Ashtefere

I do NOT have an iPad 1/2. Nor will I. -Ash

I bought some replacement fans for the M17x R2, however they were too thick by a few MM. I gave up after being unable to find anything more suitable that wouldnt burn out the fan connectors (7v vs standard 12v) -Ash

Pretty bare details - no mention of GPU config. -Ash

There are 4 hardware ports in the m17x r2, and all of them have the same host controller. Only 3 ports are wired up, however.

I removed the optical drive and used an adapter. One of the slower drives sits in the ODD caddy adapter. Im using windows software raid, as well so that I can transfer the drives if need be. -Ash

Slightly better than middle of the road. The most often used parts is stored on SSD area. The larger files are ok to be run off platter storage, so a hybrid SSD is actually a really good drive. In my m17x r2 I have 3 SSDs, a single 120gb sandforce drive as my OS drive, and 2x 120gb slower drives in raid0 for documents/data. The IOPS on the raid0 is slower, but transfer speed is the same, so the whole setup makes sense and works great. -Ash

Send me a m14x and ill mod it! -Ash

Every single thing you see in a videogame is stored on the hard disk. To see it in game it has to go from hard disk -> ram -> GPU -> monitor. The faster your hard disk, the faster it gets through the pipeline. Hard disks are incredibly slow compared to ram, gpu, etc. Today, most games are 32-bit applications, so they have a hard limit of 2gb ram to store graphics, etc into. So, you need a hard disk that can catch the overflow in your page file. If you are running through a particularly large and varied game map, if you come across an item that isnt in your ram the game will 'hitch' as brian said, and will momentarily pause while it loads from the hard disk. The loading isnt the bad part though, its the seeking. Hard disks have "needles" that need to seek back and forth to find files. On a standard HDD, this is 8-12ms, so thats how long the hitch will last at a minimum. If you have an SSD, this hitching is eliminated because there is no needle doing seeking, and the burst bandwidth is more than any single game resource in size. This is just one of many examples why an SSD is better. Whilst all of this is going on, if you use skype/vent/mumble/etc that is also going to need hard disk access, and everything else too. I see a lot of people, even today saying "you dont need an SSD, it just sometimes maybe makes games load faster". These are people who cant afford an SSD, and tell themselves this at night so they can get to sleep. An SSD is a massive, powerful, monstrous upgrade that is orders of magnitiude more visible than any other upgrade you can do, unless you are upgrading your GPU from a TNT2 or something to a hd6970. TL;DR: Get an SSD. -Ash

More and more china rumors about the 580m, which is the same specs as a 485m but running cooler and higher clockspeed. Im not really sure the 580m would be worth the extra money over a 485m - if its only 5% faster (projected clockspeed increase equates to 5% performance increase) it had better be only 5% more expensive. -Ash

Yeah... looks to me like it will be beneficial for me to wait a couple months, see if they have the 485m option buy then and if not, get the 460's and buy third party. I just cant trust the AMD solution any more. -Ash

Lets just not forget about the dell driver support for the 5870m crossfire debacle... we had to fight tooth and nail to get those updates, remember? -Ash

I posted those details (a comparison between the two) in the m18x rumors thread - go take a look. -Ash http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/22-alienware-m18x-rumors-discussion-thread-5.html#post2132

It was $150 to upgrade from a 5870 to dual 5870 in australia for the R2 when it first came out. And that was when our dollar was bad - about $80 USD equivalent. -Ash

I cant find (and I have been looking) any information on the 580m anywhere. So, I dont think this is the case. The 485m was only recently released too and could easily have been called the 580m. Do you have any info on what the 580m could be? -Ash

Got a link to the price drops gabe? Or at least how much the drop was? Thanks -Ash

I used a hacksaw then a file to clean it up. -Ash

If it is, I would pay it! -Ash

Ok. Using the m17x r3 configurator - going from a single gtx 460m to a single HD6970m is $175 USD. Two in crossfire for the M18x, then, should be $350 USD. If anyone in USA wants to call Dell USA and query this, stating the above, I would love to know their response. -Ash

Also keep in mind Jimbo that a 6970m is a cheaper to manufacture laptop version of a HD6850 - Amazetech Amaze ATI HD6850 | ITSPOT.COM.AU Computer Components $179!!!! And that is including all the packaging and extra cooling, more PCB to build, etc. It is overpriced, in every regard. It simply is not worth $450 per card, in any universe, for any reason, in comparison to any laptop, ever. I do hope your view on "not final prices" is correct. Prices like that are doubled on the AU side of things, and at nearly $4k USD for an average config, you are looking at about $8k AUD over here. I would buy that classic second hand ferrari I have been eyeing off instead. A ferrari. -Ash

