Groove's 2nd m15x skullcap!

Woohoo, Fedex just dropped it off and it's out of the box and on my desk! I'll update this thread later when I make a detailed review. As it stands, the skullcap looks absolutely beautiful. Creaking is about the same as my old ripley so I think we can definitively put to rest any chassis or lid improvements but honestly it's not a big deal to me. Honestly, the lid does feel a bit more stiff but wobble is about the same. Again, not a big deal. I can't detect any other anomalies. I think they may have possibly done something with the arrow keys to support that area of the keyboard more. I feel a possible additional support point underneath the keys and I don't have hardly any dip at all. It would be useful to have someone with ripley try to press their arrow keys down and tell me if you feel any support or anchor points. I seem to remember not feeling anything but with this skullcap I can definitely feel an additional support point. No dead pixels and beautiful display. I'm noticing a much more uniform distribution of light around the light piping area when compared to my ripley but again it could be just minor fluctuations in alignment. For instance, my ripley had the same width of light but the plastic would meet a little closer in points so that the light band had non uniform distribution. I'm not noticing any of that with this model but again it's a pretty minor point. I'm so glad to have this laptop back. Ok, off to getting all my apps installed and I'll be doing some thorough testing and benchmarking over the next few days. I'm taking lots of pics too and will get them uploaded as soon as I can. Woohoo!

Update:

Ok guys, I made a short video doing a small bit of comparing between the skullcap and ripley. I really didn't cover anything other than wobbling, creaking, keyboard and lock but I did do a wobble comparison with my XPS m1710 which you might find interesting. Anyway, lots of rambling but you might find something informative. Enjoy. ( I realize the other big issue people are curious about is thermal related to the cpu downclocking, etc.. but I haven't tested that yet. No GPU downclocking so far with extended gaming sessions and monitoring with rivatuner. I'll stress the cpu in the next few days but I'm waiting for it to cool down a bit where I'm at as I don't have AC and don't want that to skew the results too much. Also worth noting, most of the keyboard lag issues have been resolved in this notebook. I have noticed it once or twice when the cpu is being heavily utilized but nothing like it was back with my Ripley. Take that for what it's worth.)

Sorry for the filesize but my camera can't make anything smaller.

Here's the
Video

If you have a problem with filefront, here's the same video uploaded to filefactory but it will probably be a slower download.

 

Happy to hear that Grove. Keep us posted.
As you say, there is really no "update" done in terms of an improved chassis.

Hope the "guts" of your new laptop will be as beautiful as it's skin!
Good luck mate.

 

Congrats. Bring on the pictures!!

 

WOW.. congrats dude.. what happened to your first m15x ?

 

Sounds great, looking forward to your review and the pics!

 

Hey, nice one~~~ give some inside info ya and also congrats on getting your baby back oh and dont forget the new gpu drivers well if you havent installed them.. and i dont think you will be forgetting that.. lolz!

 

Grats on the new Alien groove !!
Hope you have a happy one this time.. Nice to hear that the arrow keys may have some new ''support'' or ''anchor''
Keep it locked to NBR, don't forget us awaiting your pics
L8rs

 

Update: I'll add all these to the original post when I'm done.

Ok, everything was feeling a bit sluggish until I realized that the laptop was set to stealth mode by default. I'm not sure why AW did this as I don't remember my Ripley being set to stealth. I powered the laptop on from AC power and it was in stealth mode by default. After I switched it off, everything was as it should be and very snappy. Anyway, just a heads up for future owners.

Keyboard lag: None whatsoever. I am running the synaptic drivers and using x32 bios. I don't know if this means that AW has deduced the cause of the lag and fixed it or if it is simply a hit or miss chance that your system will be affected. My Ripley was very much affected by the keyboard lag issue that has been reported where you type two identical letters in a row "teeth" and have the second letter not register. However, others have reported no issues at all, so if you DO have the keyboard lag issues, know that it's definitely NOT affecting everyone. I had assumed originally with my Ripley that it affected everyone and slow typers just probably didn't realize it but I don't think this is the case anymore.

3dmark06 scores with the 175.80 beta drivers from AW's hive gave me a 9188 under 32bit Vista Home. Respectable but not the highest that I've seen on here. The burn in score that they gave me was 9293. Of interest is the fact that my previous Ripley had a burn in score of 10,300+ yet I was only ever able to score in the mid 9000's leading me to believe it was either a XP score or a tweaked score of some kind with 3dmark settings other than what is included in the free version. This may indicate that AW is stopping this policy and using more real world settings for their scores. No idea but this one is much closer than the last and the hardware config and OS is practically identical between the 2 systems. Rivatuner to test for downclocking while I benched and there was no downclocking.

