OFFICIAL: Alienware M17x-R2 Owners Lounge
By
Brian, in Alienware M17x / AW 17
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By Whap-A-Chow
Does anyone happen to know if the EPROM chip in the 240W PSUs from the m17x-R2 can be extracted/de-soldered and placed inside of the 330W PSU to override the "unsupported adapter" errors when powering up the R2 w/o the 240W? From the research that I've been doing, both use the 1-Wire Design from Maxim Innovation. But what I cannot find are the internal pictures and schematics of the 330W PSU to even contemplate this as a viable mod.
Ideally, I'd like to have a lighter option than 2 x 240W PSUs to power my R2.
Thanks guys.
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By Brian
Well we know some places don't allow this kind of discussion but this is Tech|Inferno, not only do we allow it, we encourage it!
So I'll start first:
M17x-R2 Pros:
Dual 5870M is still FASTER than a single 6970M in most cases
M17x-R2 RGB LED can't be matched
The 920/940xm + TS combo beats a 2820qm and there is no 2920xm for R3 currently.
Construction: Aluminum vs Trojan Rubber. 'Nuff said.
Unlocked bios by TheWiz and possible GPU upgrades coming ala Crossfire 6970M.
Has been around longer and is now a very stable system.
You can grab it cheap on the Dell outlet.
Better touch panel.
IMO looks better than R3.
M17x-R2 Cons:
Older chipset + CPU architecture
No official 6970M love from Dell
Slightly heavier
M17x-R3 Pros
Sandy Bridge + Cougar Point (once it's revised haha)
Newer design that may appeal to some.
Lighter than R2 and thinner.
Soft Touch Rubber
120 Hz 3D display technology
Extended battery life thanks to graphics switching tech (optimius + amd manual switching)
Low starting price
M17x-R3 Cons:
Soft touch rubber flakes off - rut roh!
It has been reported that the CPU throttles (DaneGRClose can confirm this)
No RGB LED
No dual card support
So there you have it, that's my list and my overall preference goes to the R2. R3 would have been in my sig if it had dual card support despite it's inferior build quality and lack of RGB LED.
Don't like my reasons? Well bring it!
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By Pursuit
I would like to upgrade ram on my m17xr2 from 4gb to 8gb,
Here is the ram that I found on ebay:
SAMSUNG DDR3 1333 8GB (2x4GB) SO-DIMM Alienware M17x (eBay item 300509592881 end time 28-Feb-11 11:53:48 AEDST) : Computers Networking
The question is this a good brand/price for our m17x?
any suggestions please.
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By Brian
I've got the 6970M inside the M17x-R2 right now and am typing from it. Unfortunately, the same problems that plagued Ichime are also present with the Dell 6970M, namely the lack of GPU bios fan control (it stays at a single speed) and thus needs hwinfo32 to spin it up. So for now, I'm taking stock benchmark runs (vantage, 3dmark 11, batman arkham asylum, metro2033). After that the GPU is going back in the R3. The results will be made available in the up coming R3 review. I'll post a teaser pic here for you guys in an hour or so.
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