4850's Finally out for the m17

So you don't have to send the laptop to Alienware, Marshall1975?

 

No no no. The first guy I spoke to when I ordered said I did but then went off for a few mins and came back on the phone saying they ship the cards out to you. Clearly the option to send it in for the less tech savvy is there though. Also I did mention earlier in the thread you have to buy a £1 tube of thermal paste from them or assure them you will be using a good quality paste on them.

 

man, im emailing them right now to figure this out.

some people say yes, some say no. If I can get them sent to my house. I will order them now.

 

NICEE

thanks Marshall, Ill be calling them shortly.

 

My pleasure. Hope your call goes well!!!!

 

great, so it sounds like no BIOS update is needed to put these bad boys in...excellent. Hope somebody can hook me up with them or they someday sell them to non-AW owners!

 

once yours arrive i will order mine next week

 

Well I sent them an email asking to see when I can order mine, have to play the waiting game now. Man I'm stoked about getting these new cards. Thought about buying the QX9300 but I'll wait till after the cards since my X9100 can handle these

 

Is it possible to get lower temps with these cards than the 3870's ? Since theres a new heatsink and all (i think).

Since higher temps than the 3870 are not acceptable imo.

 

Ima go ahead and order them now to my parents crib. Once I get home next month they should have arrived and I will install them then.

 

No there is no new heat sink. You just use the one already in the laptop

 

That's correct. When I spoke with the rep he said the cards are all that's needed for the upgrade.

 

Man, what a blessing. I thought the M17 was as good as it was going to get!

 

Great

Think im gonna wait a bit then till someone actually try the cards. Since most of the m17's go up to 85c under normal circumstances with the 3870's am assuming they are going to go higher with the 4850's and thats just brutal.

 

Project Freeze

 

Whoops...can't believe I missed that.

All I can say is thats VERY interesting. I can get hold of 4GB DDR3 1066 Corsair RAM (possibly slower timings) and a decent dual core for about half the price Alienware ask for the upgrade.

Am half tempted to go this route, I've been building desktops for years, but am always a little worried about breaking £1.5K-2k worth of kit haha

Sorry final question.

Beside the stuttering bug which seems to be the northboard overheating when given a Quad to deal with, does the laptop have any other issues? Is it fine and dandy with any of the dual core chips (I'd quite like the idea of a P9800 for example, low wattage, high performance)?

I'd rather ask in here before going and starting a whole thread, you know?

 

According to notebookcheck the TDP for the 4850 is actually about the same as the 3870, so theoretically the heat output should be very similar

 

the dual core chips do not stutter at all.

 

Thanks a lot Scook! Any other issues I should really know about before setting up a finance agreement
I was originally trying to get a MSI GT725, but the constant out of stock in the UK for the last ~month and the dual GPU in this make me incredibly tempted (1920 screen is also apparently a bit nicer).

 

just that they are awesome.

 

Hahah, well, will take a look at the upgrade path options available on the bay and in the UK a little later then I think. The weight of the machine is a shame, I'll live though, just hope it's not too noisy!
[My original motive was basically selling my desktop listed below and replacing it with a capable laptop that will be quieter, less power consuming, and I can take to work, when I travel etc, but still have a similar amount of power; which the dual 4850 should about manage]

 

The 4850s wouldn't produce much more heat (if any), however if you install it yourself it gives you the opportunity to put high-grade thermal paste on...which could well be a solution to the temps.

 

im from the uk and did something similar, i brought low ball and up graded myself, the quad, 2gb of extra ram, and will do the cards myself

 

I'd be tempted to consider the quad upgrade, but given all the hoo-hah I've seen on here already about Quads and this model stuttering, I think I'd leave it until a lot later when a definitive 'cure' had been found.

Although I have a quad at the moment, only about 2 of my programmes will really make use of it

My dad seems strangely obsessive with me getting 1TB RAID HDD too for some reason when I mentioned my thoughts to him recently, but hell, if it means the family won't look down on my decision to spend money I work full time on when we get together, Im all for it haha

 

I dont get it....If AS5 bought from Ebay for £12 is better paste than Alienware uses in £2000 notebooks then I find that very worrying.

Thats really poor.

Surely Alienwares paste cant be that bad?

 

AW paste is terrible

no other way to describe it

just changing paste from the AW laptops to the normal stuff reduces temps by up to 5 degrees

 

Yea thats what im counting on

 

I'm hoping to put whatever that diamond thermal paste is called on it (ICS7, I think, or something like that someone jog my memory )

 

80-Way Thermal Interface Material Comparison

 

Wow, I didn't even know there were 80 of them. I have the Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound and the OCZ Freeze.

