Buy now?? or wait?? (M17x)

does anyone know when there gonna release the new versions on the m17x?

anyone have any updates?

I hope its not gonna be a while cause i need one before april/may, for work and gaming.


I just sent my sony f series back, pshhh... gaming computer my butt. .. got a full refund too.

 

If you wanna keep waiting for something new you'll never end up buying anything.

Act now and act fast so you can get the most of your top of the line computer system before it becomes obsolete overnight.

 

Cebit is 2 weeks away, and the general belief is that there may be a slew of announcements then. It's at least waiting to see what the makers have to say then before leaping. There are a dozen other threads on the wait or jump topic and browsing those will quickly net you a variety of thoughts on this topic as well, particularly concerning the current state of the M17x.

 

Well i just bought one 2 days ago and looks like it will take a little over a month for them to ship it. Had no idea it would take that long. Is there a site I can check on status ? I do not want to call this early lol only been 2 days but in a few weeks i would like to check status. If they come out with something new, can I call them and have them upgrade it while it is being made?

 

dragon just order it, I ordered mine 5days ago. Its worth the 3 week wait for me.

 

I always say, if can you wait...you should. Newer hardware will become available for the same, or smaller price the longer you wait. If you can't wait...you don't, simple.

 

for those who have at least some kind of a computer with them, wait is worth imho especially with ceBit 2 weeks away. AW could announce the 5870 cards there. But it's a speculation...
Also, i suspect that the bottleneck will be released on AW production soon, and people that order now could end up getting theirs with people who order in 2 weeks from now.

 

well they still got my laptop, they have had 4 weeks now, now their gonna give refund which is gonna take two weeks, then by what you are all saying itl be another 4 weeks from when i order another laptop. mmmm april ill be gaming again if im lucky

 

A great link for determing the status of your order:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=457512

 

As everyone has said there is always something around the corner. If you order now it seems the wait will be at least two weeks so it might be worth getting in line if you are really in the market for a machine.

 

Like others have said; if you can wait..wait. The reason being, the GPU (main thing gaming nerds care about) is probably going to be updated soon).
People saying "there is something always new so you may as well buy now" are not really giving the full truth. I am currently using a m15x that I got in February of 2008. That is 2 full years ago. The specs are 4gig ram, 2.5ghz penryn and an 8800mGTX. The GPU was 2X faster than the 7900GTX. With SLI/Crossfire excluded; it still competes with the best single card soutions within about 20-30% Now the GTX 280M and the Mobility 4870 are really older GPU's and the one to possibly wait for will be the 5870 that has already been released in other products. With that GPU LIKELY only a month or two away...it would be best to wait if you can. Though it isn't a dramatic leap over the 4870 (its still about 25% faster). Crossfire two of them and you will NOT have problems playing today's and tomorrows games. If you get an m17x loaded up then you will have a more likely problem playing tomorrow's games because you spent a lot of money on yesterday's technology.

Long story short...Buy the BEST you can afford with the NEWEST technology when buying a gaming laptop. I Purposely timed the 8800MGTX and bought when I did because I knew I would get 3 years return on investment (ROI). When you build desktops it's easier to take the opposite ideology as you can constantly upgrade (so its best to buy midgrade stuff).

Do what you want but with cebit just weeks away...wait it out. peace.

 

I think waiting for the last upgrade is a neverending story. My rule is: 1. identify needs and urgency. 2. Determine the budget. 3. Identify matching device & buy.

 

Good advise from Daveh98.

 

The 5870 will be at best 15-20% faster than the 4870s. You will likely not see much of a difference in any game you play. I'd order now and enjoy the system instead of waiting around for March to order it and possibly receive the system in April. My M17x handles any game I throw at it.

 

15% faster is amazing in a sense that some games with all settings at max currently run around 28 FPS like crysis. 15% will get you over 30 which you need to play flawlessly.

The 5870's will most likely also be the top of the line for the next year or so. I believe Nvidia is dying on the mobile gamers market.

Again, that's opinion, I have no facts, no clue and maybe I am wrong.

 

Who gives a crap about Crysis? Its an old tired game. As an example, I get >80 fps at 1200p 8xAA, 16xAF max quality in LF4D 2, do you think 15% will mean anything? Or in BFBC 2 I get 60+ fps almost the entire time at 1200p max settings. That 15% will only be noticed in a handful of games at best. The most redeeming quality of the 5870s IMO is the fact that they consume less power. For practical purposes, the real world gaming differences isn't anything to get excited over. Now if we were talking 60-80%, I'd send my R2 back today.

