M17x Questions & Info Thread

after seeing the m17x and how much it costs, i'm going with the m15x; I placed my order last night

 

and it has 800 fsb ram compared to the alienware 667fsb

 

And support for faster RAM
On a side note, I'd like to see these 2 machines reviewed side by side for a comparison of the chassis and build quality.

 

Just seen the press-release and pictures. Look at the size of it; it's HUGE!

Wonder how much it weighs when fully kitted out? No way could you carry it anywhere.

I'll bet it is bloody awesome though. Looking forward to first review here on the forum.

Regarding the above comments in relation to the front side bus.
Perhaps a mis-understanding by myself, but I was under the impression that things run more efficiently on a machine where the RAM speed is lower than the FSB on the processor. (The latest Core 2 Duo's being 800MHz FSB).
Faster RAM speed is all well and good, but how can the processor take advantage of it if it does not run that fast?

 

Well the 9262 and 1730 are both beast but didn't the dell 1730 crush the 9262 in benchmark scores both with a single and a dual 8800 gtx card? Didn't research it as much but on the offical 1730 thread, people were getting scores of 16,000 on 3dmark06 and the sager 9262 hasn't even score that high of a score yet. So basically this leaves the 1730 vs m17x and I predict the 1730 will win in this one also because the drivers alone on the m17x won't even be comparable to the 1730, plus you can't OC the X9000 on the M17x atm.

 

Note, 3dmark06 is an artificial benchmarking tool. It's a way of judging performance, but not the sole judge.

That said, I do agree with you that the M1730 has the 9262 beat for 3dmark06 scores currently. Can't deny the truth there.

I think my favorite point of the M17X/M15X is the smart bay. That's one of the better ideas AW has come up with lately.

 

16000 3d Mark 06 score on XPS M1730???Wow!!

Not questioning you but could you please provide a link to that particular post(16000 3d Mark score).Thanks.

 

firstn20 asks a good question: does RAID 1 provide any speed benefits? I mean, RAID 0 is the fastest hard drive solution out there (and you can easily understand why) but since RAID 1 just doubles the data over two drives, it doesn't sound like there's a huge speed advantage (however I could see a benefit in multiple read-only tasks)

 

Well, the closest I found was Veggie with a 14940 score on a X7900 and 8800M GTX SLi and kermit1979 with 15049 on a x9000 with 8800M SLi. Haven't tracked down the

 

I'm not sure on the speed benefits but surely running two Hdd's in Raid 1 will wear out both of them at the same rate?

I prefer Raid 0 and a weekly back-up to the smart-bay drive or an external drive (",)

OB

 

Uhh... sorry to blow the party, but an XPS 1730 can't physically crush the Clevo, the Clevo crushes the XPS, literally and figuratively. It's a fact. It'll outperform the XPS anyday.

Just look at the specs, that's more than enough, and do better research on your benchmarking.

 

Well it would, if they're both locked to doing identical tasks. Also, if that were the case, I can't see there being any speed benefits.

 

I'd love to see the two mobo's (m15x, m17x ) together cause I'd bet you the one that ther're shipping now (965) in the 17x is jjust a re-aranged m15x with extra storage - cause lets face it is.

There's another vid out in june - bettcha they'll announce releasing montevina mobo in m17x (what else would they have to talk about??)

I say this cause there is no way that they'd design a new board just for the m17x(*using 965) this close to montevina -

 

man,you are reach! + insane to pay so much for a laptop...

 

Nb theres no spped benefits of raid 1 - it slows down system as processort has to control writing to both.

raid 0 has speed benefits as each hard drive only has half the info to save hence half the time (well roughtly)

 

Hey its smaller than my area51 m7700 I'm happy. lol

 

So... no smart bay batery and no Binary GX or stealth more or wahtever... that doesnt sound good huh?

 

Stealth mode still comes with the m17x

 

Sorry GRB, But maybe I didn't understood your post then.... the M17X doesn't have the Binary GFX but it does have Stealth mode?..

thanks a lot

 

That's correct. Which means (if we remove the marketing terms), the m17x does not have the ability to switch to integrated graphics (aka BinaryGFX) but the m17x does have the ability to downclock the CPU and GPU on command (aka Stealth mode)

 

But at the end, both methods persecute the same objective... To optimize the battery life of you system... so, I dont see the benefit between choosing one method or the other

 

I would of thought that running both together woud further increase battery life hence the reasoning behind having both.
Running integrated graphics - turn off sli 8800's - save's batt life
Running stealth mode - downclocks the cpu and which ever graphics card is in use - save's even more life.

