My review of the m15x

never touched a porsche so i cant really relate. i have touched and seen a silver corolla so thats the only thing i can think of right now

 

is the monitor really that cheaply made?????

 

the monitor itself isnt cheap since the display quality is amazing. only the hinges are a little below average.

 

well, me thinks i would see a corolla before a porsche...but i will keep my eyes out for one anyway...
till then, the corolla will have to quantify the relation....

 

I am in India and I can very easily relate a Porche to AW... both seen very rarely .. guess they have more porche than AW.. Corolla is more like DELL to me... seen everywhere ... yeah the Display is amazing... but mine had 2 dead pixels not big deal I myself have to search them where they are...

 

Same scenario here findvikas, I've never seen an AW here. One of the reasons I decided to go for the m15x, is because of how rare it is to see one over here

Everything is still working fine with my m15x. Using it everyday at work, game with it at home. I'm one very satisfied customer here

 

Life is good for recent m15x buyers. Let's hope it stays that way.

 

actually i was just relating to how the m15x feels and how the paint job looks like. the chance of seeing an m15x is really pretty rare.

only a couple people would have it and ive really on seen an AW at a convention. i never saw a person who actually owned one. so the chance of seeing it is more like a really exotic car. porsches arent too rare around here. especially in Mannhatten >>

 

Did they improve the hinges for the new orders in the month of August ? I ordered mine in late August, its currently in phase 6... im just curious maybe they heard alot of problems about it and fixed it?

 

We ordered ours before August and we haven't had any problems with it, so it's hard to clarify whether they did or did not fix it yet. I'd be careful with it just in case though.

 

its too early to tell right now. needs a bit of time. we can find out quickly if someone is willing to take a look at their hinge but i doubt they are so all we can do is wait.

 

Yeah, I kind of don't want to mess with my m15x if I can avoid it. No major issues thus far, though.

 

The display quality of the monitor is fantastic. The creaky hinges though are still there.

I just want to ask if any of you guys have tested Alienware's Ozma headsets.

What's the difference between the Ozma 5 and the Ozma 7? I've also noticed that the www.alienware.com no longer sells them but www.alienware.co.uk still do.

Oh and would it be a good idea to buy a refurbished one from Alienware's Ebay outlet?

 

you should read a couple reviews. i know that the Ozma 7 is a rebranded Ultrasone HFI700 so you can read some reviews on the Ultrasone HFI700

 

The reviews I've read so far have been good. I'm just wondering if buying from Alienware's Ebay outlet ( refurbished ) is a good idea

 

Another Update:

The incident with all the lights shutting down when I used Binary GFX happened again to me. As I mentioned in my review, all the lights went out when I switched to integrated graphics. An error message then pops up saying that there is a problem with AlienFX and recommends that I restart the PC. Restarting did not fix the problem though.

Upon switching back to the 8800M GTX, all the lights went back on.

I tried to switch back to integrated graphics again, and AlienFX worked without any hitches. Did switch back and forth with the 2 graphics cards for 3 more times and could not recreate the problem.

Oh, and I would like to ask what are "dangerous" temps for the m15x. I have reached 87-89 degrees for my GPU while playing Crysis. Is that still considered safe?

 

yes those are pretty good temps for the m15x. when you get past 96 then it gets a bit dangerous. if your m15x touches 96 like some people's on the forum then its time to investigate the gpu or clean out your vents.

i guess the AlienFX issue isnt too serious if it comes back on after a switch. i guess the software is just a bit buggy from time to time so i dont think there is anything to worry about.

 

I was wondering about temperature safety zones myself. I recently hit 91C so I was just a tad bit worried. Thanks for that.

 

Try uninstalling the Alienware Command Center and the OSD drivers respectively, then reinstall with the OSD drivers first and then with the Command Center.

And geez, what kind of games are you guys playing anyway? The most I've ever hit was 61 for my GPU and by then, the fan's already kicking in to get it back down.

 

Hmm, what drivers are you using Oceanus? and which program are you using for temp monitoring?

I have the 177.72 driver for mine, I got it to reach those high temps while playing Crysis. But now I'm wondering how you get yours to stay that cool. What game were you playing with that temp?

 

I dont think thats possible for you to be only hitting 61 while playing games. No notebook has that great of a cooling system. If you are really hitting 61...i dunno what to say. Are you sure that is not the CPU you are talking about...

 

Oceanus, ya must be kidding us. unless you're playing all games on the lowest settings, those kind of temps don't make much sense... sure you haven't mixed up any readings?

