First Alienware purchase

I'm thinking about getting an Alienware m15x around late Dec or early Jan, but I want to know the caveats of the new Alienware M15x system; apart from weight and "short" battery life.

What's the screen like?
How does the keyboard fare against say a Logitech G15?
Thermal management?
Speed?
How different is the exterior chassis of the M15x to the M17x; is it weaker/the same/stronger/?

Cheers.

 

if you plan on doing a ton of gaming i would go for the m17x the 15 inch just seems to small..up to you tho

 

Answered ^_^;

 

Honestly it depends on how portable you want to go.
I for one am sick of lugging around behemoth laptops so I opted for the 15x, but if you're not planning on moving around much the 17x might be just fine for you because it has SLI video cards.

Mostly it really depends on what you need out of a laptop, though if you don't care about portability I'd say just build your own desktop.

 

m17x because its just about the same as the m15x but more powerful for gaming

 

m15x is not a good option on games because is not dual graphic cards on it and m17x doesn't have an i7 but is the best machine you can get until they release an i7 with two graphic cards soon next year

 

Not wanting to fanboy here, but the value of dual cards is dubious - there are still not too many games out there that make effective use of them.

The standard single graphics card in the M17 is more powerful than the highest end option in the M15 and as you point out the core i7 is the newest and most powerful of the Intel line up.

I think it's a little extreme then to say that the M15 is not a good option on games. There are better options, but I for one am happy with the results I'm getting from my M15, and I write about games for a living.

 

@Roxy: exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.

Speed: How fast is the Core i7 CPU? / On turbo boost mode?
M17x puts me off because of the previous generation P/T/QX series CPU...and the two reasons I'd buy an M17x is if it had Core i7 and the fact that it has an anodized aluminium exterior.

Blu-Ray drive: I read on the Dell/Alienware product page "reviews" section that someone had experienced stuttered Blu-ray playback...does this hold true?

Personally, the GTX 260M is overkill for what I'd be doing with an Alienware anyway. I do 99% of my gaming on my desktop and my GTX 285 pretty much ploughs through anything. I think the GTX 285 already dominates the SLI config found on notebooks anyway considering the chips are just faster G92 cores.

@froogle: on stealth mode/~40% brightness/wifi off, how much battery life am I looking at with the 9-cell battery?

 

I too am looking to buy a M17x soon. I was originally planning on ordering it Dec. 1st but with all this talk of the i7 coming to it I may just wait till till Jan. Or Feb. and see what happens. I keep getting calls from Dell asking me when I'm going to order, like the sooner the better for some strange reason. But in honesty I might just get it in Dec. anyway since the CPU's aren't the bottleneck in performance anymore. In case your wondering what is, it's the HHD. And to add to that, don't waste your money on a SSD that comes with it. They're crap. They're made by Samsung and have a read/write speed of approx 80Mbs. I'm definitely ordering 2 SSD's from newegg, either Intel or OCZ, they have a read/write speed of approx 200Mbs.

 

Stealth mode is only applicable to running on power, so that's a non issue. On the 9-cell battery, running with the balanced power settings profile on Windows 7, with WiFi and AlienFX off, I get between 2:45 and 3.15 hours. It really depends on what you intend to do running on the battery. If you're a developer working with something like Visual Studio, you're going to see a lot of disk access and on anything outside of an SSD drive that's going to eat power. Alternately, if you're just typing away in a lightweight word processor, then there's hardly anything going on except for the occassional save.

As with all notebooks, you tend to learn what works, and what doesn't, in terms of drawing power and if long life between charges is what you're most focussed on you'll work accordingly. An option of course is always to get two 6 cell batteries instead. They give 2 to 2.30, are smaller and lighter and will probably give you the most flexibility.

I've not ever found the 9 cell inconvenient so far, but it has been less than a week and that opinion will no doubt change on the first long flight I take.

 

Wow. 3 Hours. That's amazing!! I get about 1.25 hours on my current laptop with Asus' Battery Saving Mode, lowest brightness, no wifi, and Vista without aero.

What's the point of stealth mode on power?

 

You would want to consider reading this thread before buying the M17x or M15x

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=408300

 

Welll that is being *very* conservative, per your original message. No wireless internet, balanced power management, not doing much more beyond typing and no Alien FX. Fire up a game and you'll get an hour, tops.

As for Stealth mode - I really don't know. THe manual says something about saving wear and tear on components.

 

You don't game on battery and with wifi on you still get 2:30 easy

 

If you plan on hardly ever moving the laptop, and will be using it primarily for gaming, then go the M17x. If you will be taking the laptop around with you, and still need some power, go with the M15x.

I have the Dell XPS M1730, which is lighter than the M17x, and its a pain to lug around. Very heavy, and requires a large bag. Plus its awkward to move around when trying to rearrange things!

I plan on moving onto the M15x, I need something more portable for when I go away for work trips. The M15x has very nice specs, and I am hoping is more portable than the XPS its replacing!?

For the OP, if you already have a powerful desktop for gaming, why even bother looking at the M15x? Get something smaller, more portable, with better battery life, that won't break the bank! The M15x is a 15", but from what I have seen and heard, its still quite large. Plus the battery life it has ain't that crash hot when compared to other machines.

 

It's 9 pounds pretty much the same as u have now ....

 

Good to see you again Moo! Yes, NEVER game on battery. Everything is being downclocked on battery anyway, so you would not have a very good experience.

Hey Pommie did you finally decide? As you can tell on my sig, I finally re-took the plunge.

 

@Pommie: Yes, I do have a good gaming desktop already, but I'm still looking at the Alienware because it's the only notebook PC I know that looks good, has a Core i7 and has a strong metal shell around it.

 

The M15 is big and heavy. No two ways about that. I have a Sager 5793, 17 inch gaming monster and physically the M15X is exactly the same size. The 15 inch screen on the 15x is visible screen, but there's quite a lot of plastic around it which bulks the size of the screen enclosure up to pretty much the same as many 17 inch notebooks. That's not necessarly a bad thing. You don't notice the plastic at all once you start using it.

As for the weight, the 15x is actually a pound heavier than my Sager, but it's a very well balanced machine. I don't even notice the weight but i do on the Sager. The 9 cell battery lifts up the back of the machine as well, keeping the weight and heat away from your legs.