Webcam: Significantly better than I remember the Ripley being. It could be my imagination but I remember having some real problems with the image quality in my older Ripley which was one of my complaints. This skullcap model has a very much above average quality cam and I have no complaints. This may be another of those luck of the draw issues or perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me. I'll include webcam pics so you can judge for yourself.

Security Lock: Targus Defcon CL lock ordered from AW's website works and is completely compatible. I'll take close up pics of the lock and include them.

Minor quibbles: There is a small scratch on the space bar that allows light to bleed through. The right mouse button on the trackpad "bar" has a noticeably more give than the left side and a tiny click noise before the louder click that registers as an actual right mouse button activation. The initial click is just an issue of the plastic not being 100% oriented correctly. I wiggled it around and it is less noticeable now leading me to believe it might go away with time and use. I don't have a problem with any of the issues so far but thought I would report them.

 

Looking good so far, Groove.

Stupid space bar scratch though. Anything a touch of paint would fix?

 

That space bar scratch would probably bug me the most.
Can you include a pic of that scratch when you actually do the pics?

 

Sure, I think paint would probably fix it fine but it's really not big enough to warrant anything that drastic. When I say it's small, it's pretty dang small... In fact, if I weren't so OCD I probably wouldn't have noticed it.

 

I'm a little OCD too, so you can be sure I'd be in there already, painting away!

 

Sure, but again, it's very minor in my opinion. It was difficult to take a picture of it but this is as good as I can do with my camera. There's a bit more bleeding in person... but it's really not a big deal to me.

 

Pics of the cap please!

 

Warning: Lots of images. Ok, let's get started...

Ready to be opened!



One step closer!



Ok, here's what we have...



Turning it on for the first time!



Let there be light!



Skullcap



Lightpipe



Setup



Targus Defcon CL



Lock expanded



Lock retracted

 

The head cap or the caps lock?

 

cool picks, congrats on your new monster!

 

actually the skull cap looks MEAN, i think it changed my mind!

 

WOOOW Skullcap looks AMAZING...

 

Can you do a pic showing me exactly what you do with the lock? I have never seen one used on a laptop before.

Oh, and your light bar looks AMAZING!

 

Good news with the lock! That is one less problem.
The pipe looks awesome as well! Specially because there doesn't seem to be any light bleeding!

As you, I never had the keyboard lag. I would worry a bit about the low 3dmark06 scores. You should have it on the high 9000.

Appart from that... would you be immensely kind and make a video to show us your wobbliness? And some pictures from the webcam wouldn't be a bad idea as well!

ANyway... great one! Monitor temps (if you don't mind) and use it as much as possible. And share with us...
Enjoy.
M

 

Absolutely. However, I might have spoken too soon. I thought the lock was releasing properly before and now that doesn't seem to be the case. Lemme work on it tonight and tom and if I can get it working I'll put up some pics.

 

Hehe, well I might have spoken too soon milcs in regards to the lock, see my previous post... Yea, I'll def make a video with my cam and I'll also even compare the wobbliness to my m1710 which might surprise some of you...

Will get some hard thermal and stress data over the weekend and update...

 

I can see you all reverting to the use of duct tape to keep your laptops locked and secure. AW really needs to sort out the lock issue.

 

Very nice pictures, the Skullcap looks awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Even though the forum is a biased sample and we can't draw anything statistically significant from it, I have to say I have seen a lot more happy news lately from new AW owners.

 

I agree, but I make that out to be less rushing with the builds and the AW technicians have learned to build as it's now more a routine and perhaps the 200 point test is actually done..

I don't see an improved case, better heat management, still some fried cpu's and gpu's

 

Ok, update on the lock...

I can't seem to get the damn thing to work. I didn't realize before that the device is supposed to fully expand in the slot so you can change the combination. It "catches" on something but it's not expanding fully meaning that you might not necessarily be able to pull it out, but you cannot change the combination. Ah well, so much for hoping... I'll try a few more times this weekend but if I can't get it to work by Monday, I'll be shipping back and getting a full refund on the..........lock of course! Ha! Definitely not a deal breaker for me.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Even with the little problems here and there and prior to doing my full stress testing, I'm still extremely happy with the laptop and definitely plan to keep her.

Update: I've shined a light in there and I can't seem to see how this expandable lock would work exactly. The lock expands along the entire length of the "prong" meaning that any surface along the entire length of metal that is inserted will "lift" to some degree. Well... when I shine the light in the lock, there are no movable parts that I can see. It's simply an eliptical hole lined with plastic that looks to be accessing an empty chamber within the magnesium alloy chassis. There are no movable pins or pieces that I can see that would shift in any direction. So, bad news is that the lock doesn't seem to be compatible. The other bad news is that there was a sharp piece of metal that gouged the side of my laptop and scratched it a little bit as I was trying to get the lock to work. Again, no biggie but I don't see how the lock is supposed to work.