 

You have to also consider that some may care about having a DX11 card (although, by the time games utilizing it come along, you can argue that the 5870's are old and tired). Given that the wait could be as little as 2 weeks (some have posted chats saying that the 5870 is coming), and cebit is right around the corner, I think now is a definite wait period.

 

Ok, so my example was bad but there is a game that a lot of people care about including me and it's WOW. With the 4870 crossfire, all settings max with the stupid shadows, the game runs at 28 FPS in Raid or Dalaran which is still much better than the 280GTX which were running at 15FPS under those settings. So yes 20% on that will be amazing. It will change my world for sure and that's the game I play the most by far.

 

It's just more smoke and mirrors from dell, I am sure, but I did speak with a rep today that thought he could order me a set of 5870's in my M17x. He seemed to know about them and that they will be up for order soon but ultimately he was confused or straight up lying because I was put on hold for 30 min and then told he couldn't upgrade the GPUs for me.

 

If Asus is shipping the 5870's now, then it's fairly reasonable to guess that Dell will ship them after Cebit. May be in limited quantities but it's a reasonable guess since we've seen 5870's in users hands.

You just have to ask yourself, "if in 4 weeks there is a better GPU out there will I be upset I didn't wait?" If the answer is "no" then go for it. The M17x is a truly great machine in a sea of not so great.

But there were a lot of folks who ordered in Dec the R1 version and then were very unhappy in Jan and were seeking ways to return them for the R2. The R2 was worth waiting for.

I think you are in a Dec style situation. You won't suffer with 4870's. But patience for 30 days might net you a generation change in DX abilities (DX11 has improved texture compression, improved shadows, tesselation, Physics through compute and GPGPU capabilities).

If a company the size of Asus can get 5870's you can bet Dell can.

 

I hear your point about playing today's games well. In all honesty, by the time "tomorrow's games launch" (next gen consoles)...both the 4870s and 5870s will be ancient. However, it is naive to say it doesn't matter at all. I mean didnt you just have a pretty powerful system that you decided to upgrade? If you get such insane FPS then why did you get a crossfire system when 1 card would probably suffice? We hate to admit it...but we are FPS junkie's. I do find it hard to believe that Modern Warfare 2 or L4D2 runs 1200P with Max settings and MAX AA/AF. I find that my FPS drops to the 30's with 1 8800MGTX at 1440 by 900 resolution with NO AA...Same with MF2. Why wouldn't this user potentially wait for an even more powerful system that cuold potentially be launched in a few weeks? I mean there are no mobile GPU's trumping the 5870's anytime soon...so waiting would be one's best interest at this point. 2 of them in crossfire will likely net around 30-50% better than crossfire (maybe more due to the nature of the cards and DX11). No one knows. But it IS a better card and does have DX11 capabilities.

To a more macro level; I think people that currently buy the "best of the best"...it is a common trait to say that either:
1 "Why wait there is something always better around the corner"
2. "Meh...it's hardly worth waiting for for minimal gains"

But those people that mention that...TYPICALLY upgrade to the next best thing anyway when something comes out. It's almost a psychological tendency to reinforce the very recent purchase; a form of cognitive dissonance if you will.

Anyway, that is just my observation.

 

Long story short, he's just talking it up but he'll probably upgrade anyway

 

I haven't tested MW2 but the L4D2 benchmarks I put up can be found in my post history. The 5870s will be faster, it's the % gain that's questionable. For those willing to wait it's great but they shouldn't expect miracles. 30-50% in xfire? Not a chance, 15-20% tops. I probably will upgrade (and I've stated as much) if the price is right. For me it's not for the performance factor but rather to reduce power and heat consumption so I can attempt to OC my 920xm further. I upgraded from an M15x to M17x strictly for RGB LED but the dual 4870s was just a bonus.

 

Agreed with the power saving. By the way, how does the Gtx260m handle MW2?

 

I tried the waiting game.. Originally ordered on Jan 14th. Orginal order auto-cancelled. Re-ordered on Jan 29th with priority was suppose to be delivered on Feb 2nd. This order gets pushed weekly. I'm now out to March. SO might as well wait another month for the newest card. I've already waited this long.

So I'm a little confused with the comment "order now and enjoy the system".... Dell CAN'T deliver the current machine!!!

 

I wonder if they try to avoid sending out PC that flickers meaning they are aware of the issue and they want to avoid the huge cost associated with all the return of the M17X R1. It could be the reason that so many of our orders got pushed or cancelled.