KShub's m15x review

Hey guys,

I've just finished the first pass of my m15x review. I think I've attached the PDF document correctly. I chose a PDF because of presentation limitations with the forum posting process.

Here is an excerpt:

First impression

This thing is freaking nuts, especially seeing that it cost me over $1000 less than my previous Alienware! This notebook is so fast and beautiful. No exterior blemishes, cracks, or flaws. The keyboard lighting is phenomenal!
However, I did note that I had the x30 BIOS, not the latest x32. Also, Vista wasn’t at Service Pack 1! My plan: download the x32 BIOS and Vista SP1. So I did just that on my desktop and had to wait a few days before I could apply the downloaded files because of my schedule.
While poking around Vista, I learned that I really like this OS. Vista seems to be super fast, maybe because of the hardware that I’m using. I like the speed and response.

---
You can click around within the table of contents and the PDF should bring you to the correct page and topic =)

Feel free to ask any questions or post comments....

Cheers,
KShub

Here's the location for the review (sorry it's on a different site now because NBR has some sort of PDF downloading issue): http://www.216digits.com/m15x/

 

Great dude. Lots of work... Very professional!
Thank you very much.

 

Nice review, +rep!

BTW, the issues you had when gaming regarding using the touchpad and keyboard at the same time- did you have an external mouse plugged in? because I believe that turns the touch pad off.

 

Should have grabbed FRAPS to show you the FPS in the game(s) that you didn't list it.

Overall a hell of a solid review mate. Can't wait to see what you sya about Crysis and CoD4. CoD4 runs perfectly for me on full settings. (1440x900 monitor).

 

very very nice review

 

very nice, especially the PDF touch

I should note that the majority of the heat coming from the right is actually from the graphics card; the HDD actually sits right under the touchpad (just FYI... not worth changing)

Also, thanks for the heads-up on that AlienCaret font! I never noticed it in there

 

This is actually caused by the Synaptics drivers' mouse protection feature. When you start typing, the default setting turns off the touchpad (so that way if you swipe past the touchpad it doesn't move anything). You can change that setting to the lowest level and then it won't turn off the touchpad when you type on the keyboard (that is in the Synaptics-specific menu in the Mouse item in the control panel)

 

One quick question... How do you follow the temps on your GPU? Do you use Thermofan?

 

Ah, I see, I'll remember that when I get my m15x

BTW, has the keyboard response issue been resolved yet?

 

My Keyboard works magnificiently...

 

Very good review. I'm glad you weren't biased as you pointed out the obvious flaws with the system. I noticed a few things.

1. For the Pros + Cons sections, you capitalize some words at the beginning, but not others.
2. On the pros + cons, you spelled "Quiet" "Quite"

 

It really is hit and miss. Some have had it to an incredible degree (made Callidor return his) while others don't have it at all. Best to just try it and see what happens.

 

That has to be one of the best reviews I've read. Only thing that i think it was missing was some pictures but besides that it was a very good read.

 

yes, it really is a helpful review KShub, taught me things even I didn't know

(m15x owners are in for a bit of a treat with that message )

 

Beautifully done review, you're the first person I know of who has a review on these forums in .PDF form. It was neat though, you couldn't have done that nice formatting otherwise.

Really appreciate the time you put into the review. Congrats on the machine, it's great to see that you are so happy with it. Quite an upgrade from your 766.

 

Just out of curiosity, what program did you use to make that PDF?

 

Fantastic review. Very well done. I was wondering if you would share that font. I didn't come on my M9750 and I would love to have it.

 

This is different. Nice review! I wish there were some pictures of the notebook, though.

 

one of the best review I've read. nice job!

 

Very good review man!!

 

I really appreciate the fact that you put in so much effort towrite an awesome review. Thanks so much.

 

really an awesome review!

 

hi from the radiology department in the uk.
congratulations on a verry proffesional review.
that is the best score of 10,000 ive seen using 3Dmark06 (lucky you).
+1 rep
jim

 

Great review KShub.

