M17x review finally

The M17x review by The_Moo



I ordered my laptop with the following specs
P8600 @ 2.4 ghz
4 gigs ddr3 1066mhz
250 gig HD
SINGLE GTX 260m
1900 res LCD


Size

Dimensions (WD) 16.0 x 12.7 inches
Height 2.0-2.1 inches
Screen size (diagonal) 17.0 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter 12.6 / 14.8 pounds

Ports

Video VGA-out, HDMI, DisplayPort
Audio 5.1 speakers, headphone/microphone jacks, surround sound audio outs. .
Data 5 USB 2.0 (1 USB/eSATA), FireWire, SD card reader
Expansion ExpressCard/54 ExpressCard/54
Networking Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive DVD burner/Blu-ray player


The Screen

The M17x's screen has had almost as much controversy as JFK....
But i have to Say its a great screen, I like it just as much as any other screen i have had...It's colors are amazing , and the Screen to me looks great with no issues...ITS BRIGHT !!!! With that being said the sharpeness in this screen is better then any other laptop screen i have had. The colors are very accurate and games look beautiful. The Edge 2 Edge Panel does add glare but IMO it isn't as bad as people have said. I have used this laptop everywhere and i never notice the glare. So i think the E2E only helps the screen in sharpness and in helping it to be easy to clean

8/10

The Chassis

It is solid..... like rock solid ....

NO squeak ....Everything works great. The touch controls are responsive, the lighting is amazing. The use of Almuminum insteadof cheap shiny black plastic sets it apart from other gaming machines with both quality and design. The laptops use of space and materials helps it feel like a very strong laptop and the Aluminum helps guve it the high end look while protecting it in a way. It feels cold to the touch every time you pick it up kinda like a alien . The touch controls are extremely responsive and well illuminated. It offers Eject, rewind, pause/play, fast forward, volume up/down, wifi on/off stealth mode. On the left of the computer you Num lock , Scroll lock and CAPS lock are all illuminated. The Powerbutton matches the dark chrome Alienhead on the lid. They used a hard plastic for the palm rest and made it textured. IMO its better then a flat glossy plastic so you don't sweat or stick to it.

The whole bottom of the computer is Aluminum except the central compartment which is hard plastic. The Sticks for your Vista licenses and Dell service tag are there as well. The bottom offers easy access to your HD, RAM and CPU fan for easy cleaning. There are GPU vents there as well for easy cleaning

The Anodized Aluminum looks great its a Deep Black and matchs the other parts of the laptops. Now that i have been inside the laptop i can see it is highly reinforced and well built.

9/10

The Touch Pad

Now that i have the touch pad broke in it isn't my least favorite any more. It does have a rough texture to it but i realize after breaking it in that it isn't bad to use at all. The texture helps you finges not stick or slip. The touch pad has no predetermined zones for scrolling. It is illuminated to show the extent if the Touchpad

7/10


The Speakers

They are LOUD and nice. They are just as good as my M17 which had a subwoofer
They have no crackling like other have complained about. I have listend to music on these and they are my favorite speakers I have ever had on a laptop. The illumination isn't as accurate as the Keyboard on some colors.

8/10

Alienfx

I have taken pictures of every alienFX color
easier to download and look

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahd4dg3/n/M17x_pictures_zip

10/10 !!!!!

Battery life

I am getting 3 hours no problem on :

Medium bightness
Powersaver
9400m

1 hours and 45 minutes on

260m GTX
Medium brightness
Powersaver

CPU cooling



Speaks for its self

ORTHOS AND Wprime running running @ 1333 FSB and @3.01 ghz

The cooling in this laptop is amazing they really took time to Thermally desgin this notebook. Each GPU and the CPU all have separate fans and heatsinks helping the laptops overall cooling power. As of right now it does have the BEST cooling system in a laptop. The CPU i have never goes past 60c running @ 1333 FSB and on the 9400m ( on the CPU heatsink) @ 3.01 Ghz. That is pretty impressive to me. The GPU's in this laptop do not go above 70c i don't think ever in gaming which is amazing as well. The temps cane easily be lower by purchasing a Cryo NZXT at Newegg.com, it is the BEST cooler for this laptop and can help drop temps by 12c.


GPU COOLING





this is a OC'd GTX 260m and it stay nice n cool

*i do not recommend this to be ran on every laptop *






Benchmarks

So far i can only do CPU benchmarks and all of them will be running @ 3.01 GHZ and 1333mhz FSB.











Benchmarks YAY!!!!!

260 ONLY no hybrid SLI



OVERCLOCKED







260 with hybrid SLI





OVERCLOCKED







Overclocked to the following




Whats in

the Box





Cooling and OC'ing are coming ....

 

Solid Review...Nice job Moo, very nice.

+1st

 

..amazing review!

