Is the m14x really for me?

Hey all, first post here..

I´m a student, looking for a new notebook, and after some research I thought the alienware m14x might be the best choice for me... I really need the mobility and the extra power for engineering aplications and gaming. Still, I have some questions:

1- Will it work fine on the games I intent to play: Diablo 3, WoW, Skyrim?!
2- How bad is the overheating problem? After how much time playing does it get that hot?
3- I know mainly custommers with problems post in forums, but the horror stories scared me off a bit. Are there many defective cases?? (this is important since i´ll buy the notebook in the US and take it to another country, and then warranty wont be as easy to benefit!)

Thanks to all replies beforehand!

 

Well, it'll run all the games you posted! But no idea if that will be on high or ultra!
Heat wise, mine was hitting 99C on the CPU. i turned off turbo in the bios, and it now hits 86C after 4 hours of battlefield 3. So its hot, yes. but not as bad as the M1730 was!
As for issues, i cant say, only had mine a month.

 

Hi Carva,

The laptop is an excellent power house, if you can live with some of its downsides (high temps when maxing out cpu/gpu, plastic screen, crappy trackpad)

1) Can't really tell you about them games, but I did run MW3 and BF3 fine on native res.

2) When playing taxing out the cpu/gpu with ambient temps of sub 20s (cold here), I max out at around 90C after only an hour but it stays there. Note that the CPU gets a lot hotter than the GPU which only gets to around 65C

3) Current defects with my machine which I have just chosen to live with, as like you I bought laptop in a different country. 2 dead pixels and little wonky space bar.

O and if your engineering software includes CAD, 3dsMax, Vray then can confirm it works well with them

 

I wouldn't be scared off by the cases where people got a defective unit, that can happen with any brand. The m14x sounds like the perfect laptop for you. Plays skyrim really good, on high settings with around 40-45 fps non overclocked. I don't think there is an overheating issue, because never shuts down due to high heats, at least for me. But the heats are really high. I believe its the core i7 thats causing it. Even web browsing, it gets really warm, gaming, it gets hot. get Get the i5 version if you want less heat, maybe better battery life.

 

I have absolutely no problems with heat, playing bf3 and mow3 and gtaiv high settings and it goes arround 79-80degrees

 

I also a student who use this laptop as both for study and gaming, as if you talking about power, this laptop is the most powerful 14 inch laptop in the world.

1- For games, it sure will run well, since this laptop is built mainly for gaming, and as for the first 2 game you mention it will certainly run very well, however for Skyrim I dont think it will run at 30 fps on Ultra unless either you tweak the setting or OC the GPU (Dont worry it is pretty safe). I can run BF3 on this machine at between 30 - 45 fps, Custom (Med on everything except Ultra for texture, AA and Motion Blur is off, SBAO) and get only around between 75C - 89C on the CPU Temp and 65C - 80C on the GPU temp (and I also OC my GPU to 850/1700/1080).

2- The overheating problem is the main problem most people have here, however if you turn the Turbo Boost in the BIOS off, and have something lift the laptop like a custom built LEGO block or even get a cooler that problem can be easily avoid. If possible you can also repaste the thermal paste on the CPU however if you dont want to mess with the component inside the laptop I recommend get a cooler as an alternative to this problem.

3- As long as Dell is available in the country you take it to, say you buy it in US and take it to France, you will be able to "Transfer Warranty" from US to France, and enjoy the same full warranty (Except for some special warranty) in the country you take your laptop to, however if you take the laptop to countries where Dell is not base there, then it would be another story.

 

First of all, thanks guys! You´ve provided very helpful info!!!

-evilras, how does turning off turbo boost affect on gameplay and fps? Is this the the best heating solution atm?
-Does changing thermal paste work too? If done, does it mean the loss of warranty?
-johnspartan, what do you mean by plastic screen? Is it of bad quality?

And uh, sorry to ask this here but I didnt find a good answer for it in the "pre-order status" thread: How does upgrading wi-fi affect gameplay? Is it worth the extra 50 bucks?

 

Thanks CGSDR.
Warranty question: Dell is available in the country i´ll take it, but the only alienware products sold here are the m11x and the aurora desktop. Do you think warranty transfer will still work? How is it done? I cant seem to find more info on it in Dell's website.. o,0

 

As long as Dell present in that country, you can transfer the warranty around because Alienware is a Dell brand, in fact a Dell Premium computer brand, actually it is called "Ownership Transfer" you can transfer it by follow this link: Ownership-Tag Transfer, and if you want to be sure, you can contact Dell customer support for more info. But pretty sure that you can change it because I've done it about 6 months ago when my buddy in Singapore ask me to buy a M14x for him in here (NZ) and transfer the ownership to him in Singapore. And that process is quite fast though, it took only about a week for that to completely transferred.

 

Sager 5160/5165 or 8130 would be my choice. They are about the same weight and surprisingly even size, but have the larger screen, and the 8130 a much, much, stronger GPU. These screens can also do 1080p for a better quality picture.

Or the Force 16F2 with the GTX 570M for a really strong video card.

All the laptops mentioned have possible 3 year warranties for $99-129.

Now I say this not to bash Alienware. I would take the M17x or M18x over the Sager offerings, but the M14x, as the review on this site points out, isn't a powerhouse nor is it a space saver. There are much, much better 14" laptops out there.

 

It's fairly true, it is the size of a small 15" laptop. I would go with a Clevo/Sager because of upgradability alone.

 

Hmm... I see that they have better configs for lower price, but then i´d have the warranty issue. Clevo/Sager doesnt act over here, so my extended warranty wouldn't be very effective...

 

What do you mean by having an extra cooler? Is it external?!

 

I love this laptop. Check my video review and gameplay in my signature

 

similiar in size?

i owned both of them, currently owning an m14x...

the sager laptops are huge compared to the m14x, also even with good build quality i dont really like the materials of the clevo barebones it feels like cheap plastic

also, if you get a sager with a stronger GPU you lose the most important aspect of an laptop = portability.. since the m14x has the strongest GPU on the market that supports optimus it was my only option

My opinion is that sagers are huge compared to m14x.. Im really happy that i returned mine, if i wanted just pure power id just upgrade my desktop, i needed something portable with good battery life

 

one thing I gotta say about this here is that the m17x has optimus with nvidia carded models with the 60Hz screen. The AMD cards get a similar function that switches manually. All in all either of these functions will save you battery. I can get 4 hours if I tweak some things, the m17x is bigger though so its harder to lug around.