Avocent

Ok I am not really feeling buy.com right now as they lost part of my order with an "ooops do you want a refund" I ordered 8gb additional memory for the baby and it was supposed to be here over a week ago. So I canceled the order and reordered the exact same modules from Amazon. Buy.com price was 61.99 for 8gb and Amazons price had dropped to $48.99 per 8GB plus I forgot I still had a $20 credit at amazon so I ended up picking up 16GB total memory. My Estimated ship date is the 28th next week, does anyone know if Dell usually runs ahead of there estimates or behind?

You have a great point about testing it before blowing everything away it will definitely be better to discover a potential problem before I take hours of my time installing the hardware and reinstalling the software. +1 The lights I love and unless I go into a law firm they can stay on, it's the alien head book bag that to me doesn't project the air of professionalism when walking into a clients door. The laptop you can explain away as the Ferrari of laptops haha. Thanks

So I ordered the M17x R3, but my ship date isn't until the 28th because the Nvidia 580 is delaying the order. I have 0 patience.. I mean so littlle patience I have left Dates at restaraunts/bars/beaches because they were to slow to get back to the car when I was ready to leave! So now to have to wait weeks for my new computer is damn near driving me crazy. To kill the time so far I have ordered upgrades and done reasearch. Upgrades a) Crucial M4 256GB SSD Corsair Vengeance 8GB 204 DIMM 1600 giving me a total of 12GB for the time being. Dell rapes you on memory price so I kept the stock order at 4 instead of 8 and will eventually get to 16GB if needed. I would prefer 32GB but so far I haven't found any 1600speed memory in 8GB sticks. 16 or even 12 should be sufficient I think. C) Searched my house and found my Windows 7 64 Ultimate CD and key for easy upgrading when it comes. Researched what to do when the machine arrives. A)So far I have gathered you should downgrade the bios to A08 from A09 as it appears to work better with SSD drives. When the machine gets here before installing or changing anything make your System Disks for recovery in case of an oops C) Make sure your Crucial M4 SSD firmware is up to date or catastrophic events and slowdown can happen. D) Install the SSD drive and Memory first - Make sure memory says 12 and make any bios changes needed to recognize the SSD drive. E) Install Windows 7 Ultimate and Activate on the new SSD drive. F) Install the essential Alienware software and NOT the Alienware Bloatware. G) Update all Drives and software and normally the bios (See. A) H) Benchmark and Stress test the whole thing. I like to find out about problems during the return period not 6 months out of the return period. I) Install my software - Office - SWTOR (Star Wars the Old republic) - Skyrim - Antivirus. See how all the games run, if they run good Great if they run like crap take a day or 2 of troubleshooting and visiting forums and tech support. If issues can't be resolved quickly back it goes. J) I am not sure if I should keep the AW thermal paste or replace it with the IC Diamond??????? This is really the point of this post am I missing any steps, or should I approach the initial setup differently?? Aside from that 1) Trying to find a laptop bag that this thing will fit into and look professional going into an office building. Hypocritical i know. The lighted keyboard and alienheaded wallpaper I can deal with but the Alienheaded book bag bothers me go figure. It's not ugly but I don't want to walk into a board room with it. 2) Installed SWTOR onto my old E6400 and admire how choppy and terribly laggy it is even with all the settings turned to low. Graphics quality Looks so bad after seing them on there highest quality. Early on I ventured to set graphice to medium and it was unplayable. At the very least I am glad I can still level my toons a little. 3)Watching the Mailbox like a 6 year old watches a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. (So sad a Grown man is waiting this anxiously for a computer but I am happy I still have some juvenile in me). Anyone want to rent me there M17-M18 for a few weeks? HAHA

Thanks and Thanks SVl7, apparently I qualify for a number of discounts, and I am getting much better pricing than on the web. The only hangup now is they charged me a restocking fee, I never saw it on there website and the returns guy never mentioned it to me so I had to call returns and raise holy hell about it. They finally agreed to credit me back the restocking fee so I should be pulling the trigger tomorrow.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I changed the screen to the 120Ghz vs the 60Ghz I also changed to the <input id="item_32" name="oc_1" value="30875_150.00_n" type="radio"><label for="item_32">Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM (2.4~3.5GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads The price gets much harder to justify after this processor. </label> Now to cross my fingers that everything works out right. Thanks guys.

