Questions regarding QX9300

Hi there

I've been looking at the gaming notebook market for awhile now, often using these forums for infomation. Which i must say have been very helpful.

There is one or two questions i cant find a answer to however regarding a new m17 notebook.

I intend on buying myself one of these over the next couple of days, i did intend to wait for the release of the new 4870 cards however they took awhile longer than i thought they would and still seem awhile away. So my plan is to buy a m17 with crossfire 3870's and upgrade at a later date if it needs it.

Cpu wise, i'll be ordering with the base cpu and upgrading myself to a qx9300

Recently theres been alot of talk of stuttering and heat related issues, so my first question is with these stuttering and heat issues is it still wise to buy a qx9300?

Are these issues caused by overclocking the cpu, or do they exist at standard settings awell?

I intend for the notebook to be running for long hours, most days. Is the extra heat cuased by the qx9300 going to dent the lifespan at all?

And finally, once overclocked via the ocz bios to around 3ghz is it safe to run the qx9300 constantly with the oc?

Hope you can help, if you have any suggestions feel free to chip in.

 

well there is a stuttering issue regarding the quad cores. but we are trying to find out if it is a heat issue. keep an eye on the quad core thread to see how it develops. i love me notebook. i can max out any game i throw at it. is there any other laptop you have looked at?.


i have been running mines at 3.2ghz for a while now. and it is great. yes i do stutter. but follow the thread and see what happens.

 

I've looked at pretty much every gaming notebook on the market or coming on the market anytime soon that i can purchase in the UK.

I waited for more details on the new clevo releases before i made my dicision, and although nice notebooks i just dont think the performance increase is worth the extra cash right now. Maybe im wrong there.

Also i looked at the asus w90, but again for the performance and price in the uk it doesnt seem a cost worthy upgrade from a well specced m17.

How bad is the stuttering? Is it only when the cpu is at high demand or costant during gameplay?

Im happy to add upgrades to the unit myself, but heatskink modding wouldnt be a option for me.

Thanks for the reply

 

Hi Fortek,

Im from the UK as well and recently purchased the M17. Im really happy with my system and loving it more each day.
To keep the costs down I purchased the T9600 processor but really regret not pushing the boat out for a quad-core option, even though this heating problem has arisen. I would say get the best processor you can afford even if it means cutting down the prices/options on other peripherals such as hard drive and DVD player/burner, memory.
I would also certainly advise you to get some of the speakers as well because I found the built-in speakers poor. I purchased the affordsble Creative speakers and they sound awesome for their price.

All in all I think you should get an M17 especially if you like gaming or like me want to start gaming because they have the best hardware equivalent to some desktops and yet they are laptops. Not to forget they glow nice at night...cool.

good luck with your purchase.

 

M17 is awesome. so far so good for my M17
I got it on the feb at the beginning of this year.
I did have some stuttering issue happened . sound lag . However, in general M17 work absolutely perfect in most of game.

 

Positive feedback for the m17, good to hear!

Obviously i dont have a m17 yet, so i can only imagine how the stuttering effects gameplay.

How bad is it exactly? still playable in games? enjoyable?

Thanks for the replies

 

i brought mine about a month ago and dont regret anything

i went a different route tho, i brought the well priced 8600 2.4ghz with a view to changing to quad once they fix the issues with it.

Can be brought cheap £250-300 on ebay i have seen them regular with shipping to the uk

Again consider the 4870 upgrade in the future as well

 

The 4870 upgrade would definatly be on my list of things to do in the future, if voltage is a issue with the current 3870's and the qx9300 it does make you wonder how the 4870's will handle.

Off topic slightly, but to my knowledge the m17 has to mxm 2.0 slots.. how future proof are these?

Graphics upgrades seem to be moving in the direction of mxm 3.0 now..

 

Actually Fortek, The M17 has one MXM type 3 slot and one hybrid slot. I believe the hybrid accepts a type 3 or type 4 card.

