M17x Refresh Discussion

that begs the question what is the slowest processor before you run into the bottleneck on an sli or crossfire setup

 

In my desktop experience 3ghz is the magic number to maximize sli but that is hardly scientific. I'm sure mandrake or others have better info.

 

P8700 is already a bottleneck for dual 280s in some games (unless you over-clock it to 3Ghz)

 

I hope they add 16:9 LED and make it a little smaller/slimmer.

 

so would the T9600 be the minimum without overclocking the processor and does the lowest mobile i7 present a bottleneck to sli?

 

I would assume so. It's a clock cycle issue as far as I know. Oc'ing a CPU is perfectly safe. Just get a cooler and your ready to rock.

 

It would do ok even without OC'ing. The lowest i7 does not present a bottleneck as it can turbo boost to 2.8.

 

From my i7 mobile experience, 2.8 doesn't mean much. That's how far a single core can overclock, but I know that when all four cores on the i7-720QM are stressed, they each go to 1.73. What really counts for something is how far can two of the four cores overclock simultaneously. It's between 1.73 and 2.8 lol. This refers to the Turbo-Boost overclocking and doesn't factor in other methods of overclocking. Also, if anybody knows a program to undervolt an i7 mobile, tell me what it is, I couldn't seem to get rmclock to work with it.

 

I agree that a new screen would be nice, but it's bulkiness is worth it for the cooling. That's actually the main reason I'm looking into getting it, my m1530 is too thin and before I undervolted/arctic silver 5'd/got a cooling pad it was always crashing when i was gaming for any length of time.

 

There is no sli for core i7 so far as i know.

Here is another thing they can do on an m17x refresh: Laser engrave a custom alienware design and finish it with a powdercoat. ive seen a ibanez guitar with HR. Giger design before and that looks so hot.

 

Don't ya' think you're setting the standard a bit high? They couldn't even get the engravings done correctly now, now you want something as intricate as the original xenomorph creator's artwork done on the laptop? hahaahah

 

Dell needs to hurry up and put up pre-orders for the M17x refresh. Asus already took the lead by putting up their G73. Hopefully we see an M17x with a 17.3" LED lit screen, same design + x-fire 5870 as an option.

 

looked at a higher resolution picture online and it looks pretty cool but one thing I never like is the alienhead I want to be able to customize that to somethin I like

 

Very soon. I would expect an announcement at CES and pre-order of the M17X refresh late January or early February.

 

That will never happen. Unless you want it to say dell or custom change it

 

I doubt that they will have X-FireXt in the new AW refresh. It's probably too early anyway. They need to catch up on the the 17" LED , Core-i7 , and a single powerful ATI gpu to compete. Thats what I am expecting to see, the fact that if the new setup with new ATi X-FireXT will cost a bundle, more than the current setup. There is no way that dell is going to have dual GPU on the refresh and kill their current m17x. It's all marketing. You can bet on that as these high-end setup is marketed towards gamer, and killing the current " ALL Powerful " is not in their playbook.

Don't chop my head off...lol

The refresh with dual GPUs will be definetly be here , but not anytime soon.

 

I think the G73 and G53 from Asus give you a pretty clear idea of what the new AW specs will be.

Intel and Nv sorted out the SLI license in September - that created a delay but we should have some dual card i7 systems soon. I think Crossfire will be available right away as there are no license issues AFAIK. And the new AMD chips are power efficient.

256 bit GDDR5 will really unleash the new RADEONs.

 

It will just be a M17x-2 or something silly. I don't think they will change anything but the guts.

The M15x (and therefore G53) with 5870 256 bit GDDR5 will be faster than the 260m SLI IMO. AW have to do something if they want that 'All Powerful' title to mean anything.

 

There will not be a only single card setup

It will be dual gpu if you want it. The current m17x can run them ... So the new one would have no issues

 

Added a few things to the front page:

-Refresh Rate
-Laser customization (debatable)


I'm personally curious about lightpeak, and how that's going to turn out (vs. usb3)

 

from an article I read I had heard light peak was going to be a new way of communicating between board and processor and bus

apparently it was wrong

what I want light peak for is internet I could really care less about it being used for communicating between peripherals. Just stick with usb.

the clearcurve portion of lightpeak would let us have fiber all the way to the modem which means better bandwith for internet

 

The current M17x is running on an old chipset (that has DPC latency issues) with a crappy LCD. Of course Dell will retire it in favor of a refreshed LED backlit 16:9 M17x with i7 + x-fired 5870. Sorry but your M17x will be old news in a few weeks.

