Ashtefere

I am really afraid of what the Australian pricing is going to end up as.

Currently our dollar is higher. Usually dell AU set the price as 50%-100% higher than the USA counterpart, touting "exchange rate" as the reason.

When I tried to configure a M17x R3 for a baseline, it came up at over $5000 for a 2820qm + 6970m... thats fucking ridiculous, especially with our dollar being higher.

I have a feeling the M18x is gonna end up being around $6000 AUD with a 2920qm and dual 6970m. If it is, fuck that. I will be using a mail forwarder or something.

Any esitmate on US pricing for the M18x yet?

-Ash

I would probably start selling random kidnapped children to organ farmers for a thunderbolt port.

Just sayin...

-Ash

Silver is also very nice.

-Ash

There you go!

Looks nice, like a ferrari.

-Ash

In all honesty, I am probably gonna get her sprayed in auto paint. Black is my usually color, but it's a little boring, and I always liked the color of the Dell Covet (my second fav lappy).

So if anyone has a request and they dont have photoshop skillz, post here and I will give it a shot.

-Ash

OK... what kind of backpack is going to fit this thing? I gotta start looking...

-Ash

Dimensions are:

1.5 mm thicker than the M17x R2

30mm wider than the m17x R2 (edited: 30, not 20)

Same Depth

100 grams heavier... 100 grams!

Thats pretty fucking impressive. I'm sold.

-Ash

It makes no difference actually, but if it did I would have been pissed.

-Ash

Says so in the pics!

That's probably because Sketchup does not support dual GPU

I shouldnt have to disable crossfire to use sketchup at a speed higher than a geforce 9200m. Thats ludicrous.

-Ash

The "same motherboard" comment was by me based off the placeholder image on the CDN site. This was obviously a wrong image, as we know now. Seeing the bottom vents proves its a totally different motherboard layout and 32gb option means it has 4dimms .

-Ash

I am kinda burned my DAAMIT atm. On my r2 at home with my OCed 5870m's - in crossfire - sketchup runs... 'not the best'. At work, I have a mac mini running windows. It has a geforce 9200 in it. It runs sketchup orders of magnitudes faster. Literally. I get maybe 10fps in a certain one of my projects at home, and I hit way above 60fps on the mac mini at work - same SKP file, same version of sketchup, hardware acceleration enabled on both.

Unity 3d and UDK both run faster on nvidia (the editors, specifically) and SLI is supported in more games.

I just in general have a bad feeling about DAAMIT now. I know crossfire is much faster than SLI now, but still - I cant shake the feeling that the better performance in dev-ish apps mean I need the geforce.

So, I am hoping against hope we can have 485m's in the R3 - although I'm guessing that Dellienware is going to pussy out and only supply 460m's. I believe this will be out of fear of a user getting the 2920xm + 485m combo and going to throttle city.

I will happily be limited to a 2820qm if it means I can get my 485m sli!

Heres hoping.

-Ash

E3 is a possibility though - note the fact they say "factory overclocked"... H67 is not the best platform for overclocking so it is quite possible this is a Z68 platform. That puts a release date around mid-late may, and its conceivable they would push it back one more month to get the perceived extra hype from E3.

-Ash

EDIT:

On that note, if they do delay till E3, they will probably put in a 580m showing as well. We have a 555m so far... I'm willing to bet there is a 560/570/580m in the pipeline too.

-Ash

Definately a subwoofer - can't remember where I read it but they did say this thing would have a subwoofer. So, by power of elimination - doesnt look like a fan, but ports out to the air = subwoofer.

-Ash

Holy fucking bouncing ballsacks...

Thats an impressive looking machine.

Check out the cooling system underneath!

Yeah ok, I'm getting excited too. Fuck.

-Ash

EDIT:

This thing has four fucking display outputs!!! HOLY SHIT!

Hmm. This is giving me a very strange feeling.

