4850's Finally out for the m17

FreeShipping Coupon Anyone

 

just talked with ocz and they said in fact they will not be offering them. as of now the only place to get them is aw. and i also then called a contact at dell and they said the same you have to provide you system id or system tag and account or original invoice same as the rest of the alienware parts. i tried ordering even the keyboard from the m17 and aw said no. i had to have someone else here on the boards who had a m17 order me one for my whitebook at the time. now he might end up wrong but ill bet its the same deal

 

So M17 isnt worth getting new? I was considering this notebook now since its cheaper and it has 4850s...

 

not really imo... once you add stuff in its really about the same price

 

as i said eariler if you were on a budget and you like ati. then this will be a notebook you will consider. and the 4870's arent' even out yet for the m17x so as far as i see the m17 has the best ati cards out now. your making it sound that the m17 isn't a good buy right now with this release.

if you were looking at benchmarks you would see that the 4870 crossfired(4850s) from the w90 is just below the 280m and that notebook was using old drivers, and a lower model quad plus you have to consider the 512mb on the asus. so i believe the 4850 is equal to the 280m gtx rigth now.

 

Um, the MXM3.0 260M will beat a stock 4850 because of the 950MHz memory. The 4850 = the 2.1 260M, yes. After overclocking, I don't know.

Congrats to you M17 owners, the soap opera is over. Did I miss the stand alone price?

 

if they are shipping the cards to customers to install themselves, means that the standard w840di heatsink should suffice! Especially after some friendly modding is done.

 

to bad it is still gddr3

 

You are right, I customized similar configs for both M17 and M17x on the site and both came with 3-6 bucks of each other.

Oh well. I still may just get this because of the ATI cards I'm still gonna wait and see if there are going to be 4870s for M17x.

 

i have to see what my chipset is for my sager.

well i haven't seen that much increase from anothergeeks sager with the 2.1b to mandrakes 3.0 so i don't think the mxm is going to affect how far you can puch these cards.

they both have 280m's.

 

@ kevin 550

 

MXM does not effect bandwidth AT ALL - it is only the PHYSICAL specification. And a vote in favor of the M17X - MUCH better cooling design over the M17, also no quad stutter.

 

if you were going to max out the notebooks then you have a point but i would choose the m17 if i was on a budget. (maybe. i would have to think about it.)

comparing the performance, the 4850 is almost the same but me doing a quick config
m17
p8400
4850 crossfired
1200p lcd
light up keyboard
2gb of ram
160gb hdd
it adds up to
1924.00
i would up the ram the hdd of my choice. the rest as the time comes with a qx9300.

vs the m17x
p8600
280 sli
4gb of ram
250gb hdd
is
$2,549
and minus the 280 to 260
2,249

and i would keep the ram and up the hdd, and the cpu to the qx9300. that price adds up.

basic the m17x wins but is 300 more with the 260m and 600 more with the 280m. but i would look into the future as in maxing out the notebook more then now. (i didn't do the math but it would be the same.) i also didn't compare them equally because 200 dollar for a ram upgrade is garbage and these are configs that i would do myself and build up. unless (which is likly) new cards my come out for the m17x but you have to pay more for that.

 

BAD BAD NEWS

the cards are only available to new systems for now in a month or 2 they will be sold to upgrade systems since it is a new release

 

well i think that's how it goes for new parts but i forgot about that as well

 

I wouldnt invest into a new one regardless for the simple fact that even with new cards its still end of life for the machine, the M17x will certainly see new and better cards . If your an existing owner though of the machine then its the greatest news ever and you just extended the life of your machine by leaps and bounds . Thats my take on this atleast .

 

Same here. Maybe the 3.0 can O/C further, I don't know. As far as I know, the 4850 is practically a GTX 260m, better in some games, worse in others. But it's not like the GTX 260m trails far from the GTX 280m.

I think we'll be seeing a 4850 in a NP8662 or any other laptop with mxm modules, type 3/4 of course, if someone manages to get their hands on the card. On a sidenote, perhaps the 4850 will be better suited for the old m15x, seeing as the GTX 280m runs quite hot in it, maybe the 4850 would fare better.

The fact that it's available is a good news in itself. Priority for new systems is understandable. M17 owners have waited for quite some time now, what's more 2 months or so. Now all that's left is for the announcement of 4870 GDDR 5 cards for the M17x.

 

i would look at the price(m17) but upgradablity(m17x) for a brand new machine is something to think about as well. if i was in this situation i would have to think hard about the price between the two (as i showed above)and if i can afford to do it and how long it would take for me to get the newer one.

if the 4850's do fit the sager np8662 with out a bios update then the chances of it fiting the np9262 is high. but we will have to wait to see what happens.

