Brian

First, welcome to Tech|Inferno! Now I'll have to disagree with your assertion that Clevo has AW beat in sheer performance because as it stands right now, the 6970M numbers we are seeing are about as fast as the 485M with the latest 11.4 Catalyst drivers. Thus the M17x-R3 is every bit as fast as the Clevo 8170 while offering Dell's superior at home warranty, better looking design, backlit keyboard + fx, hdmi input, wireless hdmi etc. Clevo are boring lunchbox systems that haven't seen a design change in years. They remind me of Chrysler--they milk their designs dry and are always 10 steps behind the competition in looks although they got their "Hemi". The M14x makes sense because the market trend is shifting in two directions: 1. small tablet sized notebooks like a 11" or 14" would provide (assuming the 14" form factor is also thin which it should be) and larger gaming DTRs that are 17"+ which is exactly what AW is doing. The M18x will fill the performance void by offering a large display coupled with dual 6970Ms that should be as fast as any notebook on the market, including the Clevo x7200 while consuming substantially less power (no need for notebook sized PSUs running in parallel). Brute CPU power won't match X7200 but Sandy Bridge 2920xm should push the M18x to X7200 gaming levels (or may even beat it in some circumstances thanks to a newer CPU architecture). On the 15" front Clevo has no competition so I'll give you that one but it's not as if Dell couldn't engineer a 15" to match Clevo, they chose not to probably because its not profitable.

On pubs I saw the hacking several times in front of me. Guys scoring multiple headshots over and over (e.g. 50 kills in one round with no deaths) and even 3-4 kicked from the server for cheats. Those bot makers offer a subscription based system to get passed punkbuster and continually update their cheats.

HP has released their newest Envy revision with SB and 3D support. Their starting price is pretty decent at $1649.99 and that includes the AMD 6850m graphics chip, 3D display and glasses as part of the starting package. Their competition includes the Alienware M17x-R3 that costs $1799 for the starting 3D bundle and Asus G73SW-3DE that costs $1999. If you break it down: Asus: nVidia 460M support for 3D and removable graphics card (though not MXM 3.0b compliant) Cooling that should be better than HP but not as good as Alienware Asus keyboard can be switched out for a colord lighting one at added cost from a custom reseller (not Amazon) Alienware M17x-R3: Soft touch rubber + magnesium construction Dell at home warranty service for 1 year Alien fx lighting MXM 3.0b compliant video card that can be swapped out HDMI Input Wireless HDMI (coming soon) Best cooling of the 3 notebooks Switchable graphics for long battery life Option for AMD 6970M graphics card which offers 50-100% performance increase vs GTX 460M found in Asus G73SW and HP Envy 17 3D but no 3D support. HP Envy 3D: Lower starting price than either of the other 2 Metal chasis which gives it a higher quality feel Thinner profile than AW or Asus Macbook Pro like design which a lot of people like Even with upgrades, its cheaper than Alienware The 6850M is integrated and not a separate MXM 3.0b compliant card.

Why don't you have two GPUs DR650?

Official M11x-R1 owner's lounge. Driver list coming soon.

Official M15x owners lounge thread. Driver list coming soon.

All M11x order status posts go here.

Driver list coming soon.

Guess we needed one of these too. I've had my M17x-R3 on order since March 7th (went into production March 8th) and when I call the order status line, it tells me my system already shipped on March 28th (I guess I must have dialed into the future via a black hole at Dell HQ) and I should expect it by March 30th. From Michael:

Yup, people say piracy is killing PC gaming but IMO its the cheating also. I just don't like to deal with that shit.

Congrats on the 20k stam!

Why did they kill the sigomatic? That was pretty useful. I haven't been part of a clan for years but I used to run one for BF: Desert Combat back in 2005-2006. So far my stats for BF2 aren't that great because I didn't really get into the game, I guess the lack of prone and the rampant cheating put me off from putting too many hours into it. Hopefully BF3 has a better anti cheat system built into it.

Welcome to T|I J. Crichton (btw that show rocked). It seems like they are trying to force you to get an R3 so IMO the best option to pursue is to ask for your money back. That way you can wait until the M18x is released in a few months and get a dual card system.

lol that's pretty funny. Welcome to all new members of the forum.

Yes of course you can write up your own review and post it here.

The only way we'll see more than 2 hours of battery on the M18x is if the HM67 chipset has switchable integrated gfx. Has anyone checked on this?

We have the same EDD, welcome to the forum!

Most likely because of cost issues.

Amazing, they closed a thread with EVIDENCE supporting the M14x release? Well guys, now you know why Tech|Inferno exists and I'd encourage all that want to seek a place for OPEN discussion to come on over. On another note, see the notice above, we are looking for some new talent to help spur the growth of our website. -Brian

The M18x will no doubt have rubber and possibly aluminum.

Soooo who called it??

Nicely done Dane. Thanks for the write up, I'm sure it will come in quite useful.

I plead the 5th.

Depends, if 485M works with optimus then at idle it actually consumes less power than a 6970M. Of course at load the 485M is a guzzler but on battery you can't exactly load these GPUs fully.

Nice scores Speedy, that 6970M is a beast. How does your Vantage score compare to the one Dane posted above?