*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M17x-R2 Edition Owners Lounge!

If you don't know already, the i7 refresh of the M17x is here! I'll be putting in my order shortly so I figured why not start the owner's thread.


M17x-R2 Manual:

• M17xR2 Manual: Click here to download it.

-The bios section of the manual states that the system will allow CPU frequency and vcore overclocking!


Drivers:

• OSD: OSD
• Audio: IDT driver
• Card Reader: Ricoh driver
• Chipset: Intel Driver
• Input Device Drivers: 1. ITE driver 2. Synaptics touchpad driver
• Network: 1. Wireless 370 BT driver 2. WLAN 1520 Half Mini Card driver 3. 825xx Gigabit platform driver 4. Intel Wifi 6300 driver
• SATA Drivers: 1. Intel Matrix Storage Manager 2. ST Microelectronics free fall sensor driver
• Video Driver: ATi Mobility 4870 Driver version 8.68.2-091125a1-092358C-Dell.2, A00
• Alienware Command Center: Alienware Command Center A04 for Quicksilver and Defiant
  

Official M17x Benchmark Thread - Part 3:

• Official M17x Benchmark Thread - Part 3

 

Nice Joker Beat me too it, +1 for the quick fingers. Although it's a few weeks before I can put the order in, I'll be here eventually lol. I'm just enjoyng a movie "The Taking of Pelham 123" in my office on my M17X on blu-ray. Figure I'll spend some quality time as I'm dumping this model to upgrade to a hotter, younger model. I love my job

 

I'm going to call Dell tomorrow to resolve that UPS label problem lol and ask them when I can expect the EPP version of M17x i7 to go live. As soon as it does (unless I can convince them to sell it to me at EPP prices) I'll be ordering. This new warranty setup they got going is a rip off though.

 

You should be able to call them and do that. I did that with mine since they didn't sell the configuration I wanted. I just told them what I wanted and they applied the 10% discount. PM me your rep if you have a good experience. My last rep was a dumb broad and unwilling to help.

 

I'm just placing my order now

 

No prob, if I find one that's willing to do it I'll PM you their contact info.

 

Thanks.

Gotta say, a little bummed on the lack of GPU choices, was hoping for an upgrade in this area, but not really too bummed since I would have gone with the 4870's anyhow. But being that this is a new mobo, I'm hoping it will be upgradable to future components.

 

The only thing that bothers me is that 285M gtx isnt out yet. I really thought it would be available right away.

 

The sites being updated as we speak i assume. Just then it wouldnt let me load the site saying there was a "not found" error. So maybe there putting the new options up now?

 

It would be real sweet if they have option for 3xxM

 

Morning all

I need to order from the Business side. I don't see it available there yet

I was hoping the refresh would be quick. I didn't expect it this fast with the RGB

I need to wait for it to be available for config on the business site and by then the Blue-ray and maybe another vid option could be up

Which processor are you all thinking about?

I was going to go with Extreme, but I need to check the new cards out more thoroughly.

I am so itching to order one.

 

I'll be going with the i820qm, I've got it in the M15x right now and it works great. I think the i920xm is overpriced for what it offers.

 

2 months ago I was a young guy with a new and shiny M17x...

Now I became an old man with an outdated system...



Life sucks hard... lol

 

It's not like your system is any slower. The only real big upgrade is the RGB LED display.

 

Intel Core i5 Processors

Intel® Core™ i5 520M 2.4GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 3MB Cache) [Included in Price]
May delay your Alienware M17x ship date
Intel® Core™ i5 540M 2.53GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 3MB Cache) [add $50 or $2/month1]

Intel Core i7 Processors

Intel® Core™ i7 620M 2.66 GHz (3.33GHz Turbo Mode, 4MB Cache) [add $150 or $5/month1]
Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) [add $150 or $5/month1]
Intel® Core™ i7 820QM 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) [add $450 or $14/month1]

Intel Core i7 Extreme Processors

Intel® Core™ i7 920XM 2.0GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) [add $1,050 or $32/month1]


The Extreme is over priced, but I wonder about overclocking opportunities? The 620M is interesting for dual core speed.

 

Now what does the BIOS look like. Should be interesting.

i5 option should give us switchable graphics...and there is NO nVidia in this system, yeah!

 

I checked for it in the owner's manual but they haven't updated it yet (it's still the old one). Are you still getting a g73?

 

The "real big upgrade" you are telling is exactly the only thing makes my M17x incompleted to me but actually I was just kidding

I really really want to see how gorgeous RBG display is but it seems my local BestBuy doesn't have any new XPS.

 

I'll probably get both and sell the one I like least.

I assume the bios will be the same as the M15x but I'm hoping for something better.

 

switchable graphics would be really nice to have, not sure the battery longevity would be greatly improved with the RGB screen ?

