Alienware M17 *OFFICIAL* Owner's Lounge

If you take that cover off on the bottom of your M17, you can see if you have one, or two GPUs. It's only a few screws.

 

right well summets up

i got 1 card

but it must be a 3870x2

 

whats memory have you got in your cards

it says on mine ddr3

 

Primary Adapter
Graphics Card Manufacturer Powered by ATI
Graphics Chipset ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 3870 X2
Device ID 9509
Vendor 1002

Subsystem ID 207A
Subsystem Vendor ID 161F

Graphics Bus Capability PCI Express 2.0
Maximum Bus Setting PCI Express 2.0 x8

BIOS Version 010.081.001.000
BIOS Part Number BK-ATI VER010.081.001.000.030047
BIOS Date 2008/08/29

Memory Size 512 MB
Memory Type DDR3

Core Clock in MHz 660 MHz
Memory Clock in MHz 850 MHz

well its official aw are selling these laptops with 3870x2 if you only buy 1 as the divice id at the top is 9509 which is 3870x2

im just gonna buy another one of these and have quadfire lol

 

only thing is aw bios has limited the pci to only x8

when the card can go x16

anyone know if the ocz bios has this limitation.

 

Hi all !

I am looking for a good M17 to purchase.

If someone offer me?

Thank you

 

there is no 3870x2....the 3870x2 means two 3870's when talking about laptops...if you only see one gpu then you only have one 3870

 

kcuk post a pic of it ...did you order dual or single......if they sent you 1 instead of 2 then..thats worse then tape on the gpu

 

this the bus interface

 

Download this tool:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

And check at this part what your says:


This should make it pretty clear then .

 

On my M17, it shows ...

two 3870s as two separate 3870 entries. And not as two separate 3870x2 entries.

And it also says Enabled (2 GPUs) on the last line.

 

M17 uses 2 - 3870 cards and not 2 - 3870x2 cards.

So that info is correct.

 

Thanks!!!

So why then on DHC's M17 it shows as two 3870x2s?

 

Wrong info from the drivers he has installed

 

yep it must be driver problem.

as i deffo only have one card installed.

but on gpuz it shows as mobility 3870x2 but in the box at the bottom it only shows 1 mobility 3870x2 it wont drop down for another card.

o well......

wish it was a mobility 3870x2 tho that would be good.

 

still i got low end system

2,2ghz proz
1 hdd
1 card of some discription
2 gig ram

and it still put out 9400 on 3dmark 06

does anybody in the uk want to buy my m9700 as flippin ebay is full of scams and the bidder hasnt paid.

i need the cash to pimp up this thing.

 

do you want to buy my t9400

 

ta bud but i would like to goto 2.8 if possible but how much you looking,dont forget shipping to uk.

 

hi all this is the ati pic i got

 

i'll PM you

 

cheers bud ill have a think.... i hate making an offer 1 it might be too low and you you thing im a git or 2 i make too bigger offer and ive been robbed.

let me sort my duaghters dinner out and ill come back to ya....

 

Prolly due to 9.1 drivers.

As long as it shows a dropdown box with another card it means you got 2, if it shows 1, then you got only 1 card.

 

ok 'll try to be patience

 

hi bud
thanks sorry i forgot to get back.

im gonna wait it out and get something better as i want to upgrade but i dont think itl be cost effective for me to go down that road.

only becuase i want to go higher, thats a good prozzie but not for me mate.

thanks anyway bud for the offer

ken

 

Hi Guys,

I am just wondering if you guys have any idea on how the m17 compares to the m17x.

My main concern is regarding the chasie, since cnet stated:

"Backtracks to an older, clunkier Alienware design"

Also I do like the option of the much faster CPU's, would love to go for a QX9300 or a X9100 which is not available on the m17x.

I know that the 3870 will be replaced soon so the graphic cards will at least match the 9800 on the m17x.

..anyway enough talk.. what are your thougths?

 

well that 4870's and 4850's are coming out and it will be user upgradable. the 3870 CrossFire are great Gpus. they can max out almost anything you throw at it. the 9800m gt's are faster but you price vs performance ratio the M17 is the way to go. also the m17x use the old santa rosa chipset limiting the by the cpu to 800FSB which makes a difference in games.