PROS:

1: Looks like the 6970m crossfire need a bigger PSU that isnt available yet - which means we should be able to shoehorn in some XM CPUS!

2: It appears that they have re-used the same basic chassis design as the m17xR2, with a bigger screen! I like it much more than the M17xR3.

3: 6870m crossfire is an option.

CONS

1: No 485m sli option. Not even a 460m sli option. WTF? Lets hope they update that.

2: If they have re-used the m17x r2 design but put in a larger screen (18.4 inch screen fits the 17x chassis easily) then it is likely they re-used the motherboard layout as well. This means only two dimms for ram!

3: Probably using the 960sp version of the 6970m, which is unnecessarily underpowered compared to the 1120sp version (which is fasterish than a 485m!)

My dealbreakers:

1: I need 485m sli. Or I wont even look at this thing. I already have a sketchup design for a mITX shuttle-type box that is 160mm x 160mm x 330mm. Its pretty small, and fits a full size PSU, full size tower cooler, and 2.5 slot 580m. If I dont get 485m sli im building it instead.

2: 2 dimms. I am actually running out of ram on a daily basis with 8gb. I need 16gb minimum now.

3: If it is the same design as the m17x R2, the cooling is going to be WTF loud again. I can mod it again, but I shouldnt have to. I want cool, quiet computing. Asus did it on their crappy 17inch gamer lappy, alienware can do it.

Lets hope more info comes in, but I am hopefuly about the 330/320w AC adapter - if we get it, we have the TDP for a 2820qm + 485m sli OR a 6970 crossfire + XM cpu.

-Ash

Ill be getting an M18x as soon as they drop, so long as they have dual 485m or the 1120sp 6970s. Already have the cash saved, and permission from her ladyship

P.S. Brian, can you move all the M18x and M14X threads to their respective sections?

-Ash

External PCIE dock with a desktop videocard in it (e.g. geforce gtx 580 or something).

You need a PCIE 2.0 expresscard port to get the most out of it, and you need to use an external display for the best performance.

Essentially, run the 485m or 6970m on the go, and plug it into your 580 or 6970 when you get home.

-Ash

Ok, mouse has arrived. I have the matching keyboard coming too FYI, which will also get a review.

Just a teaser - I am very very impressed so far. It literally puts both the mamba and the orochi to shame in quite a few areas. I will be writing a full review (longer than the tactx keyboard review which was only a 'mini review') once I throw a few games at it.

-Ash

Oh my...

If that thing has an MXM 3.0b slot, and a decent PSU... o.O

I am actually a little excited now.

Getting one of these with a 6970m and a DIY vidock would be just totally jawesome!

Here's hoping!

-Ash

Also of note - disabling the onboard sound entirely at the bios level will prevent this as well.

Of course, you need to use a USB sound solution instead - I use a set of logitech z-10 speakers.

-Ash

Yeah I thought as much before, I always assumed the 240w PSU was an error.

Hopefully this wont be a dissapointment - I was just getting my sights set on a lappy again...

-Ash

The mention of oled makes me think this is a troll/fake.

I highly doubt dell would not give the option for 2920xm for their flagship - this seems totally ridiculous.

I also saw no mention of the 485m either.

As a matter of curiousity - what is the projected tdp for 485m + 2920xm? Is a 240w PSU enough for that?

-Ash

Benefits over vidock:

1: Cable - You only need one cable for 4x pcie lanes (or 2x pcie2.0)

2: You can send display output directly back to the internal display

3: Going to be locked to the AC plug either way, and I dont game on battery

4: Will put more interest in the ViDock thing, causing more OEMS to perhaps hopefully build a thunderbolt vidock or similar.

More performance, less wires, more options - its win win win!

-Ash

http://product.pchome.net/pc_notebook_alienware_alienwarem18x/param_316301.html (use google translate for chinese simplified)

Not sure the accuracy of the info but note the silver/white color.

-Ash