*clap*

 

its coming ... i need to convert my unboxing and host it then imma host my pics...

stupid phone

 

make sure there not blurry ;P weeee want youtube videos!!! =)

 

Woah, nice keyboard lighting

 

..thats what she said

 

Bad scytus.. BAD! I think I am going to do a boxing of my replacement then a unboxing of my new one tomorrow. Anny ideas for themes or how or where to do it?

 

Um, what's with the milk? Congrats Moo.

 

sith lord ftw

 

Looking forward to the video Moo. Screen does look nice, although the photo doesn't really do it justice

Clauss - Astronaut, although other than wrapping yourself in foil (which would look more like the tin-man) I don't know how you'd do it!

 

sorry i gotta download Orthos and then Furmark to update my cooling section ....

I will add by request

 

EDIT

CPU temps post @ 3.01 GHZ

FSB @ 1333
Ram @ 1333

 

Are you saying u have the FSB and RAM at 1:1?

 

yea...it would seem sooo....

 

...thats..odd

Mandrake tried and failed so many times to do that, with both 1066 RAM and 1333..

Im confuzzled

 

So no Alienware logo on the box then?

Congratulations, they do look amazing and I cant wait to one day get my hands on one of those babies.

Oh..it was milk!!! LOL

 

WoW

My GPU fan is not working

Looks like ill be calling dell

 

I'm sure BIG will be around soon to explain that 1333MHZ mem and fsb is a 1:2 ratio. Take a look on cpu-z for proof.

 

Have you tested it's stability at those speeds? My P8700 could get that high (3.06) but it was not stable too long. Needed to bring it down to 2.93.

 

well ill post but my GPU fan isn't working 5 sec on furmark i hit 100c

Perfectly stable ran Wprime and ORTHOS while monitoring

 

What about any gaming bench marks or the futuremark programs? I would suggest OCCT but I think I know the results already.

 

I'd open it up and make sure the fan is plugged in first before you wasted time on the phone with support =(

Bad luck though man.

 

so..then Moo didn't achieve 1:1

 

Nope. He achieved 1:2 which is what I've been saying is the most stable. In order to get to 1:1 we would have to change our fsb to 1600 and memory down to 800. Not possible in these systems.

 

ahh...sad face

 

Agreed, getting a 1:1 ratio would be basically impossible in the M17x; I had a hard enough time doing it in my desktop with a quad.

Congrats on the system, Moo, looking forward to more pics/videos/impressions.

 

Unless i am going mad (quite likely) this looks like the first official M17x Review.....
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350264,00.asp

 

It is, but this has been posted before. Moo GIMME SOME PICS!! lol jk, take your time but make sure to use an unorthodox keyboard light color to mix it up.

 

!? pcmag review says that the m17 is much better then the m17x in crysis 1920x1200.... i cannot believ this, there must be an error or what you guys think?

 

best review ever ....

 

My first thought as well...

 

Eeek... more concerned about the possible DOA GPU fan, hows the heat doing? did it ever spin up? I would hate to hear that this is effectively a DOA M17x ... especially after the reassuring review of the screen and the initial thermals . . . inquiring minds gotta know.... what the update? Is it a strike one, and back to the shop? or is all well....

 

Moo already has the system apart and he's fixing it himself.

 

GPU fan? did i miss something? lol.

 

actually been working today just got back .... I gotta take it apart now and HOPE its just unlugged...

 

Booo for Mooo

 

sorry about the review Gous its coming ...I CAN'T BENCH ANYTHING !!!!!

So my review is put on hold ...besides the Pics

They will be coming

 

Haha lol, Ahh man I can't wait to put in my two cents sometime next week... right now I'm doing a review on my novint falcon that just arrived... unfortunately my unboxing and first look videos are on hold becuase my Desktop doesn't have firewire... and I really don't want to use my Mac for video editing...

 

yeah, 1:1 would be DDR 666.

Don't want to use a mac for video editing? BLASPHEMY !

BTW what config you get moo?

 

P8600 @ 3.01
4 gigs 1066 AKA 1333
250 7.2k HD
Single 260m GTX

 

well it says Flextronics on my AC adapter so that confirms it to me its Flextronics

 

And i said that both ram would probably be the same chip/pcb lalalala

 

The fan is under the system board. That's why I don't remember seeing them.

 

i have to remove the Freakin motherboard

design is aggravating me now ...

Any way to get just the bottom aluminum panel offf ?

 

You might be able to get to it by removing the GPU. You can check the slot that doesn't have a card if there is a hole that goes right through. I'm sure there is.

 

The only cable I see is the SLI cable.



Close up of SLI and bottom of the 280.



One last pic. If you want more let me know. This is a close up of the second GPU. There is a cable there but I'm not sure what it is for. It's near the media card reader.

 

touch panel scares me i don't wanna crack it

 

Got it i knew i saw it in the manual

 

We trust you moo