Do note jimbo that for the australian m17x r2, the upgrade to HD5870m crossfire was $150 AUD. The equivalent on the m18x is $900 USD. That is six times higher! That is simply greedy and insane. -Ash

For the price of that crossfire setup, I am definately upgraded to 485m sli third party. It looks like you guys in the US finally get a taste of Australian pricing! Really, it's ridiculous. As of this morning 1 AUD buys 1.08 USD, so my dollar effectively gives me an 8% discount on stuff I buy from the US, so it isnt as bad for me. Couple that with the cost of a pair of 485m's in AU ($1400) and it isnt all that much more expensive. $500 more? I thought it would be a lot more than that. Yeah, that system is waaaaaaaaaaay overpriced. Just wow. Release date is on May 18th, so a little while off yet. Maybe they will lower the pricing a bit? Perhaps alienware dont think they have a competitor in the same region? If you want to email/chat a sales rep, maybe link them the config that Brian just did for the clevo, and do the whole "why should I buy this alienware when this clevo is better? discount plox?" Ah, corporate greed. So rampant! -Ash

Generally with ATI cards, 5xxx and 4xxx cards are 5:1 in performance, 6xxx cards are 4:1 in performance. So, a geforce gtx 580 with 512 shaders is equivalent to a radeon 6980 2048sp. The 6970 could have easily ended up as 1920sp (plenty of die space and TDP available) and been a great competitor to the 580, and crushed the 480. But it wasnt. This is because ATI needed the 6970 to perform less than the 480 in order to guarantee sales of the 6990. If the 6970 was faster than the 480 on release, no one would buy the 6990 (or at least only a small portion of people). It sucks, its pathetic, its sneaky, and its infuriating, but AMD cut down the 6970 to make money. /rant. Yeah, so 4:1 Ati:nvidia As for memory bandwidth - most cards have more than adequate memory bandwidth (and usually a looooot more than they need). There was a theory that the 5870 was bandwidth starved, hence the lower numbers than it should have had, but this was tested and it turned out it was the dispatch/scheduler in the GPU underperforming (fixed in the 6xxx series). 256bit memory bandwith is more than enough for both brands of cards. Especially with gddr5. Historically, mem bandwidth has been a non-issue unless you are talking notebook cards (which are almost always bandwidth starved). -Ash

Pagefiles are needed for 32bit game executables with poor memory management. The developers have 2 options when it comes to 32bit games: 1: Fit everything into 2GB and manage it properly, using time and effort (or 3Gb if the user has the /3gb environment variable, but thats not reliable) 2: IDGAF it and code poorly, lazily, and quickly and rely on the page file for memory overflow. I bet you can fucking guess what they choose? So if you have a 64bit machine with 9999999gb memory, that game exe can only use 2gb. So the devs throw all their extra crap into the pagefile. If you have your pagefile switched off and the devs do this you will get the "close programs memory too low" error, which is actually bullshit if you check out your task manager. Its windows responding to one program hitting its pitiful 2gb limit. If it is a 64bit app, you wont have this problem with your pagefile switched off. So, the best solution if you have more than 8gb ram, is to have a 4gb ramdisk with a 4gb pagefile on it, set size. Then your 32 bit apps will be more than happy. Also, use the /3gb switch on startup for a bit of extra legroom. -Ash

Yeah, the purpose of the retention mod is to move the c-clip from the bottom side of the heatsink plate to the top side of the heatsink plate. Then, you have more than enough pressure - literally more than enough - without any washers. You also need to be aware that the section of the heatsink that hangs over the VRM and choke modules does not actually cool these modules. Instead, it gets in the way of a level mount. You are best removing the metal sections that push down on the VRM/choke modules entirely (which I have done). My average GPU temps are very low, but I havent checked them in a while. At 800ish core (i think thats what im running) im getting about 72c-79c without the ducting mod. This is purely due to removing the aluminium overhang that covers the VRM area. You get total flatness, no bowing of the board, and can screw the screws down fully with the retention mod applied. The memory heatsinks also get a lot more pressure this way too (which raises the core temp a little, but lowers the ram temp). Up to you if you want to do this though! No guarantees you wont pop a heatpipe and break the cooler entirely. -Ash

I have always loved the look of the precision 17 line of lappys. They kinda get me a bit hot. If I could get one with crossfire/sli I would just die. An 1120sp HD6970 in a precision m6600 would actually be kind of a beast TBH. Or even a 485m I guess. Depends if the 6600 has thunderbolt or expressport 2.0 connection on it. Anyway, ignore my rambles. I just want a new lappy already that doesnt have sata issues. -Ash