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Hammerhead's m9700... - Page 6

post #101 of 328
9/11/06 at 5:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan'sM505x
HH a few of the guys tried reinstall the OS and the random shut off still occurs... hopefully AW will help those guys out like they helped me... but i m not sure if i still want the m5550 after reading this review lol. Oh btw how heavy is this lappy?

They say it's 8.5 pounds in the specs. It seems relatively light to me for it's size. My old m5500 (766) seems heavier. It is pretty big though so I can understand why some people stick with the 15" models...

I did see a couple people that had the shut downs the reinstall didn't help. Understand with current hardware, it's made to shut down before it damages itself or something else in the system. While it's not normal for a system to shut down like that, it could be anything from the memory (most likely) to an overheating gpu or cpu, or a bad mobo/power supply. All these high performance laptops are packed with high performance hardware, so any issues will likely lead to heat, and that'll shut the system down.

All computer companies have a small percentage of machines that develop issues quickly, in fact if hardware is going to fail due to manufacturing issues it usually does so right away. It's likely a memory stick replacement, or some other part would have resolved your issues, but if they said you can exchange it, why not...
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post #102 of 328
9/11/06 at 5:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepsirules2k
Usually that is due to a driver issue or excessive heat on the inside. I don't know much about the m5550, as I don't own one. I have come across some posts validating conerns of heat in their new m5550 laptops

Yeah, most of the time these things are OS or driver related, but if that's eliminated it's usually memory in my experience. If not that, then look for overheating cpu or gpu...
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post #103 of 328
9/11/06 at 7:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead
Yeah, most of the time these things are OS or driver related, but if that's eliminated it's usually memory in my experience. If not that, then look for overheating cpu or gpu...
Agreed HH
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post #104 of 328
9/11/06 at 9:04am
Congrats HH! I love your new lappy. Hope you get many years of service out of it. Thanks for the great review and pictures.

BTW, bad memory chips have been the culprit in lot of my experiences. Not a hard fix.
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post #105 of 328
9/11/06 at 2:55pm
HH, did you order your rig w/ 2 gigs or did you purchase your RAM elsewhere..I am looking and looking for RAM...so many choices. Which one would you recommend. What do you think about the crucial value select $119 new egg?
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post #106 of 328
9/11/06 at 3:11pm
Value select?

No. I forgot the CS on these that AW ships with there laptops but I'm sure its a lot faster then the ones that the Crucial Value line offeres. Well when I mean that I'm sure they give 400mhz
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post #107 of 328
9/11/06 at 3:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yang88She
gosh HH, since seeing your m9700, I'm on the fence now on what to do !

You're gonna get splinters if you're not careful, Yang

Any tests you want running on the multitasking side?

I can see if I can play & DVD and game at the same time if you like (I can hook the external LCDs up to it)? Any other tests?


Incidentally - you can't have SLi and dual displays configured, so if you want dual displays you might as well only order the single GPU..

Maybe that'll swing it toward one or the other? I don't know how the 7900GS compares to the X1800 in the m5750 on paper..
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post #108 of 328
9/11/06 at 3:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepsirules2k
HH, did you order your rig w/ 2 gigs or did you purchase your RAM elsewhere..I am looking and looking for RAM...so many choices. Which one would you recommend. What do you think about the crucial value select $119 new egg?

I just ordered it from Alienware. I know it's not a good deal but I figure they know what they're doing when it comes to components...

What you can do is call customer service and ask what they sell their memory for as an upgrade. I think I saw someone say they ordered it as an upgrade and got 2G for $218 or something... He ordered his laptop with 512 in it, then ordered 2 sticks as an upgrade and got a much better price.

Not sure why AW charges so much on the configurator.

Crucial is good memory. I'm not sure what CAS latency AW uses... I had it open last night I could have looked for a label...

I took a picture, but I can't tell what memory it is. You might call customer service and ask what brand and specs they use in the m9700...
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post #109 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead
I just ordered it from Alienware. I know it's not a good deal but I figure they know what they're doing when it comes to components...

What you can do is call customer service and ask what they sell their memory for as an upgrade. I think I saw someone say they ordered it as an upgrade and got 2G for $218 or something... He ordered his laptop with 512 in it, then ordered 2 sticks as an upgrade and got a much better price.

Not sure why AW charges so much on the configurator.

Crucial is good memory. I'm not sure what CAS latency AW uses... I had it open last night I could have looked for a label...

I took a picture, but I can't tell what memory it is. You might call customer service and ask what brand and specs they use in the m9700...

Thanks HH
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post #110 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:16pm
HH - I found a utility that identified the RAM modules the other day..

If I can find the damn thing again (I hate it when that happens!) I'll post a link
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post #111 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronjb
HH - I found a utility that identified the RAM modules the other day..

If I can find the damn thing again (I hate it when that happens!) I'll post a link

Yes please do...I talked with my contact and he said that they use Samson, Corsair, & PDP memory modules. As some of you know the 1GB chips are dual channel 3200 @400Mhz. about $150 a piece. He said that the prices fluctuate and that their might be a discount after the system arrives and the memory order is considered as an upgrade

What is the latency? Do you guys have one of the brand names listed in your notebook?

