**M980NU (X1/Commanche SLI/NP9850) Owners Thread**

Thanks Pman, i also read the specs of your laptop so i'm guessing that's the max on how well Crysis can be played on a laptop.

 

At the moment there is no faster laptop being made, at least until GTX300 comes out middle of next year

 

ATI's Evergreen should be released soon. Supposedly it will put Nvidia behind the curve for a long time. M17x owners will be flocking to it. They have already released a bios to support the new ATI cards. That should put a lot of 260s and 280s in the marketplace.

 

Thanks Pman and Mandrake, both the NP9850 and M17x have upgradeable graphics card right?

 

Yes, they're both supposed to be MXM 3.0. Nothing is guaranteed but I don't think Dell and Clevo would position these new systems to not be compatible with cards that are due to release this year.

 

yeah but what are the chances of being able to actually get hold of these cards for upgrades, i cant imagine seeing a laptop from a clevo OEM until this time next year

or am i in for a shock?

 

Dell is usually good with getting a hold of spare parts. I don't know if they would be compatible across different systems. It might just be a vbios change on the card to make it work....don would probably give you a better guess on the subject.

 

hmm

well anyone wanna buy a m980?

 

I just posted my first Vantage run with the qx9300 in the M17x benchmark thread. What is your highest again? You still hold the record with a qx9300.

 

i already replied

 

You need to start running all the tests except the "features" test before people start crying foul. The hardcore benchmarkers will get on you for that.

 

let em, i cant be bothered to watch those planes fly around all the time, im not claiming the highest vantage score overall now am i

 

Yeah but it's part of the whole benchmark. I can clock my quad up close to 3.4Ghz and skip the CPU tests, would that be fair?

 

dont see how that would effect the GPU scores, if you score high on GPU with a high clocked CPU then thats part of the game.

I havent been interested in testing the CPU as we all know what the Qx9300 can do when its clocked up

 

I use AVAST as it's free and not a resource hog like Norton.

 

I installed eset NOD32 on a Win7 RTM x64 laptop today. Working fine so far in the speed / boot / basic Win performance. Now it just has to catch those pesky virus's if they snoop around.

 

This is what an unlocked bios can do.



Note: This is not stable for even 1 second in OCCT...lol!...but the point is you have much more flexibility.

 

I wish I had a bigger power supply for those numbers.

 

i know what an unlocked bios can do, thats why i want one.

But doesnt appear we are going to get one for now so I wont bother with benchies any longer until we get an unlocked bios

Till then i will enjoy gaming

 

Then aren't you contradicting yourself?

 

the only difference between the benchmarks is the raw cpu power

My point about not running the CPU tests is i am not interested in what the cpu scores in vantage, but if i can boost the GPU by clocking the CPU higher then ofc i will

But i am not worried about CPU scores in vantage

 

look @ th vcore on that thing its insane

 

YOU are insane with those benchmarks mandrake lol.

when i get my laptop i want to be just like you. im more worried about my mem being ddr3 1066 instead of 1333...

 

yikes... need more powah'! more cowbell!

 

when i overclock my m17x i probably wont reach what mandrake gets.... my 4 gig ddr3 1066 will stop me. i should have gotten ddr3 1333 memory speed.

 

Have fun with that. You should get some aftermarket RAM with some tight timings for pretty cheap that will be even better. XPC uses what they have on hand. I have been told that all the RAM they use are pretty good but you can alwayse get better. I do not know what Alienware/Dell puts in theirs... I am sure that it is pretty good too, but not the best. If you have not received it yet and it has not been shipped I would go with their base memory option and scrap or sell it when it arrives, have some awesome RAM waiting and put it in when your rig gets there. These companies charge too much for RAM anyway. Having said that you are not going to see much difference with some bad A$$ RAM and some stock stuff. I got the 1333 with mine anyway because I did not want to have to mess with it later. I cant wait to OC my rig when it gets here. However, I dont think I am going to push it like Mandrake. Whatever I can do and keep my temps down will suffice for me. I have a np5796 ATM and it is enough fo run most games with 30+ fps stock.

 

It only lasts roughly 2 minutes at that speed before BSOD. I wouldn't bother changing the ram until you had time to test it.

