Firecat's Review of the Alienware m15x (With Pictures)

Well Folks I’ve had my system for a total of 5 days now and here’s the review as promised. Two things to Note:
1. Look for my videos on Changing Ram in the RAM Section.
2. Full system specs are located at the bottom of the review.

This review will focus on the core aspects associated with purchase of the machine, machine features, as well as personal opinions associated with the purchasing and features of the machine.

Purchasing: I purchased the m15x on Thursday March 19, 2009. Long story short it was here the following Friday morning for a total of 8 days from ordering to being at my doorstep. This is much more than I could have ever hoped for as the entire process went as smooth as silk. I will note that Alienware’s online monitoring system has about a 1 hour delay. I received an e-mail from Fed-Ex (the official mailer of Alienware products) about an hour before my system was considered shipped by the online order status monitoring system.

Packaging: The system came packaged in two boxes. The first was all black. After opening the all black box one would find another box with handle attached to the top. This box sports a very subtle Alienware Alien Head. Opening this box reveals the goodies. Packaged side by side is the laptop and the associated peripherals box. Inside the peripheral box is a nice rubberized owner’s manual (not the typical leather one received by other owners) containing your Alien Agent ID as well as various system CD’s. Also included are two Mylar Touchpad Stickers. One has Alien Writing on it (decoded it says ALIENWARE) the other is just plain clear. Another add in was a rubberized sticker of an Alien head. The Laptop itself is encased within an Alienware branded soft touch case with styro wrapping. Surrounding the laptop are two large plastic/Styrofoam securing pads. They look like they’d work well in preventing any damage during shipping.












Initial Inspection: The system is a nice silver color with a smooth clear coat finish. I found that it hides finger prints better than most clear coated laptops due to the lighter color, although fingerprints are still noticeable in certain lighting environments and at certain lighting angles. I went with the silver skullcap design as I thought it was the better looking of the two. That’s just my opinion however. Upon opening the lid for the first time one truly notices the attention to detail. Everything is nicely laid out and the keyboard looks of top notch quality as well. There are no cheesy addons, nor is there anything that immediately distracts the eye. Everything is fluid, crisp, and clean just as it should be.














Turning it on: The Alienhead power button is a nice touch controlled device that really adds a sense of style to the already sleek design of the system. I had no problems with the responsiveness of the button as others have mentioned. I have read that these touch controls operate off of temperature, so that might explain why they work so well with my generally warm hands. Those with colder hands might be the ones having this issue. The Bios screen flashed with a graphite Alienhead logo, followed by a system recovery prompt screen lasting for about 2-4 seconds. Vista loaded quickly as did the Alien Sense program.












Use of the M15X:

Keyboard: I found the keyboard to be wonderfully elegant not only in its layout but also its feel. Each key registers with a nice tactile feel and I must say it is the closest thing to a desktop keyboard I have ever felt in a laptop. Combine this with the nicely backlight design which many notebooks lack, and there is no reason not to enjoy one’s time typing away in any lighting situation. I have noticed that when typing EXTREMELY FAST that the keyboard does not register two consecutive key presses from the same key. For instance when typing GOOGLE very fast it will show up as GOGLE. This was an issue raised previously however I believe that it has been solved for the most part and ONLY happens when the keys are pressed VERY FAST!





Hot Keys: I decided to review hot keys for anyone looking to purchase an m15x. Things such as screen brightness and touchpad on/off can be adjusted using the Fn (function key) located near the bottom left of the keyboard. F1 toggles suspend. F2 displays battery information. F3 toggles mute on and off. F4 and F5 adjust brightness up and down respectively. F6 allows for easy switching of HDMI/LCD. Pressing F7 switches the binary graphics feature from external to internal (this does require a restart to take effect). F8 registers the eject button for the optical drive as there is no button on the drive itself. F9 disables/enables the camera. F10 displays the windows Mobility Center which allows for instant access to things like power plan, wireless plan, external monitor, volume, and a few more options. F11 toggles AlienFX lighting on and off. And F12 turns the touchpad light on when an external mouse is connected.

Touchpad: Using the m15x’s touchpad is a bit of a learning experience. Personally, I have always hated using laptop’s built in touchpads so take this part of the review with a grain of salt. I found the surface to be a little hard to navigate on without absolutely dry fingertips. The movement of the pointer is a bit jittery and should be adjusted to move faster as it requires a few movements to navigate across the large 1920 x 1200 screen. Also one should adjust the scrolling surfaces in Alienware’s Command Center to alleviate any accidental use of scrolling. I do like the light surrounding the touchpad as it is bright, elegant, and smoothly built in to the rest of the surface. I decided, even before the laptop came, to purchase the Microsoft Arc Mouse. This handy mouse folds up for portability, and folds out to be a nearly full sized laser mouse with accurate tracking on every surface I’ve used thus far.






