Alienware m18x or m17x r4?

Yeah, I'd go for that.

There were quite a few R4's today but none were all that decent apart from 1 with 680 (but I think it was about 1300 delivered) and a cheaper one with 7970 for about 950. Anyone have any luck?
 
I was unsure for a while, I was ideally looking for a M17X R4 but at that price I figured it was too good to pass up.

I think about 8 Alienwares ranging from M17-M18 went up today, I missed the first and got that on my second attempt - strange the normal sellers would leave it so long

I'll see what I think when it arrives, if its not for me I'll probaly put it up on ebay/sell it
 
Its an extra inch in size, has a more robust chassis as its made of aluminum not plastic and has dual GPU? Its a great laptop but its a true desktop replacement and its bigger then a M17x.

You can expand on the memory and storage and still not paid as much for a new one direct from Dell. You've got a cracking machine for the money..
 
Space Monkey said:
Thanks, I've just completed the Respawn, so I'll put my SSD in later today, can't wait :D
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Glad your machine arrived Lee :)
The 2960xm has made a massive difference in my laptop BTW
I know it doesn't mean anything really but windows index on graphics with the 6990 jumped from 7 to 7.6 by putting this chip in over the 2760m. graphics feel much smoother now. just goes to show in a laptop the chips can bottleneck the cards.
 
cammy5477 said:
Glad your machine arrived Lee :)
The 2960xm has made a massive difference in my laptop BTW
I know it doesn't mean anything really but windows index on graphics with the 6990 jumped from 7 to 7.6 by putting this chip in over the 2760m. graphics feel much smoother now. just goes to show in a laptop the chips can bottleneck the cards.
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Nice, didn't realise that the new CPU would increase the GPU as well, shows there was a bottleneck, wish I'd known that before, lol :rolleyes::p
 
Super-Spy said:
What are you planning on doing, initializing the SSD and then restoring your Alien Respawn image to it ?

I was thinking of cloning mine using something like Macrium Reflect Free
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Yeah, I've got an Samsung 830 256GB SSD left over from my desktop PC so want that as my main drive, so the Alien Re-Spawn should just set the SSD to the first boot stage, shouldn't need anything else?
 
Whats the maximum speed of ram I can put in my R3 guys?
Was thinking of dropping in some 1866 vengeance 16gb if my machine would appreciate it.
If not I will just stick with the 1333 stuff thats in just now
 
cammy5477 said:
Whats the maximum speed of ram I can put in my R3 guys?
Was thinking of dropping in some 1866 vengeance 16gb if my machine would appreciate it.
If not I will just stick with the 1333 stuff thats in just now
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IIRC its 1600, and I've read mixed reports about the 1866 ram running at correct speeds, it should just run of the XMP and be ok, but can't confirm 100% :)
 
Space Monkey said:
IIRC its 1600, and I've read mixed reports about the 1866 ram running at correct speeds, it should just run of the XMP and be ok, but can't confirm 100% :)
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How are you getting on with your new machine mate?
Very tempted to get the m18x and max it out :D but common sense tells me it wont be that much better than what I have.
Are there any benchies showing the differences between 1333 and 1600/1866 in these lappys?
 
cammy5477 said:
How are you getting on with your new machine mate?
Very tempted to get the m18x and max it out :D but common sense tells me it wont be that much better than what I have.
Are there any benchies showing the differences between 1333 and 1600/1866 in these lappys?
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Had a nightmare last night, OS died a death and wouldn't let me in to the bios or use the respawn to restore it! then it wouldn't accept my SSD as it wasn't the same size as the drive that the respawn was created on, then the Windows OS DVD that came with the laptop is faulty and wont install!!!! rock and hard place comes to mind :mad:

Luckily I had the new 750GB WD Black HDD, so I've re-spawned to that for now and its running, and just trying to get my SSD running and get onto Dell for another OS disc!

Funny, with all this I was tempted to get the M18x and max it out as well, but not sure my life would be safe if I did that! :p

Haven't seen any benchies, but its not really an amazing difference, I'd stick with 1600 as its cheaper and runs natively off the CPU memory controller, that's what I have in mine now, 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz :)

Does your CPU fan run high then low, then high then low etc....? Not sure it did this yesterday and with all the problems, I'm getting just a little paranoid now? :(
 
Not that I've noticed Lee. The tdp of the 2960xm is 55w aswell but by fitting it myself I was able to use gelid tim on it that seems to be getting best reviews and it keeps my chip low 50's.
 
cammy5477 said:
Not that I've noticed Lee. The tdp of the 2960xm is 55w aswell but by fitting it myself I was able to use gelid tim on it that seems to be getting best reviews and it keeps my chip low 50's.
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I take it that is low 50s idle? any idea of maxed out temps? I have some MX4 here, so I may do a re-paste as well :)
 
Space Monkey

You’ve hit the dreaded Alien Respawn issue where it won’t respawn the OS back to a drive of different size.

Shrink your factory installed HD down to the same size as the SSD and then leave the empty space leaving you with a C partition same size as the SSD.

Respawn to removable media, install SSD and run the respawn, hopefully this tricks it; seem to remember others were having this issue. I installed a SSD but the respawn funnily enough worked for me.

But hopefully that works.

My M17x has a constant CPU fan, nothing too loud, the GPU fan however kicks up when under load and is quite audible.

Also, if you want to cut your loses and reinstall the O/S you can simply download a Windows 8 DVD as you’ve got the license key as that’ll be in the BIOS I think, or under the battery when you remove the battery is the COA number, the Asset Tag is in the BIOS so when you get the O/S back into the SSD you simply connect to Dell downloads and let the website search for all the drivers, it will use your service tag to find what is needed.

Saves waiting for Dell to ship a new DVD out, you’ve got a DVD write with your M17x.
 
iv-tecman said:
Space Monkey

You’ve hit the dreaded Alien Respawn issue where it won’t respawn the OS back to a drive of different size.

Shrink your factory installed HD down to the same size as the SSD and then leave the empty space leaving you with a C partition same size as the SSD.

Respawn to removable media, install SSD and run the respawn, hopefully this tricks it; seem to remember others were having this issue. I installed a SSD but the respawn funnily enough worked for me.

But hopefully that works.

My M17x has a constant CPU fan, nothing too loud, the GPU fan however kicks up when under load and is quite audible.

Also, if you want to cut your loses and reinstall the O/S you can simply download a Windows 8 DVD as you’ve got the license key as that’ll be in the BIOS I think, or under the battery when you remove the battery is the COA number, the Asset Tag is in the BIOS so when you get the O/S back into the SSD you simply connect to Dell downloads and let the website search for all the drivers, it will use your service tag to find what is needed.

Saves waiting for Dell to ship a new DVD out, you’ve got a DVD write with your M17x.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, I'll give the OS shrink thing a try.

Also, where do I download an official Windows 8 as I can't seem to find it online (don't want dodgy copies)?

thanks :)
 
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