M17x R2 Pre-Ordering Questions

Hello,

Planning on ordering a new M17x R2 soon (in the next 48 hours) and was just had 2 quick questions:

1) How much of the chassis is actually constructed of aluminum? Is it a substantial amount? The lid, palm rests and bottom? Or is it just certain areas? I apologize if this was covered in any of the reviews, but there were a ton of reviews and just couldn't get a specific answer.

2) Anyone have any idea when the ATI 58xx or 59xx GPUs will be available in Alienware's machines? I wanted to take advantage of Dell's 12-months interest free financing (ending Feb 24) and if the 58xx or 59xx series will be available between the time that I order and the EDD (March 23), I would call and change the order min-production.

Thanks for you replies!

 

58xx has been rumored to be by mid march i think.

chasis wise i can say the essential parts are aluminuim, the lid and bottom and the sides.

id avoid the r2 till the bios fix for flickering and throttling is released. though they say it will be released in a few weeks, thats the exact same thing weve been told for the r1 issue. the only difference here is that one of the nbr members already have the bios and can testify it will come out.

 

I only have a reply for the second question. The updated ATi cards are rumored to be announced at CeBIT which will run from March 2-6. If not there then who knows. Even if they do announce them they probably will not be available for months, look at the people on this forum who ordered mid-January and are only now getting tracking numbers.

I have tried to get my optical drive changed, but dell is pretty strict about it. If you get any change your order will be resubmitted and you will go right back to the end of the line. I do have to wonder what use the new cards would be. From the reviews there is nothing you can throw at this computer now that it can't handle. As a gaming computer I would recommend to buy the 4870 CF now and hopefully get it by April. If you need it for benching or absolutely must have DirectX 11, then you might as well wait for CeBIT to see if there are any announcements.

Of course there is also the option to try to buy the 4870 CF now and then purchase the 5870's on rjtech later and upgrade it yourself.

Make sure you read the following thread for some advice on how to save some moolah.

Ordering Advice

 

Thanks for the quick replies.

The M17x R2 piqued my interest due to the aluminum chassis and its hopeful ability to manage heat dissipation better than my Area-51 m17x R1 did. Coming from 2 8800 GTXs, I'm hoping the R2 is going to better manage it.

I could possibly wait for the BIOS release, but my biggest draw to getting it soon would be the interest free financing. Not sure how often Dell runs that particular promotion.

 

The M17X R2 has possible the best cooling system. My R1 never ever got close to being hot. Even with benchmarking and overclocking hard. You know you can always order with a Dell Perferred account (DPA) and get 0 interest for a year. I mention it in the thread in my sig.