*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge, *Part 3*

I just got my m15x last ngiht, it is a very good looking machine and works great so far after uninstalling the trackpad and letting windows pick it back up. One problem with this though... the trackpad is really slow with this uninstalled, and when I plug my mouse in, the speed is fine. Since I will be using my mouse 95% of the time, I don't want to change the mouse sensitivity. Is there a way to independantly change the sensitivity of the trackpad and mouse?

I haven't had time to check the bios rev or whether it has the throttling problem yet. Fedex didn't deliver it til 8pm last night and I had hockey later on, so only got to play with it for an hour.

 

hi i was just wondering if you tried enabiling the independant (R.T.C ) headphones setting in audio control panel i am just about to buy a set of headphones and was trying to find out if this makes a difference thanks

 

@ Jstarnino

i have the 720 an 6gb ram i have just ran divx converter and nero recode and convertxtodvd all at the same time and its showing in task manager as using between 29% to 66% processor and 40% ram this thing is amazing

 

Thats allll i needed to hear! Thank you very much

 

An SSD will be of more advantage than the processor upgrade.

 

yea you're probably right, but both the ssd drives and 820qm processors are over-priced right now in my opinion and are also, very easy to upgrade in the future. So i guess in about a year or so i'll be giving this fine piece of machinery a nice tune-up, along with hopefully a 280M or better gpu

 

Hey guys. I've noticed my keyboard has a bit of a flex to it. I have to say it doesn't really bother me but I was wondering if people thought it was likely to get worse if I just leave it.
At the moment I don't think its worth the hassle of ringing Dell to get a new one, I was just wondering whether I'd be opening myself up to future problems with it.
(Sorry if its a bit of a stupid question)

 

Hi Jstarnino,

Personally i would just go for the 1.6 Ghz processor, it's more then capable in heavy multitasking. I think the bottleneck is not the processor but the harddisk. If you would go for a cheaper processor which is almost as fast because of Turboboost you could use the saved money and outfit the M15x with an SSD which i did. Silent, extremely fast, no more defrag, and an unbelievable MTBF.
Memory will get cheaper fast so i opted for "only" 4 GB and will buy 2x 4GB later this year which is very easily changed.

 

The not having to defrag thing would be cool (though 7's defragmentation program is a LOT fast than Vistas, although I don't know if it's actually as good, or they just removed the high quality option from what Vista had).

I'm sure once I've got an SSD, whether that's this year or 4 years from now, I'll look back and marvel at my using a mechanical drive, but for now that's fine. I mean realistically once my system is loaded in the morning, everything's instantaneous anyway since it's in RAM.

 

If i wanted to upgrade my 500gb 7.2k hdd to a SSD in the future, how would i transfer the windows 7 operating system, all of alienware's pre-installed programs ( like alien fx and so on) and all of my files from the 500gb 7.2k rpm hdd to the sdd? i can't just remove my hdd and plug in the ssd one? there will be no operating system, no nothing? This has got me a little confused. i've copied content from one hdd to another in the past, but this was on my desktop with multiple hdd slots, so this was easy. Any help will be very much appreciated thanks!

 

you can use an external hdd to store all your files or get a usb adaprt for your ssd to transfer. I just used an external one when i replaced my hdd to ssd. installed windows 7 using the disc and redownloaded all the drivers. if you want to completely copy your hdd, you must get acronis or some kind of imaging software.

 

My suggestion would be to use a program like Acronis True Image to make an image of your drive.

 

So I played some MW2 last night, all night actually on the M15x, there is no lag due to speed issues what-so-ever, but what im a little confused about is... I had everything cranked, even 4x AA and all settings at max... running FRAPS... I was getting an AVERAGE of 70-90 frames per second... isnt that more than double what everyone else is claiming to get? Or is it because they are taping with FRAPS and they are getting 30FPS while running the video capture in FRAPS? Confusing.

