Alienware m15x General Information - Post m15x questions here!

I just thought i'd share that I ordered an m15x with a 8700gt as well. From what I can tell it performs somewhat better than the 8600. That's all good for me. Down the road if I ever need to, the ability to upgrade to the 8800gtx is there for me, without having to buy an entirely new laptop.

Milcs, i'm curious about ordering a smartbay battery for mine as well whenever mine comes in. I'd also like to pick up a smartbay harddrive enclosure as well.

 

yes, its also cheaper than if you where to buy it when you config your system.

 

But you don't have a webpage to go to, with all the extras you can order for the M15x, do you?

 

no u just have to call and tell them.

 

does anybody know how much extra life the 9-cell replacement battery will give the m15x and how much bigger it is compared to the 6-cell?

I think the m15x comes with a 6-cell as standard but I have just noticed the uk site is now advertising the 9-cell as an additonal battery option.

 

50% more..

 

not necessarily. the standard 6cell has like 5200mah, the SB 6cell has 3800mah.

 

Have ordered the same really (but with the T9300), was wondering if there were any m15x owners with the 8700mGT who could possibly run 3Dmark and/or others?
Just wondering how it stands in comparison to the 8800mgtx, am not looking to change order because I cant bring myself to justify another 200euros on it, but am essentially trying to justify my decision.

Thanks
Chris.

 

i'm scoring 5506 on standard res. I can run any other tests you want. To me look like the 8800 is basically double the 8700.

 

Yeah, that's roughly correct as the 88 narrowly beats sli 87s

 

@Wizzo. To clarify I'm not talking about a SBB

@Nirvana. Sorry should have made my question a bit clearer in the first place

The logical 50% answer could only apply if each lithium-ion cell in the 9 cell battery is the same size as those in the 6 cell. If this is the case the battery would actually lift the m15x up slightly (see dell's m1530 as an example), however if AW have opted for smaller cell's in order fit the battery into the same space this would increase the battery life slightly but not by 50%.

thinking about it, if AW have just added 3 extra same-sized cells, I would also be interested to know how much the m15x is lifted and whether this could potentially help (if only very slightly) with airflow and cooling.

 

i was responding to nirvana. from his post, it seemed he thought that a 9cell battery was automatically 50% better than a 6cell battery because it had 50% more cells. which isn't true.

 

Thank you very much tacomenace and GRB, has put me at ease as that was what slightly higher than what I was expecting, (was thinking 5000 and below), .
I think I'm going to stick with the 8700m knowing that, but tacomenace, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of games and frame rates do you get? Will be mostly playing ES:Oblivion, BF2, Crysis (not so much) and Flight Simulator X.

Thanks very much,
Chris

 

After being stalled at Phase 1 for a few days, I moved up to Phase 2 this morning, and I recieved an e-mail saying my payment has been approved and is ready to enter the production cycle. WHOO!

I haven't been moved up to Phase 3 yet though. .

 

Ok, so I just got finished talking with an alienware live assistance rep., and asked him if you could Self-Upgrade the processor, video card, hard drive, and ram. And he said that you could upgrade all of those components with nothing more than a screwdriver. Is this true!? All without voiding the warrenty?!

 

you can only upgrade the hard drive and ram without voiding the warranty. if you upgrade anything other than that you will void the warranty.

 

I think it's only voiding the warranty however if you upgrade outside of AW channels. If you order the upgrade through AW and have them walk you through the upgrade on the phone (one of their policies) then you should be alright.

Now I don't know that for a fact so if anyone can correct me then please do.

 

@Exiled - You can upgrade your GPU by yourself as well if you are on the phone with them when you do it. Just call tech support, say you have a new graphics card, and they will walk you through it.

 

So we can upgrade the ram, hard drive, and GPU without voiding the warranty? That's good to know. Thanks!

 

Wow, I'm highly shocked that you can do that. I'd expect that everything would be completely souldered down (excuse my spelling... i dunno how to spell souldered...)

 

Only RAM and HDD can be replaced without voiding warranty. This is... you can change the, without even noticing AW.
Regarding GPU and the the rest, you will have to buy from them and they will guide you through.

 

you nearly had it! Just drop the 'u'

 

The m15x is extremely accessible for upgrades. All four major components (CPU, GPU, HDD, RAM) are easily accessed when you take the cover off

Packer445 has some nice pics of the m15x internals
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=217494

 

@ Friar: Thanks lol

 

Does any one have any solid info about the kensigton lock slot yet? I was looking at a earlier thread and I want a lock for my M15x, so does anyone know a specific model that works?