 

Well, integrated graphics will provide you with the best battery savings. Problem is, BinaryGFX requires a system restart to take effect. So, if I need to maximize my battery life but only need to do it temporarily, I can use Stealth mode instead to get me some savings without having to restart. But, say if I'm at uni for a week and probably won't be gaming, I can turn on BinaryGFX as it will provide me with the biggest savings.

 

No Stealth mode has no impact on the GPU when in integrated mode, however it will still downclock the CPU. So in the end you're still right, BinaryGFX on + Stealth mode on will result in the biggest savings.

 

Trust me, before I even thought about the order button I researched all my options 1530, 5973, 9262, 1730, m15x and now m17x. I thought the sager 9262 with its specs would be the hands down winner. But thats not the case, look for post with dex on the sager forums as it was a week long thread with test and comparative results of the 1730 vs 9262. If you want the numbers of the 16,000 benchmarks go to the offical owners lounge of the 1730, and search the threads there or just post and simply ask nicely.

You can ask your fellow sager 9262 dexigo and he'll tell you himself in terms of benchmark scores, drivers the dell 1730 CRUSHED the sager. I'm hoping the M17x can match up to the 1730, but I just don't see it, they have the same exact technology in the santa rosa format but Dell hands down has better drivers. So still the king of kinds although we all know tis ugly as hell.. the 1730!

btw thanks for the feedback, im going with the 240 gig (120 x 2) raid 0 option for my m17x. <---- I always can upgrade to bigger raid 0 drives in the future right?

 

Also don't forget the M1730 allows for overclocking with the X9000 up to 3.4 GHz, which probably allows it to overcome the fact that the Sagers/Clevos have desktop quad-cores. If the m17x doesn't allow for overclocking, it will not be able to beat either (still powerful nonetheless).

 

@firstn20 I think you have to change both hard drives and they should be exactly the same.

@GRB it is cool overclocking the extreme CPU but I am sure you don't want to do that on an m1730 because the fans sound higher than three Xbox 360 drives and five m15xs combined. (I tried that with the X7900 I don't think the X9000 will be that different.)

 

That's true ElSayed, but that's how they'd be getting the 16000 scores in 3DMark and beating the desktop quad-cored Sagers (now, whether or not they always keep their laptops overclocked, I don't know but probably not -- just turn on overclocking for benchmarking)

 

I'm definitely buying the m17x. I am also planning on maxing out the system with the full specs. I have never owned a laptop in my life. I am a desktop kinda guy. I always feel that laptops don't last as long as desktops. But hopefully the m17x is a real "desktop replacement".

Now, on with my question:

1) Should I purchase the m17x now or should I wait for people to review it and give us their thoughts?
2) Will there be a newer CPU or graphics cards anytime soon? Something exceeding the X9000 and the M8800 GTX?
3) Is the extended warranty really worth it? The extra $300 for a 3-year-warranty is really expensive.

Thanks

 

Any idea how long is going to take to arrive in Europe?
I can not remember how much time took for the M15x to arrived in Europer?

 

1. It depends. In the case of the m15x, those who waited for some reviews may have been glad they did as their were some initial growing pains for us early-adopters, and there were also some quality problems as well. That said, three months on at this point, most of those problems are solved and what we have now are more the types of things you get from all manufacturers (i.e. the odd lemon which is DOA). Plus there's always something to be said for being an early adopter. If I were in the market for an m17x, I personally wouldn't hesitate to order because AW has probably learned from their mistakes with the initial m15x release.

2. Yes, Intel will be offering a new processor architecture known as Montevina coming out in June. While there undoubtedly will be a performance increase associated with that change (most notably the use of faster DDR3 RAM and quad-core mobile CPUs), one must be careful not to overstate it (I predict you would see a big difference in load times and boot times, but for raw in-game performance, a very small impact). If you buy now, you will still have very much a beast of a laptop that will last for quite some time. Be warned though, if you buy now you will not be able to upgrade to Montevina in the future.

