M17x Refresh Discussion

The main difference is that the 920 is an extreme processor. With the C2D procs we were able to manipulate multipliers and voltage, we'll see what extras the 920s bring sooner or later.

 

Hehe, I spoke to a dell alienware technician yesterday, he spoke to marketing and concluded that he was pretty confident an M17X refresh will be released in 2-3 days.

 

I had a technican say the exact same thing: that he had spoken to marketing and it would be out in 2-3 days. Maybe we got the same guy lol

 

So It will be out around 14th to 17th? Lol. Can't wait.

 

I hope the M17x has some bios OC'ing options, that would be excellent though you'd need a 920xm to use them. I've got my config planned out: i7 820Qm, 4GB ddr3, 1TB raid 0, RGB LED display D), SLI 285 GTX (hopefully). How bout you guys?

 

I have the M17x page open so I can keep refreshing it every 5 minutes and I swear I will be the first person to order the i7 version lol
..Talk about obsessed.

 

Dude I check it at least 5-6 times a day lol.

 

Yeah it's like an addiction.

 

Thats a pretty sweet Config. I'll probably just get Basic, and upgrade later.

Lol, We all get like that at times.

Lol, so do i.

 

I got Sam Moses.

Haha - even if you order it 10 hours before someone, you'll both get yours at around the same time!

What makes the i7 extreme processor so "extreme"?

 

Hey everyone, this is my first post on the forums. Lots of great information on possible builds for the Refresh. I think I went through all 70 something pages in the past 2 weeks and I only have one response to it all.

*slices open mattress*

 

Same here! I even customise the M17X a few times when I'm bored lol

 

Hey look a 24 hour sale on www.alienware.com - upto $320 off
Never saw that before...

 

My config will match my specs of my current laptop. I'm going max everything blu-ray burner, ect. I'll have my RAM here, and then I'll sell off my QX9300.

Edit: Going for ATI cards

 

The signs... I can see the future!

 

looks like they coded the page wrong, lol.

 

Yeah lol the link from the Dell site works though

 

Clearing out stock before the refresh...it's coming!

 

Yipeee! :')

What do you think the price of a fully spec'd m17x will be after the refresh? Atm its $5600 (including bluray burner)

 

I think they'd be happy with body parts.

 

I dunno but I'm guessing maybe $200-300 more. My max spending cap is about $3100.

 

Oh ok, not too bad then. I live in England so I'm getting mine shipped from America for half the price of over here lol.

Its around $8,500 for a fully spec'd m17x over here!

 

Hey all, I gotta quick question:

Im also waiting for the refresh. I live in Belgium, if I was to buy the M17X from america instead from dell europe would I still be able to send in my lappie in europe or will it be send to america (same question for at home repair, would I be eligible for it?)

Normally I don't mind buying overseas, but for this ammount of dollars I do have some second doubts... (+ its way cheaper )

 

I think the prices on these models are going up only by $100 dollars, because I saw on the flyer Dell got some specials going on, and they showed the m15x starting at 1,499 instead of the 1,399 its at now, and it had the date set for the 17th on it. So that might be around the time the refresh is coming I assume.

 

That a decent config.

I will keep my SSD drives

 

I would un-raid my SSD's if I were you. They are fast enough already, no? I would feel I am losing a 256GB SSD. Still, nice setup you got there.

 

Yea i was also thinking it would happen on the 17th because also according to a dell rep. the blu ray players will be back in stock for the m17x.

 

I was planning to do raid 0 on ssd too. Is it really not worth it?

 

The SSD Drives (or any drive at that) runs faster in Raid 0.

Second with the apparant reliablity of SSD drives I felt Raid 0 was a good option.

The benifit of running non raid is really only for protetction should one drive fail - I could still retain what ever data is on the second drive and go from there.

The only reason I am not running raid 1 (Mirror) is I need the drive space, and having a single 500 GB Drive is my prefernce in this case.

if I had 2 x 500 GB SSD drives I would probably have them mirrored for redundancy

 

Wait, how do you get 500GB from Raid of 2 250GB drives? Aren't you using 256GB only from the 2 drives?

Yes drives run faster on Raid but SSD are already fast enough. You don't have 500GB usable. You have 256GB of super (redundantly fast) fast drives.

Maybe I am not understanding you correctly.

 

I'm going to get 2X 256gb SSD on raid 0. What does raid 0 actually mean?

 

here this should help, I have 2 x 256 GB Drives

RAID 0
RAID 0 (striped disks) distributes data across multiple disks in a way that gives improved speed at any given instant. If one disk fails, however, all of the data on the array will be lost, as there is neither parity nor mirroring. In this regard, RAID 0 is somewhat of a misnomer, in that RAID 0 is non-redundant. A RAID 0 array requires a minimum of two drives. A RAID 0 configuration can be applied to a single drive provided that the RAID controller is hardware and not software (i.e. OS-based arrays) and allows for such configuration. This allows a single drive to be added to a controller already containing another RAID configuration when the user does not wish to add the additional drive to the existing array. In this case, the controller would be set up as RAID only (as opposed to SCSI only (no RAID)), which requires that each individual drive be a part of some sort of RAID array.