 

Does this really work flawlessly? Some time ago i brought my computer to a pc shop because my hdd was about to give out ( made a weird noise, but still worked ok) and i think they did exactly that, make an image of my hd and copied it to a new one. However, i had many problems with drivers that didn't work anymore, shortcuts that were no longer able to find the .exe files, and many problems of that sort, so in the end, i just reformatted it . Anyone use this program already and can confirm it does in fact work how it is supposed to?

by the way, thanks for the reply jester

 

have you been feeding your M15x some ROIDZ or what? lol...maybe they made a mistake and slapped in a 280M gpu during production !!! Imagine! lolll

 

you will still need an external hdd to copy your image too. acronis is pretty good for imaging, but i suggest just copying your files only and do a fresh install of win7 and all your drivers.

 

Yeah, my PC gets 70fps, and this is blowing it away.... I dont understand.

EDIT: Im going to take a video of this tonight just so I can prove this is really happening... its very very awesome!

 

Yeah, the easy way out never pays off. oh well i'm not going to get an ssd untill they reach 512Gb and are under 300$ anyways .. so it might be a quite some time before i do all that... For some reason i manage to fill up hard drives wayyyy too quickly. 256gb just won't cut it for me. I have 695GB/1TB used up on my desktop, and thats after i deleted a whole library of songs/movies/games. LOL

 

yeah i'm the same way. not matter how big the hdd is i'd always find a way to fill r up. but now i have a 160 ssd, performance wise is great but not enough storage. so right now i only keep stuff i used daily no my ssd and everything else on my external 500gb hdd.

yeah its going to take awhile before 512 ssd are under $300.lol
i thought i had a good deal on mine ssd 160gb for $300.

 

Has anyone that got an early M15x successfully petitioned Dell for a free DisplayPort to HDMI adapter? I understand they are included with the system now.

 

Thats sick. Are you sure your running the game at native res?

 

just been looking at the uk site and it only comes with 2 choices now for processor 2 new chips

Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 540M(2.53GHz,3MB cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 620M(2.66GHz,4MB cache)

just a little info n new chips

At the moment there’s not much benchmark data available for Intel Core i7-620M, however this a dual core (4 threads) processor with 4MB cache , while the i7 720QM is quad core (8 threads) with 6MB cache.

The base clock speed on i7-620M is 2.66GHz and Turbomax 3.33 GHzGHz, while on i7 720QM the base clock is 1.6 GHz and Turbomax 2.8 GHz.

i7-620M is manufactured in newer 32 nanometer process and has integrated graphics chip, this makes the possibility to change between integrated and the dedicated graphics card to save battery energy.

As there’s not much data available at present, is difficult to give you a clear answer, as Maziar recommended going for i7 720QM with 4 computing cores and 8 threads is the saver bet. Having said that, i7-620M might be faster on some application and games which are not optimized for threading, due to faster base clock

 

Would love a part number as well since I for one will be trying to get one from Dell.

 

i posted it earlier.

 

Dell has a one day sale today on the Studio XPS 16 with the following specs for $2099.00:

2nd Processor Intel® Core™ i7-820QM Quad Core Processor @ 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
Memory 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
Monitor Full HD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
Video Card ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
Hard Drive 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

OR should i still go with my m15x at $2099 with:

Intel Core i7 720QM
Nvidia GTX260m
16000x900 WLED
6GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
500 GB SATA 7200

To be honest gaming isn't my main concern, i just want to be able my laptop to handle whatever i throw at it... and from time to time this will include the latest games.

Any suggestions before i finalize my order with the m15x? for the same price i get the i7 820, the 16inch RGB 1080p display, 9cell battery, and the lesser ati 4670 1gb gpu... Thats a thinner laptop, with longer battery life, a bigger/better display with a faster cpu with a mid-ranged gpu, that tends to get much hotter than the m15x fomr what i hear... i dont know what to do!!!!!!!!

 

I had the same issue and was also unwilling to call Dell and go through an ordeal to get it fixed. I ended up opening the computer and removing the keyboard to check it out. The base of the keys is very flexible metal, so I bent it a bit and it completely solved the problem. My keyboard is perfect now, and it really wasn't very difficult.

 

Thanks shadow! I have gone through this thread and never noticed you had posted that part number.