 

Thanks this was very informative. I might go with this laptop now because of the 5% student discount and trade in program. I wonder what the chanced of free shipping too are. If they will ship for free I'll buy it for sure. I think I'll do what you did with RAM. Buy it with the lowest ram and discard it right away and replace with 3-4 gigs of cheaper ram. Is it even worth getting 4 Gigs? My understanding is that nothing can make proper use of more than 3 right now.

 

Thanks very professional mate
thinking of ordering mine this afternoon!

 

Couple of spelling mistakes, it's "gaming" not "gamming". Also it's the 8800M GTX not 8800GTX. Just thought I'd point it out

Very nice review! Thanks for the time and effort you spent! +1

 

One of the nicest review i've ever read and first in PDF format lolz... rock on brotha!!!

 

Great review, thanks!

 

Excellent work. Have some rep. (^^Alizee Avatar!)

edit: sorry..apparently i rep'd you too recently. no rep for you!

 

Chance of free shipping: 0%
You will have to pay the $55 shipping like everyone else >>. if you complain enough they might make your shipping to 2 day for free.

As long as you are using 32 bit windows you wont be able to use 4 gigs. if you want to use 4 gigs you have to use 64 bit windows.

 

you can get free shipping right now. If you can play one of their little games and win. Pretty easy you win you get a coupon code then apply I tried it and it work wish they would have let me do that when i ordered mine.

 

where do you get to play those games.

 

on their website click like on a notebook and its something like master the game and get free shipping

 

Yeah! Alizée rocks! And she's hot too!

 

Hey guys,

First, thanks for checking my review out! and for all of the +rep!!

Second, I'd like to say 'You're welcome' to anyone who said thanks! I really enjoyed writting this up. I also enjoyed the feedback that I received. I can't believe that there is currently 180 views of my review

Now that I know that this notebook rocks and I hope you do too, I can't wait to really start playing!

A few quick things:
-I'm will be working on pictures soon, any requests?? I didn't insert any into the PDF because of upload and file size restrictions enforced by NBR
-I checked my notebook lock and it works fine. I'm using a Targus Defcon CL
-
Here are my responses to your posts:

milcs-you're welcome

JWest-I had an external mouse plugged in and both pointing devices work at the same time, which is the way that I like it

Lessaj7-thanks for the FRAPS suggestion, basically I didn't bother because the gameplay is perfect, if I ever have trouble or doubts I'll defintaly install FRAPS to query my FPS

Showtime008-thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed

GRB-thanks for the heat source info, this has been updated within review version 2.0. I'm glad you, and others, now know about the hidden font =)

GRB-you rock, thanks for the touchpad and keyboard fix, I just tested it, it works, and I updated my review

milcs- I used the Thermofan application that shipped with the notebook. I also temporarily installed Riva Tuner and saw that the temps were pretty close, so I decided to keep and use Thermofan

Stone825- thanks for the grammatical error corrections, they are now fixed

tacomenace21- thanks for the positive feedback. about pictures: they take a lot of space within the document, both in file size and readablity. NBR also has a 1.43MB limit on uploaded PDF files However, I will be working on a webiste or perhaps a file hosting account to upload some pics...keep your eyes peeled.

GRB- my pleasure, I like to share information and knowledge, that's how we can all get better with our acheivements in gaming, technology, and life in general

Chaz- I chose the PDF because of formatting issues. I'd like to have a document I can email to my friends and family if they ever are interested in the m15x. Thanks for noticing ;-)

JWest- I used Word 2007. Office 07 has a free, small plugin that allows you to save documents as PDF's. When I'm not using Office to create a PDF, I then use Cute PDF which acts as an installed printer on the PC. I can PDF anything that can be printed!

Frag- I'll get the font to you somehow...maybe PM?

