Alienware m15x General Information - Post m15x questions here!

It's funny that no one who owns a 1440x900 wxga screen hasn't said anything?

On a bum note, it looks like my budget won't be able to stretch as far as a wuxga screen. Just recived a large bill from the council tax **$&^!'s.

I can't wait another month before I put my order through. I am bored enough as it is. I need game in my life.

Anyone here tried BF2142 on their M15X? What res do you play it at and how does it run? Same goes for HL2.

Cheers once again for the help.

 

I have the 1440x900 and its great its one of the best i've ever used. Never played FB2142 so i couldn't tell you.

 

I'll ask again hehe... do you guys think a desktop is a better choice than a laptop if all I want to do is game? I have $3500 to spend and I really would prefer a laptop because it will be used at college.

Will using the m15x for 4-6 hour gaming sessions on a daily basis be too much for it to handle? I'll be connecting it to an external monitor/mouse/keyboard so basically I'm using it like a desktop...

With that said, should I just get a nice gaming desktop and a cheap laptop for college? Or go with the m15x for both?

Thank you, help is greatly appreciated.

~Brutality

 

i had the same 2 options to choose from too. i ended up getting the m15x because of the smartbay features so i can get a longer battery life. i also plan to play some games while im in class or if i have free time before i have to get to the next class. so if you want to have games with you whereever you are then u should go for the m15x. if you want to just play at home i think a desktop would be better for you.

 

It can definitely handle the load - I have been stress testing my m15x all day and it has done well. No more problems with heat:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3129194&postcount=274

It is a difficult choice for you . . . be sure to take your time with your decision. I use a desktop and my older laptop to take with me. If I could trade my gaming desktop and laptop for an m15x, would I? I have asked myself that before and I can't decide. I think no matter what route you go you'll be happy with the current technology. In my opinion, it would be more fun to build a desktop (a Lanbox would be a cool idea) and have a cheap laptop but that's me.

 

Thanks so much Chaz!

It is truly a very tough decision because I would love to use the m15x and pretend it is a desktop every day by hooking it up to my external speakers/monitor/keyboard/mouse.

I suppose there will be times when I leave my dorm and keep the laptop running (on the external monitor) and I hope that leaving it running for a while (closed lid) would not be too bad for it.

My last fear is whether the m15x will be able to keep up with desktops for a little while on a gaming standpoint. When its connected to all my external stuff for game-time, will it really be able to perform like a gaming desktop?

So many questions, so little time to decide... what do you think Chaz? Thanks again, sir.

~Brutality

 

What do you guys think of the chances that there will be a easter or bank holiday monday deal over at Alienware.co.uk?

I am ___ close to ordering my m15x, but I had second thoughts today thinking that maybe, just maybe, there might be an easter holiday special?

What do you think the odd's are?

Cheers!

 

@DeadOrAlive for sure there will be a bank Holiday in Ireland Monday but it shouldn't affect you for anything to order the thing. If you were looking for an easter discount, I'm guessing chances are close to 0 . Aliens don't celebrate easter .

@Brutality m15 will handle 6 hours gaming per day w.o. problem but your college grades might not .

 

Yeah I comment on the screen b4. Its not as sharp as my asus G1. But it is really usable and is bright. Only noticeable on side by side comparison.

I am a fan of BF2142. I played at 1440x900 everything on max. It seems too easy for m15x - no sweat...

 

Hey Rex, I plan on installing bf2142 on my m15x as well. We will have to hook up and do some gaming together.

 

Thats great news rexibaby... Great news indeed.

 

hi, ive had my m15x on order for about a month now, and am in phase 4, waiting for the "chassis" to come back into stock. having read through (most) of these threads, just wondering if all the problems have been cleared up.ive wanted an AW for soooo long and was so excited about putting my order in, then saw these threads and the problems and got a bit worried. heres my specs anyway.

Here are the items in your cart:

[1] Area-51® m15x

Display: 15.4" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Red
Operating System: Genuine Windows® Vista Ultimate - English
Graphics Processor : 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 2048MB
Turbo Cache Memory: Intel Turbo Cache Memory 1GB – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 200GB 7200 RPM SATA
Smart Bay: None
CD/DVD/RW: Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Sound Hardware: Intel® High-Definition Audio (24-bit, 192Khz) with surround sound
Keypad: Alienware® Area-51 m15x AlienFX® Keyboard - English
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Additional Power: Additional Battery - Alienware® m15X 6-cell SmartBay Additional Battery
Warranty: AlienCare 1-Year Free Phone 24/7 and Collect & Return
AlienContact: Added Bonus with any AlienSupport Selection
AlienContact - Remote Alienware Support
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
Monitor: (None)
Mobile Transport: Alienware® Odyssey Briefcase

 

Drop the 4 gb - u can upgrade later at half the price from AW ($106 for 2 x2gb + free shipping = U need to ask) and then sell your original 2gb at ebay. U ended up paying less than half.