 

So i went to can i run it . com or whatever it's called and it is telling me that my video card ram is 2.7gb. Is that correct? I ordered the 240 stock video card and I thought it only came with 512mb. Also, will the stock m15x be able to run crysis, the website is telling me I cannot because my CPU speed is only 1.6 while minimum is 2.8. I thought my processor overclocked or something but I dont know, any help would be awesome.

 

Personally I'd go with the M15x. I think the 1640 is supposed to have some DIFFERENT throttling problem, and has MUCH worse cooling, not even close. Plus the GPU that's both better and has driver support. Disadvantage is I assume the 1640 weighs less.

 

Yeah you're right. for some reason i wake up every morning with a different opinion on which one i should get, and by the end of the day i always go back to the m15x. F**K IT its final im getting the m15x

 

Just ordered mine last night (see sig). I've been wanting one since the m17x first came out and I couldn't resist the 24hr Dell deal they are currently running. $300 off of the specs you see in my sig.

Can't wait to get mine. Should be in around Feb 2nd. Even better, I'm getting the newly added hdmi display port

 

what they added an hdmi port?

 

I think it's standard now since Nov?...read it here somewheres. Hehe, I guess it's not too new.

 

got mine in dec. no hdmi port just an adapter from display port to hdmi. not a big deal but would of been nice.

 

Yea no hdmi port yet, but hey if they include an adapter then who cares! Although, it still puzzles me as to why such a high end laptop wouldn't include one while some cheap 800$ ones do! Wonder who's the genious at Alienware who made that decision. Guess he's wayyy behind still watching tv in black and white...

 

this is the reason why no hdmi port.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/142270/dells_displayport_folly.html

what were they thinking?

 

guys, for those who ordered and received their laptops recently, what is the timing like from order date, to in production, to delivery for North American units? Anyone with an update on how things are flowing now?

 

last i've heard is about 10 days or less.

 

It took me 7 days to get mine and that included the weekend.

 

excellent, that is indeed encouraging news!

 

I Can't wait to get mine

 

I think everyone who gets one should test it for throttling as per Joker's thread-just in case Dell silently fixes it. Ditto for USB flaws if you've got an iPod touch/iPhone, harddrive, whatever.

Well, I can dream... :-D

 

Are you kidding....? I CAN'T WAIT TO UNLEASH A WHOLE ARSENAL OF TESTS ON THIS BEAST... and see this "throttling issue" for myself. My friend has a M15x and when i asked him about whether it throttles or not, he looked at me like i was talking some alien language ( he's not very tech savy). He did say though, that he's pushed the system to its max playing crysis, and it performed surprisingly well. Then again, he isn't very "tech savy" so...

 

Think if my order hasn't been shipped yet, and i call today to upgrade to a 1080p screen ( I can't live knowing something is stock. It just bothers me for some reason, even though i've heard the 900p is better in many ways) it will delay my order alot? Either way i'm doing it lol.

Also, for those who say the 1080p is too small, can't you just move that little slider down in the display settings to 1600x900? and only use 1080p for blue-ray and gaming ( if your getting decent fps) ? I don't know why it is such a big deal...

 

I almost did the same (im that way too) but I left it alone and now that I have the unit I am glad I got the 900p screen.

 

i have the 1080p screen and another laptop which displays 720p i i played a planet earth hd movie in both at the same time and you can't tell the difference when the movie is playing i don't think our eyes can actually see the difference

 

Yeah i know that, i was always a big 900p believer, but now that i think of it, my eyesight is good and i would really make use of the extra space on the screen as i am a heavy multitasker. and like i said, going stock bothers me for some odd reason. ( Not that anything in the stock m15x would be considered stock in other laptops LOL)

 

i have 1080 and its a big different when watching blueray vs 900. the pixel density so great with the M15x,, i feel watching blueray on my M15x looks better than my 40" 1080. and yes you can change res of the screen if you need stuff to be bigger. but i have no problem reading text or seeing icons in 1080. i have no regrets getting it, i love it. but if you don't have blueray than 900 is fine but with blueray its a must.

 

Meh, I dont really see the point of watcing BR on a 15" screen.. besides 150$ is really expensive...

 

Well if you want to watch stuff at all on a computer, which I do, then you want Blu Ray. I prefer watching on my 22" monitor though