Will M17 survive after new M17x?

Well you are entitled to your opinion Phinagle.

Instead of critiquing my posts and turning this discussion argumentative, maybe you could just allow a more polite exchange of ideas.

 

Well I'm still holding out hope the M17 will get upgraded and not canned!

 

I am too. The 4870's, especially if A.W. uses the DDR5 variety, will be a nice boost in performance for the M17.

It doesn't seem likely that they will offer them in the new M17X, since there are already three ways to configure two new cards, us M17 owners may have some good news.

 

i hope so...im holding off too. I hope AW tech guys arent BSing me when they say to keep the m17

 

Hey,

They changed what was offered in the M9750, so why not?

 

hopefully because i like the m17 chassis better than the new m17x

 

Whizzo posted a link to notebookjournal.de that claims the M17x will get 4870s as single and CrossfireX options in 1-2 months (Give or take half a year). It's what stalled me on the buy button.

 

well...thats a good reason right there not to give the m17 4870's....the m17x is a sli/crossfire capable laptop.....that looks bad for us

 

Don't loose hope yet Halo.

AFAIK, there hasn't been any official word from Alienware about that yet.

The M17 is still crossfire capable too.

 

think of it...if the m17 gets the 4870's...it would be just as powerful if not more than the m17x currently is.....that would be a first....an older laptop beating out the latest enthusiast laptop....until the m17x gets the 4870's....then it would only be equal.....still awesome deal for us tho

 

Not really, which model was it that had the 9800xxx in SLI?

That actually bested our M17's with 3870's.

EDIT: At least that's what I remember, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Assuming they upgrade the m17, I don't see it being a problem with it competing with the m17x. I mean they both cost almost exactly the same, so as long as people are buying them, I would think from a marketing standpoint Alienware / Dell would keep both. You could appeal to different groups and have 2 different chassis with similar performance. Best of both worlds!

 

I totally agree.

All at one time, they had the M9750, M17, 17X, and the XPS.

 

HaloGod, I'm confused at first you posted that AW hinted they will discontinue m17, then you posted AW guys told you to hold onto it?

 

It doesn't make good business / marketing sense to take a diversified product line and consolidate it into one computer (m17x)... If you have a problem, with one, you can offer incentives on other models to make up the profits / sales. Granted I'm not business man, but at least that's my thoughts

 

Yes but from a company standpoint it would not be wise to offer 2 17 inch gaming laptops ? unless one was for the ATI crowd and the other for Nvidia crowd . If its true that the M17x is going to have both offerings of cards then there will be 0 point in keeping the M17 around for anything at all since the basic 17x is priced very competitively .

 

That's why I doubt, in spite of an article , that the M17X will actually get 4870's. They already have an ATI machine in their stable.

 

we would have to see if it fits and works. don't forget the sli/crossfire cable.

i know the w90 didn't have a cable and thus was controlled from the bios(there's positive and negatives about this but i don't want to get into it unless someone wants to know)

the whitebook had the crossfire cable and it wouldn't work without no matter how i forced it.

so we have to see the m17x config(bios) settings and we can go from there

 

well, if it's any indicator, Alienware's "new" website only has the M1730 and the new M17x under gaming laptops. The M17 and the M15x are still in the old version.

 

The W90 does infact have a crossfire cable .

 

How's that saying go again "Out with the old , In with the new" something like that . I still think it would be bad if the M17 didnt get the cards but it makes perfect sense if i were running the company . If i have a machine that can handle both cards in SLI and Crossfire id rather to just have to support that one machine IE having parts manufactured , Servicing ,Drivers ,Bios , R&D or what ever else you can think of.

 

The flip side to that is the part of the equation that we don't have.

Is the cost of service, support etc greater or less than the profit from m17 sales minus the m17 sales that contributed to the lost sales of the M17X?

I mean they did have 3 A.W. and 1 Dell 17" gaming laptop for sale at the same time and even made updates to the M9750.

 

Yeah only time will tell , the fun part is all the speculating we get to do in the mean time .

 

I was talking to a person at dell, and he said he believed the m17 would be discontinued, but there was no way to know for certain. Not exactly the optimistic chat I was hoping for, but I'm still not giving up hope!

 

Agreed, even though such a decision would be something that would hurt the value of my current purchase. But with such a system it seems likely. ATi did introduce a MXM 3.0b version of the mobility 4870 and even the 4860 so I reckon they would just get the cards from ATi directly if anything. And considering how HP got the Blackbird's nForce mobo to support Crossfire and I got CF to work in an nForce mobile platform, it may very well be possible in the future.

I wonder how the bus lanes would work in this system seeing as the 9400M also acts as the northbridge in the nVidia MCP79 SLi chipset.

 

lol flex dumped ocz(i think ot the other way around) and aleinware dump flex

well my guess would be that it would be faster. correct? having a gpu(physx) do the job of the northbrigde(cpu) wouldn't it be alot faster then a normal northbirdge.(maybe ask someone with the 9800m gts sli and some one with the toshiba to run some stuff)

i know it sounds pretty dum and stupid but i don't know &nd i would think it would benefit. what do you think?