Thanks
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post #112 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepsirules2k
Yes please do...I talked with my contact and he said that they use Samson, Corsair, & PDP memory modules. As some of you know the 1GB chips are dual channel 3200 @400Mhz. about $150 a piece. He said that the prices fluctuate and that their might be a discount after the system arrives and the memory order is considered as an upgrade

What is the latency? Do you guys have one of the brand names listed in your notebook?

Thanks

The turion only supports single channel... They sent me a patriot t-shirt, so it may be Patriot memory.

The post I read and mentioned was someone that was advised by the sales rep to just order the memory as an upgrade. He did, and ordered the memory from AW before he received his system and got a great price...
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post #113 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:46pm
Watch out on battery life. I know mine does not like playing movies and full screen games when on battery life. Kind of messes up after I finish playing them. Not horribly bad. Just notice that it mine acts a little funny afterwards.
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post #114 of 328
9/11/06 at 4:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead
The turion only supports single channel... They sent me a patriot t-shirt, so it may be Patriot memory.

The post I read and mentioned was someone that was advised by the sales rep to just order the memory as an upgrade. He did, and ordered the memory from AW before he received his system and got a great price...

The mem chips are dual, however. Too bad we cant use the memory capabilities to its fullest. I'm going to try and see if I can purchase it. I still couldn't find the exact latency of the memory. If by any chance you guys open your system let me know what memory modules you have. Thanks
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post #115 of 328
9/11/06 at 5:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yang88She
gosh HH, since seeing your m9700, I'm on the fence now on what to do !

argh!!!!

Following on from my last multitasking-related post..

I just finished running Super-Pi on a 2M calculation loop, while listening to an mp3 (via the WiFi network) and running DVD Decryper on a DVD of mine, browsing the net and with PuTTY open.

Super-Pi took 2m06s, some 40s longer than normal I think, but the system remained responsive while browsing - the only thing that did happen was the Synaptics touchpad drivers stopped registering a 'scroll' action for some reason - the mp3 audio never broke up once.
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post #116 of 328
9/11/06 at 6:39pm
thanks aaron!

I think i'm going to stick w/ the 5750...

I was just getting the "benchmarking" bug haha...

which is probably a bad idea since it's a laptop...

I really don't think it's a good idea to "frankenstein" a laptop...like I did w/ my old desktop hahaha

it's all HH fault...=P

I was able to get the top 5 score w/ my minimal setup in my desktop haha...so I always enjoyed pushing my "toys" to the max. (I ran my desktop 3.4 intel @ 4.3 it was prime stable and the GPU I had OCed as well I think the clocks were 650 and 1300...and this is a x850xt pe back in march-may...)

then in college I had a lil rice rocket (98 Integra R...) turboed it w/ a 75 shot direct port n20 and it put out 455whp...11.66 1/4 times and I blew it up 7 times hahaha....needless to say I can build a honda motor as fast I can build a watercool a pc and OC it =P
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post #117 of 328
9/11/06 at 6:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yang88She
I was able to get the top 5 score w/ my minimal setup in my desktop haha...so I always enjoyed pushing my "toys" to the max. (I ran my desktop 3.4 intel @ 4.3 it was prime stable and the GPU I had OCed as well I think the clocks were 650 and 1300...and this is a x850xt pe back in march-may...)

I know that feeling - after I got this I ran 3DMark.. My friends OCed XPS M1710 beat me, so I started winding my clocks up.. ended up overvolting the GPUs to get the next boost in speed - and had I realised I could overvolt the CPU I'd have done that too

Quote:
then in college I had a lil rice rocket (98 Integra R...) turboed it w/ a 75 shot direct port n20 and it put out 455whp...11.66 1/4 times and I blew it up 7 times hahaha....needless to say I can build a honda motor as fast I can build a watercool a pc and OC it =P

Well that's what you get for buying Honda

I've lost count of the number of times I've stripped the Nissan down, too and soon I might start on the Toyota.. someone take my toys away, quick!
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post #118 of 328
9/11/06 at 7:04pm
haha, I hear ya aaron...

I guess it's a definitely a guy thing...to push to the limit anything you have until it breaks haha...

I guess we (guys) just like the bragging rights...specially since the m9700 can out bench a lot of people's desktops hahaha....

I know I would be getting the m9700 just to bench it n OC it...so went against my lil guity pleasure and decided to go w/ what I do need and will use...the 5750 =D
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post #119 of 328
9/11/06 at 7:17pm
Yeah - getting a laptop just to bench it would be madness..

Uhm.. Erm.. Oh crap.



I'll get round to playing some games at some point. Really, I will.
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post #120 of 328
9/12/06 at 12:41am
Congrats on your new laptop. I myself am thinking about buying an AW m9700. I just joined this forum and have been bouncing around it for ideas. There are obviously some great minds on this forum. I don't want to steal this thread or anything, so I'll ask all of you m9700 owners if you wouldn't mind viewing my other post and giving a little advice instead of getting into all of my questions here.

http://www.notebookforums.com/post2397355.html

Thanks in advance, and congrats again Hammerhead.
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