 

Sigh, what a noobish thing to say. The m17x does not have a "crappy" LCD. You do realize led is just a led backlit LCD? It could very well have the same issues the current display has with uniformity. Also being 10% faster doesn't make the m17x old news. A well equiped lap top stays nice and holds some value.

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/11/18/dell-dpc-latency-and-you.aspx

sounds like they got the dpc issue just about fixed

 

maybe it does maybe it doesn't I don't know I haven't been able to see it first hand and can only go on someone's comparison. If that the case then whatever its is being compared to is better and as much as I'm going to spend on this laptop anything but the best is crappy.

 

You must stay unhappy then. Best is very relative.

 

Auto dimming LCD + CCFL that dims over time and nonuniform lighting = crappy. The current M17x has run it's course, it was a good one and it will still be a top laptop. It however will be retired as soon as an M17x refresh hits.

 

best is relative when it comes to age of components if it was the best when it came out and I got it when it came out I would be happy with it. If its not and I didn't pay top price for it then I would be happy. If I'm paying top price for it and its out of date then I'm unhappy.

The fact that a laptop screen can not be easily changed out makes it very important that the screen as good as it can get

 

Crappy that cost $$$ 3K + , I don't think so. Who would want to buy crap? Too late, I think " everyone " already did bought crap, Including me. I must say I got the best darn crap a money can buy.

 

Yay refresh rates! <3 Scytus!

 

Just about does not count - but yeah, I think they are close too.

 

That's pretty extreme - but I paid a lot less for my M17x than everyone else so my expectations are way lower.

 

YES. Expensive crap ftw..

 

I really hope they don't use 16:10 this time. Better have LED too.

 

That's the only thing that even comes to mind when I consider buying the refresh. I know I'll get a couple of good gpu's and a sufficient cpu whether it's the i7or i5 perhaps, but I'm really hoping it's the 16:9 just for the refresh rate.

Also, since Asus has announced their new G51J with a 120hz screen, Alienware better do something fast.

Does anyone who has followed these refreshes in the past know what sort of price increases (or lack there of) to be ready for?

 

My friend paid $1,500 for his G51J, and the new one is $1,700. The specs all seem to be the same (other than the screen of course) so I guess it's going to be around $200 more to get a 17/18" 120hz inch panel for this laptop, but I don't see that as unreasonable... just more than I was expecting.

 

if your going to add 120hz screen add the original nvidia 3d the one that uses the ir controller

 

I think 120hz is currently viewed as being something that won't be a huge innovation except for the 3D gaming, and I do think 3D gaming sounds appealing, but I'm much more concerned with how fluid it will look since I enjoy first-person shooters. It just doesn't make sense to have a screen as one of your bottlenecks when its such a cheap part when compared to the pricey gpu's in all these systems.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62X_JKBpu_c
yes there is a performance hit but the amount depends on the driver used
from what i can tell it still plays at 30 fps
not sure about sli stutter but i think with 260m at sli it would be playable
of course it would be nice if i could do a little more then guess

 

Well, I just got a M15x base w/4GB RAM for $1,275 shipped w/tax. So if the new M17x starts at $1,800, I guess I'll have to pass. I don't need anymore power than the base M15x atm. I just want the dual HDD's and screen size.

 

By bottleneck I didn't mean that 3D wouldn't slow down games, I was referring to games that are already running fine on highest settings and 60 fps not being able to be any higher when 120fps is easily reachable. So pretty much any game that isn't brand new if were talking 5870's.

 

Well, Alienware appear to have removed the dual GTX 260M's and Blu-Ray options for the M17x on the UK site, and the Blu-Ray option's for optical drives on the US site. Have I missed something or is a refresh imminent?

I'm looking to upgrade from my still very powerful but ageing M1730, and have been considering the M17x for the past month or so. I'm guessing I should wait and see what comes out of CES this week?

 

This is going to be a long week, but yeah, I'd wait it out. I find it interesting that the U.K. site has a single 260 but not SLI 260's lol.

 

I'm pretty sure anytime they start reducing price its about time for a refresh

 

There have been some absolutely insane deals on the bay lately. Im guessing they are just moving out existing stock to resellers and thats all they have left for retail consumers.

Thats how I got mine. I could never swallow 3k+ for a laptop, I just dont have the sway with the wife lol

 

i3 and i5 notebooks are leaking like crazy - just a matter of days now before we hear all about the new 17" AW.

 

Too bad there is ZERO chance of a < 13". I'd get one.

This CES week is gonna be interesting.

 

what kind of graphics card do you suggest for 13" AW? Remember, the newcomer should be a top performer to take a niche

 

Beats me. I wouldn't game on it anyway. I would just like a sturdy AW-style portable.

 

Than you have better chances in the MBP department. I doubt AW will ever enter that segment.