[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

The countdown is probably when it is available for purchase? I don't know...

 

Or they could wait till the timer was up.. that's the point.

 

Oh shut up
jk

 

lol you'll get over it in about 2 days.

 

damn 2799 for the dual card option, too rich for my blood.

 

True- I just want to play around with pricing and see how big of a hole I'd burn into my wallet by buying one.

 

My guess is that some people don't read NBR.

 

Don't we all... I've refreshed this page every 2 minutes for almost a week now lol... maybe i'm exaggerating, but you get it

 

Another random(ish) question- based on what we know of past models, if you order this puppy with a single 280M, will it be possible to add another card later if desired (via a technician installing it or you ordering it and installing it yourself)?

 

Yes, that's what I did with my M9750. Be advised however, the longer you wait to make the upgrade, the higher the price will be for the second card.

 

Why is that?

 

I don't think it will be higher as long as you are under warranty. When prices go down on the notebook upgrade on the website, they should go down even more for people who upgrade with AW.

 

Sorry, that's incorrect.

When I bought my M9750 I only got one M7950 GTX with the intent to get another one later.

A month after I got my new rig I called Alienware to find out how much another 7950 GTX would cost. The price quoted was $389 with the 10% discount already applied.

Five months after that I called to order it and the price had gone up to $477 with the 10% discount applied.

Being under warranty has nothing to do with any future upgrades you make.

 

Does Nvidia use Master and Slave VBIOS for SLI cards like ATI does for CrossfireX?

 

The prices could go up or down id imagine based on supply and demand or current market value etc. There would be no way for sure to know if you would pay more or less until that time comes and in robs case they hit him for more the longer he waited . Like others have said though if you can, always get the GPU's out of the way if possible first and skimp on everything else , thats the best move .

 

Yes they do.

 

I bet flashing these cards for the extra voltage is going to be a problem.

 

Didnt someone on the Sager boards flash a 280mGTX already for higher voltage ? if so then hopefully it wont be much of an issue .

 

In general, as time goes on, prices go down. I meant that the prices should usually go down like that lol.

 

Not so Rob41. When I had my M17X they repaired my M17X laptop I ask them to upgraded the Motherboard to support two 9800 gt. When I ask about Master and Slave video cards they told me No eather one can be master or slave. I ask this question when I frist order the Grapics cards and when I installed the grapics cards.

 

Yeah but what worries me is if Alienware will do something to the GTX 280Ms like they did to the 3870s on the M17 to prevent them from getting flashed.

 

On my M9750 (with Nvidia cards) the cards are the same. The difference is the bios they are flashed with. One is flashed as Parent and one is flashed as Daughter. You can say master and slave if you prefer. As they come with the bios already on the cards, they are not interchangable.

I suspect your 9800's are the same way.

I have heard of some people flashing both cards to "master" but it's not that common.

EDIT: Alto, take a look at your cards and tell me if their is a sticker or marker with a D or a P on them.

 

The Alienware site has been reworked so that once you sign in to the student area, any system you configure will get a 5% discount, even the recertified m5550s. I would like to see them go one step further, and offer the 7% that Dell offers, as well as combining free shipping offers.

 

OK, and not to restart a debate, but it looks like my choice will be between an m17 with the 3870s in crossfire or the m17x with a single 260 (for eventual upgrade). Does anyone have info on how these perform in Open GL apps, and how much difference in performance to expect?

 

Hopefully that is not the case and the ATI thing may have not actually been done by them , i think Dondadah had the same problem where he couldnt flash his cards and his was the OCZ whitebook, so it may have been done by the actual people who made the cards for them .

 

ok - after looking at the pics available, i cannot locate an HDMI port...am i missing it?

 

Right side.

http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=43641

 

Judging from the pics, it looks a lot thicker then any other AW offering so far.

 

yeah it's by ati. it seems there were two batches of cards that were released. ones there couldn't flash and ones that did(most didn't flash so i guess there is a limited supply of those)

and yes the 3870 CF is faster then the 260m. you will see a difference at high resuoltion. i still have my notebook for about 3 or 4 more days until i have to ship it so i can still run some stuff. i am allready have an album of photos for me botebook in case anyone is intrested(i was looking for some om the w90 and i couldn't find any. so i don't someone to be in the same position as me) i have over about 100 picture os it and benchmarks.

 

2.02"(front) - 2.11"(back)

About the same as the M17X.

 

It's the laptop Batman would buy!

 

Batman would build his own 7" MID with with faster than i7 processing, and better than Quad-SLI graphics, that could actually cool you off on a hot day in the desert.

 

Even Batman would have trouble paying for this with maxed out specs lol

 

You do know what powers the batcave right?

 

does anyone else question the presence of that "carbon fiber" thingy/patch??

 

A BatHamster on a wheel?

 

What don't you get? It's there because it looks cool. That's it.

 

great carbon fiber. that's why the price starting is very high.

 

What's the point of the peak then?

 

Actually, in the original tv series it's the worlds largest diamond. About 8' tall!

--Maybe my eyes are going bad but it looks like a rubber pad, not carbon fiber.

 

honestly i don't know exactly what it is, part of me prefers the status lights of the M17

 

Lol I didn't know that diamonds could be used as a source of power, my BatHamster idea doesn't sound that ridiculous anymore...

 

that part actually does look cool

 

Really? I'm worried one day I may trip and impale myself on it.

 

lol that tip hardly even protrudes

 

actually, now that i think about it, the tip may give you something to grip on to lift the screen when it is down since there are no plastic locks

 

I'm glad it looks like they finally ditched the lid latching mechanism.

I've always found them to be unnecessary.

 

yea same, they only had them on the M17 though

 

The M9750 too.

 

When it happens I wonder what the facial recognition software will think of my final oh crap expression as I stumble to my death.