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

I am curious how that turns out. It seems with technology these days that there would be a program that would clone a drive for you and if you specify the target drive type (HDD vs. SSD) it would take care of the problems people are describing here. Something like Symantec Ghost or some other software is what I was thinking.

This is why I asked the question since SSD is new to me and I have only cloned HDD drives at work.

 

Looking at this right now

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Intel&#...097.p?id=1218156774383&skuId=9715097&st=X25-M Mainstream 160GB Internal Serial ATA Solid State Hard Drive &cp=1&lp=1

Maby OS/Games/swap on that and multimedia (music/movies) on 2nd 500G platter drive ?

 

it say the page isn't found.

 

You mean this one?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Intel&#...rive/9715097.p?id=1218156774383&skuId=9715097

 

Also says page not found but....ahh screw it

 

Try this one...

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mainstr...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1266273492&sr=8-4

 

That's funny. When I first posted it, it worked fine. lol

 

Same with mine...gotta love Best Buy

 

Several pages back in this thread someone posted a very nice wallpaper that looks great in the RGB screens, here is one that looks awesome as well, the colors really pop on the RGB

 

baja cap your dog looks mean.

 

ok...everything is fine and dandy going from an mechanical hard drive to an ssd drive from copying drive to drive. (this was xp to xp)

 

I found this procedure which looks to be a good way to do it using the Windows 7 CD repair capability. Seems logical enough:

http://sonic-media.dk/?p=103

 

You can get the same drive from Amazon for $486 (retail version) or $447 (OEM version). Safer source.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mainstr...F8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&qid=1266282621&sr=1-4

 

very good guide there...wouldn't work for me if i tried...i have to many os's across different drives.

 

Use Acronis True Image to clone your existing drive onto it. It works perfectly, I even verified all partitions are aligned. I did it with my R1 250gb to a super talent 128gb ssd. I did it from within windows by connecting the ssd to esata. In fact, I was even able to flash the firmware on the ssd from esata.

If you make an image, then restore the image, it might cause problems. But cloning the disk works.

**EDIT: I do not recommend cloning XP with SSD drives. The partition will not be aligned. EDIT**

 

It is a mean bastage!
Don't let its peaceful appearance fool ya

 

The question has been asked but I will ask again. Joker, does the new BIOS fix the unplugging/freezing issue people have been having?

 

Its driver related as it does not happen on the dell video drivers for me. It could possibly fix it though.

 

got a question, i got single 4870 gpu for my R2 EDD 2/23 because i wanted to get a single 5870 when it comes out. any idea on how much that upgrade will cost? around $300? or $500?

 

Probably anywhere from $500-$800 a card. If the price is reasonable and I can sell my 4870s I might upgrade too.

 

i hope it will work for the r1 model as well.

 

damn 500-$800 a card? and 4870s are only like what? 270$ a card?

 

They will probably be more like 1000-1200 max for a pair from Dell, or 500 - 600 for a single.

Even though the 5870's are cheaper to make, I really doubt the consumer will see any of those savings.

 

Boy at that price I might just hold off for a couple of months and be content with the 4870s.

 

damn them, i was hoping some around $300-$400 range. i mean 4870s price would go down a bit after 5870 comes out right? so if 4870s are about $270 a piece(from dell's config website), and assume it drops $70? to $200. then the 5870 would be around $400? -_- i hope i'm right. if not, then i guess i'll be getting another 4870 then.

 

The more I think about it I realize the 5870's don't have enough power to get me excited enough about their dx11 capabilities for me to want them badly enough. I would be very content with OC'ing a pair of 4870's and having dx10.1 until a real dx11 mobile card is released with a 256bit memory bus and GDDR5.

Which after Cebit might not be that far off, but if the 5870's prices are reasonable and I can get a nice chunk of change for my 4870's I just might make that small step up.

 

Not quite, the 9800M GTX didn't really drop in price when the GTX 260M came out. The only place you would probably find a 4870 for 270$ would be here in the market place. It would be hard to find them that cheap anywhere else. Even after the 5870's come out, you could probably fetch 350- 400 for a 4870.

 

A single 5870 is scoreing 8.8k in vantage on the gpu

 

That is correct, OC'ed 100 on the core and 100 on the memory, pretty nice.

EDIT: Moo I'm shocked you haven't sold that M17xR2 yet. It's a steal of a deal.

 

Me to but it should be selling tommorw

but yea the 5870's are nice

I'm getting one ..

 

Has anyone scored a single 4870 for comparison???

