A few questions about the M17

As some people may tell, I'm new here. Anyways...

I ordered my new M17 6 days ago. (Q9000, dual 3870s, 2GB ram, 320GB hard drive, 1440x900 screen because I'm on a budget) And I just have a few questions to ask about it.

Firstly, how long does it normally take to go through Phase 3? I have heard some people say that the phase thing is total rubbish and that it can jump straight to phase 9, but I'm not convinced. It's been in phase 3 for about 4 days now and I was just wondering how long it normally takes. Maybe it's delayed due to the upcoming Allpowerful release? It may just be down to the fact that it's just been the weekend followed by a bank holiday monday, but I don't know.
Just so you know, they estimated 4 days for order confirmation and 5 for building it. As said above I put the order in 6 days ago. The payment was cleared 2 days after I ordered it, so I'm just wondering whether phase 3 is considered part of the building time.

Secondly, am I likely to get a stuttering problem? I've read around the forums and I'm worried now that I'll get the stuttering problem, as seems to be frequently occuring with quad cores. From what I can gather people say that it's because the quad is larger than a duo, so the copper heatsink doesn't make proper contact with the northbridge, correct me if I'm wrong. I've heard that it can be fixed with a copper mod, but I've no idea how to do so.

If someone could give me a guide to copper modding the northbridge, I'd appreciate it. Especially if it's not very complicated, my father would be very reluctant to let me take off the heatsink and fan if it's necessary for the mid...

And lastly, I've seen this picture of a modded M17, and I was wondering 1. whether the Zalman VGA RAM heatsinks affect temperatures much, 2. whether the copper plates on the RAM make much of a difference and how to get some, and 3. presumably the northbridge copper mod is under the heatsink then, because I can't see any difference here. Where is it?

Thanks in advance to whoever answers any of them. I appreciate it.
__________________
Custom desktop: Q6600 @ 2.67GHz|4GB DDR2 800MHz|8800GT 512MB @ 700/1750/1000|2x250GB 7200RPM RAID 0|XP Pro SP3 32-bit| 11,028 3DMark06
Alienware M17: Q9000|2GB DDR3 1066MHz|Dual 3870s|320GB 7200RPM HDD|1440x900 WXGA|Vista Home Premium 32-bit| Currently in Phase 3

 

As soon as the payment had been confirmed. they would start build your M17. the online phase wont shown the right phase(it would delay a bit).
Depend where you bought your M17 EU or US ?
they normally would take 3 days to finish building(EU, i saw my one had been built less than 3 days, infact, only took like 2 days)

 

Welcome to the A.W. forum Evil!

The orders for the M17 seem to have been getting shipped pretty quick lately so I don't think you'll be waiting too long.

Yeah don't even pay attention to the phases, they are rarely on target.

You can find the copper Mod in this forum but wait and see if you get any stuttering. Yes the copper shim is between the heatsink and the northbridge.

You can get copper heat spreaders right at Newegg.com and they are real cheap.

Congrats on your new rig!

 

In this picture there are copper plates on the ram modules. Where can you get them?
And does it void your warrenty if you just add some copper to the cooling as done in this picture?

 

Thanks guys. It's coming from the EU.

It's good to know that it could be built quickly. Thanks for the info. Do you know if they work on weekends/bank holidays? Oh, and one question, would putting in that copper northbridge mod void my warranty? (Just making sure, but from what I can gather, it'll only void it if I mess up the installation).

And would I have to remove the copper mod if I had to send it back?

And just another question. I've seen by reading this forum that AW's CrossfireX drivers lack in gaming performance. What drivers would you suggest I use? (I've got a 32-bit OS, just so you know)

Thanks again!

 

32-bits OS? how many ram for your M17 ? 3gb ?
Dont think they would work during weekend and bank holiday.
think some ppl are using 9.5 driver http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=381871
also have a look on this thread too http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=347611 E-wrecked's Modded driver

 

I only ordered it with 2GB. I plan on upgrading it to 4GB myself because as we all know, Alienware has a massive markup on RAM...

