Some m15x questions

Hi, have some questions about the m15x :-

1) Does the optional 9 cell battery weigh heavier than the included 6 cell battery and does it stick out the case in anyway like the dell 9 cell does?

2) If I buy the 9 cell battery can I put the included 6 cell battery in the smart bay or do I have to buy the dedicated smart bay battery?

3) Same question but for the hard drive smart bay. Can I buy a 2.5" elsewhere (and for less) and install it into the smart bay?

3) With the 9 cell and 6 cell in the smart bay how long will the machine last on full gaming and also stealth mode web-surfing?

3) Are the Ozama Headphones any good and do they include a volume control on them or do you change the volume from the laptop?

4) Can the headphone output be plugged directly into PC desktop speakers?

5) Is it possible to buy the smart bay accessories such as batteries and hard drives at a later date? On the site the only seem available with the purchase of the actual laptop.

6) On alienwares site the 7200 rpm 320gb free fall hard drive is £182. I can source a Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200 rpm 320gb with 16mb elsewhere for £115. Though i'm not to sure if this freefall protected. Would I be better buying the one from 3rd party and installing that and saving some money?

7) Do the hard drives that alienware ship come with 8mb or 16 mb cache, particularly the 320gb one?

Thanks.

 

hi i got some answers for you
1. yeah it weighs heavier of course and it sticks out, but i dont know how and where
2. not you cant use the 6cell battery as smartbay, you must use the 6cell-smartbay battery
3. yes but you need the smartbaycage for it.
3. on web-surfing with the x3100 (depends on cpu also) AND stealthmode i think about 8-9 hrs, full gaming donno, perhaps 2h?
3. donno they are new, i got the pc161 from sennheiser, they are brilliant
4. yes its a normal 3.5mm output
5. yes i think you can buy it at the "gear shop" otherwise it should be available via phone
6. depends on what you want ^^ i did it like that, but noch with the wd but with a hitachi
7. sry i dont know

pls

 

1) the 9 cell battery will be bigger so it should stick out and it will be heavier. im not sure about it sticking out but im sure it will be heavier since it is bigger.

2) no. you have to buy a dedicated smartbay battery.

3)yes.

3)dont know why you would want to game on battery since gpu and cpu will downclock on battery. stealth mode and web surfing (without binary gfx) should get you around 4 hours. if you are just web surfing i recommend using binary GFX

4)yes

5)yes. its even better to buy it later since you can get the assessory for 15% off by ordering it from a customer service rep.

6)yes it would be better to upgrade the hard drive yourself. free fall thing is a sensor and accelerometer i believe that will brace the hard drive for a fall. i dont know if it is built into the hard drive tho.

7)the cache is displayed right next to the hard drive. the 320 one is 7200 rpm and 16mb cache.

 

Thanks for the quick replies.

Two more questions, does the m15x come with a full vista installtion DVD so if I do get a new hard drive I can do a fresh install or do I have to get a new copy of vista?

Is the 15% discount available the UK and can it be also used when buying the laptop from a customer service rep?

Many thanks.

 

the m15x comes with a system recovery disc which i believe is the vista installation disc.

im not sure if its available for the uk but i am sure you cant get the 15% off the laptop from ordering the laptop through customer service. that is way too big of a discount from AW. the largest i think is still their student or staff discount which is 5%

 

can one buy for smart bay stuff from newegg?
i am a bit confused as to what is needed to fit into the bay...

 

no you cannot buy this stuff from new egg. only AW sells this stuff because only AW laptops have this feature right now. dell laptops had this feature too.

 

ok - but if i understand it then, one can fit a new 2.5 drive into the smartbay?
of which you can buy the 2.5 from newegg and install into the bay...

 

Right thanks exiled. Notice you have a m15x. Did you get the 1gb intel flash ram option with it?

 

which dell model has it?

 

if you have 4 gigs of ram there is really no point in getting the intel flash memory. you wont notice a significance change in boot times. i didnt get it since i dont see a point in it. you can always buy it later from somewhere else anyway. if you buy it from somewhere else it will be cheaper than buying it from AW.

i remember it is a older dell model. i rememeber my teacher swapping out a cd drive for a floppy disc drive in school.

 

i think with thinkpads you can pull out the CD drive too, and probably replace it with a DVD drive or whatever.

 

GAH!!!

The smartbay does not just take a 2.5" drive, you need to buy a special "cage" from Alienware, into which you install a 2.5" drive from somewhere else.

You can use a drive from newegg BUT you need to get a cage from Alienware for it.

 

you did have to make fun of him for that...

here are the pictures from my original thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=240250&page=3

that should help you alot.

 

I wasn't making fun of him... I was expressing irritation... sorry anyway :/

 

So is the 'Intel Turbo Cache Memory 1GB – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed' an external USB stick? I thought it was built onto the motherboard for some reason.

 

It is on the motherboard, but I think it CAN be inserted later, and you can certainly use a USB stick to do the same job

 

I'd sooner not have USB stick though. I was thinking for the sake £18 I may as well add it and if there any issues I could just disable it?

 

yeap, if you've got £18 to spare then... go for it. See how it goes.

 

Hi,
The turbo cache is easy to add later. It installs in much the same manner as a memory stick or wireless card.

Gabe

 

that was what i was attempting to ask - i did not state it as clearly as i should have...lol

 

That's fine then, easy to do lol

 

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...D1pbnRlbCB0dXJibyBtZW1vcnk*&p_li=&p_topview=1

as you can see it is very simple to install. just plug it in and screw it down.