How to spot M14x R2, and what are the best specs? Hold a candle to new 14?

Hey guys,

I'm not sure I want to drop the money on the new Alienware 14 or not.. How does the performance of the M14x R2 stack up against it? The significant cost savings with buying one second hand, not to mention I'm not too sold on the looks of the 14 have me considering the m14x R2. What are the best specs on the m14x R2? Did they ever come with a 1080p display? I tried looking around for some sort of wiki with all the info but found nothing. Are there lots of issues with the m14x R2? I read about the throttling issue at 67 degrees which is unfortunate. Anything else? If I'm missing some all-encompassing thread, feel free to shoot me that direction. Thanks!

 

take a look here

 

I'm using an AW M14X R2 and won't be upgrading to the 14. The max resolution on the M14X is 1600x900. I'm pretty sure the model that I have is the most spec'd out from the factory which is an i7 3840QM, 16GB memory, and 512GB SSD. The 3840QM beats out the 4700QM and 4800QM by quite a bit and is a little slower than the 4900QM. That being said, an M14X with the same specs as mine probably won't be cheap and since that money could be used for a super nice AW14, I'd suggest that you go with the new one.

 

I'd recommend grabbing an M14 over an m14x anyday. I've been using an M14X-r2 as a school laptop for the past 8-9 months and it has been nothing but trouble.

The GPU issue is annoying as heck and there are many other issues which haven't been discussed.
It's common for the LED light on ALIENWARE to leak, the screen can easily get scratched by the poor hinge design, same as the plastic around near the power button; It also feels really cheap.

The Alienware 14 looks much better in person than what you would've seen, the screen quality alone would be worth the wait for as it's absolutely astounding. - Best of all, no GPU throttling issues if you set the disable optimus.

 

Thank you. I had read the first 60 pages of that thread before posting this thread.

That's a good point. Anything over like $700 and I'd rather just buy new for that large of an investment (get a warranty, etc.) Interesting about the proc's.

That's good feedback, I appreciate it. The look of the 14 is growing on me, and the many remarks about the build quality versus the last gen. is really striking a chord with me.

 

The new AW 14 with the 765M is definitely better than the M14x R2. The 1080p screen is also very nice on the AW 14. And last but not least: the build quality of the AW 14 is impeccable. It is, however, a little thick for a 14" notebook, but it packs one hell of a punch. With that being said, I'd take the AW 14 over the M14x R2, any day.

The 4700MQ is more than enough to handle what the 765M outputs. Unless you absolutely need the extra CPU power for video editing and such, don't waste your money. The 765M & 1080p screen are "must have" upgrades. There are people on here who have the 4700MQ and a 780M, or even 780M SLI, and they're not experiencing any issues while gaming.

The 900p screen that came with the M14x R2 was there because the 650M performed better with it. Now that the AW 14 has the option of upgrading to the 765M, the 1080p screen is perfect. And one more thing: The 3840QM performs similarly to the 4 800MQ, and the 4900MQ is noticeably better than the 3840QM.

 

Nope that was mainly because there were no 1080 14" lcd's at that time and even if they would have existed the m14x uses a single channel LVDS interface from mainboard to lcd which means in terms of bandwidth no more than 900p would be possible.

As for upgrading, unless you really want a 1080p screen and the 765M then you could consider it. The base m14 with a 750m is not really faster than a good spec M14x R2 with a 650m.