Thoughts on a new M17x Build

System Color Lunar Silver – Anodized Aluminum
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)
Processor Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
LCD 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
Video Card Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M SLI
Hard Drive 320GB - 2x 160GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0
CD ROM/DVD ROM Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner
Wireless Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n MIMO
Service 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service
Bluetooth Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR
Price 2799$


Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or/and warnings are welcome. Planning on buying the the next couple of week.

 

Nice looking build there. =)

 

the SLI 280 are @ max 10% faster then the 260's so IMO they are not worth 300+ dollars

most games you won't notice anyway


so just get SLI 260's

 

Nice!! Wish I had the option for the BD burner when I ordered mine! At the very least, Dell should offer it now as an after market item....

I went with the dual 280s, haven't regretted in the least!

 

yeah, i'd sa8ve the cash on the 280's and go 260's.

if yo can, use the money to get a 256GB ssd

 

Take the SLI 260M and put the $300 to an SSD and a single 320Gb or 500Gb HDD.

 

Thanks guys,

Looking into the 260 SLI issue, heard a lot of debates online over this...

The other thing is I can't find any info as to whether the M17x supports HybridPower for the 280M's, that would pretty much sell me on them. And also, how is the cooling system on this machine?

 

if you want the best for gaming max out the graphic cards thats my philosophy.
Sames goes with my desktop, and i mainly use it for gaming so 280 sli for me is a big deal.

 

Ah, but right now I am not sold on the long-term, very heavy usage capabilities of SSDs, particularly the number of write cycles. They still need work in this area. Yeah, yeah, I know speedwise they are awesome! But I know they still have serious performance degradation over time, even with TRIM and other smart technologies implemented.

Fortunately I have seen some promising improvements coming down the road, so maybe my next laptop will use SSD...

 

heck if you have deep pockets, get both the 280 & SSD lol

 

i would rather wait for the prices of intel ssd down im not getting the samsung ones. intel ssd is top #1 best.

 

lol, my pockets do have a limit, and I already surpassed it... slightly... I'm just looking to take from here and add there kinda stuff. Any word on cooling and hybrid power? Can't find any info anywhere, I know HP is only available to 280M's in SLI.

 

The cooling system in the M17x is awesome, nothing to worry about there.

 

Ah, the M17x does in fact support SLI, for both 260/280. In my short experience, cooling was acceptable for even intense gaming; the laptop did get hot, but not unbearably so.

Other members though have taken specific degree measurements, perhaps they will share their experiences...

 

Another issue would be if the 280M's would bottleneck against the T9600 CPU... any thoughts on that?

 

@high resolutions a p8600 would not bottleneck....you don't have to worry @ all the 9600 is the best cpu for the money. Hybrid sli is supported on all GPU's.

anyway there is NO debate most games wouldn't fully use the etra 12 shader processors which is the only difference in the cards..... they are physically the same card.

 

HybridPower is supported on the 260m and the 280m and lets you switch to the 9400m IGP to save power. GeForceBoost is not supported on either dedicated card.

 

Hey I was planning on building something very similar!
This thread answered most of my questions, thx a lot.
Mind if I use your thread to ask a few questions about this build? Maybe they will help you decide too. My build is identical except that I will use my TV (Viore LC22VF59) as a monitor so there is no need for the 1080p screen.

If I feel that I need more than 4gb after I purchase, how hard it is to upgrade? Did any m17x owner run into problems when trying to upgrade their ram? I saw a video here for upgrading the CPU, does anyone have one for ram? The T9600 would handle 8gb well or there would be waste without overclocking? Which leads to my next question...

How is performance without overclocking? I know that the cooling system on the m17x is awesome, but I live in south Florida and the temperature here is 80+ most of the year, 90+ during summer. Overclocking is dangerous around here...

The 260M in SLI is probably all that I need, but I'm not so sure about using the $300 for SSD. How is the SSD performance in comparison with 2x 320GB 7,200RPM in Raid 0? Is it true that the SSD is great at the beginning but its performance decrease over time?

Is the m17x hardware compatible with Razer products? I heard some motherboards have issues with my Razer tarantula keyboard. Any m17x owner had issues with Razer keyboards, mouse, headphones, etc?

 

Check ebay for a blu ray burner, its probably about the same as the blue ray reader and we all know you'd much rather the burner

 

Esterhazy, no prob. on asking questions.
About your RAM questions, it all depends on what you'll use the laptop for... it's pointless to go over 4 for games, few barely use that much. Multitasking is another issue.
Also, since you don't plan on overclocking, matching FSB and RAM clock speeds in your build should offer optimal performance. That's been my experience though...

 

By the way, does the M17x have a webcam installed?

 

yes it does.

 

thx adyghost
Yeah, I hope I won't need more than 4gb. It's just that vista by itself uses like 1gb. I usually play mmorpgs, they are usually lite on graphics, but I need ventrilo, xfire, my keyboard and mouse drivers running(for macros), and occasionally open my browser to check a forum or google something while the game is still open. If I could leave the anti-virus on would be nice (I'm having to turn it off right now, btw I have 3gb). I think 4gb would be okay, but I have yet to try win7. Is it consuming more or less ram than vista? Is it true that you can deactivate live search and others ram demanding background vista stuff?
It's not only for mmos, I play cod, prince of persia, etc. When playing them I don't need as much things running on the background. Well I guess even mmos are becoming more hardware demanding. This "Aion" that is coming on September is a good example I think.
I'm trying to match FSB and ram, like I said, we had almost the same build. Thx for the tip about what to match when not overclocking =]

 

I gamed on vista with 2 gigs it isn't bad

also I live in Louisiana 95+ temps every day

but that doesn't matter because of air conditioning

 

I gamed on vista with 2 gigs it isn't bad

also I live in Louisiana 95+ temps every day

but that doesn't matter because of air conditioning

 

Double post!! What a noob! Please don't hit me...

 

I was wondering what sound card is integrated? Shame they don't offer some X-FI options...

 

Not sure what card, but it's 5.1 and it isn't bad. I'm currently using a creative X-Fi External sound card - you might want to check it out.

 

I have one of these as well:

X-Fi Notebook