 

Almost all laptops in the entire industry use basic thermal paste. The only companies that use high end thermal compound let you know specifically.

Really, for a non-overclocked rig the generic paste they use is adequate.

I am glad they set up their rigs this way. When I use OCZ Freeze, I have that much more room for overclocking.

 

I'm no business man, and I'm sure that Alienware saves some exotic amount of dollars using the low-end paste, but you'd think thermal compound would be the last place they would want to cut corners. On those cheap laptops at Walmart that make no heat, sure. With a high performance gaming rig though? Not so much.

 

AW paste isn't the crappiest but it isn't the best , but it gets the job done ... my Stock AW paste never let my GPU's go above 82c

 

Hi All,
writing for the first time in this forum.

I've got my m17 one month ago. I decided to go for the m17 as I didn't like the new design and (most important) I got it for a very competeive price - the X9100 @ 3.06GHz was for a few days about 450 Euro cheaper than usual and so I got the m17 for 2400 instead of 2850 Euros (mayby some kind of promotion?).

The same configuration with the 4850s would cost know 2940 Euros (so I can spend the saved money for an graphics upgrade and mayby get some money back for the 3870s).

Now my question. Should I upgrade now to the 4850 xfire or wait a few months for the prices to fall (if they do?).
Is it possible to sell the HD3870 xfire for a resonable price to save money? I mean are there people who wants to by them. I asume changing cards in laptops isn't as easy as in desktop pcs.
The price for the 4850 upgrade isn't known yet?

In conclusion (with the possibility of upgrading the graphics) I'm very happy with my m17. I like the design better than the new m17x and it offers much more value for money than the overpriced nvida graphics.


Alienware M17 - Ripley Design
WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9100 @ 3.06GHz
Dual 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 CrossFireX
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
RAID 0 - 500 GB (2x 250 GB)
Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 a/b/g Draft

3DMark06: 14 054
3DMark05: 20 443

 

600 or so USD for 4850's

Upgrade as soon as you can !!!!

And its VERY easy to upgrade GPU's as well, and most people on the forums can help you with it

Welcome to NBR

 

i agree with moo its soo easy to upgrade and there are alot of people here who can help if needed

welcome to NBR

 

jw does the 4850 have better shader support than the 3870s?

 

Both are DX10.1/SM4.1 capable as they're effectively based around the same design process, the difference is in the raw shader power of the improved core; the 48 series is much more capable than the older 3 series design, and also is much much more efficient with AA, due to having a tweaked, beefed up design
The 4 series GPUs are really what the R600 design promised, but was unable to deliver due to some innefficiencies and poor hardware AA resolve; and given they've now latched on to how to make it work; they seem intent on delivery improved and even more efficient models based around the same core design for another few years.

 

The 4850' kick a** ^^ believe me

I cant wait for some xfire numbers!

 

Anyone from the US that's ordered a pair of them, what was the total cost and ETA? Trying to see when I'll be able to afford them.

 

Yeah that would be interesting to know...............

 

it seems people in the USA have to wait about 30 days from a few people who tried to order them

 

Here's the reply I got. I replied back thanking him for the info and also informing him I was a guy......


Dear Ms. Chesley,
Thank you for your inquiry.

Please be informed that currently the Video cards you mention are only being offered with new orders. We are currently not offering them as upgrades. Regarding the time when they will be available for purchase, I would suggest checking back with us in a week or two.

 

Me neither...do I get expelled from the MSI forums if I end up with an Alienware crossfire model because I couldn't get an MSI model, for being a GPU *****?

 

Man, yeah, I tried to order them and they said I cant upgrade yet and Id have to wait a month...BS! We should get priority since we are the OWNER!

thanks alex

 

Ouch and more ouch. That sucks. I won't have the cash for them until mid August, so I guess it's not so bad.

 

i am sure someone ordered them and was given a dispatch date of mid august anyway

 

Thx for the fast answers.

So I will upgrade as soon as they are avaiable from Alienware . I hope they really ofer them as part upgrade...

Is there any chance of selling the 3870s. Maybe on ebay?
Sorry for asking but mayby selling a laptop graphics card isn't so easy...

 

You may be able to sell them, faster MXM parts do have a certain specialist demand. I would have killed to have got something better than a 256mb mobility X1800 when I had my Fujitsu Amilo Xi 1456, as it was so cut down.

Something which the 4850 mobility isn't in the same way (it should basically perform about 2/3 the speed of my desktop 4870 (or about 5/6ths of the speed of a desktop 4850), and about the same for crossfire enabled games when you have crossfire.

 

the 3870's will sell very easy