Drop also the turbo cache - serve no purpose whatsoever.

 

thanks for you reply, but being honest, having already been told that my system is gonna be delayed by 2/3 weeks, i dont want to start messing around with my order. just basically want to know if when it turns up, that its gonna be working or if im gonna be faced with the same sort of problems. i assume no-one has recieved their orders for a while now? i just tried to ring AW but they told me there systems are down and to ring back in an hour.

 

It's still a tough choice. If you're the type of person that only likes to use one machine and not multiple ones, then the m15x is probably the way to go.

 

Hey guys,

Just another quick question.

For those of you who have opted for the DIY memory upgrade, what seems to be the recommended brand/type you would go for?

Cheers..

 

i bought kingston ram which is a really good brand of ram.

 

the only question that comes to my mind is " is m15x worth the money " because with the $$$ for the m15x....sager always comes back into my head..
however m15x looks alot better then the sager ;P

 

Seems to me the Sager is really trying hard to make a Sale
But no comparison AW Rules (Looks, etc)
Only thing makes me look at other Laptops is If its Fater or is Upgradeable cos none of them Look as kool as AW

 

i agree AW looks awsome, the best looking laptop out there
so ya, im just gonna look longer too see how things go on the m15x
just notice a price raise...so ya

 

Is there a SPDIF out to connect external speakers in 5.1 digital sound?

 

Kingston is a reliable brand as mentioned. Other brands I would consider are Corsair, OCZ, and Crucial.

Laptop RAM is generally the same all around so buy whatever is cheapest but a good brand.

 

i bought one stick of kingston 2GB ram.......so far it's good stuff

 

I bought the Gskill 667 pc5300 cas 4 latency and its good. I ran memtest and did 4 runs that took like half hour each with no errors. Awsomely good ram.

 

Thats great to hear, I have the same mem but yet to install due to the fact my 15 still is not here!
-J.B.

 

guys, do you think there is some chance to see montevina platform, with new penryns, if they wait more & more to release the black ripley design?

at the launch this notebook was the best. but now if you're not an avid gamer, it's not! especially considering you can't OC your X9000. to wait more to get the black ripley means to have something a little bit old. so, it would be great if at the release moment, you can choose even montevina

 

As I recall, the Montevina platform supports DDR2-667, DDR2-800, DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 RAM
Would AW have to fix it's BIOS to get the new (DDR2-800 to DDR3-1066) RAM to work ? That might delay them releasing the Montevina platform..

Oh and the Wiki article says Montevina comes with "NAND flash-memory caching branded as Intel Turbo Memory (code-named Robson 2)." whereas with Santa Rosa it was " optional NAND flash-memory caching branded as Intel Turbo Memory (code-named Robson)" This means we'd get that useless thingy for free ? Sigh..

 

Well, I am eagerly awaiting Mr.Fedex. My delivery(M15X) is today from anywhere this morning to afternoon.

 

where are you silkex? usa or uk?

 

I'm in the USA.

 

ok, im in uk, was obviously hoping a bit too much for shipping to recommenced over here lol, has yours turned up yet anyway?

 

Nope, has not turned up yet. I'm debating taking some videos with my palm centro when it does arrive. What do you guys think?

 

That'd be cool let us know if you need help with anything when your system arrives.

 

Many thanks for the help on the ram guys.. I think I might buy a 2Gb stick of Kingston and just replace it with one of the 1Gb sticks that comes with my machine? Unless I got 64bit OS theres not much point to upgrade to 4Gb's really.. is there? From what I understand, 4Gb's only shows up as 3.5Gb.

Do it. That would be sweet...

Also the Montevina platform you guys were talking about sounds pretty high performance. According to Wiki the Montevina platform is scheduled for release at Computex Taipei 2008, taking place on June 3-7, 2008. If I wasn't so desperate to get back into gaming I would have tried to hold off until that new technology became available, but you guys all know how this industry is, rapidly changing every 6 months or so.. So whatever you buy new is old. The next laptop I buy, will possibly be the M15GXT. Who knows?

 

Silkex FTW
More pics/video = Über cool
Hope it's all shiny and sparkly and err.. shiny !!

 

definately silkex, any photos or videos of it in action would be very welcome, its been a long wait for me so seeing one in action would be nice lol. lets hope you get it soon friend

 

is the Intel Turbo Cache after Vista SP1 still no good choice ? Or did they get better performance ?

