New to the forums, wanted to share my purchase and questions:

Hey guys! Been reading these forums for a few weeks now, and I recently joined the ranks and purchased an M17x R2 with an ETA of about Feb 8th.

I got system with the:

920XM
2x 4870's
6GB 1333 RAM
Raid 0 2x 500 7200RPM drives
RGB LED (naturally)

Basically, I couldn't resist. My decision wasn't easy, because I was considering similar systems from Origin (old AW FTW =P), Sager, Malibal, and Asus but ultimately landed on the AW because of the i7 extreme.

I'm 22 years old and have owned three previous Alienware machines so I suppose I should consider myself lucky. My most recent purchase was an M15x with a single 3870 back in June, but I'm selling this system to a buddy of mine who needs a new laptop also to help cover the cost of the M17x R2.

I did have a couple questions that I couldn't seem to find direct answers to elsewhere in the forums...

1) Why did Dell pull the 2x GTX 280 from the R2 configurator? Personally, I've always much preferred Nvidia technology and I don't think it's much of a secret that the 280's in SLI perform stronger (except in synthetic benchmarks) than the 4870's. This actually was a major concern to me, as spending this much money on a system I wanted it as future proof as possible, and I don't think the 4870's are really strong enough to handle next gen gaming. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

2) Obviously, the blu ray drive being unavailable at the time of purchase was another major frustration, but is it possible for me to purchase one from Dell at a later date and self install it? What about sending the machine to them to do? Is this advisable?

3) Similarly, would self upgrading the video cards at a later date be feasible? I've done it many times in desktop systems but I'm well aware laptops are an entirely different animal. The processor in my system will far outlive the video cards.

4) Do you guys believe the stuttering, throttling, and latency problems will be resolved in the R2? Was there ever a specific reason identified as to why it even was occurring in the first place? I'm a bit leary over this.

5) Do you think I made the right decision? My next closest option was an Origin Eon 18 with dual GTX 280ms, the old C2Q Extreme, Blu Ray, and all other options equal minus the RGB.

Something about getting old tech for a processor concerned me, which is ultimately why I ended up going with AW once again.

I am also a bit put off by Dell's "mass market" approach to AW. I purchased my first Alienware system as a kid and remember as a young dork just how awesome it was to have. Now that Dell bought them out, I feel like Alienware's losing some of that "high end boutique system" appeal, although I can't complain the pricing has fallen more in line. The Origin system I was considering was a few hundred more expensive for an arguably inferior system. What are your thoughts guys?

And once again, hello all, nice to finally post here. :laugh:

 

1. The 4870s are the newer tech. I would worry more about the 280s.
2. Yes you can buy it from Dell or eBay.
3. Not really because of costs. Depends how much later you buy them.
4. We'll find out.
5. Yes, I7 and 4870s are currently the "latest and greatest" in the mobile market.

....and welcome.

Edit: One other thing, the stuttering problems have been linked to nVidia. Your system will be nVidia free!

 

yea trust this guy, he is the best! some how i don't think he is human. i think he is some kind of AI program. yes i'm on to you mandrake!!!

 

LOL... this does sometimes crosses my mind aswell

Allthough point 2 what Mandrake says is very true, You can purchase a player separate, but installing it yourself is a little bit more complicated. You'll have to take it all apart, (I don't know your technical expertise in this one?)
Just so you'll know.

 

I've worked on desktop systems before, but I've never touched a laptop, so I guess you could say my technical expertise are low.

What about shipping it back to DELL for the upgrade? Do you suppose it'd cost an arm and a leg?

Thanks for the responses guys.

 

lol. he may looks like he's avatar mandrake is my overclocking idol

 

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Yes, I really look like my avatar.

If you've worked on desktops before you can do a notebook. Not a big enough difference.

 

NVIDIA 280 GTX SLi do not perform better than dual ATI 4870 crossfire. Benchmarks scores on this forum are evidence. Just look at the benchmark topic. And you will see who is the winner.

Also, stuttering problems often come with Nvidia 280 Sli cards. And Nvidia cards are always more expensive than ATI and offer a similar performance in games and benchmarks. Keep choosing Nvidia cars if you want, but in my opinion, it is not a good option.

 

Even with Nvidia cards using PhysX technology and whatnot? I also assumed Nvidia cards kind of one upped their rival Radeon. I suppose that's inaccurate, but it's still a bias I always carried.

 

The 4870's offer dx 10.1 aswell which is more then nvidia

also the 280's are actually g92 arch. Which is 2 years old.


So in games and benchmarks ati is better

 

and driver performance.

 

Yeah those benchmarks with the ATIs are on fairly new drivers versus drivers that are 2 year old for the gtx 280s so you can imagine the difference in 2 years when the 4870 drivers are mature.

 

?