*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge - Part 4

Pretty common, except for maybe the no fan at all part. It doesn't happen as often as it did, but that's probably becuase I never shut down my pc.

 

The fan spinning up to full speed on boot is normal and many laptops do that.

I assume it just runs full-throttle until the BIOS initializes a thermal/power plan.

 

Well normally the Fan does boot up full-speed but it only lasts for 2-5 seconds. This time is stayed on and didn't let go for about 4 minutes. At that time I just restarted.

 

Yea the full-speed fan at bootup is normal and is part of the POST (Power-on-self-test). It just makes sure all the hardware is working as it should upon bootup.

As for it staying on... its happened to me once or twice... not sure why.. but a reboot solved it... prob just some glitch. nothing to worry about

 

dang M15x with 5870 is so sweet, can't wait to get one.

 

Man ohh man... i saw you post in that thread. Lucky son of a gun already has his installed. 78degrees MAX temp playing BC2? Thats awesome
And im so jealous

 

I'd love a 5870 in this bad boy, but they're not available at RJ Tech yet And I'd assume they'd cost an arm and a leg.

 

somewhere over 5bills...

 

I noticed that the 5870 has a TDP of only 50W.. 25w less than the 260. It clearly outperforms the 260 by a large margin.. Looks like a solid upgrade path, just stating the obvious haha..

I'm more of an Nvidia fan from experience, but the 800 stream processors is hard to scoff at

In a few months, assuming they put the 5870 in the M15X (of course they will since it's in the new Bios), I imagine a bunch of M15X machines will have some accidental damage, ahem..

 

Actually, they should be cheaper than the 285 from rjtech.

I'd say $450 maybe.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html

Actually, according to NBC it's not such a great performer..

Surely bringing the TDP down to 50W is going to help, but it doesn't perform as well as a 280M according to this quick check I did.. (not well researched, so sorry if I'm way off)..

I'd rather stick with Nvidia and go with a 280M, actually screw that, a 480M!!! woohooo

Now I'm just dreaming

 

Why would they be cheaper than a 285? Aren't they better, both in performance and power consumption?

EDIT: I saw Pras' post, guess we posted at the same time

 

Sorry, but the 5870 will smoke the 280 night and day

Don't rely on notebookcheck for anything but specs.

Because the actual cost of the card and gpu is cheaper.

Go configure a W870 and you will see the 285, while slower, is $50 more expensive.

 

Well hey, as long as it's cheaper I'm not going to complain

 

Yeah, i thought it was a bit weird with the 5870 being a newer part and all..

Of course there's the DX11 support too..

 

Simply put. both the 5870 and 5870m are the best single-card configurations out right now. ATI takes the top spot..once again

285's are pretty much right behind ...and do have PhysX support... and i also heard the 285's work better in SLI than 5870's in CF....but i could be mistaken on that last part.

 

dual card support and performance, whether cf or sli, also depends largely on the game or application utilizing it.

For the record, the 285M is a very good card and ran everything beautifully in my W870.

 

Shoot, I forgot about Physx support.

 

Quick question for you other M15x owners because I am stumped and can't figure out what the problem is

Situation: Whenever I play a video using windows media player full screen or not the video will go slightly fuzzy/blurry for a second. It does this every few seconds. When I play the same video with VLC is displays perfectly. I suspect that it is because the refresh rate is at 59Hz in windows. So I tried to switch it to 60Hz and it won't let me. I can select the 60Hz and it applies it when I click apply/ok, however it doesn't stay. When i go back into the options it's set back to 59Hz

Any ideas would help

 

this is just my 2 cents but i wonder how long it will be until we see a new top of the line nvidia mobile fermi. a green christmas anyone

 

^

Summertime most likely.

 

oooo so i wonder if dellienware pulls a fast one

 

Just stick to VLC!

 

Lol ya that is my end plan if i can't fix it. I just figured I would give the new media player with windows 7 a chance

 

Ugh shucks, it looks like my gpu is running uber slow.. Even when I try to overclock it, the clocks still run slower than they should..
I guess I should reinstall the driver?
My 3dmark06 score is 3k lower than usual

 

Hey 5870 is better than GTX280 and ATI 4870 even on notebookcheck but the GTX280m listed above the 5870 is actually GTX 280m SLI (2xGTX280m)...

Both GTX285m and 280m are placed below 5870m.. It is the fastest single card config...

 

Base System Color Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Processor Intel® Core™ i3-330M 2.13GHz (3M cache)
Memory 3GB DDR3 at 1066MHz
LCD Display 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED
Video Card 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
Hard Drive 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Nameplate Personalized Nameplate (PERFORMANCE)
AlienFX AlienFX Plasma Purple
Avatar Alienhead 3D
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
Optical Drives Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On
Primary Battery Primary - 9-cell (85Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery
Service 1Year Advanced Service Plan plus Lojack
Wallpapers Alienware Logo
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth 2.1 Mini-Card - 2.1 Enhanced Data Rate
Standard Nameplate Trigger Thank you for Purchasing Alienware

Got this spec'ed out for my M15x I'm ordering tomorrow. Total is $1,795.11 (minus EPP and $50), gonna call the EPP sales dept to see about getting some more discounts. What do you guys think?