 

I think the M17 will continue, but it will have to change in configuration and who it's marketed to. As of now, it's too similar to the M17x, and the competition will cause it to take a lessor role. Perhaps the equivalent of the Macbook to the Macbook Pro?

 

It would only be ideal to have two 17 inch models if AMD was competing with Intel in the high performance group like they have in the past. It would make more sense to simply offer both Ati and Nvidia on the M17x. M17x is their flagship and Alienware will prioritize it, they can't compete with the M17 and cheaper Arima 840 resellers. Nor can they afford their customers buying the product they get less returns from (Arima 840/M17), because it has a better price/performance ratio than their more profitable m17x.

The old M17x came way too late in the market last time, so I hope they've learned their mistakes this time and they're ready for mobile nehalem.

 

So far, the only thing I'm seeing that makes the M17x more appealing to me is the fact that you don't need a beast of a CPU for Nvidia GPUs like you do for ATI GPUs. That extra cash can be put into an SSD.

The two are similarly priced for similar configurations, so obviously a new buyer that had the choice between the two should get the M17x.

Since my M17 is maxed minus SSDs, I'm not going to waste my time trying to sell it to get the 17x.

 

I agree. Another big plus to me is the integrated graphics for when you're not gaming and want extended battery life. Oh yeah, and the small AC adapter is way nicer than lugging around the massive power brick of the M17.

 

i agree rob, if you have an m17 i dont know if there is enough of an upgrade to warrent changing, i think i will hang on to mine (gpu upgrade or not) as in the uk at least the price difference is totally mad

 

Why are they not offering 1333MHz DDR3 for m17?

 

yeah i was maxed out but i went with the 9262. it was a hard choice between the new alienware, sager m98??, sager np9262, asus w90. but i see this one as the best choice for me.

 

I'm just praying that the 4870s will be available as an upgrade for the M17 for people who own one, even if they take it off the market. Does anyone have any evidence of this?

 

The Subject of the 4870s comes up everyday and no one has any evidence beyond what a rep has told them or people that have inside info saying they are coming eventually , nothing official though if thats what your after.

 

is that the reason you bought it.

 

the Ram at 1333mhz and you have cpu that can not overclock the ram is worthless. If you have a cpu that can overclock the ram that use 1333 it would not stress the ram.

 

They will not be made available. I don't know who was spreading rumours that they would, but I have been certain from day one that the M17 would not be getting them. I would love to be proved wrong, but it is a very tiny possibility, maybe a 1% chance.

 

Sadly i think a ton of people bought the M17/OCZ based on the 4870s .I know there was a time when you were dead set convinced on them coming as well . After all this time though the chances just become less and less , but i say never say never and anything is possible.

 

do you have any proof on this.

 

yeah that was the reason i bought it. come on having 4870's in your notebook and everyone was talking about it. but since december and it didn't come out yet. so i'm not saying anything about it coming out until i see it come out threw asi mobile. then you see me in the market place once again. JK. i'm not going threw this mess again unless there are kings over the 280m. (if they come out.)

 

I think there is a chance.... worse case scenerio and they do decide to can it, it will be several months before they quit selling it. That was another good point, even if they quit selling it, maybe they would offer a retro upgrade to existing owners?

 

Lol the machine you have now is more then you will you need for quite sometime to come . Tracking down the other 9800GTX or the 2x280s should be the only thing on your mind at this point ,which im sure it is .

 

yeah it is. i'm searching high and low. left to right. i'm looking for people who is thinking about selling there 9262 to sell me there cards before that. lol.

but if i can get a 280m...

 

If nothing else there has to be a way to atleast get the second 9800GTX somehow but hopefully the 2x280s.From the sound of it youll almost need that slave 9800 so you can get the heatsink off of it for later on when you get the 280s. Patience will be the key here as hard as that sounds its just a matter of time before one pops up somewhere.

 

lol. i know but it's taking to long. a whole 2 days any nothing. lol.

 

Haha it might take 2 months(hopefully not) but as people start shifting to other machines IE the 9280 then things will start popping up . Like you said you need to find someone that might be selling the machine with SLI in it and then hit them up with an offer to take out that second card for a good price .

You need to create a WTB thread in that lounge and keep bumping it every 24 hours , i would have figured you would have already done that .

Whats the old saying ? "You wont know if you dont ask".

 

that's what i'm gonna do. and try to wait.

 

Sigh...I'm one of those people. And I won't have any chance of selling my laptop, or of buying a new one. If the 4870s don't come out, I am going to be really mad...

Perhaps someone on this forum could make some kind of a petition for AW to release the 4870s for the M17, for which any of us who support it could sign. Would that have any chance of working, if enough of us signed it?

 

Sadly EvilCorsaiR i doubt that would have any effect on making a company bring out a card for a machine , there is so much R&D and other variables involved to bring new cards out for existing machines that unless they as a company see it as a profitable worthwhile venture then there just not going to do it , a few hundred virtual signatures i doubt would have any impact on them doing anything about it . If Alienware said they were coming and that was a public statement they made somewhere then your chances might be better because you could take it public and raise a stink about it till you get an official response , kind of like the M15x hinge issue ended up on Engadget at which point Alienware i think responded publicly , but since they never said anything that they were coming your chances are slim at best .