3. I would usually say no, except that the experiences I (along with others) had with the m15x have made me want to rethink that. I currently have the one year warranty but AW allows you to upgrade your warranty so long as it remains in force. So within 9 months I can choose to upgrade to a two year or three year warranty. I would recommend you start off with the one year and if you do run into issues or feel like there may be some concern, you can always upgrade after the purchase.

Also odessa, the m15x appeared approximately a month later in Europe than it did in North America. Note though that sometimes the lag time has been as low as a week for some AW desktops, so take that number with a grain of salt.

 

@ bebarhood

1) As a potential M17X I would say to wait just for a month or maybe two. And then you will have a review and firts buyers complains. And if lucky, some info about upgrading M17X to montevina.

2) I haven't heard the release of a new CPU in the near future, but well talking about this type of technology there be always new and better things just 6 months after you buy your unit. So you will keep wating for new things. About the graphics card I heard something about new NVIDIA 9800 maybe upgradeable to the M17X soon.

3) I think most people agreed that 3-year warranty is just not worth the price.

 

If you need a notebook now, get it. If you play the waiting for the newest technology game, you'll never own any new toys.

It was less appearant when tech was moving slower. Anyone remember how long they had a "3dfx Voodoo" card in their machine? But now that there is a seemingly a new tech every month, there will never be a "perfect time" to purchase. Some times might be a little better than others but your own needs should be the factor.

 

sorry if this has already been answered...14 pages is a lot to scan through...but did they take out the eSata port on the m17x? don't see it anymore in the images and specs...thx

 

the fan speeds and the clock voltages are entierely confiruable. The M1730 has the best cooling system of all 17 laptops, which means the performance is better than on a clevo with desktop processor (because throttling occurs).

I have an X9000 and I am able to use the 3.4 clocking with lower fan speed (you need to use fan control utilities). You need to monitor temparatures at each voltage to find the lowest allowable fan speed. Witht he defautl Dell voltage you can't lower the fan speed, but if you use rightmark and lower the voltage @3,4Ghz it becomes safe to do so.

 

Well said, almost everyone who owns a 1730 said nothing but good things about it. ow I don't understand why AW would not make their M17x overclockable, its SO HUGE that I wouldn't see why they would NOT make it OC-able

 

Well, we don't know if it is or it isn't yet -- all we know is that they haven't said anything

 

I have a question regarding the hard drive configuration in the M17x. I'm cross posting here because the question seems more relevant in the "Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades" forum but much more timely and specific to the M17's hard drive configuration.

: 5,400rpm vs 7,200rpm in a RAID 0 configuration

 

GRB, AlienFX:

Thank you so much for your clear answers. Very helpful and much appreciated.

Jason-Alaska:

Lol.. you make a good point. That is exactly how I feel. I will never buy any gadget if I am always waiting for something newer and better. But you can't help and get angry to see that after only 6 months or even less, you see a better CPU or GPU in a laptop or desktop. But hey, this is technology and there is no stopping it.

Thank you guys

 

Well, i said yesterday that i had emailed them asking about a few issues, here's the transcript :-

HI,

After the release of the M17X last night, I am really impressed with the new "Beast".

After looking through the specifications I have a few questions that I am hoping you can answer for me?

1). Will the M17X be shipping with the new Intel Montevina platform when it is released June/July 2008.
2). I noticed that the screen light-pipe seems to be unavailable, is there a reason for this?
3). Will the 2.8 Ghz Extreme processor have the Bios unlocked, so that it can be tweaked to it's full 3.2 Ghz potential? Like the Dell XP S1730 does.

Many thanks for your help

Today i got this :-

Thank you for contacting Alienware.

Please find below the answers to your questions,

1- We might offer selected notebooks with this chipset in the future. Since it has not been released yet we still do not have a definite word about it.

2- Our Product Development Team decided not to include the light pipe around the screen for this system.

3- The BIOS settings may not allow you to tweak (overclock) the processor as we do not support overclocking the components for this system.

Best regards,

Andrea Gil
Electronic Support - Sales Department

Alienware Corporation
Phone: 1.800.494.3382
Fax: 786-388-5720
www.alienware.com

Now, it seems bad but, i'm not entirely sure she actually knows in the way that she just gave an almost "scripted" response?

