NEW QUESTIONS! dvorak, modding, and cheapness

I have a few questions that have not been asked yet... and yes... well... judge for yourself.

1) Answered

2) alright... the hinges squeak... how accessibly are these mofo's and how could one replace them with higher quality hinges (I have a DFI p35 NB running on my Intel made mobo... I am no stranger to 1337 hacking). I want ThinkPAD quality!

3) Answered

4) Answered

5) how craptastic is the keyboard response issue? i have been having issues with my gen1 G15 lately... (my fault, but it is green now )

6) I might actually die without dual monitors. how would I set this up (two external monitors... note I asked "how," not "can" because I WILL)


Thanks In Advance

 

1. No, they are electronically set up so that sensor makes the letter, the keys are just so you know which is which. You'd have to redo the entire electrical system in it to have dvorak
2.
3. No, I think they look fine, or at least the M1330 does
4. Yeap
5. I think the keyboard is fine...
6. No idea

Considering some of the things you want to do, don't even bother buying a warranty.

 

Well, mine isn't Alienware, but a Dell. I got my keys popped out and swapped to Dvorak. I used to use stickers, but that needed constant re-stickering and just didn't look elegant.

Mind you, the end result isn't much more elegant either. My "I", "G", "H" and "D" keys are rotated 90degrees. And frankly, gaming (I would assume that since you bought an Alienware, your primary purpose is to game) with a Dvorak is a very painful thing. Some games don't allow you to change the "WSAD" configuration, and in RTSs like Warcraft3, the hotkeys are designed to be shortcuts for QWERTY people. In Dvorak, the 'shortcuts' are just all over the place.

 

could you post a pic of this dell? why would the keys be rotated?

on a side note... you can just swap the laptop back to qwerty when you need to game... who looks at the keyboard in the middle of a frag session anyway?

 

I realize this isn't an asnwer; just curious, why do you guys want dvorak?

 

the hinges don't squeak the screen wobbles. Not sure how to get to them I'll do some testing for you later today to see how hard or how easy they are to get to.

 

Keyboard
The keys are rotated because the 'pin' that attach the keys to the keyboard are 90 degrees sideways on those keys. So all these letters have to be rotated around. Oh dear, that keyboard deserves a good cleaning, doesn't it?

As for gaming, I don't really game with my laptop, for one, it's got a pretty bad graphics card(or the lack of one), and I prefer console gaming on my Xbox360. And, soon, I hope, a Wii.

Well, it's more of a personal thing, I guess. I myself can't stand to use a keyboard layout that isn't really designed for speed and efficiency in mind. I've basically got the layout down to touch-typing, so in the next notebook, there won't be this swapping around business. On another note, using Dvorak does have it's security benefits, especially when touch-typing on a Qwerty keyboard. People will think you're typing a certain password, when you really are typing something else.

 

dvorak is optimized for the english language.
qwerty is optimized to keep typewriter arms from jamming.

which do you think is faster? dun dun dun...

click here to learn more

 

Exactly.

This domain has been disputed!

What do you need two monitors for?

 

Life, the universe, and everything.

to put it short... 42.

 

hey folks, couldnt really find where to ask this so just happened upon this thread, ive got my m15x, and am just wondering whether its ok to download the updated 8800gtx drivers of the nvidia website or if im supposed to only do it from myhive, which hasnt been updated!

 

dont, only alienware drivers work

 

ok, thanks for the advice, that is what i thought. how about clocking, ive looked in the bios and cant change anything, what programs are reasonably easy to use, and can help get even more out of my machine?

 

well for starters, the CPU can't be overclocked, not even the Extreme one. and i'm not so sure if it's a smart idea to overclock the GPU, seeing how hot it already runs.

 

its all cool, just trying to answer some questions, didnt think thered be much i could do. ive just run 3dmark06 and got 10137, which seems reasonable to me, but when you lok on the website its not even half way in the scheme of things. is this right?

 

i don't quite understand what you mean by "in the scheme of things", but AW specified around 10000 (or was it 10400?) 3dmarks for the m15x, so you're fine. other users can't get more than 9800 or so.

 

sorry, i mean that when it comes up with the little chart at the top of the comparisons page, it says im roughly in the middle, i guess theres a lot of people out there with extra powerfull desktops which would all be higher, anyone know if there is a site that does just laptop comparisons? dont get me wrong, i actually love this m15x, it is everything i hoped for and does everything i want it to.
would having an ageia physixs card make any difference? would it be possible to get one got a laptop? what exactly do they do? i just notuced it advertised in the loading screens for 3dmark06 tests?

 

you'd have to wait for Agaiea to make a mobile one. then i guess put it in a miniPCI(e)-slot. but imho the PPU doesn't help a lot because many games can't actually use it.

 

Ageia does have a laptop version, but I think it's still only exclusive to the XPS M1730. But yeah, it's pretty well worthless. Also, thinking in terms of the future, NVIDIA bought Ageia some time back, so pretty much as soon as the dedicated PPU appeared it will now be absorbed into the GPU.

 

so basically everyone just thinks it pointless then lol.

 

pretty much, yeah. although the concept is of course interesting to say the least.

 

Well, I mean, if AW offered it I would've gotten it, but it's hardly a loss to not have it. As I say, dedicated PPUs already have their days numbered anyway, so that combined with minimal game support/minimal utility means you're really not missing out.

 

we KNOW it to be pointless.

 

Well it does have a point... to make buildings explode into a million tiny pieces in order to recreate a 'reality' that doesn't even exist in real life

 

lol, nice little discussion, having looked at some of the demo videos, it does make certian things look more "life like" i guess, but then if there gonna be integrated in gpus soon then there really will be no point in seperate ones. so, i know ive only had my laptop a month, but what upgrades do you reckon will become available?

 

It seems like the m15x is a good candidate for future high-end mobile GPUs (i.e. the 9800Ms or the 9900Ms) since the Clevo M860TUs are advertised as capable for those cards, and both the Clevo and m15x have the same MXM connector