That kind of sucks that they don't work on weekends or bank holiday. That means they have either just started building my laptop or it's been 1 day in construction...

No 64-bit OS because from what I hear the driver support kind of sucks. I plan on buying Windows 7 as soon as it comes out and I'm considering getting it in 64-bit.

 

No Man,
The driver support is in full swing now. I've found nothing that didn't have 64bit driver support.

The 64bit driver support sucks mantra is now just an out dated cliche from the days when that was true.

 

Thanks Rob, that's good to know. But besides that, will the Alienware control panel software (or whatever it's called) work in Windows 7? Any idea of that, or not?

From what I've heard Windows 7 is fantastic, I just hope it lives up to the hype.

 

i haven't tried it all there software is useless

yes as they have stated the copper sheet goes under the cpu heatsink

you may or may not have to take it out we will see how AW chooses to adress this matter. They know we are fixing it and may let it slide who knows

 

Still, I would like to know one thing. Do those Zalman VGA RAM heatsinks shown in this photo help at all? It's just those would be very easy for me to buy and install and probably an easy way to decrease temps if they are effective...

 

they will drop it 2-4c

not a huge difference

but will help, i reccomend puting some mx2 or OCZ freeze or any better thermal paste when you get it and go from there

btw your m17 will out score your desktop but it shouldnt....you need to re test that thing....

 

If I'm honest, I just recalled that 3DMark06 score from memory, I can't remember if that really was the value. It was probably 12,028 or something like that. I think I will retest it.

I do think the M17 will still outscore it, as dual 3870s should outperform an 8800GT (or at least I think so) provided the crossfirex works well, and the processor is only 0.4GHz slower.

I would apply new thermal paste but my father really doesn't want me to go around reapplying it. A 2-4C drop is still nice considering that those heatsinks are pretty cheap.

Oh, and I know what the answer to this probably is, but would overclocking the processor void my warranty? (I presume it will)

 

no it won't

if you over clock and fry it your out of luck (now i dont promote this but if you do overlclock and fry the mobo there is no way to tell if your useing software(if there is tell me )

i have overclocked and you can do so quite well. but if you even think of over clocking your gonna need to do the copper mod.

and thermal paste is easy to do get some mx2 and its non conductive so if you do screw up it wont short anything out

 

I've overclocked my X9100 to almost 3.6Ghz without any overheating or other issues using Setfsb. Whenever you restart, the default settings are automatically restored.

 

is there anyway to save it?

 

Aw, nuts.

They're delaying it till the 30th (of this month) because they're out of illuminated keyboards for it

 

figured i stayed in phase 3 22 days because of shortages

 

It's only 3 days so I'm not too unhappy. It's just I was hoping to have it by Sunday for something.

 

Sorry for the double post but I need to bump this up anyways to ask this. (Rather that than make a new thread)

I know it sounds a stupid question but since I don't really work with the insides of computers much I'm not really sure. Where exactly is the northbridge on the M17? (If someone could post a picture of its location, it'd be great) I've found a copper mod guide (however for a different laptop) so I just need to know where the northbridge is just in case I have to perform this copper mod if I get stuttering...

Thanks again in advance.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=384955

try this bios 1st and see what happens, if it doesn't work then i will post some pictures also tell you results in the quad core thread, here and the link i gave you.

 

I need to get the laptop before I try anything, lol. Hopefully it won't be any more than 6 days (hopefully 4).

When updating the bios would I still need to call AW? (Considering I know nothing about it and don't want to void my warranty). It would only void the warranty if I messed up, right?

 

I suggest you first install the new B13 Bios that is supposed to correct the stuttering that some Quad equipped M17's experience. IMO, adding copper shims to a critical thermal exchange point, (and thus creating twice as many surfaces that must have thermal paste applied correctly) should be the very last resort.