M17x Refresh Discussion

You can just wait for now, till the issue is completely resolved and then head for the perfect solution.

 

Google is your freind.

 

And as for mobile fermi coming sooner than later, I think this will answer that question:

The questions that remain now are how hot this thing will run, how much power it will consume and whether the pixel shader performance will live up to expectations. I'm pretty sure the desktop version will be a beast and suck up quite a bit of power and run hot. But with the extreme parallelism nVidia has built into this architecture, the mobile version should be cut down enough to mitigate those concerns. If they can sufficiently reduce the GPC count enough + a 256 bit (or if we're lucky 384 bit) bus, then ATi will have some serious competition on it's hands. Desktop fermi should be available sometime late March.

Leaked GF100 videos: http://hardocp.com/news/2010/01/17/rumored_fermi_videos

 

Now thats one sexy looking card.

 

I'd really like to order an M17X R2 and have it with me before the beginning of march... do you guys think that alienware will get those mobile 5870 by then?

 

I tried to get a rough date out of them yest but no luck.........they dont give much away...dunno why tbh

 

Probably because not knowing what date you're waiting for makes it harder to wait
I'm considering giving up and getting 4870

 

LOL, that's so true, I've been waiting to buy mine since september '09, which was when I first heard news of a mobility radeon 5800 series launching Q1 2010...

I was really hoping for this refresh to include those video cards =/

 

I have a quick question. I have setup to return my current M17x for a full refund and am buying the refresh.

My only question is about the processor: Is the 920XM worth the $600 more than the 820QM or would the 820QM perform just fine running high-end games? Trying to keep the cost down but am willing to spend if it's worth it.

 

I am new here and just ordered a 720qm in an m17x. The conclusion I came to was that since most games are GPU bound, not CPU bound, the money was better spent there, and also that many of the benchmarks I have seen show *very* little difference for games between the 720, 820 and 920 i7s; the 820 is more than sufficient in most cases.

 

Stick with the 820 as above, only MMOs or games like Cryostasis[single core] will utilise the 920 that much better.

 

That's mainly why I am asking since I play an MMO. I play WoW and was wondering if the 920 would be an advantage over the 820. I know the GPU is the biggest part of it and that is why I am getting the dual ATI cards.

 

WOW is definitely CPU-bound... the graphics are pretty old and out of date, so a decent card should handle it... I just don't know if it's worth the difference in price between a 820 and a 920.... you should check around for benchmarks, I think you will be surprised at how little difference it makes with these chips if what I saw was accurate.

 

I will do just that and thanks all for the advice. I also plan on having this laptop for quite some time so I also want to make sure I get something that will last without being too outdated 3-4 years from now.

 

Lol you will be able to chew through WOW anyway, ur PC could even handle AION just fine and that game got stunning graphics

 

it will be dated in 3-4 years I would even say it will be outdated no matter if you put the most powerful hardware in it however for2-3yrs it will work decently. infact no matter what you get it will be outdated in a year

 

Oh I know that in just a few months computer hardware can be outdated. But it's nice to get something up front that will still be worth having in 3-4 years with all the software technology that comes along each year.

 

Ok, here is my issue. I am sure I am going to purchase m17x-r2 this week. My problem is that I enjoy games but I am actually getting this as a work unit as well. I do structural steel detailing with Tekla and architectural design with Autodesk Revit. Both programs render in 3d and are capable of doing very detailed presentation drawings. I keep looking for benchmark comparisons between the 820 and the 920 cpus in some relevant format but all I find are game performance references, or comparisons to the q9300. Does anyone have a link to something usefull or advice. Half of this sucker is already going to go on credit but it would be nice to save my self that extra $600. Trying to get married in 6 months and that's the reception hall rental!

 

You will have problems in LESS than 2 yrs
I have always got the Highend configerations on gaming Laptops

Problems
main reason being DRIVERS are not uptodate WHEN we buy them
& always waiting for better Drivers to solve teh problem
& cos OS vista had a short life
& soon in 2012 or 13 we have Windows 8 coming

 

The M15x has the second best cooling after the M17x. You don't have to worry about it ever overheating.

 

I was wondering, does the rendering in 3d for those applications match the graphic processing that 3dmark tests? If so that is a pretty good indicator of the combined cpu/gpu power. I believe it's generally thought that the improved CPU architecture of the i7's is superior to that of the Qx000 series, yielding significantly better results for most programs that use multiple cores.

 

where would asus gaming laptops fall in the cooling department. I think its the worst but i could be wrong

actually I think we should make a list

/thread for list

 

It better not overheat. Or i will "accidently" shoot it or drop it off my roof.