 

Ok I've had my M15x for a couple of days now and I'd like to say I'm happy with it mostly. The only problem I have is MW2 I get really crappy FPS while playing it. I've tried most things with it, lowered the res changed the detail levels to low but it still craps out on me any way of making it better?

Never mind figured it out that I can't play it at 1900x1080 but plays very well at 1024x768

 

make sure you have stealth mode disabled (speedometer button) I developed an indicator (see sig) which makes it easier to see if stealth mode is enabled or disabled.

Also, make sure you run high performance power plan

 

Thanks thats a good little program

 

I'd go for the i5 at least, plus for a few dollars you can get your ram running at 1333Mhz, which is also nice!

 

Hey btw, do you guys think I could hook my computer to two PC monitor using VGA on one and HDMI on the other? :O

 

I see your point on the ram speed but I can't justify going i7-720QM for 1333MHz. More than likely I'll just get the i5-540M. I WAS going to go stock on everything but decided that with that money I could just buy a 240m Asus for half the price so might as well go for the 260m since I have no plans to upgrade GPU anytime soon. Then again cutting $180 and sticking with the i3 for now would save me $$. Decisions decisions. For sure 260m is staying though.

 

cant have the 1333 ram with any of the new core iX cause their max fsb is 1066

 

The 900p screen is also very good, my friend has the 1080p, the difference is barely noticeable.. but it's your choice!
Other than that it sounds like a sweet computer, Though if you can wait, there must be a deal coming with the dell signature event!

Edit: Oh i see, thanks Tuenkamen!
Btw reinstalled my driver for my gpu and everything is back to normal, scored about 12k on 3dmark06, I'll see if I can grind some more points

 

thank you for being someone who shares my view on not worrying about having to upgrade to the 5870 right away. i need this laptop cause im moving to canada so i don't want to pay canadian prices. god bless american prices

nice 3dmark06 score dude cant wait to get mine and have the chance to match that or greater. Why won't this computer get here already.

 

@SoccerThierry
What's this Dell signature event thing? Also I know there isn't much difference between the 900p and 1080p but That is part of a system that is not easily upgraded so might as well do it from the start. I basically spec'd the M15x out in order of ease of upgrades: CPU is easy and cheap (ebay), GPU is easy but costly later (upgraded), RAM I already have waiting inside the M11x, Screen is difficult and costly (upgraded), 9 cell from the start, blu-ray (no need for that), Wifi (on the fence) see below. I think these decisions make sense to me lol.

@tuenkamen
I try to not buy into the latest and greatest that's all. I figured the 260m is a monster overclocker and can easily match a 285m (except the pipelines of course). The 5870 is a great card for sure, but I don't want to have to upgrade it using a 260m heatsink. Plus I could care less about DX11...i3 for gaming is fine for me, I don't do coding/editing/other intensive stuff other than gaming which is mostly shooters ported from consoles lol.

If I ordered the M15x with the Dell 1520, will it still come with 3 antennas so I can upgrade to 6300 later? Does the 5300 even use 3? It'll save me $41 to skip the 5300 now.

Thanks guys.

Oh yeah, what's a good bag for the M15x that will allow me to carry the charger, mouse, and mics small items (no books or anything bigger than the laptop itself)? I don't want anything too flashy or "fat" looking (the Alienware Orion). A nice black business looking bag would be cool.

 

well the 5200 has two antennas so i would believe the 5300 does have 3 antennas so yes you could put the 6300 in there and not buy the 5300 wish i could but im moving so id rather have something to latch onto a neighbors wireless for free.

 

But is the extra 3rd antenna included with the 1520 lol? You know that tricky Dell...

 

on that front dell is one sob so if you want to be certain to have 3 antennas in your rig get the 5300.

 

Yeah, I might have to do that if I can't get any other confirmation. Sucks, damn Dell lol.

 

im guessing someone on this forum has to have that wireless card hopefully he could has some input on this matter if in fact the computer still comes with three antennas

 

Yeah. Hey what are you doing in terms of bags for the laptop? Got any good ones in mind? I'm shopping around. Thanks

 

for bags im going to be using and old targus laptop bag or my previous semesters laptop bag and if none of those work then ill be shopping around for one until i have this laptop idk. For this you might want to lean towards a 17" laptop bag cause its almost as big as the m17x

 

Anyone know if these nameplates are interchangeable? The M11x is going to my fiancee but I want to get her her own plate on the M15x so I can swap them over.

 

I always get bags from Timbuk2. They're very well made, perfectly laid out, and can hold EVERYTHING you throw at 'em. I've got one that's two years old and still looks almost new.

 

Hi JWest. Can you measure the nameplate for me? LxW and diagonal? Thanks man, I just want to make sure the M11x plate can switch over to the M15x.

I'll go take a look at the Timbuk2 bags. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Nameplates are the same.

 

My M15x hasn't arrived yet, so I can't do any measuring

 

I am going be memory but I am quite sure that they are the same.