*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owner's Lounge, *Part 2*

i don't know where to choose this to be honest..

ok, i will install the chipset drivers then

 

well i just got off the phone with a rep... he said they are still working on the Bios.... so idk ...

 

just got an email from UPS saying they will deliver it on this Friday....cant wait !!

 

Do you live in the US or in another country?

 

Got an email as well, UK here Getting it on Friday as well. 12 days (total, not working) from order to received is not too bad I guess

 

I am living in UK. I made my order on 20/10 so basically it takes about 8 working days to receive it. I never thought it would be that fast since my EDD was 16/11

 

Ah okay. Hmm I wonder how long it usually take for orders in the US.

 

Oh I have a question. If you were to compare 260M GTX to a desktop gpu, what desktop gpu is this gpu comparable to?

Secondly, if you were to compare & guesstimate the performance of my notebook's spec to my desktop [ Intel core 2 duo e8400 3.0ghz, 8800gt ] which will run games better? ex. Aion

 

Oh! I knew it, a fellow Aion player . I play a 27 sin and a 35 ranger, and I would say a 260M GTX with your i7 CPU is deff. comprable to your desktop. I would say though, that you should definately expect a performance boost on your m15x over your desktop! The removal of the FSB from the i7 allows for a much faster flow of data and should yield better framerates overall than your desktop

 

Notebookcheck says 260M GTX is supposed to be as powerful as the 9800 GT on Desktop and the your E8400 would definitely handle any games as good as the i7 on mobile. So I would say your M15x has the same performance as your desktop

 

Ah okie thats good to know. Thanks guys!
@ Arcade - I'm lv 33 spiritmaster ^.^ what server do you play on

 

The BIOS should be posted this week.

 

??? thats not my post

 

Ordered my M15X on 10/19/2009, Processed on 10/21/2009, In Progress on 10/22/2009, Work in Progress on 10/22/2009, and today it jumped back to In Progress ... me thinks Dell hates me. It feels like I have been waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks but it has only been 6 working days

 

Finally, I did a clean install of win7, selecting after carefully which dell's drivers I would install.

Everything works fine now, top notch, just waiting for steam to complete all my games library downloads

 

Um I have another question ^.^;

Does any of you ever had overheating problems with this model? I used to have m5550 a couple of years ago and it needed a laptop cooler. Would this model/design need a laptop cooler too? or is this not a problem? Thanks <3

 

definitely no overheating issues! I came from an xps1530 which had real problems with heat from its design -- the M15 runs a lot cooler.

 

Awesome! yay I don't have to spend extra $$$ for a laptop cooler this time! XD

 

Yeah I'm also greeatly relieved to hear that it's a lot cooler... The old gen m15x I have sitting in front of me is cooking my hands and desk.... While it locks up on me and effectively just corrupted outlook :/

 

bios is posted on the dell support site as an iso file: good time to try the nero express that was preloaded I guess.

For anyone else like me not used to iso files (don't much like the darn things) some things I found out downloading the bios: open nero express first, then go to the Dell support page to download the file, otherwise the file downloads but the system can hang when you just double click the downloaded file and ask nero to open -- little quirk.
Once the iso has burnt, switch off and after re-starting hit f12 at the alienhead logo, insert the disk and let it flash. Reboot and all is well.

 

yay, updating bios now.

 

Post some updates guys.

 

Anyone else having trouble downloading the bios fix? I chose to use the Dell Download Manager cos I wanted more than 1 driver. I have a list of 5 drivers saved (Dell web site confirms it's saved) but the download manager tells me there are no downloads saved. I also can't see how to go back and tell it to download 1 at a time through the browser.

 

The hotfix bios work great for me, keyboard works great on battery power now..
have not tried the touchpad on battery as i dont use it

 

I am just about ready to call HP right now if others can confirm everything working. Thanks Shazadam for giving info on it working so far. Now I need trackpad confirmation. Anyone else care to chime in?

 

Touchpad does work much better, i didnt really try the keyboard or touchpad under any type of Load on the CPU but they both do seem much more responsive. now im not that fast of a typist. but i am now very very happy with the computer

Now just need to buy a 9cell battery and find 8gb of DDR3 1333 on the cheap

 

Thanks so much for that. Rep for ya!


Edit: Calling HP and cancelling right now! hehe

 

no problem, not that i didnt enjoy it before, and this was not an issue and my M15x is never unplugged..

But its nice to know that when i do unplugg it everything works the same

 

touchpad much better, keyboard no problems at all now.

 

What's the old bios version and the new bios version?

How do you know which version you have?

 

Run dxdiag on your search bar and you will see your BIOS version on the window that opens up.

 

A00 is the old A01 is the new bios
A00 1.00 is how it now shows on my computer with the dxdiag info
(not sure what it was before as i never looked)

A01 is the same overall bios, but it has the EC hotfix, to fix the Keyboard/touchpad stutter issue...

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads
From the dell drivers website

"This file contains a version of A01 BIOS which is identical to A00 BIOS. BIOS flash is not required to apply the hotfix. Only the EC needs to be flashed. If your system was shipped with A01 BIOS, it already has this hotfix."

"This is a hotfix release for the following symptom: Slow responsive keystrokes and touchpad while on battery."