 

Nope. I do have a notebook cooler running at all times if that helps it make sense. I don't play graphic intensive games like you guys do. I play Lineage II, which I would assume uses less resources than Crysis. If I had been playing Crysis, then maybe I'd get temperatures like you would.

 

What's your room temperature? Warcraft III isn't all that demanding but when I'm playing DOTA I still hit around the 70s.

 

~85F degrees.

Here we go. I've been playing Lineage II for about 20 minutes on high settings. It was constant between 63-64C until I alt+tabbed. Once I alt+tabbed, the temperatures start dropping immediately. The little gap you see there in all 4 boxes is me alt+tabbing to check on the temperature and then tabbing back to the game.

I guess it's a tad higher than what I previously stated, but I'm guessing it's still low to your standards nonetheless?



Here's the full image if you want to see that too.
http://audicracy.com/alien/1f.jpg

 

how about Crysis at all high? You know, a demanding game...

 

That's sort of why I said I didn't play resource intensive games like Crysis. Had I been playing that, who knows what temperatures I would get.

 

Ahhh... what's wrong with your clocks??? :|
They were supposed to be:
Core Clock ROP Domain: 500 MHz
Core Clock Shader Domain: 1250 MHz
Memory Clock: 799.20 MHz

No wonder that you have such a low temperature. Are you always in Stealth mode or something like that? Those clocks are comparable to a 8600GT or something similar.

Bottom line, your temperature doesn't means much when we are talking about GPU temps under stress.

 

You know, I can't stress this enough but that is EXACTLY why I said I don't play games that are too resource intensive. This is my third time saying that. I know the GPU isn't stressed enough but people were wondering what temps I was getting so I gave it to them.

...and also to answer this:

Now the fact of the matter is, "games" does not necessarily equal Crysis and no, I haven't mixed up any readings.

 

But it's not even that you are running non demanding games... it's that you are not running your GPU at the clocks it is normally supposed to run! (even if not playing a highly demanding game).

 

Well, the game play is phenomenally smooth and I don't think I'll be using what I don't need. If it's not demanding, then good for it, perhaps I should not make it use more than it needs.

In any case, I'll see what's causing the clocks to be set the way they are if that makes you happy. :<

 

Don't get me wrong Oceanus... It's just that that's really unusual! It doesn't make me happy or unhappy... It's just odd.
And also, when you say that your GPU never goes above 50ºC, maybe you should be careful not to lead anyone into false information. This is only so, because you are not using the 8800GTX at its normal clock speed.

Can any of the other owners comment on Oceanus clocks'? Is that normal?
I heard that when the GPU is not in use, it downclocks... but on your case, the GPU is in fact, in use... so that's why it's a bit weird.

Appart from that... don't take it to personally. We are just trying to help each other out.

 

I never said it never goes above 50c.

Edit: I appreciate the concern and if it really makes you curious on why this might happen, then be my guest and find out why. Perhaps the clock speed is dynamic to suit your needs, who knows. I'm wouldn't be too worried about it.

Also, I don't know if the X32 BIOS has anything to do with it, but I recently flashed my BIOS back to X32 to do some testing with the latency issue Fr33m4n pointed out.

 

the way the GPU is acting in Oceanus' computer is normal.

the game is just not graphically intensive enough to make the gpu run at full clocks. this happens if you ever tried a really old game like warcraft 3 on the m15x. the 8800m gtx with 177.XX or whatever drivers that downclock the card while idle will make wc3 lag. wc3 is unable to make the 8800m gtx run at full clocks because the 8800m gtx does not acknowledge wc3 as a game because the graphics are terrible. the way to fix this is to use 175.80 AW beta drivers which makes the card run full clocks all the time.

 

In Oceanus' case though, the game runs smoothly.

I experienced what exiled was saying about getting choppy gameplay with the 8800M GTX and older games. I tried playing Diablo 2 with the 177.72 drivers and gameplay was choppy. What I did was use integrated graphics for running D2 and everything went smoothly.

Now just another update:

I did go back to the x32 BIOS after reading up on freeman's post regarding latency. True enough, my latency went down from 10,000 to 1,000 But what amazed me is the fact that my touch controls remained responsive in x32. The main reason I switched to x34 was because of the unresponsive touch controls. If it remains this way, I will be sticking with x32

Also Oceanus, what drivers are you using for your GPU? and what game were you playing with those temps? I play Guild Wars on the 8800, and temps go from 60-70 degrees

I guess everyone here just wants to keep their GPUS as cool as possible

 

Lineage II with the highest settings possible. I'm using 177.92 drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. It used to be pretty choppy with the Alienware drivers but when I threw on the 177.92 drivers, it became surprisingly smooth. No lag whatsoever.

