M9700 upgrade to M17

Hi Guys,

I have an m9700 at the moment, with a AMD64 2.4 Turon, 2gb of Ram and the twin Nvida 7900gs cards

I have just ordered this :

Design & Display: Black Skullcap Design
Display: 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Graphics Processor : Dual 512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 – CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache 1066MHz FSB)
Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Biometric Fingerprint Reader
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard - English
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1067MHz - 2 x 2048MB
System Drive: Extreme Performance - RAID 0 - 500GB 7200 RPM SATA (2 x 250GB) with Free Fall Protection
Operating System: Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium - English
Optical Drives: 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Realtek Wireless LAN b/g Mini Card
Sound Hardware: Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound


Having read a little more i am starting to regret it a little on the basis i should prob have found the extra to get a quad core cpu, am i right in thinking i could order one in a few months to upgrade?

other thing i thought about post order is the 32 bit version of vista, although i have emailed them to see if that can be changed to the 64 bit version

I should be able to notice a clear difference between these 2 systems right? hoping i havent just wasted £1800 hehe

I am sure this will out perform the m9700 by quite a mile

Any tips for a m17 new comer?

Pete

 

huge difference....leagues apart from one another...
as far as tips goes...check the m17 sticky.

 

I would go ahead and cancel that order right away, buy the new sager5797 its got a 280 which outperforms the cf 3870's. The M17 is nice, but you are paying a bit more for the look then performance.

EDIT

I just recieved mine two weeks ago and i wish i waited =/

 

I had the 9700 and yes you will notice a MAJOR difference. If you can get the quad cpu. You can't go wrong with the M17

 

why dont you offer other reasons aside from just the one and "paying for looks vice performance"
if everyone bought for performance (economy) in place of looks then we would all be driving pinto's...
at least offer more constructive reasons and correlations so he can make an informed decision....

 

Um, I'm trying to help him in case he didn't notice the better product out right now. Btw the pinto is a bad example of performance verse looks, the pinto could explode on impact...not really top notch performance lol.

I bought my M17 about a month ago and missed the sager 5797 news and kicked myself. The M17 performs well, but for 100 bucks more I could've gotten the bigger screen, bigger HDD, better gpu. So for just 100 bucks I easily beat the 400-500 dollars worth of upgrades that Alienware charges for the same thing.

Alienware does indeed give you many cool things, such as a leatherbound booklet with manual and cd's, as well as a hat and cool design, but the Sager is also really pretty. Anyway the choice is up to you, just informing you of the choices available.

ciao

 

your missing the point...
if you choose to validate another product, then at least offer price comparisons, spec comparisons, and the like. blanket accusations are generally ignored and i bet he/she would ask what you mean and could you offer links etc...

as far as a pinto....yes i know it "could" explode, but it is really simple...
99% of all automobiles have 4 wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel. the shell and little extras are the only major differences...so just because i buy a genesis and not a bmw, does that make me wrong? to just say bmw's suck is not a valid reason...maybe i like the look and other features of the genesis over the bmw...maybe i like the warranty, the color options, the amount of leg room....and so on...

(wow...way off topic)

ps: this is not an attack as it may seem, but i simply hate it when others come in and make claims of "better" without at least offering supporting informatio. i dont mind and you have the right to support whatever unit you want, but at least be constructive in reasons why. you dont see AW owners going to other threads and spamming with "buy AW" statements...

 

I offered a better explanation as to why I think you have a better deal with the sager, so I think I am valid in my point.

The car comparison would be more like. You have a dodge viper and an 82 civic. The viper looks great and has some awesomeness under the hood, but the civic doesn't look so great, yet when we look under the hood it has a V12 with hemi, leather seats full speakers and sub's, top notch dvd players for all the passengers, and great full economy. Thats more like it, at least in my mind lol

 

How would you get a bigger screen?

 

The M17 Crossfire is a better system than the NP5797 with its single GTX280M.

Crossfire 3870 > Single GTX280M > Single 3870

Both have 17" 1920x1200 screens.

M17 has two HD bays

 

Hi Guys

aside from going a little off topic great feedback

I have a fondness for Alienware, perhaps i am just sticking to the name i dunno

any feedback re the 32bit vista thing?

I am thinking that i might try and get the CPU upgraded in the next few months or so, i have upgraded other laptops with cpus etc is it possible to do it easily to M17? or is it a send back to AW job?

 

get 64 bit vista then you will be able to use more then 3.2 gigs of ram

check my sig for m17 news

the m17 will slaughter your m9700

you have to send it back to alienware to upgrade your cpu if you want to keep your warrenty but its easily done your self

 

if you want 64bit though i would wait till win7 comes out...you can upgrade the OS then.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic-Cards.130.0.html

The 280 benchmarks better then the cf solution. Please read up before giving false info. Second both have options for 1920x1200 screens but the sager charges less for theirs

 

well the thing i am thinking about re the 64bit vista is what i will be missing in performance that the 32bit version cant use

although windows 7 is only just round the corner and providing running it wont compromise system performance i would look to upgrade it

 

Yes please do read something else instead of just one benchmark before giving false info

Based on http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=359172&highlight=280+benchmarks cf setup seems to do better.