 

Right now I would just get an M17x with newer chassis and upgradability.

Like Quadzilla said, these laptops are investments so I would just get the nvidia cards in the M17x even though I perfer ATi.Or if I HAD to have ATi cards I would just wait for the supposed 4870s in the M17x.

 

which card would you get then the 260m or the 280m?

 

Be much simpler if AW just offered this exclusively on M17x, cos now the entry model is looking better than the flagship, purely on spec and value.

 

Here's a fun fact: Since this thread started at 11:26 am today, there have been 12 pages (120+ posts) in the span of 2 hours. New NBR record?

But man this is just ironic for me. It's my birthday today and I just got rid of my Whitebook yesterday. Good things always happen on the 15th of July

That said, I'm not mad at all. I enjoyed my Whitebook and still think it was one of my better investments, though some tried to suggest otherwise. But I have a 67 inch DLP TV hooked up to a HTPC system with a EVGA GTX 260 that is begging to be invested in and for good reason. Had I kept my Whitebook, I probably wouldn't have upgraded so soon seeing as it's an AW exclusive and you'll have to wait till people get their systems, then ask them to ask AW to get spare cards, etc. So it would have been a while for W840Di owners.

Also, for those looking into this new configuration and expect to tamper with it to go to its limts, don't get too excited. Even though I was able to do things like flash my 3870s, others weren't able to, namely M17 owners and owners of the late model W840s. If Alienware blocks the BIOS of these 4850s from being flashed, that would be a problem for people wanting to max out their systems. I hope I'm wrong on this.

But good job Alienware and congrats to M17 owners.

 

Well, ATI cards are known to be supported by laptops even without a BIOS update (3650 & 4650 in 5920g), surprisingly, Let's hope it stays this way.

The only reason to get the card is if it's a whole lot cheaper, since the GTX 280m is confirmed to be supported and is slightly better performance wise.

 

9800m GTX will work in a whitebook lol

 

I wanted the fastest now so i opted for the 280s and i thought about resale value on the cards and i know for certain i could move the 280s faster then 260s on just naming alone .

 

I also have been watching this thread grow and grow and grow.

That's what months of having your head messed with by these companies can do. Takes the slightest thing then BAM a flood of posts haha.

@Moo
But you can only do ONE 9800mgtx, which is still beat by 3870 in crossfire. So would actually be a step backwards since nvidia is doing all the new cards on the fancier MXM slot and the whitebook is limited by that 2nd slot not having an HE tab

 

Well.....maybe the 260Ms because its only a 10% difference and it would take $300 off the price of the laptop.260Ms in SLI can handle Crysis just as good as the 280, and if you play Crysis, you sure as hell can play any other game on the market and into the future.

But I would get 280Ms because I have the money to get them plus I want the fastest thing....

 

Bummer that current owners though have to wait a month or 2 to get the cards , this may mean it will be sometime before we see benchmarks etc unless someone just decides to buy it new .

 

Wow this is brilliant news for us M17 owners and at the right time....when all these M17X posts are making us jealous.
Im also glad that its gunna be around 2 months until we can get our hands on it because thats how long it will take for me to save that much spare cash.

Thanks Alienware.

 

I would be a little annoyed (am a little annoyed) about the wait, but at least they are concrete now.

And days like this are why you also keep some play money hidden away

 

also,

Ive just noticed that the cards are not yet available on the UK site.

 

Yay!

now we need the 4870's for the M17x

..well..cept I would prefer the GTX3xx series from Nvidia, as I read from one of these posts that switching to and from discrete graphics requires a restart (when with ATI cards)...and I find that annoying.

 

man if they release the HD 4870's in the M17X a LOT of people are gonna have to bring their rigs back for some GPU switching....

 

Nicely put Tonytoff, I was thinking the same thing yesterday when the entire first page was M17x related. This is definitely a smart move on AW's part. Now new owners have some tough tough decisions for sure.

So I guess if they just send you out the cards (yah I read that its only for new owners atm) does that mean the heat sink wasn't redesigned then?

If I'd have had time to wait I would have. As it is now, the same configured system I bought but with 4850's is the same price as it was when I bought mine with 3870's in February.

 

I believe it should be the same heatsink package. Frankly, the current one isn't horrible, just could be better is all. If you check out the last few pages in the project freeze thread you can see some of what i have planned to do to mine. But when and if I get some 4850's (sadly I am a whitebook owner) I have NO reservations about using them with the same heatsink.

Of course...at the moment my GPUs idle at 37c haha.

