My review of the m15x

Hello everyone, this is my review of the Alienware m15x

I want to start of by discussing the ordering process. I ordered my m15x through www.alienware.co.uk last July 8. The whole ordering process went smoothly, except for some trouble when they needed a copy of my credit card statement for verification. ( I believe this is required for international orders. )

After an unpleasant conversation with their billing department, I decided to cancel the order and email Alienware about the whole incident. I get a reply a few days later, apologizing for the bad experience, and I was given the oppurtunity to re-establish the order. They also promised to expedite the order should I decide to go on with the purchase.

July 24th --> I re ordered my m15x. Let's just say they made good on their promise to expedite the order. I blew through all the phases in a matter of days, and received my order on July 31.

The specs of the system I ordered are as follows:

Design & Display: Silver Ripley Design
Display: 15.4" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Aqua
Operating System: Genuine Windows® Vista Ultimate - English
Graphics Processor : 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 512MB
Turbo Cache Memory: Intel Turbo Cache Memory 1GB – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 320GB 7200 RPM SATA with Free Fall Protection
CD/DVD/RW: 8x Dual Layer Writer (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Sound Hardware: Intel® High-Definition Audio (24-bit, 192Khz) with surround sound
Keypad: Alienware® Area-51 m15x AlienFX® Keyboard - English
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Additional Power: Additional Battery - Alienware® m15x 6-cell SmartBay Additional Battery (Silver)
Warranty: AlienCare 1-Year Free Phone 24/7 and Collect & Return
AlienContact: Added Bonus with any AlienSupport Selection
AlienContact - Remote Alienware Support
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
Monitor: (None)
Mobile Transport: Alienware® Odyssey Messenger Bag

The laptop was very well packaged. After opening the boxes ( Alienware's and DHL's ) I took out the laptop ( covered with a black cloth ) and inspected it from top to bottom.

My first impression with the laptop was that the chassis, though beautiful to look at, did not feel sturdy. I had a feeling that it was more of a toy because of the plastic finish. Another thing I noticed was that there was a very faint scratch below the Alien head behind the LCD monitor. I also did not receive an owner's identification card.

I already had the 4 Gb of RAM ready to place, but I decided to start up the unit first to see if it was working properly. Everything was working properly except for the touch controls being unresponsive when I woke the laptop from sleep. But this problem seemed to disappear after replacing the 1gb with 4 gb of ram.

Here are the benchmarks in my Alienware document:
3DMark 2006
Customer Information:
3DMark Score: 10,324.00 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 4,730.00
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 4,909.00
CPU Score: 2,281.00
Game Score: 0.00 Points
SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon: 39.09 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest: 39.74 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.72 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 1.15 FPS
HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR1 - Canyon Flight: 44.59 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze: 53.59 FPS
Doom 3
Doom 3: 125.0 fps

Now after about one week of use, I'm going to comment on all aspects of the m15x

LCD and monitor: Absolutely amazing screen, the resolution is just right for the 15.4'' monitor. Colors are very vibrant with the glossy screen. As for the wobble, I don't know how hard people type for the screen to wobble. I place the laptop on my desk at work, type on it and do not experience wobble. The creaking when closing the lid is there though, but if I close the lid with both hands ( One of each side ) the sound is minimized. The black borders of the screen are susceptible to fingerprints, I have an electronics cleaning cloth handy just for that

The speakers and the touchpad: Nothing special to say about them. Oh, as for the touchpad, do put the sticker on before using it. My only complaint is that the click buttons for the touchpad don't feel solid when you press on them. Other than that, they are both functional.

The touch buttons: Unresponsive. I noticed this the first time I woke the laptop from sleep. But after flashing the x34 BIOS, the responsiveness problem went away. Very easy to use, only the volume slider might take some time getting used to

Power saving capabilities : This was one of the reasons I went for the m15x. Stealth mode, integrated graphics, power saver and the smart bay battery working together provides me enough battery life for one whole day of work ( more on word processing and spreadsheets ) But I do have one problem with binary GFX. One time while switching from the 8800mgtx to the integrated graphics card, AlienFX went off. I restarted the computer and still all the lights would not turn on. Tried to shut down the computer and still could not get the lights to turn on. I was able to get the lights to turn back on when I switched back to the 8800. I tried to recreate this problem to no avail. It's only happened once. Would like to know if anyone has experienced this as well.

