m17x with XP?

So I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on the m17x today or tomorrow. My only concern is that they only offer it with Windows Vista, which makes me believe that in MyHive, there will only be Vista drivers, and no XP drivers. This of course bothers me to no end, since step one of receiving the laptop will be to nuke Vista and put on XP.

I'm curious if I could pull it off commando, just hobbling together my own XP drivers from manufacturer sites. I figure I can get the chipset drivers by downloading the Intel Chipset Utility from Intel's site, I can get the video and sound drivers from nvidia and Realtek respectively, along with drivers for the wireless, lan, and bluetooth.

However, I'm worried I could not get XP drivers for the touchpad, built-in camera, and the AlienFX control center (as these parts are unique to Alienware). The last one is the biggest problem, as I'm worried if it's a Vista only application. I would hate to lose the ability to change colors or throttle the cpu/video because I can't install the AlienFX Control Center on XP. On my current m9750, I did successful install PowerDVD for Vista on XP, so maybe I could get similar luck from AlienFX? I mean, it just interacts with the BIOS to control those lights, I doubt it's hardwired into the OS.

Thoughts?

 

I installed xp before they had the drivers available. Everything worked super well except my keyboard wouldn't light. Then they released a new command center for xp now it works fine. Do know that AlienFX does not work in XP which means that you won't be able to customize all your power options that you have available for vista

 

You mean AlienFusion won't work taco, AlienFX (the lights) will work fine

(sorry to be nitpicky just don't want anyone to get confused)

 

i think that's what it amounts to, yes. or rather, AlienFusion will not work fully.

 

Your right sorry. No please do correct me I don't want to give out the wrong info. That was a typo on my part. Alienfusion does not work at all.

 

So just to be clear, there are two separate programs: AlienFX and AlienFusion? One controls the lights and one controls the power management?

On XP, the AlienFusion power management will not work under any circumstances, but the AlienFX light control will work? Is there a separate download for the AlienFX control program for both Vista and XP?

I'm assuming there will never be an XP version of AlienFX for the m17x, so if you do in fact need an XP version of it, maybe I can install the m15x version on the m17x and get it to work the lights under XP?

 

here is the thing they are both under a program called the "command center" when you install it in vista you have both FX and Fusion but when you install it under Xp you only have FX. To also answer your question as of now Alienfusion does not work under any circumstances on XP. Before they released the stuff for xp I was able to install the command center for vista on my xp side and it did contain the fusion only problem was it would work and wouldn't open but the FX side would open and work. I think your best solution would be do what I did and do a dual boot of Vista and XP it will make things a easier.

 

Wether you are in the market for the M15X or the M17X; why pay big money for the latest cutting-edge technology, then put an operating system on it which is years old and very near the end of it's life?

 

So the actual install program is called Command Center, and it installs the Fusion and FX. Is there a specific version of Command Center for Vista and for XP, or just one that auto-detects your operating system and installs accordingly? Also, where does one get this program? From MyHive?


Not to start a flame war, but I believe Windows XP is a lot more "lean and mean" than Vista and has better performance for games, due to less overhead. I've heard that Vista is rather bloated, has tons of system processes that load at startup, and consistently ranks below XP in actual gaming and synthetic benchmarks on equal systems. There were also SLi and driver issues, but I've heard these have largely been fixed.

 

yes there are 2 different versions. (although I did get the Vista version to install on xp was a little buggy though). Also yes you have to get it from myhive. I mainly us Vista cause I just got use to it and the effects and power options are nice but I'll tell you one xp on my machine is super fast.

 

Was it buggy in the sense that AlienFusion wouldn't work correctly but AlienFX worked just fine?

 

correct FX worked fine expect for my keyboard wouldn't light. If you did get and have any problems just let us know I'm pretty sure the m15x version is exactly the same.

 

I am new here - found this thread via Google after talking to a really nice Alienware rep today. I was somewhat disappointed the M17x is not available with XP, although the rep reminded me XP was not initially available on the M15x. So I either wait another three months for Alienware to test and make available XP or go at it solo.

tacomenace21 or anyone with experience, would you mind sharing your driver resources (i.e., hardware = URL) to help me install XP if I decide to 'jump the gun?'

I am somewhat surprised after all the bad press some folks still believe Vista is ready. In fact I recently read several articles where even Microsoft founder Bill Gates has moved past Vista to Windows 8. I have two desktops, both running XP Pro SP2, have not done a Windows update in almost a year, and had no crashes. Several months ago I purchased Vista Ultimate and did an install on a second hard drive. Even using manufacturer certified drivers Vista crashed at least once every time I used it.

Opinions aside, I would be grateful if anyone shared their XP install experience on this laptop. I really do not want a laptop as much as I need one so waiting several more months may not be an option, and this Alienware model appears to be the best available right now.

 

that wouldn't be a problem the one thing that will be the hardest to find will be the 8800m sli drivers. Welcome to the forums! Like I suggested before a dual is well well worth it.

 

Hope I didn't sound like I was trying to start an argument.
I pondered over paying the extra for XP for my M15X. It is a system I know and trust. But, I decided to take the plunge, and got Vista. So far I have not had any crashing, or any of the problems I had read about.

Best of luck with the new M17X. You will be one of the first.

 

Why dont you guys just go dual boot? Im using one and it works fine although first has a lot of issue since its my first dual-boot .... im also a dedicated XP user, but only using Xp for working/old school game while as my vista was for gaming...

 

Does the m15x have two separate BIOS in MyHive, one for XP and one for Vista?

 

no you have 1 bios for everything

 

why oh why would you want XP on this?

This notebook will have no Vista issues. I have seen no Vista issues on the m15x posted yet... just a bunch of people with vista making mistakes that woudl crash either OS.

 

I have to have xp for work that pretty much the only time I use. Any other time I use Vista

 

Dont get xp, after SP1 Vista is absolutely fine. Also why buy 8th Gen GPU's if you're not gonna run dx10, vista drivers also get more support than xp ones nowadays so they will offer better performance (they might already do, i havent tested with dual boot)

 

yeah I agree but like I said before if I didn't need xp I wouldn't use it.

 

Hey all - I found this post because I am about to do the exact same thing. I've had my M17X since 07-17-08 and all I can say is that I am so seriously disappointed in Vista and Alienware that I want to cry. I have had nothing but BSOD since I got it. The respawn DVD for Vista Ultimate doesn't work - (it gives an error about changing the boot register) which leaves the HD formatted and XP Pro blue-screens when I try to install that from CD. I have several reasons to go back to XP. One of which is that Nvidia has confirmed that 8700M GT's in SLI lose 60% of their power on Vista Ultimate and there is currently no fix for it. Has anyone actually sucessfully installed XP on an M17X here? My specs:
T9500 2.6Ghz
Dual 8700M GT's SLI
64Gbx2 Solid State Drives
500Gb Smart Bay Drive
2x Dual Layer Blu-ray burner
Internal TV Tuner (which came with no cables at all so I can connect anything to it! Useless)
2Gb RAM (2 more should arrive tonight UPS)

 

Fine, sure. But in gaming, sorry, XP still is better.
And if you care so much about DX10 , it can be had.
XP Sp3 is the best OS for gaming.
The rest is subjective.