 

His 3dmarks scores aren't anything to be worried about. Even same specced configs can have ~500 difference among them, and he has a T9300 so his score isnt to bad. with a x9000 you should be expecting high 9000 low 10000

 

minkang> Gundam 00 rulz

 

There goes the lock...
No lock, no laptop for me. Unfortunately... There's no way I can use it at work.
I'm still baffled how is it possible that the security lock does not work.

 

It definitely does. First thing I did when i got my laptop was xfer Gundam Seed/Destiny and 00 to this Go go Exia

 

That skullcap looks amazing! I'm thinking of saving up money from a job to get a m15x, but I'm still second-guessing myself since I got my new desktop this year. I'm not sure if I'd get the skullcap or ripley. The skullcap looks a lot cooler, but the ripley is a lot more practical for fitting the m15x into cases, taking it out into public , etc.

 

Woah !! Another skullcap looking super

Sorry to hear about the lock man - what have Alienware got to say about it ?
''It is supposed to work. We spot-tested it in our factory line-up."
''But it doesn't work on my new m15x skullcap !!''
''Sorry, we have no information concerning the same''
Oh and have you thought of asking AW to send you a new keyboard to get rid of the spacebar scratch ?

And MICHAELSD01 brings out a point I was wondering about - does the skullcap cover affect the m15x's ability to fit into cases/sleeves ?
Someone said the ribs are 3mm deep, care to confirm ?

Hope the lock gets sorted out for ya groove !!
L8rs

 

very nice!!!! i really like the skull cap

 

Anyway we could get an angled view of the skullcap? It would be easier to discern the height of the grooves than a front-on pic

 

im torn between the same 2 systems you were right now with the addition of the m15x. except i can geta killer deal on a 1730 where this would cost me nearly 3 times the dell..not sure if its worth the extra

 

The finishing is MATTE !!! I love it..

 

Seems to me that the locks aren't working because the plastic casing around the lock-slot is too thick. The lock itself can't penetrate the slot deep enough to engage properly. Engineering oversight...

 

looks very nice...but black would look better

 

I mean... honestly Groove, if you could have a word with them regarding the lock that would be super. I can't really believe that out of all the things, the lock is going to be the thing that will make it impossible for me to keep it.

 

Why do you need a lock so badly, Milcs? Will you be leaving it lying around on a desk for long periods of time in your workplace? I'm not sure I could do that with a machine like this.

 

In my working place is compulsory to have it locked at all times.
My laptops sits at a desk in my office but as I'm working in a lab environment, I am always moving around the building to different labs.
We have had quite a lot of people being able to sneak in into our building and we have had quite a few cases of laptops stolen.
So the lock became a "house policy".

More... I really think it's unthinkable what's happening regarding the lock. A security lock that does not work? I mean... honestly, what is this?

 

I'll call them up and ask about this milcs. Hopefully I can get some answers or perhaps there is a special lock that is compatible.

 

personally i use the kensington locks myself. they go in the hold and turn and do not expand like this one does. and i also do not use combo locks as i have had one lock up and had to actually cut it out of the laptop. i will only use the key style ones and imo the kennsington i have is by far the nicest i have seen. it even all rubber coated where it meets the notebook so it doesnt scratch the finish

 

Zfactor... there were apparently some issues with the Kensington locks. When did you buy your laptop and lock, and is it a particular kind of Kensington lock that you have bought? And, where did you buy it from? I know that a few people on here are wondering where they can buy a lock that actually works in their M15x's. Any information you can give them would be helpful. I may even need this information myself someday.

EDIT: I'm just assuming you meant that you use this lock in an M15x... :S

 

no i dont own a m15x. but i have used their locks in MANY different notebooks without issues. i can not imagine it would not work. the kensington has a small metal barb that turns when inside the hole in the plastic. it does not spread out like the one you had does..i have yet to own or use a notebook it doesnt fit in. we supply them to our employee's in our office and we own more than 20-24 different notebooks for the whole place..they all have these installed

 

hmm cant link to their web site

 

Kensington locks do not work with the M15x...
Oh wait... no locks work with the M15x. That's more like it...
How is it possible? I'm just baffled...

 

i dont see how thats possible??

 

Yeah... honestly, it just makes me laugh really. But it's the truth. Kensington locks do not turn, Targus locks do not expand fully. I've tried several Kensington locks (and targus that have the same mechanism), groove here is reporting about the lock that AW sells stating it is the only that fits the M15x... How did this happen?
No wonder they also didn't manage to see overheating, downclocking, wobbliness, etc etc...
I wonder if they are going to write a new Bios for this.

This shows the time spent on "perfecting" the M15x and the attention given to details. It really looks like they rushed the m15x out and then they tried to fix all the problems they didn't have time to look at.
How sad... and hilarious at the same time.