Ordered 17 inch and questions

Hello,

I ordered a 17 inch with a gtx 970m and I have a question.

It comes with a slow 5400 RPM drive and I just know it will not give me the best experience. I have a 512GB Plextor SSD and I plan to replace the stock 5400 RPM drive. I have an external DVD/CD drive and a Windows 8 retail CD.

Can I install the Plextor and setup the external drive as a boot device in the bios and jump through the secure boot fluff (I know how to do that) and use the CD for install since the Windows COA in embedded in the bios? My main question is does the bios have provisions to allow me to boot from the USB connected external DVD/CD drive?

Thanks for the reply.

 

You can however there is a faster way.

If you have a USB flash drive, you can download windows 8.1 retail from Microsoft ( http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media ) and then install it via that.

It'll take something like 5-10mins.

 

Thanks for the reply.

That would work well if I didn't live in the middle of nowhere and could get faster then 12 meg internet.

I could convert my Windows 8.1 disk into an ISO on my laptop I'm on now and do it that way. I think it would just be faster to use the external drive though if the bios will let me use it as a boot device.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Oh fair enough. The external drive should work.

Is your disc windows 8 or windows 8.1 retail? For w/e stupid reason windows 8 and 8.1 have different cd keys and the installer only accepts the key for that version (it will activate just fine).

 

Thanks for the reply.

My disk is Windows 8.1 premium. I'm assuming that all should be fine after I jump through the secure boot hoop.

Thanks for confirming the laptop will allow me to use the external DVD/CD drive as a boot device, was my main concern.

Thanks again.

 

If you are aware of creating the USB drive or have one already, of course that would be the fastest. If you do not know how to do so, and have the external drive with the Windows disc, that would be the fastest way. If I had the choice of using the external drive with the disc, I would have done the same as well without having to create another USB drive. It's just annoying.

In your BIOS, make sure to have your external boot up first with the external driver connected. That should boot up the windows setup.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I could come up with many ways to install Windows. I have done "frugal" installs with Windows xp/7 without issue by transferring the iso to a partition on the drive and using grub to boot the iso. I have used dd to convert Windows to an iso many times.

It just makes sense to take the easy route. As long as the machine will allow me to boot from the CD, then life is golden. Some manufactures cripple the BIOS to some unusable pile of crap, not knowing AW, I did not know what to expect.

I am relieved the easy process will work (easy for me already having the disk).

Thanks for the reply.

 

The computer came today and here is the experience I have had:

I used the stock disk for the first boot because I figured (and it did) it would allow me to register the machine with Dell, got it done.

Next I installed the SSD and put Windows on it. No problem there.

Installed all the drivers it allow me to. The OSD driver (app) will not install because of some mux.xml and it says my machine is not eligible (strange).

I have studio quality speakers hooked up to this machine via the headphone jack. There is an occasional crackle that the machine seems to spit out. I don't know what is causing this. Reason for concern? Happen to anyone else?

I noticed the CPU temps were a little higher then I would like at idle. I was sitting between 50-60 Celsius while doing nothing, seemed strange. So I remember from reading the forums that people are recommending the 00 bios. I installed it and idle is now between 39-45 Celsius, happy with that. Max temps hit 81 while running Cinebench three times in a row, I'm happy.

Anyone have any ideas about the crackle and the OSD issue? I did not get the driver for the fall hard drive safety thingy, no heads on this drive and nothing to park if it falls. Since this is going to be a desktop mostly, no worries anyway.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

The inbuilt is going to show the odd artifact on a studio level system. A usb sound card might be the ticket for a high end setup.

 

Thank you very much for the reply.

I just figured this machine had a higher end sound system then the run of the mill system.

Thanks for the reply. Will get another card.

Would a DAC fix the problem?

 

If you have optical out available to you (I assume it does) then you can run that to an external unit and get digital sound out.

 

OK, thank you very much for the info.

 

Alienware are not as bad as others but due to the very high noise in such a constrained environment it makes truly clean audio that will not show up in a studio environment hard to pull off.

 

I wanted to give a heads up about the crackling sound issue.

I have been with Verizon for years. I just recently switched to Cricket (GSM and not CDMA) and was not familiar with the fact that GSM phones can transmit to electronics when close, so I had checked everything but that.

I turned some music on pretty loud while doing things around the house. I noticed there was not one strange noise to be heard. I come back into my room and it started. I wondered what I was doing to cause such sounds (excluding the tin-foil-hat and such ).

I noticed that I was sitting my cell next to the computer. Moved the phone on the other side of my desk and the issue is fixed.

I am actually really impressed with the sound card in this laptop. Produces top notch sound and has allowed me to tailor the sound to the way I like it and sounds great with these reference speakers.

Now very pleased. Just a heads up in case this happens to anyone else.

 

Lol yeah cell phones are pretty noisy devices, wait until you get a call and the noise will be far worse.