MICHAELSD01- thanks for reading, see my response to tacomenace21 about pics...I hopefully have some soon

nirvana0001- thanks

iElSayed- thanks

lightning_penguin- it was my pleasure to share

the.s.a.i.n.t.- thanks for reading

MrDJ- thanks for reading and xrays rock and thanks again for the HDD monitoring software. I'm using it on my WHS and my desktop!

newfiejudd- thanks

Legacy40k- you're welcome, I'm glad that you enjoyed...play the game at Alienware and get free shipping. Don't worry about the RAM, if you are going to upgrade, get 4GB and forget about it...

XxTUNERxX- you're welcome and good luck with your order

nbaumann- hmmm, what the heck is gamming anyways?? (I looked it up, it's a real word, that's why spellcheck didn't get it!) Thanks for the feedback, the changes have been made in version 2.0

terek- thanks man

Zetterberg- thanks

Callidor- thanks Calli, I'm really sorry the m15x didn't work out for you...I hope you share a review of you NP5793 with us. No rep for me? Bummer.

 

Ahahaha... Thanks for all the replies!

Thermofan I think overestimates CPU and underestimate GPU. Those temps you are having for the GPU is really underestimated. You should add 10C to thermofan readings (for the GPU). My thermofan gives me readings around 72-75C but the GPU is running around 82-87C.

 

Yeah, but how you know the GPU is running 82-87 degrees? This was an issue brought up a while ago; ThermoFan reads 75 when RivaTuner/GPU-Z/ntune reads 85. Which one is right, we still don't have an answer. You'd think NVIDIA's temperatures would be the right ones (i.e. the 85 reading) but then ThermoFan was made by Quanta, the guys who built the laptop

 

This was actually one of the reviews that got me decided on the m15x. Very informative and very organized. It deserves a +rep.

 

no news is good news so glad we havnt heard from you KShub
lets hope it stays that way.

and thank you for thanking me glad the software is working ok.

 

Agreed. I hope for your continued stability.

 

Hey gang. Things have been going pretty good for me. I plan on updating the review in the upcoming weeks. I haven't had any problems except for the wobble and squeaking of the display, so far no signs of stress fractures =) So, not really sure if wobble and squeak are problems. I'll take that for the lighter weight anyday! It's all about functionality for me and this thing runs 2 test virtual machines while running Visual Stuidio in one of the VMs.

KShub

edit- almost forgot

Oceanus: glad to been able to help and I'm glad that you are happy with your sys

MrDJ: long time no speak! That hard drive software rocks! I have it on my work server (4 HDs) and my 3 home computers (one of which is my windows home server)

Ennea: thanks for the kind wish =)

 

great review and congrats with your killer system!!!

 

great review kshub!

 

I donno if I am the only one having this problem but I am unable to download this review. I always try to start it and it will go through about 30 kb of the download and then just stall for a long time. After a while it will say that the download is finished but it remains as a 30 kb file and is unable to be opened. Perhaps an alternate upload mirror could be added or something because I would really like to read the review. Thanks

 

Hi HAK,

Sorry for the download issue and thanks for letting me know...I wonder how long that's been going on??

I tried several times to update the file and didn't have any luck, so I just created a small webpage on my webserver to host the file. You can find it here: CLICK ME

Let me know what you think...I still have to get around updating the content..I have lots of good notes to add =)

Cheers,
KShub

 

Thanks a lot for the fix KShub. Great review btw and really makes me feel confident about my m15x purchase which I just made today! I can't wait for it to arrive!

Did you get around to purchasing crysis yet because I would love it if you could tell me the kind of frames you get and if it runs well enough to be playable considering I am getting the exact same specs as you on my future m15x. Thanks

 

Congrats on your new purchase!!! What did you end up getting??

As for me, no Crysis yet, after I beat Fallout 3 (good this time), that's my plan anyways =)...thanks for the kind words and I'm glad folks are still enjoying my review. Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Cheers,
KShub

 

KShub: in your review, you used the AlienCaret font. Could you let me have the font for use in all apps?

 

KShub: in your review, you used the AlienCaret font. Could you let me have the font for use in all apps?