Screen: I am loving the screen more and more each day I use the machine. The 1920 x 1200 resolution really helps to make every situation look as deep and rich as possible. The blacks are displayed very accurately via a decent contrast ratio. The brightness of the screen is also good and a matte finish helps to prevent any glare that might be trying to bother your eyes.

Speakers: The factory speakers are located under the grills on either side of the Quick Touch Buttons. They produce accurate enough sounds however at higher frequencies they squeak and at lower frequencies they tend to bottom out. I typically use my headphones so this doesn't really matter to me however nice quality speakers would be a good addition to the laptop.

SmartBay: All m15x and m17x machines come with Smart Bay. Basically this technology allows for hot swapping of optical drives for either an additional battery or hard drive. After using this feature a few times I can’t imagine ordering a laptop without from this point on. The ease of use combined with the peace of mind involved in having a backup batter is second to none.
Stealth Mode: This feature basically declocks the processor to 800mhz from 2500mhz. A nice feature to increase battery life when all you are doing is browsing the net and maybe typing a document.

Wireless: This machine gets great wireless reception in many environments. I have been able to see wireless networks that my girlfriend can’t see and we are in the same ROOM!

Command Center: I found this to be one VERY useful application in tweaking my new high end system. Seriously, do any other manufactures offer this kind of customization with a new machine? I like the Sense, Touch, and Fusion parts of the command center for their user friendliness and ease of customization. Things are clearly laid out and the adjustability far exceeded my expectations. AlienFX took a little getting used to and I wish there was a setting for ALL white ALL The time. I do however like the custom theme parts as you can change the lights to pulse and morph, beyond just simply having one simple color. These settings are best used in loop configuration to keep the theme moving.

Upgrades:
Blu-Ray: Going for the Blu-ray reader or burner will cost you 300 or 350 USD respectively. I am planning on doing my own conversion to a SmartBay Blu-ray reader here in the future and I will keep you posted on how that goes. Basically, one can buy these drives new for around 120 USD on e-bay and self swap them with their current optical drives for use in the SmartBay. SmartBay blank cases cost around 20 USD and are available through Alienware.

RAM: I went ahead and installed 4 gigs of PC6400 RAM from OCZ off of Newegg for $40.00. This is a cheaper route than upgrading via Alienware. The RAM is rated at 800 MHz but it will down clock to 667 MHz once installed. However, latencies on my RAM went from 5-5-5-18 to 4-5-5-15. So this is definitely a cheap way to increase performance in my book. Here is a LINK to my Youtube Video on How to Change RAM in the m15x.




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Issues: I have had only one issue and it involves Vista x64 bit. I love this OS however when trying to run Ntune it crashed on me once. So just be aware of what you are installing and make sure it can handle 64 bit. You should have no problem running most 32 bit apps unless it is for things like tuning the system on the fly like Ntune does.

Areas of the Bios that NEED improvement:
1: When adjusting DPI higher (96DPI Standard) the nice icons that pop up on the screen get trimmed from the bottom and the right side. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to see what volume the computer is at when you are adjusting volume. This might be a BIOS issue, might not be.
2: Fan speeds are very weird and unpredictable. When in stealth mode my GPU fan STOPS and the GPU hits 75-79C! But at the same time the CPU fan comes on at 4500rpm or so when entering stealth mode. Also the GPU fan is ALWAYS on at around 2500 rpm (measured by thermofan). This is enough to keep quiet, but doesn't really allow for much air movement. Fans SHOULD be able to be manually adjusted by the users, with an automatic protocol that overrides the user's settings if temperatures reach a certain point.
3: Bios x36 has a bug in the temperature fetching for the "case" temperature. NO matter the temp it always reads 80C.
Screen Creaking: The screen does make some noise initially on movement, however I have found it to be within my tolerances and it doesn’t look like it will affect anything long term.