 

7k max overclock

 

HD5870 has no direct competition , so don't expect price drops (expect at least $50+ compared to current hi-end price)

 

the cost of making the cards is cheaper then any card before. The 5870 cost prolly 50$ less to make then the 4870 ( around 125-175$ max)

Dell will charge 600-900 cause they can

 

MAN.. Desktop cards are still so far ahead.

edit: my 5850 Doubles the Vantage score of one 5870 GPU ;/

 

I'm sorry but I don't know what you're on about

OK so there are no problems with my spec? What about the power cable problem that freezes windows? And windows saying it's not a Dell AC adapter? Do we know what the status is with the Virtualization BIOS option? I do like to muck around with VMWare, but not a deal-breaker, if they fix it in the future with a BIOS update then I'll be happy.

I'm not a gamer any more nor do partake in benchmarking, I own the M1730 with SLI 8800's and I reckon it's spent 10-20% of it's life in single card mode connected to a DVI monitor. The VGA connector, could I put an adapter on that and connect it to DVI monitor? I already have 2 HDMI devices

 

Ive wanted an alienware pc since i was like 14. I think im finally ready to spill the cash for one but im wondering about where i may be able to save some money on the non top components. It appears to be that the I7 820 cores would make for a killer CPU without sacrificing much vs. the 920. Im definitely not as knowledgeable as some of you guys though so I would really appreciate the opinions. Im also wondering about the solid state drive vs the traditional SATA HD and whther or not i should wait for the new ATI 5870 gpu's. I just dont want to wait till like June. Also i noticed some of you talking about frame rates below 30 on some of these games. On this rig with the 4870's i shouldnt be worrying about that should i ? I appreciate all responses greatly...Just wanna try to stay below 3200.

 

1. i7-820qm sure looks like the best option although some here will argue that the price difference between it and the 720qm is not worth it performance wise.
2. SSD is excellent option and will give you a considerable boost, but i would go with the smallest/cheapest possible HDD and buy an aftermarket intel x25-m or ocz vertex drive as they are much better than the samsungs dell sells.
3.Waiting for the 5870, well, some say lets wait, others say it's not worth the wait as it's only 15-20% performance increase and they will cost a lot. your choice..
4.Those games with poor performance - it's the 3d mode not kicking in. It's a pure driver issue and will be resolved.Plus there are workarounds to that today.

Also, there's an excellent thread about saving money.. give it a read.

Cheers, and good luck.

 

thanks man....so definitely go with the solid state ?

 

The i7 820 is a great processor. I haven't had any problems with it as of yet. I personally look at the price tag of the i7 920 being almost double of the i7 820 with far less than double the performance and shrug my shoulders. For gaming I don't think it's needed. I plan on buying a SSD for my laptop soon enough but, alot of people here love them. They give you a good performance boost and are worth the high price tag. If you're planning on getting two GPU's for your laptop the 4870's are gonna be far more than you need for awhile. Simply put they're an amazing mobile card. If you want one card then maybe wait for the 5870. Rumors say it might be available in March. But, I think that's only a rumor.

If you want an M17x for under $3200 then get something similar to my setup in my sig. Just swap out the standard Hard drive with a SSD and you'll around $3100 before tax and shipping.

Good luck to you.

 

yeah, i'd go with that.
I myself is in the process of finding one right now.
Best price i could find is 450$ for the x25-m 160gb..

 

Thats a good price. Best price I found was 330£ on ebay

 

I've heard that us here in Australia don't get the plaque engraved Can you unscrew or un-stick the plaque?

 

Floody, you can just unscrew the four screws in each corner

 

Awesome thanks, such a trivial aspect but would be nice to get engraved after I get it delivered. I think I'm pretty close to ordering this laptop now, with 10% off it's AUS$2548

 

When you call, make sure you specify that you want a blank plate. Otherwise I think the inscribe the following centered on the plate. Pretty generic.

ALIENWARE
M17X

 

Damn Mass effect is sooo pretty with the RGB screen, don't want to play on my tv anymore

 

Flip it Upside down? would fix that problem I guess?

 

Where can i buy the ATI 4870 for the M17X? I cant seem to locate this anywhere. Also would it come with the xfire cable? And would you just need an update for the bios to get to work or just install the card and go. thanks

 

Nope because the slots for the screws are reccessed into the laptop so that it sits flush and the screws do not stick out.

@Grock69
Best bet is from Dell, though expensive. You would need to purchase the crossfire cable seperately. Plus you'd have to update CCC I believe. The BIOS should already support it since the laptops already ship with crossfire.