M17x mini-review with pictures ;)

Sorry I took long to post this, I had a lot of things to do . This is a mini-review for the m17x that I returned because of a defective CPU that worked whenever it felt like .

First, the specs

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8800M GTX – SLI Enabled
Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology – Black
Includes AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard – Exclusive Design!
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 4GB† Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Internal Digital/Analog (ATSC) TV Tuner
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 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
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service

Design

The design of the m17x is absolutely beautiful. You have to see it in person to know what I am talking about. It is quite similar to the m15x but it looks nicer with the black finish. Here are some pics of both systems.

















Build Quality

The m17x has a great build quality. It is as solid as my brothers m1730. Yep, that solid. There are no gaps, cracks, wobbly LCD or even creaking noise when opening the lid.

Some pictures of the sides and ports









Color Finish

Matte black is amazing! Maybe because I love black . Anyways, the matte finish not only looks beautiful, but it makes the touchpad easier to use comparing to the glossy finish on the m15x, and gives the system a better feel.





Touch Controls

They are really responsive. Even the touch control. Still, not better than HP Pavilions, but very very close and trust me you will use them


Power button

It seems that it is less responsive on the m17x. You have to push it harder comparing to the m15x which is nothing but a soft touch. No big deal though, in the end the system will power on

Display

I never seen anything like it on a 17-inch. It's very bright; colors look nothing short than stunning. Everything displayed on that screen looks absolutely amazing! Mine had a slight light leakage though at the bottom right of the screen. Not noticeable except in a fully black background. Sorry for not taking pictures of the screen while its on .






Camera

Well, guess what? The camera on the m17x is better than the one on the m15x. How? Well it is still a bit slow, but it is definitely way sharper (I compared them side by side.)

Smart Bay

The smart bay on the m17x has one connector only vs the m15x which has two; one for the HDD and CD/DVD drive and the other for the battery. This means no smart bay battery for the m17x, it's only a feature for the m15x. It is not even listed on the tech specs page of the m17x under "smart bay". Also the HDD/DVD connector on the m17x is different than the one on the m15x; which makes m15x smart bay HDD or CD/DVD drives not work with the m17x and the other way around; they are not the same size in the first place.

CD/DVD

I only have one thing to say about it; it's really noisy.

Stealth Mode

I am not sure if something was wrong with my m17x, but when I get in to Steath Mode, it downclocked the CPU only but none of the GPUs .

AlienFX

All colors look great with the black finish. Just my opinion







Keyboard

Just as great as the one on the m15x, but only was a bit more silent when typing on comparing to the m15x. The keyboard lag is there. The keyboard also flexes around the arrow keys and between the number pad and the keyboard.








Touchpad

As I said before, I found the touchpad easy to use because of the matte finish which made the touchpad not slippery. I didn't feel I need to use any stickers.



Software Installed

As you expect from Alienware, nothing installed other than the OS, Nero software, and CyberLink PowerDVD

Temperatures
CPU stay in low 40's while the GPUs are about 60 and the other is 57. I don't know why there is always 3 deg difference between both GPUs (unit is Celsius)

Noise

It's completely silent. It's like there is no m17x is the room. Even when gaming, I could hardly hear the fans which I actually never heard .

Heat

The m17x like m1730 produces a lot of heat. When you put your hand at the back of the system (around the vents of the GPUs) you will feel that everything around it there turns hot. You don't feel the "rush air" like on the m15x because the cooling system on the m17x works differently.

The area that gets hot on the m17x is the right speaker (where the GPUs are located below) and of course the bottom of the notebook.

Speakers

They are just as expected for a 17-inch laptop. They are loud and clear.



Performance

WEI


3DMark06 Score


Hard Drive Performance - HDTune


Weird CPU behavior?


Gaming Performance
All games were played at 1920x1200 resolution. Settings were set to High and Anti-aliasing is 4X.
Games
Call of Duty 4: Minimum 78 fps - Maximum 185 fps
Team Fortress 2: For some reason, this game did not run quite well. If this games uses CPU power like others said, then I believe this was the problem. Minimum 28 fps - Maximum 61 fps in a 32 player server.
Counter Strike Source: CS:S Stress Test 317 fps. Office Server 56-players Minimum 81 fps - Maximum 179 fps.
Portal: Minimum 113 - Maximum 233. I believe the high score is because it is a single player game.

Battery Life

About an hour and 45 minutes in normal mode and screen brightness set to max.

If you guys have any questions or if there is anything I did no cover, please let me know and I will update

 

very nice, i like the comparisons. out of interest, does an SB module from the m15x fit into the SB slot in the m17x?

 

AWESOME!!!!
(cant see pics, but the info was great!)

+1 iElSayed

 

@Whizzo
The smart bay of m15x does not slide in the m17x because the smart bay space is a little smaller comparing to the m15x.

 

great review!i m starting to like m17x

 

is it me,or 3dMark score is low?

 

It's because I had the t9300 CPU. It would be higher with the X9000.

 

Eh, you need to check your CPU-Z info, it reads that you've got a T9300 processor..... Haven't you got an X9000 processor?

Nice review though (",)

OB

 

@OB
I have the X9000 in the m15x not the m17x

 

Very Good review and pics ElSayed. Agree that the build quality is better than the M15X. i had a chance to use both for awhile but returned the M15X. Do you have Crysis? If so how does it work on your M17X? i am still trying different drivers but so far the Alienware ones work the best for most games.

 

@tanamerra
Yeah I do but I didn't install it on the m17x because after the CPU stopped working properly I decided to keep the m15x and return the m17x. I really wanted to see how it performs with 2 8800's though.

 

hey,wait a second-you returned your m17x?

 

Yeah I had to. And that's why I didn't make a full review because I couldn't test the unit for a longer time.

 

what happened m8?

 

Well the CPU started to act very strange. It stays at full clocks even when doing nothing; not only that but it also overclocks it self. And by doing that, it does not perform any faster, but slower. I sometimes got 7900 when running 3DMark06 and my CPU score was 1500 (which should be ~2500 for T9300). The m15x on the other side never had any performance, hardware or software issue (except for the broken hinge). Also, it's portable and has a great battery life that's why I decided to keep it and I am still sticking with it. Waiting for my replacement m15x now . Skullcap this time and 128GB SSD.

 

did you pay restock fee?

 

What program do you use the monitor the clocks on the cpu?

 

Nope. Thanks to Critical Issues Support

The program is CPU-Z

 

Too bad the M17X did not work out for you. Mine works fine but still trying to find better drivers.