RAID 1
RAID 1 mirrors the contents of the disks, making a form of 1:1 ratio realtime backup. The contents of each disk in the array are identical to that of every other disk in the array. A RAID 1 array requires a minimum of two drives. RAID 1 mirrors, though during the writing process copy the data identically to both drives, would not be suitable as a permanent backup solution, as RAID technology by design allows for certain failures to take place.

 

If you have 2 x 256 GB drives in a Raid 0 setup you will see one 512 GB hard drive (typically it will be closer to 500 GB)

if you run them in Raid 1 you see one 256 GB Drive

 

OK. I was getting totally confused. My understanding was that when you use Raid 1 you get 2 drives with exactly the same contents on each so you only use the space total of 1 drive. And when you use Raid 0 you split the data into both disks. But I though since you use half and half you only get the total of, again, 1 drive of space. Now I see that for example, if you drop a 1GB file on Raid 0, then 500MB go to 1 drive and the other 500MB to the other so you only use half in each case. Tells you how much experience I have with Raid setups.

Anyway, if you are getting 500GB then I guess it all makes sense. Thanks.


(Even though I still think SSD's are fast enough to not require Raid setups )

 

I was talking to a friend of mine who's running 2 ssd's in raid 0.. He told me that from raid 0 on HDD to a single SSD is worth while. But raiding two SSD's really wasn't worth it.

He pretty much said hes prob going to a single SSD for the OS and games.. and use either a 500g or 1tb drive for everything else.


So thats what im doing.

 

Yeah i from uk and been thinking about doing this too so where do you actuallu order it from dell u.s.a or a third party seller in the u.s.a?

 

And so would I. And everyone else should do the same

 

Why do Alienware always be the last to do their presentation on their new product? Asus has already announced their line up, with an ATi mobility 5870 or the GTS360M , and even USB 3.0 on their up coming models . Where is Alienware, just the m11x? ....

 

I'm buying my M17X from www.hidevolution.com. they were offering me the m17x fully specd with express shipping for $5800, which included;
Q9300 processor
2x 256gb SSD raid 0
2X ati 4870 CF or 2x 280m sli
Blu-ray burner
1920X200 monitor
8gb 1333hz ram
Windows 7 ultinate 64bbit

The shipping cost is $200 for express btw.

We have to pay VAT aswell to the fedex guy, which would be around 600 quid. However they declare the products value to whatever you want, so the vat charge can be whatever you want it to be.

But I just found out about the refresh, so I cancelled the delivery and told them I'm going to wait for the refresh. The guy was totally cool with it and told me extra info on the refresh XD

So far they sound fantastic and reliable. On ebay they've got 100% positive feedback.

So yeah I'm going to order from them the day the refresh happens, which will probably be Monday hopefully!

The only downside is that some of the keys are in different places, they've said that they'll include high quality acryllic stickers to put on the keys though. However I don't want to stick acryllic stickers on my expensive brand new lappy! XD

 

Yeah looks good but does it cover ther waranty as in do you send it back to dell to repair etc and what about if you want to upgrade anything, can you get the parts direct from dell mind you if its maxed out probs wont want much upgrading lol and dont think the keys would worry me too much.....I looking to order one at the end of the month time when i get paid so you will probs get yours before me

 

Yeh you can buy memory etc direct from the dell uk website anyway.

Not sure if you can upgrade the gpu in the future though. Does anybody know if that's possible?

Yep you still have warranty, you can send it back to the company you bought the laptop fromwho will then send it to dell. That might cost quite a bit for shipping though.

 

Anyone got more detailed news on the release date for the refreshed M17X?

 

I do but I'm under an NDA and can't reveal specifics. What I can do is hold it over you that I know and lead you on by providing vague hints or telling you whether your guesses are hot or cold.


Deal? :wink:

 

Monday Jan 18th release date ?

 

I think its either going to be Monday 18th, Tuesday 19th or Monday 25th.

If I were a betting man I would put all my money on the 18th.

 

please answer me this

will the m15x get a directx 11 gpu??

i want the nightmares to end

 

Oooh, I like guessing games...let's see....

So the climate where I live tends to be t-shirt and shorts weather by the beginning of February. Unfortunately, all of my warm weather clothing was lost in fire a few days ago and my budget this month only has enough for either a refreshed M17x OR a new warm weather wardrobe (I only wear the finest 100% spider-silk t-shirts).

If you were me, Phinagle, would you be in a comfortable spider-silk t-shirt by Feb 1st? Or would you still be sweating in full winter-gear?

 

Aren't all the gpus getting directx 10.1?

 

My ancient alienware has been dying a slow and painful death for a while now. Last week the right of my screen (just over a third) went all weird with vertical lines of semi-random colours. Which means i cant see anything thats there unless i use the magnifying glass or take a screenshot.

Iv resized all my windows to the remaining space. Feels so cramped! Cant wait for this refresh.

 

Alienware is having a 24 hour sale on now. Nebula Red is no extra charge. I don't know what other configuration selections are less expensive. A good chance to get some deals before the refresh. I noticed that they hiked up prices on the warranty though. Typical.