*OFFICIAL* M17x R3 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 3

[DirtyTrickster]

omg... You have got to be kidding me.. when I removed the ssd with its bracket off from the bay 2, a small piece of tiny washer from beneath the screw fell off soo easily and is now hidden within the damned chasis!! NO!!!!

If I turn it on now, im sure I'll have a short and bye bye m17x r3...
Now I need to completely disassemble this laptop... This was not how I wanted my day to turn out..

Is there any detailed videos on how to get the black chasis part off beneath the laptop to see the whole mobo?? *cries*

EDIT/UPDATE: Okay... I got the damn washer finally out after strategically shifting my alienware from side to side and got it to slide out from underneath the black chasis cover... omg.. That was luck!

Now, do I really need that tiny little washer on the screw ? It won't stay on if I place it, it keeps falling off... I don't want it to fall inside the mobo again somewhere!

Well, I got it all reassembled again.. it booted up fine.. BIOS settings look proper. The SSD is in the middle bay instead of Bay 1/0.

In the BIOS it says my SSD in in Bay 2, tho its supposed to be bay 1? Cause 0 is the one thats not consistent with SATA 3?

Here is a CrystalDisk Mark test now with A08 and SSD in middle Bay 2(still shows it as SATA/300, but these rates are higher than my previous benchmarks I posted):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 451.713 MB/s
Sequential Write : 400.679 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 297.062 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 392.105 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 14.041 MB/s [ 3428.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 45.938 MB/s [ 11215.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 292.673 MB/s [ 71453.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 146.766 MB/s [ 35831.6 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 28.0% (130.8/466.7 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/04/19 12:37:06
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Compared to previous benchmark with A09:

You know Ive never looked at my speeds. Do these look ok? Crucial M4 256GB

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 471.553 MB/s
Sequential Write : 268.590 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 391.012 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 259.531 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 19.992 MB/s [ 4880.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 53.904 MB/s [ 13160.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 192.067 MB/s [ 46891.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 226.351 MB/s [ 55261.6 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 37.9% (90.4/238.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/04/19 23:55:11
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

[morpheus2480]

Hi all,

I just received my M17xR3 last night (first ever alienware! hooray!)...

Here are the specs:

i7-2760QM Processor (2.4GHz)
16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM(4x4GB)
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6990M
750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

I'm a bit of a noob so you'll have to forgive me if I ask ignorant questions =)

1.) I tried updating the video card driver from the AMD support site but I got the message "AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software" I looked through a couple of threads but I wasn't clear on how I go about doing this. (sorry)

2.) Do I need to flash my bios? not sure what BIOS I have since I am at work.. I can check later if needed

3.) Any tips on what I need to install/check out of the box?

[FantomexX]

What video player do you guys generally use for viewing XviD, x264 encoded movies?? I used to always use CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) + Media Player Classic HD Cinema.

However, I installed it and received some error about Direct3D not being up to date.. Videos play, however.. they all look very fuzzy pixelated in fullscreen mode, compared to my other alienware desktop that also runs at 1920x1080 rez tho its 32-bit windows..

I'm compared the same videos on both, and the vids look horrible on my m17x r3..

EDIT/UPDATE: Hmm, my videos look better/crisper on Windows Media Player(default player included with Windows 7)..

[morpheus2480]

I personally use VLC... everyone I know uses VLC actually =p

[FantomexX]

I used VLC for many years.. until matroska came out with more stylized subtitles for animes(which it wouldn't display properly)..

[jinda]

Hey guys. For those of you who have SSD as main drive, how much did Windows 7 rate your primary disk?

I currently have 750GB 7200rpm HD and it's only rated by Windows 7 at 5.9. I know upgrading to SSD will increase the rating since the rating for HD is determined by speed. And also what SSD are you guys using?

[long2905]

Hey guys. For those of you who have SSD as main drive, how much did Windows 7 rate your primary disk?

I currently have 750GB 7200rpm HD and it's only rated by Windows 7 at 5.9. I know upgrading to SSD will increase the rating since the rating for HD is determined by speed. And also what SSD are you guys using?

Crucial M4, 7.9

[DirtyTrickster]

Crucial M4, 7.9

7.8 (before I downgraded bios to run at Sata III speed. Haven't tested since)

[katalin_2003]

All magnetic drives get a maximum rating of 5.9 in Windows 7.

[jinda]

Crucial M4, 7.9

7.8 (before I downgraded bios to run at Sata III speed. Haven't tested since)

All magnetic drives get a maximum rating of 5.9 in Windows 7.

Wow! Thanks guys. I guess I'll order the Crucial M4 in my cart then Thanks.