<input id="item_1" name="oc_5" value="30867_0.00_y" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_1">17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED</label> <input id="item_10" name="oc_125" value="30940_0.00_n" type="radio"><label for="item_10">Soft Touch Stealth Black</label> <input id="item_28" name="oc_42" value="30873_225.00_n" type="radio"><label for="item_28">nVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M 256bit w/2.0GB GDDR5</label> <input id="item_31" name="oc_1" value="30874_0.00_n" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_31">Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.2~3.1GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads</label> <input id="item_39" name="oc_3" value="30883_0.00_y" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_39">4GB (2x 2GB) DDR3/1600 Dual Channel Memory </label><input id="item_54" name="oc_2" value="30946_0.00_y" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_54">750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive</label> <input id="item_71" name="oc_27" value="30913_0.00_y" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_71">2nd Hard Drive - None</label> <input id="item_88" name="oc_28" value="30690_0.00_n" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_88">RAID Disabled</label> <input id="item_106" name="oc_11" value="30943_0.00_n" checked="checked" type="radio"><label for="item_106">Windows 7 Home Premium - 64-Bit + Drivers & Utilities Disks</label> Standard Caveats - 1) The 60hz 1920 x 1080 screen vs the 120hz 3d enabled? I definitely don't need 3D but does the 60hz vs 120 hz make a difference? 2) I7 -2670 core CPU I THINK this is a good choice but...2760, 2860 price differences are enough to give me pause but do you guys think it will make a big difference? 3) Yeah 4gb sucks but dell has the memory waaay overpriced better off getting it from crucial 4) 750GB Sata BUT I already have a Crucial M4 128 SSD drive to use as my primary 5) Windows 7 Home Premium, but I already have Ultimate and you can't select no OS. Any suggestions or changes in these specs that you guys would make?? Thanks In Advance. <label for="item_2"></label>

Thanks for the updates all but I sent this one back and I am configuring a replacement.

Brian I downloaded the drivers from Nvidias Website which are version 285.62 but they wont install Error - NVIDIA Installer cannot continue This Graphics Driver could not find compatible hardware. It does unpack all the files but fails on install.

haha Thanks man, but that price above was the WARRANTY price I was quoted not the unit price.

Thanks Brian! I didn't realize the service tag was in there lol. Glad you took it out. I checked my settings and my power options are set for performance. I removed the Nvidia Driver and rebooted, let it install the new one and rebooted again. Originally when I looked before uninstalling it was Nvidia Graphics Driver 267.64 Upon Reboot it says Nvidia PhysX System Software 9.10.0514 Not sure if it installed the 3D as I no longer see that driver on there but I wasn't planning on using it for quite some time so its ok. When I try to run 3DMark11 it is now stating "DirectX 11 capable Hardware is required" Should I try the Nvidia website for the full version of the software or in another post I saw people going to laptopvideo2go for some reason.

Is there any issue with getting the drivers that Nvidia offers on there website?

Thanks mw86 it came in yesterday and so far I am extremely happy with the purchase, I have tried almost all the ports and as many features that I could think of so far and everything seems to be good. I still need to hook it up to my 360 and make sure the HDMI connection is working but so far so good.

Hello Everyone, long time lurker, first time owner. I received my M17x R3 yesterday from the dell outlet, and I must say so far I am extremelt happy with the look and feel of it. My Specs are - Alienware M17x R3 I7 2630Qm 2.0 1.5GB Nvidia GTX460M 8GB DDR3 1333 Dual 320gb 7200rpm drives Way faster than my old Dell Latitude 6400. Thanks to everyone here for helping me with my buying decision with all of your informative posts. I have a couple of questions..... 1) So far the only thing I have done to the system is the MSFT updates and I worked with Alienware on updating there recommended drivers. I also installed Star Wars The Old Republic and 3DMarks. My 3D Marks score seems to be waaay lower than it should be, and even the 3D Marks software says it is low for machines with similar configurations as mine. (3DMarks Score 1781 and its stating the Graphics driver is not approved) Im assuming i need a new driver or a video card flash maybe any ideas) What Setting do you recommend for optimizing performance? I havent decided to overclock yet but I would like to make sure I am using the latest and fastest drivers and tweaks to maximize the system. 2) WARRANTY - So I decided to get the extended warranty because I like this computer. Thank God I read these forums! So I called in to get a 3 year extended warranty with Accidental and these guys send me back this THIS IS FOR THE WARRANTY ONLY NOT THE UNIT Quote Details Quote Number: xxxxxxxxx Item Number Quantity Item Description 939-0360 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis (Service Tag XXXXXX) (Expiration: 01/12/2016) $645.60 996-1975 1 Warranty Support Service (Service Tag XXXXXX) (Expiration: 01/12/2016) $30.00 996-7196 1 Accidental Damage Service (Service Tag XXXXX) (Expiration: 01/12/2016) $479.01 Subtotal: $1,154.61 Shipping & Handling: $0.00 Tax: $95.26 Environmental Disposal Fee: $0.00 Total Price w/Discounts: $1,249.87 After my hair stopped standing on end I told him this was TOTALLY unacceptable, and give me the three year standard warranty, he comes back with $675, again as I wasn't interested in owning his wife and kids, I said $675 was not going to happen. I specced out a new machine online and looked up the warranty price at the time of purchase and they have the 2 year listed at $279. So I ask for that and he comes back with "That is a pre purchase price and the best he could do on the 2 year is $450 and he could give me 3 dell credits for $25 each! For a total of $375! Keep in mind I hadn't had the system for 6 hours yet! So after reading these forums I was about to call back and get a manager involved. Luckily I did not get the same guy and the very next warranty guy on the line sold me the warranty for $279 with no BS whatsoever, took all of 5 minutes. Moral of the story is don't bend over and take it, Read the forums an get as much information as you can, become an informed consumer and you can save yourself a bucket of cash. Even after that experience I am still loving this machine, now if someone can just help me tweak this thing for optimum performance I would be ever so grateful :Banane05: Happy to be a part of the Alienware family.

Good to know they care about there customers, my M17x R3 should be here Tuesday, Fingers crossed.