"Instructions for applying the hotfix:

1. Burn ISO image to a blank CD: Double click on the file to begin the CD burn process.
2. Boot to the CD: Right after turning the system on and at the time the Black and White Alienware Logo appears, press F12 to bring up the boot menu and select DVD.
3. Flash will auto run: Follow the instructions on screen. Press “Y” to flash the EC. EC will be updated to version 0.92. System will shut down when completed.
4. Process is complete: Press the power button and boot to Windows."

 

Btw... has anyone's battery life improved since switching over to Win 7? I know Win 7 is "supposed" to improve battery life by 10%. Well, that was the old tally.

 

i think its safe to assume that your battery life might see a slight improvement.

As the footnote the Windows 7 uses is a lot less the the footnote from vista..

So you should see better preformance and battery life..

 

Has anyone overclocked their 1066 memory to 1333Mhz??
if so how?

Any and all info would be useful

I see in the bios i can change the voltage to the memory does boosting up the voltage have any advantages?

 

And you guys had your doubts abot the bio fix coming out....
same thing happened with the original m15x and alienware came through with the bios fix

definitely awaiting to hear how the battery life is with a 9 cell and tweaked settings now that power saving mode is usable

 

I just hope that my M15 does NOT look like yours at all.

I ordered Cosmic Black as well, but NOT with 50% of it being “Silver”.

Cosmic Black should look like;

 

Don't worry about it Monkey_Ware. It's probably just too much lighting.

 

I dont think they fixed power saving mode.. did they?

 

Bubbamel, out of interest, why have you switched to purchasing an M15x over a HP Envy 15?

 

how much is the performance increased using 8 gb of ram?

 

4GB @ 1066 has done everything i've throw at it soo far, but i know with 8GB @1333 thats double what i have and a faster speed i know i would see a upgrade in preformance, and speeds

 

Hey guys, I have my eyes set on the M15x. So far I have max 1450 GBP budget and I came up with this, which I plan to order in about a week after I get the money.

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB L3 cache)
15.6-inch Wide Full HD Display (1920x1080)
4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
250GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX260M graphics card
DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write) Slot Load Drive

I wanted to ask, if it would actually outperform my desktop I'm currently using, which tbh doesn't perform too great.

My desktop is the following

MSI P35 Neo-F mobo
Core2Duo E6750 @ 2.66Ghz
4GB DD2 @ 800 (or something like that)
300GB 7,200 SATA (not exactly sure but it's kinda sucks anyway)
ATI HD4670 512 (This was a replacement for my 8800GT that just died, and boy have I seen a massive drop in FPS)

Right now my 3D Mark 06 score is 7640 whereas before the ATI card it was near 10kish with the 8800GT. Overall, Fallout 3 runs in medium settings at 1680x1050 smoothly, but meh Resident Evil 5 struggles, and Crysis I was lucky to get the same at that res with medium settings around 25-30 fps with this new ATI card.

So what do you guys think, would this be a good excuse to finally hand my system that's kind of dying a slow death anyway to someone else? And replace it with the m15x with the stuff I mentioned above. Would I get better performance than what I'm getting right now? I might be moving to another country, so taking with me all the components from a desktop is going to prove to be a little annoying, especially since I'll be moving to a place where I won't have a chance to stay in one location for long.

Man I dunno once I order if I can survive waiting for a month. I kinda like to order things and get them next day, this will be a huge challenge for me as I've never had to wait more than 1 week for something I really wanted

 

Yeah...the M15x would outperform your desktop. The Core i7 is a really good CPU. And based on the graphics card, the M15x is sure to perform better.

 

I ordered the exact same laptop and its faster than my previous desktop system a quad OC 3.2 with 4 gig RAM and a 8800GTS n92. So far ive not been disapionted in any games ive put on there, thats only 5 games so far (EvE, GRID, Hawx, UT3 and left for dead). They all look great on the screen too.

My laptop came to a similar price, however i ordered online and i would say its worth your time to hav an sales guy price it up over the phone instead you'll save a few quid and have a piont of contact should you need to know anything about the order etc.

 

That's cause you bought one of the mid-tier cards. For gaming, always shoot for a #850 or #870 as a general rule of thumb. #670 is middle of the road IIRC.

Anyhow, Running on High Perf on battery, with the default windows settings for that, I can get ~1h30m - 45m in Windows 7.

EDIT - 9cell battery. Probably could have gotten about 2 hours tops. I plugged it back in about 28% to play L4D with some friends.

 

stealth mode with new bios on battrey?

 

in fact i just applied it myself and it does not fix stealth mode on battery but i suppose it is already limited power consumption to work with the battery, im typing this on power saver at approx 40wpm and works perfectly unlike before which means they have fixed that and also the touchpad is a lot smoother than before which is a godsend, since i had to use windows drivers instead of the offiicial ones which made the mouse horrible. Also as far as i know there is no more stuttering so im a happy man at the moment.

 

no its not supported

 

Hi Pommie! Glad you asked. I originally had the m15x and the battery problem was a MAJOR issue for me. I returned it and pre-ordered the envy, now with all the conflicting info I am hearing about the envy, no edge to edge glass, ati card being non gddr3, and how the battery slice is not that well affixed to the chasis. I said forget it and requested a cancellTion of my order lAst night( hope it goes through). I am now rethinking the m15x because of the bios fix for the stutering problem and now I can affor the ssd. I loved the build of the unit and it was pretty fast. The mor I thought of battery life, I said oh well I will live with it now I guess . Hope that answers your question. . I typed all this from my iPhone so I apologize for spelling errors and grammar.