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So I gave up my Alienware m17x r4 for the new Alienware 17!


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Hey Guys,

I wanted to let everyone know I switched from the M17 R4 to Alienware's new Haswell refresh. Just wanted to see what everyone's thoughts are on the new refresh and if anyone else will be switching over. Personally, I don't think the technology leap is significant but I am curious to see how much more battery life we will get out of Haswell and I also love the new design. I have listed my new 17 build below:

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210-AAPS

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1

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Alienware 17 Base

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370-AANN

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1

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16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz

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400-AATG

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1

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750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

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429-AAGC

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1

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Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVDR/RW)

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470-AAKG

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1

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US 125V Power Cord

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490-BBGQ

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1

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5

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555-BBEQ

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1

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Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0

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580-ABEG

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1

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English Keyboard

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619-ACMQ

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Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, English

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658-BBOD

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1

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Broadcom 4352 Driver

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951-6520

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1

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Accidental Damage Service, 1 Year

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954-4175

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1

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Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year

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954-4207

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1

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In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year

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994-3730

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Warranty Support, Initial Year

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338-BCHU

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Intel Core i7-4700MQ (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost) (Standard)

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354-BBBB

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LCD Back Cover (WLAN) Alienware 17

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389-BCCZ

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Windows 7 Label, OptiPlex, Fixed Precision, Vostro Desktop

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391-BBEI

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17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle

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450-AAJI

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240W AC Adapter

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451-BBCB

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8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery

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630-AAAU

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1

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Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial

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640-BBLC

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1

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Alienware Command Center 3.0

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I opted to go with a Truelife 120hz display because I like glossy better then matte, anyone know if the truelife display is allot better? I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's opinion on the Hasweel refresh.
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Battery life does look like it will be good on haswell. m17x already had good battery life too. The fact that you have an HDD and not an SSD though will knock a good chunk off battery life.

You likely won't be able to do 3d much without SLI, but at least you can play games with vsync off on 120hz monitors without bad tearing. Hopefully 780m throttling issues will be sorted out by the time it arrives if you're into high overclocking.

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  • Founder

Congrats on the purchase. I agree with @Khenglish that an SSD would've been a better buy than an HDD but you can always grab an aftermarket one for a good price. The 120 Hz would probably be my first choice as well, do they offer an option for IPS? I haven't checked their site yet.

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Ya, I opted not to get a mSATA SSD because its only 64gb for $100. When my laptop arrives, I will go out and purchase a 240gb SSD and use the 750 as a storage drive. Anyone think the 780m isnt powerful enough to run 3D gaming? I did allot of research and it seems to be more powerful than the 680m and peforms better than Nvidia 770m SLI. Correct me if I am wrong?

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I agree, the lit up speaker grills was what made Alienware. That being said, I do commend Dell for trying to go with something new and fresh, the new 14, 17 and 18 have this TRON effect that I just love. Also, Dell decided to go back to anodized aluminum chassis and you can change the the color of the Alien head once again. Thumbs up!

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I'm just worried the new 17 or 18 will be locked down and non upgradable in regards to next gen hardware 800/9000 series Nvidia/AMD GPUs

I dont think Dell will lock down there systems, well, not anymore than usual. Not only would it dramatically there hurt laptop sales but also the potential sales of new parts that customers would order through them. For all we know the new 800/9000 cards might not even use MXM 3.0b anymore, which in that case its GG for everyone.

Also, anyone know if there is any OC vbios out there yet for the Nivida GTX 780m?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not a big fan of the aesthetic on the A17, I think it looks a little generic & mainstream (a bit more boring!), more so than the previous generations. Also hearing about throttling issues on the NBR forums on the 780M, not sure if it's an isolated incidence though.

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Nice. I just got my 17 today. Not the biggest fan of the TrueLife display, as it's more reflective than I was led to believe, but other than that, it's a killer machine. Much less keyboard flex than previous gens. Touchpad is still pretty mediocre coming from an MB Pro, but I'll be using an external mouse 99% of the time anyways.

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Nice. I just got my 17 today. Not the biggest fan of the TrueLife display, as it's more reflective than I was led to believe, but other than that, it's a killer machine. Much less keyboard flex than previous gens. Touchpad is still pretty mediocre coming from an MB Pro, but I'll be using an external mouse 99% of the time anyways.

Nice! Can you post a screenshot of Nvidia Inspector showing the overclocking part?

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Nice. I just got my 17 today. Not the biggest fan of the TrueLife display, as it's more reflective than I was led to believe, but other than that, it's a killer machine. Much less keyboard flex than previous gens. Touchpad is still pretty mediocre coming from an MB Pro, but I'll be using an external mouse 99% of the time anyways.

Cool, the build quality is one of the things that seems to be better than previous generations, it's all aluminium (& other metals) I believe, so I bet it feels like sturdy quality.

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hi are you able to upgrade to the latest nvidia driver? currently using alienware 17 with 770m. Still running on dell 311.48 driver

And also does your alienware OSD working? Since day one its running on the default windows 8 OSD...

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I got my new Alienware 17 a few days ago. It's bad luck for me. The keys on keyboard are "loose" feeling, one one key (key 4 and $) was fallen off.. I called DELL and was given new replacement. Anyhow one who received the new 17 has the key "loose" problem? Or do you feel the keys are very solid? thanks.

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Keys are solid, basically what I expect from a high end laptop.

Somehow, I still prefer the MBP's keyboard. :(

Glad to hear that. I still prefer to the old keyboard. I am hoping my replacement won't have the "loose" key issue. Looks it's very isolated problem for me last one.

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Congrats, the build quality seem to be very good compare to the r4/r3 but I do agree that I think the front speakers were a better look.

Just below the screen would have created a better stereo image considering that most of the time, you're just sitting in the front of you laptop.

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  • 2 months later...

Friend of mine got the new one,was considering myself ,but the lack of multimedia buttons kinda made it lose it's special appeal. Does have better quality,love the fact that battery is incorporated(had many problems with mine , not sitting properly and dell never fixed it right) then comes squicks and squaks noises the r4 has no such thing in the new one .

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