My machine runs 12x1066/1066 just fine.

 

station alienware m17x uses

4 gig of ddr3 1033 stock system memory
and 4 gig of ddr3 1333 stock system memory but its more expensive then 1033

im going to try pushing qx9300 cpu to 3.06 or 3.2 but 1033 on the ddr3 would bottleneck my overclock.

 

I know. Thats why I said go for some 1333 aftermarket RAM with better timings. You will not notice a big difference in your system performance though. Just saying...

 

Ok, so I went down to my shipping center and picked up my barebones M980NU. Laid all my parts out, unboxed it. First, good god is this thing heavy. Second, dear lord the power brick should come with it's own nuclear power plant. I started to set up for my build. QX9300, 120GB VertexII SSD for my OS, 320GB WD for data. Also swapping the stock DVD player for a BD Rom. I disassembled it all, which was fairly easy. I will say that the battery being screwed in is really odd. What's up with that? Very industrial feel to the whole thing.

Anyway, I cracked it open and got my first bad news. When I ordered from RJtech I ordered it with an Intel 5300 wireless. Looking at the guts, it appears to have been left out. I have an empty slot and a single antenna lead. So I'm really kind of ticked about that. I have a 5300 sitting here I can use if I have to but I'm worried about the antennas. The 5300 has 3 antennas, and there's only 1 wired inside the 980. Where are the other 2 supposed to go? I don't see any wire slots for them or anything. Can one of my fellow owners crack theirs open and tell me how the antenna are run for it? All in all, a disapointing start.

edit - Where the heck does the RAM go in this thing!

 

Ram is under the keyboard. Must remove the touchboard fisrst and then keyboard and then a metallplate. There are the 2 ramslots.

 

That is a first, I have never seen a sager that makes you remove all of that just to replace some RAM.

 

Bleh. I should have just ordered it with the RAM I guess (although given my luck with the 5300 I would have had that missing too)

 

Are there instructions somewhere on removing the keyboard? The manual is useless for actuall assembly.

 

Google it. if you are lucky someone may have already posted a video.

 

Check here:

 

i can provide you with a guide to do it if you need help

its easy really

 

dang that thing is bigger then i thought

wish i had bought a m98nu i could make more videos

 

Thanks kaltmon!

Hey Pman, any chance you could check out how your 5300 is installed? How many antenna does it have?

 

Ok, that LED panel doesn't want to come off. I took out the two screws and I can pop the ends up but it seems to stick in the middle. I don't want to break it!

 

first time it is very stiff, but it will come off. Be firm but not rough

i installed my card and i think it was just one aerial if i remember right

Pete

 

Ok, thanks. Do I use a flat edge or something on the middle or just my fingers?

 

Ahhh, got it off! And my apologies to RJTech, they did have the 5300 installed in that slot. I thouht it would be in the one on the other side. 3 antennas BTW!

 

i couldnt remember i was talking to the guys from Kobalt at the time and the MD was making me coffee

Glad you got it off tho, now you done it once you will be fine

 

Is the Targus XL case gonna work with this beast? Specs say any 17"er will fit, but this is a bit larger. Anyone with the m980nu have that case? Should I look for another one? I would be carrying the brick with me too (Would centerblock be a more appropriate nickname for the PS?)

I am about to die from the wait Sager! Really

 

Ok... onward we go. Win7 RTM x64 installed. Yeah me! Unfortunately I'm left with some unknown devices. I ran all the driver installs from the cd using the Vista X64 versions. I have bad drivers for Coprocessor, Fingerprint Sensor, and Unknown Device. On the fngerprint thing, I thought all these units came with them by default. Maybe not? As for the other two, I'm lost!

I also only scored a 6.0 in the Windows Experience which was surprising. Graphics is what killed it. Hrm...

 

See if this helps. LINK

 

Yep, did that. It took care of the coprocessor, but I still have something listed as unknown.

 

What about IR or bluetooth? Have you installed for both of those already?

 

Ah, good catch! It was IR. Installed it and ran the autmatic driver update. This thing is telling me I have the fingerprint reader, but the Win7 login screen says it can't find it. Weird. Updated my display drivers and am doing much better now on my win experience score as well.