General Experience: My experience has been one of immense joy and satisfaction. I was surprised by the quality of the machine and certainly have been happy with its performance. It is definitely a head turner where ever you go and really sets the standard as far as hardware is concerned. Everything seems well laid out and Alienware integrates their own software elegantly with that of Microsoft’s. Pressing any of the hotkeys registers a nice Alienware generated graphic in the center of the screen which really adds to the user’s experience with the laptop itself. Gaming has been great on this machine. I just purchased Crysis yesterday and it has been running on medium settings DX10 mode with 4x AA very smoothly. I cannot give an actual FPS but I would say it is very playable and seems to work great. I have also played COD4 as well as World In Conflict both at higher settings very smoothly. WIC seems to be very CPU intensive and my T9300 processor has kept up very nicely.

So there it is, my review of the Alienware m15x. So far so good! I am currently transporting this laptop within a neoprene sleeve inside either a Wegner Swiss Backpack or a Wegner Swiss Notebook Carrier.

System Specs.

[1] Area-51® m15x

Design & Display: Silver Skullcap Design
Display: 15.4" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p)
AlienFX®: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: 320GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Keyboard Options: AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard – Exclusive Design
Mobile Essentials: Additional Battery – 6-cell Smart Bay Battery
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista® Edition
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Personalized Nameplate
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Keyboard Diagram Overlay
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Smooth Mylar Touchpad
Avatar: Alien Schematic
Window Style: Graphite Window Style
Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers
Wallpaper: Alienhead 3D
Wallpaper: Alien Schematic
Wallpaper: Area-51 m9750
Power Plan: Standard Power Plan
Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On
Sidebar Gadgets: CPU Meter
Sidebar Gadgets: Weather Forecast (default location)
Time Zones: (GMT - 5.00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

[1] Employee Purchase Program ; 5 % Instant Rebate

 

Nice Review FireCat and Great Pictures.

You and I seem to have purchased Identical Systems.

What sort of 3d06 readings are you getting - have you tried that yet?. It's interesting that With the Factory Graphics Driver 176.37 I got the best reading of 9325. When I tried upgrading to179.13, 179.48 or 181.20 or DOX's 180.43 my 3d marks dropped by at least 5% so I think the best driver is the one they shipped it with.

I'd also be interested on your review of the speakers and thier performance.

Thanks for the great review.

 

Well here are the factory 3do6 marks from the PC information.
3DMark 2006

* * Customer Information- 3DMark Score- 9,441.00 3DMarks
* SM2.0 Score- 4,133.00
* HDR/SM3.0 Score- 4,415.00
* CPU Score- 2,275.00
* Game Score- 0.00 Points
* * SM2.0 Graphics Tests GT1 - Return To Proxycon- 36.85 FPS
* GT2 - Firefly Forest- 32.03 FPS
* * CPU Tests CPU1 - Red Valley- 0.71 FPS
* CPU2 - Red Valley- 1.16 FPS
* * HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests HDR1 - Canyon Flight- 41.54 FPS
* HDR2 - Deep Freeze- 46.76 FPS

Also I will update the review to include speakers.

 

awsome review its killin my internet to get all the pics

 

Sorry about that Mr. Moo. Those are reduced image sizes too! Originals are 13.6 megapixels (4224x3168) lol

 

no i have very crappy internet its ok nice camera btw

 

Thanks, LOVE the camera as well! I would reccommend it to anyone in the market for a camera. Takes AMAZING pics. Samsung SL310W. For around 200 USD you can get it at Best Buy, However, my girlfriend got one on e-bay with a BUNCH of accessories for around 150 USD shipped (including 3 year warratnty)! What a value for 13.6 MP!

 

Agreed, the pictures are amazing! Almost wallpaper-worthy! Haha. Love the lid on the laptop too. Looks like... angel/seraphim wings or something. Very cool.

 

Hey Firecat,

Very awesome review and excellent pics! I also have the same specs as your m15x. Dude, try Oceanus' fix for the keyboard lag here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288995&page=4

I had that annoying problem and after doing this, I can type normal again.

 

My m17 came with the same user manual here I prefer the older one mine came with (my m15x)

 

Wow, AW has a new cd binder for system disks... and it comes with stickers!

Yeah I prefer mine too

 

the new binder looks interesting. nice to hear your system arrived in perfect working order, firecat, and may it stay that way for many years

+rep for the detailed review.

EDIT: you should have this added to the m15x sticky: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=266924

 

Very nice and clear review firecat!!!

 

I contacted chaz about reading this review and possibly updating the M15x page. Should I just add a link to it at the end as well? Thanks again guys. Sorry the review wasn't here sooner, I wanted to be as detailed as possible. It KILLED me to take pics of opening the system, I just wanted to RIP through all that packaging and turn the beast on! haha THanks again.