 

Hi there. I consider buying the m15x, mainly because the 1730 XPS is to bulky for what I need (going to sell it) and I need a performant laptop. I'm from Romania and I'll buy it from Germany; this means that if it will need service, I'll have to ship it, which costs (if I could only rely on it's fiability... ). In addition, I also have the following questions:
- it's the paintjob scratch resistent? and if it gets scratched, is it visible? (I mean if the colour of the chasis is far from the colour of the paint). Also, what do you think of the black paint (when it'll become available), regarding the same concerns?
- is the downclocking of the 8800 issue TRULY resolved? Because I don't want to ship it multiple times to Germany (not even once, i hope).
- does it worths buying the 1080p 15" lcd? Is it so big the differnece btw them? I know it's awesome, I'm currently using it , but on 17". I have a 42" 1080p lcd at home, so if I'll want to game on this res, I'll game on the 42".

The last concern is about the up-coming montevina & 9800 GTX on the Clevo M570TU, which is the alternative to the m15x. I'll buy this one from England, so the relyability (service=shipping= many $$) problem remains. Which is your obiective (please !!! ) opinion regarding the quality and fiability of the 2 lappys? And does the wait-period 'till the clevo is launched worth in terms of noticeable performance gains?

ps: I have also had 2 15'4 hp's, so I know what quality means.

I mention that I have read all major threads regarding the m15x and many smaller ones.

Sorry in advance for the writing style, but this is my first post on this forum . I'm waiting on your answers with great interest. Cheers

 

Ok so i looked at Alienwares website and the estimated shipping date has changed... are they starting to sell the m15x again or is it still a waiting game?

 

im not sure if it comes from the same factory as the uk models but their is still conflicting reports at the moment.
i went from phase 4 to 5 yesterday and then received an email last night confirming my m15x was now in production. another uk member spoke to CS today and was told they are still waiting for a delivery of chassis. he is still on phase 4 even tho he ordered his in february.

so your guess is as good as mine.

 

I highly doubt that clevo will launch any 9800 in a laptop soon. It will probably be montevina with the 8800. In other aspects I can't really advice yet except for the screen. I think the high res one is not necessary if you have the nice huge screen at home already. Plus it will save a lot of $$ that you can use in shipping from ro . If I were you I'd wait a while (3-4 months) for the m15x to solve all the issues and get it after that. It might avoid you a lot of shipping especially since if you'd order now you have no feedback yet on how the euro systems are. The first Irish built AW's should start coming in 2 weeks or so, hang around at least till those are tested. .

 

so is there an spdif connection on the m15x?

 

Hey,

I have a few questions, wen I was costumising an area-51 m15x I was wondering what these things are:

Additional AC Adapter - Alienware® m15x 120 Watt Auto-switch AC Adapter
Additional Battery - Alienware® m15x 6-cell Lithium-Ion Additional Battery

Is the last one a spare battery for the main battery?

and my other question, why do you have to pik a colour at the AlienFX® System Lighting?

edit:
Where can you select your smartbay battery?

thanks

ps sorry for my bad english

 

no you need a converter

 

For us here in the US the smart bay battery is found on the 3rd page of the customizing the m15x. Additional AC Adapter is.... An additional ac adapter in cause you need an extra one and the battery is just a spare make sure you read carefully and select the smartbay battery if that what your looking for.

 

Thanks tacomenace,

I was customising it on the uk website becaus i live in Holland

 

Technically the Optical connection is S/PDIF... keep in mind that S/PDIF is a fairly generalized type of connector, which typically comes in two flavours. optical and coax. I believe coax (with an RCA-style connector) is the more common of the two. but there's a type of Toslink cable (typically used in MD (or minidisc) devices), where one end looks almost like a black headphone jack (it has fibre optics at the end), and the other is your standard Toslink cable. That connector can be considered an S/PDIF interface to a standard toslink, optical decoder.

now-a-days, we don't bother with "S/PDIF" labellings anymore, it's either "analog" or "digital"... everything falls under one of those, right?

 

. If I wait for the m15x to become "clean" or for the clevo to be launched (I'm happy with the 8800, so that's not the problem; it's primarily about montevina), I have to do choose between: selling my current laptop now and hanging with my ol' desktop 'till then OR selling my laptop before I buy the new one. That means working on a annoying-slow desk for a couple of months or loosing money (the second hand value drops pretty fast). None of them is what I want, but I guess I'll go with the first one...I don't want to rush and buy something I'll have to service each month..

btw, about AW customer service, also in Germany they are not responding (not even to Ctrl-Alt-Del )...I have sent an e-mail a week ago and haven't received anything..

 

thx
It is because I have a 4.1 surround system (Creative Cambridge SoundWorks + SoundBlaster Live! Value) and it is currently connected to my desktop through a spdif cable that has DIN connectors and I have a jack converter to connect it to my sound card. So will I be able to connect that jack connector to the m15x?

 

the built-in camera in m15x doesn't seem to focus, the image is a blur, anyone knowx how to fix this? Thx....