 

if it overheats that means there something horribly wrong with it.

 

Hey guys
does anyone know why the UK/Irish site is giving no SSD, Bluray or dual graphics cards? and why the hardrive options are only mirrored Raid?
is this a temparary setup or this what we have to put up with?

thanks any help would be great!

 

Like some overpaid tech at dell forgot to take the tape off the heatsink prior to assembling the laptop Which has been the case numerous times

 

the Singapore site offered harddrive in striped raid 0. mirrored is raid 1 (dell UK).

first thing I did was remove the raid 0 and re-install. even easier to do it in raid 1 since it's mirrored. disable raid in bios, ignore the warning message (i presume there will be one) and proceed. then you'll have 2x GB space to allocated/raid as you want.

there may also be a few more steps in un-raiding, but you shouldn't need to re-install.

 

Seems like someone did that already and it improved cooling.

 

I just ordered my M17x. However on the order confirmation I now see:

Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel

My sales rep said it was automaticaly changed back to 1067 in his system (Dell France) due to compability issues. Isn't the Intel Core i7 Processor 820QM compatible with 1333MHz? I thought it was, or is it only the 920XM ?

 

I know there are some memory restraints with the i3 and i5 but i didn't here of any with the i7. Even then the constraint doesn't deal with frequency.

 

Been like this since last week. God knows when it will be "right".

 

The Dell sales rep is persistent in saying his system reports incompability when he selects 1333MHz. I just scanned some Intel documentation and everywhere I look it says 1333MHz for the 820QM
(source: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/specupdt/320767.pdf page 16)

Anyone else had this when ordering their M17x? I want 1333 too!

 

If you want 1333 at least get the good stuff which Dell doesn't sell. See if you can find a local retailer for THIS.

 

It is like that in France too, I just called them (or rather had them call me) and they had every option: dual 4870, bluray (both read and read/write), single/double/raid0 or 1 hdds, sdd

And I pushed for a price reduction as I don't have any corporate % to use

But so far they won't give me more than 1067MHz ram chips

 

I am curious as to why Alienware would do a Refresh to the M17x with an i7 processor but still use the 4870's. Why didnt they use the new ATI 5800 series instead? Anyone know?

 

To release a dual GPU i7 system before the competition. The 5870s are a month or two away.

 

Thank you for the reply. +1

 

i have to wait till they get my m15x for me to order one, so i might just wait for the 5870's if it's only a few extra weeks at that point, plus i have a newborn and a gamefly sub. i'll miss mass effect 2 though

 

Just out of curiosity, how well do the 4870's hold up against a desktop 8800gtx. I'm looking to either replace my desktop entirely and get a M17x or keep the desktop and go with the M15x.

 

Probably 20-30% faster and if you go Crossfire then it's much faster. The 280M GTX is even faster than the 8800 GTX and the 4870 typically outperforms the 280M GTX by about 10% from what I've read here.

 

Cool, I might just order one... Do most games utilize crossfire/sli these days?

 

I would think so. You should read the older M17x-R1 threads for more information though. I have no hands on experience with SLI/X-Fire.

 

yet, that is, you'll be an expert soon joker. for our sakes anyway. lol

 

does anyone know why M17x from Alienware US didn't have options to choose blu-ray drive? they only have option for dvd drive.

 

Same on EU. If you call them up you will have more options than on the website.

I'm not sure why that is the case. They appear to be extremely slow in updating their own websites

[Edit] Saying that, alienware.co.uk is down as I speak (it was up and running 30 minutes ago), so hopefully they are updating everything.

 

hey
I'm getting a replacement for my m15x I spent €3500 about 20 months ago, the graphics cards has failed and due to EU directive 1999/44/EC a lot of messing around from alienware /dell.
they have offered me a replacement laptop to the value of what I spent originally.
before the refresh I could max out an m17x with some cash to spare.. but now I'm not so sure

just a quick questions windows 7 what is the minimum memory it requires? I want to see if I can get the laptop with only 2gb or something and buy up to 8gb later myself for cheaper

is it worth it to have over 4gb in a laptop? does the OS and programmes actually use it?

I wonder would they be willing to send out the system with no ram at all and just add my own :S

 

By when will we be able to buy it wih the Alienware m17x like jun / jul ?

 

Rumours are around March

 

Unless you are going to use it with numerous apps open all at once, then 4GB is plenty. Most people will not use all 4GB at one time. Get the cheapest option you can and upgrade the RAM yourself if you want more, but you may not need more.

 

programs like photoshop, video editing, 3d modeling will use up every bit of ram you give it