Keyboard and AlienFX: The other reason I chose the m15x The keyboard does not have any flex, is very comfortable to type on, and the lights look great. I have no complaints whatsoever in this part of the laptop. AlienFX is also very easy to use. My 7 year old niece had so much fun with the colors.

GPU & CPU: I learned a lot about monitoring the temperatures of these 2 through these forums. I get 40-50 on my CPU, while I get 50 something on my GPU when idling and get up to 75-76 when playing games. Currently the only games I have on my m15x is Guild Wars and Diablo 2. GUild Wars runs on 60 fps consistently. Diablo2 on the other hand, I play with the integrated graphics only

Smart Bay: As I said, the smart bay battery is amazing. Definitely get one if you plan on purchasing an m15x. Pulling the smart bay battery/optical drive out does take more force than I though it would. But got used to it pretty quickly.

Odyssey Messenger Bag: Fits the m15x very well. Though the bag was a bit bulkier that I thought it would be. It could fit all the peripherals I need with the laptop. Glad I purchased this bag along with the laptop

Value: Shipping and taxes do add up. In my case I paid about 300+ USD for shipping and 400+ USD for taxes. It was quite a hefty amout. But I feel it was worth it. I've never seen anyone here with an Alienware notebook

Overall, I'm one satisfied customer. I'm glad I went on and re established my order. If you guys have any questions about the laptop feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer them

 

Nice review. It's great to see that everything turned out alright for you!

 

very nice review cha! you're honest and truthful...

about the AlienFX not working once: did you maybe accidentally press Fn+F11 to turn AlienFX off?

 

congratulations cha on getting a working m15x and great review.

 

No i did not press fn+f11 whizzo. It just didn't work. Wasn't only the keyboard not lighting up. The lightpipe, touch pad etc all turned off. Also, when it happened, the little alien head icon's eyes turned red. ( the icon I'm referring to is the one on the lower right hand side of the windows screen. )

An error popped up saying alienfx is not working and recommended that i shut down/ restart the computer. Only happened that one time though, as I occassionally use binary gfx.

oh and thanks mrdj and michaels I'm glad everything is ok with my m15x

 

Indeed, a nice review. Minus a few exceptions, I would very likely say the same. Cheers to you and AW.

 

oh wait, yeah, i've had that happen once too. i got that message too. a restart fixed it though, so no harm done.

 

i remember that message popped up for me before. forgot how i did it though. i remember none of the lights went on for me. not even the alienhead. and a restart would not fix it. so i decided to turn the comp off and wait for customer support tomorrow since customer support closed. i only use roswell and will only recognize them as support . the 24/7 support line is non existent in my world. but for some magical reason the lights came back the next day and the problem never came back

 

good that it all worked for you. mine was a bit different so i'm trying to get a return.

 

Oh so some of you guys have experienced the same thing. I'm just glad the problem went away

I do have a question about MyHive though. I've read in the other threads that you get the BIOS updates there. But when I log in MyHive, I click the invoice number, and can't seem to find where to locate BIOS updates.

I was able to update to the latest BIOS through exiled's link ( thanks by the way for that )

Oh and one more positive thing I forgot to mention in the review. When I set this thing to save battery ( stealth, integrated and power saver ) not only do I get long battery life, but the notebook runs very quiet and remains very cool. Truly an amazing feature for a laptop

 

Nice review, great job! Alienware fixed a lot of the issues/complaints I had about my m15x review unit, which was one of the early ones. Keyboard flex, unresponsive touch controls, and of course the overheating. All fixed now. Thanks for confirming.

 

Cha by any chance were you ever part of Lanfusion?

 

No Stone825, I don't even know what Lanfusion is

 

Oh would also like to ask what GPU driver version you guys are currently using now? Is it easy to just update the driver?

Reason I'm asking is because when I game on batteries, the gameplay is not as smooth as when I game on AC power. Is this issue GPU driver related?