 

Aha, i am mistaken.

Thanks for that Rob41, makes the m17 all the more upgradable which is a big selling point for me.

 

yeh Rob is right, i looked into that before i brought my one.

My thinking was 8gb ram, quad cpu's at some point (when stable) and at least one more gfx update

so should last quite quite some time

 

Would I have to upgrade my T9600 CPU through Alienware of can I buy it and fit it myself without voiding warranty??

How easy is it to change the CPU??

 

i don't have an alienware but installing the cpu is way easy. as long as you installed a desktop cpu(exclude intel 775 because there are no pins.) before you will be fine.

 

Changing the CPU itself is very easy

It will not void your warrenty providing you dont damage your machine when you are actually installing it.

If you need to return for warrenty you can just swap the new one out and put old one back in (which is a slight downside as you cant sell the old one)

I myself will be looking for a Quad off eBay near end of the year

 

Cheers for the replies guys.

Right, Ive never installed anything on a PC, only added a extra 500Gb HD last week to my M17....that went well but I wouldnt like to mess around too much.

Is changing the CPU just taking one CPU out and putting in another?? or is there wires and things to disconnect? and do I have to remove that heatsink thingy-ma-jig?

 

Generally its not too bad,

Few screws take off, clean the underside of the heatsink, take out old cpu, put new one in, apply new thermal paste, then re-place the heatsink and away you go

Pete

 

Yeah I watched one of the lads guide about adding the thermal paste to aid cooling and all those screws seem a little off-putting....I would feel awful knowing that I hadnt put my M17 back the way it was.
Mind you if its just doing it like you said then that doesnt sound too hard.

How much cheaper than Alienware are Quad-cores selling on E-bay?? Im gunna have a little look now!

 

oh, just looking now....am I right in saying that the QX9300 is the one that we want?? you cant choose another model that Alienware doesnt sell?

 

am I reading this wrong.
On Ebay they seem to be available for around £250 but Alienware want over £900?? this cant be right.

most of them seem to be in China.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1311&_nkw=qx9300&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

Those £270 chips are mainly Engineer sample (ES), You want at least an QS chip.

These chips tend to run quite hot, which can be a problem. You can monitor the temperature for QS chips. Which you can't on ES ones.

 

another question guys;

are these type of electronics bought cheap on E-bay from China inferior in any way?? or are they exactly the same as if Alienware had fitted it?

 

Yap, they are inferior in sense of aftersales support.

These ES/QS aren't intended for the end users, they could be stolen from the back of some track, for all you know; so there is no warranty (there may be 2 weeks seller warranty on ebay). If it breaks, you can't get it replaced free.

If you order a laptop with QX9300, then that CPU will have warranty. But then again, AW support may be poor somethines, at least its a safety net.

 

AW warranty lets you upgrade the cpu but if you fry it they will not fix it .....

if somethign breaks put back in the old cpu and then they will honor it

 

Pay by Paypal to cover yourself and make sure that you research exactly which one you want

Go for an QS chip over an ES Chip, these chips are not "technically" available for purchase so support will be practically non exisitant.

HOWEVER -- there are quite a few people on here running QS and ES Chips with no problems

Again pay by paypal in case you get a substandard product then you can report it to paypal and at least have a chance at getting your money back

Pete

 

i have a es e0 stepping that has been running 3.2ghz for the longest.

 

Also E0 (QS) sample and cannot say a single bad thing about it. Got it directly from Taiwan.. and id say for 300€ for my qs vs 900€ for retail its damn worth it..

 

yeah i wish i had gotten a qs. but my cpu is b*d*ss. so i am glad i got this one.

 

OK thanks for the info guys!

I think Im gunna have to do a little more background research but thanks for putting me on the right path.

Cheers.

 

can you guys shed some more light on what exactly is a QS and ES and EO...and what is the difference between them,

Please go easy!!!lol