 

what? what are you reading? They both show the same score in 3d mark 06, not sure what you are getting at, also I think I'm going to trust a reputable website, then a member with 29 posts and a crappy benchmark, but thats just me.

Anyway, I was giving a link to show a benchmark, nowhere did I say I based all my findings off one website either so please, don't put words in mah mouf

 

Hey pmanuk,

Your set up looks great. You will be very happy with your new rig. And yes, the new rig will totally destroy your old one.

I am very glad that i went with the 64bit OS. It reads all my memory and is more future proof. I haven't had any issues with software or anything out of the ordinary. I recommend the 64bit OS.

Which rig is the better one is totally subjective based on many, many things. You really did make the best choice getting the M17. Obviously, as you can see in this post, there are fans of the Alienware and fans of the Sager. That's great to have choices. Personally, I wouldn't get the Sager even if it cost half as much as the M17. Other people may feel the opposite and that's cool too. One size doesn't fit all. And my reasons don't matter. It's just my opinion. What it boils down to is my A.W. rocks my world. So whatever rocks your world is the correct choice.

Edit: Regardless what of how the benchmarks pan out now, I don't know what the upgrade path beyond the GTX280 will be, Soon, M17 owners will be able to get dual 4870's with GDDR5. Not that it's even an issue now cause both rigs will play the s*** out of games!

And FYI, the data from Notebookcheck isn't normally held in very high regard.

You can see what I'm getting on my M17 with my Dual core in my sig.

 

are the cpu's relatively easy to source? sorry i know its prob an easy question but heh i have upgraded dells and the like before but i have never delved into my m9700! and you guys are the experts!

 

Well you said 280m was better than 3870 on crossfire so im trying to understand how did you come to that conclusion , since 3dmark scores and game performance seems to be better on a crossfire setup

 

Yeah, just google whatever proc you're looking for. Keep in mind though, to keep your warranty you'll need to send it in to A.W. I'm real happy with my X9100 but you can get a little better performance........most of the time. Some game won't use four cores. And if ya want to overclock, you might need to flash your bios to a bios version that helps provide enough voltage to the proc. I think folks have been using the OCZ .28 bios for this.

 

Poliuy...a couple things are bugging me. You can't just claim the 280m outperforms the 3870x2 when one, the 280m hasn't even been released to the public and available for user benchmarking to show some consistent results. Two, so far all prelimary results show that the 3870x2 still outperforms one 280m, and three if your so regretful you should've returned the M17 under the 30-day warranty, and don't give me the I can't because of the restocking fee, everytime I've had to return something from NewEgg or AW I've gotten past the restocking fee, just give them hell and ask for supervisors if all else fails. Anyway, on a side note looks like the first consumer 280m benchmarks will come out hopefully sometime this upcoming week, should be interesting. Also if we do get our DDR5 4870x2's theres a strong chance it will be neck and neck with with 280m SLI, so don't be so down about your purchase -_-

 

First I hope the 4870's come out. Second, I tried to return it but they wouldn't let me get past the restocking fee even after i talked to a super. Reviews and benchmarks for the 280 have been out for a while now, and it does not underperform the 3870's, come on people lets get with the facts.

 

I guess your idea is 11.7k > 13k-15k and lower > higher ?

 

i mean 3 d marks dont mean every thing but when there is a qx9300 and 280m gtx and it scores maybe 11.7 k

me with a 3.0 ghz dual core scrore 14.5

its gonna mean something in a game lol

the ATIs will beat it in any crossfire optimized game

crysis doesn't count since its a nvidia lover

 

hehe so the jist is that the 3870's i just ordered will be fine for the foreseeable

right?

 

Dont base your opinions on someone elses that doesnt know anything about their computer.

 

How smart do you have to be to know water effects electronic parts in a very bad way.

 

Actually water by itself does nothing to electronic parts. It only carries electricity if it has, say, NaCl (salt) in it. ??? I think this was supposed to be on another thread :/

Oh, yeah, you will be happy with the M17. Brual bro.

 

I've lived in florida, I left my phone outside, 4 hours later broken phone.

Anyway I'm NOT saying the M17 is weak or not powerful, I'm just saying that if you are still comparing them, the Sager may be a better deal, at least in my opinion, do with it what you want

 

Are you sure it wasnt raining?

 

are you talking about me ?

 

No Mr. Moo, I was talking about Poliuy comparing the Sager laptop to the M17 ;x
Although I'm sure the Sager is a great system, you should not base your opinions on someone elses opinion on another machine, unless they have the machine.