And a follow up question regarding batteries. It's been a habit of mine to pull the plug when the battery reaches 100% capacity. Is this ok? Do you guys leave your m15x just plugged in even when it's fully charged?

 

m15x 8800M GTX users have found the 177.72 driver to work very well, including myself.

 

Thanks Ennea I'll be trying that out

Are there any guides here in these forums on how to change the GPU driver version? I'm just worried I might do it incorrectly

 

You basically just download it off laptopvideo2go.com then extract the files somewhere. Download the modified .ini and replace the other .ini in the folder you extracted the driver files to (Simple drag and drop will do). Then just install.

 

Thanks Ennea, was able to update my driver to 177.72.

Just an update:

Recently learned how to use 3dmark06. Now Alienware's document states that my 3Dmark score was 10,324 3dmarks. But when I tested it I only got 10,095 3dmarks. Is this normal? Even tested it again today with the updated driver, it sometimes goes between 9,500+ to 10,000 Marks. Is this normal? Oh and tests were done with battery set to high performance without stealth mode and while plugged in.

Yesterday, I also bought a cooler from Belkin. Just want to share that it's a pretty good cooler. With it my GPU idle temps went down to 40C. Cpu idle temps went down to 35C. I especially like the height boost the cooler gives, seems to allow for more air flow. At first the cooler seemed small for the m15x, but upon using it, it does feel stable.

When gaming the temps still go to 60+C, sometimes goes close to 70C. But the game I play, Guild Wars, is not as graphics intensive as most of the recent titles. I'll try and get a more recent game by the weekend to test out the GPU temps. You guys have any suggestions?

Oh and finally, which GPU temp monitor is more accurate? Rivatuner and Thermofan seem to give different temps most of the time.

 

the fluctuation in the 3dmark score is normal. AW also tests at a different resolution to get higher scores.

 

Rivatuner is the one that is most accurate imo. plus the graph is always a better visualization too.

 

how do you know? ever measured them?

 

i think the "imo" shows a preference towards the tuner...not a factual statement...
just my take...

 

I see, I will be using Riva tuner to monitor temps more then

By the way, I did notice a huge drop from my idle temps when I updated my driver to 177.72. But with the drop also came a drop in performance in the 3dmark scores. Before the driver update, i was getting 9.9k to 10.1k + 3d marks. After the update went down to 9.2-9.5k 3dmarks. I know that fluctuation of the 3dmark scores are normal, just want to know if a 1k drop in the score is still considered normal.

Anyone else experience this with the driver? or could it just have been a coincidence?

Also I find it strange that for some reason, Diablo2 runs smoother on the integrated graphics card as compared to the 8800 MGTX.

 

no, that's exactly the point, no one knows which one is right.

 

with driver ver 175.80 provided by AW D2 will run smoother. 177.72 drivers will make D2 run pretty bad. since D2 does not even need a gpu half as powerful as the 8800 the 8800 wont go to full clocks so the fps will be a bit lower. that is a downside to 177.72. only way to get the 8800 clocks back up with 177.72 is to use more graphic demanding games. i tried running a couple of my favorite shoot em up games but they ran at 30 fps since the 8800 was being lazy and wont jump the clocks up. driver 175.80 will make the clocks max all the time so your fps in d2 will sky rocket. yes 9.2k - 9.5k for 177.72 is normal scores. if you want your score to go back up go to 175.80 and you can see it near 10000 again.

@the rivatuner thing

well its the most recommended one so i guess i trust it the most. it also has an option that will put the temp as a OSD so you can monitor the temps without alt tabbing out of your game.

 

maybe run another low end gfx game in the background? lol... actually i wonder if that would work. that'd b cool.

i never got over 30 fps on diablo 2 anyway, i think that is just the highest it can do. or maybe i am wrong....

 

well the game i was running had super nintendo graphics so yea...the gpu probably doesnt acknowledge that as a game since its so powerful. the gpu even decides to move the clocks to level 2 if i play a 720p video but not the game

 

This clears up everything, thanks exiled

I just want to ask how do I go back to the old driver 175.80? Do I just install it the way I did with 177.72?

