Area-51 m17x, The Story So Far...

Even though I bought an Alienware notebook, I'm not totally bias towards Alienware (yes I know I bought one, I did consider Dell and Sager as well), I'm simply just going to try and give me opinion on the machine I have bought, Warts and all (if there is any).

Where to begin...

I ordered the following :-

Design :- Black Ripley Chassis
Display :- 17" WUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1080p +)
Lighting :- Alienware AlienFX System Lighting - Lime
Graphics Card :- 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX (running in full Sli mode)
Processor :- Intel Core 2 Duo X9000 2.8GHz
Operating System :- Windows Vista Ultimate

The story...

I first placed the order for my m17x Thursday 24th July 2008. I did it all online so as to avoid any misunderstandings, I was betting that the computer would place the order exactly as I had filled in the order pages.

I PM Armando, asking him how long it would take for the money to be taken from my credit card and for my order to be processed. He told me that it normal took 2 working days for payment to be verified and the order process to begin.

Monday 28th July 2008, 8:00am and I was at work checking my emails. I had one from Alienware informing me that my payment had been received and verified "thank you" and that I could track my order progress via the link...

Now, as I use Opera as my browser, it has some very useful features built in as standard. One of these if the ability to set an auto-refresh on a particular page for, let’s say, 30 seconds... This I turned on and sat with the page being refreshed every 30 seconds. I was in Phase 2...

Tuesday 29th July 2008, I started Opera which had helpfully remembered my settings and the monitoring or the phase page began once again. It refreshed and I was now in phase 3...

Wednesday 30th July 2008, I did the now "usual" and was pleased to find that I was now in phase 4 - Pre Production..

Unfortunately there was a slight issue with the system, those of you who read the threads will know about this already but, it seems the computer system that processes order was sitting and waiting for my entire order to be in stock before sending my order for production. My order consisted of a fully loaded m17x....... and a Mug!

It seems the mugs were out of stock and my order was sitting waiting for it to arrive before my m17x could be built!!!

So, I rang up and spoke to Sean who was very helpful, he put the mug on back-order and sent the m17x to be processed/built with a priority status attached.

Friday 8th August 2008, I checked the phase page as usual and was pleased to see that “Sean's magic“ had worked I was now in phase 5 - Production.

Sean had already told me that because I had a priority status my order would be processed and shipped in 4 days so I was expecting my m17x to arrive around 14th July 2008.

I was now sort-of relaxed, my order was being built and I would soon have my shiny new m17x.

Monday 11th August arrived and as normal I had the phase page refreshing at 30 seconds, at around 11:30 the page displayed an error saying it wasn't working and to please try again later, so I left it refreshing and carried on working. Maybe it as was a computer glitch or something...

12:00pm arrived and I checked again and then nearly fell out of my chair, I was now at phase 9 - shipped... I couldn't believe it!

That night when I got home I rang customer services to make sure, and it was correct my order had been shipped as of that afternoon. I would be getting my shipping/tracking number soon....I was in shock, it had seemingly taken 2 days to build my m17x, unless they work Saturdays but still, 3 days...wow although I was now a little worried as it seemed very quick, almost too quick...

I loaded the tracking number into DHL's web site and then remembered I had next business day shipping... it would be with me tomorrow... The DHL site told me that my order was in transit... Which was to be perfectly honest, useless as it didn’t say where i was in transit...

I sat home doing my work, waiting for the knock at the door. I felt nervous and excited at the same time, mostly because I wasn't sure if I was going to get a fully working notebook or a lemon (m15x stories etc.)

At last the knock at the door came, I jumped up and answered the door. There stood the delivery man holding a large brown cardboard box and a a small cardboard box. He passed them to me, which was a shock as the large one was quite heavy and then asked me to sign the piece of paper... So I put the boxes on the floor and signed for it, "thanks you" and he was gone.

To be honest I was surprised at how much the large one actually seemed to weigh but, undeterred I took them to my dining room table and unpacked everything taking photo's at each "stage".

As you can see from the photos, everything is neatly packaged and I was surprised at how little "rubbish" you get. I have unpacked Dell computers and you get CD's for Tiscali, Orange etc.
I then "unwrapped" my shiny new m17x gaming notebook (",)

First impressions...

The packaging was excellent, the Alienware box contained inside another, protective box. I unwrapped it all taking photos as I went and finally there it was “my m17x”, as last.
To give my first impression, it would have to be "Wow!” The m17x is definitely not what you could call a laptop, it's a desktop replacement for sure. It's not massively in your face but it's big.

It kind of reminded me of the "Obelisk in 2001 a Space Oddesy, "Big, Black and just..'there'... Not in your face, it just has a presence.