 

It's not a kensington lock... it's a security lock.
It does not fit any of standard locks (including all kensington).
Get the Targus they have on their website. That's supposed to work. Targus Defcon CL or something like that.
Also, those kind of locks are supposed to be really bad and there's some reports saying that the number combination sometimes reset while the thing is locked (some people had to saw it out). Oh well...

 

I bought a smart bay hard drive kit and I want to know if this HD will be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136121

It is SATA and as far as I know it should but I want to make sure. Thank you

 

you still have to get the cage from AW, but the drive seems fine. as the one comment noted, $30? that's insane (even though it is only 60GB)

 

yeah I bough the cage already, its coming on monday and I just need one until I go back home and pick up my 200G HD thats why I pick this one that is 30$

 

So has anyone confirmed if the 9 cell battery props the laptop up?
Also, I'm thinking of purchasing a m15x, would it be stupid to upgrade the LCD to a 1920x1200 but only upgrade the video card to a 8700m GT?
Thanks in advance

 

unless you do photoshopping and need the extra space upgrading to the 1920x 1200 screen is pretty pointless. Also unless you perfer matte over glossy. The 1440 x 900 screen has a lot more advantages such as a faster response times, better contrast ratio, lighter, needs less energy to run, and its brighter. i would upgrade the video card over the screen since i would rather run games faster and have them look better too. the glossy screen (1440 x 900) should make games look a bit better since it is brighter and the colors should be better.

 

plus pretty much all games don't have WUXGA as a native resolution, so it'l actually look worse.

 

Thanks, right now I have a Dell m1710 with WUXGA (1920x1200) and it is beautiful, I love fitting a lot on my screen (some people say it's too small) but it's great..I also like the glossy finish on the screen even if sometimes it's a mirror with the glare :x
I guess i will go with the WXGA glossy, because 1920x1200 on a 15.4 inch may be just a tad *too* small

Any idea on the 9 cell battery? If it props the laptop up or not..that would be great for airflow

 

prolly won't prop it up, but stick out of the back. very unsightly.

 

Hey guys... got an issue with my m15x. I've searched the best that I could (google, thread searches), and forgive me if this isn't the forum for this question...

My m15x will not detect a non-powered firewire 1394b or 1394a (aka bus powered) device of any kind.

I have tried with traditional firewire devices as well as two firewire 800 CF card readers. (everything works perfectly on a tower machine at home)

I also have a firewire 800 external drive that works with the m15x when powered with the external power supply - yeah like I want to carry an extra power supply around....

Alienware says this a 9-pin firewire 800 interface suggesting it is powered -- so where is the power? firewire 800 1394b specs 9 pin interfaces carry plenty of power to do what I want (at least I should for the bus powered card reader!)

I am concerned because there is a precedent of Dell not powering their firewire ports on other laptops....

Drivers are good. Just no detection. I have tried trimming the rubber seal around the end of the cable (thought being the cable doesn't go far enough into the case to seat properly)

I have tried all manner of ways to get this work. With the AC adapter / without. With "stealth" off/on.

No luck...

Judging by other info on the internet of laptops failing to have power with older firewire interfaces.... I am not getting a good feeling about this.

I am making posts like this to every forum I can find in hopes of a solution/answer.

My next steps are:
1) contact tech support at alienware (I'd rather have a root canal).
2) Take off the back panel on the bottom to inspect the firewire hardware and how it is seated.
3) Lookup the pinouts for a firewire800 port and test with a multimeter
4) Try with XP and see if this is a vista issue should the multimeter display voltage.

If anyone else can test and tell me if theirs works differently I'd appreciate it. At least I'd know that I have a faulty firewire800 interface...

Thanks!

 

Just got off the phone when Alienware tech returned my call

Firewire 800 port on the m15x is NOT a powered port even though it has a 9 pin receptical.

So... if you want to use a fancy new firewire 800 cf card reader or anything else that is unable to accept external power you better be putting it through a powered firewire 800 hub or have some kind of DIY battery pack made for it.

I'm looking into both of these now.

Sadly... the newer macbooks have functional powered firewire ports. Lack of a power has been an issue since way back to when they first started appearing in laptops.

I understand the draw on battery issue. Firewire can theoretically take 30v I think... but come on guys - how about letting us power the ports with the AC adapter connected!

Anyway, so you know...