As you said with rivatuner, being able to monitor temps without alt tabbing back and forth makes it more convenient to use

 

yea all you do is uninstall the driver the same way you did before installing 177.72 and then install 175.80 again.

 

Uh oh, all I did to update to the 177.72 driver was to run the setup.exe with the modded inf file without uninstalling the old 175.80. Could that have been the cause of the problem? Or is it ok and should I leave it as is?

 

there doesnt seem to be any weird performance with the driver. i guess you lucked out . just remember when you are going to change drivers that the next time you uninstall first, restart, then use driver sweeper to clean out anything left from the uninstall, restart, and then install the driver.

since d2 is not a graphically demanding game the 8800 wont recognize it as a game so the clocks will stay down. only way to solve it is to change back to 175.80 or if d2 came with an option to render with software.

 

Thanks agian exiled

Well now I've encountered a new problem but I think this is more of a problem with Vista. Most of the time when I plug in my Razer Deathadder, I would get a blue screen error.

I've asked people in the Windows OS forum, and they recommended that I uninstall the Deathadder's driver and see how things turn out. Well now, I don't get the blue screen error any more, but I kinda miss changing sensitivity on the fly ( courtesy of the Deathadder's driver )

Anyone else here experience this with their mice?

 

i use the deathadder with my m15x. i did notice that i got around 3 bsods or so when i plug in the death adder. i havent been getting them recently but i guess thats a good thing. i guess theres a little problem with the drivers. im still using the drivers tho

 

BSOD with the Deathadder? Is this a new issue? I don't think I've heard of it yet. I was actually thinking about getting one so this stikes me pretty hard in the ***.

 

not really that big an issue since its due to software. just fix with a restart. it seems to be only the death adder since i can plug in other mouses just fine. its not even that frequent. in the entire 4 or 5 months since i owned the m15x, it has only happened around 3 times.

 

Ah, all right. That's not that horrible then.

 

actually, BSOD because of a mouse does sound rather bad... that should't happen IMHO. i've never had any issues like that with my G5.

 

Thanks for confirming exiled. I thought I was the only one.

This is more of a Vista issue right?

 

i think its a vista issue but i never plugged my death adder into my desktop which has xp. i have plugged in a logitech g9, some cheapo microsoft optical mouse, a mx1000 logitech mouse into the m15x and non of them produced the bsod error. so im guessing its the deathadder and its drivers.

 

Just an update:

I've tried different mice with the m15x along with their respective drivers and have not received any blue screen errors.

It's only with the Deathadder for some reason, but now I've reinstalled the driver and haven't add any blue screens for a week. But now just to be sure, I plug the mouse in before turning the computer on

The driver does not cause blue screen errors in XP though ( my desktop ) So I think it's just an issue between Razer's driver and Vista

 

i havent gotten them for a while after i updated the drivers. it seems to be fine now.

i always just plug it in when windows boots up.

 

The problem with the Deathadder seems to have gone away

Now I bought crysis to test out the GPU of the m15x, and I get 28-30+ fps on the high settings with 1280 resolution.

GPU temps while gaming ranges from 78-86 degrees, with the above settings.

 

cha:
is the paint on the unit a glitter? or flat? is it gawdy?

 

I don't know if "glitter" is the right term for it. The paint job does feel smooth and it looks shiny when light reflects on it. If you intend to buy one, you'll need one of them electronics cleaning cloth as this thing is a fingerprint magnet.

The only complaint I have with the m15x, is defintely the build quality of it as a whole. My old Compaq Presario M2000 feels a whole lot more sturdier than the m15x. As I mentioned in my small review, the whole plastic chassis gives me a feeling that this thing is more of a "toy".

I'll try and post some pics when I get to borrow a decent camera

 

okies thx

i have seen a few pics, put i just wanted to see if it was metal flake paint...if this makes better sense....

but if you can - plz make them attachements...

thx again.

 

just look at the body of a silver car. then you will see how the m15x paint job looks like. touch the car and it feels like touching the m15x.

 

is there a specific breed of car i should conduct said tests on?

 

A Porche Carrera GT can help you...

 

not a porshe. more like a toyota corolla lol.

 

oh come on it's my status symbol and corolla comes cheap