To be honest although it is heavy for a notebook, if you help a desktop tower in your arms, added the screen, keyboard and mouse, I’m sure it would weigh more than the m17x, and it the m17x does everything a desktop does, just in a smaller and lighter case.

As long as you don't think of the m17x as a portable computer, as in light-weight and easy to carry around you'd be ok (",)
I guess you could carry it but you'd not want to go far, it's a real desktop replacement.
I love the sleek black finish although I’ll be cleaning her allot but, I don't mind as it looks cool. It's even better in a dark room, all you can see if the screen and the FX lighting......

General points...

1). Build quality is very good, There was no noise when I opened the lid and after carefully looking over every part of the machine, I found no cracks, unsightly gaps or anything that looked wonky. Also there was no rattle when I shook it lightly, which was good (no loose screws then lol)
2). The screen. It wobbles a little but, a) no more than my work Dell Vostro and b). Given its size and extra weight, that's pretty good. I guess that if you shook the notebook it would wobble but, who's going to do that when gaming etc....Eh?
3). The touch buttons. They proved a little troublesome at first, seems I was pressing the wrong part of the button or something but, after a little practice they all work first time including the volume slider. After reading so many stories about these not working I have to say they work fine and (touching wood here) no problems so far. I must admit I won't be using the stealth mode button ever but, it looks nice (",)
4). The Smart-Bay. It's great. I don't mind the lack of an eject button, means it can't be pressed by something accidently and the FN + F8 command works great. The only slight niggle was that it had a French name (can't remember what it was), not blank so I renamed it... like I said only a slight niggle really.
5). Heat. So far I have had her running for 14 hours constantly, just doing basic updates and installing software etc. I haven't installed any monitoring software yet but, I will in time. She appears to be quite cool-running though. The fans kick into life every so often and when they are on you can hear them a little but, they aren't very loud. You can definitely feel the heat being pushed out of the back and appear to be working well. I guess only time will tell. I'll monitor them when I’m gaming to see what temps I’m getting.
I have updated my graphics drivers to 177.73 so far and the highest temperature after running UT3 for 30 minutes at full everything and 1920x1200 resolution, was 88 and 75 degrees, which seems ok. You can hear the fans kicking into life every so often and then when they idle you can hardly hear anything.
6). The Power Brick. Yes it’s big and the cable supplying power to the m17x is huge. The photo shows it compared to my W8810i Mobile Phone, the phone is 10mm wide, about the same as the cable lol to be honest, so long as it works, and I’ll just leave it sitting on the floor. The good thing with Alienware is that they have given you lots of cable so it can be put out of the way.
7). The touch pad/mouse is very good. Certainly better than my Dell’s and I haven’t felt the need to use the sticker included in the “pack” as the finish makes it unnecessary. I have enabled it to run at full speed and its fine. Not as quick moving as my Razer Lachesis but good enough for general use.
8). The speakers seem ok so far, I’ve not played music through them but running UT3 with them was good, all sounds seemed crisp, not loud but then they are small but overall the best I’ve heard on a notebook for sure.
9). The keyboard. Now I’ve been reading about people who have lag when typing but I’ve not found this happening…so far! I have enabled the keyboard settings in Control panel to repeat at full speed with a short delay and so far it seems fine. There is a good feel with the keyboard and unless you press really hard on the keyboard it’s as good and flex-free as a normal desktop keyboard.
If I had to complain it would be the height, the notebook is quite high and you need to hold your arms up in the air to type but, this is not a real problem, just something I noticed typing this lol Apart from that it’s very nice to type on so, no real complaints here. If you were doing a lot of typing you might be better getting a wireless one simply for comfort.
10). Graphics Quality. This notebook has the best and clearest screen display I have ever seen on a notebook. The windows displayed are crisp with no delays or issues when using programs at all. I only use 1920x1200 desktops at full resolution and they look amazing, like you are looking through a window.
11). DVD/CD/Blu-Ray drive. Now this seems to be a slow spinning drive as Oblivion and Bioshock took quite a while to install but, whilst not the quickest of drives I wasn’t sure it was spinning as it was as quiet as the fans at idle. It seems to work ok, I’ve not had time to watch a DVD yet and unfortunately I don’t own any Blu-Ray discs yet but, when I do I will keep you updated.
12). Express card slot. This I have used for my Extreme X-Fi sound card by Creative. I put the card in the slot, it was recognized by Vista and after installing drivers is working fine. I have full 5.1 surround sound and it’s awesome. No complaints here.