Regardless of which, my card downclocks itself when I'm playing Lineage. I'm guessing this might be because it's set to run on the default clock settings when it's not doing anything and then switches over to the 3D settings when Lineage boots up.

Mind you, I haven't done anything with these settings yet, but I think this should clarify my settings.

 

Ok, that sounds good. I never experienced the new drivers, thus my ignorance on this. That's quite an amazing thing to add to the drivers. You will extend the GPU life for a big stretch.

 

It is, isn't it? I thought it was pretty cool too.

 

I can confirm this now. The 177.92 drivers really did drop my temps.

Now when I play Guild Wars it hovers around 55-60 degrees. Thanks for that Oceanus

 

Very nice review. Very informative

 

i've heard that the .92 drivers f*ck up the nvidia control panel thingy... any feedback on this?

 

Thanks for sharing Cha =)....I haven't been around much lately, but I'm happy to see that most (if not all) of the reviews of late have been very positive!

KShub

 

I personally never found a temperature drop and I have riva/hwmonitor on all the time on my 2nd display. When I had the 177.92 drivers I didn't have any issues with the nvidia control panel. I use the 177.98 drivers now.

Hey, Kshub, how is your m15x holding up? You seem like one of the older users.

 

I just updated to the 177.98 drivers myself from the original, non-beta AW version...OMG the temps droped like crazy! before 73-80c playing COD4, now 63-69c...woot!

 

k, so which are better, .92 or .98?

 

Sorry whizzo, I can't compare. I've never updated at all. The only reason why I updated to the .98's is because AW was taking way too long to post an official release. But, everything that I play looks and plays great: WoW, COD4, and GTA3....all with almost 10c or so lower temps!

 

k, i've chosen .92 because i read on ltv2g that the .98 gives a bit worse performance... so far, pretty happy with .92... off to do some testing

 

Hello again everyone, just wanted to update you guys on my m15x.

I've been using it for about 3 months now, and the laptop still works like a charm. Currently using the 177.92 drivers for the GPU. I also did go back to x32 because of the latency problems with the x34 BIOS. The only annoying thing now, is the unresponsive touch controls after waking up from sleep , courtesy of x32

My GPU temps peek to 88 degrees when playing the Witcher, Crysis or Oblivion. By the way, love the witcher and oblivion Crysis is just not my cup of tea.

As for the hinges, I do check them everytime I close the laptop lid. Reading these forums have made me paranoid I'm glad to say everything is still intact.

Now my complaint has nothing to do with the laptop, but with Alienware's customer service. As I mentioned in my review, my laptop did not come with an owner's ID card. So I decided to contact an AW rep in these forums for assistance. True enough, I immediately get a reply a day later saying that my order for the ID card has been placed and that I would not be charged for shipping of the ID card.

I was given my first order reference number on August 19. 2 weeks after the placed order, I followed up said order, and was surprised to find out that the card did not ship at all. AW told me that the order could not be found in their system, and that they would re process it. I was given a new order reference number on August 30.

Middle of September came, still no ID card. I decided to do follow up again. I got the same answer as before, the order somehow got lost in their system. I was given another new reference number, and the order was replaced. The date then was September 19.

Early this month ( October ) , I followed up on the ID card again. True enough, it's the same scenario again. I was again given a new reference number again. It's been days since I emailed the AW and their rep here and have till not gotten a reply.

I just felt disappointed at the customer service after paying so much for this laptop. I know that " it's just an ID card " But I'm more after getting what I paid for.

 

Good to hear everything is still stable. I love The Witcher too. Maybe try PMing Armando or James about it?

Edit: I've been crashing every couples of hours of playtime in The Witcher on the 179.13 drivers. I think I'll rollback to the 177.92 drivers... sad report for the 179.13 drivers. Then again it might not be the drivers. So, once I get back on 177.92, I'll let anyone interested know if I still get crashes. It's been happening to me mostly in Act IV and V (where I'm at right now).

 

I have tried PMing an Alienware rep in these forums about it.

After the second time the order got lost, he said it was a problem on AW's side. He then told me to contact AW directly, which I did. And sadly, the order got lost again.

I'm still in chapter 3. Though i have experienced some crashes, where windows says that the witcher has stopped working. Same thing also happened with oblivion. So I'm guessing this is more a Vista problem?