 

Thats my thought, but you haven't said anything about the chasi, are you satisfied with it?

-does it hold the screen in place nicely?
-does it creak?

Is it useable with the frontloading CD Drive?

Any other issues, or thoughts whats good or bad about, especially in contrast to the m17x

 

oh sorry. it is well built. i just recently got it so my screen does stay in place firmly. it doesnt make a sound when it is opened or closed. the cd drive in the front is very nice. not like my old hp (which was on the right) were if something is next to it, i have to move everything to get to it.
one problem i have is the speakers next to the dvd drive. when you are typing and listeningto music some of the sound quality is blocked. which is kind of annoying. but i'll get use to it.

 

Sounds good - just one more question.

Does the Keyboard or any of the surrounding area bend/flex at all or is it nice and solid. I have been using Thinkpads for the past couple of years so I am used to a solid Chasi.

Oh forgot - are you using 32 or 64 bit Version of Windows, my major concern is backwards compatability issues.

 

the keyboard doesnt move at all like the toshiba high end where you press the button and the hole keyboard flex. and i'm using x64 and everything works in terms of backward compatablitly. one or two programs i used didnt work but there is always others.

 

Thanks for the quick replays - I will at least wait until the 4870 are out. Even so my aim is to wait even longer - but well as most people when you are at this point you are going to buy sooner rather than later.

 

if you wait alittle longer more people will hop in this thread and help you out to.

 

Get it when the 4870 cards nare out
If you wait more
you will always be waiting
cos new things coming out every 6 months
m17 is a Very Nice Laptop
just hope they will also upgrade to 8gb Ram

 

I was also drawling over those 8 Gigabytes of RAM, but then again there is no clear in game Preformance advantage justifying the cost. Rather have a quick processor with 4 gig's of RAM then 8 gig's with an older slower proc.

 

rather spend money on a qx9300 then 4 gigs of ram ... i game with 2 gigs every thing maxed out

 

4 gigs of RAM is the sweet spot. Mr. Moo, I don't know how you're running sh*t with 2 gigs. Some of my games wouldn't even start when I was running 2 gigs.

 

Thats true

2GB on a GAMING RIG ... sounds quite less to me ...

Here in germany the "supermarketnotebooks" have 4GB Ram ... so I was not "able" to buy an extreem gamingrig without 4gb^^

Ok there are still humans out there wich use a 32bit OS

Greetings
Julian

 

oi! that's no fair... AW didn't offer it when i ordered, and i'm not gonna go through the whole process of migrating from 32bit to 64bit when win7 is already around the corner.

 

The think i hate about 64bit windows is the 2x program files folders

If it wasnt that id probably stayed with the 64bit

 

This was my reason why I chose the m17 and not the m15x

At this time I didn't know that the m15x would be soon avalible with Vista 64bit^^

Greetings
Julian

 

don't hate on me i play crysis warhead fllaout 3 grid fear 2 wow all maxed out what r u playing thats crazy lol i tweaked vista so i idle at 500mb

BTW if i could afford another 2 gigs i would. right now i have college and high school and they don't leave much money left i live with my grandparents to help them out ...minimum wage doesn't pay very well ethier

 

Wow 500 mb, Im still amazed when I read that.

 

Yea same here Ive got around 20 services disabled with no extra startup programs apart from the antivirus. Even Aero is off and still idle at 800mbs

 

fox saw the pic i posted awhile go cuz no body believed me

 

Yes I remembered that, still envy that..

After disabling worthless programs and startups, I still get about 1.4 gbs at idle.

 

how ??? i just dont understand what ur running .....Trojan-Downloader.BAT.Ftp.dm. thats whats taking all ur resources lol

 

I wish I had enough will power to hold out a little longer since Windows 7 previews sound very impressive.

Does anybody know if Alienware will deliver upgrades to Windows 7 later on?

 

BTW has the OC Bios been released by now?

-> I know stupid question does it effect your warranty if you overclock?

 

I think 10. April is the date when you get W7 for free if you buy a system with Vista? (not quite sure^^)

But as far as I know the OC bios is out^^ But it only works for the "Xtreem" ones ...

Greetings
Julian

 

Sweet - I think I can just about hold out that long

I definatly want to go for an Xtreem Proc - overclocking a laptop without voiding warranty. *drowl*