Conclusion…

The worst thing about this notebook would have to be the finish. Now, I don’t mean it’s bad, far from it I mean that it’s a magnet for finger prints… The screen bezel being shiny is the worst part but, with the use of some notebook cleaning cloths (I managed to “find” some at work) the prints are gone. So it’s not really a problem just something to watch out for.

The best thing about this notebook would have to be the awsome screen. It is amazing. I have checked and do not appear to have any leakage either which is good.

All in all I would recommend anyone who wants a desktop replacement or a god gaming notebook with a 17” screen, to buy one of these.

It’s not small, light or “pretty” but it works fine and looks great.

Pictures...

 

YAY OB.....nice review and pics (thx for doing attachment so i could see them as well.... )

but i have to ask....what is niggle? lol.

+1 to ya OB.

 

Wow, maybe I never noticed before, but that AC Adapter is HUGE . Awesome laptop.

 

congrats OB so glad its worked out for you.

 

take into account what it has to provide power for....

 

Guess i'd descride it as a small problem (",)

Thanks, I remembered you'd said you needed them as attachments, so i thought i'd do it so anyone else had the same problam as you.

Glad you liked it and thanks (",)

OB

 

Thanks, i'm really pleased with it, and if i'm honest relieved it works so well lol

OB

 

Congrats, OB. Hopefully you won't encounter any major issues.

 

awesome oddlebear. It's good to hear that you have a good working m17x.

 

nice review...and congrats on that nice mosheen

 

Good review and congrats. Do you like the 177.83 drivers? Any problems installing them? Debating whether to give them a try on my M17X. So far the Alienware drivers seem OK.

 

I've got the 177.73 at the moment but, Power DVD doesn't run now so i'm going to use the Nvidia official drivers for the 880GTX 175.19, these have full certification etc.

May not be as good as 177.73 but for now i want all of this machines options opened up so i'll try it. Changing them is easy so...

OB

 

Let me know how they work since i have the same specs as your M17X.

 

OB Congrats, enjoy your system..

 

Grats OB!
I know you'll love your system!

 

Wow, congrats on the system. Alienware really stepped up build quality on the m17x. When are we going to finally see better build quality and the black color on the m15x?

 

Sure No problem (",)

Every little helps!

OB

 

Great review m8!hope u enjoy it btw,how much is your 3dmark?

 

It seems Alienware learned from their mistakes on the M15X. Although i am very pleased with the M17X i liked the form factor on the M5X. But returned it after several attempts at fixing down clocking/over heating problems. Have not had any problems at all on the M17X.

 

Now i've got the drivers back to the original it's only 500 or so less than AW's score mine's about 124## i forgot the actual score but over 12k so i'm happy with that for stock drivers.

OB

 

i got over 2k below the scores but i have my 8700s right now once i get back home and put the 8800s in ill be good to go and ill let you guys know about that.

 

I hope it works well omaryunus. I am waiting for a faster gpu.

 

Greet review OB. I have exactly the same experience with my m17x. All works excellent and I have no problems so far. My experience with AW Customer Services are excellent too.

Enjoy!

 

Omar may I ask what benchmark scores are you getting with your 8700's?

 

Thanks for the info this thread is very informative reps to ya.

 

Thanks, no problem.

If you've got any questions feel free to PM me

OB

 

Nice one. Have u ever try to install windows xp on it. i have tried many time but all gave me BSOD. Cry

 

Nice review =) enjoyable to read. nice pictures too!

 

KevinKhanh - No, I have it on my work machine and to be honest I prefer Vista (",)

N1kkon - Thanks, it's an awsome machine and I haven't had any problems (yet lol) (",)

OB

BTW - Try my Area-51 Mug Review if you want a laugh!!!

 

So bad that i'm not familiar with Vista. My system have Vista Ultimate like yours. I have tried many time with many Windows XP installation discs. They just keep showing me the BSOD. Just wonder if the mainboard doesn't support??
I have tried del the raid and make my HDD run in normal mode but not work. Install windows xp on Microsoft Virtual Machine is oki.
Please some body help me.

 

I think there's a thread for how to install xp into an m17x... I believe there is a "order of installment" for the drivers etc.

OB

m17x xp install bsod
Try here (",)

 

Dear OB,
I have tried the link you gave me but it won't help. Maybe that is the suck of the M17x?
Still can't install Windows XP on it.

 

It might be the hardware used, maybe XP doesn't have a broad enough driver database?

I'm sure it's possible as other members have succedded in installing XP...

Guess it's a case of keep trying?

I'm ok with Vista but, i'm sure it's just drivers that will cause headaches for XP

OB

 

Dear OB!
Do you have the Bios for M17x, i have search in my hive but can't find it.
Thanks in advance.
Kevin