I have PM'd Frank, hopefully he can shed some light on the issue?

"Frank, please can you help".... Well, can'#t hurt to try can it?

OB

 

If its not overclockable can you really justify the price tag of the extreme processor?

Let's face it the 17x is pretty big so overclocking to 3.4ghz which is the limit on the x9000 (x16 multiplier) shouldn't really be a problem - They could possibly release a bios for those that wan't to oc

not everybody wants to run their processor that fast and it would really make it a dtp - that speed processor and sli 8800's, I'd be optimistic to get half an hour out of the batts

 

thats why u have vista battery saver and enhacned intel speed step

 

I'm thinking more like, press power button.... Vista Logo appears.... Vista Orb is displayed..........
Blink,blank screen...

Message reads :- Please insert coins.... Your battery is dead....Have a nice day ha ha ha

OB

 

lol, I cant believe I might still going for the M15X but only if is it released in a black case and here's why I'm making this decision.

What the M15X has that the M17X don't:
1. Smart bay battery
2. POrtability
3. Right-click mouse key in keyboard (the one that isin the right of the space bar after the "alt" key)
4. Full specs by less money.
5. I like the fact that I can get the 64 GB solid state drive and just get smart bay 250GB @ 7,200 RPM (I know I could get with the M17X a RAID 0 with 64GB solid state drive plus HDD 250GB @ 7,200 RPM even if this option is not available for now I think it will be, but there's no way I can afford this and by doing this I will never use the benefit of a Smart bay unit, 'cause there's no way I will fully use the 314 GB so I will never need an additional HDD smart bay... and given the fact that the M17X has no Smart bay battery I will never use smart bay feature unless I get 2x Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Burner later in future.
6. I like so much the SB 4-IN-ONE combo:
- Smart bay battery
- Smart bay additional storage
- Smart bay Dual Layer Burner w/ LightScribe
- Smart bay 2x Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Burner

What the M17X has that the M15x don't
1. SLI graphics card
2. 17" WUXGA with clear view technology
3. Subwoofer (given that I just got the ultimate adam audio A7 speakers I don't really care about this)


So, what else I missed to state in here?... are you getting the M17X?... what are your pros and cons of this two units?

 

As of now, for 15inchers, the m15x. But for 17inchers, I feel that there are better nbs for the price, like the 9262 or the 5793

 

17in is all that bad to carry around

 

And the M15X has BinaryGFX+Stealth Mode which is great and the M17x only stealth mode

 

I can justify buying the m15x because of its portability and raw power. The x9000 processor and the 512 880gtx are quite amazing to be put into that compact form, the downside however is the amount of heat that the piece of equipment generates, but I mean at that small a chassis how much heat can you really remove?

The m17x however does not scream out the innovation that Alienware usually tries to boast about. I mean the body looks like the m1730 except for the following things
1) Lacks the big XPS glowing wings on the front of the 1730 (very positive feature).
2) Nothing on the back all ports on the side.
3) Speakers are on the keyboard and a little bit on the front.
4) Smart Bay feature (since you cant use it for power its pretty much useless as you can pretty much get an external harddrive for the same price at teh same compacted form)
5) This is the laptop that is supposed to highlight the newest features. Where is the eSATA port?

Overall, I believe that Alienware's winning bid is the m15x and sadly not the m17x. Im really thinking that the new Clevo will give Alienware a run for their money on the 17 inch products.

 

1) Is there a charger for the m17x that I can use in airplanes?
2) When can we expect the Montevina to land in the m17x? And does it exceed the X9000? Can I upgrade it later?
3) What about the 9800m GTX? Is it coming anytime soon? Can I upgrade it later?
4) Why isn't Alienware running their memory at 800MHZ? Can I install it myself and still be under warranty? And will there be a notebook that will have the DDR3 + Low Latency anytime soon?

Sorry for the long questions. It's just that I want this laptop so bad but I am not sure if I should get it now or in a few months. My deadline is in August. I have to have the laptop by then. I don't want to buy it now and see the new CPU and GPU coming out later this year.

Thanks

 

fill out a what notebook i should buy thread here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=29271

so you have a idea of what to look for
aleinware isnt the only 17" beast out their