My R3 Experience/Review

Finally after years of drooling i can finally say im a proud owner of Alienware M17x R3 I never thought i'd be crazy enough to buy one for myself since it cost so much... but after months of saving I DID IT!

FYI english is not my native language so please exuse any grammars/spellings Also keep in mind that this is my first review and from a gamer's perspective not a professional review.

First of all, im extremely glad i found this forum while i was shopping for an alienware. NBR members are extremely helpful and knowledgable (for the most part) Response times were extremely fast. THANK YOU

I know i had A LOT of questions (despite the faq's and stickies on AW forums + searching) while waiting for the laptop and i figure id post my experience/review from the intial order, waiting, testing, and more. I hope those of you who are planning to get one for yourself or impatientially waiting for delivery find this helpful.

My Specs:
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
4GB,1333MHZ,DDR3,2X2G
17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M
320GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
Crucial M4 SSD 128GB (Manually upgraded)
Price (not including the ssd) roughly $1850

The ultimate goal/purpose for me was to own a mobile/portable gaming laptop to play games on 1920x1080p res. I intially orded with the Nvidia 460M and realized how HUGE of a mistake that was. By then my Status from dell was "In production". Thankfully it wasn't too late and after talking to the dell rep we cancelled the order and reordered with the 6970M Radeon.

I placed the order online on 06/25/11 and was "In Proudction" for the next five days (counting weekends) and on 07/01/11 it was shipped. The Fedex man came on 07/06/11 with my new baby. I was too stoked when i ordered and accidentally went with the 7day Fedex ground - it was the most painful/long two weeks for me.

Right from the box i was blown away by how sturdy and amazing the laptop looked. Comparing to cars it felt like Lexus/BMW lol. I knew it was going to be heavy but suprised when i had trouble taking it out of the box with one hand. I immediately checked for any outside defects - and thankful was perfect. No raised media bars, keyboards, screen everything was perfectly OK. My next concern was for any possiblities of dead pixels on the beautiful LED screen... Lucked out again - NONE. The screen was bright and colors were very vibrant. Absolutely LOVE the LED (blue) and the Alien FX - it really does make the laptop stand out and draw attention.

For gaming and performance I gotta say im pretty satisfied. It does meet my goal and plays current games on 1080p with High settings.
I get steady 25-35 FPS on Crysis 2 on MAX settings. I prefer to use high settings instead as i feel more comfortable with 35-40+ fps.
COD Black ops runs extremely fast and smooth 70-95fps on max settings. Starcraft 2 on ultra settings get about 30-40 fps. World of warcraft with max settings in Stormwind with crapload of players still pulls 60-70+ fps. League of legends i have absolutely no problem with 90fps +

I've also been doing a lot of research on SSD's. I honestly felt it was a waste of money for the longest time - BUT i felt like the R3 was "incomplete"... So after doing a week of research and asking questions i decided to dish out $200 and got myself a 128 GB Crucial M4 SSD. I got lucky and the SSD that i got from newegg was already at 0002 firmware so saved me time from doing an update. I figured 64GB won't be enough to hold least 5-7 games so i thought better be safe... Also based on the reviews and testimonials it appeared that the M4 was the most stable/fast/best SSD for the R3. I never opened a laptop/installed anything on it before so i was extremely scared and nervous attemping to install the SSD. Ive built my own gaming desktop no problem but laptop was just intimating, especially since it WAS the R3. To make long story short, it was a breeze. Took me less than 3 mins to install it. Thankfully my HDD was on PORT 0 so it saved me time and was able to install the SSD straight into Port 1 (there's been cases/reports that PORT 0 has issues with SATA 3). I did backup the Alien respawn but decided to do a fresh new install of windows after formating my HDD. I followed Batboy's HOW TO CLEAN Windows 7 Install (in the AW forum) and installed the drivers in order. I don't want this to be a SSD review thread but i wanted to bring this up because YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY by HOW FAST the ssd's are... I always dread formating/installing cause it takes forever but wow with the SSD EVERYTHING was installing SUPER fast. Games load almost instantly, Starcraft 2 takes 3 seconds to fully load from desktop - crysis takes about 5-7 secs to load campaigns, World of warcraft takes 3-4 secs to enter world with the charc and buildings/npc/players load INSTANTLY, windows boots in 14-16 secs, photoshop takes 2 secs to open and al MS office programs opens instantly. Im offcially a believer now and have absolutely no regrets getting the SSD.

The only minor issue i seem to have with the R3 is the temps/fan noise while gaming in high/ultra settings. The fan noise is rather loud for my liking and can be annoying. Under heavy gaming load the CPU temps range between min: 50's to max: 67 and the GPU around mid 60's - max: 74. I did get a Rubber "legs" / "Cushions" from radio shack for $4 (one on each corner at the bottom of the R3) which are about half a inch so that the laptop has better airflow. I did notice the temps drop and seems to be helping a lot (roughly 6-10 degrees in difference)

Overall i gotta say im extremely satisfied with the purchase. The SSD made the whole experience twice as enriching (never had one before). So far i have no problems with the R3. Everything runs smooth and perfectly - no complains and hope it stays this way.

If you have any questions please feel free to let me know. I'm not too tech savy but ill be more than happy to answer any general questions

 

Thanks for the review!

 

Thanks for the review,rep added

 

You helped me choose the SSD for my laptop cheers
I look forward to doing something like your setup in the near future.

 

I also love my M4. SSD's are worth the extra money really a day and night differance.

 

Thank you man, I am EXTREMELY impatient right now waiting for my R3 to come, it's been in Production since last Sunday, with an EDD of 7/18 but here's to hoping it comes a lot sooner! I definitely appreciate your review, and it makes me even more excited, I can't wait!

 

Glad i was able to help. Hope you enjoy the new experience as well

Yep. I wish i had the 256GB one, cant wait till the prices drop

Yea man i know that feeling, drove me nuts. FYI My initial ship EED was 07/07/11 but fedex came 1 day earlier to my pleasant suprise. Hope you enjoy your new toy

 

Nice review. I have the M4 as well and it has been running nicely. I think it is one of the best all around SSDs. I got it for like $430 which was a great price.

Keep enjoying your R3 and take advantage of the Steam Summer Sale!

Edit: On the 4k QD 32 my read is 170mb/s and write is 227mb/s. Weird huh?