there yet.

 

If you're looking to save money a single GTX 280M is better than GTX 260M SLi.

You can always upgrade later and it will even be more cost effective in the long run.

 

Gotta say, the new design is pretty dern sleek. Not as chic as the origianl m17x or m15x, but it fits Alienware's style better. Also the aluminum construction is a fantastic move. I just can't wait for an updated m15x- that'll probably be my next purchase.

 

Also who saw that AW mouse. That thing looks sick..in my opinion

 

the chip that processes every thing gets made smaller makes it cheaper to make and less heat is created

 

Not a scrub question, a noob question jk

Anywho, a die shrink is when the shrink the die of the processor (any kind of processor, CPU, GPU, etc.)- IE: When intel moved from 65nm to 45nm.

 

is the M17 plastic too??

 

New M17x

Weight: Starting at 10.6 lbs10 (4.81 kg)
Width: 16.0" (406 mm)
Height: <2.00" (50.7 mm)
Depth: 11.9" (302.6 mm)

VS

Dell M1730

- Weight: 11.68 lbs
- Width: 15.98”
- Height: 2.11”
- Depth: 12.65”

The M17xis not that much bigger, its gonna be significantly smaller than the Clevo M98U which is good. Now to wait too see how well this system deals with heat, and hopefully we can OC this badboy.

 

I'm still sticking with the 9400M being part of the chipset in which case it doesn't take much more power than the Intel PM45.

 

totally agree

am so getting it

 

the m17 inch is over 2 inchs in height

 

It looks like a cheap cut down version of Logitech G9...

 

Is it confirmed that the Chassis will be made out of aluminum?

 

i strongly advise you to wait until reviews pop up. i've tested mice that were heralded as the next Razer Boomslang, and turned into something more akin to the Zalman MP1000.

 

yes. 100% confirmed.

it's a proprietary design i would think. the LCD at least is unique (in that it displays the DPI in AlienKaret), and the rest doesn't closely resemble any other mouse i'm aware of.

 

Was actually planning on buying the 4k dpi Razer until I saw that mouse...

but you're right, waiting for reviews is prolly smarter

 

I'm a bit nervous about getting 64-bit...

 

Ok great, hopefully the Chassis will be of higher quality than the M15x and M17.

 

definitely get 64bit. not even a question. with 4GB RAM stock and (at least) a 1GB GPU, 64bit is a must-have with the M17x.

it should be, no doubt.

 

What do you mean it displays the DPI in AlienKaret? You mean all the fonts are in AlienKaret?

 

see for yourself:



EDIT: looks like those might just be symbols to show different presets though. not sure if they could display all ten numbers.

 

Oh, I didn't read about that, I thought you meant the LCD was all AlienKaret lol.

 

How more powerful is a medium spec M17x than the old one? in games, and generally? (assuming no quad)

New:
T9550+4gb ddr3 ram
280m GTX sli

Old:
T9500+4gb ddr2 ram
9800m GT sli

20%? 10% ?

 

30% at least, if only because of the GPUs.

 

Even though it's powerful, but it looks ugly. I'd rather go with M15X or M17.

 

Just as a side note... since I checked a found this to be a problem... no more than a month ago, I looked into buying an M17 with the Student Discount, and the discount didn't apply to that model, only the m15x (and 'maybe' the old m17x? I can't remember), but as this new M17x will be, indeed, new, that discount may not apply...?

 

In my attempt to contribute something relatively useful to this technological discussion, debate, mess, w/e, I have information presented in an article in the Spring 2009 issue of PC Gamer that lays out FPS performance at different levels with different graphics card combinations.

All the info is based on brand new, out-of-the-box OS installations, including full mobo chipset drivers. (w/e that means)

And unfortunately, they left out 3870's, only 4870's used.

Low-end Gaming Performance:
Crysis 1280x1024 (high)
Radeon HD 4870 - 46 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 x2 - 28 FPS
GTX 260 x2 - 46 FPS
GTX 280 - 48 FPS
GTX 280 x2 - 46 FPS

High-end Gaming Performance:
Crysis 1920x1200 (high)
Radeon HD 4870 - 29 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 x2 - 31 FPS
GTX 260 x2 - 41 FPS
GTX 280 - 35 FPS
GTX 280 x2 - 40 FPS

Real-World Gaming Performance:
WiC 1920x1200 (high)
Radeon HD 4870 - 44 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 x2 - 50 FPS
GTX 260 x2 - 46 FPS
GTX 280 - 49 FPS
GTX 280 x2 - 44 FPS

High-end Gaming Performance:
WiC 1920x1200 (very high)
Radeon HD 4870 - 35 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 x2 - 40 FPS
GTX 260 x2 - 38 FPS
GTX 280 - 36 FPS
GTX 280 x2 - 36 FPS

Some of the numbers seem odd to me, but I suppose they have more proof than I do. Hope this helps a bit.

 

Are those desktop or mobile?

 

Those are probably desktop comparisons since I don't see an "m" in the nvidia cards.

 

All but one catagory shows the single 280 beating or matching dual 280's.

You are right. That does look odd.

 

The article doesn't actually specify what type of machine the test was done with, only the graphics cards. If I had to guess though, I'd say desktop... but I honestly have no idea.

 

And yeah... The only thing I could think of was the fact that dual 280's are so far and beyond necessary, that only at the absolute maximum setting of the most extreme game would you notice a difference. As an average gamer, I wouldn't venture any further than 1 280, but that's me.

 

Random question- why is the "all powerful" countdown still up anyway? The news is out, shouldn't they just end the counter now?

 

Can't be purchased yet.

 

They could just throw up the info, but keep the counter going off to the side for the purchase availability.

 

Because we don't have the complete list of spec's or options or any pricing yet other than entry level pricing.

Also availability time frame.

The count down is for the official release and all of the above.