 

Excellent review, and pics galore. I like the YouTube RAM upgrade guide, that would be very helpful. Upgrading RAM for most laptops is a similar process.

Cheers, thanks for taking the time and effort to post this.

 

why not embed the youtube video directly?

 

hmm....didn't know you could do that. how does that work.

 

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just copy the embed code from youtube.

 

oh nice I will Edit it after class

 

Great Review and Pics....Thank You!

 

Great review, Firecat. Must've taken a while to type all of this up. And great pictures as well.

 

Nice review! Hope you enjoy your m15x <del>as much as we enjoyed buil--</del> ( oops). Should you need any questions answered or need any assistance with your m15x, feel free to ask any one of us here at the NBR Alienware forum!

+ rep'ed for your efforts!

 

Great review and pictures man. Congrats on the new machine. Just wanted to know though, is there any creaking when you carry the unit around? Notebookcheck says that it creaks whenever you move it around.

Duane

 

I have had absolutely no creaking problems when carrying it around. ACTUALLY I have found a way to minimize screen creaking just by how you open it. Opening it with two hands on either side of the screen and doing it in one fluid motion really helps to minimize load directly on hinges. I might make a load dynamic drawing of how this works if I can get the laptop in for a scan at the university.

 

That's how I open my hinges with a lot of care, but the right hinge still came apart. I hope that yours stays in good shape though.

 

Was it a gradual process, or something that just happened out of the blue? Hope it doesn't happen to me when I'm studying abroad next year

 

ummmm I am getting 9616 with Dox 182.05, i tried all others, the stocked one come in with 9465, other Dox goes around 92xx - 95xx

Hope this helps

 

I didn't notice it until about a month ago, so I assume that it was gradual. I've had my m15x for a year now. Warranty expires next month too. Better send it in.

 

Might want to extend your warranty too. If you're going to send it in anyway, you might as well make your m15x last, right?

 

Send it in dhoang417!!! Get it fixed!!!

 

Definitely guys. I just sent pictures of the hinge damage to Roswell two days ago, and now am waiting for the next step.

EDIT: Okay, just got the phone call from Roswell and the prepaid shipping ticket is being sent. And I went ahead and also told him about the volume slider problem too, so that they go ahead and replace my motherboard too. I'm trying to take advantage of this down time.

 

New Content Added as of today:

Areas of the Bios that NEED improvement:
1: When adjusting DPI higher (96DPI Standard) the nice icons that pop up on the screen get trimmed from the bottom and the right side. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to see what volume the computer is at when you are adjusting volume. This might be a BIOS issue, might not be.
2: Fan speeds are very weird and unpredictable. When in stealth mode my GPU fan STOPS and the GPU hits 75-79C! But at the same time the CPU fan comes on at 4500rpm or so when entering stealth mode. Also the GPU fan is ALWAYS on at around 2500 rpm (measured by thermofan). This is enough to keep quiet, but doesn't really allow for much air movement. Fans SHOULD be able to be manually adjusted by the users, with an automatic protocol that overrides the user's settings if temperatures reach a certain point.
3: Bios x36 has a bug in the temperature fetching for the "case" temperature. NO matter the temp it always reads 80C.

 

Firecat I noticed the same thing with the OSD icons getting messed up when you adjust the font dpi above 96. WIth theses 1990x1200 screens its nice to crank up the font size a bit, but it would be nice if the OSD adjusted accordingly. I do love this screen though. FOr a digital photgrapher like myself, its amazing the detail I can pick up compared to the previous screen I had.

I have also had a few issues with the volum control and a few wierd things going on when I type but I need to investigate those a bit more before I report on them.

 

Concerning number two, that is not supposed to be happening when your GPU is on stealth mode. The fans still comes on for me when it hits in the 70C.

Also You might want to try some newer drivers from laptopvideo2go since they downclock the GPU when it is not in intensive use keeping your laptop a lot cooler too.

And I agree with you that the fans should be allowed to be controlled by the user with safeguards.

3. This is a bug. I too have 80C for my ACPI temp.

 

This is definitely a great review, very detailed. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I'll share it with others here at AW.

Thank you.

 

Nice review overall.

 

Thanks for the GREAT review! I ordered the exact same specs as you, but right now my m15x is only in stage 5. The wait is killing me but I know it will be worth it!

 

You'll be soo happy! Did you order Vista x64?

 

Aside from the standard issues with it (though no hinge cracks as of yet), I have absolutely loved this laptop.