April 29, 2008 @ 3:00pm EST Under the hood of Alienware's new M17x?

No, nor did they make any mention of ripley/skullcap choices.

 

Did u see the black color option? it's matte. I made up threads just for this reason back then. Now who said that was useless?

I am excited and am sure so do you guys.

 

Kind of funny, given that they have it written on the webpage 'due to time constraints and so on.. only a few questions will be read/answered)
Then why spend so much time waffling (in fairness they did)

 

maybe later we can find more surprises in the setup page ;D

 

It's coming @ 5.00 pm eastern time right?

 

I guess back in November, when they first showed the black m15x, they should have said "and here is the color you won't be able to get it in".

 

10 minutes

 

no skullcap info

 

Hi Folks,

take a look here: http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/area-51_m17x/area-51m_overview.aspx

Greetz
Nova.Mesa

 

nice, a five-minute head start

 

pitty bout not having montevina, though i do like the 1.5 terabite storage

 

Man, the m17x does make me jealous about one thing -- the subwoofer. I had been hoping the 15 would get it, but unfortunately it didn't.

There are literally a million ports on this thing though. If you have a wire, you can plug it into the m17x

 

That thing is huge. Almost as big as the Sager. All in all I am not impressed at all.

 

its 5 and i dont see it

 

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/area-51_m17x/area-51m_overview.aspx

Yeah, they haven't updated the main page

 

I am not impress with the configuration. Stop delaying stuff Alienware.

 

im tricking it out as we speak. 4500 plus tax and shipping with 4gb ram. yikes. m15x FTW. i really dont see the price as justifyed. 1.6 inch more screen space, sli (Which we all know is not that big a deal), 1gb 667mhz ram as standard on a high end gaming machine is really a joke in 2008. im pretty dissapointed with alienware on this one. no shiny black and skullcap. i would by all means go for the m1730 over this one.

 

What, did you think AW found some magical space-saving chassis? The M1730 is also a huge machine.

 

What other stuff were they going to offer???

 

It appears the m17x doesn't have the edge lighting -- you think they're hiding it again, or did they just thing it wasn't worth the fuss?

edit: for more evidence, the screenshots of the m17x Command Centre are missing the light pipe area.

 

I actually loved that matte black. And yeah where's skullcap? It's a shame Alienware.

All these time we, the hype and everything. Never show or promise what you can't deliver. They should really have not preview those SkullCap back then.

 

If you check the tech specs, edge lighting isn't listed as one of the zones
.

 

No but it is no where near the size of the M9750. I did expect it to be more compact than your Dell's or Sagers. Not saying AW did a bad job just wasn't quite what I had hoped for. Either way no need to be grumpy .

 

http://www.alienware.com/Configurat...?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M17X&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

 

I like the look of the m17x. It's thick, but it looks a lot sweeter than the Sager beast.

 

Why the dual 8700M option? It should just have been single 8800M for people on a budget, and Sli 8800 for all-out power.

The 8700M GT is a lacklustre card and I can't see why they would put it in a brand new, high-end, high-$ system.
And don't even get me started on the 8600M. What are Alienware smoking?!

 

What's even more surprising is that they're offering 8600s IN SLI! what a joke, you're truly wasting your money with that option

 

Funny how the imac manages to get a montevinaesque processor with their recent update but AW doesnt get any...

 

It's only an overclocked Penryn, missing most of the fundamental, infrastructural changes that Montevina will bring.

Plus, it ain't AW's fault. Intel's playing favourites with Apple right now -- no other PC maker got this.

 

I agree. A bit bizarre, im not sure who would spend $2,200 on a massive gaming machine that...didn't really have a lot of performance. I mean....the 8600 is ok in a mid-range machine, and SLi will get a little more performance, but really, its just a strange spec and I can't see them selling too many of those. Probably just there to say 'Starts at only $2,200!'

Im sure they have their reasons.

 

I think they just want to standardize the building process by not giving the option of single vs. dual graphics cards (and if you only offer 8800 SLI, or even 8800/8700 SLI only, you'll be locking some customers out price-wise).

 

yes hence the montevinaESQUE as i mentioned.

But they could have overclocked AWs too....I guess Apple is a bigger pie, cant blame AW for it I guess, but what amazed me about the M17X is the amazing number of ports and it even includes Firewire800 which is a real bonus for me!

 

Yeah, but to even call it that I think is a stretch. Anyway, not worth debating.

About the firewire -- the m15x also has FW800 I believe. Definintely not the same total number of ports, of course.

 

Yeah sorry to bring in, wasnt very relevant. And ur right, the M15X also has it too, somehow missed that. Man I was just about to order a Falcon Northwest Fragbox but now this M17X comes out right now...

 

Is SLI 8800M more powerful than the 8800 GT (what the fragbox has)? Would be an interesting comparison

 

I reckon it is actually but a Fragbox with E8400 and 8800GT costs 1800...but then again it weights 10kg as opposed to 5kg and M17X comes with a screen. So all in all I am thinking 10+5KG=15kg vs 5kg.

The 8800GT is superior to the 8800M but probably will be beaten by an 8800MSLI.

Tough choice...

 

I'm shure they traded that in for a sturdier screen!

The m17x is just HUGE imo but I liked the matte black!

 

i agree on the "HUGE" part, but "matte"? i'm not so sure... in one of the pics, you can see how the bezel reflects the keyboard almost as well as the (clearview) screen...

 

He is talking about the case design is matte black (I love it too) but the screen is glossy.

 

Just a thought:

in the video they mentioned that the alienfx can react to games because of the API....i wonder if they will release a SDK for devs to customize the light interaction??? winamp, custom game triggers (omen for Wow), etc...

I also wonder if they will release the SDK to general users??? that would be wicked!! That's what I'm going to ask for the June video session!!!

 

that would be wicked.

 

If it can react to certain games, will it do the same for say...music?

I must admit i like the idea of you being hit and your keyboard changin colour, from say green to yellow, then red etc....

OB

 

I'd like to know which games it works with

 

I'm with you GRB, what games? I'm thinking anything that uses force feedback and such...would be nice for a list though and what to expect from the apps on the list =)

 

Well I mean when I heard them mention that it interfaced with some games, I was a little surprised since that was the first time I had ever heard of it interacting like that. Examples of these 'games' would be nice, as you say.

 

Wasn't the first xps 1730 (or whatever was before the m1730) supposed to interact like that - definitely remember watching an interview with one of dell's techie's showcasing that feature, though granted the lighting was nowhere as extensive as the m15x/17x.

 

It did, the M1710. So yeah, I know it's happened before, but they've never made a mention of it with the m15x.

 

It would be pretty cool though to have the keyboard so on flashing and changing colour, I hope they do make use of it.

 

Does anyone know if the Keyboard can have different colour zones/buttons?

OB