 

It's a love it or hate it thing with RGB LED, especially Samsung (which this will be). The red shift is strong and it takes some doing to calibrate it. Fortunately for us, the M6500 ships with calibration profiles so I'll be stealing their's and using them

 

and no DPC issues lol

 

lol i forgot about that BUT if it's like the M15x, it will probably have throttling.

 

I like to know how 620M vs T9600.

 

It could come with it also.

 

hiya dave

your bios flash still effective? do you wish you waited for the refresh?

 

that would NOT be good

 

Well even if it does, I've got workarounds for it so it's no biggie.

 

yes, i followed your efforts - thanks. i hope they get it right without us having to tune too much. the xps16 needed Throttle Stop and a 130w power brick. i assume the brick on this unit will be enough

 

I'm hoping for no throttling either, probably why I'm going to hold onto my QX9300 till I know more. If that doesn't work I'll order another M17X or pick one up in the marketplace lol. I would assume with the time they have had in planning this, it would not have the problems the previous versions had, probably just a differant set of problems,

 

hey dr652e

i ride a ducati monster and a bmw k1200s. the m17x will be a bit heavy for the bike

 

Joker do you know if there have been any comments regarding the contrast ratio / black levels of this 1200p RGBLED screen. Reason I ask is every 1080p RGBLED screen I've had in the Studio XPS has had awful black levels. Watching dark movies is not good at all with quite a lot of backlight leakage going on.

 

Flash was @ 90 % effective IMO

The biggest reason i would go for the refresh is 1. RGB LED 2. DX.11 GPU

 

I honestly haven't looked into it. I saw a few pictures of a calibrated one in the M6500 thread and the guy had it next to his HDTV and it looked pretty good. I'll try to find some numbers later unless someone beats me to it.

 

i really need an accurate screen, i hope the RGB is spot on

 

@dave: Going to have to wait a bit longer for DX11.

 

Have a link to that pic by any chance?

 

Yeah it's very hard to show qualities like black levels with a camera. You need to have both screens in a pitch black room showing a black screen, but even then it's difficult to get the exposure right.

We need someone who is into AV to comment. It's quite surprising that more people don't shout about things like black levels. It's all about blacks in AV and these are multimedia machines. I wonder when we will get tech such as local dimming in laptops.

Do you think Dell will utilise the IGP on the Arrandale CPUs to give us switchable graphics? Are they on the M15x? Would be very cool if so.

 

Nope, I saw it 3-4 days ago when I was just browsing their forum. Here's a review of the M6500 with the RGBLED though: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-On-Dell-Precision-M6500-Workstation.23070.0.html

 

With the same GPU's as the current M17x is this thing really going to be any faster for gaming?

 

Not unless the title is multithreaded ....

 

I think it would only make a difference in the most demanding games.

The main thing to understand is the improved architecture of the i7 systems. How the system operates as a whole has changed for the better with less bottlenecks and new tech.

 

Yeah I wouldnt be surprised if the quickpath / no FSB helps out in very cpu intensive games. I'm curious what this will mean for battery life, because the core i7 mobiles run very hot and use tons of energy still. Also, if they're able to switch to integrated or not.

I suppose I could follow suit and sell mine, then upgrade to the core i7 model but.. maybe mine will stop working somehow, and i'll get another warranty upgrade. I don't think this refresh is worth it if you're not a bencher and like the current screen.

 

I do a serious amount of video edditing and rendering I use sony vegas 9 its multi thread and uses 4 cores

which cpu is better qx9300 or i7 920?

have the option to replace now or wait

 

If you have the option absolutely replace, the i7 920 will dance all over the qx9300, take a nap, resume dancing and still beat it.

 

the ATI 5870 will be the one to get I guess

It's sad that NVIDIA is taking so long to relase a DX.11 card (even desktop)

 

The i7 will crush the Qx9300 for encoding .... Witcher and i did some tests last night and the Qx9300 was laughable at best compared to the i7 especially for an app that is multithreaded ... Not sure about how it will effect editing/rendering but i would think it should help a decent amount ...

Here is a quote from Witcher last night to give you an idea in the test we ran....

"man that is super fast my qx9300 is garbage already yours is 14 sec. mine 43 sec. and the i7 920m is 23sec "


My 14 second run is a desktop [email protected]...

 

I'd hurry and swap for the i7. Thats what i'm doing. Im just waiting for mine to be returned and then maybe for the bu-ray option to reappear.

 

It's one of those things where if your system is working for you now, when you change to the new one may have issues that directly affect you. With that said I would switch to the i7 architecture if it didn't cost me anything to do it.

 

blueray option is avaialble if you talk direct its just not on website, spoke to tech support about an order this morning