And I absolutely here you about not seeing any m17 threads lately. These aren't dead or horrible notebooks FFS.

 

i just called Alienware in the U.S, the cards are available for upgrade right now for 450$. you don't have to send your system to them.

 

Heh, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to release these just to take some of the load off of the M17x, as orders for that system must be overwhelming Dell, with the month long EDD's and canceled and re-ordered orders etc.

 

Omg Omg Omg Omg Omg

They Arent On The Uk Site Argh

 

$450.00 is such a bargain . You have to love ATI to no end for there pricing compared to Nvidia .

 

Yeah no doubt, my second 260M GTX cost me 320$ CDN, and that was with a 50$ discount on it, ouch, very good price for 2 4850's!

 

I saw some comparisons earlier on the prices. Not to go off topic but I don't know how you guys are making some comparisons. Shouldn't we compare prices on products as similar as possible (as similar as possible is key here)? For example, with one of the most popular setups:

M17x:
2.8Ghz, 320GB, Dual 260-SLI, 1200p, 4GB

$2,474 (after tax and S&H = $2,678)
This doesn't even include all the savings some of us got like 7% University and 4% DPA, and other bonuses.

M17:
2.8Ghz, 320GB, Dual 4850-Xfire, 1200p, 4GB

$2,724 (after tax and S&H = $3,006)
There is no University discount as far as I know for this and no DPA discount. Also, shipping and handling are always higher here.

Check for yourself.

I think it really comes down to how you see the 4850's. Are they comparable to the 260s in SLI or to the 280s in SLI? It's up to you. But, just think that for a lower price you get a new machine, with better cooling, obviously more upgradability, no shuttering issues (so far), etc.

Therefore, I still think it is obviously better to get an M17x if you are going for a new system.

HOWEVER, if you already have an M17, then it is a no-brainer. The upgrade will complete the system at the best $.

 

Thats still pretty reasonable considering its Nvidia . If this were a year ago and you were looking to upgrade that card it would have been atleast $600 i bet.

Im very happy ATI is forcing Nvidia to lower there pricing and im also praying ATIs do come out for the M17x so if Nvidia releases newer cards for the M17x they wont be $1400.00 for a set like they would love to charge us.

 

i got my M17x

YAY

Anyway They told me i had to wait

 

I agree entirely,

If you are after a new machine then the M17X wins hands down!

But for us M17 owners its nice to know we will get a lot more from our machines and stay fairly competitive for a little while longer.

 

There actually is a 5% university discount and from time to time they do free shipping. Not too many other options for discounts unless you wait for black friday.

 

The bad thing about the M17 is how overpriced the CPU upgrades are in comparison to the M17x, and everything else. +$500 for a T9600... ouch.

 

no one will buy that anyway

get an ES qx9300

 

lol, why would I be mad?

The Whitebook was insanely loud under load, which was a deal breaker for me. The LCD panel was lacking compared to the W90Vp and 9280.

And the fact WoW is more CPU bound than SLI bound is the icing on the cake.

So these are 4870 GDDR5, right? RIGHT?

That's what I thought.

 

I am now laughing so hard at the people who sold their M17s for the M17x. I bet many of them are banging their heads against a wall right now. I know I would be.

IMO 4850s are comparable to the 260Ms...but one thing's for sure, they are brilliant cards. We've got the second best ATi solution on the market, and a solution that resides in the top 4 graphics options which are all within about 10-15% of each other.

I'm glad I got my M17 now.

Now a comparison for me of the Europe prices in my sort of configuration:

M17 with Q9000, dual 4850s (NOTE: They are not out in Europe but looking at the US prices, I'm estimating an extra £100-£150. So I'll add £125 to the price.), 2GB of RAM (+£67 for a home upgrade to 4GB-call it cheating but it's what I'd do.), 320GB HDD, Wireless N, illuminated keyboard, 1440x900 WXGA+. Comes to £1,585.85, then add £192 (see above) to make it to £1,778.85.

M17x with Q9000, 260M SLi, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD and 1440x900 WXGA+ comes to a much higher £2,059.01.

So in terms of Europe as soon as the 4850s come out, the M17 will be a much better offer in terms of money for similar configurations. (In fact they are identical in terms of hardware apart from the graphics cards, if you disregard the 1333MHz RAM which would be downclocked anyway.)

I know that if I was a buyer in Europe now, and the 4850s were released...I'd definetely go for the M17.

 

I've ever owned the whitebook and sold after 5 months used. 2 reasons that I didn't like the whitebook (M17) was the keyboard and sucking driver from ATI. They didn't release the driver support for Mobility card so you must modded by yourself (hard to do and not stable at all). only my opinion...